2019 President's Letter

President’s Ride Summary

2019

Dixie Ranch

Umatilla County

Ukiah, Oregon

President: Scott Weaver

Vice President: Jim Bruce

Secretary/Treasurer: Peter Hall

Dates: August 7-11

Caterer: Mundo Catering

Cost of the Ride: $575.00

This year’s ride took place at the Dixie Ranch, a gorgeous property owned by Fee & Julie Stubblefield. When Fee and I first met, I immediately sensed his appreciation for our ride’s tradition as he generously accommodated our group and offered suggestions to create a truly memorable experience for the club.

Fee invited Jim Bruce and I to his lodge at Lehman Hot Springs for a brief interview regarding our club. I’ve never met someone with so much enthusiasm as Fee. He showed us several sites that would work, and after mulling over the many excellent camp spots on his property, we finally determined that his personal ranch The Dixie would be best for our group.

Dixie Ranch came complete with stables for the rental horses, incredible views, plenty of shade, and amazing access to Fee’s expansive property that allowed us to ride straight out of camp.

He was also incredibly gracious to let one of our oldest members, 96-year-old Judge Ted Goodwin, use his hunting bunkroom, which was close to the Long Branch and cook tent.

Just when I thought I might have secured one of the best locations in STR history, Fee sweetened the deal a little bit more. As a bonus, Fee offered the use of Lehman Hot Springs, a beautiful natural hot spring in the heart of the Umatilla National Forest, complete with three heated soaking pools, and what I’m told is the largest outdoor swimming pool in Umatilla County. After a day in the saddle, nothing beats a long soak in a natural hot spring to sooth and replenish.

For me, one sign of a good ride is when no one gets seriously hurt. We had only two incidents this year. One being Gary Nannini who, after a long first night of whooping-it-up, fell to his knees the following morning during breakfast. Some of us thought he had a stroke, but our resident urologist determined it wasn’t. After lying flat on his back for a couple of hours with no relief I drove him to the Pendleton hospital. There he was diagnosed with a mild hangover and a nasty case of viral labyrinthitis, commonly known as vertigo.

The real buckaroo award however, goes to Gregg Mohnen. Greg won the title this year not because he got bucked off his horse, but because he stayed in the saddle as his horse rolled over twice, with him in the saddle all the while.

Wednesday night we enjoyed our first ever STR Joke-Off competition, featuring a pair of embroidered leather STR saddlebags for the grand prizewinner. We had quite a few participants who told a mix of funny, questionable, and downright disgusting jokes. After many laughs and plenty of heckling, the impartial judges unanimously awarded the STR saddlebags to Jeff Johnson for his cunning recount of Tarzan and Jane’s first adult encounter.

After a hard day’s ride on Friday, the wranglers and a handful of cowpokes went into town to whoop-it-up at the local watering hole called The Thicket. Many tequila shots were had by all, and to top it off, the bartender challenged Jason Fargher (one of our wranglers) to arm wrestling. Let’s just say, Jason did not let The Skyline Trail Riders down. This was captured on video https://vimeo.com/358791626 and the password is “long branch”

One of the highlights for me every year is the STR Band, and this year was no exception. Not only did the band keep the riders entertained with lively country classics, but risked life and limb as they played on while lightning struck, and thunder pounded all around them. A special thanks to Kurt Silva, Marti Gilbard, Skyler Weaver, Jim Goodwin and solos by James Clement on the keyboard.

This year’s gift to the riders was a razor sharp Santoku 7” chef knife, etched with Dixie Ranch 2019 on one side and the Skyline Trail Riders logo on the other side. I was somewhat hesitant to give out the knives after a 3-hour long happy hour at the Long Branch. But I was pleasantly surprised when the riders handled their new knives responsibly for the most part. To my knowledge only one member cut himself that night while testing the edge of his new blade doing backhand samurai chops on a few full cans of cold beer.

Thank you to everyone who came out to ride this year. It was one for the record books. If there’s one thing I can leave you with as the theme of this year’s ride, it’s this: we’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time. I hope the ride lived up to that saying for all of you.

Scott Weaver

Members 1. Scott Weaver (President) 2. Jim Bruce (Vice President)

3. Peter Hall (Secretary/Treasurer) 4. Chris Benware 5. John Bishop 6. Matt Bordonaro 7. Jimmy Bruce 8. Bob Buck 9. Carl Burnham III (Old Bull) 10. Chase Burnham IV 11. Carl Burnham Jr. 12. Grant Carroll 13. Mike Chamness (Old Bull) 14. Paul Chamness 15. Bubba Clement 16. Nic Corbett 17. Bob Cowling 18. Gary Davis (Old Bull) 19. Ken Davis (Old Bull) 20. Kevin Director 21. Marty Gelbard 22. Ted Goodman 23. Colton Goodwin 24. Jim Goodwin (Old Bull) 25. Walter Grebe 26. Macgregor Hall 27. Scott Hawes (Old Bull) 28. David Hayhurst G. 29. David Hayhurst M. 30. Mike Herrick 31. Steve Hopkins (Old Bull) 32. David Horstkotte 33. Jeff Johnson 34. Peter Lynn 35. John Magaddino 36. Glen McGinnis 37. Greg Mohnen 38. Gary Nannini 39. Dick Noble 40. Ralph Osvold 41. Michael Phinney (Old Bull) 42. Brad Preble 43. Mark Preble 44. Wallace Preble 45. John Skakel 46. Mick Skillern (Old Bull) 47. Jeremy Starr (Old Bull) 48. Brent Strumbaugh (Old Bull) 49. Duke Walton II (Old Bull) 50. Skyler Weaver 51. John Williams 52. John Wise 53. Jim Wood 54. Kurt Silva (Musician) 55. Paul Wilson (Wrangler) 56. Jason Fargher (Wrangler)

57. Denny Sveen (Wrangler)