Spring into Safety 2017

We had our annual safety meeting and trail runs on a warm and beautiful Saturday in Farmington, NM. First we met at the Kiwanas Park for winch demonstrations, CB lessons and tuning, looking at what people have in their tool boxes, and lunch. After lunch most of us headed to Chokecherry Canyon and ran Skinny Canyon and Brown’s Springs. Billy Schultheiss and Kevin Fox are demonstrating proper winch techniques.
Group line up at the end of Skinny Canyon.  We had 14 Jeeps run the trails. Scott Click climbing a hill in a small playground on Skinny Canyon.Kevin Heckman going up a wedge in Skinny Canyon.
Chad Beal testing out his new set up.  Not sure if he has enough flex yet! Todd Jones getting some good air on the tippy spot on Skinny Canyon trail.Kevin Heckman going up a series of ledges in Brown’s Springs
Chad Beal going up some ledges in Brown’s Springs.Ashley Mosby coming down a ledge in Brown’s Springs.

It was a little chilly day for the snow bash but everybody had fun.  Thanks again to the Hood’s for hosting this again.  In the morning the snow was perfect but with the sun and heating of the day it got really soft later.  I think everyone got stuck at one point or another. The snow was about 6 inches deep in the sunny areas and well over 2 feet deep in the shady areas.   Lunch came and the grill was going for everyone and the Hill’s brought some wonderful chocolate cake.   The only break down was Glen Hood may have lost his fuel pump.  That became quite the ordeal getting him pulled back up to dry ground with the snow conditions becoming sloppy quickly.  I believe the total was 8 Jeeps and one Toyota pickup. Had to get a group photo in.  Dave Shannon got Critter in some deep snow.Glen Hood winching Dave Shannon out.Dave Shannon is almost out.This time Dave Shannon is pulling out Glen Hood.One last group photo
Kevin Heckman getting stuck on his first run.  Dan White had to get him pulled out.

It had been a few years since we have been in the parade for Snowdown so we decided to decorate and enter.  It was the most fun I have ever had at the Snowdown parade as the set up from 3:30 to 6:00 was like a huge block party with people going around and looking at all the floats before the parade.  Thank you Billy Schultheiss, Greg Woodbury, Kevin Heckman, Trevor Pepperdine, and David Williams for entering their Jeeps all decorated up.

The whole group. Billy had the banners and the booming music. Kevin had his red thrusters on. Greg is a Storm Trooper. Trevor with his friends showing off his new tent camper.
David has his Jeep dressed up as a UFO. David has his other Jeep turned into a Galaxy. David also had some people walking along handing out balloons.

For once we had wonderful weather for our run for the donations.  We started out at Applebee’s for lunch and headed over to LPEA for Project Merry Christmas.  Billy Schultheiss did a great job with the radio interview.  From there we headed to the Humane Society where we filled the bench with supplies.  From there we headed to Annie’s Orphans with more food and supplies.  Here is a list of donations.

Christmas Donations: Split between them was $260 and 20 + People participated
Project Merry Christmas- 28 toys, 2 bikes, 17 clothing articles and coats, 2 blankets, 2 pillows
Humane Society- 8 bags of dog food, 4 bags of cat food, 2 cat litter, 3 pk paper towels, 3 gal. bleach, 3 toys.
Annie’s Orphans-7Bags of Dog food, 3 pk paper towels, 1 gal bleach, 1 laundry detergent

Our new fearless leader Billy Schulthiess did a great job being the MC at our annual party.  Sandy Taylor and Sally Barker provided wonderful ham and turkey for all of us.  Other club members brought various sides and desserts.  Our Christmas committee did a great job decorating and getting gifts for everyone. Scott & Kim Click surprised us all with coffee mugs with our club logo on them.  Billy Schultheiss, Chad Beal, and Scott Click built a coat rack out of old parts for the biggest screw up of the year award….which went to Lance Webb.

Everyone had a wonderful day enjoying a run up Junction Creek.  The members of Adaptive Sports always love riding in our Jeeps and talking on the CB’s.  We would like to thank sponsors of the day….Dominos for pizza, NAPA for water, and BG Goodrich for funds for sodas and plates.  We had enough pizza left over we dropped a few off at the local fire station for the firemen to enjoy.

Many of us have never explored above Mancos so we had a fun day seeing new territory.

Black Bear Pass opened 2 days earlier so we had to check it out.

Side trip up Corkscrew Pass

Silverton 4th of July.

Always a great long weekend celebrating in the high country.  As always we had a good showing in the parade.

All lined up for the parade

Annual water fight

American Girl mine

Lake Como

Carson City Ghost Town

Engineer Pass

San Juan Chief Mill

Headed down Kendall Mountain

The Alpine Loop opened up just days before we tackled the high passes of Cinnamon and Engineer.  Very large crowd as was too big to get a good group picture.

Group picture at Oh Point.  23 Jeeps in the group.

Coming up Engineer Pass.