The self-reflection a hearty breakfast can bring after four-days of binge drinking and making promises you’ll probably never keep can be a sobering, life-changing experience. At the La Plata County Search & Rescue Breakfast on Sunday, the fifth and final day of Snowdown, the feeling was no different.
One brave soul recalled Snowdowns past, which included lasting memories of urinating in a church parking lot, spending $500 dollars and going on seven dates in five days, and waking up in a stranger’s bedroom. All indications of a good time, he said, yet, this particular room had a baby’s crib next to the bed.
“The baby wasn’t in it though,” he said. “It was a dark time in my life.”
This year was more tame, the Durango man, surviving his fourth Snowdown, said. But was it a sign of maturity? A coming of age story?
“I think it was just being broke.”
Ron Corkish, president of La Plata County Search & Rescue, said the annual breakfast fundraiser was well beyond its 25th year with food donated by Carver’s Brewing Co. This past search-and-rescue season was about average, with 32 to 40 calls, a majority of which were horse-related accidents.
“We get the occasional call of someone being lost at the Ranch,” Corkish said, laughing.
La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith, also enjoying breakfast on Sunday, said the department responded to about average calls all over the county: most of which involved alcohol.
“That’s what Snowdown is: people getting drunk, and some of them not making good decisions,” Smith said.
Update at 2:45 p.m.
The “Hottest Dogs and Coolest Cats” of Durango, in a rare display, actually gave back to their owners on Sunday, winning gift certificates at Durango Dawg House for the best costumed photos.
Loki, an 8-year-old old pug donned as the Frito Bandito, was one of three dogs who took home the $100 first-place prize. His owner, Guy Gervais, said the picture was taken on a fishing boat in Minnesota.
“There was a straw hat laying around, and we put it on him and it fit,” Gervais said. “He just stuck his tongue out at us.”
Boots, the feline first-prize winner, did not relish her victory.
“She was pissed,” Boots’s owner Alicia Hanson said.
“She’s always pissed about something,” Ron Friedenberg said.
Boots was dressed as an 1980s punk as opposed to the cliché bright colors and workout gear most Snowdowners fashioned off the past four days. Hanson said the winning photo was a stroke of “magic” given Boots’s agitation throughout the photo shoot.
“She’s a little (expletive),” Hanson said. “But I’m going to go home and say, ‘Thank you Boots. I know you hated it.’”
jromeo@durangoherald.com
