Wednesday, September 28, 2011

29 miles driven, 2+ miles walked

We woke up this morning at….7:26!!  A new record (by about an hour).  Another beautiful clear cold morning (38*, 35* wind chill).  I got my  coffee while Bob watched ESPN, weather channel etc.  Hit the breakfast room and lingered long with the papers and catching up on emails, work stuff.  At 10:45 (63*) we were in the car headed up to Castle Creek Road and the Ashcroft (9,521′) ghost town on the advice of Jane, the docent from the day before.

She was correct.  It was stunning.  The road ends not far from Ashcroft at a dirt road (4 wheel drive only and you have to be “ballsy” according to a ranger) that goes over Taylor Pass to Crested Butte.  Of course, Bob was dying to take it but certainly not in my car.

Ashcroft was interesting, sad, beautiful…. it is amazing how fast these old mining towns were born and how fast the bust occurred.  Ashcroft began in 1880 when prospectors from Leadville (booming at the time) set out to search for more silver.   Within two weeks they formed a Miner’s Protective Association, built a court house and laid out streets.  There were originally about 100 members who paid $5 — one day’s work — to draw for building lots.  By 1883 the camp had a population of about 2,000.  It was bigger than Aspen (though higher) and closed to railroads at Crested Butte and Buena Vista.

But the silver mines turned out to be very shallow, proposed rail links to Crested Butte never materialized and Aspen, the county seat, attracted investors and workers.  So by 1885 there were only 100 residents.  By 1900 only a handful of old men still lived there.  A historian called them “prospectors with dismal prospects, boosters with nothing to promote, and town fathers with no children.”  The last resident died of malnutrition in 1939.  Heartbreaking.

But beautiful too.

Since the mid-70s Ashcroft has been a preserved historical site and there are nice paths with lots of signage about the history of the town as well as the people and wildlife.  Learned that weasels are great mousers and very solitary creatures; they need huge acreage to get enough to eat so very territorial.  Who knew.

We got back to the Hyatt at about 1p, left the car and took off looking for lunch.  Landed at La Cantina which we had looked at last year but never went.  Sat at the bar and had a margarita (rocks, no salt; really refreshing).  Bob had chicken enchiladas, rice no beans; soft chicken tacos, rice no beans for me.  It was excellent; great salsas too.

We meandered back up to the hotel, looking at more menus, enjoying the sunshine — about 75*.  We have been so lucky with the weather!  There were afternoon thunderstorms forecasted but they never happened.  We went out to the pool with our books and stayed for a couple of hours.  Even got in the jacuzzi — alert the media!  It was nice.   Hardly any people in the hotel — most crowded is in the mornings in the breakfast room.

We hit the showers and played some dominoes on our patio — I finally won a big round — before heading to the Limelight Lounge. We had stopped in the night before on our way back to the hotel and nice young man named, Alex, had given us a couple of discount cards.  It is a large, open area with couches and a fireplace, flat screens.  We sat at the bar, right in front of the wood burning pizza oven (600*) and watched the baseball games.   We got a free glass of wine with a pizza so I ordered an Acacia Pinot Noir; Bob had a JW Black (no Chivas).   The bartender and chef were really fun.  We split a (house made) sausage and fennel pizza that, of course, I ate most of.  Really really good crackly crust, not too much cheese.   The we ordered an arugula salad which had a few glass-like thin pieces of baked prosciutto on top (we really need a wood burning pizza oven); caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes, house-made pasta bolognese and bruschetta with artichoke hearts, tomato and basil.  Bob ordered a glass of Chianti and I had a glass of Dry Creek Meritage.  He ate all of the bruschetta and most of the bolognese and I ate most of the salads.  It was all quite good and very enjoyable.

We zig-zagged our way back to the room to read and Bob is watching The Town with Ben Affleck.   Door is open to the patio…..