This is the season to sit back and think about all the gifts the outdoors has provided us over the year throughout Idaho and the Northwest.
What a place to live.
Whether you’re sitting by the fireplace today opening gifts, snuggled up on the couch reading the paper, or maybe getting ready to hit the trail in celebration of the holiday, it’s kind of nice to relish the gifts of the outdoors.
KEEPING A JOURNAL
Think of your outings over the past year. I keep a journal, and it’s fun going back through it toward the end of the year. We’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 sleeping bag nights this year.
Think of all the experiences you’ve enjoyed on our public land, that precious land we want to keep public.
Look back over the times you enjoyed floating, power boating or wading our free-flowing rivers.
Picture your campouts or hikes in our state parks. Then think about how they have to be saved from slashed budgets.
And aren’t we lucky to have millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management, national forest, national park and wilderness land for future generations to enjoy?
SPECIAL PLACES
Here are some of the gifts I’ve enjoyed this year:
- Spending a few days at a backcountry yurt in the Boise Mountains enjoying the deep, deep silence you can get only in a snow-covered evergreen forest. The only sounds at night were of a crackling wood stove and the thump of snow falling off branches.
- Hitting the sagebrush steppe of Southeast Oregon at dawn on an April day, with the temperature hovering around 19 degrees, in hopes to see sage grouse dancing on their leks. These magnificent birds occupy only 56 percent of their former range and are a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. They depend on vast tracts of sagebrush. Hopefully, this icon of sagebrush country will prevail.
- Canoeing Valley Creek near Stanley in a May snowstorm. Paddling a stream that winds through brushy meadows and pasturelands is an experience.
Enjoy surprises around each bend, including barking river otters and shy sandhill cranes flying overhead. We’re lucky to have creeks like this.
- Walking a trail in the Boise Foothills and spotting a delicate woodland star, one of the earliest wildflowers and a signal of warmer weather to come.
I’m always thankful for all the work that has been done and is still going on to preserve recreation land close to town and our urban trail systems.
- Walking the banks of Bear Valley just after the snow has melted and marveling over the purplish-pink shooting stars, white mule ears and blue camas. We’re so thankful for places like the Boise National Forest.
- Driving the Stanley-Landmark Road and taking a break along the clear water of Elk Creek as it flows through vast jade-colored meadows. Again, how great is it to be able to drive for hours and hours across public land in Central Idaho.
- Beachcombing the shores of the Pacific Coast and looking for sea shells, rocks or a glimpse of a seal or otter. Oregon and Washington’s state parks are so incredible and in need of public support and funding.
- Hiking a mountain trail along the Selway River and stumbling upon a cache of huckleberries that will end up in Dutch-oven cobbler at camp. You can’t beat the joys of wilderness rivers and trails.
- Bushwhacking to a relatively unknown alpine lake in Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains, walking by bright red Indian paintbrush and having lunch by the lake’s gin-clear waters. Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains are cherished by many and are so precious to preserve.
- Streamwalking and wading along the warm late-summer waters of Mores Creek with a grandchild and looking for underwater critters, rocks or anything wild. Even small streams right along highways that we take for granted can provide a fun outdoors day and should be cared for properly.
- Hiking miles into the Sawtooth Wilderness, across meadows and through thick forests in search of dusty or spruce grouse for an exquisite wild game dinner.
I’m so thankful for all the wildlife management work done by federal and state biologists. It means lots of wildlife watching and dinner on the table.
- Hiking down Marsh Creek in late August hoping to see magnificent salmon coming up to its spawning grounds. What a treat to see these ocean-run giants returning to their places of birth. We need to make the right decisions now in the Columbia and Snake River basins to bring back our wild salmon and steelhead populations.
- Hiking the shoreline of Payette Lake in Ponderosa Park in the fall and taking in the bright colors of aspens. Idaho’s state parks need the support of the public in these hard financial times. They are the jewels of the state.
- Rowing the Salmon River and pulling plugs in hopes of catching a rainbow-colored steelhead fresh from the ocean. Steelhead are an icon of Idaho; just being able to catch them is an incredible experience. Let’s hope for proper river management to keep these fish coming back to Idaho.
- Hiking into the woods and mountains around Mores Creek Summit on a frosty December day to cut a holiday tree with a grandchild.
Happy trails and merry campfires.
Zimo: 377-6445
Statesman outdoor writers Pete Zimowsky and Roger Phillips alternate columns on Sunday. Look for Roger next week.
