day Three. seeking more adventure

Before getting into the raft

PHASE ONE.

Today we thought that being a celebrity was not enough. Well, Cassie turned out to be a hero. We joined up with random fellow white water rafters with Timberline Tours. We needed several pieces of equipment to include 1) paddle, 2) helmet, 3) wet suit, 4) splash jacket, 5) PFD (life jacket). Our rafting guide’s name was Antony from Cape Town, South Africa. He doesn’t live in Vail, CO permanently, but he has been returning to Vail as a rafting guide for the last 12 summers. During the winters, he has gone to Switzerland to be a ski tour guide.

The group of 6 rafters and the tour guide suited up and rafted down the Eagle River, a class IV stretch. Antony briefed us with some terms such as ‘left back,’ ‘right back,’ ‘forward 2,’ ‘forward,’ ‘back,’ and ’stop.’ He also mentioned ‘dump truck,’ which is when everyone falls out of the raft but the raft itself is still upright. A ‘perfect dump truck’ is when everyone except the tour guide falls out. None of that happened to us today. It seemed like a piece of cake but it was probably because we had a strong and calm group. There were other groups of rafters that went with us and it was a success because no one fell out. But our group did have a close call! The biggest rafter thought he was tough and ended up with practically his entire body outside of the raft during one of the Class IVs. Cassie was able to pull him back in to the raft by grabbing his PFD. If not for Cassie’s heroic efforts, our raft experience could have turned sour. Nevertheless, white-water rafting was a thrilling experience – that I will definitely want to do again. Next destinations for WWR? Whistler, Vancouver..Oregon? Anyway, the day isn’t over.

PHASE TWO.

We stayed in Vail to venture back to the mountains but this time with a mountain bike. We rented bikes from Vail Ski Tech. We grabbed our bikes and went up to the Gondola. We rode our bikes through the Valley Trail. Valley Trail was a 7 mile stretch that really probably would have taken us 30-45 minutes to complete from top to bottom but because the views were beautiful, we stopped every once in awhile to take some scenic shots. Prior to arriving in Denver, Cassie asked me to bring 2 pairs of shoes because one of them will be soaked during the white-water rafting. That definitely occurred.  My brand new second pair of shoes turned out to get splashed with mud. Why is this ironic? Because by nearly the second half of our ride, the ease of our ride received some adventure due to the downpouring rain, 10 mph winds (dirt blowing toward our faces), and mud kicking up everywhere! I couldn’t complain. It was the best and “extreme” mountain biking experience I could have wished for.

Maybe next time, I could go on a zipline.

We were going to stay in Vail for its firework show but the rain cleared out the people and decided that our 2 hour drive back to Denver would be more use efficient of our time. I never thought that I would have the chance to have delicious pizza from NY, Chicago, and now, Colorado?! Fortunately, we ate at the original Beau Jo’s – known for its legendary Mountain Pies. We ordered half sausage combo and half Skier Mike’s. Thereafter, we chomped on waffle ice cream cones from one of the several “homemade” ice cream shops called Hop Scotch. I got my favorite flavor – cookies and cream. Even though we decided to leave Vail America Days, we saw about twenty different firework shows whether they were organized by the towns or individually displayed on our way back to the house.

more pictures found on my FlickR account

Legendary Colorado Pizza

90 schilling microbeer..it's alright