[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.
It was fun to see these photos. I hope the races can resume in 2021.
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Thanks Ray. I’ve said for a long time ‘Fairplay is 20 years behind the times, and I hope it stays that way.’
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These are fun summer activities. Thank you, John for sharing your memories.
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Thank you Amy.
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I love these, John. They look like something we’d enjoy watching. The donkeys, of all sizes, are cute, but a race with either a llama or a donkey could be problematic. 🙂 Now if you had a good riding mule…
janet
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😱😂
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I just read a fun book about the burro races John. I’d never heard of them before. What a fun event!
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🙂
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you captured the fun and beauty of this summer event! thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thank you for your kind words.
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Ah, 2020, the year we lost summer as we have known it. Hopefully it will only be 2020. Great collection of summer images, and I’d love to see that burro race!
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Thanks John. Survival is the priority. Let the rest of ‘them’ Darwin-out.
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Thanks for the link. A chance to get out of Littleton and get some fresh air. “The Fon of It All…!”
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I liked your picture of the frontiersman and the kid. You are right about the llamas being cantankerous. I saw one pull a woman off her feet and drag her through a creek.
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Thank you, and, ouch!
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John, Looks like fun. We have extended family with a home in Carbondale. I’ll have to pass this along to them. I know they’ll want to take the grandkids.
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Ooh. Carbondale! Drove past there and over McClure Pass to Paonia 12 June for a weekend in wine country.
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A great capture of this fun event, John. I wonder if the competitors are allowed to use any kind of inducement, such as a carrot or other tasty treat.
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Hmm. Fairly strict rules. 33 pound mule pack. The ‘pros’ do a lot of training.
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Wonderful activities for summer. Wonderful shots, John.
Stay safe and healthy.
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Thank you! You stay safe and healthy too.
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Too bad this year’s had to be postponed –
But 2021 will be great if it is anything as lovely as your photos here show…
I like all the people details – like those flag shorts and smiles
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Nothin’ like a good llama or burro race!
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Ha!!
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