Will Grandbois

But by Sunday morning (June 12), 2,500 Ride the Rockies bicyclists and support crews will be on their way to Aspen for the tour’s second stop, and Carbondale’s population will drop back to about 6,000.
We know a lot about RTR (see ad below) but one question remains for folks who just want to know everything: how will the 2,000 bicyclists weave their way through town on Sunday? In lieu of an actual map, here is a narrative the RTR organizers sent to The Sopris Sun.

There are no tidings of comfort and joy here in Geezerville, which is what we call our end-of-life storage facility: The Purple Haze Nursing Home.
It’s located in the township of Chipeta. Chipeta used to be part of the township of Satank, but we seceded many years ago when the other part of town got in an argument with this part of town on the quality and quantity of our yard art.
So we quit ’em and called our part of town “Chipeta.”
And just so ya’ know, Chipeta is way cooler than Satank.
And we’re taller.
And better lookin’.
And way smarter than them.

When the 2,200 or so cyclists and support personnel of Ride the Rockies 2016 get to Carbondale next week, at least one of them will be a man whose family roots are here and who, despite a serious physical handicap, is certainly no stranger to making arduous cycling trips.
Steve Ackerman, 62, is a father of two, a former runner and concert promoter, and current proprietor of a cannabis business in Fort Collins. His parents, Art and Carolyn Ackerman, are long-time and well-known Carbondale-area residents.
Steve also happens to be a paraplegic, meaning he is paralyzed from the chest down, due to a 1987 car accident along the Poudre River, which rises in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Following a six-month experiment in holding trustee meetings on Wednesdays, initiated at the behest of former Mayor Stacey Bernot, the Carbondale Board of Trustees [BOT] last week voted unanimously to return the meetings to their historical schedule of the second and fourth Tuesday nights of each month.
The change back to Tuesdays was suggested by Trustee A.J. Hobbs, who said at the board’s May 25 meeting that he had supported Bernot’s request back in November 2015, in order to give her the chance to see her kids perform in school-sponsored athletic events.
But Bernot stepped away from her post earlier this month to move out of town with her family, and Hobbs suggested at a recent meeting that a switch back to Tuesday meetings should be considered.

While proponents seeking “wild and scenic” designation for the Crystal River believe they have a strong contingent of locals on their side, at least one Marble area resident opposes the idea and believes he will not be alone in his opposition.
“They say they’ve talked to everybody along the river and they’re all for it,” said Larry Darien, a native of the Roaring Fork Valley region and long-time owner of property near Marble in Gunnison County. “But they haven’t talked to anybody in Gunnison County.”
Darien said there are a number of landowners along the Crystal as it passes through Gunnison County who oppose the designation, and whom he expects will be there alongside him for a pair of meetings on June 14 at which the matter is to be publicly debated.

Folks who plan their Mountain Fair around the Gazebo Stage music lineup can start looking ahead to the weekend of July 29-31.
As usual, expect an eclectic blend of everything from world beat to cumbia, with a healthy dose of rock, blues, Americana, country and the unclassifiable.

Hiding in plain sight, a pair of osprey has taken up residence on top of the Excel tower across Highway 133 from Alpine Bank.
Sharp-eyed bank customers first noticed the birds building their lofty nest two or three weeks ago. By last weekend, word had spread and at least one group of viewers munched on the bank’s Saturday donuts as they watched the birds’ comings and goings.

A dedicated group of local activists are hoping once and for all to achieve a goal that has eluded them and others for nearly half a century — designation of a stretch of the Crystal River as a Wild & Scenic River under the 1968 National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act passed by Congress.
If proponents Dorothea Farris, Bill Jochems and Chuck Ogilby are successful, the Crystal will become the second officially designated Wild & Scenic river in Colorado.
The only Colorado river designated Wild & Scenic at present is the Cache La Poudre, a 126-mile stretch that rises from Poudre Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park and empties into the South Platte River near Greeley.

Carbondale’s firefighters will undergo a new training program this month, using what is known as the “Mobile Live-Fire Training Unit,” a large trailer that can simulate a blazing inferno in a house or other structure that lets trainees run through their paces and learn to work together.
The Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District (CRFPD) training officer, Frank Nadell, explained that the mobile unit is owned by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control, created four years ago by the state legislature to take over responsibility for wildfires and other fire-related issues.
The mobile unit, though, was only purchased by the division recently, Nadell said, and Carbondale is one of the first of Colorado’s 400 or so fire departments to use it in training exercises.

A Carbondale man arrested earlier this year in Ohio on marijuana-related charges will go to trial on May 26, and could find himself in prison for the next eight years.
But the man, Kelly Harding, 48, maintains he was unaware that there was roughly 123 pounds of pot in the back of the car he was driving east on I-70 through Ohio, bound for New York State, when the car was stopped on Jan. 13 by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
And at the most recent of three hearings on the case, Harding’s attorney maintained that the traffic stop that lead to the arrest was illegal.