Riverside Trail – Breckenridge 12/8/12

Riverside Trail Between Breckenridge and Frisco

Starting and ending Elevation: 9600

Trail Length:  The path goes all the way to Frisco from Breckenridge, which is 9 miles one way 18 miles round trip.  We did 9.5 miles round trip.

Trail Uses:  Bikes, hiking whatever its paved….

Degree of Difficulty:  Easy

Bathrooms:  As you walk along the path there are some public places that likely have a bathroom.

Fees:  None

This is not our kind of path/trail, but our original plans had to be scrapped as a snow storm moved into Breckenridge this past Saturday.  We had planned a weekend in Breckenridge as a pre-birthday celebration for me and just to get away for a few days.  We wanted to get some type of walking in and we decided that no matter how bad the snow got this trail would still be doable.  It actually starts just behind Mainstreet as you walk through parking lots along the river.  Then a paved path makes its appearance around Ski Hill Road where it will start to go under the roads.   As we got further out of town, there was more of a natural path that went right along the edge of the river and if not for the busy road a few yards away, it would have been very lovely.

The snow helped with the traffic noise but not all that much.  Also about 2 miles from the town the only choice became the paved path, which really was ok at this point because the rate of snowfall had doubled since we started.  The one nice thing was in that there was no one else really on it because the snow was getting so heavy.  Everyone was either skiing or tucked away inside nice and warm.

We went all the way to Tiger Road and then turnaround and headed back.  The snow just kept getting heavier so we tried to speed it up a little to get back as quickly as we could in order to get warm and some drinks in hand.

It’s not an exciting trail but certainly did us just fine in a pinch.  Sometimes weather will get the best of the situation and this was a great way to get in almost 10 miles at 9600Ft.  We finished in 3.5 hours and started my pre-birthday celebration, which entailed a lot of drinking, soaking in a hot tub and the occasional appetizer.

We will probably find ourselves doing this one again because we love Breckenridge, but it will likely only be when we have company in town or when we have nothing else we can do because of weather.  It is a great way to get the legs moving and the blood pumping.  I also think I might be able to attempt Ben Tyler again since we spent the whole weekend up at 9600Ft.  I am trying to decide what would be best this weekend, so much to think about.

We didn’t get many pictures because of the snow but here is one of the last ones we took as the snow got to its heaviest while we were hiking.

And since there wasn’t much to share of this weeks hike, here is our youngest cat sitting in judgement as we get ready to leave for the weekend.