Newsletter for January 2007

President’s Message

December 2006 has been a wild ride. The fifteen inches of early snow that our trail groomers packed at the Fourth of July Ski Area was assaulted with rain and falling tree parts.

A windstorm blew in leaving its litter and tree falls. Van, Skip and the Forest Service crew worked their way through the fallen trees to reopen the area.

The rain followed by a week of cold set the area up like concrete, but Skip and Van were there to disc the ice into a surface that could be skied.

Mother nature shot back with a once in decades windstorm that laid low yet another crop of fallen trees and then followed it with another week of cold. Undaunted the Forest Service crew and our trail groomers cut out the fallen trees and scoured the ice into a surface more conducive to skiing.

When snow came before Christmas, they were up on the trails grooming and tracking it for the holiday, but rain again adversely affected the product of their work.

Having ridden the grooming machines at Fourth of July, I know that most skiers using the area express their appreciation as the machines drive carefully by them. Oh, the occasional paying customer complains that the trails are not perfectly groomed for their every visit.

If these few only conceived a fraction of the hard work that Van Bennett, Skip Truscott, the Forest Service crew and the other supporters put in to make the Fourth of July area operate every winter for the enjoyment of its users, they might have the wisdom to hold their tongues.

A December like December 2006 tests and proves our groomers’ dedication. If you are out on the prepared tracks as the groomers drive past, give them your thanks that they deserve from us all.

At our next meeting on Tuesday January 2nd, we will have the final planning for Free Ski day, January 6th. We plan to have the warming hut manned through the day and the fires blazing both in the hut and at the fire ring. We will make the final arrangements.

There will be trip planning and reports from the crew as well. We will start the Rock Soup Event planning for early February and the Poker Ski Event planning as well.

We have been working towards a program the Scotchman’s Peak Area of the West Cabinet Mountains, east of Sandpoint, but a larger issue came up this past month.

For several years we have nursed along the old Alpine Snow Cat that grooms the area. About five years ago we acquired a new machine, which allowed us to expand the area and create new skiing opportunities on the 905 Loop and this year out Roads 614 and 1575.

Many of you know we are working to groom an area out Road 614 for skate skiers and at least make accessible the country beyond Rose Saddle for more primitive skiing experiences. The sad fact is that the old snow cat will not support our needs and may not survive to see our goals achieved. The old girl is certainly obsolete, may be a museum piece and certainly is not going to support the type of grooming the club
members see in the future at the area.

We have a machine in mind that will do what we require. The cost is in the neighborhood of $25,000 with tax.

The answer to new equipment needs has always been developing and successfully obtaining an Idaho Parks and Recreation Grant. We set out on this course again recently, but ran into a new and major impediment along this path. The program requires a 50% match for equipment.

So how do you raise $12,500, when you are a modest sized group of folks? We have some ideas, but the collective group may have some better ideas. I would like to give over the usual program time for brain storming session on just this subject. We need your help to find a solution to this hurdle early so we can move forward as an as an an equal partner, when we apply for funds from the state. I hope you will all turn out and lend a hand. You may have the answer the club is looking for.