Goodbye Miwok, Goodbye Dancing Bare

There are times when you decide it is best to part ways with someone or something that has been part of your life. This weekend was one of those occasions. My trusty Miwok raft that Steve Romoff and I purchased together in 1980 from the original owner of ARTA in California, along with a few other friends who bought into the discounted purchase of Miwoks served me well for 30 plus year. I rowed this raft on three different Grand Canyon trips two of which included Johnny Montezuma, Wayne Ranney and Bryan Brown among other notables. The trusty Miwok ventured down the Middle Fork, Main and Lower Salmon numerous times, typically with me and Steve Romoff sharing kayak and rowing duties. It ventured down the Selway, the San Juan, the Salt, Desolation Canyon and the Green River among others. Steve pretty much quit rafting 15 years ago and simply told me his share of the raft was mine so the raft stayed with me ever since. Once I had Megan and after I got divorced running a bucket bailer with a young child wasn't very practical so I purchased an Aire Ocelot cataraft. Megan loved doing day trips on that with me. But her first river trip at age 5 was the San Juan on that raft. After that she also did the Main and Lower Salmon on it.
Wonderful people from the nearby town of Emmett saw my Craigslist ad and came over to help me blow up the raft, rig the foam under the drop in wood floor and set up the frame and three ancient oars and the thole pins and clips. They fell in love at first sight. Wade, as it turns out, had been a rec planner in Idaho Falls for BLM and managed the South Fork Snake. And has fate would have it, his younger brother followed me around in my career with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, taking three jobs in a row after I had moved on and up the career ladder. How ironic is that? And now his brother is the State Conservationist of Utah for NRCS. Gee, maybe if I'd stayed on I'd be the State Conservationist of Idaho for NRCS but I digress. Was and his wife made a deal with me that I could borrow back the raft at any time if I found a need for a bigger boat. That is the awesome part. My friend Norm Henderson, who sold his Miwok two summers ago cut the same deal with the buyers of his raft, too. So $600 later my dearest Miwok has a new home, and the owners are convinced this was the greatest thing to hit them over the head. Ms. Miwok knows her way around the eddy and I'm certain her new owners will love her as much as I did.

Fast forward to the next googbye. Dancing Bare is my Dagger Dimension tandem whitewater canoe. I fell in love with this particular tandem canoe 20 years ago or so when I ran it on a back to back trip on the Middle Fork Salmon and Main Salmon with my dearest of friends Ms. Lynn Green. We made the entire trip without a single swim and some amazingly fancy eddy hopping in Webber Rapids and Dried Meat, among others. And then there was Tappen Falls. Wowie Zowie. Another trip I did once I purchased my very own Dagger Dimension was with my ex husband on the Main Salmon at 20,000 cfs over 4th of July in 1996 while six months pregnant. I couldn't fit into my wetsuit so had to wear poly pro, fleece, a dry top and neoprene shorts and rain pants. Fortunately for use, we were the only people who didn't swim out of our kayaks or canoes on the self supported trip. And the weather was awesome. I ran that canoe on several other trips on the Middle Fork, Main and Lower Salmon along with Cabarton, Staircase, South Fork Payette Canyon and Main Payette Rivers in Idaho. It made a San Juan trip, a Dirty Devil trip, and several outings on the Upper Salmon near Stanley running Shotgun Rapid and Piece of Cake day stretches. But paddling on my knees has taken it's toll and so I listed Dancing Bare on Craigslist and my Facebook page. A friend who had moved to Oregon this past year saw it and contacted his friend in Coeur d'Alene who runs the outdoor program at North Idaho College. Jon called me and wants the canoe and will pick it up in May after he returns from his late April Grand Canyon trip. So Dancing Bare will have a new home up north but still in Idaho, loved by yet another river person. And Jon and I agreed I could borrow her back should I get the hankering to take her out with someone one last time.

Happy St. Patricks Day to Biologists and Beer Drinkers

Solstice Schlock

Marti’s Solstice Schlock – December, 2011
With Apologies to the Dude who Wrote the Original

Twas the night before skiing
And inside my boot
Was a moldy ham sandwich
And what looked like a coot.

That stuff in my boots
Came from some where.
It smelled really stinky
Like Boise’s bad air.

“Who could have done this?”
I mumbled to no one.
My dog’s not that smart,
Perhaps it’s my young ‘un.

“Megan!” I said sternly
“Did you touch my boots?
They smell like dead animal
Or someone’s bad hooch.”

“I wouldn’t do that,”
She said with a smile.
“But I know who did,”
And she smirked with some guile.

“Remember last winter
Coming home from our ski;
You stopped for a beverage
Then got out to pee?“

"Your friend found the coot
Dead in the road;
Put it into the boot
But forgot to unload.”

“The sandwich, however,
Is a mystery to me.
Perhaps it’s an omen
By someone you’ll see”

Can Boise State Bust the BCS Again?

Well, football fans, it's hard to say if Boise State can bust the BCS or not. Despite getting off to a good start this year, we found ourselves without a kicker. We have a kicker, a decent human being named Dan Goodale, a walk on freshman who is learning the kick of the trade. But at 32 yards as his farthest field goal, we're sorely lacking. To Dan's credit, he hasn't taken it lying down and he is only a Freshman. So one of our local fans wrote a song to honor our lack of a kicker; all in good fun.
And let's face it. Boise State has beaten Virginia Tech, Tulsa, Georgia, Oregon and Oklahoma before. They can run with the big names. And most of those big names have been going down this season. So being back ranked at 7th in the polls again, well, maybe we'll see ya'll at the Sugar Bowl this year, and maybe a BCS championship if we can get a kicker.

Snowmageddon This Winter

Well snow sports fans in Idaho and elsewhere. We're definitely headed for cold temps this winter and well above precip here in ski, snowboard, sledding land of the Northern Rockies. Though admittedly, the storm that we expected to dump 10 to 12 inches of snow at Bogus Basin in the next couple of days turned North and even South. But there is indeed hope for those of us afflicted with snow fever. We'll be at this years Warren Miller film on Friday November 18 to share in the revelry that is snow sports.

You probably read about Jamie Pierre getting flushed at Snowbird. I thought he had the record for the biggest cliif jump.

Evidently not . . .

Click on the title of this blog for the 300 plus accidental free fall by a French skier who survived while filming for a ski film. Amazing.

And Jamie, rest in peace, dude. You were one of my favorite extreme skiers and I am so sorry early crap snow at Snowbird underneath the first POW of the season took you from us, but more importantly, took you your wife and children. I hope you and Saucer Boy meet up with Speedy in the big free ride pie in the sky of extremely amazing people.

Megan Ski Jumps (at age 11)

I found this video on my computer at work that a friend sent back when Megan was ski racing for BBSEF in Boise. Figured it was time to post before I lost track of said video. She went the farthest of the J4 girls. I think she was 11 years old.

Mom's 90th Birthday Party

My mom, Barb, turned 90 this October. Making it to 30 was an ordeal for me and many thought I'd never get there. Making it to 90 and still walking on your own most of the time and living with a minimum of assistance is an epic undertaking. Mom and Dad are moving much slower and live at a retirement complex with assisted living options. They have their own apartment and mom still putters in the kitchen and makes some breakfasts and an occasional lunch or dinner. Most dining is done in the dining room at Primrose, where they live in Illinois. Dad needs quite a bit of assistance and now uses a cart he drives through the hallways and can take to the elevator to go downstairs for meals. He's a real terror in that thing!
My brother and I fly home every October to check up on mom and dad, and to celebrate mom's birthday. This year, however, was more special. We asked her if she had a preference on cake and she said she wanted angel food with burnt sugar frosting. This was something my brother recalled more from his childhood, than I did. A neighbor in Missouri used to make burnt sugar cake with burnt sugar frosting so he was pretty excited to have me find someone who could do something similar. The onus was put upon me, my sister in law Virginia and my best friend Anne to find the perfect bakery to concoct said cake. Well, Anne put in a call to her mom, who happens to be one of my mom's best friends. Donna, Anne's mom, knew of a bakery called Lana's in Decatur that might be able to do this.
Next stop was paying Lana a visit, where we found out she could indeed make us the cake but she'd never made the frosting. An elderly woman who was 95 came in and heard us discussing the frosting and said she knew the recipe and even knew how to make burnt sugar cakes. Between her and an internet search, Lana knew she could deliver. And believe me, when we picked up the cake the day of mom's birthday and then had that first bite after birthday dinner party, we knew we'd been "done right" by Lana.
To Lana's credit, she had her bakery decorated with a pumpkin sporting potato head adornments, so you can imagine how delighted I was to do business with Lana. Plus, she made my brother a burnt sugar cake he picked up the day after I left.
The angel food cake was a real hit with mom at her birthday party, but the coup d'gras was the Tiara I picked up for her to wear. Anyone over the age of 50 probably saw at least one episode of "Queen For a Day" on TV growing up in the 60's. I don't remember who the host was. If it wasn't Bob Barker, it should have been (aka Truth or Consequences host). In fact he went to college with my mom. Another story for another day. Well, Jan picked up a birthday card with Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Queen Elizabeth on it. We got other folks to sign the card from Barry O, Shelly O and Liz as a joke. We gave her the card prior to the cake and then brought out the Tiara. Mom was beside herself, and enjoyed all this joking and attention with great gusto.
We had eleven of us at the dinner: me, Jan, mom and dad, my step brother Jim, his wife Virginia, my best friend Anne and her husband David, Anne's mom Donna, and lifelong family friend Bob and his new wife Mary. It was a stellar evening that capped a great day, all day for mom. We managed to dole out birthday cards all day long to her prior to the dinner.
Jan says I've created a monster with the Tiara as mom was prancing around in the dining area at Primrose the next day at lunch showing off her Tiara and even wearing her corsage we had made for her.
I guess we done right by mom.