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Most people think of Aspen, Colorado as a winter kind of place, and small wonder.

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There is very substantial and colorful evidence to support this estimate, but more and more the beguiling appeals of Aspen are becoming not only multifaceted, but multi-seasonal.

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The pristinely bountiful snows that speed the downhill pull of gravity across winter's frolicking courses do melt, eventually.

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And the massive melt-off force-feeds nimble mountain streams, wherein the wily trout is not the only life form to languish sleepily.

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And with the emergence of summer, Aspen itself, rather than its surrounding heights, becomes a veritable mecca for the mobile young, who display casual and communal ambience as they meet and fraternize in the clean air and bright sunlight.

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Aspen becomes a mecca also for the more or less beautiful people of wider age and geographical range, who assemble annually for the well-heralded joys of aesthetic and intellectual communion which have become a summer tradition in Aspen.

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Consumation of these larger interests takes place in and out of tents, seminar buildings, and adjacent oases on a scale and in a style difficult to match either east or west of the Rockies.

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Taking all of these undoubted riches that surround them in easy, four-footed stride is an indigenous subculture much deserving of wider recognition.

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The Dogs of Aspen.

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The Dogs of Aspen.

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The Dogs of Aspen.

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Despite the rarefied atmosphere and the finely tuned style of their home base, the Dogs of Aspen do not run heavily to a particular breed, but they do run, and the livelier the traffic, the better the running.

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For the Dogs of Aspen know that the streets are theirs, and they learn to fake out motor vehicles of all denominations at an early age.

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The sidewalks are theirs too, and the buildings.

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Inside and out.

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Yet there is one conspicuous deviation in their pattern of conduct.

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Perhaps it is a consequence of the scale of their surroundings, but the Dogs of Aspen generally and almost disdainfully ignore that venerated totem of canine lore, the fire hydrant.

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Not all of the Dogs of Aspen are permitted to express the born free spirit of their peer group.

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Some are left to sit in parked cars, forlorn consignees to an unnatural spectator role.

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Given the overwhelming appeal of the action, however, it is not surprising that the simple admonition to stay does not always stand out.

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A dozen miles from downtown Aspen as a Jeep climbs, one may see for a small fee the true elite of Colorado's canine.

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These beautiful dogs, painstakingly bred and trained for the rigors of winter's work, are kept well away from the random temptations which can so easily debase less Spartan types.

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But one could speculate that freed of their restraints, these too would most happily further enrich the vigorous Aspen mix.

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With the coming of fall, Aspen's only really quiet season, the Dogs of Aspen have more color to look good against.

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They also have less traffic with which to share their streets.

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But though the challenge is gone for a while, their innate sense of pride and style carries them along in these quieter times.

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And whatever their instinctive forebodings over the approach of winter, there is good evidence that something or someone will help them through yet another skiing season.

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Summer is certain to come again for the Dogs of Aspen.