By Skittles
After implementing a new “look” for our booth, we were really excited to see if our design changes would pay off by bringing more people over to JTreeLife to check it out. The International Sportsmans Expo was a consumer show, and this being the case, we modified our display by switching out our standard JTree display rack that’s normally sold to shops, with inviting heaps of our products in the ultra cool TazLab Aqua Fur Bowls. And after working so many shows and getting tons of questions about what exactly did we sell, we thought we would also try to provide some informational banners to help people connect the dots. I think our design turned out great and was certainly IMO the most eye appealing booth at the show! What do you think? Leave us a comment and let us know!!
This show was also a great opportunity to market our Sportsman’s Salve and Sun Stick to all the fly fisherman and hunters looking for effective ways to protect and heal their skin. I think that once they heard that our Salve heals skin but also protects the good calluses on their hands they were sold. Lots of folks also thought the Sun Stick was cool for being such a no-mess, no-fuss application of sunscreen that is very sweat and water resistant!
The new JTreeLife booth worked out quite well and we were also glad to have Dave’s parents, Bobbi and Tom, as well as Boca and Bubbles helping us out at our booth on Saturday. We both think that Bobbi is giving Clint, aka C-Dog aka DJ Tastes Like Chicken, a run for his money for JTree Salesperson of the Month! 
In addition, Torrent would like to add that he really enjoyed this show. Though there weren’t as many other dogs walking around to play with, they had a super awesome pool at one end of the arena sponsored by Dock Dogs that were allowing dogs to jump off the dock for distance. 
If you know Torr, you know he loves the water! So we signed him up, and he was allowed to practice jump as many times as he wanted and then do one competition jump. On his very first practice jump, he went 12 feet (and that was starting about 3 feet from the end of the dock!)! However, on his competition jump, he just wanted Dave to jump in too, so did more barking than jumping! Oh well, it was still two paws up from Torr!
We woke up the next morning to a nice sunny (but windy) day and were excited for our first rock climbing since Shelf Road back in Colorado! As we pulled up to the parking area, we could see that there were other climbers already up on the rock climbing in the sun, so we quickly grabbed our bags and started on the approach. According to the guidebook, there were two approaches - one which took you up by a waterfall, and the other that took you up what looked like a scree field on the map. After spending about 15 minutes looking for the trail by the waterfall we gave up and started to follow the second approach trail. What looked like a 10 minute approach from the road quickly turned into an hour of scouting around, climbing up and looking, and trying to find the path of least resistance up for us and Torrent. After several attempts at going up, we finally found a gully that was the least sketchy of all and we finally made it up.
Finally we could touch the rock!!! We figured that since this was our first time climbing at QCC and there were hardly any other climbers around, we could start on one of the four start moderates. The only other group there recommended that we start on a classic 5.9 and pointed it out to us from where we were standing. Dave was about halfway up route, when the lady who pointed it out to us came over and profusely apologized that we were mistakenly on (an equally as classic) 5.10d. Not quite the warm up we had in mind! Oh, well. It ended up being a pretty fun route, although hard for us to start on since we are climbing totally weak sauce as of late! We climbed another route there and then decided to call it a day seeing as how we now had the adventure of descending the crappy approach! I do have to say, Torrent is getting pretty good at these sketchy descents. He will walk out to the edge of the cliff, then wait for David to down climb and hoist him down. He’s even gotten so good as not to freak out and scratch David’s back while doing it!
Our second and final day at QCC was more of a scouting event than a climbing one. We FINALLY found the the main approach trail on one side of the waterfall. There was no way that we would have been able to make it up that way with the dog because of climbing the rebar ladder and super sketchy fourth class climbing! On our way back down to get the dog, we decided to mix it up a little bit and cross the waterfall to get to where the dog was. Since it had been raining the past couple of days and there was snow melting, the waterfall was raging and the ponds were huge. David easily jumped across a large wet boulder to reach the other side (so easy for people with long legs!). I was scared I was either going to fall down the waterfall (not good) or into the pond (also not good, but not as bad!). It took a couple of minutes of deliberation, but finally, I made the jump! We all made it down safely where we were greeted by the D-O-double-G!
By the time we left our adventures in SLC, it was hard to believe that we had spent a whole month there! As much as I had enjoyed our time playing in the mountains and bonding with our friend Clint, I was eagerly awaiting some play time in the sun. So promptly after our Sportsmans show, we “hit the road again” - headed due south. According to the directions via Google Maps in the iPhone, it had us driving thru Vegas en route to Phoenix. However, after waking up from a nap, I found we were minutes from Bryce Canyon! Ok, so maybe we weren’t going to hit Vegas after all - talk about last minute changes in direction! 
Torr had a great time too bounding into the snow fields chasing snowballs.
both decided that the only way we would want to see the Grand Canyon again is from the river below on a raft!
First up on our February itinerary, the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo back at the Salt Palace. For us, the largest difference in going to this show was that it was a consumer show, so we were selling to the general public, instead of retail buyers and it was a 100% hunter demographic attending the show. It was really really hard to schlep our Sportsman’s Salve to those hunters! We got lots of “what is that?” and “no thanks” to our offers to try a sample of the Salve. However, once they came in to check it out, and we could see the state of the dry cracked skin on their hands, they saw the potential of the product. We met lots 
of folks in construction and concrete who were impressed that the product wouldn’t mess up their good calluses - hopefully we made some in’s with those folks! 
The next day I watched as the RV rolled out again. I had learned that morning the crew was heading to Snowbasin to shred the nar pow. Damn I sound gangster. If I was going to pick a place to die it would have to be one of the bathroom stalls at Snowbasin because you couldn’t die anywhere else more luxurious besides maybe the St. Petersburg Cathedral. It had to be a nice day of eight inches of light and fluffy on top up the freshly groomed runs. I’m sure they found themselves lost in the clouds of strawberry not knowing what lay in front of them. Just before dusk the RV cruised back in. It must have been another family dinner around the knights of the round table by the number of grocery bags they were carrying in. I always wonder what it must be like to be sipping on magic makers with such good friends around that table. Over the next few days the gangster family got smaller as some headed back to their normal hustlin’ lives. I’m still trying to figure out why a roll of duct tape, a seat from a whitewhater couch, and a snowboard were loaded into the back of the astro van one day. 
They must have been working on some top secret snow missile program. It has been a few weeks now and I’m sure the BAMF is aware that the J-Tree RV will be setting sail in the winds across America. But he knows best, if you love something you must set it free.