Fort Collins

Last week I was in Fort Collins, Colorado for training. I was learning how to make maps for large wildfires in the hope that I can go out more this summer. Fort Collins, is supposed to be a cool town, but most of what I saw was the inside a conference room.



At the end of the week we were glad to be done and I went to the New Belgium brewery with a couple of the guys that were in the class with me. As far as breweries go, it was nothing new. At the end of the tour you can have a sampler of beer and I tried my first sour beer, which was unique.

The other guys I was with had to go catch flights, so I carried on to the Odell brewery and the Fort Collins brewery. Neither was as crowded or developed as New Belgium, but they had great beer and fun people. I had a fun time in the Fort Collins brewery because it was so relaxed and carefree. I highly recommend it.

That night I drove down to Boulder to spend the night. I went out on the town and had fun meeting random people. I was in Boulder, because the next day I wanted to go to the Celestial Seasonings factory. The crowd touring a tea factory is a little different then a brewery tour. It was neat and I’m sorry I don’t have more pictures, but they wouldn’t allow it in the factory. Let me say there was tons of herbs and tea. Most impressive was the “Peppermint room” where they kept their Peppermint and spearmint. It was so strong it was kept in it’s own room. They opened the door and it was a challenge to stay in their more then thirty seconds because it burnt everyone’s sinuses.




In the afternoon I drove down to Denver. I was hoping to see the Flying Dog Brewery, but found out they moved just a month ago. So I hung out in town and had an entertaining Saturday afternoon in a bar.

I was going to go skiing the next day, so I drove out to Silverthorne. That was a weird town. You pass run down mining towns, then there’s Silverthone with strip malls for J. Crew and others. I found a cheap room and stayed there and went skiing at Arapaho Basin the next day. Even though it was May, the snow was great. They had about 9 inches the two days before and the base is at 10,000 feet so it was still super nice.

It was a real community place. Everyone there was in costumes and the parking lot was right at the base and they had a place they called “The Beach” where people would set up chairs and bar-b-q’s drinking and watching people ski. I was surprised how crowded it was still in May.




After a full day of skiing I headed north past Steamboat and camped out on the Yampa river near Craig. And Monday it was a long drive back to Winnemucca. It was a great trip and a quick turn around to leave for Washington DC next week.


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