We’ve been busy over the past few weeks since Jean-Claude (JC) Moritz joined the team! Our website has taken shape and we are working on it all the time to be sure it has useful info for our readers. There’s so much more to come and we are excited to keep evolving and bringing interesting content to you!

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There's a particular kind of magic that happens when late-summer rains hit the high country and the forest floor starts pushing up chanterelles, boletes, and the occasional prized porcini. For the past sixteen years, the Town of Eagle has celebrated that magic with the Eagle Mushroom & Wild Food Festival, and this year's edition — the 17th — arrives August 21–23 at Brush Creek Pavilion with new energy behind it.

If you've never made it to EMF, you're not alone — despite running since 2008, it's remained something of a well-kept local secret. That's starting to change. Last year, Hamilton's Mushrooms — led by Hamilton Pevec, president of the Western Colorado Mycological Association — took over as festival director, and the partnership is now official and ongoing. Pevec has described the timing as serendipitous: a chance to infuse new energy into a legacy event that locals have quietly loved for years without much fanfare. Expect that momentum to carry into 2026, with an "elevated" lineup and a noticeably bigger presence from Hamilton's team as speakers, foragers, and organizers.

The festival spreads across three days in and around Eagle, with something for total novices and seasoned mycophiles alike:

For those who'd rather eat their mushrooms than identify them, two events stand out:

The weekend wraps with a Family Pizza Night & Closing Party, a casual, kid-friendly send-off after three days of forest walks and fungal deep-dives.

Space is limited for the forays, workshops, cooking class, and the Wild Sage dinner, so early ticket purchases are worth it if any of those are on your list. Tickets and the full schedule are available at EagleMushroomFest.com.

Whether you're a lifelong forager or just mushroom-curious, EMF is a genuinely unique way to spend a late-summer weekend in the valley — equal parts science lecture, cooking class, and mountain celebration.

There’s a lot of European influence here at the Insider, and one of the tell tale signs of it is that we love coffee!  Imagine how delighted we were to see recently that the American Heart Association (AHA) published an article indicating that drinking up to 400mg of caffeine per day (plus or minus 5 cups of coffee) is “safe for most adults and may be linked to cardiovascular benefits” - check the article from AHA here.

There are of course some guidelines to follow for what’s best for each individual, but we’re not here to talk about limitations… we are all about possibilities!

The Vail Valley is well stocked with coffee shops and to try and give you a sense of all of them (the non-Seattle-based ones) would be a tall order, pun intended!

So we’re just going to tell you where we like to go, and why.

Color Coffee — Eagle
Bright, airy, and unmistakably Eagle — Color Coffee has that easy small-town energy where you'll bump into three people you know before your order's up. The space feels more like a well-designed living room than a coffee shop, and the espresso holds its own against anywhere in the valley. A great spot to slow down before a day on the Eagle River or the Boneyard trails.

Yeti's Grind — Edwards
Yeti's Grind leans into its name — rugged, a little irreverent, and completely unpretentious. With a few locations in the valley they have definitely tapped into the local coffee culture.  We love the Edwards location - easy to spend a few hours working from its comfy indoor spaces or catching up with a friend or two while sitting at the outdoor coffee bar. And the breakfast burritos and Cinnamon buns are off the hook!

Vail Coffee Roasters — Minturn
Minturn does things its own way, and Vail Coffee Roasters fits right into that funky, unhurried character. This is a roastery first — the beans are the star, and you can taste the difference. It's a worthwhile detour off the highway, especially if you want your coffee with a side of small-town charm and zero pretense.

Gorsuch Cafe — Vail Village
Tucked into the heart of the Village, Gorsuch Cafe brings a touch of European polish to your morning — think tidy pastries, a well-pulled espresso, and a healthy dose of Vail people watching that never gets old. It's a perfect pre-lift stop or a civilized pause between meetings if you're working out of Vail for the day.

Four stops, four totally different vibes — we’ll see you at one or more of them for sure!

If you've ever driven through Edwards on your way to Vail or Beaver Creek, there's a decent chance you've passed The Inn at Riverwalk without giving it a second thought. It sits quietly along the Eagle River, tucked into the Riverwalk pedestrian village at 27 Main Street, and for a lot of visitors it's the hotel they book almost by accident — because it was available, because it was cheaper than the resort towns, or because a local told them to. But this little independent hotel has quietly built a loyal following, and after fielding enough questions from readers about it, it felt like time to give it the full breakdown.

The Inn at Riverwalk has been around for close to three decades, and it wears that history well — think "old-school mountain lodge" more than "glass-and-steel resort property." It's the only hotel actually located in Edwards, which immediately sets it apart from the Vail and Beaver Creek crowd. You get 59-ish rooms, a mix of standard hotel rooms and condo-style units with kitchens, an outdoor heated pool and hot tub that runs year-round, a fitness center, laundry facilities, and a genuinely useful "Recreation Station" that hands out gear for whatever you're trying to do outside. It's pet-friendly, which matters more than people expect once they're trying to book a ski trip with a dog in tow.

This is really the heart of why people love or don't love this hotel: it's not Vail Village, and it's not trying to be. Riverwalk is Edwards' actual pedestrian village — a walkable little cluster of local shops, restaurants, a four-screen movie theater, salons, a yoga studio, and a farmers market just across US highway 6 in summer. It's unpretentious in a way that a lot of the valley isn't anymore. You're rubbing shoulders with locals doing their grocery run, not just tourists in ski boots. If you want cobblestones and boutique après-ski energy, this isn't it. If you want a place that feels lived-in and real, with the Eagle River running right behind it, this is exactly it.

Pros: The location is genuinely central — you're roughly 15-20 minutes from both Vail and Beaver Creek, and the hotel runs a free shuttle during winter, which is a real value-add if you don't want to deal with parking or driving in snow. Rates during ski season also tend to run noticeably lower than anything inside Vail or Beaver Creek proper, so if you're trying to ski both mountains without paying resort-adjacent prices, this is a smart home base. The lobby fireplace and hot tub after a big powder day don't hurt either.

Cons: You are not ski-in/ski-out, not even close — you're driving or shuttling to the mountain every day, which adds friction, especially with a family and gear. The hotel doesn't have a full-service, sit-down restaurant of its own (though Mountain Fish House operates on-site for dinner and happy hour and Zino Ristorante is attached at the back), so you're relying on Riverwalk's surrounding restaurants for most meals. And because it's an independent, more modest property, don't expect resort-level polish — it's comfortable and clean, but it's not luxury.

Pros: Summer is arguably where this hotel shines brightest. The Eagle River access is a huge draw for fly fishing, and the location puts you close to some of the best hiking and biking in the valley without the summer crowds and prices you'll find in Vail Village. The pool and hot tub area is genuinely pleasant on a warm afternoon, and Riverwalk's outdoor patios and the Edwards farmers market give the whole area a laid-back, small-town summer feel that a lot of visitors say they didn't expect and loved.

Cons: Same trade-off as winter — you're not walking to the Gondola or Beaver Creek's summer concert series, so a car (or reliance on the valley's bus system) is basically required. And because it's not a big-brand resort, amenities like organized kids' activities or a full activities desk are more limited than what you'd get at a bigger property in Vail or Beaver Creek.

The Inn at Riverwalk isn't trying to compete with the Sebastians and Ritz-Carltons of the valley, and that's kind of the point. It's a comfortable, well-located, locally owned option for people who want easy access to both Vail and Beaver Creek without paying resort-town prices, and who don't mind a short drive to the lifts in exchange for a more authentic, small-town home base. For families, dog owners, anglers, and value-conscious travelers who still want to be close to everything, it's one of the better-kept secrets in the valley.

Thinking about booking a stay in the Vail Valley? Reach out — happy to help you figure out the right home base for your trip, whether that's Riverwalk, Vail Village, or somewhere in between. https://www.foratravel.com/advisor/michael-connolly

There's a new listing on Lot 1 in Eagle Ranch that's worth slowing down for, and it starts with the name: Sol Vista. Fitting, given how much of this home's design is built around capturing light.

Sitting under 7,000 feet — a small but meaningful detail for anyone who's felt the difference a few hundred feet of elevation can make — this 5,444-square-foot mountain contemporary was designed by Kasia Karska, whose fingerprints are all over what makes this home feel different from the usual Vail Valley build. Karska founded her Eagle-based design-build firm in 1999, and indoor-outdoor connection has been her signature move ever since — she's even built her own Eagle Ranch home on the same principle, treating the transition between inside and out as the whole point of mountain living. That philosophy shows up clearly here: walls of glass, floor-to-ceiling windows, and transom glazing pull in 270-degree views that are permanently protected from future development. It's the kind of indoor-outdoor living that sounds like a real estate cliché until you see how the 2,444 square feet of decks and covered outdoor dining actually function as a second living room for most of the year.

The material palette tells its own story: reclaimed wood sourced from Connecticut, Cor-ten steel accents on the roof and siding that will weather into that rich rust patina over time, and custom cabinetry and closets built locally by Vail Cabinets and Vail Closets. It's a home clearly built by people who think about how a house ages in this climate, not just how it photographs on day one.

Inside, it's a true main-level-living layout — primary suite included, with a spa-inspired bath, steam shower, and automated shades that track the sunrise over the ridge. The kitchen is outfitted for people who actually cook: BlueStar appliances, Sub-Zero refrigeration, dual ovens, a professional gas cooktop. Downstairs, a lower-level living space adds guest rooms and flexibility, while three fireplaces and radiant in-floor heat keep the whole home warm through the shoulder seasons.

For anyone who needs to store gear seriously, the triple-bay, 30-foot-deep garage and adjoining workshop can swallow a Sprinter van, a boat, and everything else the mountain lifestyle demands.

All of it sits moments from Eagle Ranch Golf Club, Capitol Street's restaurant row, and miles of singletrack — a rare combination of architectural ambition and everyday convenience.

Sol Vista is listed at $4,350,000. For a private tour, reach out to Dana Gumber at 970.390.2787.

The Pirate Ship We Grew Up With — And Almost Lost Forever by Jean-Claude Moritz

A nostalgic personal essay about the Pirate Ship playground in Vail Village, told from JC's "Stammtisch" (his recurring storytelling table/format):

Read More…

In between planning sessions, JC and Mike found some time to grab a beer and some Normie wings on the patio at Bart & Yeti’s in Lionshead. While dodging a few raindrops (no complaints!) they caught up with Dennis Foley, the driving force behind Bart & Yeti’s and resident human hiking highlight man.

Make sure to catch our short but poignant 3 question interview with Dennis in the next issue!

If you are in Lionshead you owe it to yourself to get some wings at Bart’s, and maybe grab a pizza to go when you are done from Alpine Pizza right next door!