A Walk On The Wild Side
Never quite knowing what the weather in the mountains is going to do, Sam and I took advantage of the early morning blue skies, packed some peanut butter sandwiches and a cardigan and set off for our first alpine trek.
The Vail Magazine had an article outlining a veritable smorgasbord of trails on offer in and around this mountainous little town so it was hard to decide which one to take. We thought a waterfall would be nice. They’d listed the Booth Falls Trail as Vail’s “most dramatic – and popular – cascade”, promising “intertwined torrents plunging 60 feet”, Wow that sounded awesome! With visions of cascading water gushing over river stones with great velocity it was easy to dismiss the part that said we reach the falls via a steep two mile ascent on the Booth Falls Trail.
When they said “steep”, they weren’t lying. It started us off walking through a well-trodden dirt path, meandering through grass and beautiful forest wildflowers but the path soon became rocky and had a gradient fit for a mountain goat! It rose so rapidly and so steeply that the altitude got the better of me and I was struggling to breathe (well that’s my excuse anyway; otherwise I’d have to admit how unfit I am!). Sam took it all in his stride, saying “yeah, I’m feeling it a bit” but I was wheezing and puffing just to get a little bit of oxygen and my head was pounding. There were lots of shady little spots along the way to stop and catch our breath and I felt better meeting another lady that was feeling the exact same way as me. It wasn’t all in my head after all! Some Colorado locals also sympathised saying it was to be expected. The heat from the sun was searing and we were wet with perspiration. Sam joked and teased me saying “Bet you’re glad you brought your cardigan mum!” It was an intense climb! Humming that old favourite in my head, “…if a tree falls in the forest…” I did wonder… if a 45 year-old Australian woman falls in the forest…does anybody hear?
Aside from the breathing issues, the views on the climb were magnificent! The vista down to Vail Valley was stunning and because we rose so rapidly it wasn’t long before our efforts paid off and we were appreciating how high we’d climbed. The trail crossed two little streams and was ringed with conifers and unique, colourful mountain wild flowers. There were a few other climbers on the trail but it was just so peaceful, with only the sound of the distant rushing water and birdsong in our ears. Being so aerobically challenged I felt like a little kid, asking everyone we passed going the other way “are we there yet?” Their replies were a bit confused with someone telling us we had half a hour to go and then half an hour later another bloke telling us we still had 20 minutes to go! “I think I can, I think I can” was my internal dialogue. We couldn’t wait for that distant running water to be a lot less distant.
It was such a sweet moment to reach the peak and to look down and see the magnitude and beauty of Booth Falls spilling down into the canyon below. It truly was amazing and needless to say, definitely worth the effort! There was a shady little area at the top where we could have a bite to eat and take in our surroundings. Sam, the intrepid nature photographer that he is, wanted to scale the side of the cliff for some better snaps. I did my best to talk him out of it (as any mother would) but he was determined and I held my breath while he teetered on the edge of the rock, wielding his camera. Grateful to God that he returned safely to me, he told me he got some great shots and said it was worth it even if he did hear his lens cap roll down the cliff and splash into the water below.
Surprising us yet again, the blazing sun took a nap behind a cloud and the Colorado weather took a sudden turn for the worse. It started raining like crazy and the wind turned to ice. I took out my faithful cardy and looked at Sam shivering away in his short sleeves. Who’s laughing now, eh? The forest looked even greener once it was wet and was just as beautiful in the rain. Thankfully most of the hard rain fell while we were still partially sheltered by the huge pine trees and by the time we got down to the open section of the trail, it had eased (by the time we got to the bottom the sun was out again!) There were rows and rows of Aspen Pines, growing in perfect lines, with their long straight trunks; pale and speckled, a bit like a scribbly gum. We’d never seen them before and they were so pretty.
The round trip took us about 3 hours and the walk down was SO much easier than the ascent had been! We came back to the hotel and chilled out for a while. I was exhausted!
This afternoon we located a laundromat and did our washing as it was somewhat mounting, almost forming its own snow covered peak. Reading the ‘Vail Daily’ while we were waiting for the spin cycle to finish, amongst the ads for $7M houses in Vail Village, I saw that there was a Friday Afternoon Club on Talon’s Deck at Eagle’s Nest, with live music and the ability to bask in spectacular views of the Gore Mountain Range and the Mount of the Holy Cross. Well that sounded fun! The action all kicked off at 5pm. We looked up the address and asked Siri how we get there. Siri was very confused and kept telling us she didn’t know the way. We couldn’t work it out. Eventually we thought we had the route set and were driving through the boomgates of the Beaver Creek community when the lovely lady manning the booth inquired politely where we were heading. When we told her she laughed and said the Eagle’s Nest was a gondola ride up the mountain! No wonder Siri was struggling.
The Vail gondola runs at a decent speed. The carriages are really spacious and can comfortably seat about 8 people. On our ride up the mountain we were accompanied by a nice lady from Florida, who spends her summers in Vail, and her big fluffy dog. We were discussing the fact that Colorado passed a law on 1st January to make “recreational marijuana” legal! Oh, and I thought all those space cadets in town were just suffering from altitude sickness like me!
Just like we’d found in Breckenridge, a whole other town existed atop the mountain with ropes courses, bars, restaurants and a “discovery centre”. After all our mix up with getting there, we were two hours late and had missed the live music on the deck. No worries. We had a yummy dinner on the mountaintop and were treated to one of the most picturesque sunsets we’d ever seen, both of us cursing we’d forgotten to bring our cameras. We did have our phones but nothing could capture this beauty better than the naked eye. The colours were incredible! We descended the mountain in the gondola once more and as we approached, the village of Lionshead looked like something out of a fairy tale, with all the buildings in miniature with their lights twinkling in the darkness.
