Getaways
SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES
Pine Island Resort: A Lot of Fishing Spiced With a Little Luxury
The first thing you do when going to Pine Island Resort for the fishing adventure of a lifetime is go to the Osprey Wings floatplane base in Missinipe, Saskatchewan. If you're lucky, you'll get to chat with Gary Thompson, owner of both the floatplane service and the resort.
Thompson has been around a long time, and along the way, he has fielded all the stupid questions anglers can ask and has answers ready. For example, when we went in to check in for our short flight to Pine Island Resort, we could hardly find a place to park, so, stupid me, I asked why so many vehicles parked around the base. He quickly replied, "Those belong to all the people we flew out somewhere, but forgot where we took them."
He was joking, eh?
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YOU ALWAYS ENJOY REVEALING A BEST KEPT SECRET
Fishing the Kootenai River
Anybody who likes fly fishing for trout has heard about Montana's world-famous blue ribbon rivers--the Big Hole, Bighorn, Madison, Missouri, Yellowstone, and all the rest, but when you go there for a relaxing day on a classic trout stream, you not only face competition from the wily salmonids, but also competition from your brethren. On any summer day, you have to courteously share the river with dozens of drift boats and even more wade anglers.
Unless you're on the fabulous Kootenai River in far northwestern Montana, that is.
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SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES
Thompson’s Camps and Outposts: An Adventure for Every Budget
Most fishing lodges have the one-size-fits-all plan, but Thompson's Camps has a totally different marketing plan: Make your own Canadian fishing experience.
After driving for about an hour north of La Ronge on a mostly unpaved roadway along the boundary of Lac La Ronge Provincial Park you roll into a small community called Missinipe, home of Thompson's Camps, nestled on the shoreline of immense Otter Lake. Missinipe is the Cree for Great Water, which aptly refers to the mighty Churchill River flowing through Otter Lake and many other sprawling shield lakes in the area.
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THREE FREE WEEKENDS IS GREAT; NOW TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Salazar, Permanently Waive National Park Entrance Fees
Yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced he was waiving national park entrance fees for three prime summer weekends (June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16), a widely reported and welcomed pronouncement.
But I'm more interested in the back story.
To me, even though Salazar didn't say a word about it, his action seems to forecast a new philosophy coming out of the National Park Service (NPS), starting with this admission that ever-increasing fees are partly responsible for steadily declining park visitation. And ending, hopefully, with something I trumpeted two years ago in this column, making our national parks a free tradition.
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LOCAL MICRO-CLIMATE CLEARS THE TRAILS EARLY
Yellowstone, Spring Hiking Hot Spot
In May, winter still clings tight to most popular hiking areas in the northern Rockies such as Glacier, Frank Church, Wind Rivers, Bitterroots, and Absaroka-Beartooth. This means cabin fever can become a pandemic in May as hikers anxiously wait until late June if not July for the snow to give up the trails.
But unknown to most hikers, they can enjoy fantastic early-season hiking--backpacking or day hiking--on many trails in the northern sections of Yellowstone National Park from early May to early June.
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FESTIVITES START 4 PM, MAY 14
Cabela’s Billings Opening a Grand One
Beating gloomy economic doomsayers and continuing controversy stemming from its amenity land sales division, Cabela's is opening its doors in Billings on May 14.
And the "World's Foremost Outfitter" takes its Grand Openings seriously.
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Guest Commentary
Lessons From Tamarack Resort
Tamarack Resort closed on March 4th, the latest in a long line of boom and bust stories in the West. Located 90 miles north of Boise, Idaho, it was first major ski, golf and lake resort to open in the US in over two decades. Hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, Tamarack and CEO Jean-Pierre Boespflug failed to generate enough revenue from real estate sales to keep operating. As a skier, former Tamarack employee, cattle rancher, and Idahoan, I wish to write a few words in reflection.
I don't have to say this is an economic disaster for the over 200 employees and the general area. Some of the discussion has been that Tamarack would have made it if the economy just wouldn't have slumped. It would be more accurate to say it never would have got off the ground if (opening in December 2004) it hadn't caught the end of the largest housing bubble in history.
Tamarack attracted only 27,000 skier visits this season, far less than neighboring Brundage Mountain. Locals didn't ski there. To them it was known as Tam-a-scam, Glamarack, and finally, when it all went down, Tamtanic. This sentiment was partly due to them lamenting the loss of their Valley. And it was partly due to the dislike being mutual. Upper management openly told us during meetings their goal was to make it a private hill, open only to property owners or people who pay club fees of thousands of dollars. This required a certain degree of hubris, as the ski course falls almost entirely on public land.
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MICROBREW MONTANA, AN END-OF-THE-YEAR COMMENTARY
Reflections from the Microbrew Trail
For the past year, I've been on the Microbrew Trail, visiting every brewery in Montana, except one, and posting articles on all 24 of them. You can read the entire series here.
Along the beer trail, I'm made a few observations about what might be Montana's fastest growing industry and thought I'd pass them on to microbrew-loving readers.
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MICROBREW MONTANA
Blacksmith Brewing: Montana’s Newest Brewery, Montana’s Oldest Community
Well, here we are, at the end of the Microbrew Trail, my last taproom visit for this yearlong series of articles, and what did I find? An old buggy salesroom and blacksmith shop transformed into Montana's newest microbrewery, Blacksmith Brewing Company.
Is that Montana-esque or what?
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Winter's here; grab your gear
Ski Boise’s Bogus Basin Starting Wednesday
Bogus Basin Ski Resort, Boise's local ski hill, will open for the 2008-2009 winter season Wednesday, December 17. Recent storms have delivered enough snow for the front of the mountain to open. Chairlifts 1, 2, 4, 7 and Easy Rider will run.
Steve Shake, V.P. of mountain operations, said, “We’ll open more of the mountain, including night skiing and riding, as we receive more snow.”
Since the weather outside is frightful, the potential for full mountain skiing soon looks delightful.
Operating hours for Wednesday thru Friday will be: 10:00am-4:30 pm.
The J.R. Simplot, Pioneer and Frontier Point lodges will be open. Bogus Basin Ski & Snowboard School will offer its full complement of lessons.
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