Day 2, Sugar Pine Ranch Rally

'Twas another beautiful day in the Mancos Valley, with more bikers streaming in, some from SW Utah. Of course, as I write this at 5:30 Saturday morning, they're all wet, having just been rained on for a half-hour. Today should be the peak day for attendance, and the rain has slacked off already.

A lot happened yesterday, both on- and off-site. I had to load these in two batches, so the chronology starts with the fourth picture down, as bikers head off into the Friday morning sun to do the San Juan Skyway scenic drive, etc.

Midday, hundreds of bikers came to the Rally at the Valley, an event with free burgers and hot dogs for the bikers and the residents of the Valley Inn Nursing Home on the north edge of Mancos. This started last year, with the first SPRR ... the rally coordinator is an executive of a corporation that runs this and several other nursing homes.

Several of the residents got rides with bikers; the one shown riding out of the drive, Daisy, just went from one biker to another ... she must have taken six rides!

In the afternoon, one of our favorite local duos, Kim and Chris Lindell, held forth in the beer tent for four hours, as beautiful clouds piled up over the La Plata Mountains on the eastern horizon.

Back to the top.

The evening band was the Lost Canyon Band, from Denver. It's ironic that just up the road a few miles is an area called Lost Canyon. They are one of the bands that played last year, too. Their LOUD music didn't divert the horses from their grazing in the pasture next door at sundown.

The band's program had an intermission ... for the Buns in Chaps event. The organizer, at left in white (it's held on her father's ranch), wanted last year to have something for the gals to match the wet T-shirt contest and pole-dancing for the guys' visual delight. So, she started a competition among guys with biker chaps. Here's an opening shot of Joyce and the owner of Blondie's Pub in Cortez, who donated a $500 check to the winner/possessor of the "best buns," as judged by a panel of eight women.

And that was Day 2. tv