Spring is here and it is time to start thinking about some summer adventures. To begin with I want to remind everyone that our primary goal for the April club meeting is to develop a list of activities for the summer. Hopefully you will be giving it some thought and be ready to offer up some great ideas.
To say the least, the winter season was pretty uneventful for having good conditions at 4th of July. Let’s all hope that the potential for a better snow year in ‘24/’25 becomes more promising next Fall. But there were a few activities that were successful over the past few months. I want to thank everyone who participated in them. Especially, I want to thank the folks that stepped up and organized and led activities. Hopefully you will consider organizing a summer time opportunity that will get folks together to hike, bike, camp or party.
At the club meeting we will also need to take a few moments to address two upcoming items. The first is the election, or approval, of a new president and/or changes in board member roles. To begin with, Scott Gossard has offered to take on the role of President starting next Fall. If approved by the membership, I will step down from that role and stick around to help Scott transition.
Randy Brewer has indicated he would like to step down from the roles of VP/treasurer and WEB manager. Since I signed the Forest Service Special Use Permit and liability insurance policy for 4th of July and the club, it seemed appropriate that I should stay on the board a little longer. Also, like Randy, I am already authorized to deposit or withdraw funds from the treasury bank account. So I offered to take over the treasurer role. So with Randy’s help I will be transitioning into that role next Fall.
But we are still hoping a member would be willing to join the board and eventually take over being the WEB manager. Until then, Randy has agreed to continue taking care of the WEB site for now. But in order to establish some redundancy for the future, Scott and I will start trying to become more familiar with the WEB tasks Randy takes care of. If anyone is interested, I would encourage you to come to the board meetings next year to see how things function. You might find you would like to become more involved.
The second item involves an opportunity to promote the club and, maybe, encourage recruitment of some new members. Mark Staumbaugh with the Kootenai County Mountain Rescue Team has invited the club to set up a recruiting/PR table at their fund-raising event on May 22nd. He will be at next Tuesday’s club meeting and will give everyone more details about the event. The board discussed the offer, and we all agreed that it would be well worth our effort to take advantage of the opportunity. If anyone is interested in joining us, Scott and I will be representing the club at the event. Let us know if you want to tag along.
Finally, for the April meeting will meet again for pizza and beer, or soda pop. After searching around it turns out that the Pizza Factory is still our best option for the final meeting of the season. I have
reserved the group room (i.e. the same one we’ve met in in the past) from 6:30 – 8:00 PM on April 2nd. I would encourage everyone to order before you arrive so we can get our pizzas and drinks early.
Hopefully, most everyone can make it to the meeting. So see you there!

To say the least it has been an interesting winter! Unfortunately the lack of snow didn’t allow 4th of July recreation area to be much of an outdoor escape opportunity this season. But at least, from what I observed, opportunities to hike were taken advantage of by a few hearty folks. But on the bright side, we were afforded the chance to apply the treasury savings to maintenance of the grooming equipment and we should be in great shape to support next season’s grooming program.
Unfortunately, due to weather and snow conditions several of the scheduled winter trip and activity events had to be canceled this year. Although, after “Best Hand” some activities did and still will happen before the season ends. If you missed them: Fish Creek park and ski, Rock Soup, Round Lake and Mckensie Conservation Area events all took place. The group of participants weren’t large (~6-10 folks) but I think everyone got to have some fun and got some exercise out of the events.
But if you still want to try to make it to a winter activity all is not lost. This coming Saturday (March 2nd) Scott is leading the annual trek at Nordman. Hopefully you’ve already seen the announcement he put out. If so, and you are thinking about join him let him know.
Also, Goeff is offering an opportunity to “ski”. He is planning to lead a trek at Lookout next Wednesday or Thursday. So be prepared to hear more about it at the club meeting next week. There might even be a sign-up sheet on the table when you enter the meeting room.
Regarding next weeks Club meeting, there will be two items on the agenda. The first will be the speaker of the evening. Since the hiking season might be heading our way earlier this year I thought hearing about the history of one of the nearby hiking areas might be in order. If you are not already familiar with the “Cougar Bay Nature Preserve” you might want to attend this meeting to hear Theresa Shaffer speak about her recently release book. It provides a good look into how the area was used and developed in past, and how the preserve came to be. It’s good story if you’re into the history of this area.
The second item is Ya-I-Du-Ski/Snowshoe awards. So if you haven’t got your accomplishment sheet up to date, you might want to get it ready for the meeting so Roberta can tally up the “K’s”. If possible, I am sure She would appreciate it if your accomplishment sheets could be sent to her in advance. If you can scan your list, it can be sent to Truscott’s email address shown on the membership list.
Hopefully, even though it has been a lean year for accomplishing many miles of skiing or snowshoeing you will want to take credit for what you’ve done. If you attended Best Hand and Rock soup you should feel obliged to take credit for snowshoe miles even if you just walked. So document your accomplishments and get them to Roberta.
PS – Everyone needs to start thinking about summer time activities. As always the April meeting will be our opportunity to develop the summer list.
See you next week at the club meeting. March 5th, 7 PM @ the Community United Methodist Church.