Idiots at the BV Gold Rush Days

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 12 and 13, 2023

We've been lucky to have a different festival every weekend since we started our one-month stay at Buena Vista (BV), Colorado. The first weekend we went to the Chaffee County Fair near Salida. The second weekend we went to Leadville's Boom Days. This third weekend we planned to spend both Saturday and Sunday in Buena Vista at their 75th annual Gold Rush Days. Saturday started out with rain showers all morning, so we didn't actually arrive until after 2:00.

We got there just in time to see how the toilet seat race worked (or didn't work). Four contestants were lined up at the start line--sitting on their toilet seats with two precarious little wheels underneath. Besides the problem of staying balanced on the little wheels, their only mode of propulsion were two toilet plungers. The kids struggled, and the only one that made it out of the starting blocks was one adult.

We had blue skies for a while. We must be summer sissies, because it felt hot in the sun with temperatures that never got out of the 70s. We stayed around for the live music and a little dancing on Main Street on Saturday. But the most popular part of Gold Rush Days was the Sunday burro race. We got there thirty minutes before the race started because we were now experienced burro racing fans. After watching the burro races in Leadville last week, it was fun that we recognized some of the racers. The streets of Buena Vista were lined with spectators anticipating the beginning of the race.

One of the fan favorites was the 75-year-old with the long white beard and his 29-year-old donkey. When Denisa took the picture of him and his donkey, he told another female that his donkey did like all the attention from the women--and so did he.

With ten minutes before race time, the burros and their runners began lining up. The emcee in charge encouraged the fast asses to make their way to the front of the pack, while the slow asses should head to the back of the line. We couldn't help but notice that a couple racers were in front of the line. Were they pacers? Were they not running the race?

No, their donkeys just don't play well with others and were a little too high strung to wait calmly in a crowd. They had to get behind the starting line right before the race started, and their handlers had a hard time hanging on to them for those few final moments before the race started.

Then the gun sounded, and they were off like a herd of miners heading out to find gold in them thar hills.

While racers could choose between a 15- and 22-mile race last week, all of the burros were going 13 miles at BV. It doesn't take long for 80 burro teams to get started. The old-timer was the last one down Main Street. Those 80 burros sure left a mess down the street.

We noticed last week in Leadville that a couple volunteers took a wagon and shovel and cleared the donkey poop off the street after the beginning of the race. But BV has a different method of cleaning the poop. They trick people into volunteering to clean up by making it into a competition. They pay $50 to the team with the most donkey poop in their trash bag. What idiots would fall for that scheme?

Meet the idiots! We figured that if we won we would make some cash, and if we lost we did our community service project of cleaning up the streets. So how does this race work? We wanted to know too. They provided the tools for picking up the poop, but some were better than others. The best tools were the furthest away from the start line, while the worst tools were the closest. One member of each of the teams lined up at the starting block. We happened to notice that we were probably twice as old as the rest of teams.

The gun sounded to start the race. The teams were in a sprint to choose the best clean-up tools. Mark chose the broom and the up-right-pivoting-dust-pan. He recognized that it wasn't as good as the snow shovel, but he didn't have to run as far to get it. 

The runners had to run all the way back to the starting line where their other team mates were waiting with the trash sack. Then teams worked to put as much donkey poop into their sack as possible before the time was up. The best area was obviously right behind the starting line where 80 donkeys had waited impatiently for the race to begin. We started there, but so did the snow shovel. There were teams with a spade shovel, iron manure fork, rake, garden shovel, flexible scoop fork . . . Mark was really good at running our implements, and Denisa was all right at holding the trash bag open. We had a fan in the crowd, and she took pictures of the idiots' technique.

Mark even stopped scooping poop long enough to smile, and she told us that she would meet us after the race to give us the pictures. How nice! You can never have too many pictures picking up poop!

After the easy poop piles at the starting line, the idiots spread out. Those donkeys pooped all the way down Main Street! Because most of the afternoon's events were along this busy street, it was important to pick up all the poop so people wouldn't be stepping in it. These teams were thorough, as the guy in charge kept encouraging us with phrases like "Every ounce counts!" We sprinted back to the start line just as time was up, proud that our bag felt pretty darn heavy. All the idiots lined up for the big weigh-in. They had an electronic scale ready to determine the winner. But even though they checked it right before, and restarted it twice, it refused to work.

So they ended up using three volunteers from the crowd to pick up each bag and determine which was the heaviest. We would have preferred to have seen the weight, but it was determined that ours was the third heaviest. A team from Colorado Springs took home the $50, and we'll just have to feel good about the exercise we got and the community service project that these two idiots participated in.

After a thorough hand washing, we went back downtown to the festival. We had already checked out all the vendors and information booths the day before. So we found some shade and waited beside that newly cleaned street for the return of the burros. For those not wanting to make the commitment to lead a burro 13 miles, they had block-long races going on.

They also had an ice cold dunk tank where the town's coaches and principals were taking turns getting dunked by their students. Food trucks were parked along the main route, but some of the local restaurants were closed. The Deerhammer cafe posted a sign that it wasn't serving food because apparently their workers would rather visit the festival instead of work today.

People started lining up along Main Street to stake a spot to watch the winners of the burro race. The 13-mile course ends back in town, after circling up and down rocky steep trails at high altitude. So we were amazed when the first two race teams showed up at the end of Main Street not far off a regular half-marathon pace. It was two local runners that have ran these races before, and they were running neck and neck.

It was almost a photo finish, but Yukon and Bob crossed the finish line a burro's nose ahead. We headed to the winner's circle to get pictures with half of the winning team. Bob was sitting in a chair resting, while Yukon was happy to take pictures. We found out that Yukon was a seasoned racers, and his owners have loaned him to good runners in different states. But today his owner ran with Yukon, and they won together!

The third place team came in, and she was giving her burro a big hug and kiss. While this was the skittish burro at the beginning of the race that almost knocked over the judges' table, he was calm at the end of the race.

That was a well-earned kiss because this team just won the burro race trifecta, with the fastest combined time in the three area burro races held the last three weekends. They raced well in Fairplay, Leadville, and now Buena Vista! Congratulations that a woman won the trifecta this year! There was rumor that she would be in the burro racing hall of fame soon. (We found that there is a little drama in the trifecta race this year. While a man from Leadville won at Fairplay and Leadville, he decided not to even show up at Buena Vista for some reason.)

Fourth and fifth place runners were also very close. But the young man with the little burro won by a nose for the $300 fourth place prize money. We know how much he got because he opened his prize envelope while we were standing beside him and his grandfather. 

We love meeting the locals and learning their stories. This young man was 15, and we saw him come in second place at the short race in Leadville last week. He barely lost, but only because he let his best friend race with this little burro and he used another burro last week. (We have a picture of that photo finish from last week too). He rewarded his burro with a carrot at the end of today's race.

This 15-year-old is part of a burro-racing family. His parents are both veterinarians, and they have four racing burros. His father came in 6th, and he confessed that he only did that well because he was trying to keep in sight of his son.

His mother and sister were also racing. We had to stick around to watch the mother cross the finish line because they were having a surprise 50th birthday party for her, complete with cupcakes for the crowd.

 Relatives brought signs with interesting 50th birthday wishes.

The birthday girl had quite a reception as she crossed the finish line.

We heard all about this interesting family from talking to the grandfather, who was now Mark's close friend. We might be idiots, but we were friendly idiots.

We watched around 40 of the 80 burro teams cross the finish line. Many times they came in packs, which seemed to inspire them to keep moving.

When running into a town full of cheering admirers, a solitary burro can freeze up and refuse to move. But most of these burros were running towards the finish line and the promised carrots at the end of the race. The temperature was all the way up in the 70's by this time, and we headed home after a second day at Gold Rush Days. We were just a little concerned about who was going to clean up all the donkey poop left from all those animals still finishing up the race. Maybe they can find some new idiots to clean it up.