Escapees March-April 2024

Traversing rough trails at high altitudes for that distance was more than most could handle, though. Only eight participants fi nished the race! Today, Burro Days features two burro races, starting and ending in Fairplay. The “Long Course” is more than 29 miles long to the top of Mosquito Pass and back while the “Short Course” is over 15 miles round-trip. There’s also a “Llama Rama” where proud owners show off their beautiful llamas, a dog race where kids run with their dogs, a llama race where teams of four people and a llama compete, a parade down Front Street and an outhouse race! Fairplay not only has an unusual festival, it has a unique history, too. It got its name back in 1859 when gold rush latecomers found themselves unable to get into one of the bigger mining camps in the area called Tarryall. Frustrated, they nicknamed that camp “Grab-all” and set up a new camp which they called, “Fair Play.” Still fond of wordplay, Fairplay now welcomes visitors to town with a big blue silhouette of Sasquatch bearing the Colorado logo and the letters “WTF”—“Welcome to FairPlay!”

Llama Rama and Llama Race Most of the races begin and end on historic Front Street; however, the kids’ Dog Race takes place down by the river, and we missed it by fi ve minutes. It’s a short course and a quick race, so if you go, be sure to get there on time! Disappointed that we’d missed the Dog Race, we returned to Front Street to fi nd trailers full of llamas arriving. Cute little llama heads peered at us from their trailers and proud owners paraded them around on the street! Each racing team included four human runners and one llama tethered on a leash. The runners weren’t wearing typical running garb. They were dressed up in all kinds of crazy costumes. One team of gals wore brown tutu skirts and llama ears to match their furry friend, another team had wild llama head hats, one group wore crazy Hawaiian shirts and others wore t-shirts with funny team names like, “My Squad is Llamazing,” and “Hakuna Ma-Llama.” After the llama teams strutted their stuff during the Llama Rama, they lined up behind the start line and took off running on the count of three. As soon as the llamas

The Llama Race teams each consist of four runners accompanied by a llama on a tether, and they run a short loop around the edges of town. The Burro Race teams consist of a single runner with a burro, and they traverse backcountry Rocky Mountain terrain for either 15 or 29 miles.

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ESCAPEES Magazine March/April 2024