Vail Mountain Games 11Jun22

Kala & I hopped the pass into Eagle County to take in the Vail Mtn Games again this year together. It was a great day with the Gore Ck raging from snow melt, sunny 80° skies and plenty to enjoy ~ except for the parking which was crowded on the way in and flummoxed us a bit on the way out. We first saw the SUP Sprint on Gore Ck ~ this is a 4 mile & ~45min downstream trundle on the wicked Gore, which was flowing at 700cfs today from snow melt - that why the games are always on the 2nd WE in June. I was very cool - I'd be dead if a "sprint" was 45 minutes - here's a pass even with staggered starts. The athletes were gassed by the time they reached us 100 yds from the finish; while we saw no biffs I spoke to a lady who'd paddled earlier hoping for a clean run, but admitted she was drenched.

Next up was a trip over to Golden Pk at The Hangout where Jam In The Van studios was offering music all day. I've often played their stuff within the van-mobile-studio on YouTube but here most artists did an inside gig and then did an outside show. We stayed quite a while for the excellent Golden, Colorado bluegrass band Rapidgrass. They offered great stuff including a song of rolling down the river wherein they mention many of our great rivers and their attributes... this and so many other Colorado references shined fine. They were excellent and the pro outside sound was stellar.

After Rapidgrass I intended to lead us the Dock Dogs but we didn't get there as we detoured to check out a new offroad camper with which I am enamored but had never seen in person. My popup is awesome but Wyoming taught me to like hard-sided stuff in the wind. And, I'm not inclined to give up rugged & off-road. We stopped in an appreciated much but noticed some cons in the Black Series HQ12. I was worried about the double bed for 2 (which was fine) but left concerned about storage capacity for onboard stuff. Solve storage and it is very cool; though it's a smidge expensive for all Chinese appliances.

We missed the dogs but made it to the fly casting session @ International Bridge. This is casting target shooting from the bridge @ a series of 5 targets around and in the stream. 15 guys (cut from 47 apps) and 5 ladies (cut from 17) took their 3 shots at each of the 5 targets in a previously unknown to them order. I'd seen it before with some feelings of "hey, I could do this;" this was hard in the wind as the best of the best scored somewhat infrequently or no more than 50% of the time. It was very cool but I heard "standard manufactured rods" were required so I think a tuned Rodfather might be banned... plus someone should've mentioned my fatback neck might be burned from our vantage. Anyway it was a blast seeing so many varying casting styles with none so much more effective than another - though some looked harder to dial in well. Long shots were always single- or double-haul shots. There were lots of Colorado folks in the finals.

It was time for "lunch" and we hit the typically delicious Mountain Standard with a walk-in accommodated immediately; my attempt to get a rez early in the day was useless. It was very good again, but expensive. No pic. After "lunch" we trundled over to The Hangout again but a rap duo didn't move us. We went back to Vail Village and caught the finals of freestyle kayaking, right at the same International Bridge main water feature show hole. Spectacular event with a relative noob lady in the final 5, Colorado rock star Katie Kayak wowing all with her moves and strength, and 12 time winner (pink daisy hat) Emily Jackson (yeah, her dad is Jackson kayaks) down 400 points going into her final run. Emily won but 400... we didn't stay for the men.

We were off to the finals of the North American Cup finals at Vail; on the way we caught the Mud Run in progress ~ it was a hoot with many folks doused with mud from many obstacles along the 5K course @ 8.5K ft elevation. We were fortunate to meet an 11 yr old athlete pre-run at the SUP Sprint (watching her dad) after placing 3rd in the 5K run earlier.

For wall climbing we saw the elite class (pro) athletes compete on 4 problems on a well-tuned wall. The finals of these events are different in that prior rounds were climbed blind... for the finals all of the 10 top finalists, 5 ladies & 5 men, reviewed the routes for several minutes TOGETHER before coming out to attack the routes. It was really exciting with massive skills displayed in both boys & girls at the elite level - FYI, there wasn't a single 30+ year old at this level. No lady topped out their problem #1 - closest was the top qualifier who missed the final dynamic move. 3 of 5 men bested their first route. Mountain Plaza was simply a great venue and the vibe was all "all climber" and all respect for this final.

Yeah, never made it to Dock Dogs this day ~ though every 30 seconds we saw ~5 dogs so, no want from the pet-realm. Some slept on me; some licked me; we petted some; surprisingly no one really fought. Great day in Eagle Co.