• Home
  • About

A Runner's Story

A Runner's Story

Tag Archives: Tin Cup

Tincup Pass

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asian Palate, Buena Vista, BV, CDT, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Trail, CT, Deerhammer Distillery, high school reunion, Mirror Lake, Tin Cup

Mirror LakeWe sleep in to almost 5:40 this morning.  Today is a recovery day.  We breakfast again at the Roosters Crow Cafe because it was that good the first time.  I keep it light and only order one plate this time around.

First stop after breakfast is the Mount Princeton Hot Springs near Nathrop – a few minutes south of BV.  This hotel and spa is located along Chalk Creek and sits only two miles east of the eastern loop of the Colorado Trail.  Once there we acquire day passes to the spa.  First order of business is a shower and shave.  This spa is a little oasis in the wild.  We receive big fluffy towels and robes, razors and combs, and libations.  After we clean up, we spend the morning lounging in multiple hot springs of various temperatures and drinking Bloody Marys.  The bartender runs them through a juicer which we don’t exactly approve of, but drink willingly anyway.  Mike and I schedule treatments for mid afternoon while La Plata does laundry.

tincup passAfter a late lunch we drive back over Cottonwood Pass, leaving my car at the trailhead on top and take La Plata’s four wheel drive truck down into Tin Cup.  We camp along Mirror Lake for a continuation of our epic adventure.  The first photo above is of our early morning rise with the trail off to the left of the lake and Tincup Pass in the background.  This photo is at the top of the pass, but we’re not yet done climbing.

ascentWe could stop here but instead determine to mount our first peak of the trip.  It’s unnamed but rises north of the pass another 1100 feet. The jaunt to the pass itself was about three miles and took us only an hour bearing lighter packs.  The climb up this unnamed peak is less than a mile but takes nearly another hour due to a steep slope.

Mike leads us to the top and the views are impressive.  This is the Continental Divide and we can see both sides.  Crested Butte fifty miles to the west.  Aspen’s Maroon Belles to the north.  God’s country everywhere.  At over 12,000 feet, possibly heaven.  The descent is tough on the quads and knees but quick.  I leverage my trekking poles for stability.  We reach Mirror Lake in another hour and this completes our shortest day to date.  We head back over Cottonwood Pass Road for lunch at K’s Burger joint in BV.  We run some errands and actually I forget what all we did for the afternoon.

panoramic

Soon enough, we find ourselves sitting at the bar in the Deerhammer Distillery on Main Street – which is also Cottonwood Pass Road.  Lenny serves us their products paired with stories.  We learn that whiskey begins as beer mash, but is then distilled.  We first drink Whitewater Whiskey which is, well, white.  Or clear to be more exact.  There is no color because it spends very little time aging in an oak cask.  We follow this up with a more traditional oak-aged whiskey.  A single malt named Down Time.  Our final tasting is of a gin distilled over very unique botanicals.  With this knowledge of their stock, we order more Bloody Marys fueled with Deerhammer Gin.

Deerhammer DistilleryAfter happy hour, we cross the street to dine at the Asian Palate.  La Plata and I have been here before.  The three of us sit at the sushi bar to interact with the chef.  He relates to us how the finer dining scene in the Arkansas River Valley has pushed north from Salida into BV and might one day reach Leadville.  He’s a Vail transplant.  We eat our fill while mapping out a strategy for backpacking the next two days.  Our plan is for more day hikes like today.  The benefit being we are able to leave heavier gear like our tents and sleeping bags in the car.  Our packs will easily weigh less than half their original weight, and in fact do.  Before dusk, we ride back up Cottonwood Pass Road and find a nice camp spot at a trailhead to an older CDT trail route.  We’re learning our way around the Collegiates.  Tomorrow, we plan to begin from Cottonwood Pass and hike south as far as the snow allows.

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Search this blog

  • Boulder Marathon
  • Britt&Eric
  • Colorado Trail
  • Covid-19
  • covid-noir
  • cyber war
  • Ellie Rose
  • Geek Horror
  • Marathons
  • Margot
  • Medical Files
  • Novel
  • Other Stories
  • Politics
  • ReBlog
  • Running
  • Snowboard
  • Snowshoe
  • Storytelling
  • training plan
  • Victoria BC

Buy Full Spectrum Cyberwar at Amazon

Buy Cyber War I at Amazon

Buy on Amazon India for ₹99

Buy on Amazon U.K. for £2.27

English Edition on Amazon Germany

Buy on Amazon Brazil for R$11.29

Archives

Blog Stats

  • 136,700 hits

Girlfriend Cult

Recent Comments

Terry Collier on Sunken Garden
georgeschools on I saw a Bear
Terry Collier on The Niwot Loop
Ed Mahoney on ATX Half 2023
georgeschools on ATX Half 2023

Recent Posts

  • May Flowers Under a Runner’s Sky May 13, 2023
  • Sunken Garden May 6, 2023
  • I saw a Bear April 23, 2023
  • The Niwot Loop April 22, 2023
  • PSA April 15, 2023
  • Easter Birthdays, Bunnies and Eggs April 8, 2023
  • Happy Memories March 25, 2023
  • ATX Half 2023 February 22, 2023
  • Adelsverein January 28, 2023
  • A Runner’s Day January 7, 2023
  • Last Run of the Year December 31, 2022
  • Christmas, for me… December 26, 2022
  • Craft Shopping for Christmas December 10, 2022
  • A Slow, Late Fall Run November 25, 2022
  • November Runs November 20, 2022
  • Tech Debt November 19, 2022
  • The Runner’s Field of Battle November 13, 2022
  • Stealin’ from God October 24, 2022
  • A New Start October 23, 2022
  • Baby Margot Birthday October 9, 2022
  • The City of Flowers September 24, 2022
  • Dog Park by the Sea September 19, 2022
  • The Lane of Pain September 17, 2022
  • Run Rabbit Run August 28, 2022
  • Wild Horses August 21, 2022
  • The Day Running Died August 17, 2022
  • Boulder Marathon Training – Week One August 7, 2022
  • Mount Sanitas July 30, 2022
  • The Trail and Me July 23, 2022
  • Mount Zirkel Wilderness July 13, 2022
  • Full Team Hike July 4, 2022
  • Village to Village July 3, 2022
  • Beaver Creek July 2, 2022
  • Summer is Here June 12, 2022
  • Birthdays May 22, 2022
  • Fall River Road March 25, 2022
  • A Tale of Two Gerasimov’s March 11, 2022
  • The Hero February 26, 2022
  • Full Spectrum Cyberwar February 24, 2022
  • Run Nan, Run February 20, 2022
  • Running Sunrise to Sunset February 13, 2022
  • Cyberpunk Runner February 5, 2022
  • A Winter’s Run January 15, 2022
  • Turkmenistan January 2, 2022
  • Counting Families at Christmas December 26, 2021
  • Austin Boardwalk December 23, 2021
  • Like Christmas for the First Time December 19, 2021
  • Restoration November 27, 2021
  • India Kinks November 15, 2021
  • Run a Little, Write a Little November 6, 2021

Colorado=Security

Blogroll

  • Alohawk's Blog
  • Barbie's Blog
  • Boggy Creek Lumpster
  • George Schools Blog
  • I, Cringely
  • Prostate Chronicles
  • Shut Up + Run
  • Sustainable Sunrise
  • The Rogue Botanist

Web Sites

  • Amazon Author Page
  • Austin Marathon
  • Bolder Boulder
  • Brit's YouTube Songs
  • Colorado Marathon
  • Colorado Runner Magazine
  • Colorado Trail
  • Girlfriend Cult
  • Lobo Media Ltd
  • My YouTube Site
  • Race Pace Calculator
  • Shoes & Brews
  • Trail Runner Magazine
  • Zaremba Graphic & Web Solutions

Goodreads

Top Posts & Pages

  • Foot Fetish
  • La Cueva
  • Berthoud Pass
  • Performance Enhancers
  • PSA

Top Clicks

  • None

RSS Feed

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • A Runner's Story
    • Join 249 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A Runner's Story
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: