The Chicken Speaks

An important message from Chicken Creek Nordic:

"As the official Chicken Champions, we wish to humbly thank the community for a ridiculously successful fundraiser just over a week ago, Saturday October 21 at the Mancos Brewing Company.
"There are many people to thank, and we'll get to that straightaway.  But first...

The final tally is not yet calculated, but it appears we raised about $10,000.  So our board will be meeting soon to make some decisions regarding the purchase of new snow grooming equipment.  We are deeply moved by the generous spirit of the area's people and businesses.

And now, a hearty "Cluck" out to the following Sponsors - those who donated value of $200 or more.

Absolute Bakery and Café

Atlas Specific

Alpacka Rafts

Deb Gardner - Apple Girl Farm

Doobie Sisters

Cap Allen, P.E.

Dolores State Bank

The Herbal Alternative

Home and Range

Mancos Brewing Company

Mancos Chamber of Commerce

Mancos Valley Veterinary Hospital

The Medicine Man Cortez

Osprey Packs

Slavens True Value Hardware

Todd Kearns Jewelry

Tuffy Security Products

Underwood Forestry Service 

United States Forest Service

We are so grateful to our Donors (Up to $199)

AJ’s Greenhouse

Anonymous

Boure

Burk Beef/Stubborn Farm

Cara Gildar - Craniosacral

Cellar Cuts – Kelly Yeomans

Chavolo’s

Chyrise Bay Massage

Cliff Rose Garden Center & Gifts

Colorado Love Outdoors

Cox Conoco - Mancos

Custom Calligraphy and Frame

Deer Hill Expeditions

Desert Sun Coffee

Dolores Food Market

Dunton Hot Springs

Durango Running Company

Enchanted Mesa Motel

Fahrenheit Coffee Roasters

Fas-Break Auto Glass

Flat Belly Organics

Gardenswartz

General Palmer Hotel

Healthy Hounds and Fat Cats

In Memorium of Hank Taylor

Karen Zink – Southwest Women’s Health

Katherine Dobson - River Studio

Kilgore Indian Art

Kim Cox - Yoga and Chi Gong

Kokopelli Bike and Board

KSJD

KSUT

LaLu’s Stained Glass

Lisa Govreau

Lois Graham

Mancos Public Library

Mesa Verde Motel

Millwood Junction

Momentum Fitness

Olio’s

P & D Grocery

Pine Needle Mountaineering

Purgatory

Rebecca’s Hair Salon

Run + Hike

Second Story Used Books

Singing River Farms

Ska Brewing

Solutions Hair Design

Southwest Designs

Tes-Ray Hats

The Pie Maker

The Geeks

Tom Kachanski

Wily Carrot Farm

Dancing, laughing, mingling, supporting a great cause, etc

In case you haven't seen it already on FaceBook, Chicken Creek Nordic is hosting a Dance to the Snowgods. An optimistic, perhaps slightly daffy stab at luring the Snow Powers That Be into powdering us into winter with generous helpings of soft, cold snow at nice regular intervals from December 1st through April 1st. There, I said it.

Vital Stats:

• Fundraiser with silent auction featuring some amazing items from generous donors in the community, including: Absolute Bakery & Cafe, Alpacka Rafts, Atlas Specific (Chiropractor), Cap Allen PE (septic engineering service), Dolores State Bank,  Kilgore Indian Art, Mancos Brewing Company, Mancos Valley Veterinary Hospital, Osprey Backpacks, Slavens True Value, Southwest Printing, Steve Underwood Forestry, and many more area business and individuals
• Saturday October 21st at the Mancos Brewing Company 
• The party will kick off at 4pm
• Silent auction closes at 8pm
• Live music provided by AFROBEATNIKS AND Diabolical Sound Platoon!
• Located just a few hundred feet East of the P&D Grocery on the frontage road in Mancos  
•  All the very best people in the Western United States will be in attendance

We have some really cool items and lots of great door prizes.Win the possibility of garnering a sweet door prize for the cost of admission ($5.00). And not to worry, we'll have more tickets for sale at the door for $1.00 each or 6 tickets for the sum of $5.00 (Chicken feed).

If you are in the sad position of having another commitment  that evening you may still salvage your soul by clicking on the PayPal link at the top center of the page or right here.

We are trying to raise funds to purchase new snow grooming equipment for the safety and mental health of our all-volunteer grooming crew. Volunteers spend hundreds of hours every season keeping the trails groomed and running a non-profit.  No one gets paid a dime.  100% of your donation goes to purchasing, fueling and maintaining grooming equipment, signage, office supplies etc.

Don't be a chicken, get out and boogie down with us Saturday, October 21st.

Putting the FUN back in Fundraisers

Drink beer, throw chickens!

Chicken Creek Nordic is undertaking a capital campaign to purchase new grooming equipment.  We have two events scheduled, one coming right up.

The Mancos Valley Summer Brewfest will be held at Cottonwood Park in Mancos this coming Saturday. Here's a link
Chicken Creek Nordic is one of the beneficiaries of the event, so please SHOW UP THIS SATURDAY!

While you are there enjoying a brew, please stop by our booth for your chance to put a rubber chicken through the corn hole.

SAVE THE DATE:
Saturday, October 21 at the Mancos Brewing Company there will be live music, dancing, a silent auction and other ridiculously entertaining activities.  Time is yet to be determined, but stay tuned and please TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

Not Dead Yet!!

John G got after it today and groomed the whole shebang (except for Hamlin Loop), classic track and all.  More snow and more cold weather in the forecast means we the Chicken may get a temporary stay of execution.  Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted.  The skiing ought to be pretty darn good tomorrow (Sunday).

Is it Dead Yet?

We were all set to pull grooming equipment from the area.  But; this storm cycle looks like it may have enough cold and snow in it to keep an optimistic eye on.  So, that's what we're going to do.

In the meantime, readers may want to know that we have been busy in other ways.  In fact, we've got a plaque to prove it.  On Tuesday evening, the Chicken Creek Nordic ski area was honored by Mancos Valley Resources as their "Project of the Year" award.  More to come on that later.  We have also been up in the forest, flagging trees in collaboration with the US Forest Service in a bid to retain shade on part of the Hamlin Loop where there will be a timber sale this summer.

All told those projects racked up another 23 hours of volunteer service.
Stay tuned...

Lose your keys??

Are these yours??
call 560-4777

Yuuuuuuuuuuck!

Grooming activities are currently suspended while we try to figure out if we went through a wormhole and landed in April.  If the storm system moves out with some cold and enough snow to refresh the trails and resume skiing, that would be great.  It also appears highly unlikely, as the temperatures are predicted to hit about 50 once the rain stops.  Sigh.

Stay tuned.  Anything can happen.  There is enough snow/slush to kick around on up there if you are not fussy about the quality of snow.  The southwest corner of the Lower Bauer Loop is in the process of getting washed out but was still holding as of Thursday.  I haven't been back up there since then to look, but it didn't look like it was going to hold out for too much longer.  It will be a big problem - not so much for skiers - if we can't get grooming equipment through that section of trail.

Chickens that Tweet

For those of you who want the latest data on grooming and conditions at the ski area, follow us on Twitter.  We are aiming for near instantaneous reporting on grooming right here:
Twitter Feed (not chicken feed)

For those of you disinclined to push the above button, here is a detailed report on the doings from last night (Monday).  Groomers Michael and Peter B groomed well into the evening hours, trying to take advantage of cooler temperatures.  All loops received the treatment.  Pretty much all the established classic track was obliterated in the process, but so were many of the potholes created by inconsiderate hikers.  In general, the bit of fuzz we got on top of the snow already there made things a bit smoother.  The warm weather today is not going to help.  If this current system goes out as snow, we may get enough to freshen things up nicely.  Stay posted, and seriously, do that Twitter thing.

What with all the grooming, machine repairs, administrative work, blogging, tweeting, etc., 10.4 volunteer hours were logged yesterday and today.

Facebook Fantasia; Super Bowl Siesta

Just because no grooming happened at the area over the weekend doesn't mean we were all asleep at the wheel.  The Board of Directors for the ski area met over the weekend in an attempt to make Chicken Creek Ski Area viable into the future.

FYI, the next planned grooming session is Monday evening, about 5pm; weather dependent.

One of the things which came out of the meeting was a desire to step into the bold new world of social media.  Yes, of course that means Facebook and Twitter.  Here are the links:
Facebook Link
Twitter Link

Coming soon, look for a way to contribute directly to the ski area without having to leave your chair!  Anyway, the volunteer hours accumulated by volunteer board members and committee members to make this all happen total 27.8 over the last two days.

Poultry Inspector Report

Thanks to some good cloud cover today, the ski area remains in good feather.  Bauer Loops got a quick touch-up this evening and ought to be sublime in the morning.  Upper Loops are looking quite good, though there are some faint ruts which could easily catch a ski tip if your attention lapses on the way down.  Speaking from experience there.

Yamaha rescue successful, returned to pen, grooming and rescuing tallied 1.8 volunteer hours; admin duties chewed up another 2.5 hours for a total of 4.3 hours today.

Something Happened Somewhere

Skiers, get ready for the most ambiguous, un-enlightening entry ever!  Two guys, John G and Phil A, went out on very expensive yet totally unreliable machines into the forest this afternoon in an attempt to improve skiing conditions for you.  Yes, you.  One machine quit running for as yet undetermined reasons.  The other ran reasonably well, except at low speeds (which is how we do all our grooming).  Some trails got some grooming, some didn't.  One guy had to do some walking, the other one didn't.

I hope this clears thing up for you all.  Between grooming, listening to explanations of how cutting down almost all the trees in the forest will be good for everyone, fetching the broken down machine from the shop, walking out after the other machine broke down, blah, blah, blah, 7.8 volunteer hours were spent doing things.  Isn't that awesome?

Progress Despite Obstacles

We now have some upper terrain opened up for skating.  The Rush Creek Loop and the Chicken Creek Road (CR 41) are groomed up to the turnaround, for fabulous views of the La Platas.  David B and Peter B (no relation) toiled mightily this morning to get that done, after fixing a cooling system leak on one of the machines.  We are still without our most powerful machine due to delays at the repair shop, so we don't have the firepower we really need to get work done as quickly as we could.  Basically, we are limping along at half speed.  More work will be done tomorrow, and I will report on it when I get the report from the groomers.

A gentle reminder that post-holing down the middle of the track is a severe breach of ski area etiquette.  This would be approximately akin to me coming into your house with dog turds all over my feet and walking on your freshly shampooed carpet.  Yes, the track will get skied on and tracked out.  And yes, eventually your carpet will get dirty again.  If this seems too severe, please keep in mind the labor and expense that goes into grooming the area.  This is a ski area in the winter.  Please hike elsewhere in the winter.  Come back and hike in the spring, summer and fall.  It is inconsiderate of the time and effort put in by our volunteer groomers to trash the track by walking on it.  I won't even get into the piles of dog poop littering the trails lately. OK, maybe I will.  If you own a dog, grab a spatula at the trail head and fling the poo off the trail into the woods.  This does not seem like too much to ask.

Between machine repairs, grooming, and wrangling with the repair shop we logged 9.7 volunteer hours today.

Boiled, Fried, and Baked But Well Groomed

The Upper Bauer Loop got some attention today, with a fresh groom and some classic track.  With the very warm days and cold nights the skiing was scary fast and icy early this morning, and it's reasonable to expect that will continue for the foreseeable future unless we get some snow and/or cloud cover.  Ah, the blessing/curse of the sunny Southwest.

Mechanical difficulties kept us from the upper terrain today, but with a lot of luck they will see some action tomorrow.  Cross your drumsticks.

New Groomer Michael G was a natural today, despite this being his first time on a snowmobile.  A warm welcome to new blood!  Between Peter B and Michael and our treasurer Joan B we logged a total of 10.9 volunteer hours today.