I came as a young man, refugee from the plains.

Looking for higher ground.

The sun shines through the rain.

You're the mountain folks & old cow folks.

who found peace of mind I guess loving Mother nature makes you naturally kind.

Colorado, everywhere you go I'm in your shadow.

You're calling to me.

Colorado, The sun's melting snow.

Making the river flow to the sea.

This is about the most excitement you can have with your clothes on.

Adventure.

An unusual experience.

Or a course of events marked by excitement and suspense.

Okay, Sleddings the kind of thing, you never can do too much of it.

Especially when you see how happy it makes the dogs.

Racing with the dogs is there's lots of fun.

You don't get to go out and do combat with people on a regular basis, if you're, say, a clerk working in a store or someplace.

But when you get out on the trail with racing, it's who was smartest, who did the best, who did the most work?

Who's got the good dogs?

And that's the most fun, is trying to decide who did it right.

And how good you are this year compared to last year.

I used to be a computer guy for AT&T, $100,000 house and a brand new blazer.

and a Alpha Romeo I paid my insurance, paid my house payments.

All of it never equated to a success.

But you get far enough out on the trail, you mess up.

I mean, it's not it's survival, you know, it's not just success, it's survival.

We're at the 16th annual Granby Classic now.

16 years ago, all these people got together as a team and actually as a as a town and put together sled dog racing.

Well, the Colorado State Sled Dog Championships came out of that.

To me, having a having a dog sled team, it's like having your own junior high basketball team because you got all these kids out there and they're almost as smart as you are, but they don't have the experience that you do.

And then they get to a race.

And have never seen all these people and they have all this, you know, they just start their fears and all the things that the kid like kids in the junior high school have, they have all these, you know, all these people.

And once they get through it, they mature.

God put these dogs on the earth, with all that energy to run.

and we're giving them an avenue t o run.

And they love it.

I couldn't be happier about these young pups of ours.

And being around tourists, these dogs really, take to people.

Bred for 2000 years to be companions Youve heard of a three dog night?

three dog nights when it's real cold, you bring three dogs into bed with you and they keep you warm.

That's what these guys are all about.

Loving people and pullin sleds I guess it's just the rush of when you take off, you know, you can feel the power of the dogs and the strength and how fast you're going in the wind.

It's just everything.

And they can sense your excitement.

So it's kind of a unity, a feeling of one.

It's really loud out there with me, with the most of the mushers, They keep real quiet.

It's really nice silent out there.

You can hear the wind like up in the mountains where the wind blows through th e tops of the trees.

All you hear, the sound of the dogs.

You get oneness with a dog team.

They're in unison and you don't.

There's no noise.

It's just the sound of the feet in rhythm and the trail.

And that.

And the whole team is just just in, in a rhythm in front of you.

And the noise is their breath and their feet, and then everything around you.

Saw a quote once that, man is a dog's idea of God, and it kind of works out both ways.

They kind of think I'm a god, and as much work as I put into them, I might as well be praying.

So they're kind of a God to me.

Only those who experience truly live.

Back in 1783, these two brothers realize that when they built a huge fire, the smoke rose.

Little did they know, it was actually heat that was causing that to happen.

They figured if they could drape something over the top of it, the smoke would eventually lift it off the ground.

In those days they used women's dresses, which are made of silk.

There's a lot of material they could find.

For sure enough, these two brothers went out and built a huge platform.

On the platform they built a fire and sure enough off flying, they went.

Well, they were flying out over the countryside.

The farmers and the peasants.

They didn't know what this was.

They thought it was a demon from hell of some type.

So they would come out with their pitchforks and their clubs, and they would try to kill whatever this was when it landed.

That's why they started bringing along champagne We took off early in the morning for two reasons.

One is it's the calmness part of the day.

Mother nature has created a three hour weather window for us.

It starts at sunrise and goes three hours after that.

The calmest part of the day.

The second is it's the coolest part of the day.

It's much easier to fly a hot air balloon when the air temperature outside is on the cool side I didn't anticipate that it would be this calm.

And the views are just breathtaking.

On the ground, they're breathtaking.

These are even more so looking down at mountains that you were looking up at yesterday.

It's amazing.

The Irish got involved with ballooning, and they wrote a little prayer that we recite after each flight to assure that we all have a safe flight next time we fly and yall have a safe flight next time you fly.

Its called the balloonist prayer.

The winds have welcomed you with softness.

The son has blessed you with his warm hands.

You have flown so high and so well.

The God has joined you in your laughter and set you gently back again into the loving arms of Mother Earth.

Have you ever known the wonder of a June day in the clouds.

With a soft breeze gently tugging at your bark.

Known the joy of sailing.

Sailing over a mountain peak & town.

like a carefree run or joyous meadowlark.

Have you felt the downy softness of a cloud upon your cheek known the comfort of one pillow Beneath your arm.Known the thrill of drifting.

Drifting over endless seas of blue.

With a balmy breeze to blow caresses warm Snow white swans float out to meet you.

Crystal Palace's glide by.

Hazy dancers beckon to you from afar.

Rome may fall and the world may totter.

Does it matter to you now when your cloud skiff sails s o surely for a star.

Out of the old west come the thundering hoofbeats of what a lot of non cowboys want to take part in a cattle drive and a half dozen or so Colorado ranchers are happy to oblige.

We have an authentic working ranch in Sylvan Dale.

And what that means is that we we raise livestock about 150 cow calf operation of European bred cattle.

And these will be driving today up to the high country so they can summer pasture up there.

Many are our guest ranch regulars.

About nine years ago my secretary decided I needed a vacation.

She got 175 brochures from all the ranches in the southwest and picked this Silverdale ranch.

And on Friday afternoon, when I handed her her paycheck, she said, oh, by the way, she handed me an envelope back and said, here are your airline tickets.

Here's your reservation at the ranch.

You might as well go.

Everything's nonrefundable and you've already paid for it.

This is really the highlight of my year.

I look forward to coming out every 4th of July doing the cattle drive, while others, such as Bill Smith, face a new adventure.

My first week riding horses His wife started it all.

This is just the most beautiful place and I've always wanted to come out and do something with horses, and this is a place to do it.

He just wasn't sure he could make it, you know, just being a beginner and everything said, and I'm like, I'll stay home.

But daughters Rebecca and Julie had other plans.

And now the city slickers, as they laughingly call themselves, are part of the cattle drive gang led by boss Lane Stolz wranglers Stephanie Jeffs and Eric McDowell.

The ten mile trek began.

All right, guys, here we go.

Oh, get.

Hey, get one up in here.

Oh, oh, Where we going?

To the road.

What road?

R ight up here?

In a circle around one another.

You're getting too close.

This is great.

As I was a walkin one morning for pleasure, I spied a cow puncher riding along.

His hat was throwed & his spurs was a jingling as he approached me he was a singing this song yippie tie yie yo get along, little doggies.

It's your misfortune.

whoopie tie yie yo get along, little doggies.

For you know Wyoming will be your new home.

Early in the spring we round up the doggies and mark them and brand them and bob off their tail.

Round up the horses, load up the chuckwagon and throw the doggies upon the north trail.

Whoopie tie yie yo Get along, little doggies.

It's your misfortune.

and none of my own Get along.

you know Wyoming will be your new home.

I know that one's eaten too much.

This is a little different right now.

Here.

Whoa!

Hey!

Get out of there!

Oh, hey hey hey hey, Ouch!

This is it.

Is this the end?

Yes.

Yep.

Cow camp overnight in the wild, ten miles west and 3000ft higher than the restaurant and the restrooms.

And good stuff.

And I'll get in and help you get unsaddled.

and we'll turn your horses loose.

And just in time for.... How do you like your steak?

Medium, And potatoes.

Keep it simple.

Yes.

And we go beans and beans.

Beans?

No.

No food, no beans.

Beans.

No beans.

we're going to need serious help with dessert, okay?

No harm to help you, aren't you Dutch?

No, I'm not, I'm polish.

I thought Dutch.

I thought for sure you were.

Youre cooking with a Dutch oven Oh, no, I am Polish.

It came with their.

Well, the person that sits on this will be a waffle.

Is that clear?

We're going to stick it over here by this hammock.

Good job.

Yeah, yeah.

Coming up here to cow camp.

This is one of my favorite places in the whole world.

I'm riding the wild rapids because I'm an adventurous type of guy.

I like to live life on the edge.

So riding the rapids, I'll try.

Those untamed waters waters are dangerous as could be But even the thought of all that couldn't stop me.

The fun begins.

Oh yeah.

Oh.

There are a lot of people that come out rafting that I think for some reason or another, don't think they're going to get wet.

And it gets pretty obvious once you're out there.

My name's Todd Olson.

My nickname is Mr.

Toad.

I've been a raft guide, in this area for almost 20 years.

I teach skiing in the winter, and Aspen.

And this is, a great little, job for the second half of the warm part of the year up here.

Rivers kind of make everybody mellow.

You get out and, you know the fact that we're in the mountains and the water here, and I think everybody gets a little sense of the outdoors, adventure and all that.

Okay, let's have everybody paddle forward, gang.

Yeah.

Keep going.

Couple more good strokes.

Yeah.

You know, adrenaline's a great thing.

Adrenaline is fun.

That's good.

Relaxing, hang on.

I would say myself personally.

And we have high water and, we're doing rafting runs.

You gonna end up with some sort of an adrenaline run if you don't.

Something's wrong.

There's always, you know, there's something in each season that's part of, you know, the job is being out here exciting, meeting a lot of fun people that just.

There's a little something every day that is a little exciting and gets you.

This is a fun little break for all the rafters.

They just come in here and stew in their own juice and stuff.

Oh, I've never seen this before.

Yeah, that smells awful But it's good.

you've got skiing, you've got things like this, hot springs It's heaven and earth.

They take them on the river, and it's a really great way for them to slow things down and look at the canyon, and we can point things out to them.

I have some people from Germany in my boat now, for example, and they've never seen anything like this before, so it's a lot of fun for them to see.

This makes it a real special trip to be on, to be on such a well-known river.

this is my office.

This is where I work outside, and I get the urge every once in a while just to go out and, you know, hit these different parts of the state.

This is about the most excitement you can have with clothes on.

Water sports have really taken off, and a lot of us might have grown up near the oceans or something.

This is, you know, this is as close as you can get when you're landlocked in Colorado.

Get on the rivers.

With a lot of people that wouldn't normally ride bikes and ride mountain bikes, people tend to ride the trails in Colorado, which seem to be one of the best states for mountain biking.

The average person comes in off the street is going to want a mountain bike.

If they're just a recreational rider, you don't find too many people going to road bikes.

Most people have the impression I think that mountain biking is it's more of an expensive sport, that you have to spend the big bucks to get into it.

It's not really true.

All kinds of people can enjoy the sport, regardless of age or what you do.

You know you can sit behind a desk all day wearing a coat and tie on the weekend, throw all that stuff in the closet, put on your shoes and get out on your bike and go get dirty.

I work down in the state capitol some days after, after work, I'll come up here to try to get rid of the stress, try to keep in shape.

You know, being a desk jockey, you want to, you have to stay in shape somehow.

Yeah.

I love the trail.

Were gonna go Ride the mountain bike trails with a hog back and head back down into red brick.

Red rocks Park.

Hopefully get out and get some good exercise and enjoy the scenery.

Red rocks, I would say, is, pretty much a blessing to Denver.

It's just right outside the city.

It's a large geological formation of rocks that have been uplifted.

And, they're red and there's basically there's amphitheater out there that they have all kinds of concerts at.

Its a ntural theater, and there's numerous hiking and, bike trails around it that, vary in difficulty.

This is one of the better, mountain biking trails in the Denver area.

It's really close.

It's only 20 minutes from Denver.

And so we come out here about once a week.

You know, this is an intermediate to to hard trail.

And it's not something where you have to to ride the entire trail.

I mean, a lot of times it's fun to, you know, if you get a little bit tired, get off your bike, get off the trail so that other bikers can, can go by and and just sit and enjoy the scenery, have lunch or some snacks or whatever, and, and just really take it at your own pace.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I really kind of wanted to get into it a little bit more gonzo riding and trying to, you know, see how fast I could go downhill.

And I did the Fat Tire Classic in Winter Park this year, and I hear they have over 2000 miles of mountain bike trails up there.

I've only covered about 60 or 70 miles of the trails that they have to offer, but it was really good riding.

You can start out at the base of the mountain, and you can take service roads and switchbacks all the way up to the sun spot and grab a quick bite to eat before you come flying back down the mountain.

I mean, it's just it's a lot of fun, although a lot of people do come up and you can use the trails up on Winter Park Mountain for free.

If you don't want to do the chairlift transport, you can simply ride up.

That's a little too much work for me.

I like being able to take my bike up top and just ride down.

I've seen wildlife, I've seen read parts on the trail, which I really like, and it's just very peaceful.

And it's a good workout.

I mean, surprisingly, even though you're coming down, you do plenty of pedaling.

Okay, we'll try to.

There's over 600 miles of trails in the Fraser Valley, and there's more than 45 miles on the mountain which lead into the trail system and Fraser Valley.

So there are hundreds of trails to choose from, both marked and unmarked.

Keep the mountain bikers busy.

My name is Laura Leffler, and I actually just started biking.

I was road biking before but mountain biking is more fun.

Sometimes it's really scary but at this point I just remind myself that I can't think about it.

Just go for fun.

Its an adrenaline rush.

Most of the accidents we see are the the broken bikes that we see.

The most common is actually is people have their bike on their roof rack and drive into the garage.

Most people, it it takes a lot of work to ruin a mountain bike.

Although, you know, there's certainly a little finesse involved.

Most people think, hey, I can just jump off this flatbed truck and my bike's gonna be okay.

That's a little extreme also.

But for the most part, these bikes are designed to take the heavy duty pounding of off road riding.

Another thing about mountain biking is that you go out and you get all muddy.

People tell me that they come home covered in mud, and then that's the kind of thing that when they're a little kid, they get sent to their room, but now they can do it and come back.

And feel like they've had a great day.

search for adventure, and you'll find it in the spirit of Colorado.