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Beyond Telluride

When snow falls in Telluride in May, even the most rugged mountain souls dream of an escape. Luckily, for those of us who get to call Telluride home, there is a flipside to our paradise: road tripping over to Utah. Southeast Utah has all of the things that we lack right now—snow-free trails, electric green aspens, beautiful camping, and most importantly: warmth. Gathering Wild Flowers Chasing up a campsite on a Friday night in Moab, Utah, however, can be trickier than winning an evening plane flight with a young Robert Redford over Africa. Everyone wants in (or maybe that’s just me with that metaphor?)—Regardless, everyone wants in, and not everyone can have in. Utah residents have a joke about this Colorado infiltration that my husband, Andy, likes to tell everyone until they're nauseated: “You know how you know it’s spring in the desert? The license plates turn green.” Because of this Moab chaos, Andy and I have started heading south of Moab to camp out with our girls. On our most recent trip, we went back right back to a spot we’ve been to before: Indian Creek.
18 May, 2011 /

By Rob Schultheis

Rob (Rob Schultheis is the author of six books, including "The Hidden West" and "Fool's Gold," the latter about the changing face of his home town, Telluride, Colorado.

Since 1984, Rob has covered the wars in Afghanistan for Time magazine and other periodicals, also freelancing as cameraman for the networks. Over the years, he has written for "The Washington Post," "National Geographic Magazine," and "Outside" magazine. Rob is also an accomplished painter. A show of his images (along with work by his wife Nancy Craft) will be on display this summer at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts. Telluride Inside... and Out is delighted to welcome Rob, a close friend and professional colleague, to our pages.

His poem is a cry of despair for a world that is now limping around, looking back at us all reproachfully for forgetting to remember. But it is also a love song for his friend. And in that love there is hope.)

The story behind my poem:

14 May, 2011 /

by J James McTigue

What is Boggy Draw?

It sounds like a place Kermit the Frog lives. And, perhaps he does; but we didn’t find him. We did find ponds with leeches, horny toads, miles of mellow single track, and a few cacti stuck in the sole of our shoe.

We also didn’t find facilities. You have to bring your own water, pack out your trash and for the other: dig a hole; hold it; or pack it out.

Boggy Draw is essentially an open park of San Juan National Forest, situated about four miles above Dolores. The development is minimal: a trailhead, single-track and a dirt road to access sheltered alcoves among the Ponderosa pines -- stellar for car camping.

 

12 May, 2011 /
[click "Play", Steve Gumble talks about "Blues on the Rails"]

 

Durango-Silverton train kicker: "Blues on the Rails" launches June 4


The name "Steve Gumble" rhymes with innovation.

Gumble's first party trick was to parlay the ownership of a liquor store into a world class festival: now in its 18th year, Telluride Blues & Brews is more robust than ever. Acts this year range from Willie Nelson (yes, the iconic country star also has a blues history), to The Flaming Lips, Big Head Todd and the Monster, Dweezil Zappa, Mavis Staples, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, and more.

Can you top that? Yes, Gumble has managed to pull another rabbit out of his hat – a big steel rabbit: The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival and The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad have joined forces to present the brand new Durango Blues Train. The inaugural ride for "Blues on the Rails" takes place June 4, 2011.

03 May, 2011 /

by Jon Lovekin

(Editor's note: One of the pleasures in publishing Telluride Inside... and Out is getting to know new  [to us] writers. Susan and I independently ran across Jon Lovekin on Twitter. She took the next step, checked out his writing, liked what she saw and asked if he would be interested in contributing to TIO. Herewith, another article from Jon.)

Ranchland Clouds built over the plains as they always do each day this time of year.  The wind blew soft and hot keeping the gnats at bay.  Mud was deep around the building we were working on after the record setting 6 inch rain over the weekend.  The sun burned deep into the skin and I thought of that boy working on that ranch 29 years ago and only 30 miles away. I had thought of the Rancher now that I worked in La Junta again and looked up his name in the phone book.

I didn’t recognize him at first when I pulled up to the address in Fowler where the phone book said he lived.  There was an old man in a jump suit sitting in a porch swing connected to an oxygen tank who was staring at me as I looked again at the house number.  I got out, strode around the truck and said, “Hello, does Ken live here?”

“He used to” replied the man who I knew instantly was him.

02 May, 2011 /
 

A trip to the american girl store Describing Chicago as a second city is like describing Telluride as a second Aspen. It’s inaccurate and ruffles feathers on both sides. I love New York, and I love Chicago. But there can be no ranking. They are entirely different places just as Telluride and Aspen are entirely different places.

Here’s what I love about Chicago: it’s a city that feels like an out-grown town. When I go to see family there two or three times a year, and I run along the lake front, people almost always smile or nod when we cross paths. Like Telluride, Chicago is not a place where you can be anonymous. The city draws the introvert out of you.

01 May, 2011 /

Concert finale Telluride may be a toy town, but it casts a long shadow. Turn around too quickly and you will bump into Telluride no matter where in the world you are. Like yesterday. All day. The point takes on an all-caps clarity if I begin at the end.

Part-time Telluride locals Anne and Vincent Mai are co-producers of the Telluride Musicfest (with documentary filmmaker and part-time local Josh Aronson). Among the regular guests and returning for the 9th annual musical event, (June 22 – July 3) is classically trained violist Kathryn Lockwood.

In her ethnic persona, Australian born Kathryn performs with her husband, Lebanese-born Yousif Sheronick as Duo Jalal. On April 27 the couple happened to have a gig at a club in the alphabet soup of Manhattan's lower East Side.

29 April, 2011 /

Picasso at MOMA Telluride Inside... and Out spent last Friday and Saturday in New York City.

On Friday, we returned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see "Cezanne's Card Players," a fitting exhibit, so it would seem, for this high-stakes moment in history. Then again Cezanne's stoical models, all tradesman and employees of his family estate, appear totally content with their lot in life. Not so much like today.

We need to look further back in history to the 17th-century genre paintings of card players for our metaphor, images in which lusty, drooling drunks dominate. (The Met supplies example of his antecedents in the Cezanne show.) In his card players, Cezanne's emphasis is on rugged individualism and living in the moment, not on gambling and its attendants: greed and violence.

25 April, 2011 /

by J James McTigue

“Road Trip” conjures many images–-recollections of Kerouac, laissez-faire college summers, U2’s Joshua Tree album. Memories of road trips make me sigh, reliving those days when we could just hop in the car and take off, without a care in the world.

Road trip Though the circumstances of my life have changed (I’m married with two kids) I still hang on to the romantic vision of road tripping. So much so, that when the lifts closed, we packed the family, skis, road bikes, pack-n-play, and coloring books into the car and headed west. This was a far cry from the spontaneous road trips of yesteryear, in which the plan was not to have one. Every night of this road trip was accounted for, a combination of staying at friends’ houses, getting “bros. deals” at nice resorts and paying for a few crappy hotels. The trip would take us from Telluride, to Northern California down to Southern California then east to Phoenix and back to Telluride, with a lot of stops in between. 

When I divulged my plans to my seemingly more practical friends, whose off-season plans included a plane ticket, a beach and a condo, they unconvincingly  commented, (more accurately questioned) “That will be fun?”

 

24 April, 2011 /