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Feeling just ducky

Joel Stonington
Paul Conrad/The Aspen Times
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As 30,000 ducks poured out of a dump truck on No Problem Bridge and into the Roaring Fork, the crowd let out a cheer, and the first few ducks started cruising on to victory.

One of those in the lead was the duck of Judy Kohl of Basalt, who adopted three at a cost of $15 and walked away with the grand prize of $15,000. Hey – it’s only a 1,000 percent gain. “I’m like, ‘Uh-huh,’ thinking it was a prank phone call,” Kohl said after hearing of the win. “I only bought three ducks. It was pretty cool.”

Kohl has lived and worked in the Roaring Fork Valley for 10 years. She said she’ll probably do a little shopping now that the win has freed up her pocketbook a bit. Some of the annual Ducky Derby is the excitement of that tiny possibility of winning the big money. The fun of the race, however, is down on the water watching all those ducks cruise by. Paris Sanders, 10, was wading in, grabbing ducks and tossing them forward so they wouldn’t get stuck in the eddies. Only she sort of lost her footing and came up gasping after a quick dunk. She came up looking surprised and then laughed at herself, looking down at her drenched clothes.



“I’m a duck survivor,” she then yelled, hand raised in a little pose. “Mine has to win.” Joel Stonington’s e-mail address is jstonington@aspentimes.com

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