Snowboarding! The third day in Montana was a Saturday, so the kids Craig and Kara were off of school and we were all going snowboarding and skiing at Lost Trail Powder Mountain in Idaho. Since I live in Texas and had never been before, I had no snow gear, so I had to borrow some from Paul, which fit just fine and did a great job of keeping me warm all day.
After a quick breakfast, we were on our way. It was quite a drive although I don't remember how long it took, maybe two hours or so. As we drove through the mountains we would pass by miles and miles of near barren landscape, scarred by outrageous fires that burned for days and left nothing more than massive black trunks sticking up like shadows of their former selves. The blackened areas were surrounded by lush green as if an invisible wall would let the fire go no further. It was amazing to see and terrifying to imagine.
These fires were back in 2000 and destroyed over 307,000 acres. To put that in perspective, San Antonio is only 263,744 acres and New York City is 300,096 acres. What struck me as odd was that despite the fires being nine years ago, there was little new growth. Apparently the fire was so hot that it destroyed the seeds and since it is such a large area it takes a long time for seeds to get spread around. Also there is one group of people that want to reseed the land and another that wants to let nature take its course. I suppose that I can see both sides, but I wonder which way I would fall if I lived in the area.
Anyway, after the drive, we arrived at the ski slopes and this was a very special day indeed. Lost Trail was having their annual "Summer Sucks Skiesta" to greet the coming of spring and the inevitable closing for the season. This meant all kinds of special events, live music, 10 burgers for $10 and all kinds of other fun.
I was eager to get going, so my uncle Paul took me over to the rental place and got me squared away with boots, a snowboard and a trainer. Since Paul is part of the Lost Trail Ski Patrol, he hooked me up with a guy he thought would do a good job and it was off to the bunny slopes for me. The lessons went as expected. I fell. A lot. Since I had always rode a skateboard goofy footed, the tow line to get back up the hill was backwards for me and posed another problem, but by the end of an hour or so, I kind of got the hang of it and was having a great time. I did not get to go as much as I wanted because Lost Trail is at about 6500 feet and after several runs and tumbles I would be out of breath and getting a headache and had to chill out for a while. I did have a great time though and spent time watching everyone else ski, checking out some of the crazy costumes, talking to Kristin or Paul and eating some great Chili.
In the afternoon, some of the events of the day started. They had a high jump and rail slide competition, but the best was the pond skim. For this, they had dug a hole that was maybe four feet deep, 70 feet long and 20 feet wide. Contestants would have to come down the mountain from a designated spot on either skis or a snowboard and then skim across the pond in order to make it to the next round, which was set up at a lower point on the mountain. Apparently proper attire was optional and in fact discouraged as the most entertaining was watching the guy in just boxers fall into the frigid water or the girls in a bikini and ski boots skim to the end. Extra cool points were added for doing a flip onto or out of the pond, going backwards or getting the crowd wet with the wake. It was a really good time and I wish that I had a better camera with me than the one on my phone.
Sometime later, we headed back to the house for the evening for some smoked chicken and some chill out time. On the way we passed by a mountain that had a huge herd of animals on it. Paul told me that they were elk and there were easily 150 of them just chilling on the side of the mountain doing their elk thing. Being from Texas it was not that surprising to see large herds of cattle, but it surprised me to find out that these were wild herds. It is hard to imagine huge herds of grazing animals that size, yet there they were.
The next day we were going to visit some natural hot springs and I was really looking forward to it, but Craig would not be joining us because he had soccer referee training. :(
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