October 2020 FCOHC Newsletter

This might have been one of the fastest Septembers on record. It seems just yesterday we were at Scioto Trails for our annual state Labor Day ride. For those that could not attend, the Labor day ride came off without a hitch. Attendance was similar to 2019, maybe a few more people and campers. Other than rain on Thursday morning, the weather was perfect. By my count, we had 42 paid campers with 3-4 extras every day coming in to day ride. A rough head count equated to 65-80 people enjoying the camp and trails every day.

Again for those that did not attend, our club provided a Sloppy Joe, bean, and chip meal on Friday evening to anyone that was hungry. I made the bean and Diana Burton made the Sloppy Joes. Diana and Earl Burton donated the fixings for the Sloppy Joes and I the secret recipe beans. Sorry Jane, I can’t share the recipe at this time, but I will leave it in my will for you.

Saturday evening, a local singing talent (Travis Brown) provided the group with 3 hours of country and country rock type music. He started with old country and worked his way up through about 1970. Super talented and we have received numerous requests to invite him back.

Sunday morning our club plus the McGuire family provided a sausage and pancake breakfast free to everyone in camp. Thanks to all my officers for stepping up to prep, cook, and serve this treat.

We finished off the organized activities with a modified community meal on Sunday evening. Several prepared their favorite dish and brought it for all to enjoy. Diana and Earl Burton, Pam Dean, plus June and I served the prepared dishes to the 40 or so campers that enjoyed the meal.

After dinner, June and Pam conducted a good old fashion Simon Says contest. It was mostly for fun, but in the end, Megan Cartee ( Julie’s new daughter in law) won the gifts June had rounded up. To conclude the evening, we held our normal raffle and 50/50 drawings. The 50/50 was won by Sam Underhill who donated the money back to the club. Thanks, Sam and Shelly. New this year was a silent auction. The items were all donated by local Fairfield Co. businesses or club members. A special thanks to Craig and Charlene Santee, Dave Johnson, Pam Dean, Margaret Hite, Barb Beery, Anita Hoon for your generous donations. Also a special thanks to all of the auction buyers. You truly are special.

Moving on, we were to have a ride at Wayne National Forest on the 17th of September. Due to an organized endurance race that same weekend we punted and changed the location of the ride to Hocking. The weather was again perfect and the camp full. While at Hocking some of us rode the Buckskin Canyon trail. There were a half dozen trees down so Tom and I went back on Friday the 25th and cleared the trail.

One of the projects as a club we hoped to accomplish this summer was the construction of 3 manure bins at the state camp. We had to place two of these on hold due to the loss of income from the canceled AAY show. Dave Glass, manager of Hocking offered that the state would pick up the 2 we put on hold, which left us as a club responsible for the cost of the 3rd. Dave’s crew completed the first 2 bins early in the summer and the 3rd one last week ( Thursday 24th ). They look great. If you see Dave tell him thanks. We also hoped to construct 4 tie rails out on the Hocking Equine trail this summer. Three of those were done back in July. We have 1 more to do as soon as we can find a day, hopefully yet this fall.

Our next scheduled ride is Halloween weekend at the Hocking group camp. Cross your fingers the weather stays mild and provides us with awesome fall colors on the trees.

Several are out and about logging miles at local as well as out of state location. Post your pictures on facebook. I enjoy seeing where everyone rides.

That’s all for now, hope to see a nice crowd at the monthly meeting at Fat Cats.

Chris