Ponderosa Snow Warriors Pancake Breakfast carries on despite slow start to snowmobile season

"We got a live one!” came the shout as the door to the Ponderosa Snow Warriors clubhouse opened Saturday morning.

The arrival of a lone guest caused Bob Orr, Mark Christian, Gerry Malek and the rest of the breakfast crew to spring into action, happy to have someone to serve during the slow first hour of the morning meal that began at 8 a.m.

“The older ones are the ones who are still getting up early,” Kathy Reeve commented to another club member while waiting for customers.

“We had a crew out here last night and the day before, cleaning the clubhouse of course. I don’t know how long it takes Bob to do pancake batter. A couple days I suppose,” Mark Christian, president of the Snow Warriors, told the BVD.

Christian and the other club members who helped set up for the meal were concerned that cancelling the Fun Run planned for that day had also caused people to assume the breakfast was off.

“It’s early, lets hope,” he said. “No reason to get up early if you’re not gonna go riding.”

Not everyone got the word the run was cancelled however. Two riders who had heard about the Fun Run on Facebook, brought their machines up from Helena and were disappointed to learn they’d missed the post saying it had been canceled. Nevertheless, they stuck around to enjoy the meal.

The lull provided an opportunity to talk to Christian about how things were going with the club.

“We’re ready. We’ve got our trails cut out and all the Forest Service gates are open, all the bridges have been repaired, so we’re ready,” he said. The clubs plow trucks, including their recently acquired rotary plow are all fixed and waiting as well he said.

The only ingredient missing was the snow.

By Saturday, they still hadn’t been able to get out to groom any of the trails due to the thin snow.

“We can’t get (the groomer) from Lambkin Park in town to the second cattle guard without decent enough snow. It's just too hard on the machine,” Christian said.

He said the lack of good snow can also be hard on the newer sleds.

“Your older sleds and your fan-cooled are good, but these new ones, they need snow to cool them. If there’s not too much snow, they just get too hot,” he said.

ATV’s however don’t have that issue and he’s heard from snowmobilers who have braved the trais that some of them are getting rutted up.

“What hurts now is there’s not enough to groom, so the ATVs …they’ve got enough money in them that they’re hitting the trails, because all the gates are open,” he said.

The trails are multiple use in winter, but are intended for winter sports like snowmobiling, dogsleds, cross country skiings and fat-tire bikes. The Trail Passes that fund the states grooming program, which are required for “mechanized equipment” used on the groomed trails, including fat tire bicycles, were also available at the Pancake breakfast.

“The hardware store or the club have trail passes,” Christian said. They cost $18 for a a three-year pass, or $25 if you’re from out of state. “If you bought them the very first year they came out, now you need a renewal.”

By about 9:15 a.m., Christian’s comment about late risers seemed to be spot on as people began trickling in to partake in Orr’s famous sourdough pancakes.

Orr’s pancakes have been a staple of the pancake breakfasts for decades, but he said he’s more than ready to pass on his spatula, as well as his sourdough and his pancake recipe, to someone new.

“I figure when you’re 80 years old you shouldn’t have to be over that grill,” he said.

“I’ve been the sole pancake maker. When I first started coming to the club they were using Krusteaz mix, which was a getting to be a pretty big expense.”

He was making sourdough all the time, so he offered to take over. He’s been doing it ever since, mixing up about 10 gallons of batter for every pancake breakfast.

He said overseeing the pancake starter isn’t really that complicated, but it does take some diligence.

“The only problem you’ve got, you’ve got to keep working your batter,” he said. “If you don’t mix it up, it’ll mold. You can go three weeks, four weeks, but all you’ve got to do is put a little bit of flour in, a little bit of water, mix it up, stick it back in the refrigerator.”

By the end of the morning, the Snow Warriors had served between 70 and 75 meals.

“Not bad for having no fun run,” Bonnie Christian told the BVD. She said the club plans to reschedule the fun run once there’s enough snow on the ground.