Carbondale

Day 47 (September 9, 2021)

Today we headed for Carbondale to visit Kim and Lori Spence. On the way, we stopped at our beloved Great Harvest Bread Company, where we bought a honey wheat loaf and an asiago sourdough loaf and ate two free slices of cinnamon bread with butter.

Lori prepared us all a feast for dinner: grilled chicken, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes and veggies, salad, and homemade sourdough.

We did a lot of relaxing that afternoon and evening. Reading, blogging, drinking hot chocolate, and in the evening, soaking in their hot tub!

Day 48 (September 10, 2021)

We woke up at 7am to join Lori on a hike up to the top of Aspen. It's only a 3.1 mile hike, but it gains over 3,000 feet of elevation and the summit is over 11,000 feet... so it was definitely the hardest 3 mile hike either of us has ever done. Lori told us she used to run up this trail which we were seriously impressed by. 

Halfway up, we stopped at "Ute Rock" to take a breather and enjoy the view.

We were joined on the hike by Meka, Lori's one year old black lab, who she trains as a search and rescue dog. As we neared the top, Monisha jokingly suggested we race her to the finish. Nolan took off running, but Meka won easily. 

The top of the hike is also the top of the Aspen ski resort, so we spent a while hanging out in the lodge while Lori left us to do some work. 

After a nice FaceTime with Adrienne, we headed over to the gondola for a free ride down. There was a cool feature where we could connect to a bluetooth speaker inside the gondola car and listen to our own music on the way down! Monisha selected a fitting soundtrack (including our #2 trip theme song, Wild Ones by Dispatch) and we sat back to enjoy the views.

At the bottom, we arrived in the town of Aspen, which was quite a happening locale. As we walked down a set of stairs, someone offered us free Ozo brand plant-based burgers and several free Ozo product coupons! It turned out that the annual food and wine festival was in full swing, and we got to take advantage of free samples as we wandered through the town. The burger was definitely the best sample we got. But we also tasted some good and some bad San Pellegrinos, and were amused by a free six pack of hangover cure patches.

That evening, Lori made another fantastic dinner that we enjoyed on their back porch.

After dinner, Nolan picked up a guitar and serenaded a reading Monisha. At one point Meka decided to join in:

Day 49 (September 11, 2021)

Lori and Kim took us mountain biking! We've really wanted to ride some trails at some point on this trip but hadn't found a good opportunity. We considered heading over to Snowmass to do some downhill riding at the ski resort, but that is quite expensive. Instead, we borrowed the Spence's neighbors bikes (Thank you Bruce!) and headed out to Prince Creek.

The morning was full of twists, turns, banks, and bumps as we made our way through the extensive trail system. Kim led the way, and we were both thankful to have guides that know the trails so well.

In addition to great riding, the trails featured awesome views! 

And the ride down had a particularly unique feature that we both enjoyed.

In response to our clear delight at the thrilling downhills, Lori and Kim commented that they thought we would indeed enjoy an all downhill day at Snowmass.

After our ride, it was time to say goodbye to Carbondale. Although first we had to get Blue's oil changed, get some groceries, and hit up the local Tortellaria.

Many thanks again to Kim and Lori both for facilitating our mountain biking fun, and for hosting us these past few days. We enjoyed our time here immensely!