Electric Feel

Funderson and I had an ADVENTURE! over the weekend and ran to Aspen over West Maroon Pass. You see as the crow flies, we are only about 12 miles away, but to drive in a normal, non-4WD car it takes you ~3 hours.  She had won a gift certificate last year at a race we did and it was about to expire.  We just couldn't have that.  So, we each packed a bag, slightly larger than a camel back and looked like hobos.

Her LF had to be up for a cross country meet in Leadville any way. So, we left at the arse crack of dawn to get up to Schofield Pass near where the trailhead is. We left at 6:50 AM from the trailhead and started on our way.

Aaaannnnd we're off, frost still on the flowers even.

A lovely Funderson and view

I don't remember why this face, but pay no attention because the flowers are still fabulous.  I took my gloves off because my hands got hot and then they were FREEZING, but I just said sooner or later they'll warm up when we get to the sunshine.  It chased us up the trail and we didn't actually get into the sun until we were at the top of the pass 2 hours after we started...DOH!

Funderson's enthusiasm at the top of the pass.

The brush was nearly as tall as we were in spots and we were mildly concerned about running smack dab into a bear.  Someone pointed out later that it was a moose that we should be more concerned with.

Down at Maroon Lake on the Aspen side with the Bell's in back of us.

So, we made it across and into Aspen, via the bus, in about 4 hours.  Now, we were in search of the all important BEER.  Funderson mentioned about 3/4 of the way down that a beer sounded darn good and that's all we could focus on.  I think we must've been looking in all of the wrong places, but we couldn't find a plain old bar????  We initially found cocktail-y places, wine and espresso, which just weren't right.  Finally, we walked up to the greeter at a place called "Junk" and said "Do you have beers?"  Classy gals, I know...  They did, hooray!  Funderson had her first EVER Red Stripe followed closely by the second sitting on the outdoor patio and a load of chips and guac, perfect.

We meandered our way through the town and found our humble abode to check in.  They did not have a hot tub, but did have a pool.  So, as we packed swimmers all the way from the Butte on our backs, we donned the suits and much to our surprise the pool was...HEATED.  One giant hot tub.  I can't even imagine the energy wastage of such a thing, but put it out of my mind and enjoyed a soak.

After our soak, we got gussied up and ready for our swank-a-bank dinner.  I did not get a photo of us, but we looked ab fab.  The only bummer was that we had to use our ziploc bags as "purses" as the hobo satchel would not allow for such frivolity.  Dinner was AMAZING: beet spring salad with goat cheese beignets, bison tartar, striped bass.  It is the beginning of Aspen's off-season, as well, and to our surprise we were the ONLY people in the place.  We figured that this helped us out in not getting kicked out for being dirty Butte girl hippies.

Snoop Dogg was playing at the Belly UP, a kick-arse music venue in Aspen.  We however did NOT have tickets, but walked by a big bus outside the Belly UP and gave a shout out to the D O double G.  We got back to the hotel and were asleep by 9:30, crazy cats I tell you what.  The walls were a wee bit thin and heard some conversations going on here and there, but woke up raring to go.

We caught the buses up to the trailhead with only one cuckoo magoo tour guide-ish bus driver to liven up the journey.

We started the return journey and not two miles in I heard a rustle in the bush to my left.  I told myself c'mon Jess it's just another chipmunk, you don't have to look at every one.  I DID look and it was NOT at chipmunk.  It was a bear cub.  As my eyes gazed higher, there was another, but I couldn't find the mom...cripes.  I turn to Funderson pointing up the hill saying in a whisper "bear."  She sees and our eyes were as big as saucers.  Again, no photos because we quietly high-tailed it out of there.  The mother was in fact there, I just couldn't see her right where I was standing.  No grumbling from her whatsoever though.  This is pretty amazing any time to see one, but the trail was already quite busy and to be there right at that moment made us both feel very lucky.  We also saw a porcupine, but weren't nearly as excited.  I did in fact try to pull out the camera, but was having a wardrobe malfunction and couldn't get the zipper on my pocket open.  There was NO WAY I was climbing into the bush after the buggar either...

We were quite worried about the rain, but only got sprinkled on a handful of times. 

The "pass" and in hindsight the bison tartar may not have been the best "fuel" the night before such an ADVENTURE!

A truly wonderful weekend!


Song of the day - MGMT ~ Electric Feel

LOVE this song