Day 7: Vail on the 4th of July

We awoke in the mountains outside of Vail and had a hearty breakfast of instant Oatmeal and Peanut Butter bagels and then headed into town for some Downhill Mountain Biking.
At 10am we were all geared up and purchased our Lift Tickets for the day. I know that the mountain biking purists look down on Ski-lift biking, but there’s something to be said for all downhill… In town was crazy because apparently Vail has the largest July 4ht celebration in all of the mountains. There were people everywhere, and even a parade with marching bands and floats and all. We were very thankful to get on the lift and up and away from the hoopla below. Here’s Lydia enjoying the view about 1/3 of the way down our first lap. You can see the town way off down the slope. We selected our trails carefully to do as much Singletrack as possible and as little dirt road as possible. Here’s Lydia tearing up a good stretch through the trees.

At the bottom of the first lap we took a short cut through one of the neighborhoods of the Rich and Famous. Unfortunately, Lydia was so busy looking at the ridiculous houses ($2million plus and completely uninhabited) that she took a hard fall on the pavement trying to slow down for an on-coming escalade. I think it was P-Diddy. Fortunately, she only lost a little skin and Diddy didn’t shoot us up for making him slow his Roll. Here’s a shot of the two of us taking a break on one of the laps.
On our second run we happened to take a wrong turn down one of the double black diamond “Downhill Gear Only” rides. The way Vail hypes these up, you’d think that people like us on cross country bikes would spontaneously combust from the re-entry velocity. However, we were fine, and I think that was a ploy to convince us we needed to rent downhill gear… We chose to take on another one of the Downhill only trails later which was also a good time.

After finishing our third lap, we decided to go cool down with a run of Gore Creek. Gore creek from the Vail Golf course to West Vail is about 5 miles of class III-IV, and has two good playspots right in the middle of town. I decided that since we had already ridden, I’d use the Vail Bus system for shuttle. After 2 hours, much waiting, and two busses, I had made it back to the put-in. It would have been quicker for me to just walk. Here’s Lydia getting funny looks from rich people in BMW’s and golfers while we suited up.

The second of these is where the TEVA mountain games rodeo is held. While playing there I drew quite a crowd by doing creek boat spins and getting window-shaded. I guess they were easily impressed. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures on the run since we didn’t get out anywhere.

At the end of the day we made our way to Buena Vista, CO for some interesting Mexican food and some free camping on BLM land just out of town. Our campsite had a great view of the fireworks down in Buena Vista.
Tired from 20+miles of biking, 5 miles of Kayaking, and a few miles of walking, we made an early night of it just after the fireworks were done…