Tasting Excellent Local Beer in Ridgeway, Colorado

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This is the last of the three articles I wrote for the website Trazzler which is no longer. It's not a ride or hike, just a stop we made on a rest day between climbing 14ers. Photos are from a trip in 2009 For most, the town of Ridgeway is where your turn to go to Telluride or go straight to Ouray. Just off the main road, there’s the Colorado Boy Pub & Brewery. I had pints of the Stout and the IPA, and tasters of the rest. The stout and IPA were excellent. The Irish Red Ale was better than average. The Blonde Ale and Best Bitter were ok, but I wouldn’t get a pint of them. The food selection is simple, four different Paninis with chips, about $7 each. They also have free popcorn to go with the beer. The pints were $3.75 ($4.25 for the IPA) and tasters are about a dollar. They also had mini etch-a-sketches on all the tables. It's a small place, with only 5 tables and small bar, but has a great pub atmosphere. The Colorado Boy Brewery Ridgeway Has Some Nice Views of the
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Brainard Lake Snowshoeing (February 2009)

A few weeks ago a couple of us went for a snowshoeing hike close to Boulder. The Brainard Lake area is about 35-45 minutes from Boulder. During the winter the road to the lake is closed. The road is open during the summer and you have to pay to get into the area. You can either take the road or one of the trails north or south of the lake. On the south side there are separate trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The snow coverage on the road is spotty and you can walk it without snowshoes (unless there was a recent heavy snowfall). The trails are pretty reliably covered in snow.< This first picture is the view when you get to the lake. Even though there was not much snow cover in the open (Colorado is having windy winter again), the lake was frozen. After reaching the lake and getting a snack, we headed up to Long Lake, not far from Brainard Lake. Here is a close up of the patterns in crusty snow on the lake. (These are not fun to snowboard over...I tried at Loveland in one of the badly windblow areas.) After Long Lake we went through some trees, maybe following a trail, but with several feet of snow on the ground, does it really matter? Then we took it easy and went back on the road.

No trip up there is complete without passing through the "scenic" town of Ward, CO, where the side of the road is a junkyard. It's off the Peak-to-Peak highway, but Lefthand Canyon road goes right through it.

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