Peak-to-Peak - Part 3

September 13, 2008
Fort Collins, CO

Nederland is a tiny but bustling mountain town, a mecca for wannabe, non-bathing hippies up from the college at Boulder. It is still the home of many old and very real hippies. Because of its pristine mountain location with a lake, it is also a favorite spot with bikers, cyclers, hikers, and tourists. Nederland probably has more bars per capita than many of its larger neighboring towns. It used to have a great antique store called Off Her Rocker. The name of the store is the same except they added Mercantile but sadly, the contents are not. It is now home to an artsy-fartsy collection of weird furniture, abstract gallery art and sculptures (not for regular folk) and Tiffany-like light fixtures. Did I say weird?

Never mind all that, it is still fun to walk the length of Main Street (about 2 blocks before it turns residential) and that's exactly what we did. You can see the lake from Main street. We watched bike after bike pull in to assorted bars. We watched low-landers huff and puff up the stairs of the boardwalk. Nederland sits at an elevation of just over 8000. You have to take it easy, if you aren't acclimated. We watched the locals, a diverse population, some of them from a time gone by.

Before heading out again, we stopped at the New Moon Bakery for coffee, a scone and a cherry turnover. Not pie, Dad - just pastry - but it was tasty. We sat on the patio and watched part of the day and a couple of dozen bikes go by.

Time to ride again. See part 4