Sometimes epic plans...aren't.
A couple of months ago, Sarita had the brilliant idea to ditch all of the kids and hike over to Aspen, stay in a nice b & b, eat a delicious dinner, sit in a hot tub and hike back in the morning.
Two things worked against us. One, the government shut down. And while this seems unrelated, it isn't. The quickest way to hike to Aspen is over West Maroon Pass which spits you out in to the Maroon Bells Recreation Area. Which was closed. I mean, we could have totally poached it but that would also mean a 9-mile hike down a road (instead of a bus ride) in addition to our normal hike.
Strike one.
Aaaaaaand, it snowed. I was all for hiking anyway since Saturday and Sunday were both clear and sunny but I was shot down by my three hiking companions who weren't really in to freezing their butts off.
So we drove.
It wasn't so bad. It wasn't an amazing fall hike through the changing aspens, but it sure was delightful to be child-free and stop and look at the scenery without anyone complaining about it.
This is exactly how I feel about the government shutdown.
Brian doesn't care.
I will admit that the views from Kebler Pass were spectacular.
Of course we brought our bikes to Aspen. Wouldn't you think less of us if we didn't?
Back in August, Brian and I rode the Rim Trail in Snowmass (separately). We later learned that we rode it the wrong direction, which basically means that we spent a lot more time going up than down. This time, we were a little bit wiser. Also, we knew that Tim and Sarita would not stand for any of those shenanigans. And get this...it was a lot more fun the correct direction.
Who knew?
After that, we did what we came to Aspen to do: RELAX. Cue the hot tub and the beers and the delicious dinner.
Except...except it turns out that I chose the crappiest b & b on the planet. The beds were terrible. The breakfast consisted of Raisin Bran and pre-packaged muffins and the interior had not been updated since the Kennedy years. To be honest, it was hard to be mad since the little old lady who owned it WAS very sweet (and kind of oblivious...) and the history of the building was really interesting.
But still. Next time, I want a feather bed.
Since we still had to drive home, not hike, the next day, we took ourselves over Independence Pass and down to Salida where the trails were warm and dry. We rode the heck out of the S Mountain trails and then spent what seemed like hours trying not to gnaw our own arms off while we waited for lunch. The good news was that there were no children to entertain during what seemed like an interminable wait. The bad news is that I lost half an arm.
So yeah. We didn't hike there and back. We didn't even hike at all. But we got to revel in the beauty that is Colorado in the fall, ride our bikes on fun trails and hang out sans children. Hell, we even got to hang out in Aspen.
It was pretty rad.
Next year though? We're hiking.
