Pea Green Corner – Cattleman Leo Cooper,
58, was stacking hay Tuesday when he noticed
dozens of Ride the Rockies bicyclists stopping
at the pasture where his 12-year-old paint
mare, Baby, had just delivered a foal.
Cooper knows the impact of city folks pushing
into his native Uncompahgre River valley,
their airy, gabled houses sprouting near the
ranch where he was born and raised.
But never anything like this.
And the bright Spandex-clad crowd continued
to grow as more cyclists pulled over to witness
the new foal’s first moments. They got off
their bikes, teetering on their slick-soled shoes,
for a closer look.
“This is amazing. We don’t see this on our
freeways,” said Ken Marshall, 60, who runs a
coffee bar in Los Angeles. “That’s why you
come out here to ride.”
The foal’s birth was “unexpected, rare, fragile,”
said Mike Schaller, 42, a Dow Chemical engineer
from Michigan. “Look at it. Stiff legs. It
can barely stand up. Just how I was when I got
off my bike on top of the mesa.”
Colorado State Patrol Trooper Mark Weig
said he first suspected an accident when he
spotted the crowd of riders pulled to the side of
the road during Tuesday’s 34-mile ride from
Delta to Montrose.
Weig gunned his motorcycle, speeding to the
scene. He parked his own bike, keeping an eye
on the riders. More than 600 stopped before
the foal was 20 minutes old, Weig said.
When Baby went into labor, Cooper was still
by the hay in his lower pasture across the road.
He got on his black six-wheel Polaris and sped
over to check on the mare and visitors.
“I thought, I hope it’s all right, with all the excitement
up there,’ ” Cooper said after posting
himself on the inside of his barbed-wire fence.
“But they’re all staying by the road.”
Littleton schoolteacher Robin Martin, 55, told
him: “Congratulations.” She zoomed her
point-and-shoot camera onto the foal.
The wobbly foal searched under its mother,
trying to nurse, as another mare approached.
The other mare came too close. Baby bucked,
kicking her blood-slicked hind legs at the mare.
The other horse kicked back, inches from the
foal.
Some bicyclists gasped, worried it was in danger.
Cooper worried,
too. He lost
a colt to another
mare last year.
He smiled to
himself after one
of the riders recommended
firing
a gun to discourage
the intruding
mare.
Most Ride the
Rockies participants
are urban
professionals
with graduate degrees,
from
households earning
more than
$100,000 a year
a world that,
like the houses
spreading toward
Cooper’s
ranchland, clashes
more and
more with the
traditional rural
West.
The tour
shows a cultural
gap, said Suzanne Rice, 54, a Montrose Chamber
of Commerce “Redcoat” volunteer serving
beer to riders by a pond at the high school.
To her, the riders seemed “in a panic, a whirl,
antsy. I know they’ve got a lot on their minds.
But they always do this,” she said, looking
down at her wristwatch.
Out here, except for the occasional roar of a
braking truck, she said, life is all “quiet and
slowness.”
Watch Larry Green on CBS4 from 5 to 7 a.m.,
and at noon, 4, 5 6 and 10 p.m. today with
reports from The Denver Post Ride the Rockies
presented by Wells Fargo.
RIDE ASIDES
Scenery electrifies at Black Canyon tour
After a mercifully short 34- mile ride on Tuesday, a couple of hundred Ride the Rockies participants took advantage of the day in Montrose to tour the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
A few were shocked by the amazing chasm.
In fact, lightning struck so close that a rock was seen smoking 50 yards away from an overlook where the group had gathered. Park ranger Sarah Johnson, among others, wound up on the ground with her hat 15 feet away.
No one was injured, but Johnson said that was the closest she had been to lightning.
Cyclist Ryan Burr of Frisco said the trip was nonetheless worthwhile, “and the ranger was cute.”
Grand Mesa takes toll, breaks “sag” record
Volunteers and riders savored a relatively light day Tuesday, after a major ordeal with “sagging” cyclists on Monday.
A record 500 riders were “sagged” off the 91-mile route over Grand Mesa on Monday, succumbing to the rigors of a 7,000-foot climb.
At 4 p.m. Monday, about 1,000, riders – half the field – were still on the route, with the final riders arriving in Delta at 9 p.m.
Compiled by Bruce Finley and Steve Lipsher
Host city spotlight – Gunnison
County: Gunnison County seat
Elevation: 7,703
Population: 5,409
Name origin: The town and county are named for the Gunnison River, which runs through them. The river was named for Capt. John W. Gunnison, who led a surveying party through the area in 1853 in search of a railroad route.
Brief history: The town of Gunnison was established and incorporated in 1880, as a mining and ranching town. In 1883, it also became a railroad town when the Denver & Rio Grande completed its narrow- gauge line from Gunnison to Grand Junction.
Economy: The economy is based mainly on tourism, recreation, ranching, Western State College and some hay production. The forest and park services also have a presence because the town is surrounded by public lands. Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest manmade reservoir in the state, is 9 miles west, making the area popular for biking, hiking, fishing, boating and other water sports. Crested Butte ski area is about 35 miles north.
Local festivals: Cattlemen’s Days is celebrating its 105th anniversary July 8-17. Events include the oldest continuous rodeo in Colorado and a county fair, parade, chuck-wagon cook-off, live music, dancing, and horse shows and races.
Interesting fact: Gunnison is often one of the coldest places in the nation.
Sources: Town of Gunnison; “Colorado Place Names” by William Bright; Gunnison County Chamber of Commerce; Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association; Colorado State Archives; U.S. Census Bureau 2000; USGS
COMPILED BY BONNIE GILBERT
