Rocky Mountain High

The TheyTris were in Aspen last weekend for a wedding. It is making me sad that we're not there NOW. God, I fell in love. Were it not for the minor details of home, work, family and funding I'd pull up stakes and move there. Ah, well. A dream.
We got in late on Friday night after a long day of travel and a pit stop at the Bride's childhood home in Glennwood (also lovely). We checked in at the Limelight Lodge (very nice) and hadn't been there three minutes when Mr. TheyTri was spotted by a fellow triathlete...Michael, a four-time Kona finisher. He'd spotted Mr. TheyTri's M-dot tattoo. Naturally.
Michael and Mr. TheyTri chatted for a bit and he gave us the scoop about where to run (Rio Grande Trail) and bike (Trail or up over Independence Pass) and directions to the local rec center so he could swim. Mr. TheyTri was in his very last week of hard training before Rev3 Cedar Point, his main race of the year. I called it "bonus altitude training." But, he handled the interruption of his last week with grace and for that I thank him. And, I can think of worse places to do a final push!

As it happened, before bed Friday night we saw @lancearmstrong tweet that he was going to be participating in the Aspen Uphill run the following morning to raise money for the Aspen High School track team. How many times in your life can you say you got to race with Lance? So, bright and early Saturday a.m. Mr. TheyTri and our friend, Lauren, hustled up to the Silver Queen Gondola and registered for the race. A little 4.6 mile trot with something like 3,400 feet of climbing. No thank you, Lance or no Lance.
While Mr. TheyTri and Lauren did that, I actually strapped on my sneakers and went for a run on the Rio Grande Trail. I was nervous that the altitude was going to make running a misery. But, much to my surprise, I felt...good! I was comfortable with my breathing and legs felt fine. Well, fine for me. The scenery on the Trail is simply spectacular. Waterfalls and streams and mountain vistas and gorgeous homes and ... have I mentioned I want to move there? Sigh....
Anyway, I got my dinky half-hour run in and then went to join up with my girlfriends for pedicures pre-wedding while Mr. TheyTri went off for his swim. You have your fun, I'll have mine.

The Wedding was in an old ghost town up in the mountains above Aspen in Ashcroft (also a HUGE cross country ski destination in the winter) at the last functioning building up there, Pine Creek Cookhouse. It was the most spectacular spot. It was a beautiful day, the bride was beaming and it was just a hell of a lot of fun. I miss having those girls around more often. I've know them for almost literally my whole life and I love 'em.
Mr. TheyTri turned in early as he had a long run and a long bike scheduled for the following day. I stayed on as long as I could stay awake and had a blast. Despite a small incident slipping on the dance floor and landing on an unfortunately-placed glass of wine. I'm so graceful.
So, Next morning, very early, Mr. TheyTri hopped on his bike that he rented from the nice folks at Aspen Velo and went for a 2 hour ride back out to Ashcroft. While beautiful, he had to pack it in after the first loop because it was SO COLD coming down the mountain before the sun was up. We'd not thought to pack warm bike gear. A word or two on biking in Aspen. EVERYONE bikes in Aspen; road bikes, mountain bikes, fixie bikes, cruiser bikes, they are everywhere. We had great service picking out the bike at Aspen Velo and, frankly, even better service at Hub of Aspen where we, unfortunately, couldn't rent Mr. TheyTri a bike because the only ones they had in his size were out--turns out there was an MS 150 that weekend and rentals were pretty cleared out. To their credit, they didn't try and put him on some POS alternate bike, they sent us down to Aspen Velo, instead. Go visit Hub of Aspen if you ever need to rent there. Please.
After ride it was time for brunch at Sky Aspen for the wedding party. A quick bite and then some good-bye's as friends started heading back to their respective homes. Mr. TheyTri headed out the the Rio Grande Trail for his long run. I toddled around the town and snapped some pics.

After late checkout at the Limelight, we packed up and began the drive back to Denver. But, we had some time since we were staying overnight in Denver to catch an early morning flight back east, so we decided to take the scenic route. We headed out of Aspen and over Independence Pass. Holy Moly is that beautiful (if a bit white-knuckle-y for the driver). The scenery was just gorgeous. Huge groves of Aspens standing sentinel and amazing peaks and valleys. Even still a bit of snow!
We continued over to Leadville, America's highest incorporated city. It's an old mining town and has a bunch of old Victorian buildings. It's a bit run-down but it's still interesting to drive through. As it happens, the end of the Leadville 100 running race was that day. We didn't see any of the runners, though we saw some support vans earlier in the trip. And I thought Mr. TheyTri was nuts. I stand corrected.
All in all, an amazing trip. I have to admit to being very saddened and annoyed when we landed at JFK by all the noise and rudeness that is New York sometimes. We will definitely be going back to Colorado for more vacations. It was bliss, however short a trip.