I woke at 6 with a decent amount of condensation on the ceiling. I had plenty to do in the morning and got started right away. Ted got going at 7 and we hiked out together at 8:20.
We had 15 miles to the highway. There were three climbs along the way. After two miles, we started the first, and by the time we were halfway up and consistently in the sun, we were ready to remove our coats. It shaped up to be a hot one. I took the opportunity to make a drink and accidentally spilled half a liter in the process. The net result was I drank less water during the hike and had less weight to carry.
The first climb was the longest and steepest, but even so, it didn’t even rate compared to the previous morning. On the other side of the hill, we took a break on a well-placed bench overlooking the Dillon Reservoir area.
There was one other hiker playing leapfrog with us on the Colorado Trail, but mostly we just had a ton of mountain bikers to deal with. We frequently had to step off the trail to let them pass in one direction or another, especially coming over the last hill.
We came down off the ridge overlooking Breckenridge and passed through an expensive subdivision to the highway about 2pm, having completed our intended easy 15 miles for the day. We crossed the busy highway and waited for the free bus into town. We took it to the last stop, the main bus station, and walked from there to the first restaurant that looked good. I was extremely hungry and had myself an incredible Reuben sandwich with fries, plus a green chile soup and a salad accompanied by a couple of local beers. Ted had a burger he rated as the best he’d had so far, and he eats a burger in every town.
After lunch/dinner, we split up. I set off for cookies and Ted went to the grocery store. I figured he would still be there when I got back with his cookie so decided not to fix a meeting place. Grocery shopping takes longer than getting cookies, so the grocery store is the obvious Schelling point, no?
I ended up going to an ice cream place instead of the cookie place. It was closer for one, it was a hot day for another, and Ted had expressed an especial affinity for over cream for a third. I ate a scoop of Mint Oreo on a sugar cone and then grabbed two chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches from the freezer case.
When I got to the grocery store, Ted was not there. I went ahead and bought some more breakfast mix and set off for the next most obvious Schelling point: the bus station next door. Ted found me there and I gave him his slightly-melty-by-now ice cream sandwich. Then we waited for another free bus uptown.
It left ten minutes later and we got off at an industrial park at the north end of town, home of Broken Compass Brewing. They had 11 beers on tap and in the course of two flights we tried them all. A little after sunset, we put on our headlamps and set off up the bike path, a bit less than two miles to the Gold Hill Trailhead. We took the trail uphill for a bit over a mile until we spotted some flat clearings in the trees beside the trail. We set up there immediately and went straight to bed with no fanfare or further feeding.
Trail miles: 16.6
Distance to Frisco: 13.7 miles
