Things I think I know…

I know it is supposed to be winter and after a long, weird spring in January and February it is nice to feel some cold and see snow falling from the sky. The mountain has been fun and the attitudes adjusted. We are a ski town, after all.
That was the longest Silver Queen lift line anyone had ever seen on Sunday. Given a hockey snafu, I didn’t make the 8:15 bus to catch the foot of fresh that had fallen Saturday night. So I popped on the CBMR web cam and couldn’t believe my eyes as the lift line extended into the Kid’s Club ski school and down over the hill. I spoke with a guy who has spent 44 winters on the mountain, and he too said it was the longest line he had ever seen.

Mumford and Sons is performing in Salida this summer. You want to see a town pounded by impacts of exploding the population five or six or ten times for a weekend? Parking, plumbing, police and whatever else starts with a p or a-through-z will be stretched to the limits. But I have to say the show looks pretty
impressive.

Public land issues are always real in Crested Butte and Gunnison as we are surrounded by millions of acres of the treasure. As we all use more and more of it, it gets more and more pounded. The impacts may not be as dramatic as those Salida will see this August but the environment and the beauty are feeling it. It is something both private citizens and those in public office should be participating in when topics come up. The Crested Butte Town Council wants to keep an eye on what the BLM and Forest Service are deciding in our backyards and that is more than appropriate.

Teo 2? Teo cool! That will be a fun winter playground with lots of snow. I know Sam and I had a lot of fun with the initial exploration. Now, how fast can we get a lift back there?

I know that all of a sudden there are times the upper valley is reaching max capacity. July is close and probably there some weeks. Ski season weekends, especially three-day holiday weekends, are approaching it. Let’s be thoughtful about how many people we ask and when we ask them to come and share the valley.

My little lingering cough that’s hung around for a week is nothing compared to actual whooping cough. Pertussis is rough on anyone and a real danger to very young kids. There are newly confirmed cases in Gunnison County and the most at risk are babies and those who have not been vaccinated. The vaccination debate is big in Gunnison County as health officials point out we have a lot of kids whose parents chose not to vaccinate them. They may be paying the price, as they are the ones more susceptible to a dangerous illness making the rounds.

And finally, the one thing I know that really tweaked me this week: U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers picked up a guy in Gunnison last January and basically put him in jail for three days before kicking him out in Aurora. He was about my kid’s age. Both were born in Colorado. But Bernardo Medina’s skin is darker. He grew up in Mexico. He looks ‘illegal’, apparently. I know my kid wouldn’t have even been approached, let alone questioned. And if he produced a Colorado ID the ICE cops would have been done with him. But Bernardo was put into custody, taken all over the state and tossed out in Aurora with the $5 he had on him when they started questioning him. No U.S. citizen deserves their constitutional rights to be trampled by the law. It just smells and while the ICE cops have a job to do, if it were my kid, I’d advise him to sue their asses.

I don’t know a lot but I know enough. I know people are happier when they can ski powder. I know people want to ski (and live) in a ski town. I know the lines are long on the weekends. I know there will be some Crested Butte people popping over to Salida next summer. I know more people bring more impacts (positive and negative) and whether it is a weekend concert, a busy weekend skiing (or standing in line) or just more people hiking and biking in July, more means more. I know the hippies and the right wingers who didn’t vaccinate their kids for whooping cough are listening a lot closer to their kids as they lay them down to sleep. And finally, I know that the law, the government, can’t detain a U.S. citizen, no matter where it looks like they came from. That is just not right.