Denver resident arrives by Bustang, wins Vail Duck Race

VAIL – More than 8,200 of the 9,000 rubber ducks running Gore Creek on Sunday were adopted by people hoping to win the $5,000 prize for first place.

The local Rotary clubs’ annual duck race raised more than $70,000 as a result, with hundreds of people watching Gore Creek to see if the duck they paid to adopt was first through the funnel.

While the adoption drive had been going on for months, winner Dawn Pimmel had only adopted her fastest duck a few hours before the race began on Sunday.

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Pimmel said she was in Ireland last week and got back to Denver on Friday, but didn’t stay long as she knew her family was in Vail for the weekend. On Saturday she took CDOT’s Bustang Pegasus shuttle into town, and on Sunday she was walking the Vail Farmer’s Market, looking for snacks for her grandkids, when she stumbled upon the Rotary clubs’ booth.

“I saw the table and said ‘we need to get our ducks,'” she said, adopting nine ducks.

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Still jetlagged, though, she took an afternoon nap and didn’t make it to the actual race.

“I usually do like to go to it,” she said. “But I knew I’d be tired so I checked with them to make sure you didn’t have to be there to win.”

Organizers said it wasn’t surprising to learn that the winner wasn’t in attendance at the event. Crowds might not have been quite as big this year as last year as Vail’s other signature event, Gourmet on Gore, did not take place this year.

In 2021 the Rotary clubs raised about 30% more than this year, taking in more than $100,000 in duck donations, as another sign of a slightly slower event in 2022. The summer of 2021 set lodging records around the mountain resort region, and 2022 has seen a softening in summer travel demands.

Twenty-three Rotary club volunteers helped put on the event on Sunday, along with 14 volunteers from local Boy Scout Troop 231.

Scoutmaster Nate Free said the scouts look forward to volunteering at the event, which includes getting into the water and helping to corral wayward ducks.

“It’s a good event because the Rotary shares the funds that they make across the whole valley,” Free said.

Keeping kids and dogs out of the water as the ducks are being corralled is always a challenge, as well. Announcer Tony Mauro shared a story of a dog taking out the lead duck in a previous duck race competition. On Sunday, kids delighted in dipping in the cold waters of Gore Creek while surrounded by thousands of ducks. An artful spectacle, adults gathered at the creek banks with cameras in hand to capture the contrast of the bright yellow rubber blanketing the naturally flowing creek.

While the event began decades ago as an effort of the Vail Rotary Club, in recent years the Eagle and Edwards Rotary clubs have also helped put on the event each year on the Sunday before Labor Day.

Eagle County Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney is a member of the Vail Rotary Club and was volunteering on Sunday. She said some of their members have been volunteering at the duck race for decades.

The Pimmels said they’re also veterans of the event, visiting Vail on Labor Day weekend annually for the past 10 or 15 years.

But they never won anything until this year.

“We think it’s because she just got back from a two-week trip in Ireland, so the Irish luck was with her,” Tim Pimmel said on Sunday.

Fifteen more prizes will be given out in the coming days, visit VailDuckRace.com to see a list of winners.