Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #104 – Summer Part 2

[Categories: Photography, Photography 101 Forever]

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The Lens-Artists Challenge is hosted this week by Amy.

Per she: “We are hosting the theme “Seasons” for the entire month. This week, the theme is “summer”.”

Summer is also a time of festivals, parades, fairs, and fetes. The annual Burro Days at the end of July in Fairplay, Colorado, has a crafts fair, parade, light-hearted llama races, and culminates with the 28-30 mile burro race on Sunday. Sometimes a Mountain Man Rendezvous is nearby, with re-enactors living like early frontiersmen and women.

The burro race runs from 9954′ ASL Fairplay to 13,185′ Mosquito Pass, and back. Racers run and walk ‘beside’ a burro, not on it. Considerable training is involved for the dedicated, as it is no easy feat to get a burro to hoof it for 28+ miles, let alone hoof it yourself over rough terrain for more than a marathon’s worth of distance.

My photos from races in 2001, 2002, and 2003 may be a bit fuzzy, possibly due to using a Sony Mavica FD-1 early digital camera, recording on a 3.5″ floppy disk, but I think you’ll get the idea.

The llama races are on Saturday. The course is three miles. You can even borrow a llama to walk beside, though they can also be cantankerous. It takes an hour or so for the winners to come in and you can see most of the race from the bluffs in town.

‘Frontiersmen’ roam the streets and reside in the Rendezvous camp during the weekend.

If you stay for the Sunday burro race, it takes 4-5 hours for fast runners to get back, longer for others. It’s fun to watch the start, at least. I think this first racer is a multi-year winner (the man, dunno about the burro), nearly two decades ago:

Some of them dang burros are as big as a horse!

Even a burro can’t resist getting petted (as if anyone asked!):

This year’s Burro Days is postponed to 23-25 July 2021.

Stay safe, be well. Be kind to one another. 😷 👏 👍

Kudos to the tireless leaders of the weekly Lens-Artists challenge.

General Weekly Challenge info from Tina:

“Each Saturday at noon EST we will publish a photo challenge similar in form to the now-defunct WPC. If you choose to participate, please make sure to tag your post with the name of our group LENS-ARTISTS so that all of the responses can be found together in the WP Reader. Please also include a link to the challenge moderator’s post. One of our 4 moderators will host the challenge each week.”

Week 1 – Patti of https://pilotfishblog.com/

Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya of https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/

Week 3 – Amy of https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/

Week 4 – Tina of https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/

Check them out.  Also search for Lens-Artists to find posts.