August 6, 2010
Today’s Miles: 2.9
Total Miles: 101.2
Breakfast Elevation: 9,400 ft
Dinner Elevation: 9,200 ft
High Point: 9,400 ft
The morning is clear and blue.
It’s only three miles downhill to reach the trailhead at Route 9 that goes into Frisco.
A clear sky allows the color of the world to shine, and I see Colorado as I’d remembered it. I rode my bicycle in this area through Breckenridge and Frisco in 2006, and the landscape appears exactly as it had… the meadows of green grass and olive sage, with the reddish brown of the dead trees off-setting those that are full of life.
It’s simply a beautiful morning, clear and sunny.
I put in some quick miles to get to town.
At the Goldhill Trailhead there’s the convenience of the free “Summit Stage” bus that goes in one direction to Breckenridge, and the other to Frisco. Having visited both towns in the past, I chose Frisco – I remember it being more compact and easier to manage on foot than Breckenridge.
Both places are upscale Colorado ski towns, where everything looks too perfect as smiling people ride their bicycles and walk manicured dogs along perfectly paved and groomed bicycle paths. It’s like walking into a Columbia or LL Bean catalogue.
The guy at the only reasonable lodging in Frisco (Snowshoe Motel) says he only has a room for two nights (A single night is apparently unacceptable) “Because of festival,” he says. His accent is uncannily like the guy from the Direct TV commercial with the remote control on a tray of gold bars that kisses the miniature giraffe.
I arrived early in the day today and I hadn’t intended to take a zero-day tomorrow… but my mind is set on a night in Frisco, so it looks like that’s the way it’s going to be.
There are worse places to have to hang out. 🙂
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