TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2011 Vol. 133, No. 12 The Voice of Salida and the Upper Arkansas Valley 50 cents

Monarch Mountain

hosts open houseSee page 3

Christo and Jeanne Claude

exhibit shows at SteamPlantSee page 2

Summer

begins

Spencer Lacy, 19 of Boul-der, might have set a record during FIBArk this year with participation in 12 land and water events throughout the weekend.

By Monday, Lacy said he wasn’t sure about a record, but, “I know back in the day they didn’t even have 12 events.”

“I know I’m a pretty good kayaker and a pretty good runner and a pretty good biker, but I’m not amazing at any of them – I wanted to win the competition of doing the most events,” he said.

FIBArk race d i rec tor and former board member Ed Loeffel said he doesn’t believe “any single individ-ual has ever participated in more events in one edition of FIBArk.”

Thursday, Lacy competed in the downriver sprint, the stand up paddleboard cross event, the Tenderfoot Hill Climb, and the raft rodeo.

Lacy said he “only did one event” Friday – the downriver classic. He said the downriver was “fun” but added he didn’t feel very well because he tired

himself out doing four races the day before.

Saturday, Lacy took part in five events beginning with the 5k road race. His father, Gary Lacy, ran the 5k with him and said afterward Spen-cer “literally ran for the start of the slalom races.”

After the slalom, Spencer competed in stand up paddle freestyle, the head to head downriver sprints, and hooli-gan race.

Spencer said he “did best” in the two events he entered Sunday – the 10k trail run and the 26-mile downriver race.

“I’m better at long distance stuff. I have endurance. I’m not that good at sprinting,” he said.

Spencer said he looked at the FIBArk schedule and planned events that could work for him. The only other event he might have been able to do would have been the freestyle kayaking events, but “the main time for that was Saturday and I already had five events.”

He said it was hard to do “super well” in any one event when he did so many. Mon-day, Gary said every time he saw Spencer during the

weekend he was either “run-ning up a mountain or down the river.”

Spencer said his favorite sport is kayaking and added, “I love being on the water in any way.”

Last year he was a fresh-man at Colorado State Uni-versity and Spencer said his Nordic ski team was the AA champion.

His father, Gary, holds for-mer record for most wins in the downriver kayak race. Spencer said he “got us involved in everything we do.”

Spencer said he is “stoked” he won $100 in downriv-er racing and added he has never before won any money. He said he was tired from weekend events and excited for FIBArk next year and a “super sweet” summer of kay-aking this year.

He will “definitely” do 12 events again Spencer said, and added it would be hard to do more than 12. His plan is to train hard for the down-river and do the other events “for fun.”

Following in the paddle strokes of his father, Spen-cer said he wants to win the 26-mile downriver marathon “sometime.”

Photo by Ericka Kastner

Spencer Lacy of Boulder surfs the office wave in the stand up paddle freestyle competition

Saturday afternoon at FIBArk. The competition was among 12 events in which Lacy took part

during the weekend. FIBArk race director and former board member Ed Loeffel said he doesn’t

believe “any single individual has ever participated in more events in one edition of FIBArk.”

by Ericka KastnerMail Staff Writer

FIBArk athlete participates in 12 land and water events

A quick poll of several F Street merchants Monday, showed business was, for the most part, good, during FIBArk festivities, with Sat-urday being the busiest day.

Karen Van Note at Drag-onfly Gifts, experiencing her first year of FIBArk in a downtown location, said busi-ness was good, with Saturday being the best day. Sunday was “about normal” and Fri-day was better than normal.

Wendy Freeman at Seasons Celebrations said business was “a little better” last year. She estimated sales were down only about 5 percent.

“Our busiest time of the year is the last eight to ten weeks,” owner Cheryl Haga said.

A few doors down, at Sim-mering Cup, Melanie Thomp-son said she couldn’t compare to last year, but business was “really good” during the week-end with Saturday being the busiest.

Tenderfoot Tavern experi-enced “one of the best years we’ve ever had, although last year was a little better,” bar-tender Elizabeth McFain said. “Business was great and we had no fights at this bar,” she said.

Headwaters Outdoor Life-styles also described business as good, with sales up from last year.

“The entire weekend was busy,” owner Matt Landry said. “Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all busy and we had a nice crowd. We stayed open until people quit coming which was about 10 p.m. Sat-urday.”

A s h l y n S t e w a r t , a n employee at Kaleidoscope Toys, worked Sunday dur-ing FIBArk weekend and had worked the same shift last year and found both years equally busy.

“I heard Saturday was busy and it was still busy Sunday,”

Stewart said. “We had a lot of kids with parents and grand-parents and a lot of people were asking for information about the events.”

However, by Sunday after-noon things were obviously slowing down and one custom-er commented, “when FIBArk is over, it sure is over.”

Lisa Marvel at The Book Haven, had two things going, the store and a book signing by Beth Groundwater near Boat House Cantina.

“Beth’s signing was very suc-cessful,” Marvel said. “and we had crowds at the store both days, particularly Saturday, but Sunday was good also.

“It was interesting that two years ago we did better at Art Walk than FIBArk and last year FIBArk was better. This year I can’t tell yet.”

Mac Rebant, co-owner of Vital Living, described busi-ness as slow.

“Most of our customers are local,” Rebant said, “but we did have a lot of foot traffic.”

Linda Frances at Four Winds Gallery, said she is looking forward to the upcom-ing Art Walk weekend which is better for art galleries.

“I had a lot of inquiries about events during FIBArk,” she said, “but not a lot of business. However I did hand out a lot of Art Walk advertisements lead-ing into the coming weekend.”

by Arlene ShovaldMail Staff Writer

Merchants report good FIBArk sales

“We had a lot of kids with parents

and grandpar-ents and a lot of

people were asking for

information about events.”

– Ashlyn Stewart Kaleidoscope Toys