Stumbling into FiBArk

Ah, the wonders and pleasures of serendipity!

After having a totally-unlooked-for two wonderful days in Rocky Mountain National Park, we were finally on our way to do the work that we had come to Colorado for. Then, just by chance we were listening to a non-NPR station as we neared Salida (it was a local oldies station, our second choice option when traveling). And we heard something about FiBArk.

Was it possible? This famous festival celebrating the opening of boating season on the Arkansas River that we'd always thought it would be fun to see, and it just happened to be going on this weekend? With no planning aforethought on our part? How serendipitous can you get!

We did still get our work done (more about that next time) but we also were able to enjoy this wild and wacky weekend in one of our favorite little towns.

FiBArk stands for "First in Boats on the Arkansas," and although some boaters had certainly already been on the river this year, its flow was probably at spring peak this weekend. It might even be rushing more than usual, since the snowpack that feeds it was heavy this year (see our previous encounter with the results of this snowmelt).

This will give you an idea of how high and fast the water is on the Arkansas; the sidewalk on the right here is usually open all the way under the bridge and to the park in the next block, but not now!

On to the celebration that shows how much people around here appreciate this high water.

We've been to a parade in Salida before, but it was nothing like the FiBArk parade that we saw this time.

In some ways, it's like any other small town parade. There are guys in funny little cars...

...unicyclists...

...bands, although these didn't march (and it seems like a very sensible way to provide music without having to worry about the musicians having heatstroke—yes, I know it's Colorado, but it was close to 90° at parade-time!—although I guess it's easier to provide this kind of transportation when the band's not all that large)...

...and in addition to a collection of local politicians and officials (not pictured) there were some political statements, like this group marching for their grandchildren and against climate change...

(note the large polar bear who must have been very hot inside that suit!)

Then there were some participants that you'd only find here, like these ladies that I'm pretty sure are part of the ArkValley High Rollers, the local roller derby team...

...and some very energetic and creative librarians from one of our favorite local institutions, the Salida Regional Library...

...their wild book truck routine was a parade highlight...

But these fine folks aren't what makes this parade unique. It serves as a preview to another sort of parade that happens later in the day on water instead of pavement. It's called the Hooligan Race, and the picture at the top of the post shows the crowd gathered for it. Here are a few of the guys who participated in both...

yes, that's their "boat"

another political statement...and yes, that's also a boat

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the Kiss boat during the Race, but here's the "Border Boat" on the river:

And here are a few more of the delightful watercraft (loosely defined) that entertained us:

The groups above and below seemed to be having a little trouble holding themselves together, but they look like they're having fun anyway...

They weren't the only folks in "floaties"...

...and I suppose there has to be a "rubber duckie" each year. This one is just getting to the big play feature that swamped many of the participants (our vantage point was a good one, but a bit too far upstream to get good photos of the carnage at this reckoning point)...

Some of the "craft" were little more than boards and barrels, which seems like a really bad idea to me; at least the inflatables are soft when you get tossed off them...

But some of the participants were much more elaborate. Here are two of the best, a pirate ship and, in front, a replica of the snow cats that groom the slopes up at the Monarch Ski Area...

You might have noticed race gates in some of these photos. The Hooligan Race didn't use them, but there were kayak competitions throughout the weekend that did. Unfortunately we weren't able to see any of that action, but, after all, we did have some work to do!

Snow from both sides now, Part 2

Last time I showed you what the recently-snowed upon Colorado landscape looked like from the air. Today I'll take you in for a closer look.

This is a shot of the piles of the stuff that greeted us upon our arrival...

Our driveway was plowed, and our little front-wheel-drive Versa made it up ok (although I had my eyes closed most of the way). But some shoveling was required before we could get into the house either through the front door or the garage.

When you aren't having to shovel it, though, it sure is pretty...

We were given an easy-to-visualize lesson in how different types of roofs handle a big fall. The roof on our sister property, an old Schoolhouse, is metal, and a lot of the white stuff just slid off of that...

Whereas on our new composition roof, as well as a similar surface on these structures across the river, it just perched like mounds of marshmallow creme...

The view outside our bedroom window gives another perspective on how deep it was...

There was a lot more snow down in town than we think we've ever seen there before, too, from the storm before our arrival. This is the Salida street outside of Little Cambodia, where we had a late lunch on our first day. That warm pho sure felt and tasted good!

Although it was cloudy for most of our stay, there was a moon that shone down entrancingly on the snow parts of some of the evenings. To give you an approximate idea of how that looked, here's our deck with some artificial lighting:

The reason I was out with the lights on was to investigate why our satellite TV picture was wigging out...and just before the final episode of this season's Downton Abbey! It turned out to be icicles! Which are fortunately easy to remove (and also even more photogenic than the snow...there will be more pix of them in my next post).

So how do you clear all the snow out of the way so you can get to the ski area to take advantage of its good qualities?

A neighbor with this amazing machine takes care of this for us. It was so much fun to watch! And his visit made the difference between spending the day stranded in our cabin, or out on the slopes.

A winter wonderland indeed!

Colorado miscellany

I had a very nice time in Colorado after my California adventures, but not much blog-worthy happened during that refreshing, cool, two weeks.

Visiting with old friends, working a very challenging puzzle, talking over old times, etc., is great fun, but not of much interest to general readership. Here are some highlights, though...

Babysitting my adorable great-niece involved a lot of throwing rocks into the stream; here she is taking some pre-gathered rocks from Grammy prior to another fusillade

Though already late in the summer, there were still lots of nice flowers around

We happened into Salida on the day of a big bike race...

...where our main chore was running a shuttle for the boys to take a brief paddle

The time in the mountains was something more of an adventure than we're used to, since we had very little water service almost the whole time. Kudos to our good-sport friends who not only still came up to visit, but who brought us enough potable water that we didn't have to make emergency runs to the stream. But we all decided that we take running water much, too much, for granted in our normal lives.

Very little water came out of the pipes, but for several days during our visit we had nice rain showers up in the mountains, like this one, at the photographically perfect time to catch some sunset color:

We don't begrudge this moisture, since the whole state is still in drought and fire danger is almost omnipresent. This summer, with more than usual rains, has been much better on that front than last year.

And, as it turned out, Henry and I had absolutely perfect weather for our only big hike (which wasn't all that big) of the trip. I'll show you some pictures from that activity next time.

A happenin' town

Yes, Salida, Colorado, is a great little town, as readers of this blog are well aware. No matter what time of year we visit, there always seems to be something interesting going on.

Of course, one of those things is the Arkansas River, which runs right through town and isn't just a stream that we like. People come from all over the country, and likely the world, to experience its whitewater.

During our last visit, it being springtime in the mountains, a good bit of the snow that we ran into on our high country hike had found its way into the Arkansas and it was flowing at a nice clip. Plenty of water for our cataraft, that needed its Chama mud washed away...

doesn't this boat look a little familiar?

So we joined some local paddling friends for a quick jaunt from just upstream of town to just downstream of it.

No Chama winds for Henry this time, which made him quite happy at his oars...

love those mountains in the background!!

Our route took us through a chute that's been made around a little dam. We've gone over it before, in another raft and in kayaks. But this was the maiden chute voyage for the cataraft. Here's a look back upstream at the dam and the chute, on the right:

We were in the Amen Battlestar, but our friends chose considerably smaller and more maneuverable craft. Guiding these tippy little things down the river apparently has great appeal for many paddlers. (Me, I'm happy to be on our solid, stodgy cataraft.) Here's one of our friends demonstrating what the playboats can do, in expert hands:

Even more expert hands guide competitive boats down this course a bit further downstream, right in the middle of bustling downtown Salida:

see the hanging poles marking the gates? just like in the Olympics!

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But Salida has more to offer than just world-class whitewater. It has its own pro sports team! Pretty impressive for a town of just over 5000 people.

Yes, these are the ArkValley (for the aforementioned river) High Rollers! And what a show they put on! In the photo above they're the gals in white shirts, battling a team from Utah. The sport is flat track roller derby and it is amazingly entertaining and fun to watch. Pretty physical, too, as you might gather from the number of officials required to police the match (guys and girls in the familiar striped shirts).

We were treated to a particularly exciting match. In fact, there had to be an official confab after time ran out to verify the score, it was that close...but the good girls in white shirts were given the victory, to the delight of their many fans in attendance.

Can't wait to go to another game!

Which provides me with a great segue. As you read this I'm back in Colorado. But my next post might surprise you. It won't happen for a week or two, but hopefully will be worth the wait. Stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday: we support the ArkValley High Rollers!

Vintage wheels

Just a sampling of the super-cool, and super-lovingly-maintained, cars on view at today's Angel of Shavano* Car Show in lovely downtown Salida, Colorado:

Great way to while away some time in town. 

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*Said "angel" often appears when enough snow accumulates in a gully along an upper slope of Mt. Shavano, a 14'er easily viewable from town (it's the highest peak in the shot I took from atop the "S" (for Salida; it's in the background of the Corvette shot above) hill in this post). My sister and I both somewhat dispute the "angel" moniker, thinking it looks a little more wraith-like, but I guess an angel is a more positive totem than a ring-wraith, especially if you're considering climbing that high!