texas just looks like the front range w/out all the mank
All you high and mighty front rangers are too much. Striking parallels can actually be drawn between the front range and texas.
1. The insane number of gapers that come from both places. Mountain town studies have actually shown that per capita, the front range and texas are neck and neck when it comes to gaping.
2. Only paddlers forced at gunpoint would ever want to go and visit either of the two. Only a true front ranger can tell the difference between a front range play park and a texas park. The only real difference between the two is the amount of driving time it actually takes to get to a good river
3. When it comes to oil and manky ass low volume runs, both texas and the front range lead the nation. After a few more gaciations and ten million years it is concievable that front range rivers may clean themselves up however, as for texas there is no hope.
Hopefully all you front rangers can see the parallels here and stop picking on these poor texans. It's like two homeless guys arguing over who's shanty is nicer. Ya'll are missing the bigger picture here.
The real deal is that any 'playpark' located in an urban or suburban setting is going to be beset with runoff pollution, be it in Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Ohio, California, etc etc. Where a person is from or paddles does not or should not denigrate their paddling.
More than half of Colorado's population is from 'out-of-state', e.g. they're foreigners, non-native, whatever..... It doesn't matter where they're from, at least they paddle. It doesn't matter whether you live in the hills or in Denver or in some God-awful place like Amarillo.
The whole stupid elitist attitude crap of some paddlers, skiers, and boarders who think because they live where access is freely available on a daily basis, that they are somehow better than anyone else is BS. Broad assumptions based upon locale are as idiotic as they idiots who make them.
I agree 100%....but isn't it great we live in Durango. Ha, Ha!
Hyde, I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I'm guessing you work at a desk somewhere.
By the frequency of my posts you can probaly guess the same. I'm a bookkeeper for an internet company, I spend all day on this site puffin' bowls and dreaming of boating. Fortuantly I only work four days a week and spend the rest of the time skiing or boating.
Hyde,
I too feel lucky to have a good job in an area where good jobs are few and far between. I'm 25 and I still have not adjusted to not skiing 100 days in a year and taking a little summer school just to break up the constant boating. That is the price you pay when you enter the feild of accounting. Jeez....I'm feeling depressed.
We should catch up this spring and surf some of this run off. It sould be good this year.
I haven't had 100+ days of skiing/boarding in over 5 yrs... I think the last time was 139 days... and that about killed me.
I am up for a lot of boating this spring and summer. I'm checking into new creekers, not real happy about what I am seeing... they've shrunk those boats too. Thinking of getting a Riot Sniper, or a Dagger CFS. I have always had great luck with Dagger boats...
Front Rangers or “Rangers” vs. Texans – Agreed that they both have their good and their bad traits. I think that I have to say that I would rather deal with Texans over “Rangers” for the following reasons:
1. Texans for the most part know that they are gapers and accept this role in the pecking order of the resort, backcountry, or play spot. Texans also seem to have some grasp that they just do not get it and happily play out their week or so vacation by spending money and sticking to the easy terrain or guided tours. They take the ribbing that we give them and happily return for another short stay. Texans also do not live and support a tax base that is constantly attempting to lower our overall quality of life up here by buying the water and transferring it over basins for the soooo important blue grass lawns on the Front Range. Aside from driving at an extremely slow pace and that loud accent most Texans are extremely easy to deal with and are not attempting to change our lifestyle at a fundamental level.
2. “Rangers” for some reason feel the need to prove to us hillbilly locals that they actually know what they are doing. For most this is a big mistake (trust me that matching REI outfit does not make you fit in up here). “Rangers” seem to feel the need explain how they skied 100 days a year while they were in college. We don’t care! One sign that you are a “ranger” is if you even keep track of the days you spent here or there. Most of you are skiing at the same level as those Texans everybody loves to make fun of anyway. Then if anyone pokes a bit of fun at a “Ranger” they get right in you face to let you know how ass backward everything is up here in our little hic utopia. The “Rangers” seem to be in a race up to the hills passing Texans or anyone else who gets in their way and and for what? - Everything is still going to be here even if you get here 5 min later. Finally when that bell rings – that bell that every “Ranger” is familiar with the one that rings clear and calls back the endless line of cars at 3pm or so every Sunday us hillbilly folk can relax, then go back to just lookin out for the slow Texans and not worry about getting blindsided by a fast driving “Ranger” in a huge SUV wanting to get home to catch the latest reality show on TV.
Now all of you “Rangers” don’t get the wrong idea. We appreciate you coming up for a visit. Just remember that you are visiting and just because you live on the Front Range does not make you local up here. In reality it is just the opposite. Remember the policies that you support by living in a Front Range community. Many of these policies are in a direct conflict with the small communities that are west of Bailey or the Eisenhower Tunnel. That is why “Rangers” are looked down upon from time to time by true locals. Rangers are little by little taking the resources that support our way of life. We fully realize that our small communitie(s) cannot compete with the dollars that the Front Range machine can generate and too many times we are seen as simply a place to recreate for a couple of weekends a year or a place to steal natural reasources from. Now I know that some of you are good little “Rangers” but you are in the vast minority of total people down there and when looking at the entire picture I realize that my rant will not get to many of the people that I am talking about.
So in my opinion “Rangers” need to take some leads from the Texans and I have to agree with waynechorter that most “Rangers” are closer to “Texans” than they would like to admit.
yup yup yup... them granite clouds do have a slight solidity to them now, don't they?
It's not F54 anymore, they changed it about 3 or 4 years ago to GKY. My fav airport to fly into here in Colorado (and you may call me nuts for it) is Telluride (TEX). I went in there last summer early morning as the sun was coming up over the peaks just enough to light up the runway. If I hadn't been too busy flying the plane, it would have made for a beautiful picture. It looked like an aircraft carrier deck as I slipped down from FL124...
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