I know my favorite BHA Rende moment, whats yours? Post Pics!

dannyb278

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Preaching to the choir I know, but if you haven't had the chance to make it to the national BHA Rende you really should. This was my first year and I had a blast. I knew I would enjoy myself, but the experience really exceeded my expectations

A bunch of us drove 17 hours non stop from Minnesota to attend. While there were a lot of "big" events like the seminars, brew fest, Camp Chef Cook-Off" there was also a lot of individual moments that no doubt left a impression on me and others.

So, if you went to the Rende, what was your favorite moment? Got any pics to post?

My favorite moment was a short conversation I had with Jim Posewitz. I had by chance brought a copy of Beyond Fair Chase to read on the trip, and was surprised to see him in attendance. My book has a bit of a story behind it. I ordered it used off Amazon and upon receiving it, was surprised to see a note from Jim to the books original owner. It turns out that the guy who owned the book before me was the president of a Ontario Federation of Hunters and Anglers. Jim signed the book for him in 1995

Fast forward to 2016, and the owner of the book passes away. Somehow the book ended up in a used book store and found its way to me just a month or so before the Rende.


When I told Jim this story, as well as my story of realizing the importance of Public Land, his eyes lit up and I was so impressed on his ability to pull details and dates out of history highlighting the foundation of the conservation movement. It was great to share that small conversation with him.

Having him sign my book on the page following his original note was a real moving moment for me. Not to get to cheesy, but I felt like that small exchange was what BHA really is all about, not passing the torch from one generation to the next, but igniting a fire, or as Jim quoted TR: "not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people...within the womb of time


jim1995.jpgjim2017.jpg
 
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Very cool. Thanks for sharing. Hoping to get there, but hunting Alaska for black bear in 2018 leaves me looking ahead to the 2019 get together.
 
I'm not sure what would be the best moment, given how much fun it was to connect with so many #RealGreenDecoys. I think the eleven year-old girl before the movie premier grabbed my attention the most. I wish I knew how to get in touch with Lola. She was a charm.

Or, it might be thumbing a ride with Gerald and him doing the "country boy doesn't yield for road construction" where they had traffic stopped for the bridge construction. He locked in the hubs and went east-west through traffic stopped north-south. The lady in the Suby at the front the north-bound line almost had a coronary. I was doing the white knuckles on the dashboard, myself. Dukes of Sanders County in full force with Gerald behind the wheel.
 
I'm not sure what would be the best moment, given how much fun it was to connect with so many #RealGreenDecoys. I think the eleven year-old girl before the movie premier grabbed my attention the most. I wish I knew how to get in touch with Lola. She was a charm.

Or, it might be thumbing a ride with Gerald and him doing the "country boy doesn't yield for road construction" where they had traffic stopped for the bridge construction. He locked in the hubs and went east-west through traffic stopped north-south. The lady in the Suby at the front the north-bound line almost had a coronary. I was doing the white knuckles on the dashboard, myself. Dukes of Sanders County in full force with Gerald behind the wheel.

Lola was amazing. "I'm Randy Newbergs replacement" was soo funny. She had an amazing amount of bearing and charm on stage for such a young girl.
 
We did a raffle at the Field to Table dinner. What started out as a custom fly rod and 2 day 1 night float trip with Land Tawney, ended up as a 2 day 1 night float trip with Land and Governor Bullock (for one day), a $900 fly reel (can't remember the brand), a years supply of coffee from Black Rifle Coffee Co., a Yeti 210 cooler, a $2,500 gift certificate from Sitka, and a two day bird hunt in Bolivia.

Watching our partners pile on the prizes capped with the Governor offering himself for a day was pretty damn amazing.
 
Family duties forced me to miss most of the Rendezvous this year, but the highlight no doubt was handing the Chairman's Award to Holly Endersdby. Holly is an unsung hero of BHA. Bottom line is there would be NO BHA without Holly. She cried like a faucet but she wasn't the only one. I also think I heard Big Fin's voice crack a bit when he received the FIRST EVER Jim Posewitz Award.
 
Or, it might be thumbing a ride with Gerald and him doing the "country boy doesn't yield for road construction" where they had traffic stopped for the bridge construction. He locked in the hubs and went east-west through traffic stopped north-south. The lady in the Suby at the front the north-bound line almost had a coronary. I was doing the white knuckles on the dashboard, myself. Dukes of Sanders County in full force with Gerald behind the wheel.

Hey, what can I say? We don't have them stinking librul stop lights in Sanders county. Plus, it worked beautifully the night before! That is before they put another barrel between the two that were so convenient to drive through. You might be relieved to know that the next time I came through I remembered the look on your face and your description of the lady in the Subaru and took a right turn. Had to go clear across the bridge and around the block. Took at least five minutes. I knew your time was valuable and wanted to get you to your meeting. :)

I don't know which was my favorite moment. I had a lot of good moments over the weekend, most involved sitting with friends and telling tales of adventures past and planning of adventures to come. There was also that moment where I was shed hunting with Jeff Quigley in a spot that Randy11 suggested we try. We were just about to turn around and head back when my "antlerdar" started pinging and I said we had to go a little further. Three more steps and I found a year old 4 point mule deer shed. That was good for a little mileage in bragging rights.
 
Too many favorites to list just one; but putting real faces to so many names. On the way was Kurt, then Randy, JR, Randy11, Gerald, BuzzH's family and all the folks who run the show at BHA .

Then the 'Wyoming' podcast with Buzz & Randy. Finally, Wyoming Chapter getting the 'best' award. Great bunch of people, great time!
 
I also think I heard Big Fin's voice crack a bit when he received the FIRST EVER Jim Posewitz Award.

I hadn't heard of this, that's awesome. Congratulations Randy.

I was pretty bummed they didn't hand out vouchers to everyone for the luncheon, I guess there were just too many folks.
 
I would have to say my favorite part was seeing just how far people had traveled to be a part of it. The first morning I was standing in line behind a guy that appeared to be by himself. I struck up a conversation and come to find out he had drove to Missoula from North Carolina. Unbelievable. It echoed in my mind the opinion that I have had of strong supporters of BHA, we might not have the most money but there is no group that can come close with the passion we have. A close second was finally getting to meet a bunch of Hunt Talkers. Looking forward to spending more time with them.
 
I hadn't heard of this, that's awesome. Congratulations Randy.

I was pretty bummed they didn't hand out vouchers to everyone for the luncheon, I guess there were just too many folks.

They should have had a little better system of seating folks. I think they went by total number of tickets sold to determine who got luncheon vouchers and who got food truck tickets. My table had three empty seats and I noticed that several others were not full, probably 30 seats total that could have been filled.
 
They should have had a little better system of seating folks. I think they went by total number of tickets sold to determine who got luncheon vouchers and who got food truck tickets. My table had three empty seats and I noticed that several others were not full, probably 30 seats total that could have been filled.

Dang I would have definitely sneaked in to see the presentation...those of us that didn't get into the luncheon had about 2 hours of nothing to do (well we went to the Dram shop to sample some adult beverages). At least the pot roast was good
 
This year was my first BHA rende and it was awesome. So many great people supporting an even greater cause. I told Land after the event was over that it went too fast. Lola was hard to beat at the story telling evening. The brewfest was a good time even as a big storm rolled through the crowd seemed to grow larger.

I slipped away for a few hours to fish with some of my best friends on the Broot who drove over from PDX and SEA to meet up for the event and that was also a highlight.

Looking forward to next year already.
 
I would have to say my favorite part was seeing just how far people had traveled to be a part of it. The first morning I was standing in line behind a guy that appeared to be by himself. I struck up a conversation and come to find out he had drove to Missoula from North Carolina. Unbelievable. It echoed in my mind the opinion that I have had of strong supporters of BHA, we might not have the most money but there is no group that can come close with the passion we have. A close second was finally getting to meet a bunch of Hunt Talkers. Looking forward to spending more time with them.

It was great having lunch with you and that Buffalo guy from Alberta on Day 1. I was really struck by how open and friendly most everyone was throughout the weekend.
 
I had a few highlights including chatting with Kelly Galloup while he tied flies with my fiancé, the Arizona Mule drinks that Team Arizona was serving during the cook off were unreal, and I had some pretty good luck during the raffles. It was a great time, I can't wait for next year.
 
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