It is springing hard this year…

Spring is a traditional transitional time up here at 9,000 feet. Moving from what normally is a deep winter of fun sliding on snow to the gloriousness that is summer here in the valley, spring provides the shift between those two magnificent seasons. It is springing hard these days and many of us, including me, are tired. Heck, as I write this, it is still April. Really?

The finer things I feel in me…
The golden dance life could be

                         —Steve Winwood

The wave of our friends and neighbors crossing over to the other side seems particularly big this year. It is numbing. The Vinotok Legends Alter will be filled with tears this fall. One or two a week is a lot and the latest (so far) with Lynda Jackson sliding into her DJ chair in the sky was a big one this past week. A true Crested Butte legend, my kids knew her as LaLa, many of us knew her as the Saturday morning host of The Finer Things, and others as one of the people bringing spirit to the valley. LJ directed numerous plays in her time here and she and her cast members (I was lucky enough to be one) won numerous Marmots over the decades. She also contributed a lot of words to the local paper. Lynda was one of the locals that showed you did not have to be an extreme skier or rad biker to live here. LJ was the rad sophisticate who I think saw this village as an extended neighborhood of the Big Apple. She could talk music, movies, politics and theatre as well as any NYC native in a Greenwich Village café. As her kid Jackson noted – she was cool.

We saw instances of maybe the third or fourth best blizzard of the year this week. While we got spoiled with sunny skies and 60 degrees in March, the end of April is bringing 30s and 40s along with that high mountain rain/snow mix. I understand the need for moisture — and Lord knows if we don’t get a lot of it, the summer could be scary — but the actual getting of the sloshy stuff coming from the sky can be, frankly, tiring. It is not unusual to have this weather in the spring…it is just tougher and more tiring after moving to summer so early this year.

The national politics is tiring. War (is it a war?) with Iran; a crazy dude with a gun running into a hotel ballroom; the guy who spews hate words between breaths blaming Jimmy Kimmell for all the political hate (seriously?); wondering when Colorado will redistrict congressional districts in response to Florida’s asshat attempt at partisan gerrymandering; trying to figure out the future snapshot of public lands we all rely on in the big national picture; Donald’s people again paying companies hundreds of millions of dollars this week to  walk away from alternative energy projects when it costs $60 to fill up the gas tank and it seems obvious it might be a good idea to have some alternatives in the energy stream given ramifications of Donald’s war of choice; the finger pointing over whose words are more responsible for political violence; the Republican sycophancy and the Democrats’ disconnect; blah, blah, blah. Tiring.

Local politics have been relatively mellow of late, but spring tension resulted in more than 70 online comments over last week’s story on the OBJ solar farm. Letters to the editor this week touched on things like the safety of Townie Takeovers, the proposed cell tower in CB South, local May Day protests in the valley, impacts to our backyard with the announced USFS shakeup and a potential tax on second homes in CB. We couldn’t get all the letters in this week, but we will over the next few issues.

Personally, rehab from surgery is tiring. Everyone told me a shoulder recovery takes a long time. Everyone was right. They also told me to do the work (and as they inevitably raised their arms above their heads), they said it would be worth it. I’m probably 70% of the way there and I’ll keep doing the work, but not being able to hop on the singletrack, play pickle or make some easy spring backcountry turns is a bit tiring. Carrying additional spring heft gained without activity other than walking (which is great) is probably adding to the tiredness. But that’s just me.

Anyway, it seems spring has been a lot this year. Hang in there. Shift the seasonal perception. Let the spring slosh hit you in the face and wake you up while refilling the rivers; hope that you’ll eventually be reunited at the party with those on the other side, and appreciate those still here sharing your life experience; do what you can but don’t go down the black hole of national politics; hop on a bike for an easy ride instead of heading to Deer Creek right away. And for goodness sakes, get Kebler open in this year of no snow.

Embrace the challenges of a tough liminal time. It can no doubt be tiring — but the off-season can also be the ultimate time to take a breath and refresh.

Breathe. Summer is coming…

—Mark Reaman