Delightfully Exhausting Labor Day

As all long weekend should be, Labor Day weekend was thoroughly exhausting.  We left GJ fairly early Friday morning (and by fairly early I mean 10:30) and headed up and over to Snowmass Village for the JAS Festival.  More specifically we were there to see Wilco, a fabulous band lead by Jeff Tweedy.  Since the concert didn't start til 8 that evening, we had plenty of time to take a gondola ride up the Elk Camp lift with our bikes.  You know us--we don't go anywhere without the mountain bikes--especially not to a mountain without them!  We tackled the Government Trail which, even with the gondola ride, still involved some climbing, and then rode up a second time on the gondola to bomb down another trail--Snowmass Way.  It was dusty, dirty work but hey, someone had to do it.

Me with dirty legs after our Snowmass ride.

Of course the concert was fabulous.  We danced around for several hours to Wilco's crazy lyrics, fast beats and occasional purposeful discord.  The next morning we headed up to Aspen and over Independence Pass to Leadville and on to Frisco--one of our favorite towns to visit in the fall.  The views going up and over the pass were amazing!

Heading down Independence Pass

Frisco for us means visiting friends and biking some fabulous woodsy trails.  I love GJ biking with all its rocks and dust, but there is nothing quite like the smell of a great forest when you're biking.  I love the shadows, the trees towering over head and the thrill of whipping around switchbacks just barely wide enough for you to turn through without hitting your handlebars.  We biked our favorite Frisco trail--the Peninsula trail around Lake Dillon.

 and then the next day got up and biked a three hour lollipop with our friends that put us high on the Colorado Trail near Breckenridge.  Last year that ride almost did me in...this time I was much faster and was smiling almost the whole way!  (Except for the dreaded long slow ascent from the ranch...ugh.)  What I can tell you about this trail is that it starts off of Tiger Road by the Dredge.  Parts of it are called:  The Power line, Blair Witch, the Trench, and then there's of course the Colorado Trail itself.

all in all a fabulous weekend!  Oh right, as if all that biking wasn't enough, on Monday my friend Alice and I headed out for one last trail run before the BF and I headed home....4 days of fun...for some :)