Crested Butte Film Festival

"Third Bridge" made it into the Crested Butte Film Festival! Eric directed and I produced the project. Of course this called for a 5-day extended weekend trip to the mountains. As even more incentive, the festival was generous enough to pay for filmmaker housing, and provided us with VIP passes so every event and film was free. Our trip was Thursday-Monday, Sept 29-Oct 3. The fall colors were at their peak, and I ended up with nearly 10 Gigs of photos.

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/19143717

Sept 29
We headed through Buena Vista and over Cottonwood Pass, stopping for several photo ops on the way. Filmmaker accommodations were at the Nordic Inn, a homey little place in Mt Crested Butte, and one of the few we haven't stayed at before!

Lighting is key when shooting fall aspens

Mt. Crested Butte aglow at sunset

The sunset was spectacular as we drove down to Gunnison after checking in to the hotel. Caught the reception after the opening films at Western State, met a few people, and picked up our welcome bags and passes.

Rain curtains at sunset

Filmmaker SWAG bags!

Sept 30
Spent the morning driving down Kebler Pass and taking photos of the fall colors. Later headed up to Gothic (now I've seen it in every season!), and also tried for a few geocaches in town.

Shooting fall colors on Kebler Pass

Aspen Groves along Kebler

Eric at the base of a mining headframe

Nearing Gothic, colors at their peak!

Got back by 4pm for the Kickoff Party at Brick Oven Pizza. Headed over to the mountain theatre for the 5:30 showing of "Play Again" preceded by a short called "Scrapertown." Play Again was a documentary about taking technology addicted teens into the wilderness on their first outdoors experience.

Film Fest Reel

Kickoff party at Brick Oven Pizza

Unfortunately we didn't have time for another showing before heading to the Filmmakers party at Montanya Distillers. The festival was quite generous with free drink tickets at all the events. Finally met a few of the filmmakers there since most of the people at the gatherings were VIP sponsors. Jacob Siegel-Boettner of "With My Own Two Wheels" was present, Denver-based Phil Mirabito and Ross Smith with their films, and Charlotte Barrett and Sean Fallon of the feature "Virgin Alexander." Also a few film representatives here and there.

A portion of the Filmmaker party

Oct 1
At Noon we had our first showing of "Third Bridge" with the Shorts II program. Got great response from the audience during the Q&A, and the theatre started a little empty but filled up nicely in good time. Next we went to the 3pm showing of "From the Ground Up" and "Back to Life." The first was about 9/11 firefighter's widows and the organizations they started to honor their husbands. "Back to Life" was a documentary on a group of severely injured soldiers from Iraq going on a week long rafting trip down the Grand Canyon.

Our first Q&A after the noon showing

More Kebler Pass trips

After those showings we had just enough time to drive out for some sunset photos, and return for the 8pm "Third Bridge" showing. More of a crowd this time, including several filmmakers we knew. Again we got lots of good feedback and questions, the most popular of which always seems to be "how can I find the bridge?" Later headed over to the VIP Party at Dogwood Cocktail Cabin for more socializing with fellow filmmakers!

A favorite photo spot, yup same truck as previous post!

Aspens and afternoon storms

Oct 2
Eric and I were scheduled to participate in the Filmmaker Talks at Rumors Coffee at 10:45 am. Festival director Michael Brody lead the discussion, and the other filmmakers talking were Phil Mirabito, Charlotte Barrett, Sean Fallon. At noon we headed over to see the Shorts I Program, and at 3pm "If a Tree Falls" a documentary about the Earth Liberation Front. For the 6pm time slot we debated between "Marwencol" or "Virgin Alexander," but eventually went to the latter since we knew the filmmakers Charlotte and Sean fairly well by this time. A good choice since apparently "Marwencol" is on Netflix anyway! Finally on to the last event, the closing party, at The Lodge in Mt. Crested Butte.

Eric shares his two cents at the filmmaker talks

Oct 3
Still looking for more fall photo ops, I headed out just before sunrise to a nearby location to finish filling up my memory card.

First light hits Gothic Mountain

Sunrise in the valley

Deciding to take our time driving back, we stopped at many geocaches and ran into two other teams caching. We usually only run into other cachers during FTF (first to find) runs, but we met a couple from the Springs, then a team of 3 on a daytrip, and ran into the first pair again at another cache later. One of the more fun stops was a hike to some alpine lakes along Cottonwood Pass.

Fall Colors on the drive home

Annual Colorado Trip

August is time for the annual Colorado getaway! August 12-15 were spent in Crested Butte, and we went to Cripple Creek for the 16-19.

Started off the first full day by feeding butterflies at the RMBL lab in Gothic. After lunch my aunt Carol was kind enough to bring us on a 4wd trip. My original interest was in returning to Elko Park, which we visited 8 years ago and is probably what really fed my interest in ghost towns. Unfortunatly it's one of those years the snow wasn't planning to melt on some roads. Instead we headed up to the unforgettable Paradise Divide. Took a different route on the way back down, and visited an old truck I remembered.

old wagon trail ruts

Maroon Bells behind Cinnamon Mountain

Paradise Divide

Had a bit more paint last time

The next day we hiked up a short ways to Judd Falls for a geocache there. If you continue on this trail it eventually goes to Aspen. We've hiked this route many times on previous visits, at least to the first and second river crossings. We skipped the Meridian Lake hike given the weather, and instead geocached around town and enjoyed the farmers market.

The day after returning from Crested Butte, we left for my second favorite of the Colorado mountain towns: Cripple Creek and Victor! What's there that could be so interesting? Of course, abandoned mining structures galore!

Headed straight west from Colorado Springs on the historic and allegedly haunted Gold Camp Road. It follows an old railroad line, and Teddy Roosevelt once said the scenery of this route "bankrupts the English language"

Gold Camp Road

Some remains we found of the old railroad

The next morning we went on the CC&V open pit gold mine tour. They brought us right down into the pit where they were working, and even into the operators room at the crusher.

CC&V mine

Mining equipment at the bottom of the pit

Largest truck they own

Back in Cripple Creek we went on the railroad tour which was very informative but I wish it were longer. Later spent some time in Mt. Pisgah Cemetery, and even found Mabel Barbee Lee and her parents there. She wrote "Cripple Creek Days" which is what inspired us to re-visit the town. The best comparison is to a little house on the prairie book, but based in a Colorado mining town.

Mining headframe

There is an incredible number of mining structures still standing in Victor, almost all of which you can go right up to. The CC&V mining company has been doing a lot of work to preserve the buildings.

Ore House in Victor

The day after, we started with a hike up poverty gulch, then visited the Old Homestead, which was the upscale brothel in 1900. Went on a scenic drive that afternoon down Phantom Canyon. It was very narrow, but Shelf Road is said to be much worse. Checked out Florence then took a peek at the Royal Gorge in Canyon City before continuing north on the gold belt tour.

An original bridge in Phantom Canyon

At one point we accidentally turned west, and decided to stop for a cache happened to be heading towards. This brought us to an incredibly scenic canyon at sunset. The trail lead to a waterfall and little known swimming hole.

The secret swimming hole

The great thing about visiting Cripple Creek on weekdays in the lack of people, there's a vast population difference on the weekends. Casino towns also tend to have cheap food, and Bronco Billy's has the 49 cent breakfast. There was a bit of a wait but we got immediate service by sitting at the bar in the middle of the casino.

Eric donates a few dollars

Cheyenne Frontier Days

For the final part of my summer internship at Robin Bond Media, I was given the opportunity to shoot 3D video at Cheyenne Frontier Days with Mike Kalush, who was the DP on the California trip in March. Shooting right beside the pro photographers was pretty much a dream come true, and the ‘unrestricted access’ VIP passes were equally enjoyable!

Bronc Riding

Tie-Down Roping

Eric and I spent three days there, July 26-28. Apparently hotel rooms were too competitive during the event to stay longer. When we first got to the fairgrounds, Mike brought us to the press trailer and we went over the camera.

Tough Guys Wear Pink!

Mike rented two Panasonic AG-3DA1's, a 20grand 3D camera. Shooting in 3D is rather complicated, and it takes much longer to set up every shot. The other people there were Henry, who edits in the trailer, Mike’s daughter Kira, and her friend Perri who were both doing producer work.

From the Chutes - you can see the Pit on the other side, at the base of the fence

On our first day shooting the rodeo, I was with Perri and Mike on the chute side, in the press area right where the bulls and broncs are let out. For the second half i joined Eric in the Pit, where we stayed for the full rodeo the next day.

View from the Pit

The Pit is an underground press area just inside the arena. You can only leave at half time, and are otherwise stuck down there until it’s over for safety reasons. Our camera is stationed right next to the live feed one for the big screen.

Right by the Chutes

In the Pit with the 3D cam - yup there's a cowboy dress code!

Great Sand Dunes

Eric's mom had put together a family camping trip for the 4th of July weekend. Of course, Eric and I were much more interested in exploring than anyone else, so we often ran off to find some adventures.

July 2
The first day we drove to 11 Mile Reservoir and set up the tents. I was rather unimpressed with the reservoir itself, but the area around it is definitely worth exploring. Eric and I hurried off as soon as we could to do just that. Along Tarryall road we stopped at Colorado's first geocache, then drove down some dirt trails to an old mine shaft.

ATV trails south of Tarryall

Circling the reservoir, we found our way into 11 Mile Canyon and a cache brought us on top of an old train tunnel for some magnificent views. Back at the reservoir again, we found the scenic Midland Trail for a sunset hike.

Old railroad tunnels in the canyon

The *very* scenic part of the reservoir

July 3
We all headed to Colorado Gators in the morning. Apparently the main use for the gators are as garbage disposals for the fish farm, but there sure are a lot of gators just for that. It's interesting they don't tape the gators mouths shut when handing them to tourists like they do in Australia.

At Colorado Gators with Eric's family

Don't worry, I held one too

At the Sand Dunes we set up tents, then Eric and I ran off to the dune field with the metal detector! Mostly we found bobby pins, but there were also some rusty screws.

Metal detecting on the Sand Dunes

A very rusted nail

Eric on the Dunes at sunset

July 4
Eric and I set out early for the short hike to Zapata Falls. You do have to wade a bit to see the falls itself. We also went up the trail quite a ways for some views of the dunes.

Zapata Falls - copyright Michael Carlson Photography

View of the Dunes and Sangre De Cristo mountain range

For the midday heat, we geocached in Alamosa, and drove through the wildlife refuge. There were some incredible dust devils in the area, and I never knew they got so strong or went so high! We found a network of dirt roads for an abandoned or never-built neighborhood, and went dust devil chasing. There were more vortices than I've seen all storm chase season, and we even went for a few intercepts.

Now that is one strong dust devil

Alamosa Fireworks for the 4th of July

July 5
Instead of going directly back to I-25 in the morning, our sights were set on the ghost town of St Elmo, west of Buena Vista. We drove just a little ways up the easy part of Tincup Pass for a geocache and some scenery.

St. Elmo ghost town

Tincup Pass