F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 8

The Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club will hold its monthly

meeting on Thursday, February 14, starting at 7:00 p.m.

in the First Presbyterian Church, 1220 West Main Street in

Hamilton. Toddy Perryman and Pat Leonard will show

photographs taken last summer as they sailed and motored

their 32-foot sailboat from Puget Sound, through the Inland

Passage, to Alaska and back. The images cover the 1000+

miles from Washington to Wrangell, Alaska, and include

whales, rock-walled fjords - and rain. Lots of rain.

The President’s computer crashed!!

No message this month.

and from Salmon are planning on doing a XC ski trip from

Chief Joseph Pass out the Anderson Mtn. Road and then

down May Creek to the May Creek campground, weather

permitting. This is an 11-mile trip and is not for beginner

skiers. We will probably have to break trail quite a bit of

the way. It depends on if anyone has been out that way

recently. There is more downhill than there is uphill, of

course.

We will meet at the Chief Joseph Pass parking lot at

0930 on Feb. 10 and shuttle cars down to the May Creek

Campground, as necessary. Bring a lunch and a few extra

items of warm clothing. I will bring a small, down sleeping

bag, foam pad, plastic tarp, snow shovel, and some

carabiners and sections of rope.

If you know of anyone who would like to go on this

trip, pass the word. See you there. /s/ Bob Schumaker

406-363-0364

its meeting night (2nd Thursday of each month) to a

different Thursday, for two reasons. The first reason is

many of the SAR membership would like to be more

involved in the XC Ski Club. The second reason is SAR

would hopefully recruit some valuable folks into our

organization. We need people with back country and river

skills, as well as those who might fill supporting roles for

field teams on missions. I would like to speak briefly at

your February meeting with some more details regarding

this proposal. Thank you.

/s/ Alan Burgmuller

week and the total is still 60 inches. All the trails were

groomed and tracks set.

We stayed overnight at the Hut to make sure the tracks

were in good shape for the ski lessons on the 26th.

are VOLUNTEERS! Della deserves the T.C. United of

Montana Meritorious Award for service way above and

beyond the call of duty. Some human seagull desecrated the

toilet in the parking lot (I’ll spare you the details) and Della,

without a hazmat suit or pressure washer, took care of the

situation, making a special trip with gallons of hot water,

etc. Thank you, Della, you’re an Angel.

Country Ski Club lesson day was a great benefit for the

residents of our area. There were over 40 participants and

probably 15 instructors with Gordon Reese doing the

introductory instructions. Thanks so much to all who

participated, and especially, thanks to all the people who

came out to help with the instruction. We hope everyone

had a great day.

The newsletter is available in e-mail format for all

members who use computers and get e-mail.

The new format for the e-mail newsletter is text

only, with a link at the top of the page to our web site

newsletter. You can click on the link and get the .pdf

version of the newsletter to print out at home. It will

look just like the version that comes in the mail.

For those times when we include photographs in

the newsletter, we will put both the .pdf version, which

includes the photographs, and a text version on the web

site. This is so that people who have a dial-up

connection do not have to wait a long time for the

newsletter to be available from the web.

If, perchance you do not get your e-mailed version

of the newsletter in its usual timely fashion, (perhaps

due to some server malfunction, for instance) you can

if it has been posted there. We are trying our best to

get the newsletter onto the web site as soon as possible.

It should be there by about the first Friday of each

month.

Happy skiing!

January 10, 2008

By Kay Fulton

at 7:15 p.m. There were approximately 50 people in

attendance.

Membership Report: Jack Losensky reported that the

membership now totals 317 which is down 40

members from the same time last year and almost 63

from 2 years ago. Jack had done a membership

analysis in which he found the following: 213 from

Montana, 6 from Idaho, 2 from Washington and

Wyoming and one each from Arkansas, California,

Colorado, Florida, Illinois and New Mexico. The

Membership breakdown showed: 2 Complementary;

27 Sponsors; 55 Life; Family 59; Supporting Family

27; Individual 46; Supporting Individual 15: Totaling

317.

Treasurer’s Report: Jeane Lippert reported: Income,

$1,350; Expenses, $2,278; Checking, $5,832; Savings,

$3,208.98. There is enough to pay for the new snow

machine.

EXTRAVAGANZA: Linda Stoudt reported that sales

are going great. The stores are having a contest to see

who wins the night at the cabin and Linda has been

making ticket sales at the cabin and out on the trail.

The drawing will be at the Firenze CafÉ in Florence on

February 1, 2008. Tickets can be purchased over the

Internet through Earl Philips.

SKI LESSONS will be on Saturday, January 26.

Michele Thompson has been doing the advertising.

More instructors are needed. A sign-up sheet was

passed around. The instructors will meet at 11:00 a.m.

and students are to meet at the trailhead at 12:30.

BIG HOLE WINTER FESTIVAL: February 4 &5. Mel

Mooers reported there will be a relay from Wisdom to

Jackson. The Club groomers will be doing the

grooming for the racecourse.

The Ridge Runners snowmobile club has reported that

there are some problems with dogs running loose on

Skalkaho Road and have asked skiers to help with

keeping their dogs leashed or under control.

New Business: Mel Mooers proposed that the

immediate past president be made a member of the

Board. This would be helpful since it aids in

institutional memory. Because this would change the

bi-laws, a motion would have to be made and passed at

this meeting and then announced in two succeeding

meetings. A motion was made, seconded and passed.

Trails Report: Mel Mooers, Grooming Coordinator,

reported the new “RED ROCKET” is a fantastic

machine. It has tons of power. The purchase will be

finalized on Saturday and then can be turned in for the

reimbursement from the grant.

There is fresh snow and groomers will be grooming

January 18. They will also groom Friday, the 25th and

again Saturday, the 26th for the lessons. P a t t y

Johnson who has been the coordinator for the cabin

from the Beaverhead National Forest, is transferring to

the Flathead. We do not know who will take her place.

Dennis Havig will be retiring sometime later this year.

Bob Schumaker reported he and Barb had the cabin

on the night of the first and found the hosts from the

31st had not taken out any trash, as well as several onegallon

water jugs.

Earl Philips reported that the Cancellation System

continues to work very well, even on extremely short

notice. A few times he has gone through two or more

people saying they could take the cancellation and then

finding out they couldn’t and he was still able to fill it.

People must be on his e-mail list. He is not contacting

via phone.

program on Wolves in the Bitterroot. Liz is a Wolf

Management Specialist with Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

She is responsible for a large portion of western

Montana. She discussed the population of packs in the

Bitterroot and the monitoring program, which includes

radio collars and helicopter tracking.