Trip 5: Day 36 (Denver & Boulder)

Boulder was never on US 6 but, for the past several years, I've come to Boulder at least once in the year. 2013 was a miss though, so it was time for a make-up.
May is not the best time to visit the Rockies, as evidenced by the hail storm that greeted me this afternoon. The intent was to tour the US Mint in Denver, which is a tough reservation to make during the busier summer months, but I was able to snag one for the last tour this afternoon. To reach it in time, I had to catch the 2pm bus back from Boulder but, almost as if on queue once I mentioned having to catch the bus, it began raining (and soon hailing). But that's fine: Boulder was fun. I mostly drank, but I have a good time drinking in Boulder. Avery Brewing, on the city's east side, has set up an almost new brewery district, with at least five breweries within just a few blocks of one another, mostly in nondescript industrial parks and strip malls.

Even before the hail storm, it was cold. The bike ride in to Downtown Denver was a bit rough, making me wish I had brought a jacket. Denver's bike path and lane system is better than that of many cities, but it's not enough where I would rely solely on my bike to get around. There are more bikes on the roads, and drivers are more aware of them, it seems, but you're still often forced to ride with traffic in the travel lanes, or right next to it in a small bike lane. The Denver area however has what I consider to be an excellent bus system.


 For 30 years, an underground bus terminal, sitting under the Regional Transportation District (RTD) office on Market & 16th Streets, was the hub of the area's bus system. The inner building can get cramped at rush hour, it's difficult to get a bike down to the bays and outside the doors to the buses, and connection to the light rail involves a 3-4 block walk, or transferring to another bus, like the free 16th Street Mallride. But the legacy of the Market Street Terminal is ending. On May 11, after years of construction, Denver opens its Union Station Terminal; an integrated, multi-modal transit hub built around the historic Union Station, where light rail, Amtrak, each of the three types of bus service (local, regional and SkyRide) and the new FasTracks train service will all meet. The site also has easy access to the interstate system, bike paths and the local sporting venues. This does push the site farther west, away from the center of Downtown Denver though. The bus terminal was only unveiled publicly two weeks ago, after the $500 million project was mostly already completed.

When I passed by it, there was still a buzz of activity, with construction workers in hats and orange shirts going in and out of the building. It makes you wonder if it will really be done in three days.

Most of my time in Boulder was spent along Boulder Creek, which is the centerpiece of the city's bike path network. The path can get very busy, suffering the same rush hour crunch that any transportation network suffers. Two bicyclists hit each other just in front of me, as they were trying to cross a street in opposite directions. When they hit, the older man's face winced up but the younger guy just looked down. It was the younger guy's fault. He seemed to be a bit stoned as he was having trouble keeping the bike straight, and had swerved into the left side of the path. They didn't say anything to each other as I passed though. I just said something like "Watch out there, guys." I know how helpful that is.

This was the rambling mission
statement attached to the menu at
FATE Brewing.

Boulder is, at its core, a very pretentious town. I don't think it necessarily comes out to the casual tourist, who will see the natural beauty, the safety, the Pearl Street Mall and its charming shops, and the quaint college town atmosphere. Boulder saw an influx of counter-culture transients in the 1960's, and though there's somewhat of an effort to keep that spirit alive in the city, housing prices are mainly what's keeping it from being more of a reality. It's extremely expensive to live in Boulder as restrictions on development, both in terms of redeveloping older properties and new construction, have kept things very quiet, thus driving the prices up and the people out into the suburbs. Most people who work in Boulder do not seem to live in Boulder. Instead, they live in the cheaper towns like Longmont, Loveland, Erie and Louisville. These towns don't have the charm that Boulder does, but they certainly have cheaper housing.
I stopped at FATE Brewing first to get lunch. They looked like they had a good tap list. Even at almost 1pm, the place was busy, with a wait to get a table on the patio. I sat at the bar and ordered their burger with a side salad for $9.50, then two tastes (free) of a "Cascadian Dark" and their Biere de Mars. Neither were awful, but they were also not good. I requested a taster (full 5oz pour, $1.50) of their standard IPA, which was really bad. The burger was overcooked and the salad dressing, called a "lime cilantro vinaigrette," tasted like lime juice, which was just gross. I should have eaten at the next place I went to, Bru, about 14 blocks down Arapahoe. Bru features a seasonally-changing menu with a focus on locally-sourced ingredients, though they had a "banh mi" that appeared to be served on ciabatta. I liked the beer there though. They had four IPAs, including two that were just vehicles to showcase a single hop. The trippel, which was one of the pricier beers I can recall drinking at $9, was excellent.
Then it was to Avery, another 7 blocks down Arapahoe. While Bru was quiet and I could talk with the staff, Avery was a madhouse. I've come here almost every time I've been in Boulder, and I've seen a dramatic change within the past two years. In 2009, I stopped here on my ill-fated "bike beer tour" of the northern suburbs, and ended up spending quite a bit of time here. I was alone at first and, by the time I left a couple of hours later, the bar was still only about half full. Now, each recent time I've gone, the place has been packed at all hours. I very much enjoy their beer though and really wanted to go there just as much as I wanted to go to Boulder.

Downtown Denver from US 36 at
Federal Boulevard

The bus ride back was very, very slow. US 36 is currently being upgraded to support an additional "express" lane that will be open to commuters, a bike lane (hopefully away from the freeway), a bus rapid transit lane, and right-of-way for the new FasTracks' Northwest Rail Line. US 36 was always slow-going, but it seems worse now with the construction. It was nice to sit back and doze off for a while though.

World of Beer coming soon to LoDo. Someone I spoke with
at a beer bar a block away was confident that this would
have no effect on the business there. We'll see...