Day 6 - 7/5/2005 -  Resting under the mountain...

A nice day for sleeping in.  The chill of the night (35 degrees) gave way to a bright and warm sunny moring that was starting to bake the tent as early as 9:30.  After a quick breakfast and some fresh brewed esspresso on the camp stove, we headed down into the town of Grand Lake to see the sites.  Today is scheduled as a complete down day - little or no exercise - just acclimitization to the altitude.  Grand Lake looks like an old west town that found it could survive quite well catering to yuppies.  The lak in the town is a beautiful mountain lake with a lot of boating and fishing activity.  

We ate peanut butter sandwichs in the park and drove down the road to Winter Park, CO a popular ski resort in winter and a mountain biking mecca in the summer.  We palyed tourist and rode the "Alpine Slide" (a small sled with wheels that runs down 600 vertical feet of half-pipe to the valley below.  It has a brake, and if you don't use it you will die!)  After a bit of exploring we cruised back to the camsite.  After getting bored, we decided to have a "gentle" mountain bike ride up the park road.  We rode UP the road for 30 minutes and covered about 5 miles.  We turned around and coasted almost the entire way back to camp.

After a quick dinner we settled in for "Cinema Night".  We watched the movie "White Noise" on my laptop.  It's nice to carry a few comforts into the wild.