Modern-Day Trailblazers, Salida Mountain Trails

by Tyler Grimes This year, an estimated 10,000 recreationalists will utilize the Arkansas Hills and Methodist Mountain trail systems near Salida. Singletracks.com selected Salida’s trails as the number five spot on its “Top 10 Mountain Bike Destinations in North America.” The January edition of Elevation Outdoors featured Salida for its year-round mountain biking possibilities. Given …

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News from the San Luis Valley

by Gena Akers Alamosa Residents Set Eyes on Arts Center A group of individuals have joined forces in Alamosa to purchase and renovate the historic Christian Science Society building near downtown. The space, which can seat nearly 200 people, will become Society Hall, a community gathering space to host live music, theatre, poets and writers, …

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Regional News Roundup

Towns Sign on to Pact A group of Colorado towns has launched a “Mountain Pact” in an effort to reform the way the Feds collect royalty payments from the coal industry, and to offset the negative effects of climate change on their communities. Signed on to the pact are Leadville, Buena Vista, Ridgway, Carbondale, Aspen, …

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Adelina’s Bench

by Nancy Best Growning up in Pitkin during the Depression and working closely with her woodcutter dad in the woods since she was a small child, Adelina Taylor was a woman with many stories to tell. Some of those stories she told in Colorado Central Magazine. She loved reading the magazine, too, even being called …

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Antero Reservoir – Built to Quench Denver’s Thirst

By Laura Van Dusen Antero, the sun-sparkled, windswept reservoir hidden behind low rolling hills seven miles west of Hartsel, will be drained beginning June 1 to repair and strengthen the leaking 106-year-old dam; water will flow downstream to Cheesman, Marston and Chatfield reservoirs. It’s nothing new. According to Denver Water, this drain is the eighth …

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From the Editor

by Mike Rosso Only 18 Months to Go … Would I be wrong to suggest that no matter your political leanings, we can all agree the national media is spending way too much time currently focusing on the 2016 U.S. presidential election? We’re talking about an event taking place a year and a half from …

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About the Cover Artist – Susan Spohn

Salida-based artist Susan Spohn describes herself as a gardener, recreating in paint the magic she feels when in the presence of flowers, critters and nature. Painting memories, visions and whimsy, her favorite medium is oil paint. She paints on wood panels using bristle brushes, painting knives, turpentine and varnish. Her paintings of textural garden scenes …

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Aerial Adventures in a Canyon

When Salidan Monty Holmes purchased nearly 30 acres of arid canyon land near Wellsville, Colorado in 2000, his original dream of building cabins on the property transformed into something much bigger and much bolder.

Lacking access to electricity for the properties, he decided on another strategy, to “make lemonade outta lemons,” and did what any savvy entrepreneur might do in the 21st century – he went to Google. Typing in “zip line in USA,” he was startled to find fewer than 200 results. Those sparse outcomes led to a research and development trip to Costa Rica where, since the 1970s, ziplining has been one of that country’s most popular recreational activities.

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Dispatch From the Edge

By Peter Anderson

We are in a library in a small mountain town. Another late spring storm has just arrived, bringing with it rain, hail and several inches of new snow. A traveler who has pitched his tent at the campground outside of town sits in this library looking at the weather through big windows facing the storm. He is grateful to be here in a warm place, reading about a National Geographic expedition to the Arctic. Sometimes armchair travel is so fine, maybe even better than the real deal.

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The Gourmet Guy

Indian Chai/Chicken Curry
By Pemba Sherpa – Sherpa Café, Gunnison and Crested Butte
(Dedicated to the people of Nepal)

Indian Chai
(Makes five cups)
1/4 cup of Chai tea leaves or seeds
2 cinnamon sticks
About 1/4 cup of cardamom seeds
(Break up the cardamom to release the flavor)
Small piece of ginger
2-3 pinches of black pepper
About 1 tablespoon of sugar
1 or more liters of milk (depending on how strong you want the Chai)
2 cups of water

In a pot, mix Chai tea leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper, sugar and water. Bring to a boil for at least a minute, then add the milk and bring to a boil again. Strain the liquid into a cup, and the Chai is ready.

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There’s More to School Than Academics

By Hal Walter

It was the third such phone call from the school in seven school days; when I stopped the car about a mile from my house because I had forgotten something I really needed to bring to town, I sat there in the middle of the deserted dirt road slamming my fists on the steering wheel and cursing.

My son Harrison had just been suspended from school for the fourth time. Once he was sent home for being disruptive to the class. The following three times he’d actually struck out at teachers.

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