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Show Page 4 The Ogden Valley news Volume XXIV Issue IX May 15, 2017 Summer Tennis Anyone? By Wendy McKay, Jenny Waldrip, and Barbara Banks Summer is fast approaching and that means... TENNIS! We are excited to announce this year’s seventh summer of tennis clinics. The Ogden Valley Tennis Association (OVTA) has a new name; Ogden Valley Tennis & Pickleball (OVTP), but the same officers and purpose—to further the education of great tennis and pickleball players. Though we are only offering tennis lessons this summer, we are raising money to build pro-sized pickleball courts for the public at our beautiful tennis complex at Snowcrest Jr. High School in Eden. Summer lessons will begin the week of June 5 – 7, and continue each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday until the end of July. There will be no lessons the week of July 3 thru July 5. Please sign up quickly as we sold out in 2014, 2015, and 2016 after the first three weeks. Once our classes are full, they are full. We keep the classes small so each child has plenty of hitting time. We have phenomenal tennis coaches from the Weber State University Tennis team and our mini’s coach was a Weber High Varsity player. They do an amazing job! We also offer adult classes in the mornings, depending on the schedules of those involved. At the conclusion of our seven weeks of lessons, we will host the third-annual Dr. Kenyon Tew Legacy Tennis Tournament September 9, 2017. Christy Tew rewards these athletes with the most generous gift bag anywhere, and her heart and soul has created a tournament not to be missed. This tournament doubled in size from the first year to the second, and was a wonderful experience for 40 junior athletes, from four different communities. Summer lessons are $30 per three-day week of lessons held from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m., or from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Adult lessons will be held from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. In case of rain cancellation, lessons will be made up on another day. Your time will depend on age, skill level, and availability. Registrants will be grouped in class sizes of five to six students. For answers to questions, or to register for lessons, contact us at <OgdenValleyTennis@ gmail.com> Please include all of the following information if registering for a child: parents’ names, name of child, child’s age, beginning or intermediate skill level, weeks you would like reserved for lessons, and parents cell phone number. We will respond with an email instructing you how to pay for the sessions. If you would like to donate to the construction of pickleball courts, please visit www. cfovoverdrive.org and choose the non-profit button and then choose OVTP. The Community Foundation of Ogden Valley (CFOV) will match the money you donate. See you on the courts! Cycling the Wasatch: Liberty to Park City and Ogden to Provo There is a popular proverb stating, “It’s the journey, not the destination, that’s important.” Cycling in the Wasatch validates that saying. This is the first in a series of articles in which I will describe my favorite bike routes in Ogden Valley, and then those extending to Morgan Valley, Henefer, Coleville, and on to Park City. The rides are about 20-plus miles in length. This will be a macro approach not micro. I won’t get into specifics like distances between landmarks, just the “stuff” that’s really important when you’re out there in such a beautiful environment. Remember, you’ll be gawking, no matter how many times you’ve ridden that route, but…, unfortunately, so will the driver of the car approaching you! My main concern when I get on my bike is safety.... that day, on that route. What are the unique challenges that today’s routes present. To paraphrase Ed Viesters, perhaps the best high peak mountaineer we have produced in the United States, “Getting to the turnaround point is optional, getting back to your car is mandatory!” And too, the amazing outdoorsman Aldo Leopold, “When you bike, bike. When you really look, stop and look.” Thinks to Consider Pavement Rating: The pavement you’ll be riding on is rated “A” thru “D.” When we get to “D,” it’s mountain bike territory. Rolling Resistance: Chipstone is rated no higher than a B+ to start with. Quality of Pavement considers such things as seams in the road or path, and obstacles like potholes and root swells. And even a subjective avoidability of defects. Best times to Ride a Route: Consider where the sun is coming from. Riding Causey and Montecristo on an early, sunny morning ensures that no eastbound driver will easily see you. The same caution applies to Coalville’s classic ride up East Chalk Creek Road (The subject of a future article). Route Highlight: Powder Mountain bus parking lot just north of the log cabin shops in Eden—2612 S. Highway 162)—to “Liberty Heights” (6925 N. Durfee Creek). The distance of this ride is 20 miles with an elevation gain of 1,200 feet—almost all of the gain in the first CYCLING cont. on page 7 OVBA Announces Quarterly Meeting The Ogden Valley Business Association invites all current and potential members to attend the quarterly gathering Friday, May 19 at 5:00 p.m. at Eats of Eden— this month’s business host. The meeting will be catered by Lost Texan BBQ; served food is free for OVBA members and new members who sign up at the meeting. The General Meeting will also highlight featured business Sterling Automotive. Any questions, visit www.ovba.org for more information. The Spring Chicken Event to be Held May 27 If you are a horse person who has dabbled with dressage and jumping, you might enjoy competing in an event designed for the introductory horse and rider. The Chicken Event, held Memorial Day weekend, May 27, at the Golden Spike Event center and hosted by Wasatch Pony club, is an event suitable even for us “chickens.” It’s not just for kids (little chicks), but great fun for the many adults who compete each year, too. A combined training event consists of three phases…a dressage test, a show jumping phase, and a cross country phase. The dressage test for Introductory is walk and trot only and can be found by googling usdf tests and downloading Introductory Test B. The show jumping is over a course of painted rails and the cross country phase involves a course of natural obstacles in open fields; both courses, not to exceed two feet. There will be lots of higher level competitors in the event as well so it will also be a great place to observe what a combined training event looks like. It is exhilarating to watch an experienced eventer galloping cross country over jumps. These riders go way beyond “chicken.” For information on how to enter, go to wasatchponyclub.wordpress.com and click on Events. The Chicken entry will be listed under that heading. Prizes and ribbons in each division will be awarded. We always need volunteers. If you wish to volunteer, please call Sharon at 801-7456638. The Man & the Stories Behind the Name: In Search of Ogden’s Hole So what do you know about Ogden Valley? It’s a beautiful place with 360-degree vistas that are second to none, right? All kinds of recreation—boating, skiing, hiking, biking. You name it, Ogden Valley has it! Snowbasin, Powder Mountain, Nordic Valley, Wolf Creek—world-class, all-season resorts that caught the attention of millions during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Wildlife? Everywhere! Moose, elk, garden-raiding deer! Mountain lions, coyotes, fox and the occasional errant bear can also be found. Osprey, eagles and … turkeys! Introduced less than 30 years ago, turkeys can be seen and heard in every corner of the valley today. And how about those record-breaking sized muskies in Pineview? Dark skies, balloon festivals, bike races, marathons, and . . . yes! Even water wars! For over 150 years, and getting nastier and more expensive with every new valley development proposal. Yes. There’s a lot to know and love about Ogden Valley. Mainly, it’s just a really great place. But, what you probably don’t know about are the exciting and obscure details of its early history. Nearly 200 years ago, a storybook adventure unfolded here, the likes of an Oscar-winning Hollywood screenplay. You think Ogden Valley is a quiet pristine place today? Imagine the scene oneor two-hundred years ago—no houses, no roads, no Pineview. Imagine mile upon square-foot mile of pure open space interrupted only by ribbons of rivers, creeks and springs. So it was in the spring of 1825. With the exception of summering Shoshone Indians, Ogden Valley was known to none. On the morning of May 16, 1825, all that would change as something stirred on the valley’s northern horizon. A formidable Hudson Bay Co. fur trapping brigade was methodically making its way down the hillside into the valley led by one Peter Skene Ogden. Pete Skene Ogden, Canadian born, colonial American by descent, and barely 35 years in age, eagerly eyed the valley. There were beaver here and he and his Iroquois trappers were going to harvest them by the hundreds! He was about to experience the most productive week of trapping since leaving Flat Head Post in Montana nearly five months earlier. Ogden praised the place unsparingly, initially dubbing it New Hole—later to be known as Ogden Hole and, eventually, Ogden Valley. What Ogden didn’t realize, he was on a collision course with disaster. After the unimagined success in his “New Hole,” mutiny, insurrection, desertion, and pillaging—provoked by Yankee trappers—lay just over the next mountain pass, a day away, on the Weber River in present Mountain Green. On Thursday, May 25 at 7:00 p.m., at a commemorative rendezvous in Eden’s historic Valley Chapel, aka the Hearthside, this entire story—in all its intriguing glory—will be told by leading history experts Jay H. Buckley (BYU) and Lynn Arave (Standard Examiner and Deseret News history columnist). Discover and experience the man behind the name—Ogden Valley—not to mention some tasty pemmican hors d’oeuvres! This event is proudly sponsored by Fort Buena Ventura Mountain Men, Fort Bridger Rendezvous, and Ogden Valley 200. For more details, visit Ogdenhole.com or ‘Ogden Hole aka Ogden Valley, UT’ on Facebook. Links to the journals of Peter Skene Ogden and William Kittson (Ogden’s ‘righthand-man’) can be found at Ogdenhole.com, along with the first map ever made of Ogden Valley. For more information, call DaveMartin at 801-706-5713. |
