Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i 5280 Magazine

In January 2014, my Mom and Dad gave me their “Durable Power of Attorney.” This allowed me to manage their finances. They also signed Advanced Medical Directives which gave my sister and me authority to make medical decisions for our parents if they could not. Dad was 89. His eyesight, memory, and judgment were failing. His beloved garden was showing neglect. Mom was 86. Her arthritis had become so disabling that she used a walker, slowly. Stairs were impossible. After signing the legal papers, Mom and Dad pointed to a pile of papers, magazines, newsprint, newsletters, solicitations, envelopes, invoices, notices, and bank statements. I gathered the entire mess into file boxes and began my journey into “elder parent care.” I took over the bills, maintenance of their home, and managed…

Returning to the places where they once served often allows military veterans to heal from the emotional traumas they experienced during war. That’s why, since Denver resident Timothy Davis started the Greatest Generations Foundation (TGGF) 15 years ago, the nonprofit has helped more than 6,000 former service members complete pilgrimages to sites like Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima as well as battlefields in Vietnam. “We have a responsibility to honor the sacrifices these veterans made to serve our country,” Davis says. This month, TGGF will send 62 U.S. veterans of World War II back to Normandy, France, for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when the Allied Forces invaded continental Europe on June 6, 1944. Thirty members of the group will travel aboard the Queen Mary II, an ocean liner that…

Denver might have missed out on Amazon, but let’s be honest: The online behemoth never really felt like our kind of corporate titan. VF Corporation, though, that’s a multinational we could go hiking with—and probably have. This month, the Fortune 250 company will relocate from Greensboro, North Carolina, to the Mile High City. All told, the VF umbrella includes more than 20 brands, five of which will be moving to Denver, too. (The North Face and JanSport, for instance, are escaping Silicon Valley’s oppressive housing prices for the Front Range’s, um, slightly less oppressive housing prices.) VF’s Steve Rendle, president and CEO since 2017, believes consolidating in adventure-centric Colorado will bolster the estimated $39 billion behemoth’s recent shift toward focusing on activewear. We spoke with Washington-raised Rendle about his connection…

CLEAR CREEK, Golden Route: Lions Park to Parfet Park (30 minutes) Prime Tubing CFS: 100 to 500 Pre-Float: Stow your car for free on the west end of 10th Street. You can bring your own tube or spring for a double-seated model ($37 per day) from Golden River Sports. Experience: Clear Creek Whitewater Park, 30 minutes from Denver, is ideal for those looking for a quick getaway. Enjoy tiny eddies dimpling the river’s surface until you reach the route’s endpoint, just upstream from Coors Brewery. From there, take a 15-minute stroll upriver to float again. YAMPA RIVER, Steamboat Springs Route: Fetcher Park to West Lincoln Park (1.5 hours) Prime Tubing CFS: 100 to 400 Pre-Float: After renting a tube from Steamboat’s Backdoor Sports ($20 per trip), park a car at…

DEEP CREEK: FINDING HOPE IN THE HIGH COUNTRY Pam Houston Houston celebrated strong women in her 1992 short story collection, Cowboys Are My Weakness. Now, her first memoir tenderly describes the home that strengthened her: a ranch in the San Juan Mountains. Tales of caring for the land and recollections of her abusive childhood trace the writer’s path to peace. HOUSTON RECOMMENDS: Guidebook to Relative Strangers, Camille T. Dungy (2017) This Colorado State University professor’s essay collection—born of Dungy’s travels with her daughter—explores race, community, and motherhood. “She writes poetry,” Houston says, “so her language is beautiful.” GOOD TO GO: WHAT THE ATHLETE IN ALL OF US CAN LEARN FROM THE STRANGE SCIENCE OF RECOVERY Christie Aschwanden A former Washington Post health columnist and Cedaredge local investigates the billiondollar sports…

Sure, Broadway Market boasts 10 food stalls, which hawk everything from pizza to empanadas to sushi, as well as full coffee and cocktail bars. But the DIY beer system at the four-month-old food hall is what’s really got everyone buzzing. The self-serve beer wall is unlike any other in the country: Broadway Market partnered with Bottoms Up Beer, a company out of Indianapolis, to install a magnetized system that fills your pint glass from, well, the bottom up. To get in on the mesmerizing action—and the 24 rotating taps, stocked exclusively with Colorado brews and ciders from the likes of Station 26 Brewing Co. and Cheluna Brewing Co.—all you have to do is activate a fob at the check-in station and help yourself. Brews are priced by the ounce (from…

MYTHOLOGY DISTILLERY WHERE: Denver BACKSTORY: Three Colorado natives walked into a bar…in Alaska. They returned home dreaming of opening a high-end distillery. Collaborations—such as the one with local Teakoe Tea that resulted in a limited-edition, deep purple spiced plum tea and rye vodka—are always on the menu. BOTTLE TO BUY: Syrah-Finished Whiskey ($85). When co-founder Scott Yeats received Dominio IV’s Syrah barrels from Oregon, they were still wet with wine. INSIDER INFO: The creatures represented on Mythology’s labels are the owners’ spirit animals. DAMN. GOOD. SPIRITS. WHERE: Golden BACKSTORY: This extension of master distiller Sean Smiley’s State 38 Distilling—whose offerings include vodka, gin, and absinthe—has a mass-market price range ($14 to $25 per 750-milliliter bottle), in part thanks to cheaper packaging. BOTTLE TO BUY: Absinthe Verte (starting at $23). Macerated…

CAIRNS Stacks of flat rocks that generally denote that you are (still!) on the correct path. ARROWS Fashioned using pebbles or sticks and laid out on flat surfaces, these pointers show you the right way to go. LOGS If large logs have been deliberately piled up across what otherwise looks like a viable footpath, do not continue. Some kind-hearted trail fairy is telling you that way leads to danger.…

Peanut shells crunching underfoot, the low buzz of 40,000 people verging on a home-run-induced freakout, the splash of purplish pink slowly fading to darkness behind the scoreboard in left field: When I was five years old, those were just a few of the reasons I fell in love with Coors Field. Growing up, I spent many summer evenings there with my dad. Each outing took a slightly different form. Some games we’d obsessively keep score; others, he’d rowdily share beers with friends while I gorged myself on too many plastic helmets’ worth of ice cream. Often, we just sat quietly, soaking in the familiar slap of ball hitting mitt echoing through the park. Now, in my late 20s, Rockies games have the same multipurpose place in my life. I spend…

At mile 14, the hail started. Deep in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, midway through a 26-mile run, my group sought shelter beneath a tree, trying to dodge ice pellets with little success and shivering in our windbreakers. When you have a standing date with Colorado’s high country, adverse weather is often part of the deal. So are incredulous looks from coworkers. You spent your weekend running? They don’t understand. Thankfully, I have a group of friends who do. Each Saturday morning, we don packs stuffed with food and water at the trailhead and stride deep into the wilderness, losing cell reception and gaining elevation. As we cover pristine singletrack, we forge camaraderie over hours of sweating above treeline. Every break, my camera captures the splendor, each photo recalling a conquered…

Our mountainous state inspires awe in its visitors—and a bevy of inquiries. When is X? What is Y? Where can we smoke Z? That’s why, on June 30, the Colorado Tourism Office will debut Colorado Concierge. The online platform will teach the basics of Centennial State hospitality, and it’s free for businesses whose employees might benefit. But what about the rest of us? After all, out-of-towners tend to direct their questions to the closest local in sight, making the Common Coloradan their unofficial tour guide. So we came up with a quick, albeit less official, quiz to test your general knowledge and ensure you’re not endangering tourists’ lives—or the more than $20 billion they spend here annually. 1 You overhear a family planning to start a Hanging Lake hike at…

On my second day visiting Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park with two colleagues, ranger Steve Kay took us to the North Rim. It was a bluebird April morning, and after checking in at the rustic ranger station, we wandered down to the edge of the canyon. There, we settled on a rocky ledge and gazed into the depths of the ancient gorge. Looking at the Black Canyon, it’s difficult to comprehend why it’s the least-visited national park in Colorado, and one of the least visited in the entire country. Part of that is likely because it’s only 20 years old—too young to have built the reputation of, say, Yosemite or Yellowstone. And part of the reason could be that it’s hard to get to. Sitting there with my…

A trip down Federal Boulevard treats motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians to one of the most culturally diverse corridors in the city—and also one of the most dangerous. The nine-mile stretch from I-70 in the north to U.S. 285 in the south bears a fatality rate nearly three times higher than the average urban Colorado road. Over the next five years, however, 21 different projects will aim to make Federal more pleasant and much safer. Here, five of the initiatives designed to safeguard one of the region’s most vital arteries. GIVING TREES W. Alameda Ave. to W. Mississippi Ave. Currently, there are only 18 lonely trees on this one-mile stretch. The South Federal Green Boulevard project, a partnership between Denver Public Works (DPW) and the Colorado Department of Transportation (Federal is…

THE FAVORITE Backpacker’s Pantry Outdoorsman Cincinnati Style Chili with Beef, $10 Overall Score: Flavor: 4 out of 5 Texture: 3.5 out of 5 Backpacker’s Pantry has adapted its original Cincinnati Chili meal into single-serving goodness (most of the Boulder company’s products feed two). Made with onion, clove, and cinnamon, the five-way chili resembles a chunky Greek tomato sauce—albeit one that longs for a spicier kick. “It had a surprisingly nuanced flavor and would be freakin’ hearty after a long day of trekking.”Sarah Boyum Associate Photo Editor THE MORNING FUEL Wild Zora Palisade Pineapple Mango, $11 Overall Score: Flavor: 3 out of 5 Texture: 2.5 out of 5 Wild Zora prepares special-diet packs, such as this paleo meal, in its Loveland headquarters. While the grain-free, flax-centric meal looks more like sludge…

You know the feeling, I hope: a slow-motion sense of wonder that marks the best eating experiences, when time stops and the universe collapses into the fundamental relationship between, say, a wild raspberry and a spoonful of yellow Jersey cream. I felt that several times recently at Frasca Food and Wine. One instance involved a faint hint of yuzu catalyzing Möbius strips of white asparagus and chunks of king crab. Another occurred when the fruity acid of Piennolo cherry tomatoes lent zing to wobbly fresh shellfish. A third contrasted the strange earthiness of crisp sunchoke chips with a resolutely bitter chocolate pudding. These were sexy flavor moves for an Italian joint that, at 15 years old, is middle-aged by restaurant standards. Since opening in Boulder in 2004 under owners Bobby…

30–120 Maximum minutes of sun exposure some sections of the canyon receive each day 2,722 The greatest depth, in feet, of the Black, found at Warner Point on the South Rim 450 Flow rate, in cubic feet per second (CFS), over which it is considered ill-advised to wade into the Gunnison River below the Gunnison Tunnel; the average flow rate for this part of the river is 973 CFS 500,000,000+ Years of age attributed to the majority of the exposed rock in the Black Canyon; the most identifiable is pink-hued pegmatite, visible on the Painted Wall 1,100 The width, in feet, between the walls at the narrowest point at rim level 2,250 The height, in feet, of the Painted Wall, the tallest cliff in Colorado 10+ Degrees, in Fahrenheit, hotter…

Although the pine-log fencing and stone stanchions look sturdy enough, visitors tend to approach them with a certain level of apprehension at first. As well they should. Almost all of the 20 or so scenic overlooks in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park allow visitors to inch their ways right up to the precipice, a position that simultaneously makes one feel like she is flying and falling. For the vast majority of parkgoers, spending a day driving along South Rim Road—stopping at the visitor center and spots with promising names like Devils Lookout, Chasm View, and Painted Wall View (pictured)—is what visiting Black Canyon is all about. That is, of course, no different from how huge percentages of visitors experience Arches National Park in Utah or Yellowstone National Park…

There were only 1,128 chances to access the Black through its super-secret back door in 2019. And if you haven’t already secured one of those spots, you’ll have to wait until December for your next attempt at the Red Rock Canyon lottery. Red Rock Canyon is located near the South Rim, but access requires traveling through private property. As such, the park has worked with land owners to allow limited passage to one of the more gradual routes leading into the canyon within the park. At 3.4 miles long with a vertical drop of only 1,330 feet, the unmarked “trail” isn’t leisurely, but backpackers and anglers carrying gear greatly prefer the milder grade. To have a shot at one of the route’s two campsites and two miles of river access,…

Come June, most evenings my husband, our Lab/border collie mix, Rigby, and I are parked on our Berkeley front porch by 5:30, watching the dog promenade along West 46th Avenue. The schnauzer is usually the first act—a little gray-and-white-haired thing attached to a leash held by a little gray-and-white-haired woman expertly navigating the sidewalk’s panels and cracks. Often our neighbors, a young family of five—if you count Oscar the Bernese mountain dog, as we do—stop to chat in the yard. Between the parade of huskies and Dobies, my husband and I share nuggets about work or developments with family and friends. It’s an intentional ritual, one born of wedding-day advice from a friend: “Be diligent about going through the details of each other’s day, every evening. Because in a spouse,…

AROUND THE TIME MOST OF HER FORMER MOUNTAIN VISTA HIGH SCHOOL CLASSMATES WERE MOVING INTO THEIR FRESHMAN DORM ROOMS, MALLORY PUGH WAS PACKING A SUITCASE FULL OF TOO MANY SNACKS AND NOT ENOUGH CLOTHES AND BOARDING A FLIGHT BOUND FOR BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil. There, inside the great concrete bulkheads of Estádio Mineirão, where her hero Ronaldinho wrung the last drip of glory from his career, Pugh’s was waiting to begin in earnest. The U.S. women’s national soccer team won its first two matches of the 2016 Olympic Games, both in Belo Horizonte, then flew north almost 1,600 miles to Manaus for its third. A jungle metropolis, Manaus is a city of about two million buried in a billion acres of rainforest. It’s at once urban and exotic, home of the Amazon…

SETH K. HUGHES Photographer A photographer and filmmaker who uses Denver as his home base, Seth K. Hughes thrives on travel and adventure. “My goal is to tell inspirational stories that encourage others to enjoy and protect our natural wonders,” he says. So when Hughes began photographing Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (“Sheer Beauty,” page 66), he wanted to capture the full experience—large, dramatic landscapes and up-close details. He also hoped to catch the light and shadow of the place just right. “The Black Canyon is a vast, enthralling environment,” he says. “We were up early shooting at sunrise, resting at midday, and then out again for sunset and the blue evening twilight.” Find more of Hughes’ work in Elevation Outdoors and Backpacker. HALEY GRAY Writer Boulder freelance…

Legendary downtown watering hole Shelby’s Bar & Grill’s last call. The tavern will pour its final pint on June 23 before a Canadian developer scrapes the century-old building to make way for a pair of condo towers. The capacity of the Miami venue hosting the first Democratic presidential debate (June 26 and 27). No word on how many of the 21 candidates will be there, though Colorado’s John Hickenlooper confirmed he’ll participate. Whether DaVita employees will be as happy (and DaVita customers as angry) under new CEO Javier Rodriguez, who takes over for the controversial Kent Thiry on June 1. If anticipation will make the payoff even better: After avalanche cleanup kept the Maroon Bells Scenic Area closed longer than planned, the site finally reopened on May 24.…

Four years ago, Will Montague and Matt Giaraffa watched as carbon-fiber mountain bikes—which are both strong and light—became the latest rage. From their vantage point at Guerrilla Gravity, their small bike shop in Jefferson Park, they saw two problems with the sport’s newest trend: At the time, most companies outsourced the labor-intensive production to Asia, and the few that did assemble the parts stateside charged dearly for it, selling frames for $3,000 to $5,000. Montague and Giaraffa decided they could learn how to produce made-in-the-USA models for less than major brands. First, they found a tougher carbon-fiber composite used in airplanes. Then, Giaraffa, who has a mechanical engineering background, spent three years tinkering with manufacturing techniques and ultimately came up with a process that involves more automation and 80 percent…

It’s been nine long years since a Front Range chef has played a starring role at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen (June 14 to 16), mainly because no Colorado toques have been named to that magazine’s Best New Chef class since Alex Seidel earned the honor in 2010 for his cooking at Fruition. But by making it onto the prestigious list in April, chef-owner Caroline Glover (pictured) of Annette—an intimate, two-year-old, wood-fire-based New American restaurant in Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace—became one of 10 acclaimed young chefs headlining the posh culinary festival. If you’ll be there, you can toast Glover’s success when she cooks for attendees at the Grand Tasting tent. Otherwise, celebrate with Glover and her team (whom she credits for the honor) by dining at Annette instead. Its…

The Gunnison Expedition Who: John Gunnison When: 1853 Mission: Gunnison and Co. were sent by the U.S. military on a crusade to survey a railroad route between the 38th and 39th parallels, from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Result: The party traveled along the Arkansas River, navigated the rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and crossed the Continental Divide before coming upon what was then called the Grand River and its intimidating canyon. Gunnison (pictured above) wisely declared the gorge impassable and led his team around the South Rim. For The Record: In what was the first written description of the Black, Gunnison deemed the terrain “the roughest, most hilly and most cut up” he had ever seen. The Bryant Expedition Who: Byron Bryant When: 1883 Mission: The Denver…

THIS OUTRAGEOUS SORENESS IS WHAT IBUPROFEN WAS MADE FOR GUNNISON ROUTE Distance: 1 mile Vertical Drop: 1,800 ft. The park’s most-trodden trail, this path is accessible from the South Rim visitor center. That doesn’t mean, however, that it is a walk in the (national) park. LONG DRAW Distance: 1 mile Vertical Drop: 1,800 ft. Also known as Devil’s Slide, this short but sheer passage from the North Rim asks hikers to crawl down boulders, some of which can be loose. S.O.B. DRAW Distance: 1.75 miles Vertical Drop: 1,800 ft. This is the North Rim’s version of a beginner’s trail. It’s still arduous, and missteps can be literal ankle-breakers, but the real issue is poison ivy. TOMICHI ROUTE Distance: 1 mile Vertical Drop: 1,960 ft. A scree field from rim to…

To be honest, I just didn’t believe him. No matter how earnest and knowledgeable he seemed, the park ranger’s assertion that one could hike to the bottom of the Black Canyon seemed absurd. With ropes? I asked. Or maybe a parachute? With a gosh-golly-gee-whiz demeanor, he explained that someone with my fitness level could do it, no problem. Roughly 15 years—and four trips to the canyon—later, I was finally ready to test his claim. I was a decade and a half older, but my physical condition was still above average (although I’m not a marathoner or anything). I had done the research. I had donned the right footwear; invited a hiking partner; topped off our water bottles; and filled my daypack with the necessities of backcountry travel. I had spent…

1. Head for the Hills’ Say Your Mind The latest EP from this Fort Collins triad packs bluegrassy, sitting-around-the-campfire vibes so powerful you’ll almost forget you’re sitting in I-70 traffic. headforthehillsmusic.com 2. Wild Basin Boozy Sparkling Water Oskar Blues Brewery’s carbonated concoctions are made with H20 from the St. Vrain River, and the refreshing flavors (melon basil, lemon agave hibiscus) make pulling weeds way more fun. wildbasinboozywater.com 3. The Daymoon by Encounter Hat Co. Keep the sun off your face in music festival style—even if your only destination is Home Depot. Encounter’s felt hats are custom-made in Denver. encounterhatco.com 4. Lollia’s This Moment perfume A quick spritz of Centennial-based perfumery Lollia’s new fragrance (which features delicate notes of sun blossom and water lily) means you can breathe in the scents…