Day 104 – 9/5/11 Emerald Lake to Crested Butte

Distance = 16 Miles; People Met = 19

Continuing on with this Labor Day weekend, we once again encountered many fine people, but the day started out with a little show.  We were camped in the morning on a little rise between Emerald Lake and a snow plug that blocked all motorized vehicle from going to Schofield Pass … supposedly.  One person did not get the memo and tried to drive his Bronco (?) over and it went off the snow plug down towards the creek, only a trickle at that point.  As we were leaving a tow truck came to winch the vehicle out.  I took pictures and shared them with the Crested Butte paper upon their request.  Here’s one of them.

Snow Plug Near Emerald Lake

Shortly after crossing the snow plug ourselves we came across what looked like a field trip about to start.  Gourmet Noodles from Crested Butte closes down twice a year, including Labor Day, and the staff goes on an outing.  They were headed to Aspen from here.

The owner of Gourmet Noodles is third from left (I think)

We met many people while at a gift store for the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic.  As a former biologist I had heard of this research station before so it was nice to see it.  The season was winding down for them but we met a few people such as Sarah, who was tending the store, and Ross, who gave us a little history of the area.  Gothic was formerly a booming mining town (surprise, surprise) with as many as 10,000 people in the valley.  We also met Ray and Pam there, originally from back east, Pam from Buffalo and Ray from rural Pennsylvania. Ray’s old home is now used for chickens.  They have lived in Colorado for the last 15 years.

Pam and Ray White

As we neared Crested Butte a mountain biker stopped to say “hi” and ask what we were up to.  Tori was from Darien, Connecticut and went to Wesleyan.  She was thinking of contributing something about us the the Alumni News for the University of Colorado in Boulder.  She had an energetic personality, as her smile clearly shows.

Tori

Ky did a great job of alerting the Crested Butte media to our arrival.  Alex the photographer came out to meet us as we were close to town on the bike path.

Alex Fenlon and Companion

As Alex was attempting to take photos of us on the bridge above, two gentleman were drawn by our full packs and came to talk to us.  Alex waited patiently as Jim and Bill showed great interest, and great humor, in our endeavor.  Or I should say Jim asked all the questions and Bill cracked all the jokes.

Jim and Bill

Alex escorted us on into town where we met Ky.  Alex hung around a bit to find out more about our journey, then left to buy us a coffee (Cindy) and ice tea (myself).  Meanwhile, the reporter for the paper came and interviewed us.  Mark Reaman was genuinely interested in what we were doing and we just continued to chat beyond what I’m sure he needed for his article.

Mark Reaman

Shortly after the interview Ky herded us over the community radio station, KBUT, where I did a short live interview on the air.  Josephine was apologetic about not doing many interviews as a volunteer for community radio, but she asked us some great questions.

Josephine and Chad

The interview was heard by Steve, a friend of Delrena and Jim Sides.  There’s a story behind that.  Indeed, two terrific events happened this day — one benefiting us, one benefiting our mission.  Delrena and Jim I’ll feature in our next post, our rest day.  Time is getting short now as I type this, we need to head off to Leadville.  That will give me some time to think about how to best present Kevin McGruther.  In the meantime you might want to check out this link:

Crested Butte Farmer’s Market