500 Adrenaline Adventures (Frommer's) - Lois Friedland [243]
Before you’re allowed to handle the real equipment, there’s an introductory session, during which Dig This’s New Zealander owner, Ed Mumm, or one of his staff, tells you about the machines and demonstrates how they work in a miniature sandbox. Then, a staffer sets you up in your machine of choice, demonstrates how the gears work, and goes over the safety procedures. Finally, it’s your turn. You operate the machine cautiously at first, perhaps dropping a five-foot-wide boulder you’re lifting while digging a ditch. But, after awhile, the feeling of pure power takes hold and you start digging up dirt or building a road more aggressively.
Participants get to operate an excavator, bulldozer, or skid steer loader at individual work sites, constructing roads, building dams, digging trenches, or creating whatever their mind envisions. Dig This offers a “First Tracks” 2-hour session for clients with limited time. It includes orientation, safety instruction, and about an hour of either bulldozer or excavator operating time. During the half-day session, participants get more than 2 hours of operating time on one of the machines. During the full-day session, participants get more than 4 hours of operating time and can split it between two machines.
Playing in the sand and rocks at Dig This is one of the most popular activities for vacationers who come to Steamboat to ski in the winter, or explore the mountains during the summer. Companies bring executives here for team-building exercises, and locals show up for birthday parties and anniversary outings.
Steamboat Springs is prettiest in the summer, fall, and winter. (Spring is mud season here and locals disappear.) In the winter, skiers and snowboarders flock to the slopes at Steamboat Resort, which coined the term “Champagne Power,” because the snow is so light. In the summer, visitors hike or mountain bike on trails threading the mountainsides, or play golf. —LF
Dig This, 1169 Hilltop Pkwy. ( 888/DIG-THIS [344-8447] or 970/367-4402; www.digthis.info).
When to Go: Year-round.
Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden (26 miles/42km).
$$–$$$ Sheraton Steamboat Springs, 2200 Village Inn Court ( 800/325-3535 or 970/879-2220; www.sheraton.com/steamboat). $–$$ Hotel Bristol, 917 Lincoln Ave. ( 800/851-0872 or 970/879-3083; www.steamboathotelbristol.com).
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Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival
Party with Frozen Grandpa Bredo
Nederland, Colorado, U.S.A.
Yes. There really is a dead guy on ice in a shed in Nederland, Colorado! And, Grandpa Bredo is the perfect excuse for the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival packed with partying and fun events. Birthed as a mining town, some now claim Nederland to be one of the remaining bastions of hippydom, so a festival of this nature isn’t out of character.
The winters in Nederland (a community of approx. 1,400, located 17 miles [27km] west of Boulder, CO) are long, and cabin fever is severe. But, as the daylight hours increase, spring is about to arrive, and locals prep for the craziness accompanying ski season’s end, everyone is ripe for the Frozen Dead Guy events.
Grandpa Bredo died in Norway, was packed in ice, and shipped to a cryonics facility in California, where he resided in liquid nitrogen for 3 years. He was then transported to Nederland, where his daughter, Aud, and grandson Trygve, were planning to build their own cryonics facility. Grandpa was kept on ice in a shed awaiting a cure for death, but Trygve was deported for visa expiration and Aud was forced to move from her house because there was no plumbing or electricity. After much bickering and