How to Tube the Yampa River Like a Local

     Tourists and locals alike flock to the Yampa in the summer to escape the scorching sun and get a little cool relief. The following tips will help you look like a local while tubing.

1. Shuttle cars. Leave one car at the drop-in point and another at your take-out destination. This saves an embarrassing bus ride holding your tube over your half naked body. Don’t forget to take the car keys with you. Don’t laugh. It happens. Arriving at the take-out and realizing you now have a car with no keys is no fun.
2. Tube early in the afternoon. Steamboat is famous for its afternoon storms that come rolling in with thunder and lightening. Once it clouds over, temperatures drop quickly. If it starts to rain, chances are you are going to be freezing by the time you get out. By tubing early in the afternoon, your odds are a lot better of avoiding afternoon showers.
3. The take out. Locals like to enjoy a cool drink and a little food after a rough afternoon of floating down the river. Sunpie’s Bistro is one of the most popular take-out points as you can dry out your bathing suit while enjoying a cold beer or a New Orleans style sandwich.
4. Don’t float too late in the season. After the river flow peaks usually in late June or early July, the river levels start to drop. In August the river levels are so low, tubers spend their time on the river bouncing off rocks, popping tubes and working on a lot of bruises.
5. Pack out trash. Locals have no problem floating down the river with a cooler of beer, cold drinks or snacks. Enjoy your time on the river but just make sure to pack out all your trash!

     For more info call Jon at 970-819-6930 or send me an email. I respect your time and will answer your questions without a sales pitch. You can also click back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page or go to my Steamboat, CO Real Estate page if you want to search for property in Steamboat.

Fishing Sarvis Creek near Steamboat Springs

The access road to Sarvis Creek Wilderness opened this weekend. Sarvis Creek offers great opportunities for fly-fishing along the Creek. Only a few feet from parking, professional fishermen and amateurs alike cast their rods in hopes of scoring a one of Steamboat’s prize-winning trout.

Up the trail, cattle graze and horseback riding is a popular pastime as is hiking. The trail gains 1,000 feet in elevation, then evens off and opens up into lush meadows with sandy beaches and small pools of water. Abundant wildlife can be found around Sarvis Creek from deer, foxes and squirrels, to hawks, bears and elk.

For more info call Jon at 970-819-6930 or send me an email. I respect your time and will answer your questions without a sales pitch. You can also click back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page or go to my Steamboat, CO Real Estate page if you want to search for property in Steamboat.

Snow still on the Rabbit Ears Trail

This winter was a relatively dry one as far as recorded snowfall, at least until April. After the ski mountain closed, it snowed almost every day for a couple of weeks. The added snowpack was a blessing in order to prevent drought this year, however it closed off access to some of the higher elevation hiking areas such as the Flattop Mountains, Mt. Zirkel Wilderness and Rabbit Ears hiking trails.

Abundant sun over the last few weeks helped finally welcome summer. Hiking up Rabbit Ears, glacier lilies were just beginning to bloom - in town, glacier lilies are long gone, now replaced with wild roses and columbine. The trail was clear until the last uphill stretch where a few stubborn patches remained. Crossing them was easy and only a few toes were cooled by snow sneaking in under my sandals.

The views from the top boasted a lush green valley below. Everything is alive and blooming, making summer one of my favorite times of year in Steamboat.

To contact me call 970-819-6930 or send me an email. I respect your time and will answer your question without a sales pitch. For more of this Steamboat blog click back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page or go to my Steamboat Real Estate page if you want to get a feel for property in Steamboat.

Great Mountain Bike ride tonight out my backdoor

  One of the cool things about living in Steamboat is that there are tons of low key or informal trails that make for great riding.  I am embarrassed to say I haven't linked this one together before since it literally goes from my backyard (and many other people's backyards too) but am psyched that my friend Brian give me the missing link over the weekend.

  I knew all but one of these pieces before but hadn't linked all of them together yet.  It was about 50 minutes this first time and it felt like cheating, might be a little faster now that I know where the turns are. There is a lot of singletrack,  some wider stuff, the trails in the Sanctuary behind your house and a little road. Good descents, swoopy turns and enough climbing to get a workout.  I will be doing this a lot more often as I can get up early and get out quickly.

I went:
- Down the trail next to my house almost to the Hilltop connector then over a small creek and up to Rita Valentine park off of Anglers (all nice single track)
- Down Anglers Drive (road section) and across Fish Creek to Pine grove, after the first building on the left I got on the trail along Fish creek
- This 2-3 ft wide trail goes upstream to the top of Steamboat Bran Village then loops around to the hospital and Central Park road close to Steamboat Blvd
- Take Steamboat Blvd to the trail on the right before the groundskeeper's building across that entrance and across the new golf course entrance then up to the trail that goes along the south side of the Sanctuary then around Aspenwood along Fish Creek again but downstream now.
- Then go under Steamboat Blvd to the south of Whitewater along the creek then up to come out at Golfview
- Take the road to Cheyenne Ct then down to the end of Cheyenne.
- a small path goes through the grass between the two homes at the end from the right side of the start of the driveway on the left. My friend Phil usually mows this, brush aside a limb jog right some then left and you are on a short trail to Anglers. If Phil is on the deck and invites you up for Wine say yes, if Deb is cooking say heck yes (actually please don't bother them so they will still invite me).   Take Anglers to the right then follow it left once then look for the trail back to my house on the right as the road goes left the second time. Next time I think I will go back down the Rita Valentine park and back since that was the best section and it would add a little more workout which I sorely need :)
- have a nice glass of wine on my deck

There are a lot of ways to get on and off this trail and some parts could loop in additional sections. like by my house on Valverdant and in the Sanctuary.

To contact me call 970-819-6930 or send me an email. I respect your time and will answer your question without a pitch. For more of this Steamboat blog click back to the Steamboat Springs blog main page or go to my Steamboat Real Estate page if you want to get a feel for property in Steamboat.