On Cabin Fever garb, a friend is remembered

This year’s Cabin Fever Days T-Shirts and posters will feature the late Reggie Dunkin. The affable Dunkin, who was known as the Canyon’s mountain man, died last summer. He was 65.

At the bar stool races, Dunkin was famous for his great sleds over the years, including a viking ship, a Blues Brothers police car and most famously, a Glacier Park red bus. The bus sled ended up on the roof the Packer’s Roost Bar for several years until it started to fall apart.

“He was a great man,” said Roost owner Greg Voorhees. “He’ll be remembered for his kindness. His giving spirit.”

In addition to running the bar stool races, Duncan also helped out with the mountain man competition, where people compete in a host of skills, including hatchet and knife throwing, to name a few.

Dunkin also played the part — dressing up in traditional mountain man garb — deer skin coat and pants. While he helped in the competition, he didn’t compete, Voorhees noted.

“He was too good,” he said. “Reggie would have beaten everyone.”

Dunkin lived in a cabin at Blankenship, where the North and Middle Forks of the Flathead collide.

He held several jobs over the years. Voorhees recalled that Dunkin was a substitute teacher at one point, working with autistic kids. He also helped renovate the Belton Chalet and in a 2004 interview with the Hungry Horse News, he espoused a diet of broccoli and cabbage, and one that was light on white sugar after he learned he was close to having a heart condition.

He also made beer can holders out of various woods, Voorhees recalled.

Cabin Fever Days starts this Friday and runs through Sunday in the Canyon towns of Hungry Horse, Martin City and Coram.

The bar stool races are Saturday and Sunday starting a 1 p.m. on Sugar Hill in Martin City. This year, the slope will be groomed, which should make for a faster and smoother ride, Voorhees noted.