7 Passes

I’ve got a bunch of summer pics to post but I’ll start with last weekends mission down to Crested Butte to hang out with Rob and Nancy.

Rob and Nancy are used to hosting (kinda like myself – hahaha) and they are pretty darn Good at it.  A little golf and then the highlight of the trip was Rob kicking my arse on the dirt bike.

Might have been because he gave me a bike with a flat front tyre….

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The 2nd day of riding I was pretty sore before we started BUT I dominated (Rob still kicked my arse and I couldn’t keep up with the 72yo – hehehe).  We made it all the way Pearl Pass, which Rob did tell me he wasn’t sure I’d make it before we started.

A couple of firsts were ticked off – I rode at 60 mph, I rode on the road and it was about 100 miles over 2 days.

We couldn’t quite ride to the pass because of snow and walked a couple of hundred yards.  As I crested the pass I saw Maroon Bells!!!  I didn’t realize just how close we were to Aspen.  Bloody awesome!!!

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On the way home from Crested Butte I had a wee mission in mind….. the old Crystal Mill.  I saw some pics of this 3 years ago and this has been the first chance I had to get close to it.

Turned out to be a pretty hairy 4WD in and Black Betty took a beating but it was worth it.  I need to spend more time here and this could be a future snowmobiling/ice climbing mission…..

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After a rough trip back from the Crystal Mill I spent the night at the Redstone Castle – the pool was a welcome wakeup after a few too many whiskeys with the bar staff the night before…..

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I called this post the 7 Passes because over the 4 days I visited 7 passes:

  • Freemont
  • Cottonwood
  • American
  • Pearl
  • Hebler
  • McClure
  • Vail