6/7
Today I did a 34 mile bike ride in the beautiful flowers and green landscape. I met Sophia and Benn at Oh Be Joyful creek to watch the Oh Be Joyful kayak race. It was pretty cool to see because the river is just crazy white water full of waterfalls and it's amazing that kayakers go over it.
6/12
Elisha and I did a very beautiful bike ride amongst yellow and purple flowers on Snodgrass.
6/14
We started data collection for CHESS out near Almont.
6/17
We started 2ish weeks of cat sitting Clawdia (Steiny's cat). She is so sweet and a joy to come home to everyday after work.
6/19
I did a beautiful bike ride full of lupines on deer creek, but making it a huge loop from our condo, around Mt. CB, over to strand, over deer creek pass to Gothic, and then back to Mt CB
6/20-30
Lots of beautiful bike rides through the Lupine. Also the monument plants have been huge and blooming this year.
6/25
Our CHESS team drove to Buena Vista where the NEON/NASA plane that is doing the hyperspectral data for us is stationed. We got a tour from the team there. It turns out that my former co-worker at Summit Station (Elissa) now works as a tech on those planes, though she wasn't assigned to the Colorado campaign, and instead was in Alaska.
6/27
Today was the chainless bike race. We did it with Sophia, Bradley, and Cassidy, and as always, it was a lot of fun.
My op-ed to the CB News in support of public lands was published. It was also published in the EP Trail Gazette. I'll paste it at the bottom of this blog.
We've also started working in the Crested Butte zone for the CHESS project
7/1
All us CHESS people wore NEON bright colors in honor of NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) of which our research campaign is part of.
7/3
Elisha and I hiked up to Scarp Ridge where there was a super bloom of Old man on the mountain. We also saw a mama ptarmigan with 6 or more chicks. We watched the fireworks from our condo's deck as it was kind of drizzly.
7/4
We reinstituted the Gothic 1/3 marathon. This was an annual tradition for nearly 50 years before covid put an end to it. We decided to get it going again this year. It was a rainy, but beautiful morning with the fog. I hadn't run since last early November, except for 1 run this spring where I pulled my hamstring. In fact, I was considering not running b/c my hamstring was still nagging me. However, when I got there, with the excitement of it all and a smirnoff ice* I ended up doing it. I started out really slow, but was feeling great, so then I picked it up. I ended up getting 2nd! (amongst all those youngins.). In the end, I just didn't quite have enough distance left to catch the person in first (Kathleen, who is an avid marathon runner). If I had started earlier though... The course starts in Gothic and runs up to Snodgrass, through Mt. CB, and finishes at rainbow park in CB.
*Today was the start of what I would later call an ice age that has descended upon Gothic. At 7 in the morning, right before the race started, I was "iced". I didn't know what it was. Somone pointed behind me, and I looked and there was a smirnoff ice, and they said "you've been iced". As I didn't know what it was and as my hamstring had been hurting I thought it was to ice my hammy, haha. But then I learned I was supposed to go down on 1 knee and chug it. I was the first one at RMBL iced, but soon it would be a thing that went around to everyone. And Ice age in Gothic.
After the run, I joined the 4th of July parade with the KBUT disco inferno float. We then went to a catered bbq with our realtor Alex. After that it was chill time until going to a bbq at RMBL, which is always delicious. We ended the night hot tubbing at our condo, which has a very nice hot tub and pool.
We're still enjoying the snuggles of Clawdia
7/8
We were doing field sampling up by North Pole Basin, and we found some juvenile boreal toads! Something I did surveys of in Rocky Mountain National Park a long time ago. Unfortunately boreal toads are susceptible to Chytrid fungus, so their populations are struggling.
7/9
While working down in Schofield Park, we were visited by some grazing Yaks.
7/10
Happy Anniversary to us!
To celebrate our anniversary we biked the 401 trail on our brand new bikes. Their inaugural ride! We had bought them over the winter when they were half off! They're awesome bikes, and we were excited. The flowers on the 401 were of course amazing.
Mom and dad took us out to Slogars for a our anniversary. Always delicious
7/11
The family played mini golf up at the "free" mini golf on the mtn. Free as long as you go after hours and you have your own putter and balls.
The CHESS team is now working in Taylor Park area
7/12
Elisha and I biked up to the umbrella bar and enjoyed sunset and happy hour from one of the chairlifts. On the bike down, we biked past a mama moose and her young calf
7/13
We saw a bunch of bighorn sheep and their lambs on our drive back from the field. Benn brought down his espresso machine and made fancy coffees (and London Fog tea for me)
7/14
Some smoke from a fire in the distant vicinity made for a fantastic sunset over Red Lady mountain as we played spike ball at the Alpenglow concert. Also, have been seeing the cute fawns on my bike commute to and from work.
7/15
Elisha and I hiked up to Rustler's gulch where the flowers were amazing!
7/16
Elisha and I hiked up to North Pole basin where the flowers were just stunning. We hiked up to one of the mines and did some rock hounding and then went for a cold plunge in one of the ponds.
Elisha cut my hair
7/18
I started my Maroon Bells Shuttles job for Evan. I hiked back over West Maroon pass and the flowers were stunning. Also tons of pika out and about!
7/19
Bro and I both had a shuttle over to Aspen. We took our bikes and then biked back to CB on a 40+ mile journey that took us mainly on singletrack from Ashcroft up Taylor Pass, up Star Pass and then sweet singletrack back to brush creek.
7/23
After music on the mountain, Henry (RMBL GIS guy) and I did a fun mtn bike lap on the mountain
7/24
Nat Geo + the BBC are here filming a thing (I believe called "Underdogs"). They are mainly focused on the salamanders. It's been cool to watch them set up their aquariums and film the salamanders.
7/25
Last day of CHESS. We had Butte Bagels at Totem Pole Park. I gave out superlative awards to everyone with small chess pieces and then I gave Amanda and Ian (bosses) giant chess queen and king pieces that I had everyone sign and draw flowers on.
I had to drive my Aspen shuttle car up to the trailhead, so I took advantage of this by putting my bike in the car and mtn biking down the 401 which had beautiful fireweed blooming along the trail.
My op-ed on affordable housing (penned with a pseudonym) was published in the CB News. See this letter below as well.
7/26
A fun night of Karaoke at RMBL with the CHESS team and other RMBLers
7/27
A few of us CHESS team visited the Mexican Cut and Galena Lake. It's a beautiful area full of flowers and small ponds where salamanders live. There are also lots of mines and tunnels full of cool crystals. The area is run by the Nature Conservancy and is off limits to the public, so it's special to get to go there!
7/29
On my bike ride today I got to hang out with a black bear for awhile.
7/30
I helped CBMBA (Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association) build a new trail up by Lake Irwin
7/31
We got a tour of the local Crested Butte ski factory, Romp skis. They were also supplying free burgers and dogs and adult beverages.
8/1
Today was the no talent show at RMBL, which was really funny and then the Cabin Crawl, which was amazing. 10 cabins hosted, and they had different themes. One played an outside movie with popcorn for a RMBL remake of psycho. There was some video game themed one (minecraft?). A survivor themed one, where contestants had to crack a coconut. One with drinking games. One where there was a boyband "concert". One with a 1920's style gangster theme. My 2 favorites was an Abba dance them and then a French Revolution where they cut off the head of the king and chanted "no kings". One could obviously see the parallel to the current administration.
8/2
I drove a Tesla to Aspen today. It has a computer that rates your driving. I got rated as aggressive and the clients complained. Well, they actually complained that the car was muddy. Well, duh, it was raining on a dirt pass. So then after they found out that information they tried to blame a scuff on the side-view mirror on me. Well, I had pics before I drove that it was there. So then trying to get something, they checked the computer driver rating. But when I googled how tesla rates the driving, I learned that going over a windy, steep, and narrow mountain pass would of course lead one to get a low rating, unless they were driving at a snail's pace.
A very rich dude is staying at the lodge. Tonight they paid to bring in the well-known musical group Sofi Tukker. It's one of Zach and Mary's favorite groups who they've gone to Red Rocks to see. Elisha and I worked during the small "concert" so we could hear and see them. Mary gave them massages, and Zach came in to be the bouncer. At the end of the night Tukker asked me for some water, ha. They played until past 1am. Also, of course, a bear got into the trash in the alley that night.
8/9
We got a new battery in the van for some roadtrips. We've been so busy this summer, we haven't had 2 days off in a row together to do something.
8/11
I drove very early in the morning to Salida to meet up with Hess. It was an amazing day! We started with breakfast burritos at Mo burrito. We then went for a 23 mile mtn bike ride (cottonwood tour). We took a dip in the Arkansas River, and then we then had lunch at Mo burrito. Then we went for a short mtn bike ride on Methodist Mountain trail system. Then it was back to town for pizza and brews. It was really great b/c we got to talk a whole lot and catch up and have some deep conversations. Jake and his family recently took in a refugee from Guatemala, so that's really cool. I camped in the van up on spiral hill.
8/12
I drove back to CB, picked up Elisha and then we drove to Leadville where we did a quick and really fun flow trail near the Colorado Mountain College. We then got lucky and found $1.50 taco tuesday downtown with $6 margaritas. And at the end they gave us a free shot of tequila. We camped over by the college.
8/13
In the morning we did some more fun trails by the college before driving to Vail where we did a ride up on the mountain: Radio Flyer, one of my all-time favorite flow trails. Back in vail village we went to the red lion for their world famous huge nachos. We then swam and hung out by the river before going to city market for ice cream. Then it was on to Avon to utilize their "twilight hours" ($10) pool, lazy river, jacuzzi, and steam shower. We briefly stopped at Avon's free outdoor music concert before driving to Eagle to camp.
8/14
We biked the pool and ice rink trail, which is also one of my very favorite flow trails. After that trail we did the Haymaker loop, which was constructed to be used to host the Colorado High School Cycling League State Championships. After riding that trail, Elisha went to the thrift store, and I did another fun loop (Eagle Ranch Loop). Then it was off to Costco for food and ice cream before heading home.
8/16
It's been an incredibly hot and dry summer. The monsoon rains never came, which was especially bad considering we had a record low snowfall winter. There have been quite a lot of fires around, which have led to some smokiness here and there in the valley. The trails are dusty and the wildflowers shriveled up much earlier than normal. The raspberries looked pretty weak so far this year, and I haven't seen many huckleberries. And believe it or not, I've seen aspen leaves changing color already in Aspen, on CBMR, and on Kebler pass! Crazy.
Contact your senators to tell them what you think about Public Lands
Dear citizens and visitors to the Gunnison Valley
In my opinion, one of America's best ideas was to set aside land in the public domain to be used for the enjoyment of all people--Public Lands. Public lands have touched my life incredibly, and I am guessing the same is true of you.
A recent proposal to the budget reconciliation bill would mandate the sale of up to 3 million acres of public land in the near future with 250 million acres vulnerable. Public lands are not a partisan issue. They are set aside for all and enjoyed by all. They provide recreational activities including hiking, skiing, hunting, biking, foraging, jeeping, horseback riding, camping, and fishing. They are also important for education and research.
A visit to public lands does wonders for people's mental health and soul. The benefits of access to nature are well documented in the scientific literature, and there is strong evidence that decreased exposure of children to nature leads to a wide range of health and behavioral issues including anxiety, attention difficulties, and reduced emotional resilience. Of course there are the less obvious benefits. Our clean water mostly originates from public lands. Our air is cleaned on public lands. A huge segment of the economy (tourism) is driven by public lands. We are healthier--mentally and physically--because of them.
And you know what the best part is? The public lands are ours! We own them collectively as Americans. We can visit the VAST majority of public lands for FREE.
Even those that require a huge amount of infrastructure and staff (e.g. National Parks) are one of the most affordable things a family can do. A week-long pass to Rocky Mountain National Park costs $35 per car and a year pass to every NP in the country costs $80. Did you know that to take a family of 5 to see a 2 hour movie in Denver will cost $81.75 right now! A privatized natural space in Colorado Springs (the so-so 7 Falls) owned by the Broadmoor will cost a family of 5 during peak hours $102. This is the future when nature is privatized, if we’re granted access at all.
Even if all else were equal, it’s the magic of our public lands that make them special. Have you seen the look on the faces of kids to senior citizens alike when they gaze upon one of the wonders in our public lands, when they traipse through a trail full of sweet smelling plants and dancing butterflies, or dip their toes in a crystal clear stream moments after coming face to face with a gentle deer?
Public lands enrich our lives. They make us happier people. But once they're gone, they're gone forever. We the people certainly won't be able to buy them back.
No matter what side of the political aisle you're on, I'm sure you're stressed, unhappy, worried, angry, etc about the state of the world today. But I'll bet when you find yourself on public lands, many of those stresses fall away. You're healthier in mind, body, and spirit. This should be all that you need to know.
Please, please, reach out to your senators (email/call) about this, especially if you’re an out of state reader/visitor. It's easy: https://www.senate.gov/
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Travis Guy
Thoughts on Deed Restricted Housing
Dear Mark,
We appreciated your editorial in the 11 July paper regarding housing for locals. We agree with you that adding more and more homes to the market will not reduce prices, at least not to prices that locals can afford. There are so many wealthy folks in our country that would like to own a home in a place like this, that we don’t think the market would ever get satiated. There will always be someone with more money out there than locals who will willingly buy up homes at prices out of reach for us locals, especially since short-term rentals have made unoccupied places so lucrative. As you mention, as more homes are added, more people are required and housing shortages continue. As you scale up in desirable places, adding more homes doesn’t seem to reduce prices. Just look at other places bigger than us in Colorado from Eagle County to Summit County to Durango to Golden to even Denver.
As you suggested, we do think there should be housing set aside for locals who have lived in the valley for a time as well as some sort of work requirement to keep wealthy folks with high paying remote jobs from “stealing” homes from locals.
Shifting gears a bit. You mention that deed restricted housing can be “a heavy yoke on working locals”. We bought a deed restricted condo on the mountain a couple of years ago, and we wanted to provide a few examples of how the deed restriction has been that heavy yoke.
-Our HOA dues just jumped from $760/mo to $1250/mo in 1 year due to an increase in building insurance. This is almost untenable for us when you include our mortgage. We can make it work for now, but we can’t deal with much more of an increase. When we bought the place, we weren’t stoked on the price or the HOA dues, but after too many heartbreaks with the housing lotteries, too many bad roommates, and moving 5 times over 3 years, we felt it was the right thing to do, but now we are questioning it. In our condo association, we would guess 80-90% of the units are airbnb’s or second homeowners. They can deal with this increase in dues easier than us (deed restricted units) as they can simply raise their airbnb rates or sell on the free market if the finances don’t work for them. We fear, due to the restrictions involved with the deed restriction and the fact that we’d be likely selling to those working in the tourist/service industry making so-so wages (like us), that we won’t be able to sell the place for what we bought it for, and would take a big loss. We don’t know who in their right mind would buy a house with HOA dues increasing like they have for us since we purchased.
-With the sudden turn in our housing situation, we have looked into some more affordable deed restricted places that have come onto the market recently. But we have been told we don’t qualify since we now own property in the valley, even if we agree to put our place on the market as soon as we close. We were told that the only way we could close on a deed restricted place is if the place we’re in now is sold on or before closing on the new place. This is basically impossible to make happen and rather scary. If our current place sold, but the new place fell through, we’d be homeless. If our old place didn’t sell, then we’d lose out on a better opportunity. Not to mention in the non-lottery deed restricted sales, the seller is not likely to choose someone who would be barred from buying in the event that the buyer cannot sell their place. This seems like a really bad situation, especially for locals who may want to upgrade their place if they have a growing family or have been promoted at work and can now afford a better living situation. We think it should be made easy to move up in the deed restriction “world”.
-Deed restrictions, at least ours, require that 80% of your income be made in the valley. I overall like this idea as it keeps it local. However, I wish there could be exceptions every now and then for people who will stay local. For example, if someone wanted to teach English abroad for a year, was involved in a work trade/experience and had the chance to go somewhere cool for a year, or needed to go out of town to caretake a sick parent for a year or 2. In our situation, we’d love the chance to go work a quick high-paying 6 month contract job every now and then to put some money away and help us afford the increased HOA dues, during which we’d of course rent our place to folks working in the valley during that time.
-Our friends who live elsewhere in desirable places often fund their vacations by airbnb-ing their places while they are on vacation. Due to the uniqueness of our tourist jobs, we are often out of the valley visiting friends and family for 4-5 weeks per year, and it would be awesome to try to make a little cash by short-term renting them during that time. Although this goes against the letter of the deed restricted law, we don’t believe this would go against the spirit of the law.
-Since the deed restricted housing is either capped with a certain growth rate, or is essentially capped due to limits on who can buy it (AMI restrictions), it means that the homes do not grow in step with the national growth rate. This means that if you own a home here for 10 or 15 years, but must move out of the valley because of some life situation (job change, health of a family member, growth of your family, etc), you will once again be behind in the housing market wherever you move to next.
Overall, we believe that the idea of deed restricted homes for locals is a great idea and probably the only way that people like us could ever dream of affording a place in this valley that we love. However, we believe that the way the system is set up now really limits options in life and creates the potential for some major hardships.
Thanks
Cassa and Theo
