Yarmony
In the Middle of August, the banks of the Colorado River ran heavy with the presence of a hippy commune. Lured by the aspect of music performance, camping, and tubing down the Colorado River while listening to a floating band – a group of 5 adventurers wandered deep into the lifestyle of the gypsy hippy.
The night before the rompus fun activities of YARMONY would begin, the team of sturdy explorers made their presence in the outskirts of the town of Montezuma. The area is not for the faint of heart, and if you can’t kill of bottle of the fieriest of whiskeys, you are run out of town. (The towns’ folk do not take kindly to anything MCHAMMER-ish). The stalwart group quickly ravaged the forest surrounding and made haste to build an all-consuming fire. The flames of a 100 year old stump licked the freshly caught salmon that were slayed by the colossal northwest warrior Eli. Seasoned with the finest spices from the corners of the earth, we feasted on the flesh building strength for the trials to come.
In the morning we, set forth for the mighty Colorado River. Traveling through several ever changing climate zones, ranging from impenetrable coniferous forest to desert plateaus, we reached the oasis of hippy-dom. Nestled in a canyon on the corner of the river, seas of tents laid before us. Quickly we battled for prime restate, gaining tactical festival advantage.
We were quickly assimilated in the hippy environment, making friends with various groups and classes of hippies. They ranged from classic hippies from the 60’s, to yuppie hippies from Boulder, to the dirty grimy nomad festival hippies, to the regular looking people with a hippy vibe. We took to the river and quickly made friends from a river boarding tribe. They let us try their preferred form of travel, “the river paddleboard”. Like large surfboard, this board glides over and through the river and rapids. This troop just happened to be the festival organizers as well. We chilled with them for a while and floated in our tubes drinking the finest libations of the famous Brewery Pabst. Caught in a huge eddy of the Colorado we drifted for hours in the raging currents.
Afterwards, beaten from the river we made our way back to the camp. We were then presented with the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich from a neighbor lady. This sandwich would have rivaled any delicatessen. It had everything, wholesome bread, the finest cheese, and lightly roasted chilies. Upon gorging ourselves we passed out before the nightly activities began.
Woken by the sounds of rhythmatic jam band music, I stumbled to my feet, only to be absorbed in a world of fire and light twirling. The hippies came out at night, bringing with them all of their fantastical toys and trinkets.
Quickly the fields filled with swaying and bouncing bodies, infectious music from “Railroad Earth” filled the air and quickly latched itself onto the minds of each person. The happy tunes of their song “Colorado” sent everyone off into cheerful mood of singing. Hullahoopers were abound in the fields dancing to the music. The night quickly blurred with only pictures to fill in some of the gaps.
The troop packed up in the morning, each car setting off for separate destinations. One car head for destinations unknown, the other to the mountain of Keystone for battle mountain biking.
Next time I visit, I want to go to the “hippie” festival.