Month: December 2023

November 2023 SRSC Meeting Minutes

16NOV23, 1800 hours.

Secretary: Need to set up auto emails to remind people of monthly club meetings. Next one is December 21^st. Emails a week out & day of will be coordinated.

New safety shelter work has been going well. State Trails would like to bring the trailer up end of next week (Friday). Tipple Trailhead lot is a no go, needs to be right next to the bathrooms at the Lake Marie trailhead. They’re going to keep the bathrooms open this year. Cameron & Justin pulled the reefer off the front of the trailer. AD Martin is donating windows, doors, and materials to wall off the wood area from the shelter area. 3 windows going in. Need a first aid kit to go in it. Fill the hole from the reefer unit. Need a job box. Cody is about half done with the new wood stove, and he built the last one. Big thanks to him!

Work day this Saturday 11-18-23. Meet at 9:00 am Saturday to work on the hut. Materials will be rounded up Friday so everything’s ready to go Saturday for construction. They’ll install the center wall first, so that folks that come to help without construction skills can simply load firewood into it. Locations: Behind Gateway Fuels (the Shell Station), off Cleveland Road. Tools are welcomed but mostly we need hands. We’ll feed those that help; likely burgers and hot dogs, but TBD.

The other two huts need swept out, and traction tape in the entryways. Ropes that people hang gloves on needs replaced; a cable would work well. Keith will bring stuff on Saturday for this, and plans to head up to knock those jobs out. Also need to install the donation box in the second hut (only one was installed last year before snow hit).

State Trails will be printing maps this year.

Cameron has a promotional OnX Offroad maps code. 1 month free; hit him up if interested.

Scholarship info just came out from WSSA, keep an eye out for that. I’ll send out details soon. If interested reach out to Cameron, as the club has to verify the applicants are participating club members (or the student’s parent parent is, as per WSSA rules).

Treasurer Update: $17451.60 in our accounts. We will have some expenses soon, and some additional money coming in. Planning to donate more to the local SAR teams this winter (who will greatly appreciate it!).

Fundraiser grand opening idea for the new hut. We could likely get food donated towards it, do this once trails are in and we’re out riding. To be discussed further next meeting.

Cameron has been talking with Ray at Elway Powersports about a season kickoff party at the dealership. Bringing in food trucks could be a good way to go to feed people. Proposed December 16^th, need to check in with Ray. Cameron will also check with Brian Lundstedt at TBA to see if he can do another beacon search park like at a prior kickoff we had.  

WyoColo and Albany are the only places with food on the trail system this year. No restaurants in Ryan Park this season (maybe a frozen pizza at 10 Mile, but not a full restaurant).

Parking lot: the Sand Lake area had a gravel quarry active; their permit just ended. There was an expansion on parking in that area (summer parking). This is good news for winter parking, but much to be done on the bureaucratic side. For the parking near the USFS visitor center above Centennial, State Trails would groom to the old waste station site; along Ehlin Road and tie into T trail up top. Importantly, December 7^th at 4pm, the SWORC group is going to discuss the parking situation again. https://wyooutdoorrecreation.wyo.gov/index.php/outdoor-recreation-collaboratives/southeast-wyoming-outdoor-recreation-collaborative-sworc

Centennial USFS Visitor Center will be open this winter 8am -4pm Friday through Monday and they’ll be staffed. Christmas tree permits will be sold in there. Sled permits will be available there too.

Side note; the SWORC group is doing a Roger’s Canyon cleanup. https://wyooutdoorrecreation.wyo.gov/index.php/outdoor-recreation-collaboratives/southeast-wyoming-outdoor-recreation-collaborative-sworc

Wind River youth snowmobile racing starting in December near Pinedale. Additional info on back of November Wrangler.

Fun Days first week of March 2024 in Dubois. WSSA is working on online registration for this.

Sunny wants to do a Holiday Parade float in Laramie this year. Cameron is doing one for 3C Guiding so he’s not able to help day of. Justin willing to provide trailer & generator to run lights: thinking a few sleds parked on a trailer with Christmas lights strewn over them. Theme is Santa’s Toy Shop. Friday December 8^th at 6:30 PM. Meet Thursday the night before to prep; details to follow.

Zach is working on printing banners. We need to continue to round up logos from the business sponsors for these. Related: we also will do a permanent plaque for the new trailer/shelter to thank everyone that helped make it happen.

October 2023 SRSC Meeting Minutes:

October 19th 2023 at 3C Guiding

New Safety Shelter: In early October Wyoming State Trails program asked us what it would take for us to get a safety shelter at Lake Marie. Our officers told them we needed assurance that if we bought a trailer to use that it would be cleared to be used. We didn’t want to have a big outlay of cash to then be told we can’t use a trailer or it would otherwise not work. They checked with WY-DOT and got everything cleared. The trailer will be parked on WY-DOT land, not USFS, and as a trailer it will be towed in & out each season.

Two officers were brainstorming how to pay for this, and both thought they’d be happy to donate cash from their own businesses to support the cause and get some advertising. They realized others may feel the same way, and reached out to several businesses and many stepped forward to help out with cash donations, purchasing, trailer tires, materials to build it out as a shelter, and transporting it. Huge thanks to Frontier Cycles, Borderline Powersports, Front Range Powersports, A.D. Martin, Fremont Electric, Albany Lodge, 3C Guiding, Madden Contract Pumping, HyAltitude Contracting, Elway Powersports, and Elite Oil Field Services.

Special thanks to Elite for buying the trailer and committing to transporting it. The club will reimburse them for the purchase price less their donation. They’ve also brought it to Laramie from Cheyenne, and replaced the tires.

This past Saturday club members gathered in town then went up the mountain with trailers to load & haul firewood to town for the new shelter. Since the new shelter is going to be located on a Scenic Byway we can’t cut wood on site: it will be loaded up in town with a season’s worth then hauled in place ready to go. Thanks to everyone that came out & lended a hand loading, hauling, cutting and splitting.

Next up for the new trailer is to turn it into a safety shelter. We need to build interior walls, add an entry door, add a fireplace (Cody Schlager is building another bomber wood burner for us!), add benches and windows. We would also like to include 307-Aware signage, a donation box, and first aid kit. There’s a little more firewood prep left to do as well. Saturday November 18th is reserved for this work, 10am, meet at 3C Guiding shop.

Nelson and Quealy shelters: a little maintenance is needed. Refresh supplies. Add grip tape in the entry of one. Damaged window in another. These two safety shelters had wood cutting events already this fall. Thanks for all the help to those that pitched in their time & muscle!

Parking Lot update: Several Centennial local businesses are excited about the idea. No news from USFS at this time.

Treasurer Update: $11,007 in our account. $400 came in from the Denver Snow Show as memberships and donations.

Assorted:

Wyoming State Snowmobile Association website is set up to enable people to join clubs throughout the state.

There’s a push to shut down substantial public access to public BLM lands in the Sweetwater County area. Our neighbors out west need your support! More details in attachments.

General reminder about our Facebook “group” page: paid business members are free to advertise, no other advertisements allowed. We try to keep track of this but if you suspect a problem speak up.

Future Meetings:

Next Meeting: November 16th, 2023 at 6:00 PM. 3C Guiding shop in Laramie or on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81761499579 Meeting ID: 817 6149 9579

All monthly meetings are the 3rd Thursday of the month at 6PM. Same Zoom link as above.