Winter Park
Woke up and got a leisurely start this morning. Wish Erika could have stayed with us longer but we had to reluctantly say goodbye. She assured us that even though the weather was a bit of a bummer she still had a great time which made us feel good because that was very important to us. We'll definitely be going camping together in the future. Maybe even backpacking!
It was time to move on into Colorado to Winter Park. The drive was about 6 hours and they were calling for some snow. We were not feeling great about the prospect of driving across two mountain passes in the snow, but the Steed urged us on.
We arrived in Winter Park with little fuss and checked into our hotel. We were here to do some downhill mountain biking. For those not familiar, its where they take you and your bike up the mountain some 2-3 thousand feet and then you get to ride all the way down. I (Brett) was beyond excited about this. Unfortunately, I was under the impression that Steph had MUCH more experience on a bike than she did because when we got up there it quickly became obvious that she was out of her depth. This was some SERIOUSLY gnarly downhill. In fact, we later found out that its some of the hardest downhill in the whole country. Not a place for beginners. Steph managed to finish out the first day, completing a whole trail and without killing herself and I had a lot of fun, but it was snowing and super cold so I called it a day after around 3 runs.
Later that night we were talking about what we wanted to do about our reservations the following night in Rocky Mountain National Park. We were scheduled to car camp one night and finish strong with a two night backpacking trip at 10,000 ft in the Rocky Mountains. The problem was, at this point in the trip we were pretty much freaking done for. The thought of camping OR backpacking in sub freezing weather was just too much for us to bear. We decided to cancel the first nights car camping and extend our stay in Winter Park. YES! More bike riding for Brett!!!
The next day was all blue skies and moderate temperatures. In other words, I had the time of my life.....ending the day on black diamond runs I probably had no business being on, but I just couldn't help myself...they were so fun. Steph took the rare opportunity to go into town and lounge around the room without me all up in her face. Winter Park was getting ready to close down for the season and we basically had the place all to our self!!!! We were both extremely happy with our decision to extend (even though it kinda felt like The Shining!!!)
