Chronological History of Meany Lodge

from CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF MEANY LODGE

author: Idona Kellogg

Note: sections extracted from Walt’s History removed.

1956

• Deepest snow so far at Meany - 15’ at Lodge

1971

• Added floor over women’s dorm, for “family” dorm

1974

• Approximate completion dates of clearing of Railroad Meadows and Psychopath

1975

• Flood washes out log bridge over Stampede creek. Replaced by emergency work party. Snow, Rain, Mud–Volunteer labor prevails again.

Jan 20th-23rd 1976

• Tom Cat Engine failure
• Sunday outbound trip
• Broke a connecting-rod in engine at Yakima River
• Sent out Skiers to get any extra oil they had in their cars
• Bad weather conditions (3/4” sleet, crust, rain) and a late start contributed
• Broken connecting-rod at crank which then breached oil pan, dumped oil.
• Use sanitary napkins to plug hole in pan
• used rope to restrain failed rod thus driving with only 5 cylinders
• Used 16 qts. of oil, managed to get Tom-cat to overpass by 8:30 pm
• Tom has a spare block at home
• Meanyites met at Tom’s house on Monday and came up with parts list
• On Tuesday Tom & Bob Grass assembled Engine
• Starting on Wednesday at 8 am the crew dropped old engine
• installed new by 6 pm
• Second crew started at 6 pm and completed the installation and
• Tom-cat running by 10 pm

1977

• Flood washes out the log bridge over Stampede Creek (again), filled culvert at Weasel Creek.
• Work parties on successive weekends, in horrible working conditions, resulted in repairs adequate for winter.
• Same storm washed out Railroad tracks. Trains did not run until 1978

1978

• 8 burner, 1 grill and 2 oven, commercial style stove installed.
• Sept 23rd & 24th - 50th Anniversary Party

1983

• Usage of Radio equipment for internal communications started
• Phone company check equipment/line and reestablish telephone service
• Improved crossing over Tombstone canyon.
• Road from railroad to lodge was widened, straightened, and graded.
• Tow engine rebuilt.

1984

• Previous basement wood room converted to additional drying space
• Moved doorway
• Moved stairway to third floor

1986

• Lodge: Upgraded 5 KVA to 25 KVA transformer
• Direct dial telephone system connects lodge, tow hut, cat house and top of the ski hill
• Ski hill lights rewired

1989

• Christmas Week
• Skiing lane only - so little snow
• foot serpentine by lodge at midnight
• Bonfire by lodge
• Many drove to Railroad tracks, or delivered by 4-wheel drive

1990

Winter

January 6th - 7th

• Phil Christy Cooked, Art Nation and Lyle Schaeffer played. Norm Vigus Sister visited
• Still little snow, still able to drive up hill from new parking lot
• Ski Lessons on Lane - Lane skiing only

January 13th - 14th

• 14” of new snow - Good Sugar Snow
• Park in new Park & Ride lot, by Gravel Pit
• Don Finrow teaches Teton Mountain Stomp and Atlantic Mixer; Capacity Crowd

January 20th - 21st

• Light dusting of snow only this past week; 77 guests
• Few bare spots on road out from Meany - Hard Snow - To hard on Saturday - not bad on Sunday

January 27th - 28th

• Running on auxiliary generator
• Lots of new snow - Parking lot under several feet of snow - VW had a foot of snow on top
• Chains needed on Snoqualmie Pass - 2 vehicles, in Parking lot, wouldn’t start.
• Snoqualmie Pass was closed, reopened at 5:30 pm Sunday
• Ruth Jewel was taken back to Issaquah
• Pack-rat (Thiokol Sno-Tractor) broke axel; Tom-cat (bombardier Sno-Cat) broke drive shaft
• Meany Closed until repairs are completed
• Work Parties for repairs at Tom house on Monday & Wednesday

February 3rd - 4th

• Repair Work on Tom-cat, Pack-rat, tows
• Tom fell off road on way to tow hut - needed help
• XXXXXXXX tow motor needs replacing
• Loosen Track, took off drive sprocket, removed housings
• Left side drive axel on Thiokol also broken
• Differential Steering Gears were broken, installed rebuilt differential
• Worked on Bombardier at Trollhagen till 1 am Sunday, then Sunday till 2:30 pm
• 16(?) up to work on bombardier
• Richard, Bob Skeens, Mike & Patrick, Al, Idona, Norm, Dave, Barbara
• Phil Christy, Lary, Christina, Vivian, Bill, Bob & Idona
• Mike worked on tow with Phil
• Saturday & Sunday Slept at Meany
• Light snow - Strung up tarps
• Mike worked on Lines
• All meals on Barbara’s camp stove at Trollhagen except for breakfast
• Snow Max broke on railroad Grade.
• Bob and I left from Trollhagen
• Idona cooked

February 10th - 11th

• Continued Repair Work on Tom-cat and Pack-rat
• Heavy Snow - Avalanche danger
• Snoqualmie Pass closed Fri night and Saturday, Opened on Sunday morning at 5 a.m.
• We met at Issaquah at 8 am,
• Idona & Bob, Ray Nelson, Richard, Patty & Dave, Tom & Bobby, Jim Baker, Ralph
• Bob & Richard worked an Thiokol, Bobbie and Tom worked on Tow
• Jim & Ralph did lots of shoveling around lodge
• Idona cooked & Patti helped
• All dug out SuperWorm rope & raised(?)
• Tom fell in rut(?) with Cat

February 17th - 19th

• President Weekend - 20 people in Friday night
• Phil came in on Friday and got things running and warmed up
• Guys worked on Thiokol & Sno-Max till 1:30 am Saturday morning
• Saturday breakfast at 7:30 am and finished Thiokol and Sno-Max
• Finished digging out tows, (Mach covered with 5’ of snow; top to bottom)
• 11:30 am Drag welded back together by Bob
• Main fuse blown on Tows - Too many people on SuperWorm & Slug - Bobby & Paul fixed power
• Mach down for an hour while splicing rope
• lunch early as stoppage of tows disrupted classes - classes ran extra long in afternoon
• Good Skiing - Soft deep powder
• SuperWorm motor which burned up and replaced was finally made to work
• SuperWorm rope was changed because it was frayed
• New Safety Gate made for Mach Tow Difficult trips in because of fine deep powder snow Most trips people walked up hill Sometimes pushing Bombardier - other tractor also help boost Bombardier uphill Sno-Max did a lot of work filling in at least 4 huge crevasses on road into Meany Helped out drag(?) stuck vertically at least 5’ under ice All equipment finally running & everyone enjoying good skiing - 15deg & powder Don Finrow cooked March 17th - 18th

Larry & Janice Gockel cooked (?) 1st MOFA class held at Meany Spring May 5th

Meany Ski Hut Spring Party: Maltby Community Center - Featuring Lyle Schaefer & Art Nation Potluck Dinner: 6 p.m Dancing: 8 - Midnight May 19th - 20th

2nd MOFA class held at Meany Summer July 14th - 15th

Telephone line vandalized (again)-Pacific NW Bell redid line Continued vandalism of phone line solved withPacific NW Bell’s help Chopped firewood Painted “Brushed” North & South Cleared brush on downhill slopes Improving & Marking Cross-Country ski trails Preventative maintenance of tows and snowcats Medium Tow - replaced motor and redid electrical wires New rope strung on Worm Tow August 12th

Annual Meany Family Picnic - Ray & Phyllis’ house Recognizing Tom’s contributions to Meany for over 30 years Driving Sno-Cat most weekend - Renamed Tom-cat September 8th - 9th

Dr Mike Konecny - “Studying and Photographing animals in the Galapagos Islands” Marking and improving Cross Country Ski Trails Working on downhill Ski areas chopping firewood Fall

New log bridge had to be built at Stampede Creek Crossing. Some logs were salvageable from wash-out old bridge & new logs had to be dragged by Tom-cat from Meany property to complete the bridge. #2 Pipe Creek Clogged up - Washed out Roadway - Meany gang repositioned washed out Culverts Filled in roadbed to divert water back through culvert pipes. Required transporting front loader from Seattle to parking lot and then driving it 1&fract12; miles to washout spot Snow and extremely heavy rainfall caused many washouts on FS 54 and 420 roads Forest Service working on FS 54 road to make it passable to caught logging equipment above washouts - Meany had to fix FS 420 road without help September 22nd - 23rd

Terry Prichard - Slide show - “Sea Kayaking in Costa Rica” Barbecue - Salmon or Chicken September 29th - 30th

MOFA Refresher Course + CPR (25 students) October 6th - 7th

Auction of ski items - yard sale featuring ski equipment October 13th - 14th

Meany Mushroom weekend - Naturalist Mushroom hunt Coleman Leuthy - Stalking the Wild Mushroom” October 20th - 21st

Liz Northrup - “Summer Backpacking trip through Africa November 3rd - 4th

Steak grilled over wooden coals Winter Dec 26th - 31st

Beginning of Ski Season

1991

Winter January 5th - 6th

Lyle Schaefer & Art Nation Folkdancing Snowboard on drag fixed Tanya cooked January 12th - 13th

60 Boy Scouts came in on Friday night, planning to leave Saturday afternoon Pass closed Saturday & Sunday Boy Scout leaders cooked Tom and Committee members that came up Friday night were only ones who made it up No one else made it to Meany Tom & Scouts drove via Stevens Pass to get Scouts home, Pass opened by the time they got home January 19th - 21th

Popcorn Balls & folkdancing w/lessons Worked on blade mounting bracket of the drag - got snagged; Needed to straighten the welded Saturday evening was game night Anna & Jim’s car wouldn’t stay running Dick Georgene towed it to summit Had it towed from summit to Seattle January 26th - 27th

Tom out of town - Ray drove Sno-Cat Mike Lonergan ran Tows (Weber ill) Don Finrow cooked Bob and Idona made homemade ice cream Catchup class for Downhill Skiing February 2nd - 3rd

Joe Noyes - Cat Driver Tanya cooked Taffy pull & Folkdance Lessons - Linda Bascarine made taffy - went over really well Downhill, Cross-Country & Telemark Ski Lessons February 9th - 10th

Joe Noyes - Cat Driver Mountaineers Players present “Mixed Doubles” - Comedy play Decorate your own cupcakes - Len in charge of frosting Tanya cooked Joe welded exhaust pipe bracket on Sno-cat February 16th - 18th

Friday night - Bob & Idona’s homemade ice cream/refresher bridge Tanya cooked all weekend Saturday - Creative Cartoons February 23rd - 24th

Saturday Video’s “World on Skis” & “Snowboarding” Don Finrow cooked March 2nd - 3rd

Saturday - Telemark clinic Saturday night - Sing along w/Janice Hildman Gockel Tonya cooked March 9th - 10th

Catherine Cunningham cooked “Iron Goat Trail” presented by Ruth Ittner March 16th - 17th

“Crusing the Volga” presented by Jan Waugh Tanya cooked March 23rd - 24th

Catherine Cunningham cooked Niger West Africa w/Phil Christy March 30rd - 31th

Meany closed for Easter

2008

Summer

• Norm, Deb & volunteers primed and painted the Women’s
• Purchased used snow vehicle, christened “Moose”

Fall

• Dave put in new foundation for tunnel (under the front porch) east wall
• Phil and James built and installed new bunks in Women’s dorm
• Due to lateness of tracks arriving, extra work party required to assemble/install tracks
• To see a pictoral account of the arrival of Moose and track installation, click on “Moose”

2009

January 9th - 11th

• Meany Closure this weekend
• Warm weather & rain caused massive washout under Railroad tracks
• Martin Creek flooded and washed out culvert near skiers pickup point
• Stampede Creek flooded and washed out FS 54
• Other creeks overflowed banks washing out snow on FR 420
• Work party arrived Saturday morning and repaired most wash outs
• No damage to lodge
• For pictorial account click on 2009 Winter Storm

January 16th - 18th

• Tom-cat slides off tracks on railroad curve
• With the help of come-alongs, a jack and Moose, Tom-cat was place back “on track”
• Tom-cat exhaust pipe came off, repaired

July 16th - 19th

• Installed drainage field on the North side of Lodge to stop water leakage into first aid room
• Took off covering on furnace and inspected it
• Repaired water supply dam
• Split wood
• Dug trench and place conduit for phone/power to tows