All aboard the good ship…

 One of the videos featured in my last blog showcased the fine art of burro racing at 10,000 feet. The town of Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States. Being a mountain town lends itself to having a lot of outdoor activities available nearby. In the winter there’s skiing at Ski Cooper, snowshoeing at Turquoise Lake and in town come spring there’s the fun but not for feint of heart sport (?) of Skijoring which I also featured in one of my earlier blogs. Summers are no slouch either with incredible biking, hiking, fishing, camping, kayaking and as mentioned before the fine pastime of getting your Ass (burro) up the nearby pass (Mosquito). In short I and Sophie, my infinitely better half, have spent quite a bit of time in the area surrounding Leadville and still haven’t quite gotten our fill of this uniquely Colorado town.

About 18 miles south of Leadville there’s a couple of Lakes, two in fact, aptly given the moniker Twin Lakes. Lying as they do at the eastern start of Independence Pass the lakes are ooo’ed and aaw’ed over by plenty of tourists making what to some is a white-knuckle drive over to Leadville’s poorer cousin (?!) Aspen. In recent years Twin Lakes has also been discovered as a fine place for paddle boarding at least when the winds aren’t howling (as they frequently do especially in the afternoons) and for those willing to freeze their private bits off should they fall into the cold (mild understatement) water.

We’ve been canoeing and more recently paddle boarding (and freezing those aforementioned private bits) for years now but one thing that we had never done was avail ourselves of the opportunity to take the guided boat tour of the lakes. So a couple of weeks ago having fulfilled our quota of biking, hiking, fishing, camping, kayaking, canoeing, and paddle boarding we thought “Hey! Let’s take the Twin Lakes Boat Tour!” So we did. The tour is a 2 to 3 hour excursion (depending on the whims of the weather and captain) that starts on the upper west lake and then meanders through the narrow channel into the larger east lake with a stop at the historic Interlaken Resort on the southern shore. Sure, there’s a 2 mile path that you can use to hike or bike in to the old resort but for a change sitting on a comfy boat seat instead of a bike saddle wasn’t half bad either. And given that the day we took the tour it was in the mid-high 80’s (which used to be considered pretty warm for the Colorado High Country) it was nice not to have to contemplate the additional 2 mile hike or bike back out to the car.

The boat only accommodates 7 or 8 people and the tour website says there’s a required minimum of four for the tour to go. On our tour there were  seven of us plus the captain who’s also a pretty good tour guide full of facts, figures, and local knowledge that makes the 2 to 3 hour tour fly by. Of course I had my handy camera at the ready and here’s the requisite video of our nautical inland cruise:

One of the things that is perhaps better appreciated from the water than on the trail is the scope of the wildfire that went through portions of the southern shore in June of 2024. I was in the area during the fire and, yes, did shoot a video (available here) about that as well. Fortunately the Interlaken Resort was saved through the determined efforts of firefighters but from the boat we could clearly see how close the flames came to destroying this historic landmark. 

Tours run from June through September and more info is available at twinlakesboattours.com. That gives you another 6 weeks to hop on board, hopefully on a day as calm and beautiful as the one we had. And depending on ole’ Mother Nature if leaf peeping season is early this year the late September trips could be spectacular as the mountains to the west light up with their golden Fall display. So as we’ve heard more than one cruise director say “Don’t delay! Book today!”. Alright, so a cruise director I’m not, but still we’d recommend this trip whether your from out of state or just a local who hasn’t yet found the time to partake of this one-of-a-kind tour…

Busy, busy, busy…

 I know some folks have a tough time transitioning to retirement. We have friends who last only a couple of weeks or months before they return to some type of employment because they don’t quite know what to do with all their newfound free time.

I, for one, haven’t had that problem. While I thoroughly enjoyed most aspects of my career I knew that while I was working I never had enough free time to pursue all the other things I was passionate about. From travel to honing my guitar skills (or lack thereof!) to catching up on my reading, and of course the ever present honey-do list which never seems to get any shorter, I still find myself with not enough time to do all the things I love to do.

Travel is something my wife and I have always enjoyed but while working, yet even with the very generous PTO (paid time off) allowance my employer gave employees we found ourselves wanting more time to see the things of interest to us. Now the only limitation is our travel BUDGET which, alas, never seems to have enough on hand to fund all the wonderful trips my wife dreams up. Plus, post-COVID a lot of us retirees are playing catch up on our travel aspirations and hey, as if you didn’t know, it’s still a big, beautiful world out there. 

We are fortunate to live in Colorado so we don’t even need to travel very far to scratch our travel itch. This summer we’ve been lucky enough to share our State with some out-of-State friends and family and even after living in the State for more than 50 years I’m still amazed at what I haven’t yet seen or experienced in this wonderful place we call home. 

Of course Colorado is bounded on all sides by other beautiful States and we started our summer revisiting one of our favorite places - Grand Teton country in northwest Wyoming. There too I find myself seeking out places and things still unexplored and I tried to capture some of those in the following video:

The area around Jackson Hole didn’t disappoint though candidly it seems slightly more empty and lonely now that it was devoid of its most famous citizen - Bear 399. Sadly she was struck and killed by a vehicle late last year and perhaps in mourning her loss we didn’t see a single bear during our three week visit.

Last Fall we had been lucky enough to take a Fall foliage cruise from Boston to Quebec City and while in Quebec my wife had the chance to reconnect with one of her cousins that she hadn’t seen since she was a youngster. Val had been nice enough to spend a day and a half being our personal tour guide  as she showed us the nooks and crannies of that special city. To reciprocate we invited Val and her partner Nat to visit us in Colorado. Due to the political upheaval and anger of Canadians suddenly being the target of our President’s ire they were reluctant to head south of the border but we managed to assuage their concerns by assuring them that Coloradans are a friendly bunch and that they would be warmly welcomed and that in fact turned out to be the case. Val and Nat spent 3 weeks traversing almost every corner of our State and we got to share in some of their exploration. One thing neither my wife or I had done in all our years here was to take the Royal Gorge Train and we had a wonderful day and weather riding the rails and gazing a thousand feet upward at the Royal Gorge Bridge which we have visited several times. If you’re into trains and heck, even if you’re not, you’ll enjoy this unique trip along the Arkansas river. Here’s a quick video of that day trip from Denver:

And just to get caught up, just last weekend we headed up to one of my favorite small towns, Leadville, to see another event I had never been to. Part of Leadville’s annual Boom Days Celebration is a burro race and I’ve got to admit I fell in love with these adorable asses. And, oh, they can run, at least when they’re so inclined but their sometimes balky behavior just makes them all the more endearing.So yes, I got out my camera and here’s some of what I saw:

Perhaps you can now understand while I’m perpetually running out of time. As I always tell my wife, the grass can get mowed manana. In the meantime I’ve got burros to watch get their ass up the pass. What could be better?