Day 7: Breckenridge

...by Tom:  Today we ventured out into the mountains of Breckenridge, starting the day with a breakfast out in the town. We had seen weather reports of thunderstorms later on in the day, and were watching the skies for any clouds at all to appear.
 After finishing breakfast, seeing Bob Marley's dog, and Dad supposedly spotting the guys from Nirvana (maybe there was something in his Girl Guide Cookie Mocha), we finally arrived at Avalanche Cycles. This mountain bike rental place had been recommended to us by the Night Rider of mountain bikers, who we had met the night before - in our condo's underground car park (he was setting out for a ride after dark with his super-duper bike).
Mum and I got ourselves some top-of-the-range trail bikes, and said goodbye to the non-cycling members of our family as we started on a ride up through the mountains of Breckenridge.
Our ride started with a long uphill stint, and Mum kept at a decent pace the entire climb (Bec would have been proud!). We came back down into Breckenridge through beautiful scenery on our single track route, only getting lost a couple of times, and without any injuries - although if you ask Mum, her little scratch counts as one!
During our ride, we bypassed the beginner trails, heading straight for the intermediates, and even found ourselves on the black diamond trails twice! But Mum survived, and after arriving back in Breckenridge, we met up with Dad, Zac and Lucy and went grocery shopping for our dinner - which Mum insisted had to be a plate of salad. It had been a big day, and everyone was tired. The kids all headed for the hot tub before an early dinner and a whole lot of doing nothing before bed.
I wonder what the others got up to through the day...
Tom


...by Zac:  While Tom and Mum were on their ride, Dad, Lucy and I drove up a route called Boreas Pass, just outside Breckenridge. On the way up, we saw some really cool scenery and had a great view of the mountains. I took plenty of photos from the back seat all the way up and I am sure they will be posted. Since we were in the Chevy Suburban (recently dubbed 'The Truck') we had to make good use of the 4WD features. At the points where the road had been blasted through the rock, it was only big enough for our car (or two regular sized cars) so we were given a free pass through the thinner parts of the road until....... We were met by a car of equal size! A Dodge Ram truck blocked our way! We had to veer to within a handspan of the side of the road (which was at some points, a vertical drop of over 50 metres!) which made us all very glad that we did not have Mum travelling with us.
We passed lots of people on their bikes and people walking their dogs. There were people painting the thickly packed Aspens so Dad took extra care to go slow so we didn't blow dust onto their paintings. After the two cyclists had had enough of riding, we did a little shopping at the local breckenridge souvenir shop where I bought a Breckenridge hoodie.
Overall It was a fun day and now we are all resting up for our drive up Pikes Peak tomorrow.
Zac