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We are now so hip our nearby peak Mount Sopris is on the cover of the latest National Geographic Adventure, and our city of Carbondale is featured as “Where to Live & Play NOW” in their list of the “50 Next Great Towns.”
Yipee? Well, we do like where we live, but these published lists of “best” towns are somewhat of a yawner. After all, you can find plenty of other nice towns if you do much travel. More, consider the “National Geographic Syndrome,” wherein they publish a terrific place that’ll now be overrun and commercialized — not to mention becoming super expensive (if it isn’t already).
We have no lifetime investments other than the house we toiled like dogs to buy and renovate ourselves. Thus, I’m not minding our property values going up (though I had to laugh when a Carbondale miner’s shack that’s rotting into the ground with no foundation recently sold for nearly three quarters of a million dollars). But my joyful greed is tempered by knowing younger friends who can’t buy into the free market here without giving up nearly everything in life — and bribing a loan officer. So I’m not dancing in the streets when we’re listed as “great” by some magazine (though I’m glad we beat out Boulder and Jackson, and agree that Lander should be on the list.) Website here.
Back to the National Geo cover photo. They did sneak in a bicycle, but the featured gear is a Jeep. I guess they’ve been reading WildSnow.com? Chuckle, the least they could have done was picture a Prius like I saw the other day, sagging under the load of double roof boxes and a rear bicycle rack. That would have been much more appropriate to National Geo’s image, as well as Carbondale’s (who both shout green like they’ve got Al Gore stickers pasted on their foreheads). But then, reality strikes. Jeeps and other SUVs are as much a part of the “adventure town lifestyle” as are full suspension mountain bikes and yoga pants, right?
Remember to check in tomorrow for another “Name that Historical Mug” contest. Free pack.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
