In the mid-70s, there was this wife/husband act called The Captain & Tennille, known for a couple of big hits that were all over AM radio. (Anyone old enough to recall the cringe-inducing “Muskrat Love”?) I’m not clear on how the original connection was made but for a number of years Bart Cranney packed Toni Tennille into the backcrountry, along with a rotating cast of female friends that included several, needless to say, extremely attractive L.A. Dodgers’ wives. Toni was a real outdoors-person (not so, her keyboard-playing husband) and, from all appearances, the Dodger-wives were outdoorsy as well. They called their all-girl outings “W.I.T.S. trips” (for Women In The Sierra). Bart would put them up in one of his big-tent basecamps, feed them hearty meals, and the ladies would go off together on long dayhikes. In full make-up, of course. ◦◦◦◦◦ My first few seasons at Piute I’d usually get invited down for supper when Toni was around. At that time, Bart’s camp was located just a half mile down the trail from the cabin. There was always music—live, mountain music—great food, libations, and laughter. Toni and her friends sang: wonderful four part harmony vocals they’d obviously rehearsed; pure magic around a cracklin’ campfire. Sadly, by 1988 or ‘89 the West Walker W.I.T.S. trips came to an end. Toni and friends had visited all the lakes and climbed all the peaks and decided it was time to move on to greener meadows. I ran into Toni again several years later, I forget where, backpacking with a different set of friends—all of them sharp dressed and fully made up, everyone stoked to be in the mountains. By this time, I believe the Captain & Tennille were more or less relegated to the Nevada casino circuit. But T.T. was a class act; completely down to earth. Fun. BIG personality She filled a room—even outdoors.
4 Oct (Wed) Leafing through Jim Kohman’s log from 1987, yesterday, I read: “Had dinner in Bart’s camp with Sandy and Ann Koufax.” I knew Bart packed Toni Tennille and her Dodger-wives friends up here (I had dinner with them several times, starting in ‘83) but didn’t know he packed actual Dodgers! I’ve read each of Jim’s logs a couple times now but somehow missed this nugget, or plum forgot. Sandy Koufax was one of the sports legends of my youth, back when the Los Angeles Dodgers were at the top of the heap and, to this day, Koufax is considered one of baseball’s all-time great pitchers. Got a real kick outa knowing that Sandy…friggin’…Koufax! hung out in Bart’s basecamp only a half mile from here. He must have been fishing and I’d imagine he strolled up to see the meadow at least once but Jim makes no mention of any visit to the cabin in his log. (Jim is a big Giants fan so maybe wasn’t quite as thrilled as I would’ve been.) ◦◦◦◦◦
©2022 Tim Forsell 25 Mar 2022, 27 Jul 26
