Day 83: Lemons to Lemonade (National Lemonade Day)

One of the most challenging things about life, and indeed business, are the unexpected twists and turns. From the slight annoyances to the devastatingly insurmountable, the wise among us have learned to take a creative twist to the lemons of life, knowing that a challenging situation may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. So, on this National Lemonade Day, when life has handed the good folks of The Baldpate Inn lemons, we honor their spirit and unwavering determination to make the best of it, get creative with those lemons, and turn them into something delicious like lemon blueberry muffins, lemon ginger muffins, or pink lemonade pie!!  

One of the biggest unexpected challenges that has been faced by The Baldpate Inn was the extreme flood of 2013. The reality of the damage to the property and loss of business, by being forced to close six weeks early, was a heavy and imposing challenge to overcome. The shift towards the positive began with gratitude, recognizing that everyone was safely evacuated. Through much hard work, persistence, and the healing balm of time, we are now able to see blessings that have come from this event. The generosity and kindness of family, friends, and even people we didn’t know, all reaching out to help demonstrated the very best in humanity. Perseverance paid off in the major improvements on the road, and indeed, we can now laugh at the cleaned out basement.

We are learning to see the bright possibility in every trying situation. As previously mentioned, even disappointing social media reviews turn into opportunities to improve, and better delight our customers. A new food trend can present an initial challenge that can result in a bouquet of new recipes and favorites! More to come on this soon!

Even this blog, as rewarding as it has been, has come with its own set of challenges. 100 blogs in 100 days is a lot of blogs, and not a lot of time, let me tell you. But the difficulties have been far outshined by the relationships and connections that continue to strengthen. The history of the Baldpate Inn has taken on new life, and been shared with so many curious folks. And, as an unexpected bonus, our archives are now much more organized! 

As we are certain that life will continue to present the unexpected, we stand assured that the family and friends of The Baldpate Inn will continue to look on the bright side, find the silver lining, and enjoy those lemony treats at The Baldpate Inn.

Written by Liz Rodgers

Baldpate Flood video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-wYPYq_poQ

Day 69: New Recipes

Having an award-winning restaurant doesn’t mean you can just relax with your menu offerings. There are always new ideas being suggested either by guests, or food trends, or a popular new ingredient.

As the primary chef, I’ve tried hard to be unique and original. Being known as the “best of” is always fun, but it is especially nice to be “one of a kind” as well.  So when developing our menu items I’ve tried to not copy other places, especially in Estes Park, but to have our own branded items.

We have to admit as well, our menu gets a little too familiar to our staff by the end of the season (especially since we eat it twice a day every day).  We do get a laugh at the concoctions that diners and staff come up with, adding this to that from the Salad Bar or mixing soups or whatever!

Fall seems to be our most experimental season for new recipes.  We’ve had some huge winners, think Banana Butterscotch Muffins, and some long forgotten sincere losers, like Baseball Park Muffin with pickle relish and hot dogs.

You know how things sometimes just stick in your mind, well that pickle relish did, and so be on the lookout for our new 2017 Dill Pickle soup….. working on a name, but so far, family reviews are positive!

Wish I’d kept a diary of our new menu items as they were created! We started with just Beef Stew and Red Chili as our hearty soups, then my sister-in-law, Loretta, gave me the idea for our White Chili recipe. I must admit I hesitated trying it, but when we added it to our menu in 1991, customers greeted it with lots of odd looks and ridiculously silly comments, along with some rave reviews.

Being located in the mountains we often received requests for “wild game” so our Cowboy Buffalo Stew became our answer in 2005. The “wild west trail drive” flavors (simple ingredients you might find along the trail), made this an instant favorite.  Its name has a special double meaning too, as the year we perfected this recipe, several of our cooks were “Cowboys” students from Oklahoma State University.

Then there is our beloved Pumpkin Curry Soup, recipe yet unpublished, which is based on one that Jen sent me. She discovered it during her time stationed in Germany in the US military.  Several years after we added the recipe, as I was telling guests the recipe was originally from Germany, she told me the full story. The recipe wasn’t from one of our favorite little German pubs as I had thought, but she had actually found the idea on the side of a canned product she had purchased in the US Army commissary!  So much for my proud story of its German culinary ties. 

Although the “German” pumpkin one isn’t there, you can find many of our classic recipes in our famed cookbook, Collections of Baldpate. 

What have been your most favorite Baldpate recipes? Anything you’d like to see us add?

Written by Lois Smith

Day 68: Earth Day Recycling at The Baldpate Inn

Unless you have been in this situation, it is sort of hard to imagine how much trash, cardboard and leftovers a business can generate.

We have striven to be earth friendly as best we can with the added challenges of being a bit remote in a mountain community.  We’ve tried some novel things, had some successes and some failures.

Even back in the 1990s we earned an EPA award for our efforts in recycling. Still now, even though the staff would say it is not their most favorite task, but we do make at least weekly trips to the Estes Park recycle center to donate our cardboard and tin cans. 

With so much ‘good’ produce scrap, (think lettuce leaves and carrot peelings)  for a couple of years, we worked with a local family contributing to their compost, but eventually it became too much for them to continue.

Our local bear family would of course be delighted to help whenever they can. However, knowing the pitfalls of feeding wildlife, we have diligently taken their best interest to heart and spent lots of time discouraging them from investigating our bins.  At first, just having motion lighting worked. But we have really smart bears, so additional deterrents were needed. Grandpa Sam came up with the electric fence solution around our dumpsters, which is still effectively in place today. 


This “shocking” system works great if you remember to turn it on and off, a fact that could be confirmed by more than one staff member. (Honestly, we do try to remember to warn new staff members to turn it off before they touch the dumpsters.)

Since we are so insistent about the hot, out-of-the-oven freshness of our baked goods, we needed some solutions here as well. Leftover pies and cinnamon rolls do not seem to be a problem, as the staff would happily concur. But try as we may, baking just the correct amount of muffins can be a daunting challenge. At the end of the day, our local foodbank, Crossroads Ministry, has been our saving grace for this surplus. We are happy to share and pleased to know that our lovingly-made food is going to an excellent cause. 

Written by Lois Smith

Day 65: Oops Breaks and Bloopers (National Humorous Day)

Everybody has had a one of those days that just doesn’t go right. And some of us have had several of those days in a row! So what do you do? Laugh and smile for the camera! Here’s an ode to some of the ‘whoops!’ moments of the Baldpate Staff, caught in action. 

So if your day could fill a bloopers reel, know that you are not alone! Take a moment, breathe, and look for the humor in the situation. 

After the milk machine explodes all over you, a congratulatory glass of milk from your colleagues is a must!

The latest in salad dressing masques.

Sad day! Not one but two chocolate cream pies demolished.

July 29th....  and August 1st!

Some days, gravity is just stronger! 

Written by Liz Rodgers

Day 50: Water at Baldpate

It is really fascinating that way up in the Rocky Mountains, water has been such a recurring theme at Baldpate.  From our Big Thompson Water project key, to our floods, to the challenges of providing water at 9,000 feet elevation with our Baldpate water system.

Ever wonder how to get water from one side of a mountain to the other?  Our Key Collection has part of the answer. 

The Big Thompson water project did just that in the Colorado mountains, and we have a key and key hole donated in 1944 from that project. 

 "This key was presented to Baldpate Inn through the courtesy of S.S. Magoffin Company.  This key was forged from the last piece of drill rod, drilling the last hole in the last round of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel.  This drill rod was removed from the ground at a point 42,994 feet from the tunnel portal; the longest single heading known to engineering history.  Forged and finished by James B. Pearce”

Water coming and going for The Baldpate Inn has had its challenges as well.  When we bought the Inn, our property was part of a development project, Baldpate Estates, which had its own metro district for water and sewer. For the first several years, they furnished these utilities for us. 

Not to be too graphic, at the time we were using holding tanks for our waste, but since our business grew rather quickly, we were all surprised when the tanks couldn’t keep up and another solution was needed.  First we went with our own septic field but ultimately ended up with the “flush & forget” (as they called it) attachment to the Upper Thompson Sanitation District. Let me tell you a two mile long 1,500 foot drop service line is not cheap to put in the rocky mountains! 

In the meantime, the Baldpate Estates was phasing out as an entity and with it, much needed maintenance to the water system. I’ll never forget Father’s Day 1998, with 200+ dining reservations, and we ran out of water!!  We struggled for several hours, using every dish and piece of silverware we owned, but ultimately had to close and call our guests to cancel.

A very long story short, along with another bank loan later, today we are blessed to have our own water system. Our system includes two adjudicated wells, a 40,000 gallon holding tank, and an augmentation plan that entailed answering (and thankfully winning based on historic use) a water rights court case filed by the US Government against me as property owner.  And as a bonus, I have managed to somehow maintain my licensing as a Class D Water Operator (I know that means nothing to most of you, but let me tell you, even counting my college Chemistry days, it was the hardest test I ever took!)

So water, water everywhere……  I’m remain thankful we have some to drink!

 Written by Lois Smith

Day 44: A Peek Behind The Swinging Doors: Life of a BPI Staff Member

Life as a staff member of The Baldpate Inn is never boring. Care to put on the shoes of a “BPI staffer?” Here we go! 

Most likely, you’ll be living at the Inn, with other employees from around the world. One wing of the hotel and several cabins are for staff quarters. Living in a close community like this is a wonderful way to develop friendships. It’s also the best commute in the world!

For most staff, the job rotates each day between various activities, so every day is different. 

One day, you may be helping with “KP,” or kitchen prep. This involves helping prepare all the delicious food that is enjoyed in the dining room. Many lessons are learned here, especially for staff who are newer to the kitchen environment! Even for folks who have residential kitchen experience, the commercial kitchen is a whole new world. The sheer bulk of food is sometimes amazing: flats of fruit, crates of vegetables, gallons of salad dressing, and enormous sheets of breads and cookies! But, the cooks are happy to teach, and guests keep enjoying them, so we keep preparing them. 

Another day, you may be waiting tables in the dining room. This is an excellent opportunity to meet and serve folks from all over the world, often educating them about Baldpate – from the menu of fresh homemade items that changes daily, to the history of the inn. It’s also a great way to earn tips, hooray!

Another job is housekeeping. While perhaps not the most favored of the tasks, I always enjoyed the satisfaction of a job well done: a clean room awaiting guests. A surprisingly fun task is using the 6-foot-wide “mama mangler” or the smaller “baby” mangler to iron tablecloths while grooving to tunes.

Speaking of music… you may think that the worst job would be dishwasher, or “dish dog.” But no! If the kitchen is the heart of the Inn, the dish dog provides the soul, as they get to pick the music played in the kitchen. Fueled by your favorite tunes and a high powered washer, blasting clean plates is surprisingly satisfying.

On special events, such as weddings, the staff brings our best and works together to make the event a success and a cherished memory for our guests.

Once our work is done for the day, and on our days off, there is much to do! A restful day at The Baldpate Inn is always appealing. Or there is the draw of the outdoors – hiking, biking, horseback riding, big slide riding… the list goes on! With nearby Estes Park, and not as nearby Boulder / Fort Collins / Denver, the fun seems endless.

After a day off, it’s never a bad thing coming back to work, because no matter what you’ll be doing that day, you’ll be working with your friends, meeting great guests, all surrounded by the beauty and the history of The Baldpate Inn. Interested? Apply now!

 Written by Liz Rodgers

Day 35: September 2013 Flood Baldpate

It is hard to know where to begin in talking about our September Federal Flood Disaster # 13768 in the fall of 2013. The entire experience certainly provided me much more compassion any time the news features stories of flood victims.

What began as just an extra rainy week, unexpectedly and quickly turned into an emergency situation. As the pouring rains did not stop and water rolled down our mountainside, torrential rivers cut through our driveway, tore down trees and tried to launch our propane tank down a newly-created ravine.  Our kitchen and basement were flooded. It was necessary to evacuate our guests from the hotel and close six weeks before the anticipated end of our season.

Our Youtube Baldpate Flood video does a pretty good job of narrating the timeline of events with photos and videos shot during the actual disaster, and our year later Summer Enchanted Evenings presentation, Reflections on Baldpate’s 2013 September Flood Disaster, shares much of our first year recovery story.

The experience from a financial recovery point of view was definitely one of long disappointing days completing detailed forms and paperwork, just to be turned down by my insurance company (even those I had “loss of business” coverage), FEMA (not covered since a business entity), SBA loans (even with 25+ years in business, not deemed a viable risk since I did not have adequate payback funds in reserve).  I wanted to scream, if I had the money, I wouldn’t be asking for the loan!  I did indeed use every personal reserve before I asked for help even to the point of taking social security benefits years before I wanted to, but at the time every dollar was critical to get back on track.

It was my family that asked me to set aside my do-it-myself pride to request donations from my loyal customers and to apply for grant money as it became available. Family and friends stepped in to help in so many ways, be it literally mucking out the basements, or freely loaning heavy equipment to create a primitive road, or stopping by to just chat and help me stack sandbags, or with months of daily prayers that I know held me together.

Help did eventually work its way through the system, my banks extended a grace period on some of my loans, some of my suppliers extended terms (a huge shout out to FSA, then Yancey, who did not even charge interest during the time I could not pay).  In an absolute answer to prayer, Baldpate received grants from United Way and Recover Colorado.

In somewhat strange emotional ways, recovery was not a quick process either.  Instead of my previous rainy day feelings, “settle in with a warm cup of soup,” I found myself strangely tense if it rained for more than a few hours. As well, one experiences a shift in piously thinking that you are safe way up at 9,000 feet since floods could only rise up from below, but now understood they can just as easily come down from above. There were clear feelings of guilt to process when you saw that others were facing sincere devastation much worse than your own. 

There were moments of when all you could do was laugh at silly things. The first days, although we had safe water at Baldpate, we did not have sewer so we were in the “no flush” zone.  Thankfully my home in town had not been damaged, so we shuttled there to shower. Amazing to me was that each of the 13 staff members, each day, required a new clean towel. The piles of laundry when they finally all left took me weeks to complete!  There were plenty of fun stories!  There was the parking ticket I received when I left my car at the top of the impassable driveway for blocking the road!  And if you made it through the Reflections story, the bear story is in retrospect hysterical!

Now with several years of time as perspective, with each rainbow I see even more of the blessings from that frightening experience. From the 900 tons of rock that the county used to repair and upgrade our road, to the honesty factor I had to face with the strained financial state of my small business and emergency reserves, an immense amount of good has been realized.  I have been truly Too Blessed to Be Stressed.  All this AND a very clean Baldpate basement!

Written by Lois Smith

Baldpate Flood video at 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-wYPYq_poQ

Day 32: National Register of Historic Places

While it’s unclear whether Thomas Jefferson believed in the luck of the Irish, he would certainly applaud our efforts to preserve the historic Baldpate Inn. He is attributed for saying, “I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
 
The Baldpate Inn Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in January of 1996.   This was not an overnight project!  

As early as 1992, while preparing for our 75^th birthday celebrations, we were presented with the suggestion to get it listed by friends and the Colorado Historical Society.

“Sure!” we thought. We requested and completed the initial application, with an eye to protecting our property from thoughtless destruction someday down the road. What I initially did not understand, was this was just the application for the application!  Once the entire process was better understood, my lack of expertise was evident and we asked for help.

History Colorado generously gave us a grant which was used to oversee our National Register application project. Using those grant funds, Judith Broeker of Preservation Unlimited, and Cynthia Shaw McLauqhlin of American Vernacular worked with us over the next several years to complete the necessary documentation to actually apply for the Department of Interior’s prestigious National Register designation. These talented ladies did hours upon hours of research to document our worthiness for being accepted.

Additionally, they brought in fantastic teams, like the one from University of Colorado Department of Architecture that completed extensively detailed drawings of our main building. We did have some fun moments as the students discovered just how not cookie cutter the slope of a building can be, especially when it was built into the side of a mountain years ago.

Another surprising discovery is that you have to buy your own plaque and road signage, but hey, no one said it was easy to be special! 



As you can see from our application, our Baldpate Historic District includes eleven buildings (we did not own the Homestead at the time) although we only bought a plaque for the Main Lodge!

In the end, the Baldpate Historic District qualified based on numerous factors that included architectural significance and historical importance.  We do truly feel blessed not just by the designation, but more especially by the work of so many to help protect this enchanted property for generations to come.

Written by Lois Smith

Day 4: Silly Little Things (National Random Acts of Kindness Day)

I always loved the story that Ethel Mace told, when they decided to open a hotel, she’d never even been in one and her husband, Gordon, had only been a “couple of times.”  If they could do it, I told myself (who had been in lots of hotels), then certainly I could.  I look back now and laugh about what I didn’t know. Maybe it was for the best!

Surely the first time my Kraft food service salesman went back to the office after sitting down to visit with me in front of the fireplace in a very cold lobby, that he roared with laughter telling his coworkers that I asked how many cups are in a #10 can (another story here, but that silly little # is read not as hashtag 10, but number 10) ‘She’ll never make it,’ must have been his summary!

For all I thought I knew about the restaurant business, since I’d worked during high school, college and even as a manager later, there was lots I didn’t know! And now 30 some years later, I am still learning.  Recently, how to bake gluten free, and along the way, I’ve too had my share of laughs about how you’ve got to be specific when dealing with untrained college students as staff.  Do tell them to peel the bananas before they puree them, and take the shells off the hard boiled eggs before smashing!

But along the way we’ve had some really smart staff that shared ideas for seemingly silly little things, which made it all work even better.  There was Pat’s idea about marking the sheets. Unless you’ve had the task of sorting 100-some white sheets coming back from the laundry, you probably wouldn’t appreciate Pat’s idea of marking the edges so you could quickly identify the twin from the double from the queen. And bless her heart, Pat spent one entire winter doing just that, putting a color coded zigzag stitch on the edge of our sheets. I am sure I didn’t thank her enough for giving us a system that works to this day!

My dear sister, Eunice (and her husband, Sherm) who helped so much in the first few years, advised I needed an “easy” pie and brought the recipe. Just one crust instead of two, a seemingly little thing that has saved hours as our chocolate crème pie remains a best seller!

Then there was Fitz, who returned one summer during grad school to suggest I have him do a website for our business. Believe me, I had no idea nor could I imagine what he was talking about, the world wide web!

That world of the web brings me back around to the cook just a few years ago, making our famous beef stew the first time on her own, who came rushing into my office with the question “what’s 20 hashtags of beef?" This time the silly little thing, # after a number means pounds, I explained. 

Written by Lois Smith