President’s Message:

It is cooling down as the warm fall weather makes its exit to be replaced with cool weather and rain. Already the high mountain tops have been dusted once with an early snowfall. Many of us have put aside the hiking boots and are rummaging through the closets for the ski and snowshoe gear.

To bring you up to date, we completed a summer of hikes that ranged from the low hills around Fish Lake west of Spokane into peaks of the Selkirk Mountains in late August and September. Along the way were some bike and canoe trips. A few of us finished up with two hikes in British Columbia’s Kokanee Glacier Park, revisiting the Slocan Chief Cabin and climbing towards the Silver Spray Chalet.

Meanwhile work has been underway at the Fourth of July area. A new bridge has been installed on the snowshoe trail and another will soon be in place. On Saturday, October 13th a large number of members participated in the annual work day. The snowshoe trail was cleared, logs were cleared from trails and cut for firewood, wet areas were drained and filled in the roads, the Loose Moose and Spencer’s Ss trails were cleared of branches, the bench was stained at the warming hut and a landing was cleared for more equipment at the snow machine shed. It was a successful work day accomplishing many of the tasks on Skip and Van’s long list.

It is time to look forward to the early season events. The Spokane Mountain Ski Patrol Ski Swap will occur Saturday, October 26th at the Spokane County Fairgrounds off Broadway. A week later, November 3rd, the Lookout and Silver Mountain Ski Patrol Swap will be held at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, while Fitness Fanatics will have its sale - Swap the same day at its store on Trent Avenue in the Spokane Valley.

These are great opportunities to find bargains on ski and snowshoe equipment of all kinds and, if you have kids, to re-outfit them as they grow without going broke. The lines can be long, but typically, there is not a rush for cross-country and snowshoe gear like there is for downhill ski gear. So unless shopping is your contact sport, take your time and show up mid-morning to noon for the ski swaps. It is a better policy to hit Fitness Fanatics early for the bargains on unused gear.

The initial meeting of the Panhandle Nordic Ski and Snowshoe Club will be held, Tuesday, November 6th at 7:00 PM at the Fernan Ranger Station at the east end of Sherman Avenue.

For those of you new to the club, drive around in back of the building, enter the fenced parking area, take the steps down to the lower level and enter by the downstairs door. You will find us in the conference room to your left. We should have 2007-2008 Park & Ski passes for sale. Some trip planning will likely already be starting. After short business meeting consisting of reports of officers and committee heads, the monthly program will begin. The program is a cross-country ski film, which should fire us all up for the winter season and have us delivering snow chants to the passing clouds.

Goeff Harvey

Webmaster's Note: Regarding email. For those of of your who are not getting email I am adding a new system.

Those of you who are getting email do not need to do anything.

If you know someone who isn't getting email have them go to the Members' Email section. - The new form will be there by October 20.

(The above President's Message is being sent out the evening of October 18. It will have October-November News as the Subject. If you didn't receive it, you are not getting email).

Hilma