My fortune cookie at dinner the previous night said something like, “Your intuition will lead you down the right path.” My intuition told me to let John ride Monarch Crest without me; turns out, my intuition was correct once again! More on that later. I drove John and his bike to the High Valley Center in Poncha Springs in time for him to catch the 10:00 shuttle that would drop him off at Monarch Crest Trail. After signing a waiver and paying the $20 fee, John helped a guy by reinstalling his hydraulic brake pads that had fallen off. Turns out, the shop mechanic was off that day, so lucky for someone, John was there “to the rescue!”
With John off on his adventure, I headed into Salida to walk around historic downtown. Brunch for me was a yummy California Scramble at a place called “The Simmering Cup.” If you are ever in town, it’s a nice place to go and hang out; they even have free wi-fi. There are a lot of boutique-type shops with many cute clothes in downtown Salida, but I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without. I revisited Absolute Bikes to purchase some much-needed electrolyte supplies and then headed down to the river access where the kayakers and rafters were practicing. There was a raft of what looked like boy scouts that were getting coached on rafting skills. They managed to lose a guy overboard, but quickly pulled him back into the boat. A few minutes later they managed to completely tip over the boat. It was good entertainment. (No boy scouts were harmed in the incident.)
Later in the afternoon, I retrieved John from the High Valley Center. He was whooped. I believe his exact words were, “That was a beating.” Coming from him, that is pretty bad. Of course, he was riding his Salsa Dos Niner that is hardly a full-suspension, and the trail is very rocky. About this time I was feeling pretty cocky about my decision to stay behind on this ride. The ride was about 38 miles, not all downhill-even with the shuttle. About the time the trail dumped him out on Hwy 285, John’s chain broke. Lucky for him, it was all downhill on the road, so he coasted about three or four miles back to the shop.
Showing posts with label Salida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salida. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
More Fun in Salida!
Day 3-A Day on the ATV
Tuesday morning we loaded the ATV onto the cheap little trailer and headed out for an adventure. We started at the ghost-town of St. Elmo where we unloaded our trailer. Our map only covered San Isabel National Forest, so when we crossed over into the Gunnison National Forest, we were shooting from the hip. Beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe the scenery. Tin Cup Pass is over 12,000 feet in elevation. As we started down the other side of the pass, some old dude said, “You’re about to hit the really fun part.” I was hoping by “really fun” he didn’t mean the kind of fun we had two years ago when we had our unfortunate crash where John broke his arm. As it turned out, it wasn’t bad at all. As a matter of fact, I didn’t get off the 4-wheeler for safety reasons even one time. At Mirror Lake, we turned off on an ATV trail, which is not wide enough for the jeeps we’d seen on the previous trail. We saw a forest employee who had trained his 18-week-old black Labrador Retriever to ride on the seat behind him. I wish I would have taken a picture! After passing some old mining cabins, we drove through the ghost-town of Tin Cup. There are actually people that live there—probably hermits. This led us back to Mirror Lake where we retraced our path back to St. Elmo.
For dinner we decided to try the Salida Café, which is located next door to Absolute Bikes. It was pricey, and they charged for refills on tea. The patio atmosphere was nice, but the food was just ok. Which brings me to a question: When you go to an eating establishment where you have to go to the counter to order and pay for your food, do you leave a tip? Do you tip on the service you hope to receive? I always think the tip should reflect the service you’ve already received. Just wondering.
We saw this cool dog in the Salida Wal-Mart parking lot. He loves to ride the motorcycle with his mom and doesn't even mind wearing the goggles.
Day 4-Salida Off-Road Trails on “S” Mountain
Wednesday began with breakfast at the Patio Pancake Place. You just can’t beat the price, the food is pretty good (not the scrambled eggs, however), and the staff is friendly and attentive. John spent the next few hours changing the oil in the ATV while I used my neti-pot and took a nap to ward off impending allergies. While John was outside working on the ATV, he chatted with Jim, a fellow Texan who had been in Salida about two weeks already. He gave John some tips on places to go to eat. There is a hamburger place in Poncha Springs that is run by two Thai ladies. He says they make the best hamburger, but also sell a healthy pad thai as well.
Around 3:30 we headed out to ride the town trails on “S” mountain in Salida. The trailhead is located just across the F Street bridge. We made the mistake of asking a guy where the Front Side trail was, and he sent us to the Burn Pile trail (a.k.a. Burning Arrow). This was not the easiest climb, but we made it to Front Side. From there we took Little Rattler for a bit until we decided to split up. I rode Backbone and John rode Sand Dunes. Backbone is awesome! It was like riding a roller coaster. There was a little bit of exposure, but nothing that made me get off and walk. When I reached the intersection of Backbone and Sand Dunes, I took a few pictures while waiting for John. When John arrived, we rode the remainder of the way down the mountain via Sand Dunes. Up to this point, there was a good bit of cloud cover, so I was still feeling pretty good. John asked if I wanted to ride some more, so I said, “Sure! Why not?” About the time we began climbing up Front Side, out comes the sun. It was probably about 90°, and my internal thermostat doesn’t work as well as I would like. As we climbed, we passed Duke’s grave. Duke was a dog in the late 1800’s who was owned by the owner of the hotel. Duke would greet the passengers as they got off the train, and everyone loved him. When Duke died in 1902, his owner buried him just down and to the right of the big “S” on the mountain. There is a local ale here named after him. After paying our respects to Duke, we ride Little Rattler, Backbone, then Tenderfoot. At this point, I was bonked! We descended Front Side and finished around 6:30. These trails remind me of the Telegraph trail system in Durango. If I ride them again, I’ll go early in the morning so I don’t have to deal with the heat so much. I know, I’m a wimp.
Dinner that evening on the patio of the Twisted Cork was fabulous. The patio backed up to the tree-shaded river; it was very peaceful. I had a Cosmo and a Mediterranean salad with grilled
Tuesday morning we loaded the ATV onto the cheap little trailer and headed out for an adventure. We started at the ghost-town of St. Elmo where we unloaded our trailer. Our map only covered San Isabel National Forest, so when we crossed over into the Gunnison National Forest, we were shooting from the hip. Beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe the scenery. Tin Cup Pass is over 12,000 feet in elevation. As we started down the other side of the pass, some old dude said, “You’re about to hit the really fun part.” I was hoping by “really fun” he didn’t mean the kind of fun we had two years ago when we had our unfortunate crash where John broke his arm. As it turned out, it wasn’t bad at all. As a matter of fact, I didn’t get off the 4-wheeler for safety reasons even one time. At Mirror Lake, we turned off on an ATV trail, which is not wide enough for the jeeps we’d seen on the previous trail. We saw a forest employee who had trained his 18-week-old black Labrador Retriever to ride on the seat behind him. I wish I would have taken a picture! After passing some old mining cabins, we drove through the ghost-town of Tin Cup. There are actually people that live there—probably hermits. This led us back to Mirror Lake where we retraced our path back to St. Elmo.
For dinner we decided to try the Salida Café, which is located next door to Absolute Bikes. It was pricey, and they charged for refills on tea. The patio atmosphere was nice, but the food was just ok. Which brings me to a question: When you go to an eating establishment where you have to go to the counter to order and pay for your food, do you leave a tip? Do you tip on the service you hope to receive? I always think the tip should reflect the service you’ve already received. Just wondering.
We saw this cool dog in the Salida Wal-Mart parking lot. He loves to ride the motorcycle with his mom and doesn't even mind wearing the goggles.
Day 4-Salida Off-Road Trails on “S” Mountain
Wednesday began with breakfast at the Patio Pancake Place. You just can’t beat the price, the food is pretty good (not the scrambled eggs, however), and the staff is friendly and attentive. John spent the next few hours changing the oil in the ATV while I used my neti-pot and took a nap to ward off impending allergies. While John was outside working on the ATV, he chatted with Jim, a fellow Texan who had been in Salida about two weeks already. He gave John some tips on places to go to eat. There is a hamburger place in Poncha Springs that is run by two Thai ladies. He says they make the best hamburger, but also sell a healthy pad thai as well.
Around 3:30 we headed out to ride the town trails on “S” mountain in Salida. The trailhead is located just across the F Street bridge. We made the mistake of asking a guy where the Front Side trail was, and he sent us to the Burn Pile trail (a.k.a. Burning Arrow). This was not the easiest climb, but we made it to Front Side. From there we took Little Rattler for a bit until we decided to split up. I rode Backbone and John rode Sand Dunes. Backbone is awesome! It was like riding a roller coaster. There was a little bit of exposure, but nothing that made me get off and walk. When I reached the intersection of Backbone and Sand Dunes, I took a few pictures while waiting for John. When John arrived, we rode the remainder of the way down the mountain via Sand Dunes. Up to this point, there was a good bit of cloud cover, so I was still feeling pretty good. John asked if I wanted to ride some more, so I said, “Sure! Why not?” About the time we began climbing up Front Side, out comes the sun. It was probably about 90°, and my internal thermostat doesn’t work as well as I would like. As we climbed, we passed Duke’s grave. Duke was a dog in the late 1800’s who was owned by the owner of the hotel. Duke would greet the passengers as they got off the train, and everyone loved him. When Duke died in 1902, his owner buried him just down and to the right of the big “S” on the mountain. There is a local ale here named after him. After paying our respects to Duke, we ride Little Rattler, Backbone, then Tenderfoot. At this point, I was bonked! We descended Front Side and finished around 6:30. These trails remind me of the Telegraph trail system in Durango. If I ride them again, I’ll go early in the morning so I don’t have to deal with the heat so much. I know, I’m a wimp.
Dinner that evening on the patio of the Twisted Cork was fabulous. The patio backed up to the tree-shaded river; it was very peaceful. I had a Cosmo and a Mediterranean salad with grilled
chicken; John had the Chicken Parmesan. It was delish!
Vacation…finally!
Day 1-Driving
A McDaniels vacation just wouldn’t be a McDaniels vacation if there weren’t some sort of harried construction project going on during the days leading up to the day of departure. The rain and the discovery of a section of rotted floor hindered progress on the travel trailer renovations. We planned on leaving Saturday, but I cast the deciding vote which determined it would be better to leave early Sunday morning rather than 10:00 p.m. Saturday night. I think John was just too tired to argue.
Believe it or not, our rig and we were departing from our house at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning. (I know; I can hardly believe it myself.) We made it to Amarillo in time for lunch at Fazoli’s. I still for the life of me can’t figure out why the Dallas area can’t seem to support Fazoli’s. We were none too happy when the one out in Irving turned into a Taco Bueno. I think it is some sort of Communist plot. But as my pal Vinnie says, “I digress.” It was around 6:45 p.m. mountain time when we pulled into campsite E2 at Heart of the Rockies RV Park. It’s often a crap shoot when booking reservations at a place you’ve never seen, but I gotta say, I did good (sic). We have almost a 360° view of the mountains, the restrooms/showers are clean, and the sites aren’t stacked on top of one another. It’s located about halfway between Salida and Monarch on W. Hwy 50, just west of Poncha Springs.
The remainder of Sunday evening was spent setting up camp. Just as we were about to take the pups for their evening walk, it started to rain. After the rain stopped, we went for a walk so the dogs could stretch their legs and we could explore the rv park. During our walk we began to hear thunder. Then lightning—I mean really close, loud lightning. All of a sudden, there was a downpour. No worries, it often rains in the mountains.
Day 2-Salida & Buena Vista
Monday morning, (Caleb’s second birthday, in case you care) we went into town to run some errands. We had breakfast at a place that was full of locals, which is often a good sign. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was on Hwy 50 and was called Pancake something or other. The pancakes were delish, but the scrambled eggs were essentially a dried omelet that I had to scramble myself. Blech. John had it replaced with an egg cooked over-medium. Much better!
After breakfast, we motored over to Absolute Bikes in search of some advice and maps on mountain bike trails in the area. A personality-challenged, heavily tattooed girl wearing really cool glasses gave us a few ideas, but she wanted to make sure we flatlanders understood that there would be a lot of climbing. Finally, I told her we’d ridden in Colorado before, just not in this area. John decided to ask the other girl and the dude that worked there and received much better information.
Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Absolute Bikes in Salida, but it is located right by the Arkansas River. Next door to the bike store is a coffee place, which includes patio seating and a view of the river and “S” Mountain. (“S” Mountain is the mountain with a big white “S” on it. Go figure.) We decided we would be returning to this part of Salida later on that day to explore some more.
Since I don’t want to bore the two people who might actually be reading this with the minutia of our errands, I’ll summarize this next part in bulleted points:
• Went to ranger station for ohv maps
• Purchased ohv sticker from state park office
• Sonic! (for a beverage)
After that, we went back for the dogs and took them swimming in the river by the bike shop. I thought Caleb was going to chase the kayakers who were practicing their moves, but I guess he thought better of it at the last minute. They always have a great time when swimming is involved.
With the dogs in tow, we decided to drive up toward Buena Vista to check out the area we would be going to ride the 4-wheeler. I think there are more fourteeners in that area than anywhere else in Colorado or maybe even the U.S.. (I’m sure Jan is Googling this right now.) Suffice it to say, it was beautiful.
Since we were closer to Buena Vista than Salida and we were hungry, we headed into Buena Vista (pronounced by the locals as byou-na vista rather than the Spanish pronunciation) for dinner. We were very disappointed in the restaurant selections. After driving to historic downtown, then down to the “new” section of Main Street, we decided to try a place with Buffalo in the name that was on the highway. John said it looked the busiest so it should be the best. I had a hard time arguing with that, so I agreed. We walked in and stood at the hostess stand. Someone said they’d be with us in a minute. We could hear a piano playing saloon or ragtime-inspired music and saw several people dressed in costumes. Evidently, most of the cars were there because of the hootin’ nanny they were having in the back part of the restaurant. After standing there for what seemed like forever, we decided to leave. We ended up at a place that had “steaks and spirits” in its title. Why can’t I remember the name of anyplace? I need to work on that. This is the part where we really started to think we were in the twilight zone. The hostess asked us if we were familiar with their menu. Of course, we weren’t. Sunday through Thursday they serve only filet mignon. You have a choice of sizes, but you get the steak, baked potato, bread, salad with house dressing, and a garnish. We were starving, so when she asked if that was ok with us, I said sure. (I think John started to protest by complaining to me about the downside of filet mignon when he’d rather have a New York strip, but we stayed anyway.) As we sat there waiting on someone to take our drink order John said, “This town doesn’t seem to be big on service, huh?” The house dressing on the salad turned out to be a mix of Ranch and honey mustard. Now why did they want to go and mess up perfectly good Ranch dressing? I felt a little sorry for John, because he doesn’t like Ranch at all. Ironically, he said the honey mustard made the Ranch more palatable. As we were eating our oddly-dressed salad, the hostess came over and asked us if we’d mind moving from our table into a booth. Apparently a large group just arrived, and they needed our table. Being the affable Texans we are, we agreed and were rewarded for our niceness with dessert on the house. Dinner was actually pretty good, and we got out of there for $22 plus tip—not bad at all for a steak dinner with dessert, even if the experience was a little odd.
We weren’t too impressed with the town of Buena Vista. Maybe we didn’t find the good part, but until someone gives me a good reason, I’m not making plans to return there unless I’m just passing through on the way to someplace better.
As I’m typing this John is…wait for it…you guessed it…working on a project. Last summer he bought this cheap little portable trailer (some assembly required) so we would have a way to transport our 4-wheeler to the trailhead. He’s out there now making the final modifications so we can go on our atv adventure tomorrow. Hopefully he won’t be out there all night.
In my web 2.0 class I learned that it was good to ask questions on my blog so people would make comments. So here goes.
Have you ever been to the Salida/Monarch/Buena Vista area? If so, what fun things did you do while you were here? Where are the good restaurants?
Until next time!
Day 1-Driving
A McDaniels vacation just wouldn’t be a McDaniels vacation if there weren’t some sort of harried construction project going on during the days leading up to the day of departure. The rain and the discovery of a section of rotted floor hindered progress on the travel trailer renovations. We planned on leaving Saturday, but I cast the deciding vote which determined it would be better to leave early Sunday morning rather than 10:00 p.m. Saturday night. I think John was just too tired to argue.
Believe it or not, our rig and we were departing from our house at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning. (I know; I can hardly believe it myself.) We made it to Amarillo in time for lunch at Fazoli’s. I still for the life of me can’t figure out why the Dallas area can’t seem to support Fazoli’s. We were none too happy when the one out in Irving turned into a Taco Bueno. I think it is some sort of Communist plot. But as my pal Vinnie says, “I digress.” It was around 6:45 p.m. mountain time when we pulled into campsite E2 at Heart of the Rockies RV Park. It’s often a crap shoot when booking reservations at a place you’ve never seen, but I gotta say, I did good (sic). We have almost a 360° view of the mountains, the restrooms/showers are clean, and the sites aren’t stacked on top of one another. It’s located about halfway between Salida and Monarch on W. Hwy 50, just west of Poncha Springs.
The remainder of Sunday evening was spent setting up camp. Just as we were about to take the pups for their evening walk, it started to rain. After the rain stopped, we went for a walk so the dogs could stretch their legs and we could explore the rv park. During our walk we began to hear thunder. Then lightning—I mean really close, loud lightning. All of a sudden, there was a downpour. No worries, it often rains in the mountains.
Day 2-Salida & Buena Vista
Monday morning, (Caleb’s second birthday, in case you care) we went into town to run some errands. We had breakfast at a place that was full of locals, which is often a good sign. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was on Hwy 50 and was called Pancake something or other. The pancakes were delish, but the scrambled eggs were essentially a dried omelet that I had to scramble myself. Blech. John had it replaced with an egg cooked over-medium. Much better!
After breakfast, we motored over to Absolute Bikes in search of some advice and maps on mountain bike trails in the area. A personality-challenged, heavily tattooed girl wearing really cool glasses gave us a few ideas, but she wanted to make sure we flatlanders understood that there would be a lot of climbing. Finally, I told her we’d ridden in Colorado before, just not in this area. John decided to ask the other girl and the dude that worked there and received much better information.
Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Absolute Bikes in Salida, but it is located right by the Arkansas River. Next door to the bike store is a coffee place, which includes patio seating and a view of the river and “S” Mountain. (“S” Mountain is the mountain with a big white “S” on it. Go figure.) We decided we would be returning to this part of Salida later on that day to explore some more.
Since I don’t want to bore the two people who might actually be reading this with the minutia of our errands, I’ll summarize this next part in bulleted points:
• Went to ranger station for ohv maps
• Purchased ohv sticker from state park office
• Sonic! (for a beverage)
After that, we went back for the dogs and took them swimming in the river by the bike shop. I thought Caleb was going to chase the kayakers who were practicing their moves, but I guess he thought better of it at the last minute. They always have a great time when swimming is involved.
With the dogs in tow, we decided to drive up toward Buena Vista to check out the area we would be going to ride the 4-wheeler. I think there are more fourteeners in that area than anywhere else in Colorado or maybe even the U.S.. (I’m sure Jan is Googling this right now.) Suffice it to say, it was beautiful.
Since we were closer to Buena Vista than Salida and we were hungry, we headed into Buena Vista (pronounced by the locals as byou-na vista rather than the Spanish pronunciation) for dinner. We were very disappointed in the restaurant selections. After driving to historic downtown, then down to the “new” section of Main Street, we decided to try a place with Buffalo in the name that was on the highway. John said it looked the busiest so it should be the best. I had a hard time arguing with that, so I agreed. We walked in and stood at the hostess stand. Someone said they’d be with us in a minute. We could hear a piano playing saloon or ragtime-inspired music and saw several people dressed in costumes. Evidently, most of the cars were there because of the hootin’ nanny they were having in the back part of the restaurant. After standing there for what seemed like forever, we decided to leave. We ended up at a place that had “steaks and spirits” in its title. Why can’t I remember the name of anyplace? I need to work on that. This is the part where we really started to think we were in the twilight zone. The hostess asked us if we were familiar with their menu. Of course, we weren’t. Sunday through Thursday they serve only filet mignon. You have a choice of sizes, but you get the steak, baked potato, bread, salad with house dressing, and a garnish. We were starving, so when she asked if that was ok with us, I said sure. (I think John started to protest by complaining to me about the downside of filet mignon when he’d rather have a New York strip, but we stayed anyway.) As we sat there waiting on someone to take our drink order John said, “This town doesn’t seem to be big on service, huh?” The house dressing on the salad turned out to be a mix of Ranch and honey mustard. Now why did they want to go and mess up perfectly good Ranch dressing? I felt a little sorry for John, because he doesn’t like Ranch at all. Ironically, he said the honey mustard made the Ranch more palatable. As we were eating our oddly-dressed salad, the hostess came over and asked us if we’d mind moving from our table into a booth. Apparently a large group just arrived, and they needed our table. Being the affable Texans we are, we agreed and were rewarded for our niceness with dessert on the house. Dinner was actually pretty good, and we got out of there for $22 plus tip—not bad at all for a steak dinner with dessert, even if the experience was a little odd.
We weren’t too impressed with the town of Buena Vista. Maybe we didn’t find the good part, but until someone gives me a good reason, I’m not making plans to return there unless I’m just passing through on the way to someplace better.
As I’m typing this John is…wait for it…you guessed it…working on a project. Last summer he bought this cheap little portable trailer (some assembly required) so we would have a way to transport our 4-wheeler to the trailhead. He’s out there now making the final modifications so we can go on our atv adventure tomorrow. Hopefully he won’t be out there all night.
In my web 2.0 class I learned that it was good to ask questions on my blog so people would make comments. So here goes.
Have you ever been to the Salida/Monarch/Buena Vista area? If so, what fun things did you do while you were here? Where are the good restaurants?
Until next time!
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