{"id":2450900,"date":"2019-11-08T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T02:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/tony-vagneur-from-riding-horses-to-skis-getting-back-to-where-ive-been-all-my-life\/"},"modified":"2019-11-08T19:20:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T02:20:00","slug":"tony-vagneur-from-riding-horses-to-skis-getting-back-to-where-ive-been-all-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/tony-vagneur-from-riding-horses-to-skis-getting-back-to-where-ive-been-all-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Vagneur: From riding horses to skis, getting back to where I\u2019ve been all my life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Somebody mentioned it the other day, something like, \u201cI\u2019m finally back to being me,\u201d or \u201cback to where I am.\u201d Or something like that, a ballpark quote on my part, but it got me to thinking.<\/p>\n

That same day, a younger friend from the \u201970s who has spent the last two or three years teaching scuba diving down around Honduras made the remark that he was finally back in Colorado, the place where he really feels at home. Just in time for the most recent snow \u2014 he capitalized his remark by modeling a pair of scuff-toed cowboy boots with intricate designs, boots he hadn\u2019t worn in years.<\/p>\n

I heard the excitement in both of their voices, and actually felt some of it for them. How often do we get such a chance, and to speak it out loud for everyone to hear?<\/p>\n

Where would you go, if the picayune distractions of everyday life didn\u2019t seem to be holding you down? It doesn\u2019t have to be a physical journey \u2014 one can accomplish much with a relaxed mind.<\/p>\n

Almost every day, I drive Woody Creek Road, and most of where I want to be is right there. I\u2019d change a few things, maybe, but the way of life back when I was a kid keeps coming back, bringing memories that are precious but can never be lived again.<\/p>\n

Stringing out a herd of cows, from our ranch down to the Woody Creek stockyards, just across the D&RG tracks from the old Woody Creek Store and Post Office. How small that world seems now, but how large it was not only for a kid, but for my ancestors, as well.<\/p>\n

Running the cows down the alleyway, separating them by size, or sex, or age, and then pushing them up a ramp and into waiting railroad stock cars. The whistle of the train as it crossed the road at Gerbaz Hill gave us the alert she was on the way, and between the chuffing and clanging of its arrival and the bawling of the cattle, it created an excitement of a magnitude that seldom visited the sparsely populated canyon.<\/p>\n

And the ride home, our horses walking fast on the dirt road, dogs trailing alongside, imagining the smell of a fresh roast and onions as we approached the house, Mom knowing we\u2019d be hungry after leaving at daybreak.<\/p>\n

There were the teen years, riding Collins Creek or the Lenado grazing permits on my own, chasing headstrong Herefords up steep trails and perfecting my linguistic skills with profanity, wondering where the demarcation was between being a kid and an adult. The realization of the osmosis-like transition was a disappointment.<\/p>\n

There have been more recent days on East Sopris Creek, hunting down Black Angus cattle in blizzard conditions, or getting soaked in deluges of downpour. Better yet, possibly, swallowing the dust of a few that insisted on going the wrong way. Eating lunch in the shade of tall pines while sitting on a log that once stood tall, watching the horses graze.<\/p>\n

Cow Camp on a fall day, a foot of new snow on the ground, with wood to be chopped, ice to be broken and water hauled, and breakfast or dinner needing to be fixed. Ah, yes, sounds rugged, but soul inspiring. The snuffle of the horses as you throw some hay out makes the day bright, sun or not.<\/p>\n

Those big steam engines don\u2019t come to Woody Creek anymore, and my dad and granddad aren\u2019t there to teach me what I need to know, nor are those cows hanging out in Collins Creek or Kobey Park anymore, but the rest of it is still within my grasp. And it\u2019ll be there next summer, drawing me back to pack cattle salt and keep an eye on things.<\/p>\n

But first, there\u2019s that other mind-bending question of where have I been? Sliding down the mountain on a pair of fast boards, going for 1950s speed records in Thunderbowl with Don Stapleton, straightlining huge bumps in Snowbowl before corduroy grooming, running gates behind Gretl\u2019s (Bonnie\u2019s) with Anderl, getting first tracks down Walsh\u2019s on a huge powder day after we\u2019d blown the hell out of it with bombs.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah, this fall I\u2019ve already had three or four dreams of catching great air off well-positioned, powdered bumps on the steeps. Hopefully, there\u2019ll be enough snow to hit Trainor\u2019s this year with regularity, and a few hikes up the Bowl always keeps one in the game.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the tragedy, perhaps. Being from here, I have nowhere to go back to, no thrill of getting back to being me, for even further back than those days loading cattle at Woody Creek or riding the T-Bar on Little Nell, that\u2019s where I\u2019ve been all my life. And you can\u2019t change that, not even if you wanted to.<\/p>\n

Tony Vagneur writes here on Saturdays and welcomes your comments at ajv@sopris.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somebody mentioned it the other day, something like, \u201cI\u2019m finally back to being me,\u201d or \u201cback to where I am.\u201d Or something like that, a ballpark quote on my part, but it got me to thinking. That same day, a younger friend from the \u201970s who has spent the last two or three years teaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2450900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-06 21:26:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}