Summer vacation is on the wane! Two weekends left before school starts!

Steve backpacking in the Red Mountain Lakes area.

Hi all,

Sad but true, summer vacation is on the wane! There are only two weekends left before Boise Schools start up on Monday, Aug. 19. How have you done on your summer outdoor punch list?

Taking a look back at my many recommendations for summer, let's review your options for what to do!  

1. Float a river (day trip) - we're blessed with so many options here, but have you floated the Boise River? How about the Payette River -- there's the Main Payette, South Fork Payette or Cabarton run on the North Fork. Check with Cascade Raft, Idaho Whitewater Unlimited, Bear Valley or the Payette River Company about guided trips. The Payette's calmer sections are great for stand-up paddle boarding (SUP), sit-on-top kayaking and canoeing.

Float a river! This is on the Cabarton stretch of the Payette River. 

2. Climb a mountain - The pinnacle is to climb Mount Borah, but there are so many other options in Idaho, with dozens of peaks over 10,000 feet and 8 peaks over 12,000 feet. See Idaho mountain expert Tom Lopez's list of recommended mountain peaks. McCall mountain expert John Platt also has an extensive list of peaks and mountains that he's climbed.

3. Ride the ski lift to the top of Bogus Basin, Brundage Mountain or Sun Valley and go hiking or biking from there. Bogus is going to give away a free season pass to whoever is the 100,000th person to ride the mountain coaster this weekend. Sounds like a reason to go! Brundage recently opened a new intermediate-level mountain bike trail. They've also got Emily Tipton playing Friday night as part of the TGIF concert series and a Caribbean dinner planned. Hope the Netheker fire burning near Burgdorf doesn't create a lot of smoke! #prayforburgdorf!

4. Take your kids fishing - See the list of Idaho Fish and Game's Family Fishing Waters to find some great recommendations close to home.

Go hiking in the Sawtooths (photo courtesy Michael Lanza/The Big Outside)

5. Go backpacking in the Sawtooths, White Clouds, Pioneers or Big Lost Mountain Range. See Michael Lanza's recommended hikes in the Sawtooths in his blog, the Big Outside. See a recommended major loop in the White Clouds in Backpacker mag. For a great hike in the Pioneers, see my blog post about hiking Broad Canyon. For the Big Lost range, see this overview in Summit Post.com. 

6. Sleep under the stars in a dark sky venue like Bear Valley, the Owyhee Canyonlands or outside of Stanley.

Catch a trout on the Middle Fork Salmon River. 

7. Fly into the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and go fly-fishing for native cutthroat trout. Air taxi services in Boise, Cascade or McCall can take you into the Middle Fork in less than an hour. All fishing is catch and release.

8. Go mountain biking on a classic loop trail like Fisher-Williams in the White Clouds, Loon Lake north of McCall or Around the Mountain at Bogus Basin. 

Climbing up a short hill to finish the Fisher-Williams Loop (courtesy Salsa cycles)

9. Go SUP'ing, boating or swimming in a refreshing, natural Idaho mountain lake like Payette Lake, Redfish Lake, or Priest Lake.

10. Go see an outdoor concert! See a summer roundup in the Idaho Statesman for a full rundown of outdoor concerts planned in the summer of 2019.

For further enrichment on Idaho bucket list trips, see an Idaho bucket list post from Boise State radio, and a post that I did listing another 30 bucket list trips that they didn't cover.
- SS

What does your Idaho bucket list look like? Try Boise State Public Radio's Idaho 75 for starters

Hi all,

I ran across this great blog by Emilie Ritter Saunders this week on the Boise State Public Radio web site. It talked about how Idaho is huge, topsy turvy, quirky and wonderful, and in the spirit of looking ahead to great trips in 2014, they came up with an Idaho 75 bucket list. It's got a lot of outdoorsy things in it, and some foodie things, too, so I thought it'd share it with you.

I went through the list, and checked off the items that I've done. Out of the 75, I checked off 57 items that I've done once or multiple times. But their list got me thinking of other things I'd add to the list, and I bet you've got some other things you'd add, too. Consider it a creative incentive to do some trip-planning!

Before I show you the list, I wanted to remind folks of two things you should do before the end of January:

1. River trips! Pick dates for spring/summer river trips and get your applications submitted by Jan. 31. This is for getting permits to float the Main Salmon, Middle Fork Salmon, Selway River and Hells Canyon of the Snake. Go to recreation.gov to apply to reserve trip dates. 
2. Make reservations for your favorite camp site, cabin or fire lookout before they all get taken. Go to recreation.gov to reserve federal camp sites, cabins and lookouts. Go to the Idaho State Parks web site to reserve their camp sites, cabins or yurts.   

Now, here's Boise State Public Radio's Idaho Bucket List: 

The 75 Things All Idahoans Should Try (At Least Once):

Taft Tunnel on the Route of the Hiawatha. Big, long, dark tunnel - quite unique.  

75. Bike the Hiawatha Trail.

74. Have a picnic at Shoshone Falls on the Snake River near Twin Falls.

73. Swim in Idaho’s deepest lake, Pend Oreille. It's measured at 1,170 feet and is one of North America’s deepest lakes.

72. Stand directly under the Idaho Capitol dome and snap a photo.

71. Pick fruit at an Emmett orchard.

Please visit the Boise State Public Radio web site to see the rest of their list ...

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After pondering the Boise State Radio bucket list for a moment, tell me what you would add? What are the truly special things about Idaho's outdoors that you'd add to the list? 

Here are a few that came immediately to my mind ... 

1. Camp under the stars in the Owyhee Canyonlands - miles upon miles away from any artificial light. It is absolutely amazing.

2. Eat a piece of pie a la mode at Manley's Cafe. Sorry, they closed a long time ago, but the food portions there were truly legendary. Pure decadence. 

Mesa Falls 

3. Visit Mesa Falls on the Henrys Fork. The water plunges more than 110 feet. 

4. Find your own private Idaho at a natural hot springs in your birthday suit.

5. Go hut-to-hut skiing or snowshoeing. A group of lively friends in a mountain-top yurt can be one heck of a fun party. 

6. Ski in a torchlight parade. 

7. Ride a century on a road bike. Lots of options in Idaho for a gorgeous tour.  

8. Ride from Boise to Garden Valley on a mountain bike. 

9. Catch a wild steelhead on the Salmon, Clearwater or Snake river. 

10. Walk the length of the Sawtooth Range.

11. Walk across the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. 

Roger Williams and Syd Tate on the Idaho Centennial Trail, Bruneau desert 

12. Hike the length of Idaho on the Idaho Centennial Trail or do it with a mix of different modes of travel ... whatever you like to do! 

13. Climb Borah, Idaho's highest peak. 

14. Hike to the summit of all nine 12,000-foot peaks in Idaho. 

15. Try to bag 50 10,000-footers in Idaho - several people have done it. 

16. Kayak or raft the Middle Fork, Selway or Hells Canyon  

17. Do multiple outdoor activities in a single spring day - Ski, kayak, tennis, fly fishing, golf, etc.

18. Visit the Bruneau River Overlook. 

Bruneau River canyon 

19. Float the Jarbidge/Bruneau River. 

20. Ski the Boulder Mountain Tour - 30K from Galena Lodge to Sawtooth NRA headquarters. 

21. Fly over the sea of mountains (the Sawtooths and "the Frank" in Central Idaho) in a Cessna at 11,000 feet.

22. Float the Owyhee River. 

23. Experience the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. 

24. Ride the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.

25. Do an epic mountain bike ride in the White Cloud Mountains.

26. Ski Baldy top to bottom non-stop. 

27. Go cat skiing at Brundage.

28. Go backcountry skiing by Mores Creek Summit and carve up fields of luscious powder all day long.

29. Experience the Lewis & Clark Trail on the Lolo Motorway #500 road.  

30. Go morel hunting in McCall and eat fresh morels on a rib eye steak for dinner. 

What else? Tell me about your list! 

- SS