Winterfest 2006

“Chris...I notice you have plenty of beverages listed but not too much to eat? I am just bringing plain old BP food since it is easier and I am lazy. I although I do have some brie to share.

Now...no one should lose his (or hers) wallet this time....hmmmm?

Oh yea...the pickle ritual. Since I won't be there on New Years, I will miss the pickle spectacle.”

“I have the "pickle".

Karen, if we have enough wood, perhaps we can have the fire both nights. The later the better I suspose for the fire, much will depend on how much wood we have.

Lady, we have had jiffy pop in the past, it works on the Tipi stove. Drop me an email if you will, so we can swap #'s, I cant find yours.”

“...sorta

I just make reservations at the Econolodge in Mount Shasta City. Call us wimps but I have been checking out the weather reports and it sounds like some weather will be coming in Friday and Saturday. We will be taking the highest bidders for the extra beds in the rooms. I probably shoudn't be saying this but we have a 2 bedroom suite. We will be up there tomorrow at some point and probably come to check out the scene in the afternoon.”

“Thanks, Steve. We've finally hit upon a menu for all our meals, and we won't need the fires after all. We have a lot of cut wood suitable for the outside fire - comes from years of remodeling and Jerry pruning stuff. We'll load it into the car and bring it.”

“No really, your probably the only smart one in the whole da#* bunch of us. :P
Who know, we will all be knocking at your door for warm shelter in the middle of the night. LOL ! Looking forward to seeing you.

Ladyhiker, I also have expresso beans to share. (from Trader Joes)
Navi and I plan to be there by noon on Friday.
Wooohooo! Were all nuts!!!”

“Yea, it does sound like we will be getting some weather. Winds around 30mph and snow acumulation of 9" or so (as of now).

Having a back up may not be a bad idea ;-)

Sandy, you may quit dancing now.”

“Yeah, Pepper and Shamus, it will be great to see you.

We're bringing Magic Cookies to share.”

“Magic cookies?
Their so good they disapear? Hey are they Pepperage Farms Tahoe Cookies? (an inside joke)
last edited: 12/28/05 11:15:09 PM”

“Not to worry......... People bring them to work.”

“Steve - it wasn't me. I have been busily loading my el cheapo sled that I will be towing on a rope behind me this year. I'm thinking, how bad can it be to tow this thing a mile? When are you expecting the 9"inches of snow and 30 mile winds? Please say Sat after I am gone. If it is that bad I may end up abandoning the sled and making two trips.”

“I wouldn't worry about 9" of snow. 2' of snow is when you have problems, lol

One thing I have learned about mountain weather...you never know whats it's going to do, till it does it.

Last year we had that break remember, stars over the tent....could happen again.


Then again.........”

“O'Dark Thirty (5:30AM) and I'm on my way!”

“Navi? You on the road already?”

“Have a great time, all. I was holding out hope things would fall into place for me to come join you, but it's not going to happen this time. I'll be thinking about you and watching the radar! See some of you at Loon Lake in Feb!”

“Happy New Year Bowlderman! Yes, see you at Loon Lake.”

“See ya there, 'byrd!

Forgot to mention: For those of you heading in today, a buddy of mine and his 13-year-old daughter are probably exiting from an overnight at Shasta today (practicing for our Yukon trip this April). Not sure where they were planning to camp, but if you see a tall skinny guy with a teenage daughter skiing back to their car, say "Hi!" to Jerry and Rachel....
last edited: 12/29/05 9:07:15 AM”

“Magic cookies??? I've had magic brownies but the cookies will be a first! LOL

I'm bringing all the wood I can. I have been downgraded to bringing our car and leaving the wife our truck :( Gotta deal with the snow chain business now I suppose.”

“I get to go to work for a few hours then I can leave.....Is it noon yet?”

“Flip, I think that's a different kind of magic. This is more like Songbyrd said about disapperaring magic. Disclaimer: This is MY first time to make them, so they may need to disappear early.

Songbyrd, we'll have to watch Jerry closely to see if they have Tahoe qualities.

Looks like we'll be in Fairfield around 7AM if that works for Sriprank, so we should be arriving about the same time as the Sacto group.”

“I've almost got the truck loaded. Gotta throw a couple things together and I'm gone.

Drive careful everyone!”

“We are all packed and ready to hit the road. Should be there around one! See you all soon! YEAH!!!”

“Thanks to the Thursday group for blazing the trail. See you all on Friday.”

“Remember, the coords are approximate, I suspect we will be hunkered down in the trees. We wont be hard to find.

I'm outa here............”

“Here we are, in the lovely town of Mt Shasta City. Checked into our motel room. It started raining about an hour ago - I hope the folks at Bunny Flat are getting snow rather than rain! I have to admit that I am not sorry to have a hot shower right in the next room. We didn't make it out to the trailhead - just did a quick sightseeing trip through town. Every other shop sells crystals. If anyone wants to call us Randy's cell phone number is 530 400-8852.”

“Thanks for checking in with us Anne. We're leaving at 7:00 in the am. Looks as though the weather will continue to get worse but we're coming anyway. Keep us posted if you hear anything new. Looking forward to seeing you and Randay this weekend.”

“Jason, You got mail!”

“Frnak... sorry for the delay. I missed your post. I've rented snowshoes from REI - had them reserved already. Thanks so much for the offer. It only cost us 10 bucks and I have to work at the Rosevill office by REI this afternoon anyway.

Looking forward to seeing you all again (and meeting some new faces).

Rob”

“lots of wet snow in town this morning. I'm not sure the elevation difference between here and bunny flat but I hope they are getting things a little drier than here. we are getting a slow start with coffee in the cafe with internet access across the street from our motel and will head up to check out the scene soon.”

“I hate to, but I'm not going to make it. I've come down with some sort of crud. You guys have a great time. Maybe next year.”

“Winterfest was cut short.

You'll hear all about it over the next couple days. I believe we got everyone turned around. We met up with everyone (I believe) that was coming up Friday at Black Bear restaurant in Mt Shasta. We then continued on to Bobs place at Lake Shastina and continued with the celebration.

Even though the trip was cut short, everyone seemed to have a great time. I was reminded by Navi (I believe) that its about the people, and we had some great folks. I want to give Bob a special thanks for his hospitiality, he was a great host. Wait till you see the pictures, we were still "roughing it" and the pistures of Bob in his kilt are, well...just special :-)
Thanks again Bob!

The whole story will come out later...right now I have an awful lot of wet gear to dry, then I'm going to get some sleep, I'm a bit beat.”

“Jason and myself are home and Navi's on his way back to the L.A. area. Will get started on downloading a few pics now.
Thanks to Mountainsteve for planning this event and to Navi for the transportaion and Bob for his wonderful hospitiality.
I really enjoyed meeting all of my new future hiking buddies. Made the trip all worth the while.”

“http://community.webshots.com/album/532582596GjyPhR
The above link should take you to what pics I got of the Winterfest event.(plus a short and sweet trip report) Please let me know if I missed or messed up anyones names. I met a lot of new people this weekend.”

“It's here too at:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=556607

and

http://community.webshots.com/user/ladymaritel

-------------------------
Thank you so much for a wonderful reception to you beautiful home, Bob. Thanks to MtnSteve for all your effort in putting this together. The campsite was so nice, too bad we all had to bail out, but it's for our own safety.
-------------------------
Me and my son's adventure:

We were so excited to get to Bunny flat. It was windy and snowing. I carried a backpack and a hauled the sled. We had a blast snowshoeing until after I set up my tent, we had to leave right away. Being it my first time to drive in the snow storm like yesterday, I had a hard time driving out. It was all white and I could not see a thing until I hit the side of the road and I could not move my truck. I almost hit another truck head on since my truck was sliding. I put my chains the wrong way, so it came off and got tangled. The whole time, my son was playing gameboy and I'm glad he did not add to my stress. 4 angels helped us on the way to meet with Sonbyrd, Navi, and Jason at the Black Bear Diner. What an adventure! We drove to Bob's home and camped there. My son and I had a blast. Well, we ate dinner at the diner, then we ate again at Bob's house :-)))

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Maria

P.S.
Theresa, I'll look at your photos as soon as I take care of HikerFrancis.”

“What an adventure this thing turned out to be. Where to start? Hmmmm....well I will start with the end of the trip which none of you know about. I ended up giving Frank a ride home so K&J could try to salvage some of their Holiday weekend. It was okay with me since it only meant that I would be taking a different route home but one that is relatively the same distance. First problem, 505 to Vacaville was closed due to flooding. So we took the alternate route, 113 to meet up with 80. Once we approached Vacaville, traffic was a complete stop due to flooding in 80 in Fairfield. After idling for a while we finally figured out that the freeway was closed and 680 to Benecia bridge was also closed (three hour delays projected. So even if I could get Frank to his car in Suisun I couldn't get home over the bridge. So we had to turn around and go back to Sacramento and go the way I would have normally went...except I still had Frank. I ended up driving past my home and taking him to Bart which he took and met his wife somewhere (Oakland?) and he will be able to pick his car up tomorrow. Whew...what a week-end. I am tired right now and will post more positively tomorrow. I hope everyone else has made it home safely or will soon.....you too Frank. Sorry for the Bart/Bus thing, I would have taken you all the way if I could.”

“10:00 and I'm home safe and buzzed from all the caffene. "Monster" works real good.”

“We're home in Eugene & ready to head out tomorrow maybe to show Richard Crater Lake... We'll see... depends on if I can get Richard across the creek into the spare bedroom... Happy New Year everyone! Had a blast! Looking forward to Winterfest 2007! Thanks Steve for organizing and setting up and un-setting up the teepee! Thanks Bob for a great stay in the mansion overlooking the lake!”

“Wow! What an adventure. It is flooding in Sacramento and surrounding areas, so you are lucky in some respects.

I'm sure you had a good time anyway!!!”

“...and good to see Eugene is alive and well!”

“Sandyann, I wondered if you had made it home after watching the news about the road closers this morning. Sorry to hear about your episode. I'm glad you finally made it.
Good to hear from you too Navi. You made pretty good timing. Did you stay up till midnight? Probably so with all that caffine. lol”

“Hey,

Thanks again Sandy you are GREAT.
I got home from Bart fine and drove up and picked up my car at Suisun this morning.

All packed for Loon Lake.

frank”

“OK. Who is missing a set of treking poles?
Songbyrd? Jason?”

“Damn, They're mine! Guess I'll get them from you at the Loon Lake trip?”

“Or sooner. 8^)”

“Theresa... you're going to have to buy all new gear pretty soon. I still have your gloves - sorry I didn't get them to you.

I may join in on the Loon Lake trip - let me check it out. If not - I'd be glad to drop your gloves (and waterbottle) off sooner.

Rob”

“Hey robertr, did I just read you work at the Roseville REI? No way? So did I up until I got married at the end of April. How long have you been there? What department? I'm Brian Ernst and I worked in the camping department, having worked in the Sac store for a few years before Roseville.”

“Robert,
Do you also have my water bottle? Which one (color)? How did I not miss that? Anyway, I bought some pretty cool gloves at REI last week. So no big worries on the gloves. They have the cut-off fingers with the pull over mitts. I used them this weekend and really liked them. I guess you have to come to Loon Lake so I can get my gear back. I'm getting sooo bad at leaving gear behind. I just learned that I left my trecking poles in Naviguessers auto. They say, the mind is the first to go. LOL! HELP!”

“You lost your mind too!??!
It's not in my car! I looked.”

“Ha Ha! Love ya anyway!”

“Gee Songbyrd - what's it with loosing gear? I still have one of your gloves but I keep forgetting to get them to you. I also have your sunglasses but I am not sure which ones are yours! Maybe this year you will be reunited with all your gear.”

“We're home safe and sound. Sorry for all the additional driving, Sandyann. It looked like a slam-dunk to go that way.

We spent New Year's Eve in Mt. Shasta City at a B&B. Very nice. The snow stopped pretty much all day. We hiked along the McCloud River and looked at the falls. Our drive back was uneventful until about 5 miles from home when we had to navigate around two flooded out roads and one washed out road to get to our house.

Thanks, Steve and Bob!”