blog @ Antlers Vail

Vail Rotary Duck Race

cj — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:24:03 +0000

Labor Day Weekend

Sunday, September 5, 2010, at 2:00 PM.

Presented by the Marketplace on Meadow Drive

Thousands of rubber ducks travel through the heart of Vail on Gore Creek once a year for The Vail Rotary Duck Race!

The rubber ducks, which sell for $5 each, are dropped into the Gore Creek Sunday at the Covered Bridge. The ducks then float quickly down the creek toward the finish line at the International Bridge. The first 20 ducks to finish win prizes for their owners. The money raised goes toward the Salvation Army’s food bank, scholarships for local students and the Children’s Medical Voucher Program, which gives local children without health insurance vouchers for medical care. The Antlers at Vail will be purchasing a large amount to help out as always and we’re still offering 15% off your Vail room rate for Labor Day Weekend! So, if you’re looking for a great option for Labor Day Weekend, pack up the kids and head to Vail.

Vail Restaurant Month Yoga Sweepstakes Winner

Magda — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:20:12 +0000

Congratulations to April Ramker, winner of Vail Restaurant Month’s “Great Yoga Sweepstakes” sponsored by all of us here at the Antlers at Vail (http://www.antlersvail.com/)! Our karmic winner receives a transcendentally blissful fall package for two, including lodging and tickets for a complete day of nirvana at the Antlers at Vail hotel on Saturday, October 2: Hatha Yoga Class, Healthy Recipe Seminar and an Organic Live Food Luncheon & Tea! For more information on all of the activites happening around Vail during this event please visit the Vail Restaurant Month web site, www.vailrestaurantmonth.com

Lost lake loop Vail mountain biking trail

Chris Ratzlaff — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:22:34 +0000

The Lost lake mountain bike trail is one of the top mountain bike trails in Vail Colorado. It is quite a long loop depending on how many “add ons” you do. It is a 3-4 hour 25 mile ride. So bring food and water. You start at the Antlers at Vail condominiums and conference center. Head up the road, across the pedestrian bridge and take a left down the bike path for about a 1/4 of a mile. Take a right up Red Sandstone road and continue up a couple of switch backs until you get to the rock/gravel road of Red Sandstone going to Piney lake. You then travel up this road about 3 miles? until you get to a fork. Take the right fork to Lost Lake. Continue for another 30 minutes or more until you get to Lost lake. If you hit any forks, just stay on the most traveled path. If you get off, virtually all the roads end up at the hiking trail head to Lost Lake anyhow. From here on it is single track around the lake and back down to a parking lot off of Red Sandstone. You might be 2-3 hours into your ride at this point. Take a left on Red Sandstone but only go a block before taking a right onto another forest service road. You are now heading south back to Vail on top of a big ridge. When you top out at a camp site, take a left off the main road to a faint double track. Follow the trail/road down until you pick up a crazy single track called Buffehr creek. You’ll be taking a number of switch backs before intersecting the Vail North Trail on your left. Follow this back for even more vertical downhill until you exit onto Red Sandstone road again near Vail village.

View Lost Lake Trail to North Trail Vail in a larger map
Map of the trail

An elk we saw along the trail almost at Lost Lake (perhaps it was sleeping?)
They should call this trail “one elk”

All smiles

Nice single track section

Big hairpin turns coming down into Vail

Vail Firefighters Combat Challenge at Altitude

cj — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:22:19 +0000

Vail Firefighter Combat Challenge, August 28 – 29, 2010
The “toughest 2 minutes in sports” Vail Firefighter Combat Challenge is scheduled for Ford Park parking lot on August 28-29, beginning at noon on Saturday the 28th at 10am on Sunday the 29th. There will be a special “Kids’ Firefighter Combat Challenge” that the kids will love. Bring the family.

The Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge provides a snapshot of one of the most physically demanding and respected of occupations. It is an intense, spirited competition that demonstrates to the viewing public the nature of the job – and no job is more dependant upon the physical prowess of its work force. The Challenge is an embodiment of the essence of firefighting – an urgent race against time, and time is the mortal enemy of firefighters as fire doubles in size every 90 seconds! Visit www.firefighterchallenge.com for more information.

Vail Pass From the Side of the Road

Greg — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:00:59 +0000

I 70 looks a lot brighter today. That’s because the Antlers Staff cleaned it up for the 22nd year in a row. It’s gotten to where we feel that our 2 mile stretch of highway atop Vail Pass is an extension of the Antlers property, or maybe even like a very lazy employee that can’t clean up after himself. Either way, we know when this extra piece needs to get polished.

There were 18 of us this year and we even had a few guests help out (thank you Katie, Bob, Linda and Tim for joining us). These are some smart people. They saw the ad for the Highway Special and took advantage of the “Stay one Night and Get one Night Free with a catered Lunch afterwords and you get to keep any Valuables you may find if you help Us clean up on Highway Special Day”.

Together, we managed to leave 40+ orange bags of trash along our 2 mile stretch of highway. That may seem like a lot (and it is), but those of us that have been doing this for awhile observed that it wasn’t as much as last year. This means one of two things; 1. Either there is less traffic on I70…or… 2. People are actually conscience of the fact that throwing garbage out your windows at 65mph is really not a cool thing to do anymore. I don’t think it’s number one, so I choose number two. (Just an aside to throwing things away in the wrong place; Darwin, one of our houseman extraordinaires, who joined us on our “walk”, didn’t mind at all that someone; 1. consciously or 2. unconsciously, threw away a $100 bill. I don’t think it was number one, so I’m going with number two).

Lots of sunshine, a great lunch, a bunch of laughs, and a good feeling about getting all that junk out of the gutter. It was a great day and thanks to everyone that helped out including our buddies from CDOT that follow up and the other buddies we work with that stayed behind to run the “ranch”.

I Guess a Little Green,

I need to pick up this milk carton and I can’t get this stupid bag to open.

Greg

My Holy Cross hiking experience

Tyler — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:45:28 +0000

Hello, I am Tyler the new night shift guy at Antlers in Vail. Just last week a friend of mine came out from Massachusetts to camp and hike Mt. of the Holy Cross just around the corner from us in Minturn. We had a great time from start to finish and I recommend the hike to any moderately experienced hiker. Not having a car, we took the bus to the I70 exit 171 and walked to the trailhead on our first day. It was only about 10 miles at 10000 feet so it was a good warmup for my friend who was still adjusting to the lack of oxygen. We camped at the trailhead overnight which was my first time camping in these mountains. Got a pretty heavy thunderstorm that night, had a deer curiously investigate our camp, and managed to forget only one item for our entire trip… eating utensils. So we made due with what we had, some sticks shaped like a Y wrapped in duct tape! Not to confuse anyone, let it be known that this is a one day(8-10 hour) hike, we just decided to make it two since we had no car and wanted to camp anyways.

The next day we woke up early (highly suggested for this hike as the mountain is known to create bad weather) and continued on towards the top. The trail crosses over Notch mountain and down into the valley between the two mountains, then back up along the rocky North Ridge for the final ascent. The last 2 miles or so you are clambering over some pretty large boulders to reach the top so watch your footing, especially if it rained. Once we reached the top we had a great view of the Rockies in all directions, we could see the back bowls of Vail Ski Area and Eagles Nest, and you are standing on top of a massive rock face descending to the valley below and the Bowl of Tears, a lake in the valley. Well worth the trip, we signed the register and decided to head back down since it looked like bad weather was approaching. The only drawback to this whole hike is when you are leaving, you must climb again over Notch mountain to get home. Not fun when you just hiked 6 miles there and your legs are sore. Still, overall the hike was an awesome experience, especially for me since I worked as a lifty at Vail Ski Resorts last year and nearly everyday I saw that peak to the southwest and yearned to climb it. Now I have, and I recommend you try it too.

This is a basic map depicting how to get to the trailhead, and then the North Ridge trail to the summit. Zoom out to see other points such as Antlers in Vail and the road leading to the trailhead.

View Holy Cross North Ridge in a larger map

A Fond Farewell

Rgray — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:57:25 +0000

It’s been great year and a half, but I’m sorry to say that I’m moving on from the Antlers. The greener (but only because of all the damn rain) pastures of Seattle await. Thank you to everyone who has made it such a pleasure working here, the owners, frequent guests, and most of all, the rest of our awesome staff. I’m going to miss you guys. But I’ll be back to visit, because who can really leave behind the gorgeous Vail Valley and the colorful cast of characters here at the Antlers? So until then it’s not goodbye, it’s see you later!

Rob Gray

Antlers At Vail is now on Facebook!

cj — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:59:10 +0000

The Antlers At Vail is joining the high tech world of the internet! We have officially set up our Facebook page! This is a place to get our updates, our newest vail lodging specials, and to just keep up with your favorite staff. Just click on the Recommend button at the bottom of the page to follow us on Facebook and don’t forget to share us with your friends!

Free night when you join in on the fun Aug 21

Greg — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:00:30 +0000

Stop the Presses. What a Deal. How Can We Do It? A Night Free and It’s This Much Fun? Save The Date. COMING UP THIS SATURDAY

If you’ve never participated in a highway clean-up, you don’t know what your missing. The Antlers is offering a free nights vail lodging if you would like to join us for a couple of hours in the morning to “pick up” our adopted stretch of I70 at the top of Vail Pass.

All you need to do is join us around 9:30 AM on Saturday the 21st of August. We will be transporting all the lucky participants to the promised land, we do our deed, and then enjoy a BBQ lunch afterwords. We have been doing this since 1988 and the party gets better every year. The best part is you get to keep anything of value you might find along the road ( money, tires, sweatshirts, un-opened pop cans, to name just a few things ).

Check out the SPECIALS tab at the top of our web page for the greatest deal in August ever offered.

Blizzard Ski and Snowboard Sale!!

Sara — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:30:27 +0000

August 13th-15th only! Get up to 70% off great items like skis, snowboards, goggles, jackets, etc. I got a great deal on some new snowboarding pants from Burton, which I was in dire need of. I would have bought lots more, but my husband told me I couldn’t spend any more money because I already had too much

There were tons of buckets of beanies, goggles, gloves and base layers. If you are in the valley are are in need of ski gear to get you ready for the winter, I’d hurry to the Lionshead Village (only 150 yards from us at the Antlers at Vail) and start shopping the sales! Most of the retail shops are having a great sale on their apparel too!

They are also GIVING AWAY 2010-2011 Vail/Beaver Creek Ski Pass, gift cards, and much more. The sale begins at 10am on Friday, August 13th and continues through Sunday, August 15^th

See you roaming the sidewalks!

Vail Blizzard Flyer 09_8 5×11