Welcome to Frisco!

It’s a brand new day! We sleep in … wait for it … until 6:30 a.m.! What can we say? We are early risers. We are excited for our zero day in Frisco, and so, even though we intend to relax, we have many tasks to accomplish while we are off trail and in town. Welcome to Frisco!

First and foremost is a proper American breakfast, so we walk up tiny Main Street Frisco to Bread & Salt, which was recommended to us by our bartender at Highside Brewing last night. Breakfast here does not disappoint: truffle egg scramble and Nutella raspberry pancakes washed down with cappuccino and coffee! Hiker hunger hits hard!

This puts us in the right frame of mind to tackle our chores. First stop is the Post Office to pick up our resupply and sort out our food needs. Then it’s divide and conquer! Alison commandeers the computer at the Snowshoe Lodge and sets about the business of stitching together blogposts for our first several days on the trail. We’re still working out the kinks, but she makes good progress.

Meanwhile, I’m getting ants in my pants just sitting around, so I’m happy to walk a mile to the commercial center to run errands at the sports store (fuel), Walmart (needle and thread), Safeway and Whole Foods (fresh food for the trail). Everything is conveniently located in the same shopping complex. I could even have taken the bus, but I relished the opportunity to walk without a pack and listen to some music along the way! I even spy the Outer Range Brewery and file that idea away for later.

At this point, it’s already lunch time. Alison has chips & salsa on the brain, so we stop in at a local taqueria. The nachos are divine, but the quinoa, kale, cranberry & almond salad stole the show. We come off trail craving anything green and fresh!

Then it’s back to the room to pack up our food and take care of some Internet business. I head back to the Post Office to mail off extra food and supplies that we overestimated. We’ll pick these up in Durango at the end of the trip and use them somewhere down the line.

Finally, it’s time to clean up and relax. We grab the free Summit Stage shuttle bus to Breckenridge to meet our friends at the famous Breckenridge Brewery. We get there early and belly up to the bar and chat with our amiable bartender, who, it turns out, has also hiked Kilimanjaro and Annapurna!

Soon everyone arrives: Juli and Eden, the Orchestra and the conductor (who happens to be in town) and Kat & Layla the dog. Turns out Jenny has decided to step off trail and meet her parents; Kat and dog will take her place. We enjoy a leisurely dinner together, but soon enough we can see eyelids are fading. It’s almost 8 pm which is usually quitting time for hikers on the trail. Alison and I say our goodbyes (we know we’ll see the gang on the trail tomorrow) and stroll down Main Street Breckenridge back to the bus station.

We still have a little left in us, so we take the bus to the end of the line, which is about 20 steps from Outer Range Brewery, recently voted #2 new brewery in the country! We enjoy a New England style IPA while relaxing in comfortable outdoor chairs as the air starts to cool. Then it’s one quick game of Bananagrams before closing.

It’s back on the bus and back to the motel for one more night of sleep in a real bed before getting back on the Colorado Trail. Frisco has been most welcoming!

Day 9 Stats

Starting Point: Frisco
End Point: Frisco
Mileage: negligible
Breweries Visited: 3
Showers Taken: 2