Buckhorn Range Chapter of Back Country Horsemen of WA is partnering with Quimper Trails Association to host our 3rd annual National Trails Day event together to spruce up the trails at Gibbs Lake County Park. Please join us there at the main parking area on Gibbs Lake Rd. We will meet at 10 a.m. June 1st for a safety briefing, hand out tools and work assignments. We will be brushing trails, removing overhead branches, and repairing/restoring trail tread.
Please bring your own water, gloves, sturdy shoes or boots, and work attire.
A hot lunch will be served to participants at 1 p.m. – White Chicken Chili!
RSVP required by Wednesday May 29th. Please let us know you will be attending so we know how many we are feeding.
REGIONAL WORK PARTY- OLYMPIC NATIONAL FOREST HOSTED BY BUCKHORN RANGE CHAPTER
Our Regional Work Party is now scheduled for April 26-28th. Please join us if you can make it, we always have a great time and Kim, the dutch oven queen always prepares an excellent feast for Saturday dinner! You can sign up here https://form.jotform.com/240356439263155 on the BCHW website
LEBAR HORSE CAMP & LOWER S. FORK SKOKOMISH RIVER TRAIL
DATES: FRIDAY April 26th – SUNDAY April 28th, 2024
PRE-REGISTER ON-LINE @ BCHW.org REQUIRED by April 18th
CAMPSITES RESERVED FRIDAY-SUNDAY AND ASSIGNED AT CHECK-IN. There are 13 sites at LeBar as well as dispersed camping nearby. Brown Creek campground nearby has 12 sites + 8 tent-only sites.
SATURDAY EVENING MEAL and SUNDAY BREAKFAST PROVIDED Bring Water – LeBar is a dry camp
We need volunteers for camp and trail work. Tasks include: brushing/swamping, blowdown removal (sawyers needed!) and cleanup of campground/sites. Something for everyone! Bring gloves, appropriate attire. Tools, PPE’s provided (Sawyers need to bring their own saw/PPE) If you bring stock be aware that the trail may not be open for riding yet, and there will be a lot of activity in camp with power equipment running (line trimmers/blowers, saws).
Hope to see you there! for more information please contact: bobhoyle@usa.net
March 15-17, 2024, Kittitas Valley Event Center, Ellensburg, WA
Report Out By Helen Shewman
I went to the First aid/ CPR class. It was fantastic! He was an incredible teacher. Lots of good stories since he has a background in law enforcement and is a horse rider as well.
Lots of good practical hands on experience too. I would highly recommend the class even if you’ve had others in the past as I have. We also learned how to use the AED and both Judy and I think it would be a great thing to own for our chapter. ( since many of us are getting older)
Also, I attended the Saddle Fitting Workshop by Dave Morrison and that was really informative. He had all sorts of trees and saddles for demonstration, what works, what does not.
And lots of examples of clients who had come to him with various problems with their horses being sore, having bald spots, being uncomfortable and uncooperative and he explained how to solve various issues. I really learned a great deal. He was very patient with questions from the audience asking about their horses and tack.
His horse was there too and that was visually very easy to see how a saddle should fit or is the wrong fit and why. Again, highly recommended class!
Report out By Kim Merrick From my end, the silent auction made about $5,000 and the live auction made about $10,000, which is typical. The biggest item of the night was a week in a condo in Las Vegas during NFR Finals week (December) and $300 toward air fare, donated by Tahoma Chapter.
Al Norbbom of Wenas Valley Chapter bought the 2025 head table for $1,200. That table comes with wait staff, wine, and lobster, so it’s a big deal. Jan Whitlow of Mt. Olympus Chapter has this year’s table.
This was the first year of the ‘Dessert Dash’, which made about $3,600. People seemed to have fun doing that.
In addition to the classes Helen attended, Jay Adams did the Packing Clinic.
At the Sunday awards ceremony, where Kris Lenke was honored, Tim van Beek gave a very inspirational speech about how important stock is to trail efforts in the backcountry. He showed a photo of a trail crew 28 miles into the Pasayten Wilderness. That cannot be done without pack support! It highlighted the importance of our organization, and the appreciation of many land managers in the state and nation wide.
March 15-17, 2024, Kittitas Valley Event Center, Ellensburg, WA
It was a fabulous weekend in Ellensburg with our fellow members of Back Country Horsemen of Washington, wonderful to see friends from all over the state. Weather was wonderful, classes full of good learning, much merriment was flowing.
March 15 – 17, 2024 BCHW Rendezvous, Ellensburg, WA
Kris Lenke was nominated for a 2023 Lopper Award in recognition of her ongoing commitment to BCHW reflected in her many years of service as Buckhorn Range Chapter President for a decade, and two decades as a tireless trail worker. Her always ready, can-do attitude, be it as a work party participant or as a public-facing representative of BCHW and horse enthusiasts in many settings, supports us all.
Since joining Buckhorn Range Chapter, nearly at its inception 23 years ago, Kris has served in several officer positions including Secretary, Vice President, Alternate Director and President. Her time has been spent almost equally at administrative and public meeting efforts as it has been at trail work. Kris has also been part of several State-Wide Work Parties including Black Pine Horse Camp, Twisp River Horse Camp and Tonasket SWWP.
Kris was instrumental in the lead-up to and the actual weekend of the 2023 Regional Work Party at LeBar Forest Service Horse Camp.
Kris continues to work on many trails in Jefferson and Clallam Counties as well as having put in “sweat equity” on Olympic National Forest trails and DNR trails.
We had a great time at the in-person chapter meeting and birthday party on March 8th. We discussed outcomes of the legislative sessions, Rendezvous 2024, Chimicum Ridge updates and wandered through the Chapters website. Informative as always, plus we had a raffle with great prizes. Cake disappeared pretty quick too, including ponies depicted!
We had our first Work Party on March 2nd on the trails at the County solid waste site accessed from Cape George Road (former horse park). This is an area with good but brushy trails that we use for some chapter rides. We all spent time brushing the trails, or fighting back scotch broom using brush cutters, loppers/clippers, determination and our field mower. Folks came armed with their own handy brush cutting tools and chatter was heard through the project to ward off Ruckus, the big (tracking collared) cat, known to inspect the trails at the horse park on occasion, (we’ve heard this recently) — we were prepared for any encounter, though none was had.
A delish dutch oven lunch provided by the wonderful back country chefs Kim and Judith.
MARCH 2 – Work party Horse Park MARCH 8 – Chapter meeting APRIL 6 – Work party Horse Park APRIL 26-28 – Regional work party, LeBar Horse Camp, sign up at jot form on BCHW.org MAY 10 – Chapter meeting JUNE 1 – Work party Gibbs Lake County Park JULY 6 – Work party ODT JULY 12-14 – Chapter Camp Out LaBar Horse Camp AUGUST 9-12 – Chapter booth, Jefferson County Fair SEPTEMBER 7 – Work party Location TBD SEPTEMBER 13 – Chapter meeting OCTOBER 5 – Work party – Location TBD NOVEMBER 2 – Work party – Location TBD NOVEMBER 8 – Chapter meeting
Our Chapter Meetings take place at 7:00 PM at TRI-AREA COMMUNITY CENTER, Chimacum Printable Events Calendar
Our Buckhorn Range Chapter of BCHW conducts meetings to discuss Chapter events and work parties. We discuss things like planned camp outs, fundraisers, social events, education and legislative issues relating to keeping trails open for all stock. We also have educational presentations with speakers, who share their ideas and information with our members. We do some socializing too, with snacks!
Buckhorn Range celebrated the holiday season at Hacienda Tizapan on December 15th, a lovely Mexican restaurant in PT. Good cheer was had by all! We celebrated with our best memories from this year — obviously the story had to involve a horse somehow. As we each delivered a tall tale with loads of laughs (and there were even some sticky stories too), we also acknowledged all we did accomplish in trail work this year! Well done everyone. Plus it was simply delightful food and always good company.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to renew your membership in BCHW and Buckhorn Range for 2024. Your membership helps to keep trails open to stock and other users. It also keeps you informed of state and chapter happenings. Please join us, we’d like to see your smile at next years Holiday Party!
Last year the Buckhorn Range chapter had a booth at the Jefferson County Fair. We had a great slide show, BCHW brochures, a giant map of Washington with the BCHW chapters on it, and we had some tools and a pack saddle. Of course we also had stickers & candy!
Members who participated interacted with fair goers by asking, “Do you use trails? Which trails do you use? How do you use trails?”, and the most important “Do you know who maintains your trails”? Interacting with other trail users and the public is a great way to help them know who we are and what we do.
So here is your opportunity to participate in this important event.
Contact Kim Merrick (eloise55@gmail.com) for volunteering with booth and help with set up (August 10th) and tear down (August 13th), remember we’ll leave no trace!
This is a great opportunity to experience how the Board operates. It’ll be formatted so that you can listen to the discussions and then ask questions or make a comment. (Yup, learn how the sausage is made.)
Following the Board meeting, we’ll get down to the real business of enjoying ourselves. The BBQ will be partially chapter sponsored items along with potluck offerings.
Our host is Judy Sarles who has a lovely home and property between Sequim and Port Angeles. Please email or text Judy (judy94507@yahoo.com or text 925-984-9654) if you plan on attending so we have enough yummies to go around. Details of the Meeting and BBQ will come via group email.
Every year on the first Saturday in August, the town of Joyce, Washington holds its Wild Blackberry Festival called Joyce Daze. The wild black berries that grow in the area are small and sweet.
BCHW has an entry in the Joyce Daze parade which starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday 8/5. This is a combined entry for the Buckhorn Range, Peninsula and My. Olympus chapters.
WE NEED A VOLUNTEER TO DRIVE/PULL THE TOOL TRAILER IN THE PARADE. If you are interested in riding, walking or driving the tool trailer, please email or text Judy Sarles (email: jw94507@yahoo.com, cell: 925-984-9654).
Currently we have four riders: Chrissie Williams (Linda please forward to her), Judy Dupree on Reba, Joan Wildman on Brick and Judy Sarles on Chip. Linda Morin has volunteered to drive Margaret’s riding mower with trailer to be our pooper scooper.
Margaret Sallstrom has graciously made her place available for those who want to overnight for the weekend as well as for us to gather the horses in the morning of the parade. It is located just up Joyce Piedmont Rd from where we will stage with the tool trailer and other entries.
Buckhorn Range Chapter - Back Country Horsemen of WA 