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sno(w) cat serenade, SV2022

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DAVENET said:
Where to start. It’s been a few days of playing catchup at work, uploading pictures and the depression of the trip being over. When stuff starts getting laid out a year in advance and the few weeks prior is making sure all of the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed, it’s weird when it’s done!

Observations:

- There is no denying who the undisputed leader in planning big events is. From Mt. Hood to Sun Valley there is no telling how many countless unpaid hours she has put into making sure everything goes smoothly and as planned. Events like this past weekend don’t just happen on their own or just by luck. They go off without a glitch because everything has been thought of and planed for. I’m very glad I got to attend the Cat’s Meow in 2015 and more so to go to Sun Valley with my wife. All hail the Chief Cat Herder, Leader of the Clowder, Queen of Event Planning, Minister of the Church of the Sawtooths, the Princess of Pontoons!

- Gannon drank the Orange Kool-aid. But that wasn’t enough, so he built a pool out back and filled that up as well. For those that don’t know, he towed his rig from Pennsylvania to the UP of Michigan and back. Then up to NH for the Antique Track show. Then out to the Colorado Jamboree. But instead of going home, he just continued up to Sun Valley for the following weekend before heading east. While in SV he decides he wants to make things interesting by rolling his carrier over and sheering off the top of the trunnion pin which allowed the table assembly to slam back into his oil pan, which promptly opened it up. I will let him provide a more detailed report of the failure & fix, but after spending Saturday MacGyvering a fix, he was back on the trail for Sunday morning. He deserved (and earned) the Old Grouser award more than anyone else!

- Huge congrats to Doc & Gail and thank you for letting us be a part of your day! Without this Forum we wouldn’t have found the likeminded people we have here. Very nice to have met you both!

- Thanks to everyone for making my wife feel welcomed! Even though I own a cat, it has been in dry-dock for 10 years. She got to ride in it for about 150 yards before I started the disassembly process and it’s been a good ‘poking stick’ for her to use on me over that time. So, she was truly out of her element when I told her she WAS going to Sun Valley with me. She got a little warm up of what to expect (riding in a cat, not the event) at the NH show going on the trail ride with TrackAddict & 230Pilot. Since we were riding in a rubber tracker on boiler plate, getting the full body massage, I can only imagine the evil thoughts being directed at me! But, I made it thru the sleeps between that and SV without being smothered. The ensuing rides and conversations at Sun Valley made all right in my world! Though she has hiked all of NH’s 4K’s, she was blown away by the Sawtooths. Myself as well. So, thanks again fo making my life easier!

- Speaking of mountains- oddest ones I have ever been on. I’ve been all up & down the Appalachians and outside of Denver & Boulder as well. In the Sawtooths some are typical mountains, i.e., they have actual rock structure, soil and trees on them to hold it all together. But the majority are just gravel piles. HUGE gravel piles. I’m not sure there is anywhere else where you can walk across a table top flat field that IMMEADIATELY transitions into a 45* slope that has an elevation gain of 1500-2000 feet and literally looks like it was made by some colossal gravel dumping conveyor belt. The only thing you see on them is sagebrush and the occasional rouge spruce. Side hilling one in a cat has most people wondering how the snow is, but all I could wonder is “how is the road not just sloughing off the side of this bank”?

- Speaking of the flats between those transitions- one of the flattest stretches I have ever been on the planet. Interlude: Like the Talley’s above, we also got the blue light special. Ketchum Popo extended their thanks for us spending time in town as we were leaving at 1:45 AM. We were departing as the bars were closing (1:30 on a Sunday night, Monday morning??) and he figured he would have an easy target. I never knew it was a cop, but the car was continually gaining on me and where the road went from one lane to a double I moved to the right hand lane to let the car by (without signaling – even though I had either option at that point and should have been in the right since I wasn’t passing)!! When he walked up he started ‘talking’ in gibberish(??) about the turn signal. I was thinking “what the F did he just say??” while Stephanie pulled turn signal out of the mess. After that it was a crystal clear conversation, but she couldn’t stop laughing since she thought it was only her that had heard it. We had a nice chat and he thought we were pulling his leg when we told him we were on the way to the airport. Haley has no flights at that time, but when we told him we were leaving from Boise he said basically “ Oh man, well you too have a good morning and be careful of the elk herd north of Haley”. Didn’t see any wildlife until we were almost to Mountain Home where a pair of elk were in the road but immediately got off; and one lone muley.

Back to the flat- to the west of Fairfield there is a section of Rte. 20 that is table top flat. A little google research now shows it at almost 8 miles long. I never got to see it on the way to SV because we were in the middle of one of the 4 different weather systems we got to encounter during a 3 hour drive! (We later discovered that funtracks had been on the same flight as us coming out of MSP and was having the same experience). But weather on the way back was clear. Just outside of Fairfield we see what appears to be an oncoming car pulled over by the sheriff off in the distance. Occasionally I would get a glint of red from where the car was pulled over. We were going 65 and were convinced it was pulled over since we still hadn’t reached it after 2-3 minutes and kept getting flashes of light in the red spectrum. We finally get a fix on the vehicle and there is no sheriff’s truck. Just another car going the other way at 65 mph. The headlight bounce from 7 miles away was making it look like a red flash behind the headlights. I guess it’s like thinking you are going to walk to the Luxor in Vegas. Not happening.

- It was great to put so many faces to the internet names. Try as I may, I still didn’t get them all. But I did cover many more bases than at Mt. Hood! I got to see all sorts of epic machinery and drive some as well. I got to drive my future lowest hour 543, as well as Drifters Isuzu powered classic. Mr. Moose was handing out the E-ticket rides in either of his cats like he was giving away bubble gum in a dugout. Thank you very much for passing one my way and the opportunity to drive/operate a Frandee! I think not having a regular full time job is getting to him because he was always the very first in the parking lot getting cats fired up and the first getting dripped on underneath fixing something – even though it wasn’t even his cat! Good thing he has a hobby to fill his time . . .

- BoringGuy is a borderline lunatic (in a good way :) ). He finishes Friday's ride, trailers the Patrol home, works on getting the 1644 finished, does so at 1am, loads on the trailer and is in the Baker Creek lot with it for departure at 10am Saturday. :applause:



*** Lastly thanks for all of the memorable conversations over food and drink! Not in any order:

--- April & her trailside café crushed it out of the park. Fine dining at 8000’.

--- Mormon owned hotel bars shutting down at 10pm unless there is an adequate head count to keep going! Then it gains you an additional half hour before the next head count.

--- Maybe the worst mixologist I’ve come across at the same bar. An Old Fashion is one of the easiest drinks to make. For some. Luckily something on the rocks is pretty foolproof.

--- I’m betting Brian & Pete will take Steph up on that sun block offer next time! (Before they need it!)

--- That Tucker Trailer people/gear hauler is incredibly comfortable to ride on. Never would have thought it and perfect for sunny excursions.

--- Roundhouse dinner and gondola ride was one for the books with Rob666, Mother Tucker and his wife Gloria.

--- Sunday brunch was great (was wondering how you did with that meal Mother Tucker! :LOL: ) with hilarious tales from around the country. 230 Pilot was pretty quiet thru all of that. :) I don’t think I’ll ever see a badger on Discovery, Animal Planet or NatGeo without thinking about Fluffy & Sheriff. :ROFLMAO:

Don't want to be redundant with the photos, but 230 Pilot should at least get a little opposite shutter time.
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Mr. Davenet, Mother Tucker has 60 years experience picking peas out of fried rice, the grass under the eggs was easy,..lol
 
DAVENET said:
- Gannon drank the Orange Kool-aid. But that wasn’t enough, so he built a pool out back and filled that up as well. For those that don’t know, he towed his rig from Pennsylvania to the UP of Michigan and back. Then up to NH for the Antique Track show. Then out to the Colorado Jamboree. But instead of going home, he just continued up to Sun Valley for the following weekend before heading east. While in SV he decides he wants to make things interesting by rolling his carrier over and sheering off the top of the trunnion pin which allowed the table assembly to slam back into his oil pan, which promptly opened it up. I will let him provide a more detailed report of the failure & fix, but after spending Saturday MacGyvering a fix, he was back on the trail for Sunday morning. He deserved (and earned) the Old Grouser award more than anyone else!
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Thanks Dave!

We had an amazing time in sun valley. It was for sure the highlight of all the trips, over the top! I am planning on giving the 1542 some much needed love this year to prevent further uh ohs like that one. Thank you PP for the amazing gathering and to everyone who offered or helped in any way. I’m sad this was the last event in sun valley but happy we made it! It was great to meet everyone from the other side of the country.
 
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this years snow cat serenade, a gathering of old grousers, was absolutely amazing with so many coming from east of the Mississippi, and then all the families, so wonderful, truly a great event, thank you to each and everyone that came and made this so special,

a good event does not happen without great people.

and finding a place to hold a event does not just happen, we have been so fortunate that SV was willing to work with us, almost to a resort/motel/hotel, they do not want 20 some trucks and trailers in their parking lots, ouch, SV was good because once you parked for the day, you had everything you would need on site, and all within walking distance, and if you wanted to venture into the big city of Ketchum, there was a great transit bus system to use, and it was FREE.

Next, having so many readily available areas to snow cat is unheard of, and each had more than ample parking for all the rigs, no real conflicts of use from snow mobiles was great to say the least, so many vistas that just went on for ever, hard to match this anywhere is the world, only real limit comes from migration restrictions. someday we will get to the general store and hot springs out of Fairfield

then is having a location that is sorta kinda in the middle of a region is not easy, with good access, seems every year the storms provide a challenge to one or two of us in getting to SV, and somehow we all make it with smiles and ready to take on the swatooths

the Sawtooth mountains are probably the best snow catting in the world and we have been so fortunate to see them at their best with 2 of the best trek masters, jack and brant thank you guys

Sawtooth and SV is nearly as perfect as it gets once you add all of you, thank you to all that have come
 
Thank You Pontoon Princess for the event of a lifetime. I knew I'd get to meet and greet quite a few FF members, and I knew I'd get to see some of the awesome snow-cats. But I was totally blown away by the immensity of this event. All the planning down to the nth detail. You thought of everything. So impressed with all you did to make this whole week come off without a hitch. Like you said the Sun Valley Inn was the perfect place to host this event. Everything all in one place and short drives to the trails that lead to the sky. I try to tell others of the fun we had and show pics but I know it is lacking and no way can I show or put in words a complete description of what our experience was. Both Gail and I are so grateful to you for making it possible for us to experience all the snow-cat fun.

It was awesome to get to meet so many FF members in one place. Never before have I met so many at one event. So many names that I messed up and found it impossible to remember. I tried, I really did. Thanks to all the members who were part of this snow-cat party and special thanks to Brant and his wife and Aaron an Anna for giving us rides up the mountains. And a big thanks to GMoose (Dave) and Angela for letting me drive and do donuts (Woo Hoo) and for taking Gail for a ride "over the hill". Yall are awesome. I truly wish I'd had more time to spend with all you. And due to this party and meeting everyone we now have 4th of July plans with snow-catter and fellow east coasters to do some boating fun. All thanks to your invite Jinn. We truly cannot thank you enough. All the best my friend.
 
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I have been asked by several old grousers for the vows that the Sawtooth Preacher used for the renewal of Greg and Gail marriage vows at the Chapel of the Sawtooths, they were from the book of tucker, Brian, 4:43

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and thinking about all the wonderful folks that came, really great people, all good running machines, such marvelous memories, thank you to each of you....

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and then....

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the great families, wonderful kids, and so nice to see them coming SV2022 and enjoying themselves...

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