BCHW GATHERINGS AND awards were not on his mind, as the longtime Peninsula Chapter member concentrated on doing whatever he could to care for his wife as she dealt with the initial pain and swelling in her leg after knee replacement surgery.

“I was stunned,” said Larry Baysinger upon hearing he was receiving the prestigious President’s Diamond Award at the annual Back Country Horseman of Washington’s rendezvous in Ellensburg.

Held March 14-16, BCHW President Dana Chambers said she gave him the award for his years of dedication, passion and commitment to the organization’s mission statement — its main focus is keeping public lands open to recreational stock use.

Unlike other BCHW awards, to which a member is nominated by other members, and the winning recipient is chosen by a committee, the BCHW president alone chooses who will receive the prestigious award.

Chambers explained why she chose Baysinger, and listed many of his outstanding accomplishments on behalf of the BCHW. Space limitations don’t allow me to list even a third of them. Just know he has logged countless hours with the BCH, clearing trails, using his pack stock to deliver supplies to ranger stations and work projects, evacuated injured and/or ill hikers, hauled out trash, helped to build bridges and oversaw numerous trail work crews — all while ensuring everything got done to USFS specifications and regulations.

Baysinger is one highly dedicated man to the cause: In 2008, he received the BCHW Lopper Award for his outstanding work; in 2017, the BCHW Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his many years of commitment and mentoring, working closely with Olympic National Park and forest rangers’ projects and for his lifetime of dedication to BCHW’s mission statement.

During the ceremony, his wife Sherry Baysinger sat with their two sons, Scott and Jeff, their wives and grandkids. She said they were all “elated to see the entire room of members rise to their feet to gave Larry a standing ovation.”

“We all felt so proud to see him receive that award,” Sherry said. “It was evident that everyone attending the ceremony knew he’d earned that award, because he’s such a hard worker. We got so many cheerful hugs from longtime friends and trail coworkers — it was an experience of a lifetime.”

Ironically, after years of attending the rendezvous, she said they hadn’t planned on attending this year due to her complete knee replacement surgery in early February.

“After my surgery, he stopped working on his projects to spend time caring for me 24-7; just being close to me, cooking all the meals, driving me to my therapy and keeping me company,” Sherry said.

She had to convinced Larry she was up to the trip and could handle the extra stress it would put on her body and knee (which was still in the critical early healing stage.) She said Larry loves to problem-solve; the more complicated the project, the better, and the more determined he is to finish it.

True to form, he set about finding ways to make their camper and the long drive in their truck more comfortable; he even removed the front seat of their pickup so she could sit comfortably in the back and have a fat cowboy sleeping bag under her legs.

“Recently I have been amazed at how patient he is with having me so crippled up and not able to help as much,” she said. “We still have our head-butting moments, but not very often.”

As they had no reservations for a table or food for the Saturday night dinner and awards ceremony, son Scott called Chambers to see what he and his brother could do to arrange for the family to have a table.

“She welcomed our entire family to sit with her, her husband, the vice president and his wife at their tables,” Sherry said with gratitude. “You know, we all get by with a little help from our friends and relatives.”

Eras

The couple, now in their 80s, is going on 57 years of marriage. They met in a horsey incident by Ocean Shores on a rainy day. Sherry and her high school chum Jana Miniken had trailered out to the Pacific Ocean to ride on its shores. Riding back to their parked trailer, they came upon a few guys trying to get their car out of the wet sand. Sherry said there were wood boards scattered about that the boys had been trying to use to get the car out, yet the car wheels still looked hopelessly stuck in the boggy sand.

“Hey,” shouted a soaking-wet teenaged Larry. “Can we tie a rope from our car to your horse to pull our car out?”

Sherry said she was riding bareback, so it was up to Jana’s horse to get the job done. After pulling the car free, the two started talking and realized their shared love of horses.

Fast forward to 2025, she said their family always has been close and supportive of each other. Their home is one of the region’s oldest homesteads, Bear Creek Homestead in Sol Duc Valley.

“After 57 years together, I have never known anyone who is more motivated to work and take on large projects than my husband,” Sherry said. “He gutted our 100-year-old house from foundation to the roof and shingle siding inside and out, working nonstop until it was finished.”

The bedrooms and showers are upstairs, so prior to surgery, she said Larry, some family and friends, set up a bed for her downstairs (Larry even made a headboard for her single bed so she could sit up and lean against it to look out the window.)

Son Jeff made two trips from his home in Colton to help install a downstairs shower, which included shoring up the home’s foundation in that area, replacing some rotten wood floor and installing a new hot water heater, along with laying a concrete path to the ramp leading to their front door.

For years, the couple was active in more than one BCHW chapter, but it was after both retired in their 60s they were able to devote much more time following their true passion — operating a full-service commercial pack stock service and offering guided horseback riding tours through the forest — along with spending hours working side-by-side maintaining horse trails; logging countless hours as volunteers in the BCHW doing whatever was needed to shore up trails damaged or washed away from rain, wielding a chain saw and other tools to cut through and remove storm-downed trees and branches that block trails, thus opening them up for all to use.

BCHW members are not required to work; most members just want to enjoy the camaraderie of other horse owners. And that’s OK, because their membership money goes a long way toward helping to keep horse trails open on public lands. For more information, visit bchw.org.

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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, please email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also call her at 360-460-6299.

At the annual BCHW rendezvous, held earlier this month in Ellensburg, President Dana Chambers gave the President’s Diamond Award to Larry Baysinger in recognition of his outstanding dedication, passion and commitment to the BCHW mission.

Larry stopped all his work projects to fully concentrate on his wife of 57 years after surgery care and recovery.

Pre-surgery, son Jeff Baysinger drove from his home in Colton to install a new walk-in shower downstairs, replace the back steps and to help lay a concrete sidewalk leading to their wheelchair ramp and front door.

Sherry said her , “ Baby brother Gregg came” from Idaho to help out for 10 days after her surgery.