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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Sunshine and Redcloud Peaks (September 2009)

(This is the first of several trip reports from my San Juans trip in September.)

We started at the Silver Creek Trailhead for the climb up Sunshine and Redcloud Peaks. The first part of the trail followed Silver Creek up through a scenic valley.

Trail Going Along Silver Creek

We turned off the Silver Creek Trail and headed up a unmarked trail towards Sunshine Peak. The trail was a gradual climb through tree line and to the end of the valley.

The Trail Above Treeline in the Valley

Next we climbed up a scree slope to a ridge. First we took a route up that went on the right of small knob, but there was a waterfall in that gully. So we traversed some and climbed down a bit to get to where we could climb up. It was scree, but we didn't take too long to finish the climb up to the top of that ridge-about 400 ft up from the base. Next we walked across some rocky hills to the base of the summit ridge. We left the track I had downloaded off the web, to follow a trail we saw going up the scree. It disappeared a few times, but was more stable and easier the going up the scree without it. Once on top of the ridge, it was a short (~300 ft) climb to Sunshine Peak and its amazing views.

Redcloud Peak from Sunshine Peak

Next we walked along the ridge over to Redcloud Peak, about 1 ½ mile away with a 500 ft drop to the saddle. As we got closer the dirt turned more and more red.

Redcloud Peak My Victory Pic on Redcloud with Sunshine in the Background

We descended Redcloud, following the trail along a ridge to the end of Silver Creek valley. We descended into the valley and followed Silver Creek back to the trailhead. Along the way we saw many small creeks running into Silver Creek and a marmot poking his head out of a hole. The hike was 10.2 miles long with about 4200 ft of climbing.

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