Head for high country for best snow or try Eagle Greenbelt loop; plus, book-signing

Mark Lisk and I are having a book-signing event
at Lisk Gallery on Thursday, Dec. 11. See more
details below. 

Tom Hadzor of Wide Eye Productions also
will participate in our book-signing event.
If you like fishing, you'll love this movie. 

Hi all,

It's December, so it's time to crank up the outdoor tips for the winter season.

Did someone say, Winter? Yes, it's winter in parts of Idaho, but down here in the Boise Valley, it's been a pretty yucky combination of rain, inversion and gray days. Anyone tired of that yet?

If you'd like to find some good snow to play in this weekend, I'd recommend going for a ski or snowshoe tour at Mores Creek Summit near Idaho City. According to the Mores Creek snowtel site, there are 22 inches of snow at the parking lot, and more at higher elevations on Pilot Peak or Sunset Mountain. Temperatures were in the mid-30s today.

The Idaho City Park n' Ski Areas have about 18 inches of snow. The IDPR groomer is beginning to groom the trails for xc skiing, according to Leo Hennessy with Idaho Parks and Recreation. It'll be early-season conditions, but at least you can get out and play in the snow.

Better yet, if you don't mind driving over to the Sun Valley area, Galena Lodge has great conditions for xc skiing and snowshoeing with 50 kilometers of ski trails open right now, and 25 K's of snowshoe trails. Basically, the whole trail system is open.

"We have been so lucky to get over 2 feet of snow in the last week or so," says Erin Zell of Galena Lodge. "The conditions are fantastic. Some trails are still a little soft since they have just been groomed for the first time this week, but it is skiing like the middle of January right now!!"

The downhill skiing at Grand Targhee has been pretty solid, I hear from some friends of mine who skied there four days this week. There is a 38-inch base with 4 of 5 lifts operating. They have some great early-season lodging deals -- lodging and lift ticket for $65 per person.  

Eagle Greenbelt Loop - Try it, you'll like it. 

If you'd like to do an outing close to home this weekend, consider hiking, biking or running a loop on the Eagle Greenbelt, west of Glenwood. Now that the blockade has been removed on the south side of the Boise River, it's possible to do a complete loop on both sides of the river on the Eagle Greenbelt. You can start and finish by Bardenay near Eagle Road or by the Greenbelt parking area on Glenwood near Hawks Stadium. The full loop is about 10 miles. Mountain bikes would be best for biking because portions of the Eagle Greenbelt pathway have a dirt or gravel surface. Bikes will need to follow the bypass route around the Riverside walking pathway on the north side of the river.

Next week, on Thursday, Dec. 11, I'm teaming up with Mark Lisk of Lisk Studio, Tom Hadzor of Wide Eye Productions, and Three Rivers Ranch to host a book- and movie-signing party at Lisk Studio in Boise. The location is 518 Americana. Party starts at 5:30 p.m. and runs to 8 p.m.

Mark and I just reprinted our Owyhee Canyonlands guidebook after selling out our first print run of 2,000 books in one year. Last Christmas, the Owyhee Canyonlands books were flying off the shelf, and we hope our loyal readers will steer their friends and families to the book-signing event so they can buy the popular book for Christmas gifts.

To sweeten the deal, we're going to offer our Owyhee Canyonlands books at a discounted price of $15. That's about 25% off the retail price of $19.95. I will have all of my other guidebooks at the event, and I'll offer them at a discounted price as well.  

Hadzor will be selling Wide Eye's brand new hour-long fishing movie, The Rocky Mountain Fly Highway. Three Rivers Ranch opened a fly fishing shop in Eagle recently, and they'll be at our event with some fishing-related gifts. 

I watched the movie premier of The Rocky Mountain Fly Highway on KTVB-TV Channel 7 last night, and it was absolutely spellbinding with spectacular fly fishing footage of all of your favorite fishing rivers, from the Yellowstone to the Henrys Fork, South Fork Snake, Silver Creek, South Fork Boise, Owyhee River and more. It would be a great Christmas gift. The movie retails for $19.95, and for this event, Wide Eye will sell it for $14.99.

We'll serve free appetizers and beer and wine at the event. Come party with us and pick up some great gifts for your friends and family. Hope to see you there!

-SS