Not Winter

I did an informal poll of myself to find out my favorite season.

Now in my second year here in Idaho, I have decided that winter is not it. Especially not this winter.

When we were in North Carolina, I thought the reason I didn't like winter was because there was nothing to do during the cold months. I admit I like winter better here in Boise than I did in North Carolina because at least you can snowshoe or ski. The snow conditions here haven't been that great though, and we haven't had much snow. The local mountain conditions vacillate between ice skating rink and slush. I prefer the other seasons because some of my favorite activities are done then, like biking, gardening, and pretty much anything outside.

One of this winter's favorite indoor activities is playing cards. Jon and our neighbors taught me how to play cribbage a few weeks ago and now the cribbage board is a permanent fixture on our dining room table.

Whenever we have the time, we play a game, which takes about 20 minutes. We keep track of the games and the best out of ten games wins. I am 0 for 1 right now, but the first tournament I lost by only one game. Not bad for a beginner!

[photograph courtesy of www.shepshedgames.co.uk/cribbage.jpg.]

Winter Playground

I found this picture of the homestead in Montana and thought I'd share it with everyone.

Kate and I have been doing a bit of construction around the Boise homestead since we returned from our Florida getaway. Our landing in Boise was uneventful even with 3 inches of snow on the runway! In the parking lot we were shocked to find 5 inches of snow covering Kate's Dodge Dakota. It snowed most days we we're away and has since snowed most of the days we've been back. Today was different though with 57 degrees most of our valley snow is gone. In the past week or so we've managed to do some snow construction in the front yard, snowshoe in the valley and at Bogus Basin. There has even been time for skiing and snowboarding! A bit of our handy work is pictured below.






We spent a few hours preparing for a snow battle that never happened. It's always good to be prepared isn't it?

Spring Break Trip Report #1

Spring break seemed to be over just as it started. School work dominated a couple of my spring break days because three of my professors scheduled exams during or immediately following spring break. I had one take home exam due promptly at the start of class Monday after spring break, one exam Monday at noon, and a lab exam on Tuesday at 8:00 am. Oh joy! Thankfully, the exams are in the past now and my GPA didn't suffer as much as some of my classmates.

I completed a few projects around the house during the first few days of the break so we were able to head for the hills on Wednesday. Remember, the time of year is late March and this is spring break for Boise State students.

Spring in Eastern Idaho

We drove north on US Route 20, a very scenic highway through the Targhee National Forest in Idaho, and then into West Yellowstone, Montana. The weather, as you can see from the picture above, didn't resemble spring by any stretch. It sure looked and felt like winter! The road was ice and snow covered from Rexburg, ID all the way up to Island Park, ID. The plows were out and working hard but they were severely out-gunned by ol' Mother Nature. The bad roads didn't slow us down though; we made it to West Yellowstone by 3:30pm to find what was to be our sleepy little mountain get-away for the evening. Unfortunately, someone opened too much ether. The town wasn't just sleepy, it was comatose! It was a ghost-town because the annual snowmobiling events had ended the week prior. Our options for dinner were Arby's or McDonald's!

We decided to move on, checked out of our hotel, and hit the road heading north again on US-191 aiming for Bozeman, MT. The drive through Yellowstone Park treated us to some pretty stunning scenery.






That was the first part of our trip, we'll finish the trip report soon. Stay tuned!

Has Spring Sprung?

The weather seems to be a hot topic of conversation as of late. You see, it has been pretty nice here lately compared to our January stint of 8 degree Fahrenheit (-13 C) mornings and the abundance of snow we received. The morning mercury hasn’t dipped into the teens for about 2 weeks, and frankly I don’t miss it! Jumping on the bicycle to head downtown is much more enjoyable when you don’t have to freeze your ears off doing it. Our daytime temperatures have been in the 40s, and 40 in the high desert sun is pretty darn nice. Sunday we went for a walk in the foothills with the doggies. I was surprised to see how quickly the trails have begun to dry out. Of course there are several places that are muddy, but those places were easy to avoid.

I hope spring has not sprung yet, I want more time to play in the snow! The news reports are leading me to believe that we’ll be in winter for a good bit longer. There are reports of ski resorts and forest service negotiations to extend resort leases until late April because significant snowmelt is supposed to be delayed this year. Wahoo! We may get to play in the snow until May!


Speaking of playing in the snow, we recently had some visitors from Raleigh, NC. Our friends came up and got surprised by our little slice of Idaho. It was a great visit, plenty of relaxing, some fine dining, and some pretty heavy powder at Bogus Basin. I had billed Bogus as our “little local resort” because I didn’t want to set an expectation of a great western ski resort. I was informed that when compared to any of the southeastern resorts, it was a great resort. I think I’ve just become spoiled by the west and the terrain already. I picked up my 08/09 season pass yesterday, $199.00. Oh how I do enjoy being spoiled!

Tonight we may head over to the foothills trail meeting to see what is to be done about the apparent dog poo problem on the trails. My crystal ball tells me that we may have to drive a few miles further in the future if we want to let our pups run free on the trails. I guess we’ll see. How would you change the habits of those owners who refuse to pick up the poo of their pet? I don’t know if it’s possible to change those inconsiderate people.

Yesterday finished my first round of exams for this semester, and boy was it a tough one. Apologies for the lack of blogging on my part, I’ve been trapped in a room with an enormous stack of textbooks and lab manuals. I am spending considerably more time studying this semester than ever before. I don’t think my credit load will increase over the next couple of years but I’m certain my workload will when I start doing clinical rotations. At the start of the semester I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to maintain my GPA with my current class schedule, now I know I can do it. Although, I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to maintain my hobbies at their previous levels. Biking and snowboarding have taken a distant second to class and studying ☹. The exam grades are well worth sacrificing some hobby time.

You Go Girl!

Limits I say..... You've got to set limits on the things you do, when you can. I don't have a parking pass for the BSU campus so my limit has been set by default. I ride my bike to school, I'm limited from parking a car on campus.

This morning it is cold, bitter cold, and Kate was on her bike early heading to work. The paper said this:

Weather
Boise, ID
Currently 8 degrees F, sunny

Almost makes you want to ride or walk to work doesn't it? Luckily, we live close enough to our daily grind to ride a bike. It really does feel good to do it, and no it's not just a hippie thing!

Sorry, Guys

Image courtesy of http://www.ec.gc.ca/EnviroZine/images/Issue57/BeaufortSea_l.jpg

I started to get dressed this morning fully intending to ride my bike to work. Jon asked what the temperature was and I repeated what I heard on our local NPR station this morning. "Nine degrees, with a wind chill of -10." He told me I should drive my truck to work, that I had to set some limits. Perhaps.

When I think about whether I can ride my bike in frigid temperatures, I think about Jill Homer, the Alaska journalist who is training for the human-powered Iditarod race, a multi-day event in which she will bike across the Alaska wilderness in sub-zero temperatures. She chronicles her training in her blog Arctic Glass. Her reasons for riding are different than mine, but an inspiration nonetheless. When I fret about my 1.5 mile commute, I check Jill's blog to see that she rode 22 miles yesterday in 28 degree temperatures.

I console myself with the reminder that driving to work will give me the opportunity to sherpa home the large garbage bag full of empty plastic bottles I have collected at work so they can be recycled.

How to Help Slow Global Warming

Riding your bike to work or school, even when it is only 20 degrees F outside and the streets and sidewalks are covered with snow pack and ice is one way.

I wrote in this post about Boise bicycle commuters and my own limitations. Since then, I have taken to the streets on my bike, weather be damned! Unfortunately, the two days on which I have ridden my bike to work so far have been 1) during a snowstorm and 2) immediately after a series of snow days when the temperature was forecasted at 14 but fortunately climbed to 20.

I just kept telling myself to think of the polar bears and their melting ice sheets!

Honestly, it's not too terrible. Here is what I was wearing today:

winter biking tights
jeans
wool socks
cotton short-sleeved t-shirt
polypropylene long-sleeved shirt
cashmere scarf
my very toasty North Face jacket with quilted liner
polypropylene skull cap
wool took hat
bicycle helmet
biking gloves

By the time I arrived at work, my core body was overly warm, but my finger, toes, and face were very cold. I could have used my face mask (couldn't find it this morning) and some additional protection for my hands and feet.

Shiver Me Timbers

Some Boiseans are serious about bicycle commuting. On a morning a few days ago, I sat in my truck at a traffic light on a snow-covered road with two bicyclists while the flakes rained down. Jon is no exception. He is committed to continue biking to school year-round and this is his get-up for riding in 19 degree temperatures. My heart swells with pride for him, but sinks just a little as I slide into the driver's seat of my truck. I'm still acclimating.

Snowshoeing: Banner Ridge

Everybody, git yer shoes on!

On Sunday, we went snowshoeing again, this time with our new friends Mike W., Roxanne, Erin, and Mike H. Some of the snow we enjoyed last weekend at Whoop-Em-Up had melted, so we drove further up the mountain to the Banner Ridge Park-n-Ski area.

The view is not too shabby.

One of the Mikes brought a GPS, so we knew exactly how far we went: 3.4 miles. I have decided that 3.4 miles on snowshoes is a pretty good hike. I woke up in the middle of the night and my legs were screaming.

Right from the outset, we saw lots of animal tracks.

I am enjoying learning how to identify animal tracks: rabbit, fox, and coyote were the most common. About halfway through the hike, we took an off-trail detour and Jon spotted wolf tracks. They were enormous and stunning. You could see the outline of each pad-- the paws were about as big around as my hand.

Living out west has forced me to think more often about the tension between ranchers, hunters, livestock, and wolves. It used to be that wolves were just the bane of livestock farmers, but now hunters are citing anecdotal evidence that wolves are the cause of a decline in elk and moose populations, as well. I won't go into this in detail, but I found numerous sources that negate this, including from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. (If you want more information, just Google "idaho wolves elk population".)

The wolves in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are considered a "non-essential experimental population" but they are still protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Early this year, however, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to remove grey wolves' endangered status. In preparation for the status change, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is trying to determine how the populations will be managed and to what extent. Idaho Governor Butch Otter wants the wolf population culled by hunters from current numbers around 800 (source) to 100 animals, or 10 packs. Ten packs is the minimum number of wolves before the animals would be considered endangered...again. Anyone else see the lunacy in this idea?

According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commission, delisting could occur as early as February 2008. At a hunter's rally last week, Otter spoke about the issue:

"That management includes you," Otter told the approximately 300 hunters, many wearing camouflage clothing and blaze-orange caps. "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself."

Anyway...

Another interesting thing we saw on our snowshoe trip was the remnants of a burn. At first we thought the rising smoke was steam from a natural hot spring, but closer investigation revealed that it was actually tree wood still smoldering.

Winter burn.

Why are the maps are so high? So they aren't at your knees when the snowpack is three feet!

Once again, I tripped myself by stepping on my own shoe and ended up face-planting in the snow. I wasn't hurt, but as I pulled myself up, my entire group stood on the hill above me laughing with their cameras poised on their noses. Evil. (I admit that later in the hike, when Erin tripped, I was actually hoping she would fall and she totally busted me by the excited look on my face. Nobody wants to be the only clutz.)

On our way back to Boise, we stopped at the Idaho City Ranger station to alert the staff to the burn and they called out a fire crew to investigate.

It was yet another beautiful, if tiresome, weekend in this winter paradise. I doubt we will get on our snowboards until after we return from Christmas holidays in Florida but I certainly look forward it!