Monday, July 7 – Fairplay and environs

 

 

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After a leisurely, midwestern breakfast at the cabin (pancakes, eggs, and even bacon) we took off with Kathy and Stan for another little expedition, this time into territory that only their four-wheel-drive could have managed. The area was near Horseshoe Mountain and Mount Sherman, and again, we saw a lot of old mining equipment and collapsed mines near this one, too.) We had a picnic lunch out of the cooler and went for a little hike, again admiring both the enormous mountains around us (this time, mountains that were visibly eroding, with “round tops” and lots of gravelly rock slides) and the teeny wildflowers that were in bloom all over the place. We also took a quick peek at the town of Fairplay, but Stan and Kathy needed to get home to Denver (she had just had several important phone calls that morning about a possible new job), and so we went back to the cabin and said our goodbyes a little after 4 pm. It was great to spend some time with them! We rested for a bit (still not quite adjusted to the altitude) and then went back into Fairplay to wander the two streets that are more touristy and have little shops and restaurants, plus access to a bit of park that leads down to the South Platte, at this time pretty fast-moving and of course ice cold, since it is fed from the last bit of snow that we still saw melting all over the place at 13,000 feet. The town is struggling — the big touristy place nearby is Breckenridge and of course syphons off all the tourist trade, while Fairplay is more like Nederland, and now uglified by a huge big goldmining operation that is marring the South Park landscape. But we found perfectly fine bar food and some ice cream and headed home at about 7 pm to spend the rest of the evening enjoying the peace and quiet and then the fading sun in the cabin. 

   

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