2016 Spring Ride--Another Great Year!

What a spectacular scenery ride was held this year! The Balsamic Root (wild sunflowers) were a blanket of yellow, weather held calm and sunny, and a good turnout of riders and their horses made this year’s Spring Ride memorable once again.

Our Methow Valley chapter members really rallied and just “jumped in” to make it all come together. Registration and “logo wear” sales went well and—with many thanks to our donors—the Silent Auction was a big success with lots of very active bidding.    

Food was great (thanks to the cooks and their helpers), and we had tasty pot luck suppers Friday and Saturday nights, with a mighty tasty “cowboy breakfast” on Sunday morning—complete with omelets! At Cougar Flats (an area which we couldn’t use last year because it had burnt), the BBQ was wonderfully done with everyone getting served in a timely manner and, there was plenty of food for all. “Thank you” to Wayne Cornwall for putting up the hi-lines for riders to tie up their horses and mules at the BBQ site! To spice up the activity on the trail his year, we added a “Game of Chance” where riders had fun with a ring-toss and dart throwing, which turned out to be very entertaining!

The evening entertainment of music around the campfire after our pot luck dinners was very good both Friday and Saturday nights, but we sure missed beloved entertainer Randy Edin, who is battling a very serious illness and couldn’t be with us. 

Thank you to everyone who pitched in to help—it really does take a “Village of Members” to put on this Ride and host our guests from around the region. Even the Flaggers who worked a few days before the Ride did a very clever job of bypassing mudslides and washouts along the trail, rerouting riders to enjoyable—and safe—traveling. Thank you also to the fence-building crew who worked hard the week before the Ride in order to obtain our permit to use the campground! 

We're looking forward to 2017!