We just returned from a 6 day trip to Beaver Creek. This was our second visit to the BC/Vail area during the summer season and it is rapidly becoming a favorite destination. As often happens in the summer, our flight into Eagle/Vail was delayed by a couple of hours so we arrived close to midnight, drove to the condo in Avon and were checked in by 1am. The condo was a two bedroom 'lock-off' which means that it is two one bedroom units with a connecting door. This enabled our two teenagers to have their own bathroom, TV(s), washer dryer, fridge, etc and a reasonable degree of independence. We like Avon since its close to the Rec center, biking and walking paths along the creek/river, easy access to I-70 and route 6 with bus stops just outside the building to Vail or Beaver Creek.

Day One was spend recovering after a long day of travel. We usually have breakfast the first morning at Bob's Place. Its a basic local restaurant with great food and reasonable prices. We then got a weekly membership to the Avon Rec center and spent some time with the condo's activity director. Since it was drizzling, we decided to drive to Glenwood Springs. We'd never been to the Glenwood caverns so that was a good unanimous choice. The Caverns are located at the top of a cable car ride with awesome views. We had tickets for the 2pm tour and had time beforehand to wander the top Adventure area, the boys took an alpine slide that runs ¾ mile down the mountain and took in the views of the canyon. The tour was excellent - I'd never been in such a large and deep cave before! The guide was very knowledgeable and we were able to take a lot of pictures. Stopped at the Hotel Denver for snacks and then headed back to Avon. On the way back, we stopped at the local grocery to stock up and crashed shortly after a dinner 'in'.

Day Two - The weather was clear and cool. Beaver Creek mountain bikes were just the ticket. We rented at the Charter in Beaver Creek (Charter Sports). Bikes were well maintained and the young man at the shop took a lot of time making sure the bikes and helmets fit correctly. The lift ticket/bike haul included a voucher for lunch on the mountain (a major bargain). We spent the remainder of the day up and down the various trails - some blue, some green, all with gorgeous views. It was hard to turn them in at the end of the day! Dinner out that night at the Outback Steak House - I know its not glamorous but the food is dependable with enough variety to satisfy divergent teen appetites.

Day Three - the boys (all 3 of them) set out at 5:30am to hike Mt Massive, a 14,400' peak near Leadville. Being an admitted softie, I stayed behind and rented a bike at the Charter sports in our building to ride into Edwards for some shopping. Again, the weather was perfect - upper 40's early and low 70's by mid-afternoon. The climb took nearly 5 hours each way because they took a category 3 route by mistake. Note to other climbers - if you see other groups heading in what appears to be the 'wrong' way - follow them anyway. They probably have more experience than you! Although I enjoyed Edwards, I was puzzled as to the hype surrounding the place. The main street has nearly a dozen shops for children's clothing but seemed limited in other areas such as books or clothing for those of us on the dark side of 40. The guys got back around 6:30pm and collapsed.

Day Four - this was our day to explore potential investment property. A friend had built a second home about 60 miles away (between Breck and Leadville) so we took a drive to see it. Unfortunately, the area was a bit too remote for our liking and also somewhat arid. We then drove through south park to visit another friend who had recently bought two acres and will someday build. Again- a little too remote. We took a chance and had dinner at the only hotel in Fairplay and were pleasantly surprised. Good food, quirky waitress - only downside was a mediocre wine selection (mostly Colorado varieties) and they ran out of homemade pie!

Day 5 - With only two days remaining and good weather forecast for both, we decided to take a hike...and drove back towards Glenwood Springs and Hanging Lake. The trail is well marked, only 1.2m long but very rocky, steep in parts and will take the better part of 90 minutes each way. We are in reasonable shape and it took us just over an hour. However, the reward is well worth the effort! The Lake is beautiful, surrounded by falls and lots of benches to sit and either rest or picnic as we did. There are also some great places for pictures along the way of waterfalls, streams, etc. We saw a lot of families with young children going both ways - I'm sure they make a full day of it given the difficulty of the climb. Dinner that night was at Beano's Cabin. We'd been there a few years ago. To get to the restaurant, you can either take a 1 hour horseback ride up the mountain, thru meadows, over streams, etc or a tractor drawn wagon. I made reservations well enough in advance to get us on the horses this trip and it was great! Beano's sits in a meadow half way up the mountain. While eating, we saw porcupines, foxes and several deer roaming just outside the windows. As you can imagine, the attire is casual but the food is absolutely top notch. The menu is fixed price at $85/person for 4 courses plus a little chef's surprise appetizer but the horseback ride alone would be a little over $40/person if booked separately. This was definitely our splurge night! As it turned out, the decision to go to Beano's today rather than our last night was wise.....

Day 6 - Our last day in the mountains and as always, it came too soon. We drove to Vail for our last day and rented mountain bikes. After experiencing three different locations of Charter Sports, I have to say that the guy in Beaver Creek was head and shoulders above his colleagues. In Vail, helmets were handed to us, bikes were handed over with not a lot of concern about size or instruction. Not that we are novices, but I don't know if the cavalier attitude carried over with real newbies. And, as we found, even moderate experience doesn't buffer against the occasional crash. We all took the long Village Trail for the first run with a couple of detours on Lion Way going down. All met up at the gondola base again and headed back. At the top, I decided to take the easy route again and DH, with the boys, took off for more adventure. The plan was to meet at the gondola.....when I arrived, one son was there with the news that DH had 'wiped out'. "How bad?" I asked....well, two ambulances and EMT's were with him on the mountain along with our other son. He was transported to the Vail Medical center and we spent the next three hours of the afternoon in their emergency room. The initial suspicion was torn ligaments in his knee, concussion and possibly a spinal injury. Luckily, no broken bones, no major soft tissue injuries but some significant contusions, bruising, etc. His helmet was cracked straight through. Note - ALWAYS wear the darn things and if the rental shop doesn't offer one to you, demand it!! As a former triathlete and fitness nut, he's pretty in tune with his body and how it feels to crash on a bike so when it happened, he understood the potential seriousness, stayed still and sent one son for the emergency phone while the other stayed with him. We got back to the condo, got him into bed with plenty of pillows, advil, TV remote and juice. The staff at VMC were wonderful; I can't say enough good things about them!

Day 7 - United was helpful in getting our flights rearranged to avoid multiple connecting flights since DH could hardly walk. Again, flight delays due to summer storms but we arrived home basically intact!

Hope your hubby is recovering well.

I always like to second the reminder of the importance of the helmet. We like to bike and my first bad crash came on a trail near home (paved, but broken pavement when dipping down to a tunnel with blind turn) and I too cracked the helmet through--I credit it to limiting though not totally preventing my head injury. (It couldn't prevent the contusions or broken rib).

My second bad crash (get back on, right?) was my second time mountain biking down ski trails (are they all rock?) By then I had really cut back on speed (though you have to keep momentum or you do crash on those trails), so my injuries were less severe. I was on a group trip to the resort and later found out that one person in every group that rode crashed. So the accident rate must be pretty high.

I had to add my two cents. We spent 9 nights in Avon this summer doing two different art shows (Avon and Edwards) and loved Bob's. You mentioned it for breakfast, but we loved it for drinks and a relaxing, casual dinner. Great wait staff! Same for Pazzos Pizza. So if anyone will be in the area, give them a try!

According to the emt's, the helmet probably saved him from a serious head injury - I'm a believer!

Hi! Enjoyed your trip report (except the part about your husband's crash!) How's he doing?

I love ski lift assisted mountain biking, but I always end up with a bunch of scrapes. I fell last week toward the hill. It wasn't a hard or a long fall, but even so, my helmet prevented my head from getting pretty scratched and banged up; I only have a 1" scrape.

We are heading back to Colorado next summer, I hope you don't mind a few questions?

1) Which ski lift assisted mountain biking did you like better - Beaver Creek or Vail? I am I guess an intermediate - I can handle downhill singletrack (but prefer only downhill!) I'm not doing any jumps or anything like that! Is there a variety of trails at Beaver Creek? We've mountain biked at Keystone and Copper and while I really liked it, there was only one trail at each location. We were just at Big Mountain in Montana, and there was only one downhill choice there, too.

2) Does Vail still charge the outrageous prices to ride the ski lift in the summer? How about Beaver Creek - what do they charge? Have you ever mountain biked at Breckenridge? How does that compare to Beaver Creek?

3) Where is the alpine slide you mentioned? I thought we did all the slides in Colorado! (We've done Durango, Winter Park, Heritage Park and Breckenridge!)

We love the Glenwood Springs pool, and the hike to Hidden Lake was great.

Karens - I'll give you my perspectives on the mountains. Beaver Creek had only one lift running in the summer - Centennial and about 2-3 green, 2-3 blue and one black trail open. Some limitations were due to lift construction over at the Birds of Prey area so I don't know if more will be open next summer or not. There appeared to be a ton of options over near Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead but we couldn't figure out how to get over there without a steep uphill climb (listed as black). also - with just the one lift running, I don't know how you'd get back to the base. The BC lift price was between $20-29/day with the $29 including a $15voucher for lunch at mid-mountain. Depending on when you go, the bike rental places are either very strict (during busy times) or lenient (august) on return times. We rented for 4 hours each time and had them for closer to 6. As for Vail - again, only one lift running from Lionshead during the week and one additional running from vail village on weekends. Vail had more trails available but the price was steep in my opinion ($29 for bike haul, lift but no lunch). You can get a 5 day lift ticket/bike haul combo pass for $99. We only got a small taste of Vail due DH's accident but had biked there 4 years ago. when all the construction is over, I'd probably prefer BC - less traffic, better pricing at least for now. Vail has a much larger base area, restaurants, shopping etc as you know. the alpine slide is at the entrance to glenwood caverns. You take a cable car to get there. The slide just opened 4 weeks ago - cost is $7 for the 3/4 mile track and it brings you back to the top. kids liked it a lot.