April 22, 2006 was a perfect day, mostly.  The Dakota Territory Cruisers gathered together at our usual location for a beautiful day in the snow-covered hills.  The Sun was shining bright and beautiful, and the forecast was for 70-degree temperatures.

 The DTC members that showed up for this fun day in the sun and snow were: Rayland and Korbin Bender in Rayland’s Tacoma, Peter and Eric Kronenberg in Peters J**p TJ, Charlie Rupp in his 4-Runner, Mike Heitland in his Topless FJ40 also out for the day were Donna and Cody Kinsella in Donna’s FJ40, Nick and River Hudson in Nick’s FJ60, and guests Gavin, Crystal and Tre Williams in their FZJ80.  I tagged along as official photographer, reporter and passenger.

 Our goal for the day was to see if we could make our way through Calamity Canyon.  As we started heading down Boulder Canyon we passed a utility truck clearing away the debris of a fallen tree.  It was at that moment Charlie and I hoped someone on the trail came equipped with a chain saw.  It’s a spring run, after a big snow, standard equipment should always include some sort of bigger saw. 

 Anyway, we made our way in towards the trail and immediately we started plowing snow.  We passed a couple of gold panner's and we were able to help one out of a predicament, he had gotten into involving snow.  It was not exactly an easy ride, but forward motion was being gained.  After a while of plowing snow we came to the first of three real obstacles, TREES. 

Much to our chagrin no one had a chain saw along, but Donna did have a handy little saw along it was a least 10” long and a welcome addition to our trail ride.  The first tree was positioned with its root base pretty much on the road so we assisted it out of out way using the Winch.  While this great feat was happening the crowd indulged our selves with snowball fights in our t shirts while tramping around in 12” deep snow.  We exchanged leaders throughout the day to give every one the pleasure of breaking through the fresh snow.  By the time the last vehicle went through the tracks we were down to rocks, the snow was melting that fast.  We all envied Mike who had taken his top off, the day really was that gorgeous. 

We were able to do a majority of the trail without too much trouble a few slips and slides here and there.  Our next tree obstacle was quickly taken care of with Donna’s saw, but the next tree was a bit on the large size.  This tree needed a lot of sawing so it was a tag team effort.  Also it was a bit later in the day on a shady part of the trail.  No ones boots were water proof anymore, you can’t spend the day hopping through 12” snow without getting a little bit of water mixed in, at least it was still warm outside.  For those of you who have been through Calamity, you may remember that one spot towards the end that has a little wash out, this spot proved to be a lot of fun for the club on this snow packed day.  Little Korbin was very happy to say “Yeah Daddy made it” With our windows open for our dry upper parts and heaters on for the lower wet parts we finished out the day on the big hill.  Charlie and I were the last ones up the hill so it really wasn’t an issue for us, but someone had a little fun on it. 

April 22 was one of those days I will always remember as being a perfect Trail ride, Great Friends, great trail, great weather, and awesome snow.