After having a good day with Alison up on Mount Evans, I decided to show Alison around one of Colorado's greatest cities: Boulder. Complete disclosure demands I admit I needed an excuse to run by Neptune Mountaineering for Colorado Trail supplies, and it turned out perfectly.
Boulder lies just North of Denver, below the beautiful Flatiron slabs of rock. The University of Colorado is located there and the town is known as a haven for liberal politics, great rock climbing, fabulous microbrews, and Colorado's intelligentsia.
For those of you who don't know, Neptune Mountaineering is widely regarded as the world's greatest mountaineering and outdoors retail establishment. Only the flagship stores of LL Bean and REI could even approach Neptune for supremacy. While not the largest or the flashiest, Neptune's fanatical devotion to serving serious hardcore rock climbers, ice climbers, mountaineers and backcountry skiers (as opposed to WASPY suburbanites) makes it the best. Despite their size, they ALWAYS have exactly what you need, and can always be counted on when your local REI lets you down. Also, unlike REI, the don't carry worthless crap that makes you cringe. Everything they sell has been tested and proven and is generally regarded as good stuff. And while they carry the latest and best, they're also great for carrying all sorts of great, hard to find old school gear (got my Black Diamond Megamid tent there).
Alison loved Boulder (not surprising considering how great it is), I got what I needed, and everyone was happy. She commented that Boulder was "just like Berkely, only prettier and cleaner!" I couldn't have put it better myself.
NOTE: This picture is not actually in Boulder, Alison is on the steps of Colorado's capital Building, as we forgot to take any pictures in Boulder.
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