Page 29 - TheJanuarySnomad

I had talked with Larry Kappenman on our way up who had headed up
Wednesday with a new sled that wouldn’t start. He took it to Renze’s in
Shingleton for repairs and advised he would not make the scouting run.

Buddy, John Koss and I took off and headed north on trial 7 which was per-
fect. We went east on trail 8 and rode excellent trails into Shingleton. I was
hoping to do dinner Thursday night at the Boot Lake Bar south of Shingle-
ton. Trail 41 south was in fair condition, Buddy advised it did not look like it
had been groomed since he was on it last Saturday. We hit the feeder trail
to the Boot Lake Bar and the trail had not been cleared of trees or groomed
or packed.
I talked with John Koss and Buddy and said let’s try and go north to the Bear
Trap and see how that is. We went back up to Shingleton and cut thru the
Tanglewood parking lot onto trail 8 headed to the Bear Trap. It was in very
poor shape and we turned around after ¼ mile and headed back to the Tan-
glewood Inn. We went inside for a pop and Dennis waited on us.

While speaking with Dennis I asked if he could handle 15-30 people for din-
ner. After checking with the kitchen, he said they could but only had 1 cook
and things would come out slow. He said he could give us a private area to
socialize if we wanted. I told him that would be fine as some of the group
would like to catch up as they had not seen each other in a while.

We headed back to the Buckhorn on excellent trails where the Snomads
takeover had started. I did not get a final count for the ride but believe it
was over 35. Buddy and I started greeting Snomads and advising them of
the weekend plans. Many were tired from the long drive up in the snow and
poor roads and decided to eat dinner at the Buckhorn. We understood as
we knew what we had gone through without a trailer behind us.
We found out the Shakedown ride had reared its ugly head again when
Paul Reed’s front trailer door didn’t get secured for the ride up. The first
time he hit the brakes the front door dropped. Paul pulled over quickly to
resecured it and hit the curb buckling the door. He and Jeff Obear in true
Snomads fashion used a couple of well-placed tie down straps and they
were headed north again.

January 2020 The Snomad Page 29