US Northwest North Idaho Meet Up- Eastern WA and Western Montana

[Ebbs]

Save The Date- APRIL TRIP UPDATE (this info is also updated on post #2 of this thread every month)

April 22-23rd, Earth Day Weekend Trail Clean Up
We will give back a little by helping to clean a part of the trail and have an overnight as well. Rough idea of the trip, more details to follow

View attachment 252128

I'm in!

 

[Mountaintrails71]

I am out for the cleanup. I am planning to go camping in Idaho that weekend. Anyone want to join me just let me know.

 

[PapaDave]

I just got confirmation that Jim Sibley, President of the Kootenai Amateur Radio Society (KARS), will be joining us this Sunday to give a short presentation on off-road comms, the local HAM club, testing and use. I’m excited he’s going to take a little time to meet with us!
We will be discussing comms out on the trail. Bring the handheld solution you use and we will discuss all the pros and cons of the options out there. We will also be reviewing our trip to Juniper Dunes and Palouse Falls.

We will be discussing a couple April trips as well, get ready to hit the trail!

March 12th 2023 1-3pm
Pizza Factory
503 W Appleway Ave
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814

 

[G.Goodwin]

Save The Date- APRIL TRIP UPDATE (this info is also updated on post #2 of this thread every month)

April 22-23rd, Earth Day Weekend Trail Clean Up
We will give back a little by helping to clean a part of the trail and have an overnight as well. Rough idea of the trip, more details to follow

View attachment 252128

On my calendar. I’m scheduled to work but I’ll work my magic to get it swapped

 

[PapaDave]

Wow what a great meet up today! I was encouraged to see so many good people gathered in one place with so many cool rigs! On post #2 I am going to link our April trips coming up so jump on the trip that works well for you. Today we had a record number of ladies attend and I’m glad to see it! We had the president and another member of the KARS HAM club (society haha) come and talk comms on the trail with us and though it can get technical it was really great info! President Jim emailed me with some info which I am going to paste below if you’d like to get involved, learn more info, or test for a HAM license.

I am excited to get to know everyone more and get out adventuring together.
“Happiness only real when shared.”
― Christopher McCandless

——————————————————————————————————-
--message from KARS President Jim Sibley—

Dave,

Thanks for the opportunity to talk with your club members about Ham Radio communication. What a GREAT group! They had so many GREAT questions. We gave a lot of info so I’d like to follow up with some of the things we spoke about.

CONCERNING RADIOS: There are three (3) major manufacturers of high quality radios - Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu. All are very good. In the new arena of digital radios, regrettably, all three have have a different format. The “Club” will likely use Yaesu “Fusion” for our digital solution, so that may be a consideration going forward. The Spokane group is embracing DMR, so that could also be a consideration.

CLUB MEMBERSHIP: KARS does represent a wide variety of expertise. Should any of your folks wish to join, go to our WebSite K7ID.org., or contact me anytime (jcsibley@me.com). We meet the 2nd Monday of each month at the Office of Emergency Management located at the corner of Ramsey and Wyoming.

TESTING: There is a wide variety of license prep info out there. To schedule testing, again, one can go to our Website, go to VE TESTING (VOLUNTEER EXAMINER), and reserve a testing slot.

CHIRP SOFTWARE: CHIRP is a free download. There are several good U-tube resources on how to use it. For the gentleman who got “voluntold” to develop the spreadsheet of frequencies, a great resource is available at…www.radioreference.com. This offers a list of ALL frequencies, Forest Service, Dept. of Natural Resources, State Parks, Law Enforcement, Fire, etc.

I think you are very wise to direct your membership toward the Ham Radio means of communication. There are so many FREE assets available to your membership, and it is rare that you are out of range to one or more of those assets. They are generally monitored, so help is usually pretty accessible - especially from a hilltop that one of your vehicles could scramble to the top of. If there were a need for emergency medical or rescue help, ham radio with its network of repeaters, is a great resource to depend on. Using SIMPLEX is a good call, but if you need to reach out, the repeater option is an amazing resource.

We spoke of some KARS activities coming up that I’ll pass on as well -

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Museum Ships Weekend Event (MSWE): June 3-4, Farragut State Park “Brig Museum”.

Ham Radio Field Day: June 24th - 2130 North Meyer Road

Ham Fest: August 12 - 2130 North Meyer Road. An amazing opportunity to purchase new and used equipment at “Flea Market” prices.

Let me know if we can be of further service to your and the club.


Jim Sibley - WA7NSJ
President, KARS

 

[Mountaintrails71]

I do believe the second Sunday in April is Easter. FYI.

 

[PapaDave]

I do believe the second Sunday in April is Easter. FYI.

Edit:
It is, for April we will meet the first Sunday on April 2nd 1-3pm going over winching.
April has Easter on the second Sunday and May is Mother’s Day!

 

[PapaDave]

The April 22-23rd Rally Point trip is up and open

Earth Day Overnight

Let's celebrate Mother Earth on the Earth Day Overnight! A day of cleanup, trails, and camping, that will take us through southeastern Washington and northeastern Or

www.overlandbound.com

 

[PapaDave]

There’s been a change for the meet up! Next meet up the FIRST Sunday in April on the 2nd.

North Idaho Meet Up- Eastern WA and Western Montana

North Idaho Monthly Meet Up Eastern WA-North Idaho-Western MT We will resume monthly meets in the late fall of 2024 as we have a trip a month, check the 2nd post!

www.overlandbound.com

Overlanders….just the essentials!

Old Man Old Truck on Instagram: "You’re camping and he rolls in! #overlanding #camping #glamping #overlander #overlandbound #venturexunknown #adventure #outdoors #goofy #max #rvlife #overlandstyle"

21K likes, 274 comments - old_man_old_truck on March 15, 2023: "You’re camping and he rolls in! #overlanding #camping #glamping #overlander #overlandbound #venturexunknown #adventure #outdoors #goofy #max #rvlife #overlandstyle".

www.instagram.com

 

[SashaLee]

I know because I go across the scales at the WA port of entry pretty much every day, sometimes multiple times a day. 22k lbs give or take a few hundred pounds, it's closer to 23k with all the ice and snow on it this last week.

I thought my truck was a pig at 7k. Dang, you win.

 

[PapaDave]

THIS COMING SUNDAY WE ARE MEETING! APRIL 2ND 1-3pm
Pizza Factory in CDA
We are doing a hands on winching class, so bring your rigs and we will pair up winches with non-winching rigs nose to nose and learn basics of how to winch.

US Northwest - North Idaho Meet Up- Eastern WA and Western Montana

North Idaho Monthly Meet Up Eastern WA-North Idaho-Western MT We will resume monthly meets in the late fall of 2024 as we have a trip a month, check the 2nd post! We meet the second Sunday of each month. LOCATION- Pizza Factory Pizza Factory 503 W Appleway Ave Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814...

www.overlandbound.com

View attachment IMG_6658.MOV

 

[PapaDave]

Just checking in if people are coming this Sunday and who's rig has a winch? Can you let me know?

Thanks!

 

[G.Goodwin]

Just checking in if people are coming this Sunday and who's rig has a winch? Can you let me know?

Thanks!

Planning on coming up. Don’t have a winch installed yet

 

[Ebbs]

I'm not going to make this one, though I don't have my winch mount yet so no winch either.

 

[PapaDave]

Thanks everyone for a great meet up today. Hands on practice with winching is key BEFORE an event happens on the trail.

I’m excited for the trips this month, both the April 15th day run and the weekend trip April 22-23rd. Sign up and get out there!

Beginning in May we will start meeting mid-week to leave all 4 weekends open to getting out on the trail. We will likely start (now that spring in all its warm glory is upon us) meeting at a park to get outside 6-8pm. I’m thinking maybe the Second Tuesday or Wednesday of the month.

 

[Ebbs]

Thanks everyone for a great meet up today. Hands on practice with winching is key BEFORE an event happens on the trail.

I’m excited for the trips this month, both the April 15th day run and the weekend trip April 22-23rd. Sign up and get out there!

Beginning in May we will start meeting mid-week to leave all 4 weekends open to getting out on the trail. We will likely start (now that spring in all its warm glory is upon us) meeting at a park to get outside 6-8pm. I’m thinking maybe the Second Tuesday or Wednesday of the month.

Any idea where? Traffic isn't fun coming from Spokane that time of day, but if it's, say post falls, or even moves on occasion I'll have a better chance of making it.

Could also keep it on the weekends,and just make the meeting a 1.5 day/1 night trip. Like we're meeting at x location to relax and chat, and talk about y subject ( just make them somewhat close to help entice folks out. Thoughts?

 

[Mountaintrails71]

I won’t make many, if any summer meetings. Especially if they are in the middle of the week. Plus the I90 traffic headed east from Washington is at a complete stand still in the evenings. I would suggest something off Trent/53 such as the city park in Rathdrum or the Falls Park in Post Falls. Rogers Burgers is really good food just up the road from the Falls Park. This would allow members to get off the freeway at Barker or to bypass the freeway completely. Good luck.

 

[Mountaintrails71]

One thing I feel everyone, weather off-road traveling or even daily driving should learn is the importance of proper tire pressure and what it gains you. Saturday I was a passenger in a very capable vehicle. I was showing them some hunting areas and the mountain had got 4 inches of fresh snow the night before. Our tracks were the first on the mountain road. The vehicle was not equipped with any recovery gear, tire chains or winch. We dropped off into a valley on snow covered roads and the conditions got a lot worse very fast. The road was so tight we could not turn around. We needed to backup, back up the hill. It was a old logging road with a drop off on one side and a bank on the other and it was curved. Each time the vehicle started to gain momentum the tires would break free and it would send him into the deep snow. After a few attempts, I took out my pocket knife and let the air out of his tires until they were very squishy. At this point his passenger front tire was in a snow hole. With nice easy throttle he walked back up the road without even spinning another tire. Tire pressure is everything. Good tires and proper pressure is the best tool to invest it, in my opinion. But, more traction can cause you to dig a larger hole that will sink your vehicle worse and only another piece of recovery gear can get you out.

 

[PapaDave]

We have 3 spots open for our trip April 22-23rd still open, redundantly speaking. Get your gear together and come along!

Earth Day Overnight

Let's celebrate Mother Earth on the Earth Day Overnight! A day of cleanup, trails, and camping, that will take us through southeastern Washington and northeastern Or

www.overlandbound.com

 

[PapaDave]

IMPORTANT GROUP UPDATE​

After some deliberation our monthly meet up is going to continue on Sundays BUT we are moving locations. We normally meet the second Sunday except April and May due to Easter and Mother’s Day. So our next meet up is May 7th 1-3pm at the old 4WP location that is now Toys For Trucks at W Pointe Pkwy and Hwy 90.

WHEN: May 7th 1-3pm
WHERE: Toy for Trucks parking lot
5405 W Riverbend Ave
Post Falls, ID 83854

Bring a chair, a pop-up tent if you want, and lunch. This location will give us more room to spread out and meet. If you have a trip on the weekend of the meet up, then catch the next one. Weeknights are tough for those driving into the area from out of town so we are sticking to Sundays.

May we are going to be discussing FOOD! To celebrate our first meet up at our new location bring food to share. We are going to be discussing the heating and cooling of food. Fridges, coolers, hard and soft, what do you use? Bring it for show and tell. How do you cook? Coleman, JetBoil, Skottle, bring it for show and tell!