Monday, June 26
Spent the night in the van in Joe’s driveway. Joe’s girlfriend’s kids have lice in a bad way and Steph freaked. We still did laundry and such, but no sleeping inside. Svea and Sven followed Joe and Steph up I-70 and over Loveland Pass, another brilliant day. On the way we stopped at BB&Beyond for round two of mattress topper tryouts. The 2” from the day before was just foam, we then upgraded to 3” of memory foam…that ought to do it. We got a condo in Keystone, hot tub (which Svea was very surprised to see her dad in) pool, steam room, etc. No A/C and a poorly equipped kitchen…good thing the pullout was so plush for Joe – not. Sadly, he had to sleep on the floor. Sven, Svea and Joe went to ride a 10 mile singletrack nearby, Steph grabbed groceries (no bike) and hung out by the pool, the sun is brutal hot at this altitude. Sven’s front brake broke and after 3 stores they found a pro mechanic with the parts. Wilderness Sports in Frisco, Max was his name and he was the man. Offered to put on an XT rear brake too as the SRAM brakes are garbage, super fair price and free install. I did not take him up on the offer, you know where this story goes. The bike ride was great, Svea rode hard and even had an epic crash when her front wheel went off a bridge, bruised hip, brushed off that pain and put it behind her. Steph whipped up a superb salad and spaghetti dinner in preparation for the next day’s 14er.
Tuesday, June 27
Up early and thankfully Joe drove. Rough road up to the trailhead. We were planning on climbing Grey’s and then seeing if we felt up to Torrey’s too. Goats on the trail, lots of hikers and another packed trailhead. Beautiful country and THIN air. We made it up in 3.5 hrs, 6 round trip. The last 1000 had Sven and Steph gasping, the kid was in Joe’s pocket the last 2500 ft, we couldn’t keep up. Awesome view from up top, even had some ice crystals drop on us (closest thing to precip we saw in CO). We decided not to do Torrey’s, clouds moving in and pretty windy. We felt great about making a 14er, something we never did while we lived here. Afterwards we soaked in the hot tub and grilled burgers, Sven and Joe even steamed. We had a great time reconnecting with Joe and will be sure to stay in better touch from here on out.
