President's Message

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year! I for one am still hoping that there will be enough snow to ski and snowshoe on before too long. A few of us went up last week to cleared several windfalls that we hadn’t removed earlier. From that trek, I can at least tell you that there was 2-5 inches of snow on the snowshoe trails. There might be a little more after the last snow shower. For the sake of the “Best Hand” fund raiser, and the rest of the season, let’s hope there is a bigger snow storm coming in the future.
Regarding the upcoming fund raiser, Saturday January 6th, hopefully a lot of you are planning to participate. I also encourage you to spread the word to friends that may be interested in x-country skiing or snowshoeing. Who knows, if they join us for the event they might decide to join the club and help support the future maintenance of the 4th of July trails.
At next week’s club meeting there will be a sign-up sheet for volunteers to help staff the “Best Hand” event support tasks. We may still need of eight to ten folks to help. So please be on the lookout for the sign-up sheet on the table as you come in the door of the meeting room.
As usual, several stores have helped support the event with a variety of prizes. But as mentioned before, if anyone is interested in donating items they would be welcomed. If you do, bring them up on the day of the event and deliver them to the prize table at the panhandle hut. Please put your name on the donations so I know who to thank! If you can’t make it to the event, and wanted to donate something, give it to any of the board members at next week’s meeting.
I hope everyone that wanted to stay active with the club has had a chance to renew their membership. If not I encourage you to sign on to the WEB site and fill out the membership form and submit it. It may be the result of a lest the stellar snow season, but according to Randy our membership numbers are a bit down this season. Also if you know anyone who uses 4th of July for recreation, please let them know that if they join the club they would be helping ensure the future maintenance of the trail systems.
As a reminder, there are a couple of other events coming up in January. On Saturday, January 13th Skiing at Farragut State Park with Nancy Lewis is coming up. January 19 and 20th, Nancy is also leading at trip to Fish Creek Park n Ski near Grangeville. On or near the weekend of January 27 and 28th, Jim Mcmillen will be heading to Rossland B.C. If you are interested in any of these trips there may be sign-up sheets on the table as you enter the meeting room next week. But you can always contact the trip leader directly and they would be happy to add you to their roster of participants.
Keep in mind that due to changes in circumstances or conditions, or lack of, trip leaders may need to adjust event dates or plans shown of the recently sent out winter schedule. So it is always a good idea to make sure your signed-up for the event so the leader knows who to keep informed about changes. The WEB site may also be a good source to check to see if changes to scheduled events are being advertised.
The guest speaker at next week’s club meeting (Tuesday, January 2nd, 7 PM) will be Paul Loutzenhiser from FONIT’s. He will fill us in on the trail association partnership the club recently join into, and how
the club may participate and benefit from it. Goeff will also include some details about his role and activities as our club’s representative.
See you Next Week!