WobblyReport

Mount Elbert is Colorado’s tallest mountain, in that sense the premier 14er. “Go big or go home,” said Mike. Neither of us want to go home to Michigan. So we went to the top of Elbert instead. Climbing is a kind of hiking, which is a kind of walking. Lots of different jargon and equipment get brought in but in the end it is moving around—up, down, across—using mostly feet and legs and sometimes hands. The closest starting point up Elbert from Buena Vista is the south trailhead near Twin Lakes. Heading north toward Leadville you turn west onto highway 82 toward Independence Pass. After four or five miles, a right on CR 24. On a midsummer dawn the parking lot is full. Not to worry—any car or truck worth its salt can handle Forest Service Road 125.1B, which leads to another trailhead in two miles or so. When you’re driving across a creek you’ll know you’re almost there. From the upper trailhead the path winds through aspens for a time, before the varied pines, then the breakthrough above ...

If it is asked what is it that interfered with the rulers' attending to government ... ? it must be answered, music. - Mozi, Book 8 Esteemed gentlemen, you are asking the wrong questions of these men and women who debate whether concerts should be held at the Meadows. The majority of us can afford neither the luxury homes near the venue nor the price of admission and time off work for the events. Our sleep is interrupted by our own neighbors through thin walls and ceilings that double as floors. Our wages remain static whether five or fifty visit the shop. What care we about the squabbles of petty versus big capitalists? We only want to know what will help us , whose stake is regularly ignored—whose stake is our labor against the regular threat of hunger and homelessness. Let them who complain of the noise and nuisance be reminded of their own transgressions. In the excavations for and constructions of their domiciles. In the combustion-engine maintenance of their properties, in pu...

I took my own advice and pinballed around the town for the Fourth of July. I’m a lot of things but I’m no hypocrite. It was a wise decision my not entering the Independence Day Freedom 5k. The winning time clocked in under eighteen minutes, an absolutely blistering pace for over three solid miles which I haven’t achieved since I was a much younger man. Having one’s clock cleaned by every conceivable age and sex bracket is no way to start a holiday. BVHS athlete Z---- S---- took first in the women’s and second overall with a time of 20:14. She took the sort of time catching her breath and wits after the race that evidences a good effort. Dignity gets slippery at the finish line. Even a victory might be attended by the kind of loss of motor or gastro control that civilized society simply won’t countenance. Many don’t know but the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat can be Venn-diagrammed with significant intersect. S---- is finishing her sophomore year running the 800m, mile, 2-mil...