Good morning!!  Who else is feeling a little exhausted today?  My little pup Riley was up all night (not sick), but just fidgeting and not wanting to lay down so needless to say, I did not sleep much.  I made a curry dish last night and he licked the bowl and we are thinking that he might of had an allergic reaction to it.  Eeek.  No more table scraps for that little guy.  

Anyway, back to our Colorado trip.  After a good night’s rest, we woke up Saturday morning ready for a nice hike.  My dad had just visited Breckenridge a couple months ago and suggested a couple hikes to us.  One hike he suggested was the McCullough Gulch.  He said it was pretty steep, but we could do it.  It was only about 3 miles so we decided to give it a try.  He said to drive all the way to the end of the road to park and start at the trail head.  

Well the only problem was that the road was closed for repairs so we had to park at the end of the road and start our hike there.  My husband kept insisting that the hike would be too long because we added the extra road to it, but I kept thinking the trail head wouldn’t be too far down the road.  

I was wrong.  He was right.  We walked over 2 miles just to get to the trail head, but at this point I was determined to complete the hike.  There is a beautiful lake at the end of the trail.  

So we walked… and walked… and walked…

This picture is evidence that my husband carried nothing…. 

While I carried the backpack the entire way… 🙂

I made him drink water and eat a snack about every 10 minutes so it would lighten the load. 🙂

When we were down in town the morning of our hike, we saw hikers in shorts and thought they were crazy.  Well… little did I know I would have preferred shorts for about 90 percent of the hike.  But when we got to the very top and turned the corner to see the lake, it was FREEZING!!! That’s why I am wearing my husband’s patagonia in this picture. 🙂

The long, steep hike was definitely worth the views at the top.  

It was such a beautiful day. 

We took a couple panoramics.

And then we headed back down the mountain. 

Jon wanted to climb this tree..

Then he decided he knew a “shortcut” and took us off the path…. into a swamp.  20 minutes later, we were backtracking to find said path.  

Thankfully we found it ;).  We were both hurting by the time we finally made it to the car.  Our hike that was supposed to be 3 miles ended up being over 9.5 miles.  So we celebrated.

We cleaned up and headed out for a drink before dinner. 

Then we made our way to Blue River Bistro for dinner.  

I got the beet salad with salmon and my husband got the ahi tuna special with udon noodles.  We both agreed that this was the best meal of the trip.  

Sunday morning we headed to the local coffee shop, Cool River Coffee House (we did this Saturday morning too) for coffee and breakfast.  We ate our breakfast outside as we watched people (and their doggies) take a morning stroll.  

After breakfast we wondered around town and did a little shopping before stopping in a couple bars to watch some football.  After a couple hours, we were hungry again so we stopped at CB & Potts for lunch.  They have a nice outdoor area and we just couldn’t get enough of the beautiful weather.  I’ll let you guys guess which meal was mine. 😉 

We had such an amazing time in Breckenridge and even if you don’t like snow sports, I would highly recommend visiting in the off months because it is absolutely beautiful.  The town is so cute and quaint and the people are very friendly.  We will definitely be back! 

Questions:

1. Mountains or the beach?
2. Do you like to hike?
3. If you have a fitness tracker, how many steps do you average daily?