Tom and Igot up early and did a short, pretty easy loop to get ourlegs moving before it got too hot. I was shattered. We spent the rest of the day, hanging out in the shade of the van next to the river. With Igor’s overheating issue, we couldn’t really consider driving until things started to cool down.
So we left Glendo at close to sunset. I have to say, we’ve seen a lot of spectaculart sunsets and sunrises on this trip. The big skies and thunderclouds remind me a lot of Alberta.
I spent a lot of the drive trying to find an Airbnb that would work for the dates that we needed it and was dog friendly. I think I found the last one.
We made it to Golden late that night and Igor didn’t blow up. A nice police officer came to talk to us at 12:50 AM to let us know we were not in a campsite but that we were welcome to get our sleep there as long as we vacated promptly in the morning.
Day 11 – Golden delivers
Tom and I drove into town and parked at a wonderful, shady park close to a trail and Clear Creek access. We walked about. The information center in Golden is great, super helpful staff and lots of free maps. We had a great breakfast at Windy Saddle Cafe. They have GF options. Wandered about some more, visited a couple of bike shops, Big Ring was my favorite. Then we went for a walk along the creek to watch the tubing action. Golden has developed great creek access and has but in rapid features to allow people to walk with their floaties up the trail as far as they like and hop in for a ride. It was great fun to watch but I couldn’t help myself and had to get in. I swam it with my safety swimmer floaty trailing behind.
IT WAS SOOOOO MUCH FUN. The creek is a bit shallow, so I got a few scrapes and a couple more bruises but well worth it. What a relief on a hot day.
We stopped at Linden Engineering on our way to the Airbnb to see where it was and when to bring the van in. This place is exactly what we needed. It’s obvious from the parking lot that these folks know how to work on unusual and complicated vehicles. There were many Sprinters in the lot and at least 2 unimogs that I spotted!
Then off to the Airbnb I had found to unload our stuff and get settled for the next 4 days. Our host Jim is a super nice guy and the property he has is amazing. 270 deg view including mountains and the Denver skyline. He only had a 2 bedroom suite option for us, so it wasn’t as inexpensive as we had hoped to find and the house is a work in progress with some active construction going on during the day. That was made up for in spades by what a perfect host he is, the relaxed dog friendly vibe, great yard, mountain biking trail within 1/2 mile, great access to light rail into Denver and AIR CONDITIONING!! We were finally able to sleep well for the first time in days.
More fabulous sunsets.
