Breckenridge is a lovely little town/village, with lots of beautiful shops. Many of them are outdoor themed of course, but there's plenty to admire. Comparisons with our own Aviemore are definitely odious.
It took some time but we got there in the end - Jo got a nice pair of trainers/running shoes and she gave them a really good work out this morning (Wednesday).
There's a creek runs right through the centre of the town and there's a nice little walkway parallels it. Along the way there are chalkboards and you are encouraged to add your comments to "I Love Breckenridge Because". The first one we saw displayed:
As if to emphasise the point, there's even an establishment that goes by the name of:
The distinct smell of cannabis is certainly prevalent throughout the town.
The whole area is geared up as a year round resort. When the main ski-ing season stops, mountain biking and hill-walking etc are soon in full swing. There are trails everywhere:
The sun was blazing down by mid-morning and we found a lovely little coffee shop that had tables out on its back lawn so we could sit there and admire the snow-topped mountains that surround the village:
After coffee and a short walk, it was nearly lunchtime and, after trudging round the shops, the least I deserved was a beer or two so we headed to the Breckenridge Brewery - just across the road from our resort. Initially seated on the outdoor patio, we had to scurry for cover when a big storm suddenly broke. Thunder, lightning, torrential rain and hailstones, but by the time we had finished lunch, the sun was out again and I spent some time at the pool in the afternoon.
Today (Wednesday) we decided to take advantage of at least one of the many trails. Our resort had organised a trip to the Sallie Barber Mine yesterday but we weren't in a position to join them, as Jo didn't have any decent walking shoes, so we decided to do it ourselves today.
It wasn't a long walk - just 2.7 miles up and back, with an elevation change of only 400 feet or so. It was a beautiful day and the walk was very pleasant:
We got to the defunct mine at the top in good time:
Beyond the old mine works there was a steep drop and we were both amazed to see a whole family clambering up what seemed like a vertical slope. They were collecting stuff and I asked them what it was? "Can't you see?" Sure enough, just looking round at the ground all around us, it was sparkling in the sun. Yes, there is still gold in them thar hills!
Of course, it's mostly in tiny little specks:
but the family found large chunks, rather, we imagine, as the miners would have found them originally in the late 1800's:
You'll have to take my word for it that there were loads of little specks of gold in this rock.
We decided that the walk was fairly short and it was an up and down one, rather than a loop. On the way up we had met a lady mountain biker who joined our trail at an intersection labelled Turk's Trail. We asked her if this led back to the main French Gulf Road and she confirmed yes - about 2 miles from this point. It seemed like a good idea at the time to take this loop back - and it was an interesting trail, but it wasn't long before we realised it was heading back in the general direction of Breckenridge - a long way from where our car was parked on the other side of the creek.
Eventually, we met another trail - the B & B one - and this seemed to be heading more downhill towards the creek - and we needed to find a way to get across this and back on the main road, so we diverted again here.
Soon we came to a lookout point over an old dredging station:
We met a family coming the other way and asked them to reassure us that the trail we were now on would eventually lead us back to the main road - and this they did confirm as they marched on towards the dredging station we had just passed.
We had travelled downhill for miles but got back safely to the main road after a couple of hours. Now the problem was that we had to walk back up the road to where our car was - at least a couple of miles uphill.
I charged ahead of Jo and got back to the car in about 40 minutes - dry as a bone (orally) and sweating from the backpack I was carrying. On the way I met the family we had passed earlier and they had crossed the creek over a bridge we never saw. If only we had known, we could have saved ourselves a couple of miles.
When I got back to the car park, I immediately jumped in the car and hurried back down the hill to pick up Jo to head back to our resort. It had been an interesting adventure - a bit longer than initially planned at 3 hours and over 11 kms, but good exercise and some interesting walking scenery.
This afternoon was lazing by the pool then back to the apartment for a jacuzzi bath before dinner. G & T's first of course!
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