Telluride Bluegrass Festival

I had a whole summer's worth of fun in four days at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival last week Telluride is a little village tucked away in an incredibly beautiful mountain box canyon with two waterfalls at the end of the canyon. The normal population of the town is 2300, but during the festival at least 11,500 people are added to that. If you would like to read more about it, here is the link: http://www.bluegrass.com/telluride/. I especially enjoyed Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Mumford and Sons, Emmylou Harris, and Robert Plant and his Band of Joy.

I camped at the high school, which was the family-friendly, extended quiet hours non-alcohol site. It was mostly families with children, retired couples, and middle-aged women in pairs or alone. I made many new friends, both at the campground and at the festival. I have e-mail addresses and intend to stay in touch. I even have a ride from Denver next year if I want one, and a contact with Frontier Airlines for standby fights out of Branson. Everyone I met was happy, friendly, and having a great time. Lots of tie-dye and dreadlocks, but also retired couples, young families, couples and even a few solos like me. I met a nurse from Lincoln, Nebraska, who thought I was brave to come alone, but I thought she was brave because she came with her two daughters.

I had a few challenges getting out of Telluride, however. Sunday night, when I was standing by the fence watching Robert Plant and his band, my water bottle, chair and bag disappeared. I had left these things at various places on the festival grounds all through the festival and no one touched them, but it was still careless of me not to have worn my little belt pack with the important things in it when I went up to watch the band. The important things I lost were: a credit card, my driver's license, cell phone, and the keys to the car my friend in Durango had so kindly let my borrow. Complicating the situation was the fact that I had broken camp that morning and my tent, sleeping bag, clothing, cash, other credit cards and bank card were locked in the trunk of a car I had no key for.

When I discovered my things were missing, I searched all around the area with no luck. I walked the mile back to the campground to see if perhaps friends had brought my things back for me, but that hadn't happened. When I was at the campground, a guardian angel in the form of Brent, a festival volunteer, took me under his wings. He walked all the way back to the festival grounds with me, took me into the warming hut where the lost and found was located, went out on the grounds with me and helped me search again, offered me clothing, food, cell phone use, and contacted a locksmith for me so I could get into the car and drive it back to Durango. While I was at the warming hut another volunteer, Sandy, found me a place to sleep, gave me a toothbrush and food, and tried to give me some money but I wouldn't take it. Sandy also found me a pair of reading glasses in the lost and found, without which I would have had a much harder time making all the phone calls and writing down the information I needed to write to straighten out this mess. I slept a few hours, then started making calls early Monday morning. I had to reschedule my flight, put a hold on my credit card, call people who were expecting me, and call my cell phone provider. About 12:30 the locksmith came with a set of keys for me and I headed down to Durango.

All the while I kept thinkng that in such a beautiful place with such wonderful music and kind, helpful people, no one would have intentionally stolen my things. Why would anyone even have wanted my old beat-up waterbottle and my chair which would have been wet and muddy from the rain that had started about 4:00 Sunday afternoon? My hope was that someone in a group had gathered things up to leave and inadvertently picked up my things too.

When I got a new cell phone in Durango and was able to access my voice mail, there was a message from my credit card company that someone had called them to report that he had found my bag in a pile of tarps. I have a name and phone number and am waiting to hear back. I am hoping to have him mail the important things to me on the trail.

I plan to start my hike some time tomorrow. My first town will be Breckenridge, which I hope to reach in 7-8 days. I will be able to get to a computer there for sure, so I will update then. There is a lot of snow still up in the higher elevations, so I'm not in a big hurry to cross over Georgia Pass yet.