Yee-Haw Pickle Company

“You Go” (or not) really sums up our time in Durango, CO.

The climb up to this sign was STEEP!

We planned on making a quick pit stop following here following 12 Hours Mesa Verde, but ended up staying for a full week, in part because were introduced to the owner of Singletrack Maps.

Durango was uncharted territory for us, and what better way to tour the area than with a cartographer (yea, I had never heard the word before either, but it’s just a bad-a** name for “mapmaker”). And this wasn’t just any cartographer; this guy makes maps specifically for mountain bikers searching for singletrack. Yee-Haw! We had hit the jackpot!

Singletrack Maps and Yee-Haw Pickle Co. rally Durango singletrack.

Following a cartographer who maps bike trails is a lot like following Indiana Jones to the Holy Grail. Loads of climbing, followed by “hike a bike” sections, followed by more climbing and more hike-a-bike sections, ultimately leading to panoramic views, sought after red-dirt ridges and 9 miles of down-hill single-track that left us smiling uncontrollably, panting and ultimately racing each other for beers in the parking lot (supposedly it was a tie, but I’m not so sure…).

Post-ride brews and beans.

Not only does Durango have killer single-track, a really healthy forest, red-rock walls, and rivers, but it also has a really vibrant, funky downtown complete with a record shop (kid-you-not), a gazillion breweries, and a narrow gauge steam engine that rolls through town whistling all the way.

Every time we ventured into town, we met interesting people with stories to tell and even fish to sell to us out of coolers?!? That’s right, the Flying Fish is a local shop that is only open on Fridays and sells every kind of fish in the sea out of coolers that line the walls.

Don’t ever judge a fish by its cooler. Alaskan King Salmon and Crab Cakes from Flying Fish, two thumbs up.

The owner Diane gave us some red wine while she filled us in on the fish selection, and before we left with our gorgeous piece of wild King Salmon and fresh lump crab cakes, we had a hand-drawn map to a cool hiking trail from a guy named Paul, got an invitation to play in a softball game the following night and had directions to some free camping outside of town.

So, you may be thinking to yourselves, don’t these people ever work?!? Well, we stopped by Nature’s Oasis Market on our way out of town and they loved our pickles. They will be placing an order next week, so if you are lucky enough to call Durango home, or even just passing through, you’ll be able to pick up your favorite flavor of Yee-Haw Pickles.

It was on a whim we landed in Durango and we left it in similar fashion.  While searching for a fresh site Sunday afternoon we decided to keep going north, direction Ouray. Rebirtha (YHPC’s trusty ’98 Ford Ranger) lurched over 3 mountain passes at 11k feet for a quick layover at Amphitheater campground, the wildest of all sights.

Possibly the best campsite ever.

We hit the road tomorrow for our trek to Gunnison/Crested Butte and home of the Growler, Yee-Haw Pickles next stop on pickle tour 2012. So all you pickle fans, please send Rebirtha some good juju, we have a few more mountain passes along the way!

Rebirtha, resting in Ouray before final trek to Crested Butte, CO.

Yee-Haw Pickle Company headed South last week to sponsor the 12 Hours Mesa Verde endurance mountain bike race, located in Cortez, Colorado. The event is in it 6th year and is run on 100% volunteer hours and 100% of the race proceeds benefit local non-profits. Pinon Project, an organization mentoring at-risk youth, and Southwest Open School were the beneficiaries for 2012. An event of this size brings in a lot of money, and to hear of an event that donates all proceeds is almost unheard of. Needless to say, the folks who put on this event are good people and we were super excited to support the event in our own small way.

Lemans start (racers run to their bikes at the start of the race) with our pickle shack in the background.

For our pickle fans who are unfamiliar with endurance bike events, racers were here to ride a 16 mile course on an extensive network of single track trails known as Phil’s World. The trail system is located in the shadows of Mesa Verde National Park with stellar views, tons of fast rolling single-track and loads of whoop-de doos.

Nothing more fun than fast, buff whoop-de-doos. Smile, smile, smile!

We had a chance to ride the course the night before and it was the most fun we’d had on bikes so far this season.

The race consisted of team divisions of 2 or 4 riders where racers would alternate laps and a solo division where individuals would race the entire course non-stop for 12 hours (yes, absolutely crazy and impressive). There were over 800 racers and loads of friends and family there to offer race support. Everyone camped in the local fairgrounds and the atmosphere was festive and energizing with music playing, kids cruising around on bikes and dogs rallying.

Tor, racing Solo Singlespeed Division and fueled by Yee-Haw Pickles, completed 7 laps and rode over 112 miles.

Yee-Haw Pickle Company set up a pickle shack in the expo where we fed racers pickle brine shots, pickle spears and Steezy Bee Grilled Cheese sammies. If you’re like most people, you are probably wondering why in the world a pickle company would sponsor a mountain bike event. Well, aside from the fact that we LOVE everything about mountain biking (the community, the trails, the speed, the bikes, chasing your friends down the mountain), it was also the first time we were able to test out the theory that pickle brine cures muscle cramps.

There have been quite a few studies testing the pickle brine theory; both Jason Witten (Cowboys tight-end), and the BYU football team swear by pickle brine and we were real curious to see if our brine would have a positive effect on endurance bikers. Turns out the more laps they rode, the more they needed salt, and more and more racers came by for brine shots and pickle spears. By 3pm, we had a consistent crew of racers stopping by the shack for a shot and a spear before heading out on their next lap convinced that our pickles were preventing them from cramping.

We initially thought the pickle brine cure was an old wives tale but after spending the weekend at Mesa Verde, we think our juice has something special. Two stories really drove the brine theory home. One of our buddies from Crested Butte was cramping so badly that he was laid up in his tent for a few hours after his last lap. After feeding him some brine shots, he walked around and swears that his cramps disappeared after 5 minutes. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Well, according to studies done at BYU, pickle brine takes effect after 85 seconds! Another great story was from a Durango youth racer from the Durango Devo Team who had the fastest time on her team and made a special stop by the pickle shack to to tell us that she believes it was because of the brine. Nothing to say to that but “Yee-haw!”

After awards and 4 cases of Yee-Haw Pickles were distributed for prizes, the sun set on the fairgrounds. Fire pits, beer drinking, stories of crashes, fast times, whoop-de doos and plans for the next endurance race, The Growler in Gunnison, Colorado ensued.

Young budding racer happy after winning some Yee-Haw Pickles. This picture really makes us smile!

12 Hours Mesa Verde Sunset

No camping trip is complete without a Fireball!

Before heading to bed, The Crested Butte crew tucked us all in with one of their infamous Fire Balls. A big thanks to the event organizers, and the warm welcome from all the racers. See all you crazies at the Growler!

Yee-Haw Pickle Company is currently in over-drive. We are in the process of rolling out new packaging, including new labels and logo and what’s even more exciting is our product launch in all Rocky Mountain Whole Foods stores later this month.

But what we are most excited about it is our promo-tour that starts May 12 in Cortez, CO. We will be hitting the road in a solar-powered trailer supporting a series of mountain bike events throughout the season in UT and CO.

Lemans start at the 24 Hours of Moab. Yee-haw!

Riders can stop by Yee-Haw Pickle Shacks to fuel up on electrolyte-rich pickle brine shots, fuel up on some spears and we’ll even be whipping up our famous Steezy Bee grilled cheese sammies. And if you’re racing, pedal hard because Yee-Haw Pickles will be part of the winnings.

Our event schedule is as follows, so stop by and say “hi” (we’ll have all kinds of cool Yee-Haw Swag go give away too!):

12 Hours Mesa Verde

The Growler

MSC’s Riverside Rampage  (tentative)

Park City Point 2 Point

24 Hours of Moab

We think this sign is missing something, don't you?

Yee-haw (adv.) an expression of enthusiasm or exuberance typically accompanied by lots of hooting and hollering at whatever is causing the excitement ie: deep powder days, fast single-track, the view from a mountain peak, hearing your favorite song or snacking on your favorite pickle.

These are some of the things (snow!) that get the Yee-Haw Pickle crew fired up in the winter months. What about you? What makes you holler “Yee-Haw!”?

Yee-Haw Pickles made it onto the shelves of two Utah Whole Foods Stores this past month and marks a huge milestone for us. Getting our pickles into Whole Foods has been our goal since we first started dreaming up the Yee-Haw Pickle Company. We first spoke with Whole Foods in April, 2011 and just 8 months later (8 long, grueling, tiring, exciting, crazy, and fun months mind you) our pickles are debuting in Whole Foods Trolley Square and Whole Foods Park City. And we are super stoked!

Getting our product into the stores sometimes involves re-setting shelves at 5AM, product deliveries and lots of in-store demos to introduce folks to our small-bacth pickles. We’ve snapped some photos along the way:

Early morning pickle delivery

Stocking shelves at 5am (no food shopping going on here)

Something's missing here...

That's better...oh wait! Already sold out of Hot Damn Dills. Yee-Haw!

2 stores down...some 100 more to go!

One of the coolest things about being in the local food scene is that we are surrounded by amazing local, artisan food producers and we get to sample tons of tasty products.  If you have any foodies on your holiday gift list, consider treats from some of our favorite local food producers:

The Chocolate Conspiracy

Owner A.J. Wentworth is serious about chocolate. He creates works of art out of raw chocolate and unique, healthy ingredients like Goji Berry and Maca. Any other chocolate pales in comparison now that are taste buds have been introduced to the Chocolate Conspiracy.

Learn more about A.J. and why he considers himself a “self-proclaimed chocolate alchemist” here: 

Knight Family Honey

We use Knight Family Honey in our Honey Bee and Steezy Beez Stackers because it is a local, family honey business and the owners love what they do. This love comes through in their products. You can’t go wrong with a tub of their honey butter or a bottle of their Pumpkin Alfalfa Blossom Honey.

Butchers Bunches

Liz makes the most delicious, sugar-free jams you could possibly imagine. She uses locally grown heirloom fruit and mixes in unique flavors like Amano chocolate, Grand Marnier,  Amaretto and vanilla beans just to name a few. My personal favorite is Dirty Diana made with Tart Montmorency cherries soaked in Captain Jack’s Passion Fruit Rum. Heaven on vanilla ice cream!

This is just a sampling of some of the tremendous food products being created in Utah. We will feature more throughout the holiday season.

Do you have a favorite local food product? We’d love to hear about it!

The holiday season is fast approaching and we are busy getting ready for holiday gift shows and packing and sending out cases of pickles for holiday gift giving. We are so busy in fact, that we needed to hire some holiday help. Meet Gracie, the YHPC’s newest holiday helper:

Gracie looks a little tired, but that is because she has been staying up late helping with product photo shoots, stuffing gift bags and stamping gift tags. All this work is in preparation for the Salt Lake Family Christmas Gift Show this weekend, November 11 – 13 at the South Towne Expo Center:

http://www.familychristmasgiftshow.com/

Come visit us in the Specialty Foods area and get your holiday shopping done early. We will have special prices on cases and will be offering gift wrap on our “Two-Packs”. And if you’re not in the Salt Lake area, be sure to visit our products page where we now have a Sample Pack and a “Two-Pack” available for shipping.

Thanks for checking in. Stay warm out there!

Best Served Chilled