2 minute read
Contents Departments
On The Cover
Après revelers toasting the day’s adventure in Steamboat. Photo by Ben Duke, Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp.
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5 | Boat Bites
A very large Alaskan phallus; bars we’ve lost; the Fox—Steamboat’s newest bar; skiing in the buff at Bluebird; the SHRED Act; snowpack stats; microwrestling comes to Oak Creek; bears waken at Sunlight; a reality show hits Routt County; Hollywood’s Paramount dishes out free drinks; dancing lessons from the sage grouse; and, believe it or not, more!
15 | Munchies
Weird food names; food truck roundup; top hot dogs in the ‘Boat; inside The Commons; Steamboat’s new Boatyard; dirtbag charcuterie; and more.
22 | Bevvies
Slopeside bartendress Brittany Kohler; off-beat Happy Hours; Meet Mythology, Steamboat’s newest distillery; inside Truffle Pig’s Tequila Dinner pairing; and town’s brewery roundup.
30 | The Straight Dope
Blue Heron budtender Kelly Chesna; dispensary roundup; dope-elgangers; Billo launches a “Cultivated Cuisine” event; and strains explained.
34 | Off The Couch
Pickleball Town USA; SUP tips; locals’ favorite rides; First Friday Artwalks; and more!
38 | Party Time
All Happy on the Western Front: Swillin’ & Chillin’s Happy Hour roundup; tips for backyard bashes; town’s top patios; and more!
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Tunes
Summer music scene; catching up with DJ Whoski; confessions of a WinterWondergrass player and Jay Roemer unplugged.
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Grateful Gear
Sleepwear from Chill Angel; a new pack from Big Agnes; Creek Co.’s new 9’8” fishing craft; and apparel from 970.
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Letter from the Editor
It hit me while surfing the A-Wave on the Yampa this spring: We live in a pretty sweet town. Because there to my right (facing upstream because I was surfing), on the face of Howelsen were my ski tracks from earlier in the morning, etched into the hillside. Look closely and you could probably also see the paw prints of our dog, Banjo.
Not that the tracks were that great…instead of powder, they were carved into corn, sinuous curves of white weaving into the brown canvas of March’s dust storm. And they were tight, old-school turns, three to every one of a more accomplished carver. But they were mine, nonetheless. It’s not that my surf was anything to brag about, either—just routine carving back and forth across the wave, and not nearly as impressive as the rides by the board surfer next to me in the eddy.
But it gets better. Between my wake on the wave and tracks on Howelsen was a fly fisherman just below the bridge, casting nymphs into an eddy seam, as well as a skateboarder metronoming back and forth on the Howelsen skate park halfpipe, at times his cadence matching both my carves and the casts of the intrepid angler. With the afternoon sun making us all aglow, as well as onlookers and bicyclists on the bridge and snow-covered slopes of Mt. Werner in the distance, it created a scene any Chamber of Commerce should seize upon. Capture it all in the same video frame and the phone would likely start ringing.
Later, on another wave downstream, my eyes glanced upward toward the mountain, staring at the new lift line going up Mahogany Ridge, trying to eye lines I had skied over the winter and where, exactly, I had dropped into Fish Creek in the new maze of glades. Then top it all off with this: a full moon rising like a giant golf ball over Mt. Werner, the dot on the exclamation point of the day. And lest I forget, all this took place on a routine “work” day, with the commute for the activities taking less time than it did to make a PBJ for lunch.
After drying off in the parking lot and taking one last look at the mountain, I headed home realizing we do, in fact, have it pretty good here in ol’ Steamboat. We’re trying to make it even better, of course, with each issue of Swillin’ & Chillin’—helping show you where to head out in this great town of ours. But as far as our outdoor pursuits, you don’t have to head far. There are trails, rivers, ponds, bike paths, golf courses, ski slopes and more, all just a paddle splash away—as well as plenty of places to swill and chill afterward as you celebrate your day and plan the next.
