Bleary-eyed

It's been a long weekend, not over yet.

Friday we went to the Michael Martin Murphey concert at the Cortez Elks Lodge; it was a benefit for Hospice of Montezuma. We enjoyed it greatly; this is the third time we've seen him perform. At the end of the show, they announced that he'll be playing the Mancos Opera House again this November, as he did last year.

That kept these old birds up late and then we had to be up early for the 9 a.m. start of the La Plata Paw up in the mountains above Mancos. Same thing on Sunday.

Truly, though, it was a GREAT weekend! Both days were bright and clear and cold - perfect weather for dog-and-snow sports ... mushing with 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 dogs, skijoring (1-3 dogs pulling a person on skis) and cani-cross (human on snowshoes with 1 or 2 dogs). The Paw sponsored by the Colorado Mountain Mushers Association, is a fun event, not NASCAR mushing with sled-jockies, as I heard them described. There's people who are pretty good with dogs that are pretty experienced and there's beginners of just about all ages, both dogs and people. Some of the dogs are pretty good at towing their people uphill, some of the dogs like it the other way round ... let the human do the work!

And there was a doggie parade in town, plus the Wolves at Heart art contest that Veryl Goodnight promoted, including sponsorships by her gallery and lots of other downtown businesses. All in all, the events involved lots of local people, garnered about 30 entries in the competitions (107 kids' drawings) and made it a fun weekend for us all. Not only that, I think it helped the sales in the downtown businesses.

The weather couldn't have been better. In the top picture, that's the Canyon of the West Mancos beyond one of our neighbors, with Sharkstooth Peak in the distance, part of the La Plata Mountains. In the other direction, from some locations on the trail you could clearly see Ute Mountain ("The Sleeping Ute").

But, after looking at pictures of dogs for three days, they're all beginning to look the same! tv