Busy weekend keeps everyone on their toes

Visitors, thieves, speeders and bears 

By Mark Reaman

It was not the busiest day of the year in Crested Butte (that goes to July 4), but it was perhaps the busiest weekend of the year in Crested Butte.

Thousands of visitors and second homeowners, along with hundreds of artists at the Crested Butte Arts Festival and bikers and support crews at the Big Mountain Enduro World Series event, made for some big crowds.

With crowds come ramifications. Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce director Dave Ochs said overall, things came off pretty well, given that two major events were sharing the town.

“The feedback I’m getting for the Arts Festival is that it was a mixed bag,” he said. “Saturday took a hit after the tents closed up and people seemed to stay away from downtown. Once the tents close up, things can quiet down a bit on Elk Avenue. That didn’t help the restaurants or businesses. However, the Friday night opening brought people to Elk.

“The new signage among the art tents directing people to the brick-and-mortar businesses helped a lot and was appreciated, as was the longer layout that spread out the festival,” Ochs continued. “Certain retail shops said they killed it and others said it was miserable and the street closures shouldn’t happen. Despite the usual rain and weather, the event seemed to be a great success and further bolstered a large community, second homeowner, and returning visitor appreciation.”

In general, Ochs said a weekend like the last one is good to have for the valley. “Whether sales or business are up or down, events like the Arts Fest and BME/EWS are iconic and very in line with the culture and pulse of who we are and what we have to offer,” Ochs said. “The guests and visitors here for both events were those who favorably embrace what Crested Butte is all about. They are very welcome guests, and are indeed ‘return visitors’—this time of year, and in our other seasons.”

On the darker side, local law enforcement and safety crews were busy. Aside from dealing with the tragic death of a competitor on stage three of the Big Mountain Enduro (BME) event on Saturday (see story page 12), there were missing bikers, the return of the bears to town and lots of things being stolen.

“We had a lot going on this past weekend. There were lots of moving parts,” summarized Crested Butte assistant chief marshal Mike Reily.

“There were lots of people out and about and [that] usually means lots of activity for our officers,” concurred Mt. Crested Butte police department spokesperson Marjorie Trautman.

Crested Butte Fire Protection District EMS coordinator Mike Scott said given the numbers, the department was as busy as expected. “We are and were very busy this weekend with standard stuff but for a volunteer organization, it is very trying to the system,” he said.

Stealing is bad

Two expensive tents were stolen from the BME base camp in the field by the Center for the Arts. One was a huge 40-foot by 20-foot Oscar Blues tent worth between $8,000 and $10,000. The Crested Butte Mountain Resort tent worth about $5,000 was also taken. Both went missing in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

“Those were pretty complicated to take down. They were huge,” said Reily. “Somebody was pretty bold stealing them. I would guess they drove into the field and it wasn’t quiet. Those tents were big, heavy and ungainly. And they’re unique. We’ve been looking but no one has put them up nearby to stay dry.”

A vehicle was stolen from the north side of town early Monday morning as well. That incident was apparently instigated by the need for someone to get back home after 2 a.m. when public transportation was long finished. The car was found Monday morning in Mt. Crested Butte on Hunter Hill Road near a condo complex.

Up in Mt. Crested Butte, there was a burglary this weekend. Someone broke into a house on Gothic Road that was being renovated. Tools and other items were taken from the residence. “That sort of thing is very disappointing,” said Trautman.

Trautman said officers also responded to the report of a missing biker in the Horse Ranch Park area on Saturday night. That was after they had spent most of the day dealing with the race fatality. When officers got to the Horse Ranch Park scene, the biker emerged so the entire Search-and-Rescue team was not called out to action.

Bears finding food

The bears seem to be returning with a purpose. The big bear that was treed in Crested Butte two weeks ago for about 17 hours by Second and Elk returned to the same tree on the Saturday of Arts Festival weekend.

Given the numbers of people and the congestion in the center of town, officials decided to try to get the big fellah out of the tree. The Crested Butte Fire Protection District sent over a ladder truck. An official from Colorado Parks and Wildlife sprayed the bear with some pepper spray, which agitated the bruin. They then sprayed him with water, which pushed him out of the tree. He scrambled up the alley and went into another tree on Maroon Avenue.

“That is what we hoped for and expected,” said Reily. “That’s the natural instinct and their normal go-to reaction. They want to go up a tree. The tree on Maroon was off the beaten path and no one could really see him. He stayed put a while and then came down and we assume got out of town.”

Reily said the big bear has come into town frequently and there is a little bear that seems to be doing the same thing. “Both these guys are not being shy,” Reily explained. “They have broken into cars and buildings around town. The little one punched out the glass panels in a garage door this weekend and inadvertently hit the door opener. He went in and dragged out the garbage can to the lawn.”

Trautman dealt with a different type of bear encounter. Apparently a visitor who was camping in the Schofield Park area knew she had spilled some sort of mint liquid on her backpack so she placed the pack in a tree away from the camp while she slept. As expected, a bear was drawn to the pack but was more persistent than expected. It managed to break the tree branch and absconded with the pack. It has not been seen since. Inside the pack was the woman’s identification, so Trautman helped her with a replacement I.D. so she could fly back home.

Lots of traffic issues, but overall—not too bad

While Crested Butte officers were dealing with a disorderly bar patron at about 2 a.m. Sunday, someone saw the unattended marshal’s car in the post office parking lot. When the officers returned to the vehicle, they found that two of their tires had been slashed.

All of the cases are still under investigation.

Both Reily and Trautman said the bigger numbers resulted in more traffic issues. Mt. Crested Butte officers dealt with “a myriad of speeders on the highway and in town,” said Trautman.

“We had tons of parking complaints in town,” added Reily. “People were parking everywhere, including in front of driveways. They were also driving fast so we had a lot of people calling us about speeding and driving complaints.

“But really, overall, with all those people in town, it went pretty well,” Reily concluded. “There were times I looked down Elk and it was a wall of people between the tents. As for the race, having some tents by the Rainbow soccer field and some at the [Center for the Arts] seemed to spread out the impact. The weekend went pretty well. We were just very busy.”

“We are hearing it will all slow down in a few weeks when kids head back to school,” said Trautman. “Reduced numbers usually translates to reduced incidents. I think we’ll see that by mid-August.”