Enthusiasts saddle up for annual poker run

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

Hundreds of snowmobile enthusiasts put on their warmest gear and saddled up for the 21st annual Montana Night Riders Poker Run on the west end of Mineral County Saturday, for an opportunity to see the beautiful backcountry of Mineral County and a chance to win some cash.

“This whole thing is just a blast,” said Stacey Miller while taking a break from riding near Lookout Pass Saturday morning.

Miller came from Noxon to participate in Saturday’s ride with a group of friends.

“This is really well organized and everyone is super friendly,” said Jennifer Byquist.

Byquist brought her snowmobile all the way from Chelan Washington to take part in the Montana Night Riders Poker Run this year.

Snowmobilers rode around 50 miles on groomed backcountry trails from Lincoln’s Silver Dollar bar in Haugan up to Lookout Pass and back.

On the way riders stopped at five different checkpoints to draw cards and attempt to form the best five-card poker hand for a shot at winning some of the $2,720 pot.

Event organizer Brooke Lincoln said that this year’s pot was the largest the Montana Night Rider’s Poker Run had seen in 13 years.

Kevin Gordon, a member of the Montana Night Riders who has been ivolved with the annual poker run for 10 years now, spent his third poker run in a row cooking up chili and helping out with the card draw station at the Taft Exit along the route.

“We just want people to come out and have fun,” Gordon said.

The chili and hotdogs served at the stop were provided by the Montana Night Riders and Gordon took up donations for the food. He said that working the chili feed is a fun job and he gets to enjoy the ride in a different way than when he participated in the event years ago.

“Someone’s got to do it, so we decided to step up. It’s a good time and if you don’t have any volunteers you can’t have any of this fun,” Gordon said. “It’s awesome to get people into the area to see what we have to offer. After that they keep coming back and riding more.”

Gordon said that people filter through his checkpoint throughout the day, some getting there quicker than others.

“You can take it slow or you can take it fast, it’s up to you,” Gordon said.

He added that while there is some drinking at the event, the organizers and riders keep a close eye out for people who have had too much to drink. Gordon said that they will take poker hands away from anyone they feel is driving drunk, although they rarely have to deal with that as most riders are responsible.

“We don’t want people getting out of hand,” Gordon said.

Robert Tollefson of Rockford Wash. drew his third joker (a wild card) of the day at the Taft chili stop.

“There’s a lot of good people and a lot of good fun to be had out here,” Tollefson said.

Walt Mendonsa, from Hawaii, took a nice break at the Taft exit for a chili dog and a cold drink. He said that he has been coming to the event for three years now and loves being able to get out and play in the Montana snow.

“I just love coming out here, having fun and getting out of the heat. We love the weather here, it’s like a winter wonderland,” Mendonsa said.

Ted Martin, newly elected president of the Mineral County Search and Rescue Team, spent his day at the Taft exit, making sure everyone on the trail stayed safe.

Including Martin, there were 10 members of the search and rescue team at different points throughout the ride, available to respond in case someone got hurt. Martin was at the Taft exit with the team’s “am-sled,” a sled packed with medical equipment, because it was the closest point to any part of the trail.

Martin said that the trail was fairly easy and with the snow that parts of Mineral County received Friday the trails were looking pretty good.

“Everything here’s on a trail so there should be virtually no avalanche danger out here,” Martin said. “It should be good snow-catting up there with all the fresh snow.”

At the end of the race several search and rescue team members rode the route of the poker run to make sure that everyone had made it back safely.

The ride raised $300 each for the Montana Night Riders and the Mineral County Food Bank.

Lincoln said that this was one of the biggest rides they had ever seen, with more than 300 riders.

“It was just huge and it went fantastic,” Lincoln said.

Riders bought hands for $5 each or five hand for $20. Altogether there were 808 hands bough and 1,004 hands out on the ride.

Lincoln said the great snow in Mineral County along with the fact that many other areas do not have much snow brought in their record numbers for this year.

“It was a beautiful day and people are bored, wanting to play on the snow with nowhere else to go,” Lincoln said.

The Montana Night Riders, Lincoln’s Silver Dollar Bar, Stang’s Grocery, Food Services of America, Sheehan Majestic, Cabinet Ridge Riders, Al and Marge Miller, Summit Beverage, Zip Beverage, Zanetti Bros and Tom Stevens Construction all sponsored the event.

Winning riders, starting at first place and going down, were Barbara Lowe from Newman Lake Wash., Brad Wearth from Colville Wash., Alan Gardipe from Missoula, Larry McDowell from Coeur D’ Alene, Dan Curtis from Bozeman, Christine Shoopman from Missoula, Ed Hansen from Superior, Tim Hibbard from Chelan, Alan Soderling from Coeur D’ Alene, Eric Rouse from Rathdrum Idaho, Mike Dougherty from Arlee Mont., Soderling, Steve Young from St. Regis, Ana McGuire from Anaconda Mont., Darrel Stevens from Rathdrum, Rouse, John Loewen from Superior and Scott Hanks from Deer Park Wash.