President's Message

As you are all aware the wintery weather this season has been, to say the least, variable.  But regardless of this there is still enough snow at 4th of July to make it possible to enjoy the opportunities that getting out there provide.  So I hope everyone is still visiting the trails occasionally!  Geoff and the crew continue to try to keep the ski trails packed to minimize the chances that the snow will be washed away when it rains.   Of course the tree clearing is on going and will continue as long as trees keep falling.  Grooming will be getting done as the snow conditions permit.  At the moment Geoff and Skip want to refrain from running groomers because the disturbance can some times speed up the melting process.
 
The Best Hand Fun Ski & Snowshoe event successfully raised $750 that will be contributed to covering the costs associated with the grooming equipment and trail maintenance.  I want to thank everyone who helped with and participated in this years event..  The snow conditions could have been better for skiing, but the conditions weren’t too bad for snowshoeing.  Based on the number of snowshoers that participate It appeared that a lot of folks may have anticipated that the conditions were going to be better for shoes then skis.  Regardless of how you participated, I hope everyone had a good time and will be looking forward to next years event.
 
Regarding the plowing of the parking lot, our cookie delivery has been made to the guys that maintain 4th of July Pass.   Hopefully no one holds it against them that they don’t always have it plowed when we want to use it.  A few comments were received letting Geoff and I know that the lot hadn’t been plowed.  This is not too surprising since some of storms coincided with or were close to the weekend when folks want to park there.  I want to assure you it has not been because the highway maintance folks deliberately ignore it.  They were pretty busy keeping up with the snow coming down on the pass during some those storms.  I think we have all learned to bear with it, and Geoff does call the highway dept. once in awhile to make sure they haven’t forgotten.
 
Rock Soup is the next event to look forward too.  So if you haven’t already, make sure to put February 8th on your calendars.  The pots will be warming up starting at 2:00 PM, so bring up your contributions and get them in the mix.  There will be two pots for sure.  One will be vegetarian and the other will have meat products.  So there should be a good variety to choose from when its time to eat. 
 
The soup should be ready by 4:00 PM.  Hopefully this will give everyone plenty of time to work up a good appetite skiing or snow shoeing.  PS – if you know of any non-members that might be interested in this event, let them know about it.  It is open to anyone that wants to participate.
 
Jeff Lambert, Executive Director of Dishman Hills Nature/Conservation Area will be presenting at next weeks club meeting (Tuesday, Feb 4th).  If your not familiar with the area it will be a great opportunity to find out about it.  It might also give us some ideas for future summer hikes!
 
FYI:  A) Earth Day is coming up, and will happen on April 25th.  Karen is volunteering to be the lead and would be happy to have other volunteers assist her with preparing for and giving the presentation.  So if you would be interested, she will have a sign-up sheet available at the club meeting next week.  B)  YA I DU SKI or Snow Shoe:  Roberta Truscott would like us to try to turn in “Mile/K” sheets no later then the March club meeting.  Earlier if you can.
 
See you next Tuesday!