Pinedale Winter Carnival 2017
by Terry Allen
February 22, 2017
A snow sculpture contest in American Legion Park started off this year’s Pinedale Winter Carnival. Jaycie gave up her journalism gig and Emily gave up her fire biz and they designed a snow monster who ate baby snow monsters and almost ate Emily. Brigitt made a fully clothed African woman because someone said all sculptures had to be clothed. Brody, Huck and Sunny thought it was funny I didn't know the difference between a turtle and a tortoise. I just wanted to know which one was edible.
The Bings were over at the Catholic Church Pancake Breakfast having sausage and eggs and then headed over to the Skijoring competition in the hay field next to Jaks.
At Skijoring, adorable little Paige Nelson was in her red sleigh and her dad was curling his 'stache. Paige had a milk 'stache and they decided they would go "staching thru the snow" together.
I was really enjoying the photos of western attired people I was getting as the heavy snowflakes came down. The large crowd was having a great time eating Horn Dogs, watching the beautiful horses run by and listening to race announcer Jim Nelson try to get rider and skier names straight.
After the first run for all classes, Dave Stephens ran a Calcutta to be held in the afternoon for the more competitive adult teams.
The races started up again, but after a few runs a horse went down and all I saw was a tumble of horse, rider, skier and lariat in an explosion of snow. Sadly, the great horse broke a right front leg. It was an awful thing to see and there were many a tear shed among the crowd. For me, it was also a very tender scene to see all the horsemen and women gather around the stricken horse to provide support.
I don't know the details, but between the competitors, the organizers and the warming snow conditions, it was decided to cancel the race.
A few folks of that crowd headed up to the lake for the snow mobile speed runs. The timed course was 4 tenths of a mile and everyone tried to get small on their sled and hit their number. Patrick was at about 96mph when I left.
That night there was a band at the Brew Pub for those who like to stay out, have a beer and cut a rug.
Sunday, the Sunny Korfanta Giant Slalom ski race was held at White Pine. After that, the 2nd Annual Cardboard Classic was held. There were a couple VW buses, a school bus, a magic carpet, a telephone booth and my favorite a Flintstone car.
Some of the sleds moved well, but a whole lot of them were square and so dug into the snow and didn't go far. Didn't seem to matter much. Folks seemed to have a good time pushing them across the finish line. I don't know who started throwing snowballs at sleds, but it caught on and it was pretty entertaining. There are some good shots in these parts.
That night there was the Yukon Corn-hole tournament at the Corral Bar. You take a beer in one hand and a bag of corn on the other and throw the corn back into a hole across the room. No sure what makes it Yukon.
Monday was a snow plane expo on Fremont Lake. A plane from the Call Air museum in Afton came over and a snow plane family from Driggs showed up. A few interested folks took rides. I spoke with Brandon Thurber and he's selling his machine if you are interested. $5,000...his wife says. Started right up and hauled the family out of the parking lot, down the boat ramp, across the lake to the lodge and back again in style. I loved it. It's the one I did the nice portrait of. Here's Brandon's number: 208-317-6786
I was standing near a group of three young women and I couldn't help but hear what they were talking about. "I got cow kicked the other day and I'm still bruised up pretty good," she said. Another talked about getting swarmed after a hornets nest exploded and pretty much everyone around got lumped up. As the loud and somewhat Rube Goldberg looking snow plane machine went down the boat dock and by us, the girls decided to drive over to the lodge and see if they could get a ride. Nothing much shakes folks up around here.
A huge thank you to Pinedale Lumber and Black Mountain Rental for co-sponsoring this community based story. Justin Sandner and his Dad who lives in Star Valley own both businesses.
Justin and his wife Teresa (daughter of Dallas and Irene Jenkins) who is from Big Piney live in Pinedale and have raised their family here. Their children have been involved in football, horsemanship and other activities, and I have enjoyed taking photos of some of those.
It was a happy coincidence that our Pinedale Winter Carnival and Bob Dew’s 85th birthday party took place at the same time, so I included a few photos. Bob, as most of us know, founded Dew Lumber, which Justin bought and is now known as Pinedale Lumber. There are some new faces out there, but some old timers like Bruce and Jean, too.
Justin considers his business a small Mom and Pop business that takes pride in helping folks get their projects done right.
Thanks to Dawn Ballou and Pinedale Online for hosting this story and supporting my community stories.
You may use these low rez online photos for your personal use. I sell hi-rez images and commercial permissions.
I also do event photography for hire.
txpartisan@gmail.com
|
