Think of Vail as a summer destination

I was in Vail, but something was slightly off-kilter.

I was attending an odd reunion with old friends, tied inextricably to the surrounding nature that I first got acquainted with more than 30 years ago. They were once carefully groomed, vertiginous slopes, then covered in snow, with names like Ruder’s Run, Bwana and Upper Lion’s Way.

But this time, they were almost unrecognizable. They were festooned in shades of avocado and emerald, with little birthmarks of stones and foliage.

I didn’t recognize my old snowy friends because I had never seen them in their summer finery.

It was August — not December — and I was reacquainting myself with a new Vail.

Vail in summer is a town dappled by summer sun, not buffeting winter wind. It’s a town with a stellar assortment of warm-weather activities. Vail is as much worth a visit during warm weather as during its more traditional winter and spring ski seasons.

On my first walking tour of Vail-in-summer, with a few wispy clouds in an otherwise cerulean sky, I strolled cobbled streets as wind chimes serenaded me.

In search of easy-to-recall fun facts about Vail Village, all I needed do is look down. Each manhole cover was a medallion of useful trivia. One stated: Vail Founded 1962. Another gave Vail Village’s elevation at 8,150 feet.

Any amble around Vail’s center made it near impossible to evade the gurgling, ever-rushing Gore Creek, bisecting the town. Vail’s summertime melody is the constant run-off from winter’s snows.

The biggest challenge of strolling along Vail’s summer roads, or crossing one of its bridges, was making sure to stay clear of a phalanx of bicycles, manned by chortling kids. In fact, the street signs established how communal the Vail summer streetscape is: “Shared space. Use Caution” read one.

Everything in Vail has an Alpine wood-grained elegance about it, even the prosaic T-shirt shop. One of my favorite congregation points is the Solaris area, where a covered ice rink serves as an AstroTurf-lined playground.

Parents and kids amuse themselves with impromptu games of soccer, Frisbee or endless cartwheels. Solaris and many other quaint pockets of Vail Village are lined with private galleries, understated jewelry stores or inviting sushi, Swiss, German and Italian restaurants. Most all of the eateries boast exteriors of brick and stucco, with flower-festooned balconies.

No Vail space passes up being a setting for public art. I passed a fountain ringed by several pirouetting white doves. Some of the Vail fountains dance Bellagio Hotel-like. From Vail’s cascading man-made waterfalls, I sampled some of the water gushing from these urban estuaries.

Capping off my first summer’s day in Vail, I made my musical pilgrimage to the famous Vail Jazz Festival, in the nearby commercial and tourist hub of Lionshead.

Lionshead has a profusion of stores and flower-bedecked squares, along with its own series of bridges very much akin to Vail’s.

The festival was marking its 22nd year, and it offers 53 individual shows in summer — 10 in winter.

One evening, I was treated to the Bria Skonberg Quartet, led by the eponymous Canadian trumpeter and singer. Skonberg dazzles, not just with her conversationally expressive horn, but through tunes by everyone from Benny Goodman to Stevie Wonder. Her vocal stylings called to mind a cross between Ella Fitzgerald and Diana Krall.

Vail is home to another big summer music festival, Bravo! Vail, which features the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in several concerts each year.

This season, the DSO takes the stage of the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater from June 29 to July 6. Performance repertoire includes Carmina Burana, Bruch and Shostakovich, as well as the music of Motown and “American Rhythms & Roots.”

This year’s festival also will welcome the renowned Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

‘Learn through play’

The following morning, using the classic ski resort’s summer transport of choice, I climbed aboard the Eagle Bahn gondola at the foot of Lionshead village and headed up the mountain for various activities in Vail’s Adventure Ridge and Epic Discovery areas. But first, I spied a pair of deer, an elk and some scurrying marmots.

Epic Discovery is set to take full flight this summer. It will include, among the amenities already available, downhill mountain biking and a mountainside roller coaster on rails, dubbed the Forest Flyer, that will send users on an exhilarating 3,400-foot drop in about 10 minutes.

Arriving at the gondola’s 10,350-foot summit, I began my tour of Epic Discovery. Its mantra is “learn through play,” achieved through a choice of outdoor activities. They include such heart pumpers as zip lining, summer tubing and navigating a ropes course.

The “discovery” part of Epic Discovery is all about making the mountain into a natural and enjoyable classroom. Beginning on the Eagle’s Loop Trail, I learned about various “story stakes” in which six animals and their habitats are discussed. For instance, the bighorn sheep can balance its 350 pounds on a 2-inch-wide bit of a log stump.

Also awaiting this summer’s Vail patrons is a zip-lining trail that will soar through one of Vail’s famous bowls.

It runs for 2  1/2 hours and is called Game Creek Aerial Adventure. It also involves an intersecting network of zip lines with their highest point reaching 300 feet above ground, providing me an eagle’s-eye view of all the wildlife populating the terrain.

Moving on to Adventure Ridge, I sampled some of its activities, including a ropes course, a summer-tubing hill and zip line. Confession: I had never done a serious ropes course. So after putting on all the various harnesses and a helmet, I started out walking across a suspended log.

It was exhilarating exercise, progressing from one rope challenge to the next. And even harnessed in, it was a constant test of balance.

All the different balance skills are put into play, including putting your feet on a mini-skateboard, or spider-crawling across a web-shaped net. The feeling of achievement comes at the end when you simply rappel down from the topmost platform.

I found myself to be a much better balancer in the summer tubing area. I was a total tubing virgin, but game, especially because I had never been down any of these same slopes without skis on.

I first used my tubular vehicle as ballast as I ascended the angled moving sidewalk. Then I tubed down, going at speeds that I was sure were supersonic.

I let out otherworldly yelps of equal parts nerve-jangling excitement and pleasure. The anxious part of me was sure I was going to bounce over the ridge and be sent careening down the mountain with nothing but a plastic doughnut to protect me. But soon, I dismissed those inane thoughts and simply enjoyed the ride for what it delivers: primal pleasure.

From the unabashed euphoria of summer tubing, I moved on to enjoy the more genteel niceties of a 30-minute hike to lunch, over a small fraction of Vail Mountain’s 5,289 skiable acres and across a few of its 193 skiable runs.

My hiking trails had bucolic names, like Fireweed and Berry Picker. Traversing the mountain, I passed by an entire botanist’s collection of wildflowers, including silver lupine, the lavender of fireweed, the scarlet of Indian paintbrush and the light taupe of Utah Indian paintbrush.

My hike also sent me past four main native trees: Colorado blue spruce, Douglas fir, lodgepole pine and, finally, aspen.

As I wandered the sun-splashed Fireweed trail, I had deja vu as I recalled skiing these same slopes, when their outer armor was snow white.

A relaxing break

One of the great cure-alls, after a day of tubing, ropes acrobatics and hiking, is a relaxing massage. And there is no better oasis than the RockResorts Spa at The Lodge at Vail.

The 7,725-square-foot spa cultivates its Alpine lodge feel with a profusion of light woods and a rock-encrusted fireplace, boasting a dancing flame.

In my lush terry-cloth robe, I found one of the 11 treatment rooms, where I selected one of my favorite Colorado massage specialties, featuring hot rocks. My 80-minute massage employed heated, basalt-based stones as conduits for the special blend of warmed oils.

Saturday afternoon, I hitched a ride on the free “urban” bus for the eight-minute commute from Vail Village to Lionshead. From there, I jumped on the Eagle Bahn gondola, which sent me soaring over the Bwana ski trail — dotted like a pointillist landscape with white wildflowers.

My destination was Vail’s zip line, where I soon was outfitted in much the same way as for the ropes course.

As the door released me, it was nothing but a joyous thrill ride, as the valley spilled out just beyond my feet. I felt snugly secure even as I was suspended dozens of feet above the ground. I was sorry that the ride was over so fast.

I felt incredulous that I was flying, with my feet suddenly converted wings. The zip line, for a brief moment, was a provider of pure freedom, even though I was as strapped in as I’ve ever been.

I was filled with all of these thoughts as I returned home in the gondola. As I coasted farther down the valley, my eyes focused on my fellow gondola riders, some with bikes clinging to the outside of their cabin. As I descended, the pines began to re-emerge at eye level.

And that could only mean that I was nearing the solid footing of Vail’s summer ground.

Vail extended a welcoming summer handshake to someone who had only known its wintry face. I was genuinely pleased to have encountered this new Vail.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Think of Vail as a summer destination."