We are live here on the Bozeman Weather Patio.
We are joined today by Janice Cartwright with the Gallatin
Valley Backcountry Horseman.
Janice, thank you so much for being here this morning.
Our pleasure. We really want to promote the poker ride
and thank you for doing it.
Absolutely. Now we are also joined by a few other
guests.
How about you introduce them as well,
Gaucho or Ron? We'll both.
This is Ron and this is Gaucho.
They got up early to help with the horse handling.
This is Kim and Dozer.
He's dozing over here. He's not really awake yet.
Well, you mean sometimes I feel that way on the
morning show too.
It's early, so I get it,
Dozer. Now, tell us a little bit,
Janice, about the Gallatin Valley Backcountry Horseman.
I mean, we kind of joke.
It's kind of the best kept secret here in the
Gallatin Valley.
You guys did a lot of work for our community.
We do. We clear the trails with the US Forest
Service and partner with them.
We cleared over 350 miles of trail last year for
them,
and we do it out of love.
It's volunteers who just enjoy being in the Backcountry and
promoting the proper use of trails in the Backcountry.
And I want to emphasize that volunteers,
I mean volunteers, that's a big undertaking for anybody.
Tell us a little bit about what it means to
you to have so many volunteers willing to
go saddle up and head back to the Backcountry.
Well, if we didn't do this,
the trails would be closing.
So that's a big problem and we really want to
keep all our trails open for everyone to use.
So being able to have people that take the time
to take care of their horses,
get them to the trail heads,
take care of the equipment,
clear the trails, it's a big endeavour and we love
it.
We just love doing it.
And we're so thankful that you and so many other
volunteers are willing to do that hard job now,
that hard job. It also comes with a lot of
fun though,
because here pretty soon the annual poker ride is going
to be kicking up.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Well, it's our 36th year of the poker ride.
3636, we skipped COVID year.
One year we're back in full swing though because during
COVID we skipped the year and since then we have
not been able to offer the hot lunches.
They were sack lunches and we also only had the
poker hand prizes.
This year we're going to have
5050. We're going to have
door prizes, silent auction and the top prizes.
Top prizes coming from Montana,
Kansas, Madison River Propane, Rocky Mountain Hat Company,
Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply,
4 Corner Saddlery, Kenna Trek boots,
Big Sky Mohair, Cinches, Carter's Boots.
I mean, we have a lot of cool prizes.
Yeah. Who's who of Gallatin Valley.
That's right. That's right. They support us.
Now, if anybody is interested in learning more about your
organization or maybe signing up for the poker ride,
where should they head?
I made a little sign that would be easy if
you just put this in,
it will go right to the page with all the
information for the polka ride.
If you want a hot lunch,
I would suggest that you get there and sign up
early online so that we know how many lunches we
need.
Otherwise, you're not guaranteed a lunch after July 4th registration.
All right. Thank you so much,
Janice. And thank you very much to Gaucho and to
Dozer for joining us this morning.
And I don't think Dozer dozes off too much during.
No, Kim is awake too,
and Ron's awake, so we're good.
I think we're all doing OK here at
6:48. We're gonna take a short break here at Montana
this morning,
but when we come back,
that's gonna have another look at that forecast.