Try cross-country skiing at Alturas Lake; double it up by staying at Smiley Creek Lodge

Beautiful backdrop for xc skiing! The trails are groomed for classic and skate skiing.
(photo courtesy Galena Lodge) 

The ski trails are dog friendly. Courtesy the Idaho Statesman 

The Alturas Lake trails are kid-friendly, too. Courtesy The Elephants Perch in Ketchum 

Hi all,

I've always wanted to go skate skiing on the trails by Alturas Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains, and I had an opportunity to swing by there today on my home from Salmon.

I had planned to alpine ski at Lost Trail Pass, north of Salmon, this morning, but it was minus-25 degrees in town, and they decided to close the ski area until it warms up. Several ski areas were closed in Western Montana today as well because of severe cold in the minus-30 to minus-40 range. Yikes!

Anyway, it got down to only minus-15 in Stanley this morning, so it was much more balmy than Salmon. But it was still below zero when I went skate skiing today, which meant for slower going (not much glide on cold snow), and I really had to bundle up -- like with more clothes on than I've ever worn for skate skiing. And I needed every stitch of it (including a neck gator). But it's supposed to warm up nicely this weekend, with temperatures in the high 20s on Saturday and 30 on Sunday.

BRCD ski map of Alturas Lake Trails. (click to enlarge)

I recommend touring the Alturas Lake Ski Trails as part of an overnight trip to Smiley Creek Lodge, a friendly place with hearty and wholesome food, and reasonably priced lodging and cabins. They have rooms available in the coming weekends. Lodge rooms are $100/night, with several beds for groups of friends or families. Their cabins rent for $60/night.

You could cross-country ski at Alturas Lake on one day, and then ski Galena Lodge the next. The big allure at Alturas Lake is the jaw-dropping scenary afforded by the Sawtooth Mountains. I couldn't see the peaks today because of light snow and low clouds, but you can pick a time to go when you've got a fair-weather weekend and sunny skies for the maximum views and enjoyment.

The Alturas Lake trail system features a 6.5-kilometer xc ski trail from Highway 75 to Alturas Lake, and then several 2.5-kilometer loops that peel off to the north of the main trail. All of the trails are rated beginner and intermediate. The main trail to the lake has lots of ups and downs through the pines. Very scenic and beautiful. Dogs are allowed on all of the Alturas Lake Trails.

How to get there: Take Idaho 75 north of Stanley approximately 20 miles to a signed, vehicle pullout on the west side of the highway for the Alturas Lake trails system. There is a porta potty at the trailhead.

Thanks to the Blaine County Recreation District for grooming and maintaining the trails. The BCRD provides signs at all of the key junctions to help you navigate your adventure. Trail passes are available from nearby outdoor retailers and at Galena Lodge. Daily passes cost $15 for adults; and $5 for dogs.

If you decided to double-up and explore the xc trails on the Ketchum side of Galena Summit for Day 2, stop at Galena Lodge for information on the vast ski trail system at Galena, the Harriman Trail, Prairie Creek Trails, and much more. It's all world-class xc skiing. And it's all great for skate skiing or xc skiing.

BTW ... there is a free skate-skiing clinic in Stanley on Saturday being offered by the Sawtooth Society. They're gathering at the Park Creek trailhead, seven miles west of Stanley. Beginner lessons from 10 to noon, and a clinic for intermediate and advanced skiers runs from 1-3 p.m. Rentals on hand for $10. For more information, contact kelly@sawtoothsociety.org.

---------------------------------
Cool to see the Statesman do a feature about Fat Bikes in McCall. Thought I'd share the link to that story, if you haven't seen it. Here's a link to my blog and video on Fat Biking that appeared a couple of weeks ago. I want one of those cool bikes!

Steve talks about his outdoor tips with Ken Bass and Misty Taylor on The River 94.9 FM Friday mornings at approximately 7:30 a.m. Go to stevestuebner.com to find information about Steve's outdoor guidebooks and other resources.  

Head for high country to find snow; plan a road trip to go skiing in Sun Valley or Grand Targhee

Skate skiing at Galena is perfect right now ... they never got any rain. Yay! 

Galena Lodge as of Sunday. They have snow in spades! (Courtesy Galena Lodge)

Grand Targhee ... dig it! 

Hi all,


The weekly outdoor tips are back from yours truly.

Winter is getting a slow start because of the warm weather and rain we've had in the lower elevations, but above 6,500-foot elevation, there is quite a bit of snow accumulating.

"Tell them to head to the high country," says Ron Abramovich, snow survey supervisor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. "Snow starts accumulating around 6,500 feet in the Boise Basin, and it gets deep fast as you increase in elevation. Trinity and Atlanta Summit SNOTEL sites have about 50 inches of snow on the ground. In the Payette basin, the Deadwood site has the most snow in the state with 83 inches of snow on the ground."

Wow! It'd be nice to have a snowmobile or your own personal snowcat to reach those spots ...

If you'd like to go play in the snow this weekend, here's what I'd recommend:

• For cross-country skiing, head for Galena Lodge, north of Sun Valley. They've got more than 48 inches by the parking lot, and lots of kilometers open for Nordic skiing. There's a FREE demo day going on Saturday, and a race Sunday. Trail passes cost $10 Saturday, and kids under 12 ski or snowshoe for free. "We've got so much snow it's ridiculous," said David, who answered the phone this afternoon. Note the picture above! Their conditions are stellar.  
• For snowshoeing, Galena Lodge would be great, or if you're heading for Cascade or McCall, you could try Big Creek Summit on the way to Warm Lake or drive up Lick Creek Road until you run into snow and make your own adventure. Leo Hennessy is leading an Idaho Outdoors trip at Big Creek Summit on Saturday. See the Idaho Outdoors Yahoo Group to learn how to sign up. 
• Another possibility for xc skiing and snowshoeing would be the Harriman Trail, north of Ketchum and Sun Valley. The Harriman trail is reportedly open from the Sawtooth NRA to Galena Lodge. That's an easy-going trail that winds along the Big Wood River. Great place to go. 
• For downhill skiing, the best bets right now appear to be at Sun Valley and Grand Targhee. We're talking road trip! I saw a great video of people power skiing at Sun Valley last weekend that made me really jealous. Look for stay-and-play deals at Sun Valley to save money. I saw one package for $79.50 per person (lift ticket and lodging). See more here.
• At Grand Targhee, which is reporting a 57-inch base right now, you can book 4 nights lodging and ski free. More details here. Grand Targhee and Sun Valley are probably going to be VERY POPULAR at Christmas time.   
• Just so you know ... there isn't much snow yet at Mores Creek Summit. Just 6 inches. And the Idaho City Park n' Ski Areas need more snow, too. Leo said there isn't even enough snow yet to ski or snowshoe on the roads! 

There you have it! If you're wondering what's happening with yurt rentals in the Idaho City Park n' Ski Areas, tune in next week, I'll have more information then.

If you're stuck in town, the Ridge to Rivers Trails have been drying out after the rainstorms, and the trails that are most sandy are best to rely on. Be sure to check on the Ridge to Rivers web site to check on the current trail report.

Have fun!
- SS

Travel to the snow & enjoy free cross-country ski day this weekend in the Idaho sunshine...

Head for the snow near Idaho City, McCall or Ketchum/Sun Valley

to enjoy free cross-country ski day this weekend

Hi all,

Well, I put up a Facebook post yesterday, asking people how they're coping with little to no snow, and what they're doing instead, and I got a bunch of funny responses ... One guy said he's going diving in Cozumel, an island off the Caribbean coast of Mexico (jealous!), other folks said they're hiking and mountain biking but getting "impatient" with the wacky weather, others are snow-biking, road biking, doing rehab, cleaning the house -- all kinds of stuff.

It's one of those winters so far where you can do practically anything except ski/ride at our local hill ... hang in there Bogus!

On Saturday, it's supposed to be pretty warm and sunny, so you might as well take advantage of free cross-country ski day at the Idaho City Park 'n Ski Areas, Ponderosa Park in McCall or Galena Lodge north of Ketchum/Sun Valley. On Sunday, all of the Blaine County Recreation District cross-country ski trails are open free of charge, and at Galena Lodge, they're offering free lessons with free equipment in the afternoon. An intro to skate skiing will be offered at 1 p.m., and an intro to traditional kick-and-glide cross-country skiing (known as "classic") will be at 2:30 p.m. Call 208-726-4010 to register. More than 30 kilometers of xc skiing are open in the Wood River Valley ... the area received more than 2 feet of snow last week.

On Saturday, all of the Idaho City Park 'n Ski Area parking lots are open at no charge. Leo Hennessy says there is 18 inches of snow at the xc ski areas, and most of the trails were groomed on Tuesday. "It should be a fun weekend," he said. "People don't think we have snow, but we do have snow."

The objective of the free xc ski day is to get more people to try the sport of cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. To that end, there will be free beginning snowshoe classes at the Whoop-Um-Up parking site at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (email Judy Ditto: judy.ditto@idpr.idaho.gov to sign up). And there will be an intermediate and advanced snowshoe class from the Beaver Creek Summit trailhead/parking area. Call Leo at 208-866-6471 to sign up for either one of those classes. You will need to bring your own equipment for the classes. Rentals are available at Idaho Mountain Touring and REI.

Hennessy recommends the Gold Fork area as a good place to cross-country ski on Saturday. There is a nice loop to the Whispering Pines yurt, where free hot chocolate will be served. You also could snowshoe to Whispering Pines.

At Ponderosa Park, free lessons and equipment for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing will be available from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Gravity Sports and Hometown Sports are providing ski equipment, and McCall Parks and Recreation officials are teaching the lessons. Snowshoe lessons and tours are being provided by the McCall Outdoor Science School. For more information, call 208-634-2164.

Bear Basin is not participating in free xc ski day, but trail manager Ed Roper reports that they will be grooming the trail system late Saturday afternoon to provide freshly groomed trails for moonlight skiing Saturday night. Show up around 7ish to sample the trails under a super-big moon. Monday is the official full moon.

If you want to go downhill skiing, Brundage Mountain just announced a new discounted lift ticket special for people who have a Bogus Basin Season Pass. Brundage is discounting daily lift fees by $30 for Bogus pass holders Monday - Thursday, so it would be $25 instead of $55 for adults, and $20 discounts on Fridays and weekends ... $35 instead of $55 for adults.

Tamarack Resort and Sun Valley have solid conditions with plenty of man-made snow to augment natural snow. I've heard good things about the skiing at Anthony Lakes near North Powder, Ore., too. (They're open Thursday-Sunday)

Next week, the new 30-day weather forecasts come out, so we'll have a better picture of what's in store for the next month. The National Weather Service was way off target on the existing 30-day forecast, which called for wetter than normal conditions. High pressure continues to dominate and no significant precipitation is in the forecast for the next week to 10 days. How many times have you heard that lately? Geez!

(end)

Steve shares his weekly outdoor tips with Ken and Tim on 94.9 FM The River each Friday morning in Boise at approximately 7:10 a.m. If you miss the program, you can hear the segments on River Interactive.com. Detailed descriptions and color maps of Steve's hikes, bike rides and paddling trips are available for 99 cents each at www.stevestuebner.com, plus the full ebooks and hard-copy guidebooks.

Galena Lodge has something for everyone

Marianne Nelson, Carolyn Volk and Wendy Wilson on Mushroom Ridge

Steve with the birthday girl

The honored guest, Marianne Nelson

Packing stuff into the yurt via backpack and sled

Hi all,

A friend of mine invited a group of friends to the Galena Lodge yurts recently for her 50th birthday. Our group was big enough to fill two yurts. It was a blast.

What's a bit different about the Galena yurts is that they're a short climb (less than a mile) up to a ridge overlooking the 50K Nordic trail system and the surrounding mountains near Galena Lodge. Many other yurts in SW Idaho require a longer climb to get into the backcountry, and they're more oriented toward backcountry skiing.

So the yurts are very conveniently located immediately adjacent to the Nordic trails. That's pretty neat. I love to skate ski, and I was able to combine a day of backcountry skiing and skate skiing in a single day.

Galena has a great variety of cross-country and snowshoe trails on site. It's also the trailhead for the Harriman Trail, which runs down-valley for 30Ks to the Sawtooth National Recreation Area office trailhead, the route for the Boulder Mountain Tour. So it's pretty much ground zero for the Nordic enthusiast.

It's also extremely close to Galena Pass, where oodles of backcountry ski routes await. Our group loved to do backcountry and Nordic, so we got our fill of both.

I packed in my ihome battery-powered unit, so we had great tunes for Marianne Nelson's 50th birthday party night. The close proximity to the Galena Lodge parking lot allowed us to pack in multiple loads for the party festivities, plus I packed in our skate skis so we could jump on the Nordic track right outside the front door of the Star Perch yurt.

The yurts at Galena Lodge cost $145/night, and they sleep 8 people. That's $18/person. The Galena yurts are typically more available on a short-term basis than the huts/yurts in the Smoky Mountains, Sawtooth Mountains, Pioneer Mountains and in the Idaho City Park 'n Ski Areas. So give it a try.

Galena Lodge itself has hot drinks and food after your ski experience. It's a great place to warm up or rest. The lodge also can be rented for special events and private dinners.

Cautionary note: If you plan on skiing at Galena Pass, each skier should be sure to bring an avalanche beacon, shovel and probe. The avalanche danger has been extreme in the Sawtooth area, so be sure to check the latest avalanche report.

So anyway, to me, a weekend trip to Galena Lodge is a must-do experience every winter. Check on yurt availability for the rest of this season, and give it a try.

-- SS