COVID Summer and Fall: Colorado Hikes and Dirt Biking

We ended up in and out of Denver for the rest of the 2020 summer. With COVID still a thing, film shoots didn’t pick back up in LA, so there was no reason to go back to California. We did have quite a few luxury real estate gigs in the spring and summer including 4 properties in Aspen, 1 in Vail, 1 in Virginia, 1 in Santa Barbara, and 1 in Arizona. We’ve ended up flying 4 times since the pandemic hit, and honestly, felt like airports and planes are probably the safest place to be since they’re taking so many precautions and sanitizing everything. No one is talking on the plane, everyone is required to wear their mask, and some airlines didn’t even hand out snacks, and the air is filtered out every couple minutes so we didn’t feel like there was really any risk while traveling.

Even with a lot of film shoots canceled, we still had a ton of editing to do this summer though, because Blake was working on editing “Thunderstruck 19 presents Uncharted” with the snowmobile content we were filming in Wyoming and Utah this spring.  Computer work is not comfortable in the camper. Our dinette is not meant to fit a 6’7” human, and the cushions are starting to lose some of their support. We ended up working on our 27” iMac that we keep at Blake’s mom’s house for several weeks in between other projects and trips, and now Blake wants to figure out a way to fit that iMac in the camper because it’s hard to go back to a 15” laptop after that. 

You can check out the finished film here.

Other trips from the summer included Steamboat Spring Little Red Park, one of our favorite off-road areas and we always try to do an annual trip here. Blake’s family has been camping here since the 80’s when Linda was a women’s enduro state champion! Now his parents ride the RZR while we ride dirtbikes. The last couple years we’ve camped in this same spot on the hill because we love the view of Hahn’s peak. This place gets the most amazing wild flowers in the spring and summer, and fall colors in autumn. A lot of times you end up riding through herds of sheep. It’s always a place where extended family and friends come join. We also get to see our dog niece Valkyrie which is the best part. 

This year while the boys rode, and friend and I hiked up Hahn’s peak, which is 1900 ft elevation gain in a mile and a half or so, but you get to climb up the lookout tower at the top. We’ve dirt biked to the saddle below the look out tower before, but never hiked all the way up. 

When you live in a box together, you don’t often get to have a “girls trip” or a “guys weekend”, so while we were back in Denver, Blake went on a guys riding trip to Aspen, and I got to do some classic Colorado summer hiking. The smoke from the fires in Colorado was pretty bad, but got to do two really great hikes in summit county: 

Wheeler Lakes by Copper Mountain Ski Resort: A pretty easy 6 mile hike with nice views of the wheeler lakes at the top, and pretty shaded most of the way. if you hike a bit father you can even see down to Lake Dillon. 

Chihuahua Lakes by Keystone: 6 miles with 1800 ft elevation gain. A couple steep and rocky sections, but very rewarding to get all the way to the lake. The viewpoint overlooking the lake really shows how blue it is. 

In late Fall we spent a night camping in Taylor Park for Blake’s birthday with his family, and got to take the dirt bikes and their RZR out on the trails.