Ouray Casual Adventure

Yesterday was another delightful day in Ouray, Co.  We started out with a leisurely morning.  I stayed in bed until Noon finishing yet another book, while Leah read a book in the “living room” (AKA outside tent canopy), and subsiquently fell asleep for a mid morning nap.

Afterwards, we decided to head down an “easy” hike nearby.  We’ve since decided that any hike at 10k feet should probably not be considered easy, at least to us low-landers!  Leah and I were both breathing heavier on the Bear Creek Trail, where a series of switchbacks climbs 900’ in .8 miles.  Leah is definitely having a slightly harder time at altitude—we think it’s due to a combination of less lung capacity (than Andy) and spring time allergies.

The trail itself was finished in 1890, and takes you to a couple of old mining sites.  We only made it to the first site, which, to be honest, was not particularly impressive.  The trail itself was beautiful, however.  After the steep climb, it meanders through the mountain in a route blasted into the steep canyon walls. The dogs, of course, had a great time, although the ground started to burn their feet.  It was only about 80*F, but the rock we were walking on seemed to soak in the heat;  I ended up running parts of the way through this section to alleviate the time the dogs spent in the hotter sections.

After our surprisingly tiring hike, we splurged and tried out an Oxygen bar.  We’d never even heard of this, so we thought it would be a fun thing to try out!  We opted for 5 min each, as the cost was $2 per minute per person.  This Oxygen bar had 5 different flavored 90% oxygen sources.  A small tube sticks into each nostril, and you breathe in through your nose.  The Eucalyptus flavor proved beneficial for Leah’s allergies, although the peppermint flavor did not really do much for Andy other than give a nice feeling of “freshness”.

With hours still left in the day, we decided to venture on over to a local Ouray distillery.  We tasted local Rye and Bourban Whiskey’s, blue corn Vodka, and a floral/lavender twist on a blue corn Gin.  The Gin and Rye where my favorites;  the gin was particularly unique since it used less than half the amount of juniper in a a standard Gin (12% instead of 28%), and instead used a myriad of herbs, lavender in particular.  We also had a couple of delicious cocktails, since they waved the tasting fee if you purchased cocktails .

Finally, we topped off the day with a fun climbing session at a local climbing wall, called Rotary Park.  We are really enjoying this park, since it is a very friendly introduction to outdoor sport climbing.  We did a few climbs each, and finally retreated back to camp, thoroughly exhausted!