Sandpoint Magazine Winter 2011

M A G A Z I N E

WINTER 2011

SANDPOINT

YEARS

&

Then-and-Now Coverage for 20th Anniversary Special Issue, Olympian Nate Holland Interview, Backcountry Snowcatting, Schweitzer Sidecountry Skiing, Theater and Teenage Arts, Calendars, Dining, Real Estate ‌ and more

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“Red Boats at Argenteuil” by Claude Monet

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Sandpoint office: 208-263-5101, 200 Main Street, Sandpoint, ID 83864. Coeur d’Alene office: 208-667-1551, 1400 Northwood Center Court, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814.

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Sand Creek photo courtesy of Keokee Co. Publishing, Inc. Ski photo courtesy of Schweitzer Mountain Resort. Golf photo courtesy of The Coeur d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort.

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CONTENTS S A N DPOI NT MAGAZINE Winter 2011, Vo l. 21, No . 1

FEATURES 35 A Lot Can Happen in 20 Years

}

The cover series for Sandpoint Magazine’s 20th anniversary special issue opens with a then-and-now comparison

36 Where Are They, Now?

Tracking down all 40 Feature Interview subjects from the past 20 years

45 Sandpoint in 2030?

Local luminaries prognosticate about our fair burg’s future

62 ‘Mountain of Change’ Plus 20

YEARS

Over two decades, Schweitzer’s growth has added up big

29 Ubiquitous Yoga

70

In Sandpoint, a whole lot of posing is going on

47 Bustin’ Through the Backcountry

Natives & Newcomers Winter Guide Lodging Eats & Drinks Dining Guide Sandpoint of View

Snowcatters ‘boondock’ in a vast winter wonderland

51 Resurgent Theater Scene

Two active groups seek to bring the lights up on local stages

54 Teenage Arts Scene

How a little arts town and its teachers are spawning creative teens

70 Pushing Boundaries

Sidecountry skiing at Schweitzer leads the latest backcountry trend

DEPARTMENTS

Almanac Who, What and Why in Greater Sandpoint Calendar With Hot Picks and POAC calendar Interview Nate Holland, Olympian and world-class snowboarder Photo Essay Winter Nights Real Estate

20 Years of Real Estate: The future looks to recall the past Personal Space: Homeowners carve out spots for creative endeavors The Evolution of Sandpoint: New commercial zoning rules direct vision Marketwatch: Distressed properties attract bargain hunters WINTER 2011

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8 19 23 66 74 74 78 81 84

87 93 99 100 106 114

On the cover: David Marx’s image of an unnamed ridge between Big Blue and Keokee Mountain, known by Selkirk backcountry skiers as “Blueokee,” is a winter scenic worthy of this 20th anniversary special issue. Cover series begins on page 35.

Top: Doug Marshall catches early morning sun hitting groomed runs for a story on 20 years of change at Schweitzer, page 62.

Above: The Schweitzer sidecountry experience is found beyond “Ski Area Boundary” signs, as photographed by Doug Marshall.

See story, page 70.

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CONTRIBUTORS editor’s note Looking back at early, thin issues of Sandpoint Magazine is, well, embarrassing. The publisher/editor put in references to my slobbery dog, conflicts of interest and some Greek god in clever little bios secretly inserted at the end of my stories. That’s him pictured 20 years ago. Who’s embarrassed now? Hmm? Honestly, we’ve all done a lot of growing up and growing old together since then.

Meanwhile, the magazine has become more sophisticated and hefty. In 20 years, we’ll look back at issues from today and think they look cheesy – and odd having been printed on paper. I don’t think I will have worked on the next 20 years’ worth of Sandpoint Magazine, however, because I’ll be retired and living on some South Pacific island somewhere. One can hope, right?

Herein, reminisce about the past two decades through a number of 20th anniversary-themed stories. Why, it’s a veritable “wayback” machine that allows us to, ever so briefly, travel back in time to a simpler, quieter town – the one I moved back to Oct. 4, 1990. The boys, Chris and Sandy, were just then putting the finishing touches on Vol. I, No. 1. Sadly, I missed working on that first edition, but I have toiled away on the 40 issues since. It’s been a heck of a ride. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Cheers!

–B.J.P. Sandpoint Magazine is published twice yearly, in May and November, by Keokee Co. Publishing, Inc., 405 Church St., Sandpoint, ID 83864.

Phone: 208-263-3573 E-mail: inbox@keokee.com Publisher Chris Bessler Editor Billie Jean Plaster Editorial Assistant Beth Hawkins Advertising Director Clint Nicholson Account Executive Nate Bessler Art Director Laura Wahl Ad Design/Production Sean Haynes, Pam Larson Administration Catherine Anderson Contributors Ralph Bartholdt, Sandy Compton, Susan Drinkard, Zach Hagadone, Cate Huisman, Patty Hutchens, Marlisa Keyes, Jennifer Lamont Leo, William Love, Chris Park, Carrie Scozzaro, Haley Sorbel, Amie Wolf ©2011 by Keokee Co. Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Subscriptions: $12 per year. www.SandpointMagazine.com. Printed in USA

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Ralph Bartholdt

, a northern Idaho journalist and photographer, spends a lot of time knee deep in rivers, bumping around barbershops and listening to people’s stories. Although skiing the backcountry is more of his forte (journalists suck more wind than gas), he has always wanted to bust powder with a handful of throttle. He revved at the chance to probe the boondocks with local snow riders “Bustin’ Through the Backcountry,” (page 47), his first contribution, in addition to almanac stories on the Sand Creek arch and Mike the barber retiring. When he isn’t writing or photographing, he’s sleeping.

Sandy Compton

, original ad sales manager and charter contributor to Sandpoint Magazine (photographed back then, too), learned to ski at Schweitzer the year of its first issue.

He no longer sells ads, but he has contributed to this publication 70 times over the past 20 years. His 70th story, “Schweitzer’s Mountain of Change,” is on page 62. When he’s not skiing (or writing another book or submission for Sandpoint Magazine), Sandy is program coordinator for Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.

Susan Drinkard

did a bit of sleuthing to catch up with the 40 “Feature Interview” people covered in Sandpoint Magazine during the past 20 years, with the help of Billie Jean Plaster and Jenny Leo. “Where Are They, Now?” (page 36) is the 44th article she has written for the magazine. A charter contributor and former English teacher, Drinkard works for Alliance Family Services as a psycho-social rehabilitation provider.

Zach Hagadone

has long been a lover of live stage plays but hadn’t been in one since third grade – that is until he took a part in Ben Olson’s “Death of a Small Town in the West” this past summer. Reacquainted with dramatics, he wrote about the resurgence of the local theater scene in this issue of Sandpoint Magazine (page 51). Don’t look for him on stage any time soon, though – he has a face for radio and the nerves of a veteran desk jockey. He has co-owned and published the Sandpoint Reader weekly newspaper since 2004.

William Love

still does not know if there is a

“Teenage Art Scene” (page 54) in Sandpoint. From his interviews

and experience writing this piece, however, he has learned the opportunities for area students to pursue their interests in the arts has increased dramatically in the 15 years since he was a Sandpoint teenager. Love, a journalism teacher and Cedar Post adviser at Sandpoint High School (a position once held by his mother, Marianne Love), enjoyed the opportunity to interview students away from the classroom, creating art for the joy of it.

Haley Sorbel

Born and raised in Sandpoint, wrote her first contribution to Sandpoint Magazine by journeying into the yoga aspect of this community (“Ubiquitous Yoga,” page 29). When not writing and practicing yoga – an integral part of her life since writing this story – Sorbel is typically found outside, with her camera, dog and husband. A wedding photographer in the summer, she spends winters in the mountains, skiing and shooting.

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ALMANAC

Sleigh bells ring

PHOTO BY CAROLINE HAWKINS

Nostalgic rides provide Christmas trees, memories

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t’s a scene reminiscent of a Currier & Ives postcard: families clamoring up onto a horse-drawn sleigh as giggling children play with the dogs that have hopped on board for the ride.

With a “haw,” the driver commands a pair of draft horses – festively adorned with bells – forward, and the sleigh glides this way and that through a snowy forest before arriving in an open

Western Pleasure’s draft team waits for sleigh riders to choose the perfect Christmas tree

field adorned with lit-up Christmas lights encircling a stand of fresh-cut trees ready for the choosing.

For a holiday experience that’s full of old-fashioned nostalgia, it’s hard to beat Western Pleasure Guest Ranch’s

new outing, which has been named “A Simple Christmas – Sleigh Rides and Christmas Trees.”

After a trial run with the event last year, ranch owners Janice and Roley Schoonover are excited about having more families out this season to experience the simplicity of a sleigh ride adventure.

“This is more than just going down to the grocery store and picking up a tree,” Janice said. “It’s a way for families to get together and create memories.”

Following the approximately halfhour excursion along a two-mile loop trail, sleigh riders are then welcomed into the ranch’s grand log lodge for fresh-popped popcorn, hot cocoa, coffee and some quality time in front of a crackling fire.

Rides begin the day after Thanksgiving, and continue every weekend, plus several weekdays, until Christmas. Cost is $90 for a family of four, and includes a fresh-cut Christmas tree, a sleigh ride and refreshments. To make a reservation, call 263-9066, or visit www.WesternPleasureRanch.com.

–Beth Hawkins

Aptly named skier Scott Snow youngest member of U.S. Ski Team

F

or anyone who has followed local skier

in a 140-person field in a North American cup

traveling to races with his father and coach,

Scott Snow’s career, a headline in the

race at Lake Louise in Canada.

Shep Snow. Since such dedication to racing

Bonner County Daily Bee late last May was a

After that race, “Three coaches came up

has prevented regular school attendance,

particularly gratifying one: “Snow Named to

and introduced themselves to me,” says Snow.

his father has served as teacher as well,

the U.S. Ski Team.”

The 17-year-old Sagle resident was skiing

supervising on-the-road homeschooling. Now Scott’s working on credits toward finish-

the NASTAR course at Schweitzer by the

ships for his age group, and finished third in

ing high school through the Idaho Virtual

time he was 4. Last year, at 16, he im-

the giant slalom.

Academy, an online charter school.

pressed the ski-racing world by placing 20th

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Later in the season, he won the downhill and super-G events in the national champion-

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Snow has spent the past several winters

He used to spend summers playing left

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24 Hours for Hank

Relay raises big money for disease afflicting local boy has been phenomenal,” Brian said.

“Their event staff has been outstanding.

The community has gotten behind our cause, from donations to auction items.

We’ve been really surprised how much money has been raised.”

Charity aside, the spirit of competition is enough to get Sandpoint resident Matt Gillis stoked for another year of participating.

“We’re in it to win it,” Gillis said of his relay team.

He notched a whopping 196 runs during last season’s event and plans to pass that mark this year.

“It’s fun to ski through the entire 24 hours and have the mountain catering to us,” Gillis said. “But also it’s about doing something that’s bigger than myself – raising money for Hank, who is an outstanding little man.”

That “little man” is expected to ski a run or two in this year’s relay, according to dad. In fact, Brian reports that “things have been stabilizing for Hank.” The family continues to make several trips each year to Seattle for doctor appointments. And in the end, perhaps all of the efforts from the little town of Sandpoint will pay off.

field with Sandpoint’s American Legion

things, including his size (6 feet, 1 inch and

baseball team, but this past summer, that

200 pounds), his early exposure to the sport

dropped to just an occasional guest appear-

and his father’s attention to detail throughout

ance. Instead, he skied: on the high snows

his career. But to many, what has stood out

at Mammoth Mountain in California in early

for years is his dedication.

summer, on the snowfield above Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Ore., in summer, and in La Parva, Chile, in September. He spent about 160 days on skis last season and will no doubt exceed that this year.

He attributes his success to a variety of

As Gillis says, it all comes down to one thing: “Hopefully this funding will find a cure.”

Learn more about the disease, the fundraiser and Hank at www.24HoursforHank.org.

–Beth Hawkins

“I just love it,” he says. “It never gets old.

I’m always fired up to be skiing.”

–Cate Huisman Scott Snow debuts with the U.S. Ski Team this season

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Hank Sturgis and mom Tricia at last year’s 24 Hours for Hank relay at Schweitzer

PHOTO BY PHOTO BYCORY MURDOCK CORY MU RDOCK

B

rian and Tricia Sturgis of Sandpoint face daunting odds in fending off a rare, terminal disease that afflicts their 4-year-old son, Hank. But the determined parents – backed by a supportive community and Schweitzer Mountain Resort – are moving mountains in an effort to find a cure for cystinosis.

Cystinosis affects just 500 people in the United States; it eventually destroys the organs in the body including the kidneys, liver, eyes, muscles and brain.

So far, local fundraisers launched by the couple and supporters in the Sandpoint area, including the 24 Hours for Hank ski relay in the winter and the Cycling for Cystinosis bike relay in the summer, have contributed more than $175,000 to help fund research for a cure – making this area a national leader in raising funds to cure cystinosis.

And the momentum continues to snowball as the third annual 24 Hours for Hank event at Schweitzer moves from last year’s January timeslot to a lighter, brighter time of year – April 1-2.

The event has drawn 120 participants in each of the past two years.

“For Schweitzer to get behind this

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It was a political life Vogelsinger recounts D.C. career

“H

e used to call me the saint,” said Sagle resident Sue Vogelsinger, 74, of her former employer. In charge of scheduling appearances for 29 of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s relatives during his 1980 bid for president, Vogelsinger made sure each person knew where they had to be and when.

“He (Ted Kennedy) told his kids that I had worked for both of their uncles, and I knew what I was doing so they needed to do what I said,” Vogelsinger said.

Those two uncles referred to were John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.

As a member of John Kennedy’s campaign team, Vogelsinger was one of eight employees on his presidential press staff.

In her work for Robert Kennedy, she opened and answered his personal mail. Her employment with both ended in tragedy – with their assassinations in 1963 and 1968, respectively.

Vogelsinger says she was shocked and devastated by the violent deaths of both Kennedys.

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said Vogelsinger. “Do I still find both assassinations unbelievable? Absolutely.”

As she looks back on her decades in the nation’s capital, which included work with George and Eleanor McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Hillary Clinton, Vogelsinger feels the highlight was working with Clinton to promote her first book, “It Takes a Village.”

As retirement neared, Sue and husband Bruce desired to be closer to their daughters, both of whom had settled in Sandpoint. One of their last functions in Washington, D.C., was a New Year’s Eve party in December 1999 at the White House.

“It was a good way to end my political career,” said Sue, who still keeps in contact with some of the Kennedys, Sue Vogelsinger, top, and with some former including Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, employers: Bill and Hillary Clinton, in 1995, and Sen. Ted Kennedy and wife Joan, in 1980 a Maryland politician and daughter of Robert Kennedy.

Since their arrival in Sandpoint in Southside Water and Sewer District June 2000, Sue and Bruce have been and the City of Sandpoint Historic active members of the community, serv- Preservation Commission. They also ing on boards or being active members enjoy attending the many activities of of several organizations, including Pend their five grandchildren.

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Aviation pioneer Landis flew fighters in World War II

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part-time Bonners Ferry resident, Jean Landis, 92, declined an invitation to Washington, D.C., to receive the Congressional Gold Medal last March.

“Unless I’m flying a P-51, I’d rather stay on the ground,” she said, laughing.

One of 1,074 women who flew military aircraft during World War II, Landis was stationed in Long Beach, Calif., in 1943-44 where she served in a little-known program called Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

The reason it was little-known is because after the U.S. government abruptly deactivated the program in December 1944, WASP records were stamped “classified” and sealed, essentially hiding them from historians.

“We felt we got the shaft,” Landis said, of deactivation. The war was winding down, but WASP were still needed.

More than 60 years later, Landis says the government’s brash treatment made her bitter, but she has no regrets about being part of the greatest female flying experiment in U.S. history.

“I was very fortunate to be stationed at Long Beach a few miles away from the P-51 Mustang factory. What a great opportunity to fly the best airplane in

the world,” Landis said. “It was the hottest fighter.”

As part of a ferrying command, she routinely flew the distinctive-sounding P-51, among other fighter planes, from Long Beach to Newark, N.J., a journey that took multiple days – and often turned heads – back in the 1940s.

She recalls that flying the agile, maneuverable P-51 felt as if the wings were an extension of her own body. On her last flight, she circled the Statue of Liberty twice and waggled her wings in salute, then wept.

Landis went on to receive a master’s in education and enjoyed a long career as a college physical education teacher.

About 30 years ago, the Southern California resident discovered northern Idaho while traveling by RV and started living part-time in Bonners Ferry.

Last spring, less than 300 WASP were still alive when they received the Congressional Gold Medal, an honor long overdue, according to many fans of the program. One of those is Pamela Bird, wife of renowned aviator and inventor Dr. Forrest Bird and cofounder of the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center in Sagle.

The Birds decided to honor the

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COURTESY PHOTO

Weddings Jean Landis shown as a WASP with a P-51 in World War II, above, and with Dr. Forrest Bird last summer at the “Women of Courage” event

WASP and others who have served in the military through “Women of Courage 2010,” held last July.

Nineteen WASP attended the weekend that included a VIP dinner, unveiling and dedication of a new monument, and scenic flights for many honorees over Lake Pend Oreille in a 1940 Stearman biplane, courtesy of Sandpoint Biplanes.

Landis was enthusiastic about the event and the Birds’ efforts.

After years of being ignored, veterans of WASP seemed to have reached near-celebrity status in 2010. But Landis said she and the other women who served weren’t necessarily special.

“We were just more adventuresome,” she said.

She humbly admits that they weren’t actually the first women to fly military aircraft. That honor should go to the 28 women who were part of the precursor program known as Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, or WAFS, headed up by Nancy Harkness Love.

“Those women really paved the way. If those women had failed, I don’t think there would have been a WASP program,” said Landis.

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Arch tied to fishery

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running stream. Typical of Boren’s work, the arch at Sand Creek includes a touch of panache: If waves flicker on Lake Pend Oreille, it means his metal fish are likely clinking in the breeze like an oversized wind chime.

The design was chosen from among 11 entries to grace the easternmost leg of Main Street before it trundles down to Sand Creek past the Panida. The 40-foot-wide arch, illuminated with weather-resistant light strips, is built almost entirely of used materials.

The steel beams had been used, then dismantled from the Sand Creek bypass, and the signs once graced state highways throughout northern Idaho.

“I think there’s a lot of appeal to recycling stuff,” said Boren, whose municipal art can be found from Arizona to Jackson, Wyo.

Nelson Boren, above with fish he created for the arch

There is also a lot of appeal in documenting the legacy of a place. Sandpoint’s commercial fishery was once nationally renowned, carrying families through the Great Depression.

It still attracts sportsmen and women who chase the lake’s big trout.

“Fishing is part of our heritage,” Boren said. “I think we need to celebrate that.”

PHOTO BY RALPH BARTHOLDT

S

andpoint was recently dubbed as one of the West’s “Top 10 Trout Towns” by Fly Rod & Reel.

Nelson Boren, 58, an avid fly fisher and former architect who has spent the past 20 years painting, designing and creating art in Sandpoint chuckles at the distinction.

“Where is there a fly stream nearby?” he asks. As other fly anglers do, Boren travels great distances to bend a fly rod at big trout. Yet, he recognizes Sandpoint as a community tied to its lake fishery, and that is one of the inspirations behind his design of the Sand Creek arch.

The public art project sponsored by the City of Sandpoint Arts Commission includes 52 trout silhouettes cut from used highway signs. The colorful fish span the arch as if it were a wild, free-

–Ralph Bartholdt

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mong things boosters can rattle off about Schweitzer’s assets as a ski resort, there’s this: It’s the only Inland Northwest ski mountain with a ski-in, ski-out chapel.

The idea for worship on the mountain goes back to shortly after the resort’s start, in 1963, wrote Jack Fowler in “Looking Back on Schweitzer.” Catholics held mass in the original day lodge inside the Bierstube.

After years of planning and construction, Schweitzer Chapel was dedicated in 1978, on Northwest Passage.

The chapel hosts services Saturdays in ski season – ministered by Steve Kuder and Tim Clancy of Jesuit Order from Gonzaga for Catholics, and Eric Rust and Colin Moody of Cedar Hills Church of Sandpoint for Protestants.

From its outset the chapel has

also served as a gathering place for church and youth groups; it now has a 48-bed dorm and kitchen. Groups from as far as Seattle and Tri-Cities have booked every winter weekend, said Dick Ensminger, who with wife Carroll is co-president of the The historic Schweitzer Chapel is still active as a place of worship on the ski mountain. Catholic and Protestant services are held on chapel trustees.

Ensminger said the board Saturdays, in late afternoon does not push a particular Rust laughed. “I would say, absotheological point of view, other than to lutely,” he said. “On those certain provide a place of Christian worship.

Rust said he’s excited about teaching nights when you’re walking around the village in a light snowfall, seeing the at the chapel again. beauty … I definitely have a sense of “It was fun last year to expose more people to the Gospel in a way hopefully God’s presence there.” that was compelling,” he said.

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PHOTO BY DICK ENSMINGER

A chapel on high

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T

he tiger muskie that hangs from the wall in Mike Winslow’s Shiras Drive home in Sandpoint was a record once. A friend caught it, but the distinction did not last.

“It weighed 7 pounds and was the state record for a day,” Winslow said.

Records come and go, but it is a good bet that Winslow’s record of being a “main street barber” in Sandpoint for almost 50 years will not be broken any time soon.

The 68-year-old former owner of The Sportsmen’s Barber Shop, later known as Mike’s, retired in June. His shop, as many locals can attest, was a museum of fishing and hunting accoutrements, trophies, and photographs.

For nearly half a century, his shop on First Avenue was a place where time stood still. Patrons sat in World War II-era chairs acquired from Farragut

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Naval Training Station with their scoured, leather cushions pushing horsehair from seams. And they were accepted, at least temporarily, into a fraternity of Sandpoint past – when the fish were all big, the game plentiful and everyone in town had a nickname.

The old barber pole from his shop now lies in Winslow’s garage beside one of the shop’s heavy, iron barber chairs.

The other chair is inside.

“I think I might sell one,” Winslow said. “I don’t know what to do with two chairs.”

PHOTO BY RALPH BARTHOLDT

Retiring the shears

Retired barber Mike Winslow contemplates rounds of golf and fishing as retirement endeavors

The chair inside along with the big trout mounts, the muskie and cougar also saved from his shop, is still in use.

Although he cannot legally charge for haircuts, he can snip and buzz for free.

“Some of my friends won’t go anywhere else,” Winslow said.

–Ralph Bartholdt

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ALMANAC

Biomass to bring city full circle

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sources can easily supply it with enough fuel,” such as wood waste collected by local wood recycler ABCO and waste from nearby lumber mills.

Another concern, air pollution the burning might generate, will be lessened with a highly efficient, modern combustion system.

“The system can absorb fuels that would have been burned anyway,” says Grimm, plus save money.

Initially running at a 10 to 15 percent capacity, the system is projected to save the city about $11,000 annually. Once the system is up to full capacity, the city would supply heat to other users, generating more City Planner Jeremy Grimm, left, and Karl Dye of BCEDC than $75,000 annually. examine cedar bark, a byproduct at McFarland Cascade Pole –Cate Huisman

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PHOTO BY BILLIE JEAN PLASTER

fter more than half a decade of using power from afar, Sandpoint’s city council approved a plan last May that would enable the city to once again generate its own power. Using funds from two federal grants and its own urban renewal program, the city will build a system at its industrial park on Boyer Avenue that burns wood waste to generate heat and electricity for several city buildings.

Such a move would be a return to the kind of energy source the town used up until the 1940s, when steam generated at the power house and another plant behind the Panida Theater provided energy to downtown.

Concerns about such “biomass burners” have mounted along with their popularity recently, especially with the cost of obtaining and transporting fuel. But City Planner Jeremy Grimm points out that “Sandpoint’s system will be small enough that a variety of local

Co., that could generate electricity in a biomass burner

SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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10/15/10 5:29 PM

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Ca l e nda r Big fat events calendars at SandpointOnline.com

November 2010 6 Sandpoint Films Festival. Local filmmak-

ers’ works at Panida’s Little Theater. Film blocks begin at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. 290-0597 12 Annual Harvest Dinner in Hope.

Memorial Community Center in Hope plans traditional Thanksgiving feast at 5:30 p.m. to benefit Christmas Giving Program. 264-5481 13 “The Way I See It.” Panida Theater hosts

Matchstick Productions’ newest film at 7:30 p.m. to benefit the Climbing Gym. 263-9191 20 Songwriter’s Circle Concert Benefit.

Benefit for Foundation for Human Rights Action and Advocacy, at Panida Theater, 7:30 p.m.

263-9191 20 Holly Eve. See Hot Picks.

20-24, 26-28 K&K Thanksgiving Fishing Derby. Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club’s annual

fall fishing contest. 264-5796 26-Jan.1 Holidays in Sandpoint. Traditional

tree lighting ceremony, caroling and the arrival of Santa with cookies and cider Nov. 26 at Jeff Jones Town Square. Sponsored by Downtown Sandpoint Business Association. 255-1876

December 2010 2-4 Kinderhaven’s Festival of Trees.

Sandpoint Events Center hosts three-day event including Family Night for the community Dec. 2 with decorated trees, music, Santa, plus cookies and refreshments; Holiday Luncheon Dec. 3 with silent auction; and the Gala Dec. 4. All proceeds benefit Kinderhaven. 610-2208 2 “Light the Wick.” Panida Theater hosts

ski film at 8 p.m.; presented by Teton Gravity Research. 263-9191 3 “The Nutcracker.” See POAC calendar.

3 Classical Christmas Concert. Hope’s Memorial Community Center brings pianist Del Parkinson, at 7 p.m. 264-5481 4 Schweitzer Holiday Kick-off. The lights

come on and the holiday season officially begins at Schweitzer Mountain Resort with hot chocolate, cookies and carolers. 263-9555 5 Christmas for Africa. The Luke Commission hosts annual fundraising dinner, ministry update and auction gala, 5 p.m. in the Sandpoint Events Center. 290-6172

[Hot Picks]

The joy of giving. Celebrating its 30th year of gourmet food, live and silent auctions, and top-class entertainment (including Danceworks performers), Holly Eve has contributed more than $1 million to the local community.

Beneficiaries include Festival at Sandpoint, Panida Theater, Pend Oreille Arts Council, plus Community Cancer Services and Bonner Community Hospice. This year’s gala is Nov. 20, in the Sandpoint Events Center; doors open at 6 p.m. Purchase tickets at Eve’s Leaves in downtown Sandpoint, or pick them up at the door. 263-8956

Get a snowy start on 2011. For those who love to ski and snowboard – or just hang out among those who do – what better place to ring in the new year than Schweitzer Mountain Resort? Happiness, laughter and good times are in great abundance with New Year’s Eve parties for all Dec. 31: The Taps party this year features Tony Furtado and his band; teens can check out the tubing party at Hermits Hollow; and “tweens” have their own special party.

These events always sell out; purchase tickets beginning Dec. 1 in the Activity Center or call 255-3081. In town, Angels Over Sandpoint host annual Semi Normal Semi Formal featuring a live band, dancing, an auction, food and more in the Sandpoint Events Center. 597-3670 Taste buds, prepare. In the midst of winter, Sandpoint’s finest culinary delights are yours for the sampling during the favorite annual event, Taste of Sandpoint, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Jan. 13 in the Sandpoint Events Center. The Taste is

vendors and activities Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 265-ARTS

10 Miniatures at Large. POAC opening reception, 5:30 p.m. in The Old Power House.

Exhibit runs through Feb. 25. 263-6139

18 Great Scott Cross-Country Race.

10-11 Holiday Art Soiree. Arts Alliance event

24 Santa’s Schweitzer Visit. Santa skis the

at Sandpoint Center for the Arts with wine, hors d’oeuvres and music Friday, 5-8 p.m.; art

Schweitzer hosts Nordic event. 263-9555 slopes, hands out treats and takes last-minute wishes at Schweitzer. 263-9555

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a kickoff event for this year’s Sandpoint Winter Carnival, Jan. 13-17, with a huge rail jam and some surprises this year. Check SandpointWinterCarnival.com. Sponsored by Greater Sandpoint Chamber. 263-0887 Local play is a heart-warmer. Shake off winter’s chill with the sweet Valentine comedy “All the Best,” playing Feb. 18-19 and Feb. 25-26 in the intimate venue of the Little Panida Theater. Presented by Sandpoint Onstage, the play is brimming with a talented local cast and is directed by Teresa Pesce.

It tells the story about residents of a retirement community, where a lonely widow learns she can be herself and be loved, plus portrays the personalities of her “fur” family. See story, page 51. 263-9191 Angels in kindness only! Angels Over Sandpoint may sound saintly, and their charitable good deeds in the community are certainly heaven-sent, but that doesn’t stop this nonprofit organization from throwing down the gauntlet when it comes to presenting ridiculously funny – and very raw – humor during the popular Follies show. This annual fundraiser arrives at the Panida Theater March 4-5, and the zany variety show is only for ages 21 and older (and is not for the easily offended!).

Audiences keep coming back for more, however, as the shows almost always sell out. Tickets go on sale in late January. Funds benefit local families in need, plus other charitable efforts.

AngelsOverSandpoint.org. 597-3670 31 New Year’s Eve. See Hot Picks.

January 2011 7-28 Starlight Junior Race Series. Local

race series at Schweitzer takes place on Friday nights in January. 263-9555 13 Taste of Sandpoint. See Hot Picks.

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Calendar Big fat events calendars at SandpointOnline.com 13-17 Sandpoint Winter Carnival. Annual celebration throughout Sandpoint is packed with wintry events, including a downtown Rail Jam, art walk, fire dancers and more. 263-0887 14-15 “Hospitality Suite.” Sandpoint Onstage play, 7:30 p.m. in the Panida. 265-2083 15-17 Schweitzer Winter Carnival Celebration. Schweitzer lights up the night with

a torchlight parade and fireworks Jan. 15, plus family-friendly events all weekend. 263-9555 21-22 “Hospitality Suite.” See Jan. 14-15.

22 Cougar Gulch Cross Country Race.

Schweitzer hosts Nordic event. 263-9555 27-29 Banff Mountain Film Festival. Panida Theater hosts World Tour 2011. 263-9191 28-30 Sportsman’s Expo. Third annual Sportsman’s Expo at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. 263-9887

February 2011 3 Solas. See POAC calendar.

4-March 4 Starlight Racing. Friday night

races at Schweitzer, followed by parties in Taps. 263-9555 12 “The Jungle Book.” See POAC calendar.

18 The Art Experience. Arts Alliance exhibits works from its classes, at Sandpoint Center for the Arts. 265-ARTS 18-19 “All the Best.” See Hot Picks.

25-26 Outrageous Air Show. Olympic skiers

join local talent in a big air show at Schweitzer.

Crazy themed parties follow in Taps. 263-9555 25-26 “All the Best.” See Hot Picks.

26 Schweitzer Extreme XC Race. 6K, 15K

and 30K contests at Schweitzer. 263-9555

March 2011 3 Chamber Orchestra Kremlin. See POAC

calendar.

8 Banff Radical Reels. Extreme sports films

Eugene Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” Friday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m.

POAC’s holiday tradition continues with the Eugene Ballet professionals along with talented young dancers from the Sandpoint region. Everyone loves this imaginative story line, colorful sets, dazzling costumes and spectacular dancing. Get your tickets early!

Solas, Thursday, Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m.

Since its birth in 1996, Solas has emerged as the most exciting band in traditional Irish music, and has been loudly proclaimed as the most popular and influential Celtic band to ever emerge from the United States.

Trumpeted by the Philadelphia Inquirer, saying they make “mind-blowing Irish music – maybe the world’s best!”

munity are the stars, guided by two professional actors.

Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Thursday, March 3, 7:30 p.m.

Founded in 1991 by acclaimed Music Director Misha Rachlevsky, the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin has carved a niche for itself by comprising some of Russia’s finest young string players and giving audiences high-energy, mesmerizing performances.

Handsome Little Devils, Friday, March 18, 7:30 p.m.

Making their mark on the Vaudeville Nouveau movement in America, Handsome Little Devils is an exhilarating, fantastical adventure featuring classic vaudeville comedy, high-skill circus acts and a plot rooted in American melodrama. The show explodes with high-energy acts such as the Human Cannon, Chainsaw Juggling and dancing!

“The Jungle Book,” Saturday, Feb. 12, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Lula Washington Dance Theatre Saturday, April 2, 7:30 p.m.

Missoula Children’s Theatre is back for another splendid production including many talented young local actors who make this timeless story about valuable lessons and heartwarming friendship come alive. The children in the com-

Lula Washington Dance Theatre is a 10-member modern dance company based in the inner city of Los Angeles and has become one of the most admired AfricanAmerican dance companies.

4-5 The Follies. See Hot Picks.

18-20 Stomp Games. Region’s best riders compete for serious cash prizes while spectators are treated to phenomenal stunts at Schweitzer. 263-9555

11 Student Art Show. POAC opens annual

22 Distorted Perspective Art. POAC opening

show at 6:30 p.m. at Panida Theater, sponsored by Mountain Fever. 263-9191

2 Lula Washington Dance Theatre. See

POAC calendar.

9-10 Tropical Daze. Season-ending festival

with fun and games at Schweitzer. 263-9555 22 Annual Wine Tasting, Dinner and Auction. Festival at Sandpoint fundraiser at

show with a reception at 5:30 p.m. in The Old Power House. Exhibit runs through April 15.

See story, page 54. 263-6139

reception, 5:30 p.m. in The Old Power House.

Exhibit runs through June 17. 263-6139

Bonner County Fairgrounds. 265-4554

12 Heuga Center Vertical Express for MS.

25-26 “Little Shop of Horrors.” Pend Oreille

Players musical comedy, 7 p.m. in the Panida.

263-9191

23-May 1 K&K Spring Fishing Derby. Lake

Annual event at Schweitzer to benefit the Heuga Center for Multiple Sclerosis. 263-9555 13 Grom Stomp. Schweitzer hosts a gromsized slopestyle and boardercross competition for those ages 6-11. 263-9555 18 Handsome Little Devils. See POAC cal-

endar.

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[POAC]

World-class entertainment arrives at Panida’s door with the 27th season of the annual Pend Oreille Arts Council (POAC) Performance Series. This year’s performers hail from as far away as Russia and feature a variety of entertainment including unique dance performances and enchanting plays. To purchase tickets with a credit or debit card, head to the POAC office inside The Old Power House or call 263-6139. Three other ticket outlets in Sandpoint accept cash or checks only – Eve’s Leaves at 326 N. First Ave., Eichardt’s Pub at 212 Cedar St. and Winter Ridge Natural Foods at 703 Lake St. All performances take place in the Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave., and are ADA accessible; listening devices are available for free.

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Pend Oreille Idaho Club’s annual spring fishing contest. 264-5796

April 2011

May 2011

1-2 24 Hours of Schweitzer. Third annual

19-22 Lost in the ’50s. Annual celebration in Sandpoint includes a downtown car parade and show, concerts and more. 265-LOST

24-hour ski-a-thon begins Friday and ends Saturday, raising funds for cystinosis research.

See story, page 9. 263-9555

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10/15/10 5:30 PM

Interview

NATE HOLLAND

Olympian and world-class snowboarder

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By Amie Wolf

Born and raised in Sandpoint by parents Don and Rebecca Holland, Nate spent his youth shredding Schweitzer Mountain, planting seeds to become a professional snowboarder. He started competing around the Northwest at 12 after a group of local parents, including his own, started Storm Riders, a snowboard team.

He won his first competition at Silver Mountain and was hooked to the thrill of success. Since then, he has had multiple trips to the podium in the exciting world of competitive snowboarding.

After graduating from Sandpoint High in 1997, Holland left for Oregon’s Mount Hood. Working as a parking attendant in exchange for a season pass and living in a tent by Trillium Lake were just stepping-stones to his dream. Holland’s riding progressed as he spent a winter in Salt Lake City and then settled in Tahoe, Calif.

Holland competed in snowboarding contests as they came

Clockwise from top: Nate Holland at the 2010 Olympics with cousins Nicole, Kelly and Erin McCoy and niece Reilly Holland; brothers Pat and Nate in Austria for World Cup race; and Nate, at age 12, on a homemade ramp

through Tahoe. His big break came in 2002 when he placed at his first international contest and nabbed an invitation to compete in his first Winter X Games. Since then he has won six gold medals in the X Games – five-peeting in 2010 – an X Games record. But he is still in search of an Olympic medal. If the next four years go as planned, Holland will be poised to make it to the podium in 2014.

When the snow melts, Holland, also a wakeboarder, often spends time in Sandpoint and in 2010 started Action Water Sports with younger brother, Pat Holland.

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SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

PHOTOS COURTESY REBECCA HOLLAND

ast winter, the town of Sandpoint cheered on one of its own during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Nate Holland, 32, a member of the U.S. Snowboard Team, participated in his second Winter Olympics in snowboardcross (SBX), an action-packed event akin to motocross.

Unfortunately, as often happens in the fast-paced and unpredictable realm of SBX, Holland went from a gold-grabbing lead in the finals to fourth place in a split second. Not discouraged, Holland is still determined and his energy shows no signs of ebbing.

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Interview What would you recommend to someone who dreams of becoming a professional snowboarder?

Nowadays, there’s great programs in the Northwest and around the whole U.S. to start off. Basically, just follow your dream and have fun with it. If you’re doing well and you’re getting to that next level, starting to do some national contests and really pitting yourself against some of the best in the world, just really stick with it. There are definitely times where I had run up some credit card debt and came to a couple different crossroads thinking, Am I really making the right decision here?, and I just decided to keep persevering and just climbing the ladder one step at a time. And finally all the practice paid off, and I got good enough to compete on a world stage.

When you first started competing, did you know you wanted to do SBX? At first I was actually really focusing on my freestyle snowboard career, and all I really wanted to do was ride half-pipe, slopestyle and big air. So when I moved out, I wasn’t focusing on SBX at all. I’d always do them and always had some degree of success at them. What really changed was in 2004, they announced that SBX was going to be an Olympic sport. My freestyle career was kind of petering out, and the kids were getting younger and going bigger, doing more flips. I just basically wasn’t as competitive as I wanted to be. So I kind of shifted gears and focused on SBX, was invited to the first U.S. snowboarding camp and basically won the camp and won

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Interview

my spot on the team. From there the team started funding me to do World Cups, and I started traveling and having success in the World Cup. My first World Cup debut I took fifth. The coaches were pretty excited about that because they didn’t have to put too much effort into coaching me.

And I was already at a competitive level so we just really worked on finetuning stuff. By the next year I hit the podium, and from there it was pretty much snowball effect.

This winter was your second Olympics. How would you compare your experience of 2006 in Torino to the 2010 Winter Olympics?

I think mentally I was more prepared for my second winter games. I knew what to expect with the media.

You’re on an international stage representing your country, and there’s a lot of added flair that goes to the

With an unprecedented five gold medals in a row, Nate Holland takes the X Games Podium in 2010

Olympics. I knew that I was going to have to do press conferences, photo shoots, and I also just knew what the pressure was going to feel like. Not saying that I wasn’t prepared in 2006, but I definitely knew what to expect in 2010. So I think that’s probably the biggest difference. Other than that, having it in Vancouver was definitely a treat. It was a Northwest race, so it felt a bit like a homecoming. I grew up in that sort of Northwest weather and knew what to expect and had a lot of family and friends show up.

That was all pretty cool. My racing has matured over the years. I used to be considered a pretty “hot under the collar” racer and would take some pretty big chances to make some moves. Sometimes they would work

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SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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10/18/10 11:57 AM

Interview

out and sometimes they wouldn’t, and I’d be wrapped up in a fence somewhere – kind of like the wreckor-win mentality. There’s definitely a maturity level that I’ve reached in my racing. You can see it just by watching film from the X Games, where I’ll be in third or fourth position out of the hole shot, and you’ll just see me kind of methodically work my way up through the crowd, passing here, passing there, not taking huge risks but charging all the time.

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Do you plan on competing in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia?

You know, I’d like to. It’s been a major goal of mine to have an Olympic medal. In 2006 it was a disappointment. I was riding really well and just made a mental mistake. I missed a move on a jump that shot me pretty high up in the air and into a crash.

And in this last Olympics 2010, in the finals at one point I was leading the race, and I went from a gold medal to a fourth place, with one little bobble in a corner. So I know I can do it. I thrive on big pressure races, and I just haven’t been able to do what I can do at the Olympics. It’s four years out, so I’ve got to stay healthy and competitive. I mean four years is a long time. As of right now I am definitely focused on it and would like to get there and am going to do everything possible to make it.

in the water ski/wakeboard business for, like, seven years down in Tahoe. I was working for my buddy’s business, and I know a place quite a bit like Tahoe that no one has done anything like this. I basically took the formula from down here and brought it up to Sandpoint. It takes a little time to get the word out – exactly what we’re doing and what we offer. But once the summer started getting going and the sun came out and heated everything up, we had a pretty successful first year. We plan to grow the business and for it to be a staple in Sandpoint for years to come.

This summer you and your brother Pat started Action Water Sports. How did your first season go?

It went great. I’d been working

How often do you get to train with your brother during the year?

We both go out to Park City every fall and train at the Center of

Above left: Nate Holland, center, with brothers Pat and Eric, and parents Don and Rebecca, enjoy a light moment at the 2010 Olympics. Above right: Nate, in the driver’s seat, launched Action Water Sports with Pat on Lake Pend Oreille last summer

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Interview Excellence. It’s a new training facility, a $22 million facility that the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team built. So we go and live in Park City for about two to three months every fall – live in the same house with the rest of the team and work out together. From there we basically go straight into our season. We’re both on the same World Cup tour, so we travel week in, week out, all winter long with each other.

It’s kind of cool to have a brother on tour. It gets a little lonely out there.

We have a great group of guys on our team.

This past summer you participated in the Brian Farber Pro Soccer Camp in Sandpoint and had lots of little guys coming up to you for an autograph. When you come back to Sandpoint, how does it feel when you’re approached for an autograph in your hometown?

It feels good, you know. I’ve definitely worked hard to achieve what I’ve achieved, and to have a great community like Sandpoint supporting you is definitely humbling. If I could be a role model for any of the younger kids coming out of Sandpoint, to kind of prove that even coming from a small town tucked away at the Canadian border, that if you stick to your dreams and passions, you can pretty much achieve whatever you’d like. Sandpoint offers such a great outdoor playground. You can’t help but think there’s such a great talent pool that comes out of there.

Kids come out of Sandpoint swimming, playing on the lake, boating, mountain biking. Whatever you’re into, you have a great playground for honing your skills. It’s definitely an honor to have people asking for your autograph.

How long do you plan on competing in snowboarding, and what are your plans once your competitive career is done?

I usually take my snowboard career in four-year increments, going off the Olympic schedule. I definitely plan on going full blast through 2014, Sochi, Russia, and then reassessing a few different things. How much fun

I’m having is a huge factor. I think that definitely relates to how good my results are and how lucrative it is. I’ve worked really hard to get to where I am right now, and I don’t feel like stepping down anytime soon. I love the snowboard industry and recently had an opportunity to coach the Junior World Cup team down in New Zealand. I enjoyed doing some coaching, so that could be an avenue I might like to explore a little bit more.

I’ve also done a lot of work with

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people trying to progress SBX, with board designs and course designs. It’s an exciting sport; I just never want it to come across as getting old or stale.

There’s always more things we can do course-wise to make it more exciting to watch, more exciting to ride, to let the rider progress. That’s all wintertime stuff. … Summertime is Action Water Sports – hanging out on the dock, getting kids out on the water and families out on the water to enjoy Lake Pend Oreille.

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H E A LT H

Ubiquitous yoga In Sandpoint, a whole lot of posing is going on

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ike many, my perception of yoga had been manipulated by beautifully illustrated calendars and magazines that lead us to believe that to do yoga, one must be able to wrap their arms around their body six times, hold their ears with their toes and levitate. They must also wear a lot of white linen.

Story by Haley Sorbel Photos by Marsha Lutz

My journey would teach me that nothing could be further from the truth. Initially, my interest started when I was told that yoga is incredible training for rock climbing. That was later fueled by an observation my physical therapist made.

She told me I had the flexibility of a 70-year-old woman – at 23. Hence, my yoga journey began.

While yoga can be traced back at least 5,000 years, its specific origins are vague. Yoga’s evolution as a system of exercise for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being continues as it spreads around the world. With so many schools of thought, hundreds of poses and ways to entwine those poses, and with the spiritual, physical and mental components, yoga encompasses a journey that could take a lifetime to master. Considered both an exercise and a philosophy, the power of yoga has been seen time and again throughout its history. Today it has gone from ancient ritual and spiritual force to Hollywood trend, day spa activity, and finally, back to the mat.

That’s where we find it in Sandpoint.

Yoga is good for the body and the mind, as Abby Corriveau, co-owner of The Integrative Athlete, demonstrates in this meditative pose on Lake Pend Oreille

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H E A LT H At least 11 yoga studios exist in Sandpoint, while Coeur d’Alene only has two, despite its much greater population.

So what is it about this small town that not only attracts but sustains more than 10 yoga studios?

It was written best by editor Darlene Dibble in the local yoga newsletter, Yoga Threads (www.yogathreads.org): “Those of us who live in the Northwest live here because of the natural beauty that surrounds us. It opens the doorway to our hearts. When we come this close to nature, we very often experience our own true nature. We become alive, vibrate with creative energy and can live in peace, harmony and into our raison d’être.”

Twisted Root Yoga owner/instructor Julia Quinn shares this perspective: “Why are there so many restaurants in town?

Everyone has their favorite spot, favorite menu. Yoga is the same.”

Linda Ries, of the Yoga Studio, one of the founding Sandpoint studios, appreciates this aspect as well. “It gives me the freedom to teach what it is that yoga means to me.”

The Yoga Studio offers a variety of classes, including a unique class that weaves in Christian scripture.

This illustrates that not only is each studio beautifully different, but, to each person in that studio, yoga means something different.

“You get from yoga what you want, what you need in that moment,” said Ries.

Julia Quinn of Twisted Root Yoga teaches an arm balance called “Tittibhasana” at a teacher training in Bali, Indonesia (courtesy photo)

Some would say yoga is like therapy. Quinn refers to the mat as a “mini lab.”

“It’s a place we can study reactions and study ourselves, then bring awareness outside the yoga room,” she said.

Twisted Root rests in a quiet, remodeled studio space and contains a “shoes off” tea room, complemented by an adjoining physical therapy office run by her husband.

Quinn focuses on Vinyasa flow yoga. She says in life, changes or transitions are often the biggest challenge. If you master the transitions in yoga, then you can carry them over

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H E A LT H

Incorporating humor into his sessions, Peter Mico says it helps ease the body into the pose and releases tension

into your life.

Twisted Root also offers a yoga book club, and Quinn is hoping to grow the yoga community by offering therapeutic yoga workshops, wellness programs and retreats.

Abby Corriveau, co-owner of The Integrative Athlete, says yoga is about respecting yourself and your body – honoring where you are in your practice. She says yoga also adheres to non-violence, and that injuries and discomforts may be your greatest teacher.

Corriveau avoids mirrors in her studio.

“We want to promote inner awareness. Mirrors are a distraction,” she says. “We need to learn how to feel the pose, and remember that every body is different. So many people are so disconnected from their bodies that they can’t even feel how to straighten their backs.”

The Integrative Athlete has found a niche by offering a studio that combines three complementary Eastern practices: Ashtanga yoga, kettlebell training and jujitsu.

Corriveau, with her business partner and fiancé Danny Clark, added yoga to their studio mainly to promote injury prevention, improve range of motion and calm anxieties, a key element for those competing in martial arts.

The Integrative Athlete recently moved to a new location on Oak Street, offering amenities including child care, locker rooms and massage therapy while maintaining a mirror-free studio.

Peter Mico, of Downtown Yoga, a serene, naturally lit First Avenue studio, says yoga is about “going inside.”

“It makes you ultimately more grounded,” Mico says.

“We forget to live in the moment. In yoga, it’s just you, on the mat, breathing.”

Mico contrasts his classes by integrating humor, a refreshing change from what can often be a serious, quiet practice.

“Humor softens the brain,” he says. “It allows more absorption. Once that happens, you can ease into the pose and it releases tension.”

Downtown Yoga also offers partner, prenatal and

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H E A LT H become through yoga, more patient, giving, compassionate.”

Lindy Lewis, who offers classes at Natural Fitness as well as one-on-one sessions in homes, has infused yoga into Pilates to create, what she calls, Piloga.

“Pilates is rigid and precise,” she says. “The yoga component brings in intentional stretching, leading to a strengthening and lengthening practice.”

Lewis came to yoga and Pilates after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis five years ago. Faced with a situation that would put many people in a state of defeat, Lewis instead took it to the mat.

“MS was a gift to me,” she says. “It made me choose my health. In my mind, I feel that I’ve left my diseased body behind.”

At every studio, a breathing success story, such as Lewis, stands in the room. “mommy-and-me” yoga, as well as dance classes.

Nearly all yoga studios give back to the community by Sandpoint Hot Yoga specializes in Bikram yoga, which is ideeither offering an open class or giving donations to a worthy ally practiced in a room of 102 degrees with 40 percent humidity. The same 26 postures repeated throughout the series can be local cause.

Sandpoint’s most recent community treat took place last found in any Bikram studio throughout the world.

August when local studios came together to create an unforMasochism? gettable experience. Mico knew that musician Michael Franti “It’s actually one of the most beginner forms of yoga,” was a yoga practitioner, and he was scheduled to perform says instructor Kerri Kuntz. She cites benefits of heat: the at the 2010 Festival at Sandpoint – sparking an idea. Mico ability to go deeper into poses because muscles are warm invited Debbie Dippre, one of Sandpoint’s original yoga pioand relaxed, thus preventing injury as well as boosting heart neers, to host the event. An invitation was extended to Franti, rates; increasing circulation; promoting natural detoxificabut no one knew if he would be able to make it. tion through sweat; and stimulating focus and concentration “Not only did he come,” said Tamara Verby, the festival’s through each pose. accounts manager, “he actually led yoga for the first 15 min“It really just intensifies the whole experience,” Kuntz utes!” said, adding that everyone gets to their own level on their Mico added: “Michael led the opening meditation. When own terms, and consistent practice is key. he walked out from his bus, over to where we were, it was “It’s the most unselfish thing you can do,” she says. “You beautiful. Birds were chirping, drums were beating. It was a magical day.”

More than 200 people turned out for the event, raising nearly $2,000 to benefit the Festival at Sandpoint’s educational mission, as well as Franti’s Sandpoint’s active yoga community is well-represented Stay Human project. by the number of studios, practitioners and types of “I was just hoping for maybe 100 yoga offered. Following are 11 offering classes regularly. people,” Mico said.

Dyno Wahl, the festival’s executive Downtown Yoga, 119 N. First Ave., 255-6177, www.downtownyoga.us director, said there is talk about hostHope Memorial Center, 415 Wellington Pl. in Hope, 264-4581 ing a yoga event again next year; she Inquire Within, 516 Oak St., 255-7903, www.inquirewithin.com hopes to hold it on a Saturday so more The Integrative Athlete, 506 Oak St., 946-4855, www.theintegrativeathlete.com people can attend.

“This really showed that there is a Gardenia Center, 400 Church St., 255-4450 true yoga community here,” said Mico, Mudita Yoga, 525 S. Florence Ave., 610-8470, www.yogathreads.org naming off the many local studios that Natural Fitness, 1103 Superior St., 263-0676, www.naturalfitnessgym.com participated. “Within your own studio, Sandpoint Hot Yoga, 1237 Michigan St., 263-7666, www.sandpointhotyoga.com you don’t realize how big the culture Sandpoint West Athletic Club, 1905 Pine St., 263-6633, www.sandpointwest.com is, but then to see all the studios come Twisted Root Yoga, 334 Pine St., 963-9642, www.twistedrootyoga.com together, and the different types of yoga and talented instructors, it’s really The Yoga Studio, 1309 Ponderosa Dr., 290-8789, www.sandpointyogastudio.com inspiring.”

Yoga studios

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Opposite: In a studio kept at 102 degrees, Kerri Kuntz leads a class in Bikram yoga Above: Musician and Spearhead frontman Michael Franti, center, leads opening meditation the morning of his Festival at Sandpoint concert, Aug. 13, 2010, at an event dubbed The Sunshine Moonshine Yoga Festival

And what about the rest of the country?

“America is fertile soil for yoga,” said Mico. “It’s poised and ready to go.”

As for me, I had embarked on a walkabout through Sandpoint’s yoga studios on the premise that I would push my physical limits, learn a thing or two, and prove that physical therapist wrong.

In the end, I learned that the importance of proving someone wrong was far outweighed by the importance of proving something to myself. First, I would actually be happy with the flexibility of a 70-year-old yoga practitioner.

Second, to find a sense of community, sometimes all one has to do is take the time to breathe.

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A lot can happen in

T

20 years.

hat’s how long it’s been since Sandpoint Magazine was first published. It was launched from a one-room office with a Mac SE by a handful of folks who wanted to try something new for this town: a magazine to reflect our beautiful place in the

world. That first Winter 1991 issue was 32 pages – half in black and white – with briefs on trains, our “bottomless” lake, the green “This Family Supported by Timber Dollars” signs, a feature on Schweitzer’s landmark renovation, and a tribute to Ross Hall, who had died at 85 a few days before the magazine went to press.

Now it’s 20 years later. A lot has changed, including Sandpoint Magazine itself, at a healthy 116 full-color pages. Our mission, though, remains the same: to hold a mirror up to our town. With its glorious natural setting, friendly and involved community, and lively cultural life, Sandpoint is still a beautiful picture to reflect. And we’re optimistic that, 20 years hence, we’ll be saying just the same thing.

Harold’s Foods

Then

Sandpoint Financial Center

Lakeside Inn

Population: Sandpoint 5,203. Bonner County 26,622.

Traffic: 1Two stoplights in Sandpoint. 2Fifth Avenue two lanes plus turn lane. 3Union Pacific Railroad tracks parallel Highway 2/Fifth Avenue through downtown. 4Sand Creek undeveloped.

Schweitzer: 48 runs, one high-speed chairlift, new day lodge and hotel, night skiing starts, beginner’s T-bar replaced by Chair 2, terrain totals 2,500 acres.

Owned by co-founding Brown family.

Development: Sandpoint High School under construction; K-Mart just opened, Bristlecone low-income housing project built off West Pine; Panhandle Animal Shelter occupies its first building on Great Northern Road. No gated communities.

Downtown landmarks: 1Panhandle Milling granary; 2Harold’s Superfoods, Cinema 4 and Laundromat; 3Pastime Sports Shop and Café; 4Whistle Stop Café; 5Bugatti’s Pub and Army Surplus; 6Kamloops Bar; 7Company Store and Vintage Wheel Museum; 8L-P sawmill; 9Northern Lights, Inc.; 0Lakeside Inn; -Garden Restaurant. =Ninth Grade Center vacant.

Real estate: 1Two-bedroom condo with ski in/ski out access, spa, views of the lake at Schweitzer listed with Evergreen Realty sold for $109,900.

2Two-bedroom, one-bath remodeled home on a large lot in town listed with C.M. Brewster & Co. sold for $53,500.

Education: Bonner County School District encompasses entire county with 16 schools, 5,331 students. No online schools.

Sand Creek Bypass

Now

Sandpoint 8,370. Bonner County 41,403.

1Six stoplights in town; four more in Ponderay; one new roundabout. 2Fifth Avenue five lanes. 3Downtown railroad tracks removed. 4Sand Creek bypass under construction.

92 runs, four high-speed chairlifts, two additional buildings (a hotel and retail complex) in Schweitzer Village, Idyle Our T-bar accesses new terrain to total 2,900 acres. Owned by McCaw Group of Seattle.

New Kootenai School just completed; Walmart supplanted K-Mart, now neighbored by Home Depot; new low-income housing near fairgrounds and on Kootenai Cut-off Road; Panhandle Animal Shelter in new large quarters in Ponderay. Idaho Club, Stillwater Point, other gated communities.

Replaced by 1Panhandle Mill Plaza; 2Sandpoint Financial Center; 3The Dive and Oishii; 4MickDuff’s; 5Bistro at the Inn at Sand Creek; 6First Light Gallerie and Panida’s Little Theater; 7Pend d’Oreille Winery; 8Super 1 Foods; 9WestPointe Plaza; 0bypass; -vacant lot. =Old Ninth Grade Center renovated into Sandpoint Business and Events Center.

1Comparably sized two-bedroom ski condo listed with Evergreen Realty sold in April 2010 for $330,000.

2Comparable two-bedroom listed with Evergreen sold in 2010 for $171,000.

School district split in 1999; Lake Pend Oreille School District serves the east side of the county with 11 schools, 3,672 students. West Bonner County School District has 6 schools, 1,315 students. Sandpoint Charter has 2 schools, 276 students. Total: 19 schools and 5,263 students (not including online).

Library: East Bonner County Library is housed downtown in small, former fed- Library has completed its first decade at its new main branch on West eral building on Second Avenue.

Cedar Street.

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Clockwise from left: actor Viggo Mortensen, cinematographer Erik Daarstad, author Dr. Foster Cline, musician Beth Pederson, and actor/author Ben Stein at City Beach on Independence Day with Michael Dilts, left, and Bobby Blair

Where are they, now?

Sandpoint Magazine tracks down all 40 Feature Interview subjects from the past 20 years By Susan Drinkard

S

and Jennifer Lamont Leo

including a Pulitzer Prize in 1994, he received the National ince the premier issue of Winter 1991, Sandpoint Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Magazine has had a consistent department – Advocacy in 2008. In 2010 he conducted Bach’s “Mass in Feature Interview – in all 40 editions to date.

B Minor” at St. John’s Cathedral in Spokane. His modernist The magazine has published interviews with such notable orchestral work “Where the Word Ends” premiered at the Sandpoint-connected people as John Roskelley and Warren Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2009.

Miller, who were loosely connected to our fair burg, and othArtist Nancy Reddin Kienholz (Winter 1992) divides ers, such as Patrick McManus and Ward Tollbom, who were her time between Hope, Idaho, Houston, and Berlin. Since born and raised here. We’ve caught up with these individuals through e-mails, telephone, in person or through the Internet being widowed by the pioneer of installation or assemblage art, Edward Kienholz, who died of a heart attack in 1994, to find out if they are still doing what made them famous. her solo work has been exhibited in Los Legendary ski filmmaker Warren Miller Angeles, New York, Finland, London, (Winter 1991) was fresh off filming at Zurich, Berlin and Amsterdam. Ed Kienholz Schweitzer Mountain and other exotic locales was buried in his 1940 Packard coupe in the around the globe for his 41st annual action mountains near Hope. ski flick, “Extreme Winter,” when Publisher He’s climbed some of the highest peaks Chris Bessler interviewed him for the inauguon the planet. After a nine-year stint as a ral issue of Sandpoint Magazine. Miller, now Spokane County commissioner and then six 86, is retired and living on Orcas Island in the years on the Growth Management Hearings San Juan Islands with his wife, Laurie. Miller, Board, the world-class mountain climber and who broke his back while skiing in 2010, has author John Roskelley (Summer 1992) is been writing his autobiography. now self-employed as a photojournalist. He At 84, composer and conductor Gunther still lives on a farm with his wife, Joyce, in Schuller (Summer 1991), former artistic Spokane, Wash. “I still climb, although not director for the Festival at Sandpoint, is still at the same level of intensity. Climbing is active in music. The recipient of many awards, Composer Gunther Schuller

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where are they now? no longer the obsession it once was for me,” he said. He has begun “sea kayaking the Columbia River from source to mouth and running ‘legs’ of the Pacific Crest Trail, both of which take a lot of preparation, training and time.”

Roskelley Climber John Roskelley says he is still connected with Sandpoint through the Hawkins family. “I love the lake, walking through the draft horse show in the fall, glassing for bear in the high mountains, and romping up Scotchman Peak for exercise. Sandpoint has lost that small town feel, but it’s still a great place to visit,” he said.

Beloved poet and teacher Paul Croy (Winter 1993) of Hope died in 1997.

L.M. Boyd (Summer 1993), syndicated trivia and amusing facts columnist, died in 2007. He spent part of his childhood in Spokane and in Noxon, Mont., where his father lived.

Ward Tollbom (Winter 1994) continues to paint extremely detailed paintings in the unforgiving medium of watercolor. He Watercolor artist Ward Tollbom cannot keep up with the demand for his work, sold at his Hen’s Tooth Studio at 322 N. First.

Tollbom works with daughter Delci at his frame shop and employs a sharp comedic wit. Not long ago Tollbom painted a crow commissioned by Viggo Mortensen. His latest painting is a “very intricately complicated thing to paint” – a Franklin’s grouse, or fool’s hen.

Dennis and Ann Pence (Summer

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where are they now?

1994), founders of Coldwater Creek, built up their company to successful heights before Ann retired in 2002 as creative director, followed by the couple’s divorce in 2003. Dennis retired in 2007 and then returned in 2009 as chairman and CEO of Coldwater Creek, as the company was reeling from the recession. Since his return the retailer has recovered somewhat, posting an income of $1.5 million during second quarter 2010, compared to a $4.9 million loss the same period in 2009. Pence says he feels “confident in our merchandising and creative direction” and that the company is “(positioned) well to meet our profitability expectations for the fall and holiday seasons,” as quoted in the Daily Bee, Aug. 28, 2010.

At 89, Dr. Forrest Bird (Winter 1995) is busier than ever with his twin passions, aviation and medical technology. His company, Bird Space Technology, continues to manufacture medical respirators, and he and wife

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Dr. Forrest Bird and wife Pamela Riddle Bird

Pamela Riddle Bird founded the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center in 2007 near their home in Sagle.

Staffed by 70 volunteers, the museum hosts such groundbreaking programs as Camp Invention. Bird has been featured on 60 Minutes and received two presidential honors: the Presidential Citizens Medal (2008) and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2009).

He’s been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Living Legends of Aviation and the Idaho Aviation Hall of Fame, and has received several other honors in medicine and new technologies. He still rides his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and is “the oldest active

helicopter instructor in the world.” He tells the kids at Camp Invention, “One person can change the world, and it can be you.”

Outdoors humor writer, novelist and Sandpoint native Patrick McManus (Summer 1995) has nearly completed his fifth Bo Tully mystery novel. The fourth, “The Huckleberry Murders,” published by Simon & Schuster, comes out in November. The novels are set in the fictional Blight County,

Patrick McManus still fishes and writes tall tales

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where are they now?

Idaho, where Bo Tully is the not-sorule-bound sheriff. One reader wrote McManus to say that, at age 73, she had fallen in love with his fictional protagonist. “My editor wants me to start appealing to younger women. Editors are never satisfied,” he says.

McManus, 77, lives with his wife, Darlene, in Spokane, where his main outdoor activity is working on their almost-vertical garden. He says his connections to Sandpoint are few, though he still has many friends here. “My mental image of Sandpoint consists of the way it was when I was growing up.

Schweitzer Creek, where I learned to fish and camp, is now gone, dried up, disappeared completely. So there is not much of the old Sandpoint left that I can still relate to. It has become much too sophisticated for me.”

Singer-songwriter and local favorite Beth Pederson (Winter 1996) was one of the Wild Roses when interviewed with partner Cinde Borup 15 years ago. Borup passed away in 1998,

but Pederson continues to sing and play acoustic folk, often collaborating with Bruce Bishop. A solo lullaby album and a CD with Bishop is in the works, she says. Pederson hosts concerts at Di Luna’s in Sandpoint, a great venue for an intimate musical experience, and she has a sign-painting business. See www. bethpederson.com to learn about her two solo CDs and earlier Wild Roses CDs. Renowned landscape artist Stephen Lyman (Summer 1996) died at age 38 in a hiking accident in the spring of 1996 while hiking in Yosemite National Park. Published posthumously, Sandpoint Magazine’s interview with Lyman is believed to have been the artist’s last interview before his death.

Author and environmental activist Rick Bass (Winter 1997) has a new novel, “Nashville Chrome.” He says his connection to Sandpoint now is Scott Daily, a fellow member of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, a group working to protect the “last roadless areas in the Yaak.” He divides his time between the

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Author Rick Bass works to protect the Yaak

Yaak and Missoula, Mont., where his daughters are finishing up school.

Interviewed a year after moving here amid the cacophony of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, Mark Fuhrman (Summer 1997) is now an author and a forensic and crime scene consultant for FOX News Channel. His latest book, “The Murder Business,” explores the media’s role in high-profile criminal

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where are they now?

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cases. When not traveling, Fuhrman enjoys fishing, hunting and pampering his 1961 Porsche. About Sandpoint he says, “We’re lucky we’re here. The mountains, the lakes, the climate – we have the best of everything.”

Ben Stein (Winter 1998) recently co-wrote “The Little Book of Bulletproof Investing,” with Phil DeMuth. His controversial 2008 documentary, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” critiqued mainstream academia’s attitude toward intelligent design. He still lives part-time in Sandpoint and is spotted regularly around town.

Former Green Bay Packer and Sandpoint Bulldog Jerry Kramer (Summer 1998) has signed with ESPN Films as assistant producer on a movie about Vince Lombardi. Robert De Niro will play the legendary coach, and Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump”) is writing the screenplay. “Lombardi” is scheduled for release in early 2012.

Additionally, Kramer is one of the

founders of HealthSpan LLC-120 Plus Club, a medical facility in Scottsdale, Ariz. While he spends a lot of time on the road, Kramer, who lives in Boise, says, “I love Idaho, and whenever I have some spare time, I want to be here.” For the past two years, he has participated in fundraising efforts on behalf of the DayBreak Center, a local organization offering respite care for dementia patients, alongside former Denver Bronco Jake Plummer (see Summer 2008, below), whom he calls a “classy guy.”

Brothers Edward and Doug Hawkins (Winter 1999), president and CEO respectively of Litehouse Inc. report that since 1999, “sales volume is about 125 percent greater,” citing new products and the purchase of Seattle’s Green Garden Foods. “Probably the biggest event is our decision to become an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program),” Edward said. “As original owners, (Doug and I) are committed to Sandpoint and the jobs we have been able to create. … The Hawkins family has been a part of the Sandpoint community since 1881 and hopes to be part of it for generations to come.”

Back in 1999, Nancy Hadley (Summer 1999) was serving two terms on the board of Idaho Fish and Game.

Today she’s a certified financial planner with D.A. Davidson, consulting on financial security and retirement planning.

She’s also active with Rotary, Bonner General Hospital Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The avid outdoorswoman recently added archery to her skills. “Hunting,” she says,

Nancy Hadley with a 58-pound paddlefish she caught in the Missouri River

“is how I feed my spirit.”

He was America’s favorite veterinarian in 2000, and it appears he still has the charm. Marty Becker, DVM, (Winter 2000) is the “resident veterinarian for ‘Good Morning America’ and ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ ” according to his Facebook page. He continues to write a syndicated pet-care column with Gina Spadafori. He and wife Teresa live near Bonners Ferry, and he works as a vet at North Idaho Animal Hospital.

Biologists Mark and Delia Owens (Summer 2000) continue to help some 52 villages in Zambia with microlending for small, sustainable business development, conservation education, improved subsistence agriculture, and rural healthcare, so “people will not have to poach or cooperate with commercial poachers in order to survive,” says Mark. He says they are also “protecting and restoring wetland habitat in northern Idaho and supporting the restoration of predator populations to our ecosystems so that they are better balanced and more resilient.” For a closer look at their work, look up www.owensfoundation.org.

Dr. Foster Cline (Winter 2001), cofounder of the Love and Logic Institute, has written three new

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where are they now? books with Lisa Greene for parents of kids with chronic illnesses, including “Parenting Children with Health Issues.” He supports Jacey’s Race and also enjoys photography. Living in Sandpoint, he says, “is like living inside a Kodak moment.”

In the past nine years, filmmaker Erik Daarstad (Summer 2001) of Sandpoint finished “Sandpoint: At the North End of the Long Bridge,” which premiered at the Panida Theater in November 2002. He has continued his work as cinematographer on documentary films. “Sing!” was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002 and followed up by “Sing Opera” in 2008 and “Sing China” in 2009. In 2005 he started work on “Fighting for Life,” an account of doctors, nurses and wounded soldiers in the Iraq war. Another documentary, “Lt. Watada: A Matter of Conscience” about an army lieutenant who refused deployment to Iraq because he believed the war was illegal, was on the short list for an Academy Award this year.

Currently Daarstad says he is working on a film about Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest in Los Angeles, who some 20 years ago started a successful program to help L.A. gang members find jobs and integrate into society.

World-champion ski racer and wood craftsman, Reider Wahl (Winter 2002) is still making custom-made furniture and cabinetry at Lost Cabin Studios, home of Norwegian Wood, in Sagle.

Although he no longer owns it, Scott Glickenhaus (Summer 2002) is known for developing the architecturally stunning Cedar Street Bridge.

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The entrepreneur, who has lived in the Sandpoint area for nearly 40 years, is also known for his opposition to the Sand Creek bypass, calling it the “worst blunder Sandpoint has done in 100 years” because he does not believe it will solve Sandpoint’s traffic problems.

Glickenhaus is “nearly retired,” he says, and is planning to climb a volcano in Ecuador this winter.

Hailing from Bonners Ferry, singer and songwriter Shari Short (Winter 2003), whose talent was discovered at the Miss Teen Idaho competition, opened for Air Supply at the 2002 Festival at Sandpoint. She subsequently joined the soft rock band as a background singer and toured the world.

Short no longer tours with the group.

“I still keep in touch with them. They are family!” she says. Short now lives in Los Angeles where she is writing music with other artists including Jessica Simpson, Miley Cyrus and Joe Jonas.

“I have had songs placed on ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ and I am just loving life,” she says.

After 28 years, Steve and Elizabeth Willey (Summer 2003) sold Backwoods Solar, but the company lives on, “doing very well as the green energy field continues fantastic growth.” The Willeys continue their untiring volunteerism with the Panhandle Animal Shelter and are still active in Sandpoint Friends (Quaker) as well as the new Sandpoint Vegetarians, “both of which fit our lifelong beliefs and work for a more peaceful, nonviolent approach to solving problems in the world.” When they travel in the winter months, they carry an electric motor scooter to help explore and do errands, “charged often by the solar panels on top of the camper.”

Frank VanderSloot (Winter 2004) has been CEO of Idaho Fallsbased Melaleuca, Inc., for more than 25 years, reporting that 2010 will be a record sales year – success he attributes to “our wide range of wellness products based on safe, natural ingredients.” The northern Idaho native, 62, says: “I get back to Cocolalla quite often. We still own the 80 acres I grew up on,” plus an

Elizabeth and Steve Willey RV with solar power

additional 260 acres. VanderSloot’s sister and brother-in-law, Luana and Wilbur Hiebert, run an all-natural farm on the property, selling range-grown chickens, eggs, milk and beef. “There seems to be a very high demand for natural foods in northern Idaho,” VanderSloot says.

Silverwood founder Gary Norton (Summer 2004) reports that since 2004, Boulder Beach has almost doubled in size, and Silverwood has added thrilling attractions like the Panic Plunge Drop Tower and Aftershock. “I’m proud of the fact that Silverwood has become the No. 1 attended attraction in the state of Idaho, per the Idaho Department of Commerce,” Norton says. “I plan to continue to invest in the park and our great state with new attractions like Scarywood Haunted Nights, rides, venues and events.”

Actor Viggo Mortensen (Winter 2005) still lives part-time in Clark Fork (brother Charles lives in Sandpoint) and has just published a new book of his poetry and photographs, “Canciones de Invierno/Winter Songs.” He is currently in New Orleans, working on the movie version of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” set to release in 2011.

Georgia Shonk-Simmons (Summer 2005), president and chief merchandising officer at Coldwater Creek, plans to retire from the retail and catalog giant in May 2011. Still involved with Panhandle Alliance for Education, Shonk-Simmons works to improve education in Lake Pend Oreille

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SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

where are they now?

Gary Norton and Engine No. 7 at Silverwood

schools. She and husband Howard Simmons live on the lake, where they enjoy recreating together.

Called the most admired novelist of our time, Marilynne Robinson (Winter 2006) is author of the contemporary classic, “Housekeeping.” This Sandpoint native still lives in Iowa City, Iowa, teaches at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, and works on nonfiction. “I travel more these days, but I am fond of my life here and don’t contemplate any change more radical than (probably partial) retirement,” she said. Since being interviewed five years ago after she won the Pulitzer Prize for “Gilead,” she

wrote “Home,” and “Absence of Mind.”

She recently appeared on “The Daily Show” where she met Jon Stewart only “very briefly, but I was impressed with his graciousness and his seriousness.”

World-class kayaker Ed Lucero (Summer 2006) no longer lives in Sandpoint but still paddles every chance he gets. As a full-time dad to infant twins, he vows “no more huge waterfalls.” He helps at-risk youth near his New Mexico home; teaches swimming and kayaking through the YMCA; and also teaches kids how to build and repair bicycles used in developing countries like Kenya, where Lucero spent several years. He is a court-appointed special advocate and serves on the board of a teen pregnancy coalition.

Lucero and his wife, Erika, are designing their own eco-friendly solar home out of shipping containers and adobe – a design he calls “a low-cost and architecturally pleasing alternative to trailer homes.” He loves northern Idaho and claims the Clark Fork River is the ideal

spot for a whitewater park.

Mark Story (Winter 2007), a retired film director who specialized in TV commercials, spent years photographing aged people across the globe and in 2006 self-published his work in a limited edition book, “Living in Three Centuries.” In conjunction with the book, he debuted his photography exhibit in galleries in Sandpoint and Missoula; four years later this traveling exhibit has been around the world and garnered an immense amount of press

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When contacted in September, Story said the exhibit was heading to Denmark for inclusion in a huge show on health. Now 63, Story still lives part-time in East Hope, as well as in Garfield, Wash., and in the mountains of Arizona. He continues to photograph people and eat and drink well.

“I walk six miles every other day and bike 15 miles every other day so I can keep eating and drinking all I can,” Story said. He and wife Pam still support the Panhandle Animal Shelter and help rescue dogs, including two shelter dogs they adopted in recent years.

Political cartoonist Bill Mitchell (Summer 2007) is still enjoying life in Sandpoint but says he “stopped cartooning about a year ago. The reason is quite simple: Once America elected Barack Obama, there was no longer any need for scathing political cartoons – so I retired!” Mitchell is working with four “really smart guys on a Web-based application for medical practices.”

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Spokane dentist who envisioned a ski area near Sandpoint in 1960, died in 2009 at age 87.

Former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer (Summer 2008) now heads the Jake Plummer Foundation, committed to helping sick and abused children and raising awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and its effects. He works with fellow NFL great Jerry Kramer on annual fundraisers for the DayBreak Center. In 2009 he began helping to coach the Sandpoint Bulldogs football team and established a youth handball league at Sandpoint West Athletic Club; about 20 participated last winter, five of them starters on the football team. He also runs a handball tournament in Coeur d’Alene – the Plummer Family Handball Bash – now in its third year, which draws top-ranked handball pros. All money raised goes to his foundation and, in turn, is returned to the local community. Finally, he and wife Kollette are new parents.

Paul Schaller (Winter 2009) is still CEO of Quest Aircraft, Inc. Per the company’s Web site, Quest manufactures the Kodiak aircraft and is currently exploring “how it might fit the United States military’s needs for light mobility as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles.” Schaller quips, “Personally, I lead a fairly boring existence, trying to keep the wheels spinning at Quest.”

Curt Hecker (Summer 2009) remains CEO of Panhandle State Bank and its parent corporation, Intermountain Community Bancorp.

He is also on the board of directors of Coldwater Creek and of Pacific Coast Bankers Bank.

Classical guitarist Leon Atkinson (Winter 2010) remains an active musician, including a current tour performing in South Carolina and California – despite his need of a kidney transplant from a living kidney donor with Blood Type A. Kristy Osmunson (Summer 2010), cofounder of the country music duo Bomshel, lives in Nashville, Tenn. Bomshel was nominated by the Academy of Country Music for Top New Duo in January.

WINTER 2011

10/15/10 12:53 PM

SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

Sandpoint in 2030?

Local luminaries prognosticate To celebrate 20 years of publication, Sandpoint Magazine asked several locals to provide predictions on what the next 20 years might hold for Sandpoint. Their answers cover a variety of concerns, but all acknowledge the town’s splendor and evince a faith in the hard work and community-mindedness of its residents.

Gretchen Hellar, mayor of Sandpoint

In 20 years Sandpoint will have a vibrant downtown that will be a gathering place for citizens and visitors alike.

The economic base of our community will be more diverse and offer goodpaying jobs that allow Sandpoint’s youth the ability to raise their families here. Our parks, our natural areas and our trail systems will be models that other cities will want to emulate. We will still be arguing about how long you have to live here before you can be considered a “local.” Our neighborhoods closest to the downtown core will be “hot” properties for people who live and work here – not vacation homes.

We will export more Sandpoint products and services and import less. We will be a model of sustainability.

Eric Paull, chairman, Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency Board

I imagine Sandpoint with a vibrant and diverse business community, a boardwalk continuing to the Healing Garden, state-of-the-art connectivity that provides the businesses an opportunity to compete globally, a multipurpose community center, and redevelopment of the former LP mill site and University of Idaho agriculture sites into unique neighborhoods that provide for educational and job opportunities.

Lewis Rich, county commissioner

Changes are inevitable in Bonner County, given the attractiveness of the lake and the ski hill. Despite the recession, people are still arriving in significant numbers. Over the next 20 years, WINTER 2011

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By Cate Huisman Some luminaries who gave their predictions for Sandpoint’s future are, from left, Eric Paull, Gretchen Hellar, Marcella Nelson, Dick Cvitanich, Steve Meyer and Lewis Rich

PHOTOS BY MARIE-DOMINIQUE VERDIER

people

the growing city of Sandpoint may need to annex some of the land around it or enter into cooperative agreements with neighboring cities. The economy will improve, and market conditions might lead to a turnaround in the timber industry. The county will continue to encourage low-impact businesses like Litehouse, Coldwater Creek and Quest to move here and take advantage of rail shipping opportunities and the airport, in addition to the natural amenities for which the area is famous.

Marcella Nelson, administrative manager of Ponderay Community Development Corporation

In 20 years, Sandpoint will be primarily a residential area. Most businesses, at least the larger ones, will have moved out to Ponderay. Highway 95 will be a business strip that may extend as far north as Colburn. Businesses are going to move out to where the traffic is, and SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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10/15/10 12:53 PM

SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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the traffic will not be in Sandpoint, because the byway will have gone around it. However, Sandpoint is going to be a wonderful town for the local people and for the people who come here to enjoy the lake and the ski area. It will continue to have a great arts scene with impressive community support.

Karl Dye, executive director of Bonner County Economic Development Corporation

Bonner County in 20 years will appear very familiar to those who live here now. It will be a place that our children and grandchildren can afford to have a job, own a home and raise their families. It will offer more cultural, economic and educational diversity than any other community in our state or region. We will enjoy a state-of-the-art communications network, and regionalized infrastructure and government bodies that will maximize efficiency while enhancing our natural environment.

Steve Meyer, Owner, Pend d’Oreille Winery

I see Sandpoint as a continually strong tourism and recreation town.

The same assets that attract tourists will also attract new businesses. The paradox is that as we become more successful at attracting new businesses and expanding tourism, we will also consume the asset that brings people here and creates recreation opportunities: open space. Twenty years from now, we’ll have a greenbelt following the Pend Oreille River wrapping around the skirt of the Selkirk Mountains and up the Sand Creek drainage that comes through a coalition of environmental organizations, property owners and municipalities. This greenbelt, or corridor, will provide access for walking, hiking and biking – providing connectivity for both people and wildlife.

Preserving open space will create a legacy for future generations and strengthen Sandpoint overall.

Curt Hecker, CEO of Panhandle State Bank

This economic downturn has demonstrated how important it is to live and work in a supportive community, in a place where you can build a future, not just make money. I believe that Sandpoint will see expanding diversity in its economic base as entrepreneurs and businesses discover that our quality of life is matched by enthusiastic investment in infrastructure and education, commitment to long-term sustainability, and a keen focus on encouraging business development that fits our region.

Property values will stabilize, and we’ll see a strong, pent-up demand from people who will bring new opportunities to this community, including jobs and resources.

Dick Cvitanich, Superintendent, Lake Pend Oreille School District

There’s a proliferation of online learning with little regulation. It will continue to grow, but people will realize eventually that what you’re missing is an adult interacting with a student in a personal, responsive way – and students interacting with and learning from each other. There will be a backlash against that lack of interaction and diversity, so I suspect online schools will be regulated more or cease to exist.

As a result, we’ll have more students in 20 years, and the area will grow with the addition of more affordable housing. We’re taking preliminary steps that way, and it will be good for the school district and the community. This is a beautiful place, and people want to live in places of beauty. As the population grows and affordable housing begins to fill, we will build more schools.

WINTER 2011

10/18/10 2:08 PM

S N OW M O B I L I N G

Leading a group to the top of the Wigwams at Priest Lake, local rider Gary Smith is set amidst blue skies and fresh powder. Below, Sam Holman finds a natural jump along a popular, groomed trail on Indian Mountain

Bustin’ through the backcountry

M

ark Linscott is a “boondocker.”

The title has less to do with being raised in northern Idaho than with a particular hobby that requires snow – lots of it – and hills.

Mark, 45, and twin brother Matt Linscott grew up tooling around their Sandpoint yard with a small snowmobile called an Elan.

The snow machine was a putter, just the right size for kids, yards and maybe a snow-covered hayfield down the road with a slalom course of young ponderosa pine.

As the brothers grew older, graduated from Sandpoint High and entered the family real estate business, their horizons grew bigger, too.

Their backyard was no longer an urban swath of a few acres. Instead, it

became hundreds of thousands of acres of backcountry snow from Priest Lake to the Montana border and north to Canada.

The Kaniksu National Forest is a broad-shouldered expanse of backcountry that includes the Selkirk, Purcell and Cabinet mountain ranges of northern Idaho and comprises 1.6 million acres from eastern Washington to northwestern Montana. This vast playground is a snowmobiling mecca and a destination for riders from throughout the region.

It includes hundreds of miles of snowmobile trails groomed by local clubs and takes in vistas of frozen, high mountain lakes, solitary peaks and the emerald blue waters of Priest and Pend Oreille lakes.

For riders like the Linscotts, the amalgam is reason enough for spending a winter’s day on their sleds.

Take away the trails, and the adventure is pure bliss.

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By Ralph Bartholdt

SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

PHOTOS BY TOM HOLMAN

Snowcatters ‘boondock’ in winter wonderland

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“We do a lot of boondocking,” Mark says. “We hardly ever stay on the trails.”

To a guy with an RV, boondocking means camping away from public pay sites where dogs yip, ribeyes spit on the grill and babies cry at night in the camper next door. To snowcatters it means all hell and gone.

Sandpoint’s Winter Riders club is an organization of about 150 members that caters to riders of all stripes from novice to advanced snowcatters, families, pals and people who push the extremes. Two years ago, membership topped 200 – the largest snowmobile club in the state.

“It’s a great place to meet people, and find people to ride with,” club member Nina Deabenderfer says.

She started riding snowmobiles to get around her rural, snow-covered landscape while living on Hoodoo Mountain near Blanchard. When she moved to Sandpoint, she joined the local club and her riding experience scaled new heights.

Her skills went from rudimentary trail riding to deep powder traverses and sidetracking up hills.

“It’s an adrenaline rush to be up in that mountain snow,” Deabenderfer, 49, says.

Idaho, according to the Idaho Parks and Recreation, offers more than 7,200 miles of snowmobile trails with a nice chunk of them in northern Idaho, which, according to local riders, also boasts the best snow conditions, views and the most varied terrain.

Sandpoint snowmobilers, as well as throngs of sled-toting enthusiasts from throughout Idaho and neighboring states, often aim for day rides with jumping-off points within an hour of town.

The newly enlarged parking lot at Trestle Creek is a popular starting point where riders can access 50-plus miles of groomed trails and scale outcrops that loom as high as 6,414-foot Lunch Peak.

Snowcatters can play on powder-packed mountain lakes and take in the crystal-

Above: A few friends pause near Phoebe Tip in the Selkirk Mountains in this photo by Mark Linscott Opposite: Timothy Deabenderfer jumps his sled just below Lunch Peak Lookout in the Cabinets

line, blue views.

“I love taking pictures of the scenery,” Deabenderfer says. “You look out across the snow-covered mountains and peaks and the lakes. It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Boundary County has two major areas including the Roman Nose area in the Selkirk Mountains with access points on Upper Pack River Road in Sandpoint and Highland Flats Road and McArthur Lake Road at Naples, as well as the Canuck Basin in the Purcell Mountains north of Moyie.

The Priest Lake area with more than 400 miles of groomed trails that climb from 2,500 to 7,000 feet at several Selkirk peaks has long been a snowcatter destination. The lake’s communities and resorts cater to the snowmobile crowds with gas, food and accommodations.

On the other side of the Selkirk Crest, Ray Peck spends much of his winter days and nights grooming trails for his fellow snowcatters.

Peck operates a Bombardier snow groomer owned by Idaho Parks and Recreation. The groomer program is funded by snowmobile registrations.

Riders who register for Idaho’s unit 9B automatically donate to the local groomer program.

“The number of registered sleds we have is how much money we get the following year,” Peck says.

He and fellow groomers cut trails out of new powder and flatten moguls on

WINTER 2011

10/15/10 12:54 PM

S N OW M O B I L I N G

PHOTO BY NINA DEABENDERFER

THE

existing trails from Canada to Clark Fork and west to the Selkirk Crest.

“The trails can be moguled out in a day if you get enough sleds on them,” Peck says.

Peck, who runs a seasonal excavation business, started snowmobiling as a Sandpoint eighth-grader. Grooming alone in the outback, busting trails in new powder at night as headlights carve the falling mountain snow, seemed a good fit.

“It fell into place for me,” he says.

Like many fellow riders, the hands on his seasonal clock bend to a different timbre. To Peck, summer means work and winter is playtime.

Fellow rider Duane Nordgaarden, 48, a world-class hill climber who for years competed with the best of the best in the West’s snowmobile competitions, has the same clock.

“There are a lot of people here who can’t wait for the snow,” Nordgaarden says. “They are die-hards for winter.”

As with many of his friends, Nordgaarden grew up with the mountains in his backyard. He scooted around on a snow machine as a kid before growing into backcountry riding like most youngsters grow into a pair of big britches. Snowmobiling became an ambition.

Despite his years of competing with world-class riders, Nordgaarden, who lives in Sagle, never really left northern Idaho.

“The most fun I’ve had was right here, riding with my friends,” he says.

Riding in the mountains requires some basic equipment aside from the usual cold weather accoutrements, he says.

A GPS and avalanche probes, beacons and shovels should be part of every backcountry rider’s equipment.

The snowmobile club sponsors avalanche clinics in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Parks and Recreation, and veteran riders share their knowledge with newcomers.

“I’ve been there when avalanches have let off,” longtime Sandpoint rider John Finney, 38, says. “I’ve seen massive results of some massive slides.”

Neither he nor fellow riders, thanks in part to the educational programs they have participated in, have been caught in a slide.

Being in the backcountry’s deep powder, which averages between five and 10 feet, is an experience he has yet to trump.

“I just enjoy being out in the woods, going to different places and challenging my machine with the terrain,” he says.

Newcomers to the sport of mountain riding, boondocking or trail humping who think snowmobiling is for the weak need to talk with Geoff Smith of Sandpoint Marine and Motorsports.

Smith, 40, grew up as a Junior Olympics skier in the mountains around California’s Lake Tahoe communities.

For a long time he harbored a dim view of snowmobilers.

“I thought they were wimps,” Smith said, grinning.

After moving to northern Idaho and saddling up a sled for powder in the hills, he changed his mind.

“It’s a bigger challenge to me,” he says. “It’s a full-body workout.”

The best sledding starts in January when the snow starts to get deeper, covering stumps and, in some places, trees, WINTER 2011

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10/15/10 12:54 PM

S N OW M O B I L I N G Mark Linscott says.

Some snowcatters prefer spring riding.

“The weather’s usually better and there’s more daylight to the day,” he says. “We’ve ridden in our T-shirts or no shirts sometimes. It’s a good way to get a tan.”

Ask a snowmobiler what is the best part of riding, and the answers vary.

Linscott does not hesitate: Seeing the scenery, he says, and the solitude of the backcountry.

“And grabbing a handful of throttle is just fun,” he says.

Three easy-access Sandpoint area rides and resources Trestle Creek At a new parking lot that accommodates a lot more vehicles and trailers, snowmobilers can offload and ride for an entire day on trails that climb higher than 6,000 feet.

With 50 miles of groomed trails, the Trestle Creek system loops south to Lightning Creek and east to Rattle Creek along the Montana border. The ride offers spectacular views, snow-covered high mountain lakes and plenty of riding.

Head east 11 miles from Sandpoint on Idaho State Highway 200 to Trestle Creek Road.

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Roman Nose Lakes Area The Roman Nose lakes are a premier snowcatting area. The lakes lie just north of 7,260foot Roman Nose Peak and are an easygoing 9.5 miles from the parking lot at the end of McArthur Lake Road west of Naples. Snowmobilers can ride 80 miles of trails that lead to Harrison Lake, Jeru Creek and Snow Creek.

The area can be accessed by driving north on Highway 95 for approximately five miles to Upper Pack River Road. Turn left and follow the road about six miles to a parking area. Or, drive north on Highway 95 to Naples, follow Deep Creek Loop Road and turn left on Highland Flats Road. Snowmobilers can park and offload their sleds at Falls Creek or Ruby Creek.

Canuck Basin For a high-riding adventure in the far northeastern corner of the Panhandle, riders can churn snow on a 45-mile trail system in the Purcell Mountain’s Canuck Basin.

The trail starts around 2,000 feet and climbs steadily until it edges 6,256-foot Ruby Mountain. To the east the groomed trail cuts a track into Montana. A loop trail from Ruby Mountain swings north to Copper Mountain and another trail climbs northwest to Hogue Mountain, just south of the Canada border along U.S. Highway 95.

From Sandpoint take U.S. Highway 95 north to Bonners Ferry, cross the Kootenai River and drive east on U.S. Highway 2 to Moyie Springs. Take Old Highway Two Loop north for approximately four miles and offload at Forest Road 435 where the county road hairpins south.

Resources Trail maps for the Lake Pend Oreille region are available from the Winter Riders snowmobile club; contact president Geoff Smith at 263-1535. www.sandpointwinterriders.com All riders should carry avalanche emergency equipment and be aware of avalanche conditions.

Avalanche classes are available through Idaho Parks and Recreation and the U.S. Forest Service. Contact Marc Hildesheim, 769-1511, or Kevin Davis, 265-6686. For avalanche advisories, go online to www.fs.usda.gov/goto/ipnf/ac or call the Avalanche Advisory Hotline at 765-7323. To learn more about avalanche activities, go to the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center’s website: www.nwac.us.

Davis recommends carrying a shovel, beacon, and probe and studying these must-reads: “The Avalanche Handbook” (McClung 2006), “Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain” (Tremper 2008) and “Snow Sense” (Fesler and Fredston 1999).

–Ralph Bartholdt

WINTER 2011

10/15/10 6:00 PM

ARTS

Lights go up on resurgent Sandpoint theater scene

L

Story by Zach Hagadone // Photos by Matt Mills McKnight

ike actors on a stage, theater companies in Sandpoint have come and gone over the years, but the period beginning in 1978, with the foundation of the Unicorn Theatre Players, is generally regarded as the “golden age.”

“Starting back in the late ’60s and early ’70s there was a thriving theater scene and that died. But when the Unicorn Theatre Players came on in 1978, we thrived and it lasted for 18 years, 20 years,” said Karen Bowers, whose first stage appearance with Unicorn came in 1980.

“We had a summer series, season tickets, dinner theater everywhere, a musical each year, a drama, a comedy, a classic and a contemporary play,” she added. “It was just an amazing theater group.”

Deborah McShane was also there at the beginning, appearing in Unicorn’s

first show – a production of “The Ugly Duckling” at the Sandpoint Arts and Crafts Fair in 1978. She was just 26.

“The theater grows and undulates according to the talent pool of the time,” said McShane, who remains active in the area theater scene as a director. “I think it also seems to reach peak performance times where shows are really demanding of the performers and the audiences, and then because it’s always been on an all-volunteer basis, it seems like people reach a point where they have to take on too much responsibility and too much time and have to move away from it.”

But even during times when theater has gone largely dormant, as it did following the disbanding of Unicorn Theatre Players in the 1990s, interest has remained high. Longtime theater scenesters such as Bowers and McShane WINTER 2011

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Playwright and producer Ben Olson, right, and Director Andrew Sorg work with cast members during costume rehearsal for “Death of a Small Town in the West”

believe that Sandpoint theater is entering yet another renaissance.

“It looks like it’s making a really good comeback at this point in time,” said Bowers, who has served as executive director of the Panida Theater for the past 23 years. “I think it’s pretty exciting right now that there is a large group of actors and directors and writers getting excited again about using their talents for the stage. It is a renaissance – it feels that way, and I just hope that it sticks.”

One of the driving forces in Sandpoint’s resurgent theater scene is Teresa Pesce, 60, a longtime journalist SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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ARTS

Portraying “The Governor” in Ben Olson’s play last August, author Zach Hagadone waits backstage

and former Coldwater Creek copywriter who only recently put her hand to playwrighting – something for which she found she had a natural ability.

Over the past year Pesce has proved to be a prolific writer indeed, penning pieces including innovative “art-astheater” productions “Red Tape,” based on the work of Sandpoint artist Stephen Schultz, and “Postcards,” inspired by the photography of actor and area resident Viggo Mortensen; “Murder at the Castle”; “Hearts Online” and “All the Best.”

Pesce stages her works under the banner of Sandpoint Onstage, a decentralized organization that schedules shows; connects actors, directors and writers; and helps promote and produce plays. She has helped hammer out a committed group of theater aficionados that has already pulled off a robust 2010 season and plans an equally full plate in 2011.

Coming Jan. 14-15 and 21-22, Sandpoint Onstage will present a performance of Roger Rueff’s play “Hospitality Suite,” which was adapted for the screen as the 1999 film “The Big Kahuna.” On Feb. 18-19 and 25-26, Sandpoint Onstage will also put on a Pesce original titled “All the Best” – a comedy about people living in a retirement community that won sec52

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ond place in the first annual Newport, Wash., one-act play festival.

In April, McShane will direct a production of Eric Overmyer’s “On the Verge” – a satirical play that follows a trio of time traveling Victorian women explorers – and in June she would like to take on a musical, most likely the 1966 Broadway hit “Cabaret.”

“Usually medium-sized theater companies put on three or four plays a year, and so far we’ve done more than that,” Pesce said. “We have five on the slate for 2011, so we’re already scheduled for more than some theater groups.”

The most unique characteristic of the current theater revival is its preponderance of locally written material, mostly coming from Pesce but also including first-time playwright Ben Olson, 29.

His three-act dark comedy “Death of a Small Town in the West” played at the Panida main stage in August.

In her 30 years of experience in the Sandpoint arts scene, Bowers said she’s never seen anything like it. “Other than ‘Catfish Moon,’ which was written

by Robin DuCrest and performed at Farragut State Park, I can’t think of a locally written one – besides that, back then. And that was in the ’70s.”

To keep the momentum going, Bowers would like to see more local writers like Pesce and Olson stepping up to contribute their work for the

Director Andrew Sorg preps actor Zachary Sabbah, who plays the unfortunate representative of an evil developer in “Death of a Small Town in the West”

At Sandpoint Children’s Theater summer camp, 11-year-old Kelly Orr does a scene from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” (courtesy photo)

stage. But another component of the theater scene that’s been historically lacking is education.

That’s where Cheryl-Ann Rossi and her Sandpoint Children’s Theater hope to carve out a niche.

Though Rossi has been involved with Sandpoint theater for decades, she left the area years ago to pursue acting, drama and performance coaching back East. In summer 2010, however, she came home and together with local actress Sarah Wood founded an organization that seeks to nurture the next generation of Sandpoint dramatists.

Sandpoint Children’s Theater kicked off with a summer camp in mid-July with a showing of about 10 students who learned art, music, dance and drama every day for 10 days. The camp culminated with a production of “The Lullaby of Broadway,” a musical revue written

by Rossi that enables students to write or improv parts of their own roles.

“We had a great camp,” she said.

“Through their improv classes they actually get to create part of the script. … I think it empowers them artistically and I think that’s really important.”

Future camps have been scheduled to coincide with Christmas and spring breaks, and Rossi said they are planning to present the Christmas musical “A Star is Born” in December. To learn more, look up www.sandpointchildrens theater.com or call 304-7567.

Looking back on her years in

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ARTS Sandpoint theater – including her time directing for Unicorn Theatre Players – Rossi said that in some ways change hasn’t been for the better.

“When I left there was a very active summer theater program and family and kids and parents and everybody was involved. Of course, that doesn’t exist anymore,” she said. “I’d like to see classes throughout the year, children’s productions and a musical with kids and adults – something wherein more than

just a few kids can participate. I think we can fill that need next summer.”

“It’s not just about education; it’s about quality,” she added. “And it’s about understanding that sometimes the only difference between that professional and you is a paycheck – it’s not just about level of talent. Sometimes it’s just level of experience.”

Bowers agrees with Rossi that establishing year-round education programs would go a long way to providing a

stable, long-term theater scene. She, too, wants more children’s theater, a summer season and a mix between established and original work.

And the time to get the ball rolling seems to be now.

“We really are a town of many artists. We know this about our town.

It’s not an ordinary small town in that respect, and the time has come once again for artists to show where their talents are,” Bowers said.

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art

Teenage arts scene Story by William Love

Arts town spawning creative teens

Photos by Matt Mills McKnight

L

ike most young artists, Blaine Shultz, 17, works his craft without the benefit of a studio. Instead, the Sandpoint High School senior improvises, using the kitchen table and whatever tools and materials are available.

Oftentimes, that means constantly setting up the stencils and paints used to design his unique brand of T-shirts and sweatshirts at his parents’ home just off Bronx Road.

“I usually kind of make my parents mad because I just lay it down on the kitchen table,” Shultz said. “We have dinner every night together, and so at the last second we have to ... move the stuff.”

Shultz started to design shirts with his older brother, Brian, but they didn’t get too serious about their project until a friend had worked on a silk screen project in Dan Shook’s art class at Sandpoint High (SHS).

“My brother and I, we had spraypainted stencils on shirts before, and it comes out all right, but not that great of quality,” Shultz said. “So when (our friend) did that, we were like, ‘Oh, let’s go get a screen. Let’s just start making stuff.’ ” To design the shirts, Shultz uses stencils created from thin sheets of plastic his father, Tom, brings home from his work as a lineman. His tools also include X-Acto knives and tempera paint. At first, Shultz was limited in the number of colors he could use, but as he has developed the craft, the shirts have become more colorful and the designs more intricate.

A basketball player at SHS, Schultz reflects the hip-hop culture oftentimes associated with the urban hoops scene in his art. Most of his shirts include the block W symbol made popular by the

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rap group Wu-Tang Clan. But Shultz has designed several other stencils, including one with the silhouette of a city skyline that has a heart rising over it, for a shirt his three-on-three basketball team wore at a tournament in Bonners Ferry.

Shultz is also involved in photography, videography, writing and graphic design. He has even branched out to

One of Dan Shook’s art students at Sandpoint High, Blaine Shultz designs and silk screens clothing – even tennis shoes

shoe design, albeit in a small way. He painted a pair of basketball shoes with the help of his friends and wore them last summer to Hoopfest in Spokane, where someone offered to buy the

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shoes right off his feet.

“It is fun,” said Shultz, who usually gives his finished products to friends.

“You can make something that you wear, and I think that is cool to have something unique to your own style.

Like, ‘Yeah, I made this,’ when someone compliments you – or disses it.”

Shultz is just one example of the many teenagers in the Sandpoint area who are taking advantage of opportunities to learn about and explore careers in the arts. Teens such as Shultz demonstrate the transition over the previous decades from a community dominated by logging and agriculture to one that is emphasizing the arts.

Arts in the schools On a hot afternoon last August at his studio off Whiskey Jack Road, Dan Shook ponders the question, “Does Sandpoint have a teen arts scene?” for a short time and then laughs.

“I am not really aware of an art scene as far as teenagers go,” Shook said, as he sits at his pottery wheel, forming what will be the handles on a pair of coffee cups. “Probably musically there is more (going on) than visually.”

Shook defines an art scene as a place where there is a lot of opportunity and financial support for artists. He believes more can be done to develop the local teen arts scene, but anyone walking through Sandpoint High School is bound to see the influence Shook the art teacher has had during his career of guiding area teenagers. Or, just ask former students.

“Thank goodness for Dan Shook,” said Jessi Skall Scofield, who received a degree in fine arts and graphic design from Evergreen State College after graduating from SHS in 1995. She now works as a color designer for adidas International in Portland, Ore. She says Shook was “the only supportive, innovative art teacher we had.”

After more than 30 years of teaching in Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry, Shook plans to retire at the end of the school year to pursue his own art career full-time. Shook has a deep history in Sandpoint, but extensive world travels

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art and a Master of Arts in teaching provide him perspective he passes along in his teaching. His classes not only allow students the opportunity to learn different aspects of visual arts, but to also see firsthand how an artist works.

“He is constantly working on something of his own during class,” Shultz said. “You walk in and he is already working on something, so it’s like, ‘All right, let’s get started.’ He will help you whenever you ask for anything and he gets hands-on – especially with the pottery at first. He grabs your hands to make sure you actually feel what it is like to be doing it the right way. I think that is why you pick it up quicker.”

With the help of fellow art teacher Heather Guthrie, the art program at SHS has blossomed since Shook started teaching. The program serves about half the student body and has to turn away about 200 more students. That doesn’t include other popular art-based classes offered at the school such as choir, band and theater arts.

Both Lake Pend Oreille (LPOHS) and Sandpoint Charter high schools also offer ample opportunities for students to cultivate their artistic side. Students in Randy Wilhelm’s design class at LPOHS won first place and $1,500 in the county section of the Paint the State contest held by Idaho Meth Project in July 2010. The students used a Volkswagen bus as their canvas to display the plight of a young family made homeless from the parents’ meth use.

The bus was parked at Petal Talk downtown at Cedar and Second last July.

It is public displays such as this

After more than 30 years teaching, Dan Shook, above, is in his last year of guiding art students at Sandpoint High. At right, this Volkswagen bus canvas designed by eight students in Randy Wilhelm’s class at Lake Pend Oreille High won first place in a contest sponsored by the Idaho Meth Project (courtesy photo)

that Shook says would help develop Sandpoint’s teen arts scene.

“Every once in a while (a student) will get a show at ArtWalk or something like that and that just sends them into orbit. It is really kind of cool,” Shook said. “So maybe there should be a teen ArtWalk or similar opportunities.”

Public support of teen arts Each spring, the Student Art Show gives teens in Bonner and Boundary counties the opportunity to display

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PHOTO BY KIM QUEEN/POAC

their work in a gallery setting at The Old Power House in Sandpoint. The event, sponsored by the Pend Oreille Arts Council (POAC), provides students with skills they will need to display finished products, everything from properly displaying a piece to learning how insurance works. Students also have the option of selling their work during the show, tentatively set March 11 to April 15, with 20 percent of the proceeds going back to the school’s art program and the student keeping the rest.

“We want them to not just look at it as a fun hobby but also a business,” said POAC Executive Director Kim Queen.

Often the students decide not to sell their work because it is the first time they have had a framed piece of work and a parent wants to keep it. Even if they don’t sell the piece, though, the students often come away with intrinsic gratification that a price can’t be put on.

“I think on a gut level for some of these kids it is totally a self-esteem, value-of-worth, this-is-what-I-did (opportunity),” said Judy Thompson, POAC’s vice president of performing arts. “To watch them when their families come, if they have one piece on the wall and their whole family is standing there, that is a huge boost for these kids. ... For the kids that aren’t necessarily the athletes or the stars in other ways, this is something for them to go, ‘Woo-hoo, I did this. This is (who I am).’ ” POAC also cosponsors the Art of Human Rights exhibition that

SHS band student Elaina Arriondo works with one of the POAC performers from Los Pinguos in September 2009

has students in grades 7-12 submit work related to the 30 points of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The organization also works closely with Lake Pend Oreille School District No. 84 to match performers visiting Sandpoint with schools or classes that study related curriculum.

Last spring, for example, students in the Spanish classes took a field trip to the Panida Theater to watch Calo Flamenco perform prior to the dance and music ensemble’s evening show.

“We speak with (superintendent) Dick Cvitanich before the school year to make sure we are in line with what they are doing,” Queen said. “So he gives us feedback as well. He talks to his principals and teachers, and we all work on it together.”

POAC isn’t the only local art organization to provide opportunities for students. The Arts Alliance offers a variety of courses for teens through-

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out the year, while a Sandpoint Arts Commission-approved project had students from Yogi Vasquez’s industrial mechanics class at SHS cut the metal fish adorning the pedestrian bridge on Bridge Street.

Shook, meanwhile, would like to see more teens learn and create art outside of the traditional school setting.

He believes the Sandpoint Transition Initiative’s Transition Folk School, which offers low-cost courses to the community in arts and crafts, could be the organization to provide that.

“If the Folk School took off, that would give kids a lot of opportunities,” said Shook. He’s considering teaching classes for the program after retirement.

Sandpoint’s strong music scene

From Bomshel fiddle player Kristy Osmunson to the progressive folk duo the Shook Twins to Spokane Symphony first violinist Jason Moody, a growing number of professional musicians call Sandpoint their hometown.

“A lot of my songs are about nature and friendship, both of which I give Sandpoint a lot of credit for,” said Laurie Shook, daughter of Dan Shook and half the aforementioned duo. “The time I spent there after high school with such artistic friends is what influenced me most.”

Laurie lives with her twin sister, Katelyn, in Portland, Ore., where they are now full-time musicians.

A new generation of teenage musicians is developing skills outside the classroom. SHS junior Holly McGarry opened for professional recording artist Carrie Rodriguez at the Panida Theater in 2009 and has played at other venues around Sandpoint. Brother-sister act Cameron and Bailey Brownell, have performed their brand of folk, rock and blues at Eichardt’s and at the endof-season party for this year’s Festival at Sandpoint. While they don’t have a name for their band, the duo has grown up around music. Their father is SHS

PHOTO BY MICHAELLA HAMMERSBERG/IMAGE MAKER STUDIO

art

Brother-sister duo Cameron and Bailey Brownell perform original material, their own brand of folk, rock and blues

and Sandpoint Middle School choir teacher Jon Brownell. More than half of the music Cameron, 18, and Bailey, 16, perform is original material. Cameron will typically write the music and lyrics, but he said that he and his sister, a junior at SHS, collaborate to create the finished product.

“The song is never really finished until you have learned it all the way,” said Cameron, a senior at SHS. “So even when I might think that a song is finished, when we learn it together, she always comes in with a lot of interesting (thoughts).”

The response to their music has been positive and encouraging.

“Everyone seems to enjoy it,” said Cameron. “It is really fun because it is interesting when you are writing music and you get to play it in front of a crowd and seeing what their reaction is or how they respond to that music.”

It is feedback like this and community support in general that Shook and Queen say are critical factors in growing the area’s teen arts scene. Art might seem to take a backseat to other teen activities here, but look around, listen and watch. The scene is more prevalent than you might believe.

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SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

‘Mountain of change’ plus 20

Since a landmark renovation in 1990-91, Schweitzer’s growth has added up to something big

L

ong, long ago, at a “ski basin” not so far away, a “mountain of change” took place, and Sandpoint Magazine was there to cover the story. In 1990 for the inaugural Winter 1991 issue, Publisher and Editor Chris Bessler wrote the cover story about big happenings at the newly renamed Schweitzer Mountain Resort. In the two decades since, Sandpoint Magazine contributors have written a lot about Schweitzer – there’s been a lot to write about – and I’ve even got to do some of the writing.

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PHOTO BY CORY MURDOCK

By Sandy Compton

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or that first issue, though, while Bessler pounded blithely away on his Mac keyboard, I sold the first ad to Bob Aavedal at the Alpine Shop and the second to Jim Lippi at Ivano’s. They weren’t big ads, and Sandpoint Magazine wasn’t exactly flush that year, so I decided it would be prudent to keep waiting tables – a conclusion I have come to several times in my life.

So, I transferred with the rest of the crew from the St. Bernard Restaurant at the basics-only Overnighter Lodge at Schhhhhhweitzer Basin to a brand-new, upscale restaurant in the luxury Green Gables Hotel – which had leapt out of the ground like a four-story mushroom during the preceding summer – at Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

In the seminal season of 1990-91, I worked at Jean’s Restaurant, named for Jean Brown, matron of the family that then owned the resort. Next door was Jimmy’s Bar, named for Jean’s husband, Jim Brown Jr., whose investments and vision kept Schweitzer afloat during the latter half of the 1970s and most of the 1980s. When Jim died in 1989, his daughter Bobbie Huguenin took the helm, and the mountain gained a new face as well as a new name – the “Mountain Resort” moniker.

On New Year’s Eve, we chased the carpenters out, vacuumed up the sawdust, set tables and waited on a couple hundred folks celebrating the arrival of a new year, 1991, and a new era at Schweitzer.

A phantasmagorical feeling radiated from the base of Chair One. The Day Lodge, with its 1960s vintage cafeteria and the Beirstube bar upstairs, had disappeared in a flash of flame and a cloud of smoke. Surrounding where it had been grew Green Gables Hotel, Headquarters Daylodge and The Great Escape Quad. The beginner’s T-Bar transmogrified into Chair Two, aka “Musical Chairs.” In the blink of one summer season, Schweitzer blasted into another strata.

Fourteen million dollars poured into the resort, and the effects were stunning. The Great Escape opened terrain that had been difficult – nigh impossible – to access. Runs taken for granted today, such as Whiplash, Chute the Moon and Sundance, were added to the trail map. And three switchbacks were subtracted from the infamous road.

What ... work while the lifts are running?

PHOTO BY PATRICK ORTON

In the wake of this mountain-sized transformation, a more personal conversion took place that winter: I learned to ski. I found it somewhat addictive. OK, leave out “somewhat.” After my first lesson, I skied every day. That was also the first season of night skiing, Thursday through Saturday, and if I didn’t have to work, I skied until the lights went out.

The next year, during a staff meeting at Jean’s, the manager announced that night staff might have to work breakfast or lunch shifts. It got very quiet, and then fellow waiter Ed Berry, called out, “You don’t mean work while the lifts are running, do you?”

He spoke for all of us.

In 20 years, it hasn’t gotten easier to work while the lifts are running.

For one thing, there are more lifts – better, faster ones – and more terrain – more runs, more glades, more acres.

Opposite, from the left: Representing the family that then owned Schweitzer, Jean Brown and Bobbie Huguenin cut the ribbon and christen the Great Escape Quad in 1990; General Manager Tom Fortune arrives under new owner Harbor Properties in 1999; Stella opens for the 2000-01 season; the clock tower becomes a Schweitzer Village centerpiece; White Pine Lodge is built in 2001; and General Manager Tom Chasse assumes leadership in 2006

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More. If 1990 was the blast-off, the following 20 years have been a climb to one new height after another, with a few free falls thrown in for entertainment.

Challenges, changes and brand-new chairs As for the free falls, Schweitzer has had its challenges over the past two decades. The Brown family lost control of the resort in a bankruptcy that stretched too long through the end of the 1990s, when Harbor Properties of Seattle bought the resort. The Great Escape Quad – manufactured by Yan, the lift company that famously failed in 1997 – had to be completely refitted by Doppelmayr. Lack of snow forced an early closure for the 2004-05 season, and then late snowfall spurred a reopening. The downturn in real estate left planned developments hanging. But, the thing that ski resorts should be about – skiing – got better and better, in quality and quantity.

In the ’90s, Schweitzer’s marketing director, Diane Allen, came up with a slogan that not-so-subtly took issue with what seemed to her a priority problem: Real estate development appeared to take precedence over mountain improvements. Her slogan, “It’s the skiing, stupid!” never got printed, but she was right – and still is. It is the skiing that makes Schweitzer great. It’s a skier’s mountain. OK, a rider’s mountain, too. Alpine, telemark, AT, snowboard, skate skis, snow skates. Name your poison. Get on ’em and get at it.

Since the Great Escade Quad came online in 1990 and opened those now-famous runs off the Great Divide, great things have happened to make it even more about the skiing. Better lifts access more terrain. In 2000, a detachable, high-speed, six-passenger lift named Stella replaced Chair Five, a double Riblet with a 12-minute-long ride. Stella takes folks to the top in less than half the time of her predecessor.

At the same time, the ski area boundary was pushed east to encompass three new runs, while two new gladed runs – Kathy’s Yard Sale and Gladiator – also opened.

Enter the McCaw era In 2005, Harbor stepped aside and McCaw Investment Group took over, bringing some serious money and huge improvements in ways to get up and down the hill.

Beginning in that year, selective logging done under the watchful eye of Brian Crettol, summer slopes supervisor, increased tree-skiing opportunities in the Schweitzer and Outback bowls on the magnitude of 1,000 percent.

In addition, the staff dramatically expanded the size of the area that summer with the addition of a relatively small lift.

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Panorama of Schweitzer and Lake Pend Oreille below captured in 1999

At the top of Siberia, which lay then at the north boundary, a T-bar dubbed Idyle Our was installed to take riders to the top of Little Blue. With a rise of only 160 feet, the new lift was a master stroke, as Little Blue is at the west end of a two-milelong ridge leading toward the Outback Inn. This added 400 acres and six named runs, as well as some fine tree skiing.

It was also in 2005 that Hermits Hollow Tubing hill added an affordable family fun dimension near Schweitzer Village.

In 2006, McCaw brought on board General Manager Tom Chasse, which may have ushered in the beginning of a new “mountain of change.” Chasse is a ski industry veteran from the East Coast who was highly anticipating getting out West. Under his watch, when, how and where grooming is done has evolved. For one thing, the practice of grooming Schweitzer’s miles of cross-country trails daily for both skate and traditional Nordic skiers began. A small thing, maybe, but Chasse thinks it counts.

“This year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time manicuring so a minimal amount of snow can get the Nordic trails open,” he said. “We’re starting to get a pretty good reputation with Nordic skiers.”

As far as grooming goes, Chasse said, “One of the more controversial things we’ve done is start high-angle grooming.”

Witness B-Chute and D-Chute in Schweitzer Bowl.

“Some folks didn’t like this, but it keeps aging skiers in the game. We’ve also acquired some of the best grooming technology available,” he added.

This year, two new Prinoth grooming machines join an already burly fleet that cruises for corduroy nightly, and snowmaking was added on Midway and Musical Chairs.

“Snowmaking has been a big investment, an insurance policy, really,” Chasse said. “It helps beef up and fortify our base depth, especially early season, and it’s a big help with our events that involve jumps and features.”

The last mega-improvement was replacement of Chair One in summer 2007. It was the end of an era when Schweitzer “father” Jack Fowler and original manager Sam Wormington took a last ride in April of that year on the venerable old double Riblet that had served faithfully for 44 seasons. Fittingly, it took two lifts to replace One. The Basin Express detachable quad is a fast ride from the heart of the village to the terrain parks and the intermediate skiing of the lower Schweitzer Bowl. The Lakeview Triple loads where Midway used to be and follows a slightly modified line to the top.

A myriad of other, smaller things have pushed Schweitzer

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clock tower stands in front of Lakeview Lodge. What would he think about the terrain parks – now two, with the “permanification” this year of the Starfish Park just off Midway?

The 1990 skier had 48 named runs to choose from. Today he has 92. If the time traveler is from 1963, when Chair One first turned a bullwheel, he would be agog.

The rebuilt road and the parking lots alone would freak him out – not to mention that “new” phenomenon, the snowboard.

Schweitzer may never be Vail, Aspen or Sun Valley, but folks who ski here Rider Jen Davis conquers a feature at Stomping will be able to ski there, too – once they Grounds Terrain Park (Haley Sorbel photo) win the lottery. This may not be true in reverse, because Schweitzer is not a What about the next 20 years? Chasse sunshine factory – it’s a weather maker. I theorize that the doesn’t have a crystal ball, but he does have some long-term plans, some more ambitious than others. He tends toward the famous disclaimer gracing ski area day passes nationwide was written on Chair One in February 1964: “Conditions may conservative in the current economy.

“It would be great to replace Chair 6, and when we do, it vary.” But, it’s also true what longtime Schweitzer Ski Patrol Director John Pucci invariably answers anytime you ask him, will probably be done with two lifts: a high-speed quad that “How’s the skiing?” begins down near the Outback and unloads at about where “The skiing is great!” the midway station is now and a triple that starts down And it’s been great for all of these last 20 years. around Colburn Lake, accessible from Vagabond, and goes Ivano’s and The Alpine Shop and Schweitzer are all still to the top of the North Bowl,” Chasse said. here because they have been able to adapt with the times. Me But that’s a $6 million dollar project, while Chair Two too, I guess. could be replaced for less than $2 million.

In 1990, as I struggled to get from the top of the quad Also on Chasse’s list of changes: more lodging on the to anywhere else in my beginner’s boots, I took exception to mountain and a better transportation system. With that and a bumper sticker that read “Stop the senseless grooming!” conference space, the resort could expand its winter meeting I have since come to understand that sentiment, but I also business. What’s top priority? know all snow-riders have to start somewhere. Good groom“What I’d really, really like to do,” he said, “is methodiing is part of what makes Schweitzer a great place to start cally increase our skier visits by about 50,000 per year.” riding. The work patrol does to get open on a powder day Last year, Schweitzer had 218,000 skier visits. makes it a great place to keep going.

Chasse’s is a pragmatic viewpoint, but if 1990-91 seemed In 20 years, I have yet to see all of the runs, named or phantasmagorical, imagine what a time traveler from 1990 otherwise, and if they keep adding them at the same rate as would think should he drop into Schweitzer Village today. they have been, I may never catch them all.

The White Pine Lodge and the Lazar Building stand across And, that’s fine by me. the plaza from what has become the Selkirk Lodge, and a higher into the regional and national ski galaxy – better snow reporting, signage, focus on mountain safety, maintenance on many levels, service-oriented employee training, a great Kinderkamp and a continued tradition of great instruction in the ski school, to name a few. A somewhat behind-the-scenes factor that is critical: the commitment by management to have the mountain ready to open by 9 a.m. every day. Patrollers work extra hard to make the mountain safe and ready to ride by the opening bell.

The next 20 years

SCHWEITZER MOUNTAIN FACTS 2010-11 Acreage: 2,900, 92 designated runs plus open bowl skiing and riding, 1,200+ acres of tree skiing and three terrain parks Terrain: 10% Beginner, 40% Intermediate, 35% Advanced, 15% Expert Longest Run: Little Blue Ridge Run, 2.1 miles Vertical Drop: 2,400 feet Top Elevation: 6,400 feet Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches Cross Country Trails: 32 kilometers Lifts: 9 total – four high-speed chairs, the six-pack Stella, quads Great Escape and Basin Express, and the Lakeview Triple; three double chairlifts; Idyle Our T-bar; and a beginner’s Musical Carpet

Total Uphill Capacity: 12,502 per hour Hours of Operation: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Night Skiing: Fridays, Saturdays and holidays from Dec. 26, 2010, through March 5, 2011, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Season: Late November or early December 2010 to April 2011, subject to conditions Lift tickets: Adult $65; juniors 7-17, $49; children 6 and under, free; college or seniors 65 and over, $55. Night rates: $15 all ages; children 6 and under free. Nordic/snowshoe: adult $12, juniors and seniors $10.

Tubing: $15 without season pass or $10 with; children 6 and under, $10 Web site: www.schweitzer.com Phone: 208-263-9555, 800-831-8810 Activity Center: 208-255-3081

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winter nights

WINTER NIGHTS

If winter nights are especially long in the northern hemisphere, they are also more magical. Light of any sort seems more radiant. Stars and planets appear to take on greater dimensions in an inky-black sky. Herein, photographers’ lenses capture some of northern Idaho’s nocturnal imagery in the colder half of the year.

Winter Carnival at Schweitzer :: Doug Marshall

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photo essay

Sunset from Scotchman Peak :: Jim Mellen

Sandpoint Silent Night :: Marsha Lutz

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winter nights

Ghost Train at Sandpoint Depot :: Al Seger

New Year’s Eve :: Woods Wheatcroft

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photo essay

Ghost Train Al Seeger Star Trails with:: Polaris :: Laura Roady

Full Moon Rising Over Purcells :: Laura Roady

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10/18/10 1:16 PM

BACKCOUNTRY

I

boundaries

By Chris Park

Sidecountry skiing from Schweitzer a backcountry trend

t’s a bluebird morning at Schweitzer. Josh Burt, Gary Quinn and I, after a few warmup laps in the Outback Bowl, take Snow Ghost back to the top and tuck it down to the Idyle Our T-bar.

After a short ride, we’re leaving the resort at the boundary gate. Another short glide and we’re at the base of Big Blue where we skin up and start the 40-minute hike to the top.

At the summit, breathing hard, we’re rewarded with beautiful panoramas of the Selkirk and Cabinet mountains. We de-skin, do a transceiver check and make our way over the knoll to dig a pit. Finding the stability to our satisfaction, we pick our lines and one at a time arc fast giant slalom turns through knee-deep powder, gliding almost effortlessly, leaving trails of cold smoke as we descend 1,200 feet down to the run out.

Regrouping with snow-caked smiles, we exchange high fives and make the decision to hike up and do it again. It’s

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just too good not to. We’ll traverse out to the Outback Inn for a cold beer after the next run. This is the sidecountry experience!

Anyone with a passion for skiing has some degree of curiosity for what lies beyond the boundaries of a ski area.

And anyone who has skied untracked powder definitely knows what that draw is. The late American ski pioneer Dolores LaChapelle knew what she was talking about back in the 1950s when she claimed, “The essence of life can be found in deep powder turns.”

For many, there can be no greater satisfaction than experiencing the virtually weightless, silent flight down a mountainside as skis plane over the cold, light, untracked snow, beautifully draped like a down quilt, softening and smoothing the hidden terrain below.

Here in northern Idaho, Schweitzer Mountain Resort’s inbounds terrain is pushing 3,000 acres. Combine to that over 3,000 acres of sidecountry terrain just beyond the resort boundary,

and you’ve got one of the largest ski areas in the nation! Just to be clear: Sidecountry skiing is defined as occurring in out-of-bounds, unpatrolled, natural snow terrain that has been accessed from a ski area by a lift-riding, ticket-buying patron. Today sidecountry skiing may well be the biggest trend in the U.S. ski industry.

Schweitzer has gained a welldeserved reputation as a big ski area offering thousands of acres of inbound terrain for all levels of skiing. Still, on those big powder days when the visibility is good and the locals are out in force, the snow gets tracked up after only a few hours.

“That’s when I head for a gate and leave the boundaries,” says Josh Burt, 33, local ski enthusiast and lifelong ski bum. “I need virgin powder to satisfy my soul and my primal desire to rip a clean line!”

Burt describes Schweitzer’s sidecountry as “immense, beautiful and loaded with everything from hardcore lines to

PHOTO BY DOUG MARSHALL

Pushing

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BACKCOUNTRY

Backcountry guru Gary Quinn, opposite, is all smiles as he picks a line beyond Schweitzer’s boundary. Skinning up, above, three skiers tour Bald Mountain, having embarked from Schweitzer

1970s and early ’80s as backcountry skiing grew in popularity. At that time ski resorts were understandably concerned for the safety of their clients.

Ultimately however, these policies led to tremendous friction between the gatekeepers and the gate jumpers. This came to a head in 1997 when an internationally acclaimed extreme skier and guide, Doug Coombs, was banished from Jackson Hole for an alleged boundary violation. Less than two years later, this action was reversed and Jackson Hole WINTER 2011

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officially opened its boundaries and literally set in motion the sidecountry revolution.

Today most ski areas have followed suit and changed the focus from enforcement to education.

“I’ve always been for an open boundary policy,” said longtime Schweitzer Ski Patrol Director John Pucci. “We’ve tried different approaches over the years and have found that we cannot spend all our time enforcing boundary violators.”

Pucci added, “The best we can do is to help educate people.”

Schweitzer allows access to its sidecountry skiing only through six entry gates – three in the Schweitzer Bowl and three in the Outback Bowl. Part of the ongoing education effort is signage at these gates.

While sidecountry skiing shares the many rewards of traditional backcountry skiing, it also shares the considerable hazards: avalanches, cliffs, terrain traps, tree wells, ice falls, stumps, stobs, rocks, getting lost, equipment failure and extreme weather.

Getting injured, stuck or lost in the backcountry can have extreme consequences and thus requires extra caution. Experienced backcountry skiers know this and have the experience, equipment and training to minimize those risks.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case with those venturing into the oh-so-easily accessible sidecountry. The sidecountry can and does create a false sense of security with its close proximity to the resort, easy access and escalating popularity. Route finding can be tricky, especially at Schweitzer, where whiteouts are common. Within minutes of leaving the Schweitzer boundary, you can find yourself in avalanche terrain.

The backcountry begins once you leave PHOTO BY DAVID MARX

sublime bowls.”

Not long ago, skiing came in two varieties: lift-serviced resort skiing and human-powered backcountry exploring. The line between the two was rarely ever crossed. Not surprisingly, ski culture continues to evolve. Evolutions in equipment, an explosion in media promotions, European influence, better understanding and reporting of mountain hazards, more skiers with backcountry knowledge, and new policies at ski resorts have combined to create this new chapter.

We now live in a postmodern culture.

People are inspired to find deeper, even spiritual, meaning in athletic pursuits. For many skiers and snow riders, the sidecountry is nothing short of an elixir for the spirit.

Local skier Gary Quinn, 57, another inveterate ski enthusiast, says sidecountry skiing reconnects him to that sense of freedom and wonderment that he had as a kid.“I’ve come full circle,” Quinn said. “The motive for passion doesn’t change, only environments.”

Instrumental in this developing trend are ski resorts across the nation that openly allow access to their sidecountry terrain; however, the market potential for sidecountry skiing is still relatively untapped. Only in the last few years have ski resorts started promoting this untamed, freeriding experience as yet another amenity to offer paying skiers.

For skiers venturing into the sidecountry unaware and unprepared, however, the experience can quickly turn miserable or even lethal. This fact has been the conundrum facing both skiers and ski resorts. Many resorts had officially closed their boundaries in the

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BACKCOUNTRY

PHOTO BY WOODS WHEATCROFT

McKenzie Funk, a nationally acclaimed writer, skis the west side of Schweitzer guided by Ken Barrett of Selkirk Powder

the gate. At that point liability for your safety lies right where it should: in your own hands.

That’s not to say that a sidecountry skier in trouble has no options other than self-rescue.

“Due to our proximity and expertise,” said Pucci, “the patrol will, almost always, assist in a sidecountry rescue.”

He adds, however, that “A skier venturing beyond the Schweitzer gates who gets into trouble can be at the mercy of the Bonner County Search and Rescue.” This can involve a longer wait and significantly greater expense: A rescue involving a helicopter can easily run more than $10,000! A sidecountry rescue from Schweitzer can involve a single or cooperative effort between Schweitzer Ski Patrol, Bonner County Search and Rescue, Selkirk Powder and private individuals.

Since 2002 Selkirk Powder has been operating a snowcat skiing and guided snowmobile tour operation on the undeveloped private landholdings leased exclusively from Schweitzer, as well as

Sidecountry routes and resources Unless you know the terrain like the “back of your hand” and ski conservatively in mellow terrain in stable conditions, don’t go deep into the sidecountry by yourself. Pay a visit to the Schweitzer Mountain Activity Center, Selkirk Powder’s lodge or Schweitzer Ski Patrol’s room, where you will likely find someone willing to share his or her sidecountry stash. Book a guided cat skiing trip with Selkirk Powder: 866-464-3246 (www.selkirkpowder.com).

Before you go, it is quick, easy and smart to get online to check the local avalanche bulletin: www.fs.fed.us/ipnf/visit/conditions. html or call the Avalanche Advisory Hotline, 765-7323.

Show you’re “avy savvy” and set a good example by carrying a beacon, shovel and probe. Be comfortable and familiar with their use.

Are you venturing deep into the sidecountry? Consider bringing along a compass, map, cell phone, first aid kit, repair kit, headlamp, extra clothing, water and food. Don’t forget your climbing skins!

Taking a Level 1 avalanche course will greatly expand your understanding, appreciation and respect for the winter environment. Locally, workshops are available through Kevin Davis, U.S. Forest Service avalanche forecaster (265-6686, www.fs.fed.us/ipnf/visit/conditions. html) and snow safety educator, Shep Snow (The Snow School, 26372

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3552, thesnowschool.com). Check The American Avalanche Association or Canadian Avalanche Association Web sites for information, too.

Between Schweitzer Ski Patrol and Selkirk Powder, four beacon practice areas exist at the resort. Patrol does a regular transceiver workshop on Sundays. Stop by!

When you’re dialed and styled, it’s time to head into the wild! Six gates access Schweitzer’s out-of-bounds terrain: three along the Schweitzer Bowl and three along the Outback Bowl.

For a great sidecountry start, head for the West Bowl, accessed from Schweitzer Bowl via the Lakeview Triple chair. Get off the chair, turn left and skate or scoot over to the radio towers at the top of the south ridge and look for the gate. Go through the gate and veer left. This is the not-too-steep, nicely gladed West Bowl. Ski down about 500 to 600 feet and traverse out left to reconnect with the south ridge. If you go down too far you’ll have to boot or skin back up to the ridge.

The West Bowl will ultimately lead to more adventures in exotic, nearby locations such as Solar Ecstasy, Larch Park and Eulida Bowl, as you explore and meet other explorers in Schweitzer’s sidecountry.

–Chris Park

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some permitted State of Idaho lands.

Selkirk Powder’s lodge is just off the top of Schweitzer Mountain, and much of its snowcat skiing terrain shares a border with the ski area. Selkirk Powder has taken a forward-facing approach to sidecountry skiers in their terrain, seeking a path to education rather than eradication. Regarding the inevitable “Who rescues?” question, Chip Kamin, co-owner of Selkirk Powder said, “We do help and will help in any emergency situation that comes up.”

Ken Barrett, president of Selkirk Powder and head guide for the operation, points out that Selkirk Powder “has been involved in 15 rescues over the years, and we accept this as part of the job. Our groomed road systems and mapping have made the area safer and sped up rescue efforts.”

Barrett goes on to say, “It’s big backcountry out there, and we’re willing to share it, but being respectful, responsible and safe will always be the most important issues.”

Joe Vallone, a registered mountain guide who works in the United States, Canada and Europe, describes it well: “When ski areas allow out-of-bounds skiing, the community is embracing the culture of the mountain and its dangers. But at the same time, the community is very proactive at educating, so the people tend to recognize the risks and respect the terrain more than in areas where out-of-bounds skiing is not allowed.”

It’s a huge advantage to be able to access out-of-bounds skiing from the lift. So good, some purists call it cheating. Many ski areas such as Schweitzer Mountain Resort and ski businesses such as Selkirk Powder, bless their hearts, have taken an honest, proactive approach to the sidecountry skiing phenomenon. They are there to help educate and assist. Taking this bold move to heart, the skiing community must also step up to the plate and continue to develop a strong and lasting ethic of education, preparedness, responsibility, accountability and respect when skiing in the private or public sidecountry. It’s all about pushing boundaries – but with style and grace!

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SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

Real Estate

1991-2011

20 YEARS OF REAL ESTATE

Sandpoint’s future looks to recall the past

R

eal estate markets are cyclical. When we look back at Sandpoint’s real estate market over the past 20 years, time seems to curve and bring us back around to where we are now – or something like it.

Consider what longtime local agent and broker at Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby’s International Realty (TSSIR), Jeff Bond, has to say about the end of the 1980s: “We were in as big a bust in some ways as we are in now.”

Double-digit interest rates had “caused the market to come to a screeching halt.”

But by winter 1991, in its first issue, Sandpoint Magazine reported, “Sandpoint and surrounding Bonner County are in the midst of a growing real estate market that has many in the business using the ‘B’ word: Boom.” The story went on to say there was “an increasing sense that Sandpoint is being ‘discovered’ by people fleeing other areas. The problem is not finding buyers but finding sellers, as inventory of good properties lags behind demand.”

Does this sound familiar?

What followed in 1991, however, was not another bust like the one the market is climbing out of now, but only what Bond calls “a little down cycle” in 1994-95. “It started on its way up in ’96 and kept climbing until 2005,” he added.

Then came the boom that longtime Realtor Debbie Ferguson, now with Century 21 RiverStone, describes as “a perfect storm of real estate events.” Prices had escalated in distant markets, and people who had sold their homes there had money to invest that drove up prices of homes here. At 74

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By Cate Huisman the same time, there were few homes on the market here.

Ferguson remembers a time mid-boom when there were fewer than 300 properties listed for sale, and this constrained supply also drove up prices. Feature stories about Sandpoint in national media such as USA Today and the New York Times fed the frenzy. It was like the earlier boom – only louder.

Although many feel that Sandpoint’s latest boom ended when the U.S. economy crashed in fall 2008, the local real estate market had actually been drifting back to earth since 2005, when total sales topped out at $763 million. By 2009, the total dollar volume had fallen to less than half that figure – $362 million, just a bit more than the total back in 2003.

And meanwhile, the number of properties for sale had skyrocketed. By the summer of 2010, listings had ballooned to 1,200 from the 300 that Ferguson remembers.

But even now, the local market isn’t wallowing in a trough of real estate woe. Although prices seem low by comparison to those of just a few years back, consider that in 2010, the average selling price of single-family homes, condos and townhouses through mid-August was $276,121.

If you had that kind of money back in 1991, you could get a four-bedroom home on 2 acres of waterfront. A brand new, three-bedroom, two-bath house in a “good neighborhood” in town went for $91,500.

Still, with so many more homes available and more reasonable prices, the Sandpoint market has opened up to many who were priced out of it during much of the last decade.

“Now you can own for better than your rent,” said TSSIR agent Susan Moon.

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more,” says Moon. “You can do a virtual tour of the house and see the land without leaving the office. Most buyers have already done searches by the time they get to us. It has really streamlined our business.”

Sandpoint’s alpine submarket of Schweitzer has felt the booms and busts of the past two decades, but not as keenly as the town below. The supply there is naturally constrained by the weather and the topography, according to Evergreen Realty owner/broker Charlie Parrish, and buyers who can afford to ski and own a ski home tend to be less vulnerable to the whims of the economy, so the ebb and flow of availability is muted.

Skiers should know, though, that at Schweitzer Mountain Resort as at many ski areas, real estate development goes hand-in-hand with lift construction. It’s not a coincidence that the Great Escape Quad and the six-pack Stella both opened as real estate booms got under way. Next time you’re sitting on a chairlift with someone who owns a mountain condo, it wouldn’t be inappropriate to thank him or her for that purchase.

The boom in residential real estate has been echoed by growth in retail and professional office space that remained empty during the depths of the national downturn but is now starting to fill up, in part because rents have come down 25 to 30 percent from their highest levels. But some of the new tenants outside the center are refugees from the downtown core. They left town in the midst of the boom, looking for lower rents and immediately adjacent parking.

The city continues to grapple with this perceived parking SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT LOVENBURY

Real Estate

“The cash incentives from the stimulus made a big difference in the number of sales this year,” added Ferguson, as the price of an entry level home has dropped from about $250,000 to $180,000.

The cycle has had a predictable effect on the community of real estate agents in town. A much larger group of agents – swollen from the recent boom – is now sharing a much smaller volume of sales. Near the beginning of the boom in 2003, more than 60 percent of all listings sold. In 2009, less than 18 percent did. “It’s a tough market,” said longtime resident and real estate agent Jim Parsons, also of Century 21 RiverStone. “People are dropping out or taking other jobs, or have two jobs.”

While Lana Kay Realty has been named for owner/broker Lana Kay Hanson for 30 years, other real estate offices have come, gone and merged. Panhandle Realty merged with Kaniksu Realty during a down period, then joined with the Tomlinson Group from the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area to expand its presence. As more high-end properties came on the market, the Sotheby’s affiliation was added in 2007.

“Sotheby’s is an international contact,” said Moon.

“Buyers can search the listings by lifestyle,” so they end up among the Sandpoint offerings if they are looking for a place they can ski, boat or fish – even if they’re actually located in Abu Dhabi and are looking all over the world.

The Sotheby’s tale exemplifies what is perhaps the biggest change in how people look at properties today versus 20 years ago: The Internet has driven a sea of change. “We don’t drive around for two weeks at a time with people any

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R _ E problem, as it has a significant effect on downtown businesses, and hence on rents and desirability of downtown properties. Although there are usually parking spaces to be found downtown, sometimes they are a block or two away from a consumer’s destination.

Until a few years ago, all businesses in Sandpoint’s downtown core were required to provide parking for their anticipated customers, and the number of parking spots required was derived from a rather complicated formula that took into account the type of business and the number of cars that might be used to drive to it at different times of the day.

In 2009, in response to a concern that the parking requirement was hindering the growth of small businesses downtown, the city reversed it, making the previous minimum number of spots required the new maximum number of spots allowed. This enabled a popular eatery, Joel’s, to expand, but the decision’s effect on downtown businesses as

a whole is not yet as clear.

For the next 20 years, the consensus is that the market will come back slowly. “We have what everybody wants,” Parsons said. The lake, the ski area and “a lot of empty land,” as Parsons puts it, will continue to attract buyers. Only a few big pieces on the lake remain that can still be developed, Parsons goes on, but the large amount of public land is in itself a draw.

Development consultant Charles

new construction • renovation • restoration site planning • development • property management

(208) 264-6700 Dan McMahon • General Contractor • www.mebldg.com 76

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“Recent Sandpoint Area Real Estate Transactions” published in the Winter 1991 issue of Sandpoint Magazine offers a sampling of what real estate sold for 20 years ago

Wilson notes that there are 17 million baby boomers who don’t have time to wait and see what happens with the market. They are already looking for places to retire, and Sandpoint will attract many with its combination of summer lake and winter ski area. “It’s very rare that you have those two juxtaposed,” he said.

But Parsons reminds those who aren’t retired that “you can drink the water, but you can’t eat the trees.”

If the town is to survive as a working small town with a diverse economy, it will be because it has succeeded in attracting and retaining employers such as Quest, Litehouse and Coldwater Creek that can use the location as a draw and provide large numbers of workers with a living wage.

Sandpoint’s comprehensive plan assumes that newcomers will arrive, and recently changed codes will affect the face of the town as it develops to absorb them (see related story, “The evolution of Sandpoint,” page 81).

Bond believes “there will be pushback” against some of these new requirements, pointing out that county rules as well as the new city codes may make the development process more onerous than the market can support.

But people will come. And with them, the market will curve back around again. Odds are good the future will again recall the past.

WINTER 2011

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10/15/10 1:02 PM

PHOTO BY MARLISA KEYES

Real Estate

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PERSONAL SPACE

Homeowners carve out spots for creative endeavors

By Marlisa Keyes

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A

t the corner of Cedar and Forest in Sandpoint, the south-facing, woodencased windows of Gail Lyster’s Fine Art Tile Studio swing open into the backyard of her 100-year-old home.

“I really don’t have to go anywhere,” says Lyster, as she sits on a stool brushing paint onto an art tile that rests on one of two operating room gurneys repurposed as worktables.

The studio’s open windows, skylights and high, open-beamed ceiling beckon breezes and light into her art studio. Friend Dauray Owens calls it “the ultimate studio.”

Lyster says that her studio’s roof’s design makes it feel more spacious than it is.

She recalls how her husband, Zeppy, measured out the space.

“Zeppy kept moving the stick with the string,” she says, as he outlined the approximately 500-square-foot space for designer and builder Scott Tiemeyer.

“Now there’s a patient man,” Gail says of Tiemeyer, as she points out another of the space’s must-haves – room enough between two built-in work benches to accommodate a six-foot-long, country-style dining room cabinet designed by her late mother, Olinda Wolters.

Sandpoint-based architect Jon Sayler says requests for residences to include personal spaces – either in homes or an outbuilding – is not a new trend. He has designed personal spaces for clients since he first began working in the 1970s.

He has designed simple spaces – sometimes just a reading nook – and more elaborate ones, including a studio in the tower of a castle-like home at Oden Bay. During the past 15 years because of the Internet and technological advances, more and more of his clients – both full- and part-time Bonner County residents – are requesting that Sayler design spaces they can use for telecommuting.

Gail’s studio was born from necessity. She worked for many years in a funky, WINTER 2011

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PHOTO BY BILLIE JEAN PLASTER

upstairs studio on First Avenue with inexpensive rent. When the building sold during the area’s building boom about six years ago, Gail could no longer afford the rent. The spaces she looked at were either dark, cold or lacked character.

Zeppy insisted that they build the studio on the site of an old, existing structure butting up against an alley. Tiemeyer married the studio, a shop and a garage with a new roof.

“I’m so happy to have this much space,” Gail says. Her studio has a full-size bathroom, room for her kiln and a leather-working machine, benches, and space for her latest art explorations, including two plein air paintings, one by daughter Kate Lyster.

The Lysters carefully studied their home, asking that Tiemeyer include details like double-hung windows in the new studio. “Things that made the space feel like it was always there,” Gail said.

The studio’s windows, which open vertically, were inspired by a fairy book Gail read as a child. “The boy threw open the windows into the night,” she says. “It was an image I had embedded in my mind.”

Friends and her own life circumstances inspired Owens, 42, owner of Wildflower Day Spa, to have a studio built on the east side of her garage at her Sandpoint home. She had visited Gail’s studio and had read a Sunset magazine article about friend and Pulitzer Prize-winner Martha Mendoza of Santa Cruz, Calif., who transformed a backyard potting shed into a writing studio.

Consequently, Owens dropped her plan to rent studio space.

“Your art is so personal; it’s just nice to have your stuff where it needs to be,” she said.

Sayler also has designed additions for people who discovered the existing space they planned on using didn’t suit their needs. Last year, he worked on a project

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SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

Real Estate

Dover Bay resident Carrie Block and family pet, Zach, above, enjoy a 400-square-foot space added onto one end of the family’s garage. Meantime, artist Gail Lyster, opposite, works in her backyard studio where lots of light and a spacious design stimulate creativity

for Dover residents Greg and Carrie Block, who originally planned on using a loft in their home for personal space.

When the open loft proved too noisy, the couple had Sayler design an addition for his garage. His new space looks out over the Pend Oreille River.

Owens’ studio evolved in a similar fashion. This University of California– Los Angeles theater graduate grew up making art at the family’s kitchen table with her mother, who had at one time been an art teacher. Owens happily did the same with her own children, but creating art in her kitchen became unsuitable about three years ago when she took up painting on silk, Owens said.

She worried that toxic fumes released by the wax and paint she used were not properly venting from the home and could harm her children’s health.

Owens’ studio also is a symbol of her own growth as a woman.

“It was a treat for myself after my divorce,” she said. “It was a celebration of my creativity.”

She had the airy 300-square-foot room built in 2008 facing Travers Park to capture the bright light coming in from the east. Windows and French doors on the addition’s south wall and more windows to the north keep the studio well lit, even in winter.

“I go in there sometimes just to have quiet time,” Owens said.

Selling a property with additional room for a studio or telecommuter, such as a house with a fourth or fifth bedroom, is a bonus, says Realtor Charesse Moore of Evergreen Realty.

“It’s definitely a plus for a resale,” she said.

A studio space built separately from a main home can add as much as $40,000 to a property’s value, according to Moore.

She recently sold a Rapid Lightningarea property to a man who needed enough room to operate his toy business.

“Computers have allowed people to work in great places like Sandpoint,” Moore said. “We have a healthy population of people who do work out of their homes.”

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Real Estate

R _ E A space shared with her children, Dauray Owens’ studio provides a bright, TV-free spot for creativity, such as painting on silk, putting on impromptu plays or dancing

PHOTO BY DOAJICEK

PHOTO BY MARIE-DOMINIQUE VERDIER

Having a home-based studio that functions foremost as Fine Art Tile, with its multiple work places, presents a different set of challenges, said Gail. In her downtown studio, she created nothing but art tiles, while the new space gives her a place to experiment with other art forms. She’s been expanding into acrylic, watercolor and plein air painting; creating whimsical foam core board sculptures of zebras with twigs, hot glue and sand; and miniature local scenes, projects suggested by the Pend Oreille Arts Council.

Owens said the only downside to having a studio is that, as a business owner, she has little time to use it. Her goal is to schedule a half-day or one day a week to once again paint in her studio.

She also had to get used to sharing the room with her children and their creative endeavors. They like to put on impromptu plays with costumes, paint, or just turn on music and dance.

“There is no television in there,” Owens said. “They have that space just to be creative.”

Zeppy says his wife’s studio has inspired Owens and others to go home and figure out how to make creative spaces for themselves.

For Gail, that journey begins at her back door.

“She puts her red night robe on, pours a cup of coffee and goes out to her studio barefoot, even in winter,” he says.

Marlisa Keyes has her own 60-square-foot studio space located in one end of a garden shed in her backyard. The space is 12 steps from the back door and includes a window, electricity and enough wall space for her children to write inspirational messages. She shares the studio with her compulsively creative 10-yearold daughter, Olivia.

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Real Estate

The evolution of Sandpoint

New commercial zoning rules direct vision

I

t is the year 2030, and you have just driven across the Long Bridge for the first time, marveling at the Selkirks lit up by the early sun. Exiting the bypass onto First Avenue, you admire the historic buildings in the downtown core as well as the surrounding blocks of one- to five-story contemporary buildings that complement the older structures.

You pick up a cup of coffee at a drive-through on U.S. Highway 2, and then find your way back into the heart of town, park in a garage above a downtown grocery store, and settle on a bench under a tree in front of a hardware store. As you sit and sip, enjoying the smells that waft out the door of a regional bakery, you watch people emerge from their residences above it. One drops off his kids at a daycare center down the street, another disappears into a cabinetmaker’s workshop on the corner, and a third picks up a package from a custom printer next door.

You are in the downtown that is envisioned for Sandpoint’s commercial core in the city’s comprehensive plan, which was adopted by the city council in February 2009 after nearly two years of citizen workshops. It calls for pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use developments in the town’s commercial areas, which include the U.S. Highway 2/95 corridors and the old lumber mill property north of Larch Street, as well as the iconic downtown.

Adoption of the plan, however, was not in itself sufficient to get Sandpoint on the road to its planned future.

“The comprehensive plan is simply a guiding document,” said Planning and Zoning Commission member John O’Hara. “Zoning code is the boots on the ground that implement the goals in the plan.”

Commission members had to consider a multitude of questions in the process of writing the code to cover the commercial zones, says city Planning Director Jeremy Grimm.

“Overwhelmingly, people described downtown as what they like about Sandpoint, so that’s what the commission had to take into consideration: What regulatory framework could they put in place to ensure that future development looks like what we now have at First and Cedar?” said Grimm.

Ultimately, the commission created three commercial zones, an approach that allowed them some flexibility in addressing the issue of drive-through businesses, especially fast-food places, which have been a bone of contention in the past. The new code disallows such enterprises completely in the downtown, but provides for

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Fifth Avenue, the main thoroughfare shown above, provides a good example of the contrast between the effects of former zoning rules and those of new zoning rules adopted in 2010.

Today’s zoning code calls for parking to be placed primarily behind the buildings, which must be oriented toward sidewalks, not parking lots (Jerry Luther photo)

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Real Estate

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This map of the three new commercial zones approved

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them along the highway.

According to Grimm, public hearings brought out “a fair amount of pushback from some members of the community as to what they felt was overly restrictive” in early drafts of the code.

The downtown residences envisioned in the comp plan will help absorb the 5,500 or so newcomers that are expected to call Sandpoint home by 2030. But a requirement that new buildings include residences on upper stories was stricken from later drafts.

Instead, Grimm says: “The code was modified to provide incentives for residential components. All new structures need to be engineered to accommodate a second story or more, even if it isn’t going to be built right away.”

The idea is that more stories and residences can be added at some time in the future, when a recovering real estate market justifies such investments.

The new code prohibits parking lots in front of businesses, requiring instead that parking areas, if any, be located primarily behind the structure, away from the street. New buildings must be oriented toward the sidewalk, as they are in the historic core and along the west side of Fifth Avenue. O’Hara points out that the west side of Fifth Avenue, in contrast to the east side, was developed under a previous “overlay” code similar to the newly adopted code: “There’s a distinct difference in the flavor of building design and orientation to the street” on the west side, he says, reflecting “a desire to make a better walking environment and more attractive buildings without sacrificing the ability of businesses to locate there.”

Several of Sandpoint’s present businesses, such as the Safeway on Fifth Avenue, do not fit into this pattern. Existing businesses and structures are considered by the code to be “legally nonconforming,” recognizing that they were appropriate under the zoning that was in place at the time they were approved.

The latest example is the new grocery store in what has become the new Commercial B zone.

“The Super 1 plans were submitted to the city before the new zoning codes were implemented,” says O’Hara, explaining why Super 1 may have a parking lot in front, in violation of the new code.

As with other, older businesses that have become nonconforming, Super 1 may continue to operate as originally approved unless it plans to expand. This slows the evolution of the city to fulfill the vision of the comp plan, but it addresses business owners’ concerns about the future marketability of their properties. As a result, visitors in 2030 are likely to note a certain number of nonconforming remainders from Sandpoint’s previous code.

But they will also find a community that recognized, 20 years before, that travelers would continue to cross the Long Bridge, see the sun on the Selkirks, and want to stay. When they find a town that is itself as lovely as its natural setting, they can thank the citizens who anticipated their arrival decades before, and planned how best to accommodate them.

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Marketwatch: Distressed properties attract bargain hunters

I

t’s been another rough year in the real estate industry for Bonner County, as sales nosedived 40 percent in the first nine months of 2010, in comparison to the same time period in 2009. This decrease is on top of sluggish sales numbers already posted in the last several years, as well – largely in response to the overall national economic slowdown.

It’s a new reality for the Greater Sandpoint area, and it means different things to different people: If you’re in the market to buy a home, the deals have never been better; and if you’re serious about selling your home, get prepared to drop your price.

“The fluff in sales prices are now gone,” said Eric Skinner, president of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for northern Idaho.

“The days of just putting your house on the market and hoping it sells are over.”

A large factor that has hit the local

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real estate market is the high number of distressed properties, those lost through foreclosure or bankruptcy, now flooding the market. Offered at steep discounts, this influx of bank-owned homes and land makes it difficult for traditional homeowners to compete when trying to sell their home.

On the positive side, Skinner reports an uptick in the number of cash buyers now coming to the table – those who were waiting for the market to hit bottom.

“The deals have never been better. It’s the perfect storm,” he adds.

Mark Linscott, president of the Selkirk Association of Realtors (SAR), concurs: “It’s definitely a buyer’s market, and it’s a great time to be investing.”

Schweitzer was particularly hard-hit, with sales plunging 68 percent and the volume of sold listings going from $6.6 million in 2009 to just barely over $1 million in 2010.

Residential sales within the city of Sandpoint

dropped 52 percent, and the Hope/Clark Fork area decreased 65 percent.

Linscott believes the market has bottomed out and is now hitting a plateau.

“We’re seeing some signs of rebound, although we’re not recovering at the rate I thought we would,” he said.

Linscott, a Realtor at Lana Kay Realty, does report that his office has been busier this year than last year and has also seen more volume.

That said, the issue of bank-owned properties will remain a factor.

“Our market is still saturated with distressed sales,” Linscott said.

Realtors appear to be hanging tough through the downswing, however. Linscott says SAR membership has remained right around 250 to 256 – the same as last year. Perhaps Realtors, as a whole, see a light at the end of the tunnel.

–Beth Hawkins

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Residential Sales By Area

Schweitzer

All Areas 2009

2010

% Inc/Decr

2009

2010

% Inc/Decr

Sold Listings

475

286

-40%

Sold Listings

19

6

-68%

Volume - Sold Listings

$119,221,792

$65,376,945

-45%

Volume - Sold Listings

$6,627,036

$1,110,000

-83%

Median Price

$194,950

$179,950

-8%

Median Price

$310,000

$147,500

-52%

Average Sales Price

$237,400

$228,590

-4%

Average Sale Price

$348,791

$185,000

-47%

Average Days on Market

141

82

-42%

Average Days on Market

238

49

-79%

Bonners Ferry

Sandpoint City Sold Listings

2009

2010

% Inc/Decr

87

42

-52%

Sold Listings

2009

2010

% Inc/Decr

58

36

-38%

Volume - Sold Listings

$19,804,897

$11,043,635

-44%

Volume - Sold Listings

$10,637,840

$4,859,551

-54%

Median Price

$188,000

$186,700

-1%

Median Price

$167,450

$122,150

-27%

Average Sale Price

$227,642

$262,943

+16

Average Sale Price

$183,411

$134,987

-26%

Average Days on Market

139

67

-52%

Average Days on Market

161

76

-53%

2009

2010

% Inc/Decr

2009

2010

% Inc/Decr

Real Estate

Selkirk Multiple Listing Service Real Estate Market Trends

Hope/Clark Fork

Sandpoint Area Sold Listings

200

130

-35%

Sold Listings

26

9

-65%

Volume - Sold Listings

$53,441,309

$37,229,785

-30%

Volume - Sold Listings

$6,676,800

$1,709,240

-74%

Median Price

$183,500

$185,000

+1%

Median Price

$196,500

$220,500

+12%

Average Sale Price

$267,206

$286,382

+7%

Average Sale Price

$256,800

$189,815

-26%

Average Days on Market

137

79

-42%

Average Days on Market

146

71

-51%

Based on information from the Selkirk MLS© for the period of Jan. 1, 2009, to Sept. 15, 2009, versus the time period for Jan. 1, 2010, to Sept. 15, 2010.

Real estate stats for Bonner and Boundary counties: Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

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NATIVES AND NEWCOMERS

Natives and Newcomers

By Amie Wolf

I would diversify and expand its economic base.

This edition of Natives and Newcomers, a regular department that juxtaposes the seasoned views of Sandpoint natives with opinions of those “fresh off the wagon,” features a group of motivated and businessminded individuals who all share a love of the outdoors.

The interview subjects reflect their views on the quality of life here, what they would change about Sandpoint if they could, and offer up career advice on making a living in our little slice of heaven. Enjoy comparing and contrasting their responses!

NATIVES Bruce Greene, P.A.

PHOTO BY MARIE-DOMINIQUE VERDIER

Born in Sandpoint 60 years ago, Bruce has never lived outside of Sandpoint except for his time spent attending University of Idaho at Moscow. The attorney, who’s been practicing law for 35 years, has two grown children.

He enjoys traveling, especially to the Caribbean, and participating in

My career plan didn’t have to change to stay here, only my income level!

Any advice for a friend moving to the area?

What I’d tell a friend planning to move here is that it’s been a great place to grow up and to raise a family. It’s not a great place to make a decent living though, so hopefully my friend is already well-established prior to his or her moving here.

On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate the quality of life in Sandpoint?

I would rate the quality of life in Sandpoint as an 8. It’s obviously a beautiful and safe place to live, and even for a relatively rural area, there are a significant number of social and/or outdoors things to do. The main drawback here is the lack of economic opportunity, recession or not. Natural scenic beauty doesn’t pay the bills, and most of our previous, mainstay employers are either gone or minimal now. Not many people make a living here anymore in ranching or farming, much less mining.

And our timber industry is a shadow of its former self.

If you had to describe Sandpoint in one word, what would it be and why?

In one word, “scenic,” for all the readily visible reasons.

If you could change something about Sandpoint, what would it be?

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outdoor activities such as hunting, downhill skiing, landscaping and gardening. He plans to practice law for about another 10 years before retiring.

Did you have to modify your career plan in any way to live in Sandpoint?

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Wayne Gunter Wayne, 60, was born in Sandpoint and raised on a small farm in Sagle.

The SHS alum attended North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene before graduating with a degree in secondary education from the University of Idaho at Moscow in 1971. Wayne has been the director of the East Bonner County Library District for the past SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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NATIVES AND NEWCOMERS

On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate the quality of life in Sandpoint?

It is truly a 10. Contact and interaction with good people of this community, combined with the magnificent natural beauty of mountains, trees, rivers, lakes, and wildlife … add to this the benefits of human culture that flow from all over the United States (and many parts of the world), and the results are magical.

If you had to describe Sandpoint in one word, what would it be and why?

Sandpoint is a “gem” of a community set in a blue-green rural environment. Although it cannot escape

Morning Coffee…

social problems that are common to … humanity, it shines like a polished gemstone that catches the eye of people who are just passing through and makes many decide to return and stay.

If you could change something about Sandpoint, what would it be?

I would like to see Sandpoint be even more successful in creating jobs for people who want to work and live here. The industries of mining, lumbering and other forms of agriculture … have largely faded away, leaving somewhat of a vacuum in employment opportunity.

Did you have to modify your career plan in any way to live in Sandpoint?

I made the commitment to work any job, and do whatever was necessary, to live in the Sandpoint area. This has included bridge and building construction, logging, working for the U.S. Forest Service, a local gas station and the Bonner County School District, operating a custom offset printing company, giving piano lessons, and a career as a librarian.

Any advice for a friend moving to the area?

When my father married my mother in 1942 and moved to Sagle, he told her that although he did not know anyone who had become rich while living here, he also did not know anyone who had starved. A life lived simply and close to the earth can be successful and very rewarding.

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Married to her high school sweetheart, this mother of four describes herself as creative, positive, funky and energetic. Katherine, 30, became a certified Zumba instructor two years ago, is a business coach, and has run an event and wedding planning business, Memorable Funktions (www.memorablefunktions.com) for

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Newcomers

PHOTO BY LAURA MCLOONE

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NATIVES AND NEWCOMERS

On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate the quality of life in Sandpoint?

Nine and a half! I can stroll the sidewalk downtown and take in the sights and smells or visit the many lakes and then head up to mountains. What Sandpoint doesn’t offer in shopping options, it more than makes up in the feeling of safety, charm, beauty and class.

If you had to describe Sandpoint in one word, what would it be and why?

“Exuberant.” When I came for a job interview for my husband and then to look at housing, everyone we spoke to in town was genuinely happy and upbeat.

If you could change something about Sandpoint, what would it be?

I feel there can be growth developed and administered to retain the ’50s style of living and safety that makes it so desirable living here, yet still have cultivation of new ideas and industries to keep the heart of this “cool cat” town pumping.

Did you have to modify your career plan in any way to live in Sandpoint?

Actually, it has greatly increased my career plan! I have observed as a newbie and as a business coach that it is crucial to have multiple options of employment

“backups” with the very distinct seasons and population changes to keep a person and their pocketbook upbeat and satisfied. Being an entrepreneur in Sandpoint may have its challenges, but if you have innovation and drive, a career here is highly attainable.

How did you decide to move here?

After extensively researching through articles, websites, then on location, I discovered a plethora of family-fun activities, entertainment, and nonprofit volunteer outreach showing a love for your neighbors and community, also 360-degree spectacular views no matter where you are, hypnotizing night skies, specialty events, oodles of churches, low crime rate, and high expectations of indoor and outdoor living.

and eventually built a summer home there in 2006. Their plans to sell the house fizzled as they spent more and more time here. A certified registered nurse anesthetist at Bonner General Continued on page 91

PHOTO BY MARIE-DOMINIQUE VERDIER

10 years. She moved to Sandpoint with her family in May 2010 from Provo, Utah. Katherine also enjoys public speaking and getting involved in and knowing her community.

Lori Granfield Born in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where she lived for most of her life, Lori, 41, moved to Sandpoint full-time in July 2009. She and husband Brad, an architect, bought property in Sagle

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WINTER 2011

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PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Palmer | George, PLLC

Life, Disability, Individual, Group Health and now Home and Auto too!

Michael G. Palmer | John H. George | Brandie J. Rouse

Specializing in making your life easier

Attorneys at Law

licensed in Washington and Idaho Coeur d’alene Office 923 North 3rd Street Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 Telephone: (208) 665-5778 Facsimile: (208) 676-1683 FirstName@PalmerGeorgeLaw.com

SCOTT ALBERTSON, AGENT TYE BARLOW, AGENT

Sandpoint Office 515 Pine Street, Ste. G Sandpoint, ID 83864 Telephone: (208) 255-4890 Facsimile: (208) 255-4194 www.PalmerGeorgeLaw.com

Old Power House Building 120 E. Lake Street, Suite 203 Sandpoint, ID 83864

BRIAN C. JENSEN, CPA

Phone: 208.265.6406 Fax: 208.265.2477

Life, Disability, Individual, Group Health and now Home and Auto too!

Taxes, Payroll and Accounting Services, Financial and Tax Planning

Specializing in making your life easier

Now in Two Locations

SCOTT ALBERTSON, AGENT TYE BARLOW, AGENT

Sandpoint

Bonners Ferry 208.267.1665 208.263.5154 6811 South Main Ste. B 520 Cedar Street, Suite A Bonners Ferry, ID 83805 Sandpoint, Idaho 83864 brian@jensencpa.us

Old Power House Building 120 E. Lake Street, Suite 203 Sandpoint, ID 83864

Phone: 208.265.6406 Fax: 208.265.2477

Sandpoint Building Supply Approved servicing the community since 1993.

Approved with changes P Trusted P Respected Changes; please provide another proof P Knowledgeable

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Our loyal staff is on-hand Dateall the to provide you with materials and service you A signed proof releases Keokee Publishing, Inc. from any reponsibility for to build dream. error on copy. Please read all copyrequire and check this jobyour carefully.

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Come in and see our completely remodeled Kitchen Design Center,

Now Open!

You are ready to do it.

477421 Highway 95 North • Ponderay, Idaho 83852

208-263-5119 / 800-881-7380 www.sandpointbuildingsupply.com

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Radio Gets Results NATIVES AND NEWCOMERS

Continued from page 89

Hospital, Lori’s favorite activities include horseback riding, hiking and discovering nature. She enjoys working on becoming a better skier in the winter and cruising the lake in their 1945 wooden boat in the summer.

TA L K R A D I O

1400 KSPT

On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate the quality of life in Sandpoint?

Nine. I think because the quality of life is so good here. Very little crime, excellent outdoor opportunities, the air, the lake and no traffic to deal with.

If you had to describe Sandpoint in one word, what would it be and why?

“Unique” because Sandpoint is different from other small towns in so many ways. Of course, we have the stunning beauty of the mountains, the lake, the flora and fauna.

But, the people, the culture, the great downtown, the community and the events make our town unique in a wonderful way.

C

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RADIO

M

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CM

MY

CY

If you could change something about Sandpoint, what would it be?

CMY

I wish we had a grocery store on the south side of the Long Bridge. Otherwise, I’m not here to change anything.

K

Did you have to modify your career plan in any way to live in Sandpoint?

My husband and I dreamed of moving to Sandpoint for many years. After trying to get my foot in the door for a couple of years with the anesthesia department at Bonner General, I finally settled on a job in Moscow.

After much perseverance … I jumped at the opportunity to join the anesthesia group here.

How did you decide to move here?

I remember the first time we drove into Sandpoint, it was literally love at first sight. That was just the beginning ... the more time we spent here, the more we discovered about the area and the people. I don’t want to be anywhere else.

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327 Marion Avenue Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208) 263-2179 fax (208) W I265-5440 NTER 2011

610 Hubbard, Suite 207 6821 Main Street Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 Bonners Ferry, ID 83805 (208) 664-3241 (208) 267-5234 fax (208) 665-7880 S A N D P O I N T M A G fax A Z I(208) N E 267-5594 91

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Experience the Charm of Sandpoint S

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Enjoy shopping like it used to be!

Great Stuff, Northwest Handmade, Pedro’s, Vanderford’s Books and Office Products, Kandy’s Boutique, Zero Point, Eve’s Leaves, Scandinavian Affar, Petal Talk, Fritz’s Frypan, Larson’s Department Store, Blue Lizard Indian Art, Sharon’s Hallmark, Meadowbrook of Sandpoint, Finan McDonald Clothing Company, Bella Jezza, Cedar Street Bridge Café, Zany Zebra

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Winter Guide 2011 OUTDOORS

DOWNHILL SKIING

with Selkirk Powder (866-464-3246).

For rental gear, try Schweitzer’s Ski & Ride Center (255-3070); or in down-

263-9555). See story, page 62.

Other downhill ski choices exist within a couple hours of Sandpoint. Serviced by a gondola, Silver Mountain Resort is in Kellogg, about 85 miles southeast of Sandpoint.

Open Thursday-Monday and holidays, Silver features five chairs, one surface lift and tubing.

Top elevation is 6,300 feet; vertical is 2,200 feet; and there’s 1,600 skiable acres with 73 named trails. About 98 miles northwest of Sandpoint sits 49 Degrees North, outside of Chewelah, Wash., open Friday-Tuesday and holidays. The top elevation is 5,774 feet, with 1,851 vertical and 2,325 skiable acres. The mountain features 75 trails, five chairlifts, a surface lift and the brand-new Nordic Center.

And finally, for an experience off the beaten path, there is Turner Mountain, 80 miles

northeast of Sandpoint near Libby, Mont. Turner is a small, little-known ski area admired by many skiers for its steep runs. Open FridaySunday and holidays; top elevation is 5,952. The mountain has one surface lift and 25 runs, with 2,110 feet of vertical.

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High in the Selkirk Mountains above Sandpoint, Schweitzer Mountain contains 2,900 acres of terrain beckoning skiers and snowboarders to shred 300 inches of powder, the average annual snowfall. The Inland Northwest’s largest ski resort, Schweitzer is a mere 11 miles from downtown. Uncrowded slopes offer 2,400 vertical feet among the 92 named trails, two open bowls, treed glades and three terrain parks. Select slopes are lit for night skiing part of the season. Four high-speed chairs serve the mountain: “Stella,” Idaho’s only six-pack chair; quads Great Escape and Basin Express; and the Lakeview Triple. The mountain also has three double chairs, a T-bar, a beginner’s Musical Carpet, tubing, and snowshoe and cross-country trails. www.schweitzer.com (800-831-8810 or

tions, including avalanche advisories. For backcountry with guided know-how, take an excursion via snowcat or snowmobile

PHOTO BY DOUG MARSHALL

Backcountry and Snowshoeing.

For terrain that’s pristine and ungroomed, there are nearly unlimited options on the public lands surrounding Sandpoint. Right downtown, locals often take their Nordic skis and snowshoes and ski or ’shoe the lake shoreline alongside the proposed Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail.

Other, more serious areas up national forest roads include Roman Nose, accessed outside of Naples, about 22 miles north of Sandpoint; and up Trestle Creek, about 12 miles east off Highway 200.

For info on those or other areas, call the Sandpoint Ranger District (263-5111) or the Bonners Ferry Ranger District (267-5561) for maps and current condi-

PHOTO BY WOODS WHEATCROFT

Cross-Country Skiing. For groomed and maintained trails, you can kick and glide or skate on 32 km of scenic groomed trails at Schweitzer (2639555); Round Lake State Park has 3 miles of various groomed trails for diagonal stride (263-3489); Farragut State Park (683-2425) has more than 7 km of groomed trails, 25 miles south of Sandpoint on Lake Pend Oreille.

Groomed trails (15 km) are also maintained at Priest Lake Nordic Center (443-2525) and connect to Hannah Flats for more than 40 km of trails.

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Winter Guide

Clark Fork

Map Š TerraPen Geographics. Purchase full size maps at Maps & More | 109 Main Street, Sandpoint, ID | (208) 265-8883 | SandpointMaps.com 94

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Winter Guide

DRIVING TOURS

PHOTO BY DOUG MARSHALL

If you watch the weather forecasts to avoid storms and hazardous driving conditions, a winter drive offers the special beauty of snowy landscapes. Most well-known is the International Selkirk Loop, a 280-mile drive through the majestic Selkirk Mountains of Idaho, Washington and British Columbia.

Budget time to enjoy the small towns along the way. www.Selkirk Loop.org (888-823-2626).

The Pend Oreille National Scenic Byway, 33.4 miles of lake and mountain views on Highway 200, meanders east to the Montana state line along the rocky shores of Lake Pend Oreille. To make a 150-mile loop, continue east into Montana then north on Highway 56 through the Bull River Valley to Troy, then back east and south on Highway 2 through Bonners Ferry.

The Highway 2/41 Pend Oreille River scenic route goes west on Highway 2 through historic Priest River and Newport/Oldtown; then south on Highway 41 through the Blanchard Valley. Brochures with maps are available at the Sandpoint Visitor Center, Third and Oak.

Sleigh Rides. Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, 16 miles northeast of Sandpoint on Upper Gold Creek Road, offers sleigh rides in a rural setting for groups and couples. www.

WesternPleasureRanch.com (263-9066).

See story, page 8. Stillwater Ranch also provides sleigh rides in a country setting for groups and weddings, south of Sandpoint in Sagle on Dufort Road. www.StillwaterShires.com (263-0077).

Snowmobiling. It’s one of the most popular and fun ways to reach the wondrous wintry backcountry. Snowcat trails around Sandpoint and Priest Lake

in the Selkirk Mountains are renowned; for more information, contact Winter Riders, www.SandpointWinterRiders. com (263-1535) or Priest Lake Trails & Outdoor Recreation Association, www.priestlake.org (443-3309). For guided rides at Schweitzer, contact Selkirk Powder. www.SelkirkPowder. com (263-6959 or 888-Go-Idaho). See story, page 47.

State Parks. Three state parks are within close range to Sandpoint – Farragut, Round Lake and Priest Lake.

Farragut is located four miles east of Athol, with 4,000 scenic acres alongside the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille.

Camping and groomed cross-country ski trails available (683-2425). Round Lake is located 12 miles south of Sandpoint just west of Highway 95 on West Dufort Road. Round Lake is a small, scenic lake; camping, fishing, sledding and w w w. s a n d p o i n t o n l i n e . c o m

PHOTO BY DOUG MARSHALL

town Sandpoint, the Alpine Shop at 213 Church (263-5157) or Outdoor Experience, 314 N. First Ave. (2636028). More snow sport information online, at www.SandpointOnline.com/rec or www.fs.fed.us/ipnf.

Fourth-Generation Guest Ranch Located in Pristine North Idaho

True Western 208 263-9066 Hospitality 1413 Upper Gold Creek Rd. Open Open Year-Round Year-Round Sandpoint, ID 8386

Email: stay@westernpleasureranch.com

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Walking. For a 2-mile walk on cleared paths with dazzling views, the Pedestrian Long Bridge runs alongside Highway 95 over Lake Pend Oreille. You’ll also find paved, cleared paths at Travers Park on West Pine Street; City Beach downtown; and the Dover Bike Path along Highway 2 west. Paths also at Lakeview Park through and around the Native Plant Society Arboretum; and overlooking Sand Creek at the Healing Garden next to Bonner General Hospital.

Wildlife Refuge. Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge, 30 miles north of Sandpoint near Bonners Ferry, has more than 2,000 acres and abundant wildlife including elk, deer, moose and bear, plus migrating birds. Hiking trails to waterfall and around pond, auto tour routes. www. fws.gov/kootenai (267-3888).

Sandpoint WaterLife Discovery Center. On Lakeshore Drive, the center offers interpretive trails and self-guided

PHOTO BY TIM CADY AND JERRY PAVIA

Winter Guide

cross-country skiing are all available (263-3489). Priest Lake State Park is located north of Coolin alongside the clear waters of Priest Lake. Camping, cross-country skiing, ice fishing and snowmobiling available (443-2200). www.

IdahoParks.org.

tours of fish habitat and an educational interpretive area on Pend Oreille River. www.fishandgame.idaho.gov (769-1414).

Fishing. Dedicated fishermen don’t let a little cold weather stop them. When the water freezes, there’s great ice fishing at the north end of the Long Bridge in front of Condo del Sol. Main prey is perch, though bass and trout also are caught. Ice fishing is also popular on smaller lakes Cocolalla, Mirror, Gamlin, Shepherd, Round, Antelope and Priest.

Lake Pend Oreille’s deep waters rarely freeze and even in midwinter charter fishing boats pursue its trophy rainbow trout and mackinaw, which often go over 10 pounds. Try Diamond Charters (2652565), Eagle Charters (264-5274), Pend

Oreille Charters (265-6781) or Seagull Charters (266-1861).

Ice Skating and Sledding. It takes several days of sustained below-freezing temperatures without too much snow, but when conditions are right, local ice skaters flock to Sandpoint City Beach or Sand Creek below the Cedar Street Bridge; city crews often help by clearing snow from the ice. Another favored skating spot is the Third Avenue Pier, where the street terminates at Lake Pend Oreille. Or head out to Round Lake State Park, south of Sandpoint, where there is often a bonfire blazing. Park staff maintain both regular and speed-skating rinks. To get there, drive 10 miles south on Highway 95, then west two miles on

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Keokee Guidebooks

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www.sandpointgeneralstore.com

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Art Galleries. Truly an arts town, Sandpoint has numerous galleries in the area, and many artists open their studios as well. Downtown you can easily make a walking tour of galleries; on First Avenue check Art Works, First Light, Hallans, Hen’s Tooth and multiple shops on the Cedar Street Bridge. Swing west to Sixth and Oak for Redtail Gallery and Sandpoint Center for the Arts. Art lovers may also visit revolving art exhibits in year-round gallery locations sponsored by the Pend Oreille Arts Council.

Locations include Old Power House, 120 E. Lake St.; Panhandle State Bank, 414 Church St.; Starbucks at 108 N. First Ave.; University of Idaho, Extension Center at 2105 N. Boyer; and STCU, 477181 Highway 95 in Ponderay. www.

ArtinSandpoint.org (263-6139).

Bonner County Historical Museum.

Enjoy many fine displays depicting old-

PHOTO BY WOODS WHEATCROFT

Indoors

time Bonner County. Featured exhibits include “Canoes for the Journey” about fur trader David Thompson and a Salish style “sturgeon-nosed” canoe that is unique to this region. Other exhibits tell the stories of Bonner County communities with an emphasis on homesteading, logging and railroads. An extensive research archive has information helpful to genealogists and those curious about the area. Open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Saturdays in summer only). Located in Lakeview Park, 611 S. Ella. www.bonnercountyhistory. org (263-2344).

Movies. The Bonner Mall Cinema is a six-plex theater inside the Bonner Mall on Highway 95, featuring new releases daily (263-7147). The historic Panida Theater downtown at 300 N. First shows foreign and independent films most weekends (263-9191). Check www.

SandpointMovies.com for movie listings.

at Superior and Ella has cardiovascular, weight and circuit machines; open weekdays (263-0676). The Integrative Athlete, 506 Oak St., is a training facility specializing in functional movement and wholistic training (946-4855).

Curves at 110 Tibbetts Ln. in Ponderay (255-1661) caters to women, as does Evolution Fitness, 30736 Highway 200, Ste. 104, in Ponderay (255-7010).

Athletic Clubs. Sandpoint West Athletic Club, 1905 W. Pine St., has a 25-meter indoor pool; courts for racquetball, wallyball and basketball; a big weight room with treadmills, stair, rowing and bike machines, a sauna and spa.

Open daily. www.SandpointWest.com (263-6633). Also, Natural Fitness

Spas. Get pampered at The Spa at Seasons, in downtown Sandpoint, www.

SeasonsatSandpoint.com (263-5616); Wildflower Day Spa, thewildflower dayspa.com (263-1103); Ammara Medicine Wellness & Spa, 30410 Highway 200 in Ponderay, www.

MyAmmara.com (265-8648); Su Geé

Log on to Sandpoint’s remarkable community web site.

Events • Visitor Guide • Movies Lodging & Dining • Recreation Job Center • Free classified ads Weather & travel info • News Sandpoint Q&A Forums • More

Get the

TownCrier FREE e-mail newsletter of Sandpoint happenings register online www.sandpointonline.com

www.sandpointonline.com WINTER 2011

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... there’s a lot goin’ on!

Winter Guide

Dufort Road (263-3489). If it’s sledding you want, Schweitzer maintains its Hermits Hollow Tubing Center; sessions last 1.5 hours and reservations are recommended (255-3081). And a second fine sledding hill is at Round Lake State Park, with a 1,000-foot run to the lake, and often that bonfire.

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Skin Care, 324 S. Florence Ave. (2636205); or Solstice Well Being Spa and Wellness Center at Schweitzer Mountain. www.SolsticeWellBeing.com (263-2862).

Brewery Tours. Take a tour and taste handcrafted ales at Laughing Dog Brewing in Ponderay, open MondaySaturday on Emerald Industrial Park Road and moving to Fontaine Drive in midwinter. www.LaughingDogBrewing.com (263-9222). Downtown, see brewing in action at Sandpoint’s own craft brewpub, MickDuff’s, open daily at 312 N. First. www.mickduffs.com (255-4351).

in downtown Sandpoint. www.powine. com (265-8545). Two more wine bars, all within easy walks downtown, are the Coldwater Creek Wine Bar, upstairs at 311 N. First Ave., also featuring live

music and great menu to complement wines (263-6971); and Enoteca La Stanza, inside Ivano’s Caffe at 102 S. First Ave., also serving exotic martinis and Italian food. (263-0211).

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Winery & Wine Bars. The Pend d’Oreille Winery, Idaho’s Winery of the Year in 2003, features tours of the winery plus its award-winning wines, wine tasting, a gift shop open daily, live music on Fridays, and Bistro Rouge menu seven days a week. Located at 220 Cedar St.

PHOTO BY WOODS WHEATCROFT

Winter Guide

SHOPPING

Downtown retailers are going all out in the Sandpoint Shopping District, where shoppers will discover a fine array of eclectic shops and galleries with clothing, art and gifts galore. Highlights include the Cedar Street Bridge Public Market with retailers, art, and food in a beautiful log structure spanning Sand Creek. www.CedarStreetBridge. com (255-8270). Just down the street is Coldwater Creek in its flagship store at 311 N. First, with a wine bar upstairs and live music on Fridays and Saturdays. www.coldwater creek.com (263-2265). Antiques abound at Foster’s Crossing, a mini mall with lots of collectibles, on Fifth between Cedar and Oak streets (2635911); and MarketPlace Antiques & Gifts, Sandpoint’s newest antique market, open daily, at Fifth and Church (263-4444). Out of town, Bonner Mall in Ponderay has many stores large and small, and often hosts events; it’s on Highway 95 two miles north of Sandpoint (263-4272).

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Lodging

Meeting Rooms

Kitchen

Bar or Lounge

Restaurant

Pool on site

Spa or Sauna

No. of Units

Lodging Comments

Archer Vacation Condos (877) 982-2954 / drarchers@msn.com

4

x

x

Best Western Edgewater Resort (208) 263-3194 or (800) 635-2534

54

x

x

Days Inn Ski Lodge (208) 263-1222 or (800) 543-8193

50

x

Dover Bay Bungalows (208) 263-3083

19

x

x

x

x

x

La Quinta Inn (208) 263-9581 or (800) 282-0660

68

x

x

x

x

x

Holiday Inn Express 208-255-4500 / Fax (208) 255-4502

83

x

x

Howard Johnson (208) 263-5383, (800) 4-MOTEL6

70

x

Lodge at Sandpoint (208) 263-2211

25

x

Meriwether Inn (208) 266-1716

15

Pend Oreille Shores Resort (208) 264-5828

50

Sandpoint Quality Inn (208) 263-2111 or (866) 519-7683

Beautiful 3-bedroom, 2-bath waterfront condos on Lake Pend Oreille in Hope.

Discount ski and golf tickets available. See ad, page 88.

10kVacationRentals.com/Sandpoint/index.htm

x

x

x

x

x

x

Downtown Sandpoint on the lake. Indoor pool, sauna, fitness room, hot tub.

All rooms with lake view. Dine at Trinity at City Beach. Also 22-site RV park.

SandpointHotels.com

x

New accommodations featuring log furniture. Free high-speed Internet and continental breakfast. Silverwood and ski packages. Kids under 12 stay free. Walk to Bonner Mall shopping and dining.

Waterfront bungalows at beautiful Dover Bay in Marina Village. Fully furnished with lake and mountain views. Fitness center, marina and hiking/biking trails.

See ad, page 22. DoverBayBungalows.com

x

Downtown location, high-speed Internet. Free breakfast, themed spa suites.

Silverwood, ski and golf packages. Kids stay free. See ad, page 42.

Hotels-West.com

x

The newest hotel in Sandpoint. 100 percent smoke free. The Ponderay location is at the base of Schweitzer Mountain next to Slates Prime Time Bar & Grill, close to Wal-Mart. See ad, page 98. HIExpress.com

x

Free wireless Internet, free cable with HBO and ESPN, free 24-hour coffee in lobby, Jacuzzi suites, and hot tubs. Inner corridor rooms with all queen beds, next to Schweitzer. See ad, page 33. HoJo.com

x

Accommodations for weddings, retreats and banquets. Lakeside with swimming and docks. Views of lake and mountains for an unforgettable Idaho vacation. LodgeAtSandpoint.com

x

x

x

Located on Scenic Byway Highway 200. Beautiful views, wildlife and bird watching, biking and more.

x

x

x

x

Fully furnished condos and on-site athletic club on Lake Pend Oreille.

Stay and play packages. See ad, page 25. posresort.com

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x

x

x

Indoor pool and hot tub. Close to downtown Sandpoint. 5th Avenue Restaurant and Mitzy’s Lounge on property. Kids stay and eat free. SandpointHotels.com

Sandpoint Vacation Rentals (208) 263-7570 or (866) 263-7570

75

x

x

x

x

75 luxury homes and condos in Sandpoint and on the lake. First-class properties at affordable rates. Plan your perfect vacation. Boat rentals, tee times.

See ad, page 25. SandpointVacationRentals.com

Selkirk Lodge (208) 265-0257 or (800) 831-8810

167

x

x

x

x

Mountain accommodations, stay and play packages. Spectacular mountain and lake views. Outdoor heated pool and hot tubs. See ad, page 115. schweitzer.com

Sleep’s Cabins (208) 255-2122 or (866) 302-2122

6

Super 8 Motel (208) 263-2210

60

x

Vacationville (208) 255-7074 or (877) 255-7074

60

x

Waterhouse B&B (208) 263-0828

2

Western Pleasure Guest Ranch (208) 263-9066 White Pine Lodge (208) 265-0257 or (800) 831-8810

x

x

x

On beautiful Lakeshore Drive. Sleep’s Cabins consists of six log bungalows decorated with original furnishings and collectibles. See ad, page 57.

SleepsCabins.com

x

Luxury lakeside homes, cozy mountain cabins and lovely condominiums in the heart of Sandpoint. See ad, page 37. vacationville.com

x

x

Deluxe spa suites with private, jetted tub for two in bath. Gas fireplace, AC, kitchenette, free wireless Internet. sandpoint.org/waterhouse

9

x

x

x

Private cabins sleep 2-8. Lodge rooms with private baths, rec room, horseback riding and meals available. See ad, page 95. WesternPleasureRanch.com

50

x

x

x

New accommodations, stay and play packages. Spectacular mountain and lake views. Outdoor hot tubs, access to heated pool. See ad, page 115. schweitzer.com

x

x

x

x

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Free breakfast with waffles. 24-hour hot tub, free wireless Internet. Family suites. Schweitzer ski packages. At the base of Schweitzer Mountain, 2 miles from lake. x

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NOURISHING THE COMMUNITY A look back at Sandpoint dining

By Carrie Scozzaro

P

anhandler Pies, Fifth Avenue Restaurant, Connie’s Café, Hoot Owl, Mr. Sub, Dub’s, Serv-a-Burger, Hydra, Floating Restaurant, Ivano’s and Schweitzer’s St. Bernard: What do these restaurants have in common? All have at least 20 years in business and are still going strong!

Just a distant memory? The Garden Restaurant, The Cupboard, Thompson’s North Bay Landing in Hope, Trestle Creek Inn, Bud’s Burger Barn, Savory’s and Henry Villard’s on the Cedar Street Bridge, and East-West Cattle Company, amongst others.

Still others have simply changed hands and names: Arthur’s Chick ’n’ Fish is now Spuds; Fabulous ’50s Fountain turned into the first location of Jalapeño’s, on Cedar; Longhorn Barbecue is now Long Bridge Grill; Pastime Café and Sports Shop is now Oishii and The Dive; Rax is Arby’s; Whistle Stop Donut and Coffee Company became MickDuff’s Brewing Co.; Coffee Mill at Foster’s Crossing turned into Café Bodega; Jean’s in the Green Gables Hotel is now Chimney Rock Grill in the Selkirk Lodge; The Dragon Inn became Duke’s, now closed; Swan’s Landing, built in 1994, became The Landing and then FortyOne South; Beach House is today Trinity at City Beach; and Big Joe’s morphed into Bangkok Cuisine.

That was the list as it stood 20 years ago, inspiring a trip down memory lane for several iconic restaurant owners and locals alike.

“The one thing I will never forget,” says Laurel Taylor, of TaylorParker Motor Co., “is going to Ivano’s Ristorante when it was at the Second Avenue location. They invited us in like it was their home, and we were their friends.”

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PHOTO BY MATT MILLS MCKNIGHT

Eats

& Drinks

EATS & DRINKS

The original home of Ivano’s is now Longtime local foodies, Ron and Ranel Hanson like to patronize restaurants such as Jalapeño’s while the Blue Moon Café and is one of the also remembering long-gone favorites longest-lived restaurant locations.

“We were at one time the newest restaurant in town,” says Ivano’s Jim Lippi.

“Now we are (one of) the oldest.” brother Barney, who – along with his Whereas 20 years ago the only other wife, Carol – have run numerous resItalian place was Papandrea’s Pizza taurants figuring prominently in the (now Second Avenue Pizza), currently minds and hearts of Sandpoint diners, there are Arlo’s Ristorante downtown, including The Dock of the Bay (now Babs’ Pizzeria on Highway 2 and, in The Jetty) and Tango Café (in the Hope, Old Ice House Pizzeria.

Sandpoint Financial Center).

Ivano’s introduced area diners to The Cupboard was another such restaurateurs Richard Ballard and his place, which Taylor remembered on WINTER 2011

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First Avenue (currently Pedro’s), and later on Second.

Ron and Ranel Hanson remember this: “Roll out of bed on Saturday, grab the papers, walk leisurely to The Cupboard … open the door, take a big whiff of the delicious aromas,” says Ranel, who owns Zany Zebra. “It wasn’t just the food … it was our place where we could relax among friends and begin the weekend.”

For Di Luna’s Cafe chef/owner, Karen Forsythe, the weekend routine included Edelhaus (in Hope, now Trisha’s Place) for “the best broasted chicken.” Other memories include Idaho Flynn’s (Pine and Second), the Soup Kettle (Pine and Church) and The Garden Restaurant (Lake Street on Sand Creek), which was “THE place to go for a special dinner,” according to Forsythe.

Taylor concurs, saying: “You couldn’t beat the location, and the bar was to die for – big grand piano, great bartenders, terrific ambiance.”

Opened in 1971, The Garden – aptly named with its jungle of plants and amazing salad bar – was demolished in 1997, but its memory lives on, a testimony to the impact of the dining experience itself. It’s a lesson not lost on longstanding businesses.

“The relationships you build with your customers last for decades,” says Forsythe.

“Sandpoint has reached a destination

status,” adds Lippi, speaking in terms of dining.

Yet, he notes: “The bar has been raised … the diners’ expectation is much higher in all aspects of our business. The service, food quality, ambiance and value have to be there.”

Challenges include rising food costs, a roller-coaster economy and the seasonal aspect of Sandpoint dining.

Elissa Robbins, who runs both The Restaurant at Beyond Hope and The Floating Restaurant during the summer, knows that all too well; she now takes winters off. Before that, however, Robbins ran St. Bernard Restaurant (formerly the Keg) at Schweitzer, which represents one more puzzle piece in the economic, big picture of Sandpoint’s growing tourism business.

“Sometimes people think that being in the restaurant business will be fun,” says Forsythe, “but they don’t realize what is really involved.”

Indeed, many favorite places have moved on or changed names; yet, some simply could not sustain the considerable effort required to be successful.

Forsythe remains optimistic: “I have parents who bring their kids in, and before you know it those kids are bringing their kids in. It’s like an extended family. That’s how a restaurant makes it through tough times and good. It’s the community’s commitment to you.”

And for that, as well as the many fond memories they’ve been a part of, the community, in turn, says thank you to its Sandpoint restaurant family.

In England they’re chips, in France pommes frites and in America, they’re french fries.

Shoestring, curly, jojo or steak fries. Breaded, spiced, smothered or sprinkled with salt.

While some prefer fresh-cut, frozen fries can be just as good, while still others swear by batter-dipped or twice-cooked.

Got a hankering for chili cheese fries?

Joe’s Philly Cheesesteaks (102 Church St.) can hook you up.

Fries are included with any of the two dozen sandwiches at your neighborhood A & P’s Bar and Grill (222 N. First Ave.).

At Eichardt’s (212 Cedar St.) check out the good-sized baskets of garlic fries sprinkled with Parmesan, while at MickDuff’s (312 N. First Ave.) try the hand-cut fries and homemade potato chips or splurge on criss-cuts topped with Gorgonzola (shown above).

Fries get fancy at The Bistro at the Inn at Sand Creek (105 S. First Ave.) – hand-cut with a dusting of truffle salt – while Forty-One South (41 Lakeshore Dr., Sagle) serves sweet potato fries as the perfect mate to hearty burgers and steaks.

Kissing cousins to the ubiquitous french fries are potato skins, loaded with cheddar and bacon at Connie’s Café (323 Cedar St.) as well as Slates (477272 Highway 95, Ponderay), which serves them with either sour cream and salsa or loads of garlic and tangy Parmesan.

And if your idea of the perfect potato is not fried but baked, Spuds (102 N. First) serves them topped with everything, while Schweitzer Mountain Resort’s Chimney Rock Grill roasts Yukon gold potatoes with fragrant rosemary.

Not into potatoes at all? The Tunnel Cookery+Drinkery (202½ N. First Ave.) upends tradition with portobello mushroom fries and house-made ketchup, just another example of how Sandpoint’s restaurants give you plenty of options.

–C.S.

& Drinks

PHOTO BY DANN HALL

Eats

The Garden Restaurant at the end of Lake Street on Sand Creek was a Sandpoint favorite for 26 years

The fries the limit

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Chef Q&A with Carolyn Gleason and Reese Warren

PHOTOS BY BILLIE JEAN PLASTER

& Drinks Eats

Serving Sandpoint

Two of our favorite local eateries’ chefs shared their stories with us, reflecting their similarities (they both started out washing dishes) and differences. Carolyn Gleason is head chef and owner of Second Avenue Pizza, and Reese Warren is responsible for the “seriously good food” at Eichardt’s. Even though their restaurants differ (pizza versus pub food), they both list putting out high quality food as the best part of the job, and they both agree on the three ingredients they can’t do without in the kitchen: garlic, onions and butter! Then Gleason added a fourth must-have ingredient, mayonnaise, which people tend to say they dislike, yet it is the base for many dressings they love.

–C.S. CAROLYN GLEASON

REESE WARREN

Her first post-collegiate job at The Garden restaurant eventually grew into a love for cooking, as she moved from dishwasher to busser to waitress to prepwork.

From washing dishes to preparing them, Warren traveled all over the West, including Texas where two years of fine dining experience made an impression.

“I learned everything I know from on the job,” said Gleason, who would challenge her skills by trying to recreate dishes she had tasted elsewhere.

Home at Eichardt’s for eight years, Warren appreciates owner Jeff Nizzoli’s “high expectations for food quality” and purchasing local foods (Wood’s Meats, Pine Street Bakery), as well as his fellow cooks.

Favorite things to eat

“All seafood!”

“There’s something about Mom’s cookin’. I think it’s the love.” Aw, what a good son.

Most challenging part of the job

Job turnover, requiring constant retraining. “I helped raise a lot of high school kids,” said Gleason.

“Two flights of stairs between the kitchen and the cooler.”

No wonder he’s in such great shape!

What they do when not cooking

“And not doing Lost in the ’50s?” laughs Gleason, who has put on the popular special event for 25 years.

“I’ve always wanted to be a musician, but there is a reason for the term ‘starving artist.’ ” He plays in the band Not Quite Punk.

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Mundane tasks like laundry, yet she said, “I do love the lake and find solitude next to the water.”

Sandpoint’s Best Thai Food A SL I C E O F N E W YOR K Voted Best Pizza in Bonner County 2010

208.265.7992

CORNER of HWY 2 & DIVISION SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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• Peanut sauces • Curry • Stir frys and soups • Wine and beer • Vegetarian choices • Now Catering

Eat in or take out

208-265-4149 • 202 N. 2nd Ave. WINTER 2011

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Winery adds food to the menu

Enjoy innovative, modern-American cuisine Cozy up by the fireplace in the lounge

& Drinks

G

reat wine is about ingredients, timing and the winemaker’s magical touch.

Great food? It requires the same recipe, which is why the combination of chef Katie Jimenez and the new Bistro Rouge Café has given us even more reasons to love Pend d’Oreille Winery.

Formerly a pastry chef at Coeur d’Alene’s Brix Restaurant, Jimenez approached owners Steve and Julie Meyer in early 2010 about adding food. The winery was gearing up for its 15th anniversary, adding new display areas, and factoring in a small cafe space and kitchen remodel.

Bistro Rouge Café opened in May, serving mostly tapas, or small plates, designed to complement wine tastings, for example, plates of dried meats or crostini with goat cheese, prosciutto and peach pepper jelly. The café also serves a weekly handtossed pizza special.

And in June, the winery held its first-ever winemaker’s dinner, says Jiminez: “An elegant six-course meal paired with our wines, set in a candlelit barrel room, accompa- First winemaker’s dinner nied with good friends and laughter.”

While classical music played, winemaker Steve shared his history. Plans are in the works for more winemaker’s dinners.

–C.S.

Eats

PERFECT PAIRINGS

Full bar and extensive wine list available Private Dining Room Catering for large and small events.

Forty-One Forty

SOUTH

waterfront dining | bar & grill | catering

Dinner served Tuesday – Sunday / Sunday Brunch RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED

41 Lakeshore Drive, Sagle, Idaho | 208 265 2000 | 41southsandpoint.com

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Open 7 days/week, year-round

Follow us on Facebook

sandpoint, idaho

58 Bridge street at City BeaCh | 208.255.7558 | www.trinityatCityBeaCh.Com

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Lake and mountain view dining FLat screen tv’s in FuLL-service Lounge Fresh seaFood, steaks, saLads voted LocaLs’ Favorite

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S

andpoint welcomes many new restaurants. One of them is Secret Thai (418 N. Third Ave., 263-9960), tucked in behind Eichardt’s near Bonner General Hospital, and just a phone-call away from terrific takeout such as pad thai. The Tunnel Cookery+Drinkery (202½ N. First Ave., 255-4169) offers eclectic dishes such as Indian naan bread pizza or English “bangers and mash” in the groovy space down under Mad Mike’s Coffee House. The Dive (207 N. First Ave., 255-4421) promises “cheap food, cheap drinks and free play.”

Summer also saw the opening of Udderly Cultured (216 N. First Ave., 255-5238), offering frozen yogurt, fruit smoothies and handy snacks such as soft pretzels with cheddar cheese filling. Also this summer, The Bistro at the Inn at Sand Creek (105 S. First Ave., 265-2277) was full-sail with seasonal menus that cater to the epicurean adventurer and wine-enthusiast. And formerly a service station, a new Firstand-Bridge business serves pita sandwiches under franchisees Jeff and Tasha Walker, whose Sandpoint Pita Pit (116 N. First Ave., 263-8989) promotes “fresh thinking, healthy eating.”

On the north side of town, Miller’s Country Store (1326 Baldy Mountain Rd., 263-9446), at Miller Handyman Services, is open for business, offering fresh baked bread, deli meats and cheese, homemade pie and cookies,

bulk foods and candies. According to owner Rod Miller, they “will even make you a carryout lunch!”

New owners Doug, Kim and Poppy Bond are moving mountains to make Monarch Mountain Coffee (208 N. Fourth Ave., 265-9382) even better, with an early-fall remodel and expansion into the former Packages Plus. They also plan to expand the menu to include yummy panini and will use some of that extra space for performances, such as by Doug and Kim, accomplished musicians.

Same place, different spelling at Forty-One South (41 Lakeshore Dr., Sagle, 265-2000) when current chef Jeremy Heidel and new owner Cassandra Cayson retire the number 41 in the name. Look for the new winter menu in November and continue to expect the same great food as always.

Former owners Mel and Claudia Dick still own the 219 Lounge and Trinity at Willow Bay (open summers), plus they assist son Justin at Trinity at City Beach.

Out in Sagle, Stacey’s Country Kitchen (469000 Highway 95, 2655095) is expanding their entrée menu, including new seafood dishes and chicken-fried prime rib (wow!). Owners Lisa and Mike Chronic will also be opening Brody’s Pizza (also in Sagle at Travel America Plaza) in late fall 2010, with pizza, pasta and sandwiches.

Evans Brothers Coffee Roasters (524 Church St., 265-5553) invites patrons to its new Neighborhood

Slates is the Place SlatesPrimeTime.com Slates

Sandpoint’s newest cookery and drinkery, The Tunnel serves up eclectic dishes lunch to late night in its happenin’ underground locale

Espresso Bar and Tasting Room, a “unique, open-air setting in the funky granary district,” says Randy Evans.

While Cedar St. Bridge Café (334 N. First Ave., 265-4396) ponders possible menu changes, they’re keeping plenty busy with their bustling new business, Uniquely Sandpoint, also on the bridge, and offering souvenirs and local huckleberry products.

It’s not a two-fer Tuesday but dollar pints’ll do. Every Tuesday night at the 219 (219 N. First Ave., 263-9934), get

PHOTO BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

News and events foodies need to know

• Serving the best hometown meals • Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner 7 days a week

Hwy 95

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The Local Dish

Kootenai Cutoff

• Prime Rib Special Friday & Saturday • Happy Hour 4-7 pm daily

208-263-1381

477272 Hwy 95 N • Ponderay, ID SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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& Drinks

Have you been to Wily Widgeon (30196 Highway 200 at the Elks Lodge, 255-7494) yet? Besides serving some of the best breakfasts and lunches around, the Widgeon does a wonderful job catering events at the Elks and other locations. And for dinner, Trinity at City Beach (58 Bridge St., 255-7558) wants you to come in and try something from their new fall menu.

New menu items at local favorite Jalapeño’s (314 N. Second Ave., 263-2995) include shrimp tacos, and remember Jalapeño’s has a banquet room for special occasions. Rather have the party catered in? Leave the cooking to Judy over at Tango Café (414 Church St. inside the Panhandle State Bank building, 263-9514) or spice up the party with authentic Thai food from Bangkok Cuisine (202 N. Second Ave., 265-4149).

And the last woof comes from local favorite, Laughing Dog Brewing (55 Emerald Industrial Park Rd., Ponderay, 263-9222), who are not doggone yet.

Their proposed relocation to a new, larger facility on Fontaine Drive will take a bit longer than anticipated, tentatively the first of 2011.

–C.S.

Eats

$1 pints of Laughing Dog’s 219er beer, while Mondays means $1.75 Kokanee.

Their café and lounge may be closed for the season, but Sagle’s Garfield Shores Resort (1835 Garfield Bay Rd., Sagle, 263-9595) marina and convenience store are open Wednesday through Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, spend yours at Di Luna’s Café (207 Cedar St., 2630846), enjoying a leisurely meal listening to the Bill Reid Jazz Band or check out www.dilunas.com for the dinner concert calendar.

Don’t wait ’til Sunday to treat yourself to Pine Street Bakery (710 Pine St., 263-9012), now serving deli rye and savory spinach/feta cheese croissants.

Warming up for your weekend might mean a visit to the Pie Hut (502 Church St., 265-2208) for Friday clam chowder, while every day means a new soup offering at Connie’s Café (323 Cedar St., 255-2227), a local favorite for more than 50 years!

Babs’ Pizzeria in the WestPointe Plaza (1319 Highway 2, 265-7992), now serves Tuscan basil soup, the ultimate comfort food paired with a hot sub, such as the Sicilian with Genoa salami, ham, provolone and mozzarella.

It’s always fIner at the 219er!

Full service bar serving Sandpoint and North Idaho for over 75 years A Five Star Dive Bar

219 First Avenue Sandpoint | 208.263.9934

Cyber restaurant guide What’s cooking around town? Find the right food to hit the spot online in

SandpointOnline.com’s database-driven restaurant and nightclubs guide at www.

SandpointDiningGuide.com. There you’ll find every local establishment – more than 100 restaurants, nightclubs and taverns. The guide is searchable by a tasty menu of criteria: type of cuisine, typical cost and amenities such as live music, kids menu, meeting room, waterfront dining, etc. Give it a click.

Best Burgers In Town

For delivery call

208.263.0846

www.DiLunas.com 207 Cedar Street

Crepes, Fresh made Gelato

American Bistro Dining & Catering

On the Bridge Downtown Sandpoint

, Tasty Panini Sandwiches, Soups & Salads, Savory & Desert

CAFE

www. CedarStBridgeCafe . com

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Di Lu n a ’s

Delectable Pastries & Cakes

A Unique Setting, Organic Coffee & Espresso Drinks,

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1 Evans Brothers Coffee 2 Monarch Mountain Coffee 3 Pine Street Bakery 4 Cedar St. Bridge Café 5 Connie’s Café 6 Dover Bay Café 7 Joe’s Philly Cheesesteak 8 Mr. Sub 9 Miller’s Country Store &

6

To Dover Priest River

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To Bonners Ferry Canada

Schweitzer Cut-off Rd

To Schweitzer

0r

To Hope Clark Fork

Kootenai Cut-off Rd Bonner Mall

z

9

Elks Golf Course

=

Baldy Mountain Rd.

Map not to scale!

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LEGENDARY LAKE PEND OREILLE

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Poplar

Bonner General Hospital

Alder

Main

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Cedar St.

3 Pine

Center

Pine St. Lake St.

Second Ave.

PARKING

First Ave.

Church

2Visitor

Third Ave.

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Fourth Ave.

Fifth Ave.

5 Oak

Cedar Street

4 Bridge t f ; ]Panida Theater

c p q w7 o Bridge St. j u e d '

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Deli 0 Mojo Coyote - Stacey’s Country Kitchen = Wily Widgeon q Udderly Cultured w Bangkok Cuisine Thai Restaurant e Bistro at the Inn at Sand Creek r Chimney Rock Grill t Di Luna’s Café y Forty-One South u Spuds Rotisserie & Grill i Trinity at City Beach o The Tunnel Cookery + Drinkery p A & P’s Bar & Grill [ Eichardt’s Pub & Grill ] MickDuff’s Brewing Co. \ Slates Prime Time Grill & Sports Bar a Babs’ Pizzeria s Brody’s Pizzeria d Ivano’s Ristoranté & Caffé f Jalapeño’s Restaurant g Pend Oreille Pasta h Pie Hut j Pita Pit k Second Avenue Pizza l Tango Cafe ; Coldwater Creek Wine Bar ' Enoteca La Stanza z Laughing Dog Brewing x Pend d’Oreille Winery c 219 Lounge

Division

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Eats

& Drinks

Downtown Sandpoint DINING Map

k

i

City Beach

Marina

-yTo Sagle s Coeur d’Alene

10/15/10 1:07 PM

Bangkok Cuisine

The Bistro at Sand Creek

Cedar St. Bridge Café

DINING GUIDE Restaurant index by type of cuisine Locate alphabetically in listings BAKERIES, COFFEE & DESSERTS

1 Evans Brothers Coffee

524 Church St. Enjoy freshly roasted organic, fair trade and Rain Forest Alliance coffees from around the world! Learn about great coffee and the farmers who make it happen. Join the Coffee Club offering limited Roasters Reserve coffees and special discounts. Learn about new offerings, evaluate and discuss different artisan coffees.

Evans Brothers is family owned and operated.

Follow them on Facebook. EvansBrothersCoffee. com. 265-5553.

2 Monarch Mountain Coffee

3 Pine Street Bakery

710 Pine St. Specializing in European pastries, breads and cakes made using fresh butter and cream, farm eggs and fine chocolate. Enjoy a complete line of coffees, espresso drinks and Tazzina teas. Custom order birthday, specialty and wedding cakes; fine French pastries; and a complete line of tarts, cookies and bars. The bakers create more than 10 varieties of breads every day. Open Tuesday to Friday, 7 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Saturdays 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Plenty of parking and outdoor seating. 263-9012.

= number on Dining Map (p 106)

4 Cedar St. Bridge Café

On the Cedar Street Bridge. Family and friends love to gather at this European-style café, located in the heart of downtown Sandpoint inside the renowned Cedar Street Bridge. Experience exceptional coffee and tea drinks, premium crafted gelato, delectable cakes and pastries, fine chocolates, and tasty panini sandwiches all in a unique and warm setting. Enjoy the view of Sand Creek while you use the free Wi-Fi. 2654396.

5 Connie’s Café

323 Cedar St. Historic hospitality! Connie’s Café, the landmark Sandpoint restaurant, reopened its doors after a comprehensive remodel. New owners Dave and Penny Libbey are proud to lovingly restore this northern Idaho icon to its former glory. Their approach is to maintain Connie’s legacy of a 1950s coffee shop with breakfast, lunch and dinner offerings that are of the highest quality while highlighting the quirky nature of this longstanding eatery. 255-2227.

6 Dover Bay Café

At Dover Bay Marina, Dover. Waterfront dining, breakfast, lunch and summer dinners. Serving appetizers, burgers, and sandwiches. Boat-side dining Wednesday through Sunday. See ads on pages 8, 19 and 90. DoverBayBungalows.com.

263-5493.

7 Joe’s Philly Cheesesteaks

102 Church St. Joe’s proudly serves authentic Philly cheesesteaks.

Each cheesesteak is made from a generous portion of grilled steak and onions, cheese, and served on Amoroso rolls brought in from Philadelphia. In addition Joe’s expanded its menu to include hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, BLTs, veggie burgers, grilled-cheese sandwiches and milkshakes. Open Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. A complete menu is available at JoesPhillyCheesesteaks.com. 263-1444.

8 Mr. Sub

602 N. Fifth Ave. Mr. Sub – where there is

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always a daily special. Mr. Sub is a family-ownedand-operated business providing a tradition of great service and quality foods for more than 20 years. Their delicious subs are made with fresh ingredients, the bread is baked at a local bakery, and the salami is specially made by Wood’s Meats. Enjoy local favorites like the turkey bacon sub, potato salad or great garden fresh salads. With a 24-hour notice, the 3-foot and 6-foot party subs are party pleasers. Delivery until 2:30 p.m. on weekdays in the Sandpoint area. Credit and debit cards accepted in store.

263-3491.

9 Miller’s Country Store & Deli

1326 Baldy Mountain Rd. Wholesome goodness is what the newly opened Miller’s Country Store and Deli is all about. Check out their selection of fine deli meats and cheeses, extensive selection of bulk food items, and delicious fresh-baked pies and breads – or bake your own pies at home with Miller’s ready-to-go pie ingredients. Miller’s is sure to be a favorite new store in town! 2639446.

0 Mojo Coyote at Schweitzer

10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd. Located inside the Selkirk Lodge. Enjoy a fresh Tully’s espresso and treat your sweet tooth to a warm scone. The menu features fresh-baked pastries, breakfast burritos and lunch specials as well as beer and wine. Schweitzer.com. 263-9555.

- Stacey’s Country Kitchen

469000 Highway 95, Sagle. Serving delicious home-style cooking, breakfast, lunch and dinner, Stacey’s Country Kitchen breads their own chicken strips and cooks homemade soups, chicken fried steak, seafood, hash browns, red potatoes and more. For those on the go, call ahead to have a hot meal ready when you arrive, to eat in or to take-out. Stacey’s offers prime rib and seafood specials on the weekends. Also serving ice cream and milk shakes for those with a sweet tooth. Kids’ menu and great food at affordable prices. Open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. 265-5095.

= Wily Widgeon

30196 Highway 200 at the Elks Lodge, Ponderay.

Wily Widgeon is settled into its new location and still serves the same great breakfast and lunch.

Both are available 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week. Now catering groups from 20 to 120 in SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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208 N. Fourth Ave. Next to the post office, Sandpoint’s original coffeehouse and roastery was established in 1993. Open 7 days a week.

The casual and friendly atmosphere is the perfect place to meet with friends, relax, enjoy the local flavor of Sandpoint, surf the web with free Wi-Fi in the dining area, or kick back and relax in the outdoor sidewalk café. Featuring premium espresso drinks, a drip coffee bar, and a wide variety of teas, as well as handcrafted milkshakes and real fruit smoothies with all natural ingredients. Now offering breakfast.

Monarch’s high quality Arabica beans are from around the world and roasted in-house.

MonarchMountainCoffee.net. 265-9382.

CAFÉS, DELIS & FAST FOOD

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se

Babs’ Pizzeria

A & P’s Bar & Grill

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Connie’s Café

Di Luna’s Café

Eichardt’s

the banquet room overlooking the golf course. A full bar is available, staying open in the evenings when the golf course is open. Stop in and let them make your next meal something worth coming back for. 255-7494.

q Udderly Cultured

216 N. First Ave. A family-owned and

simple, good,

KITCHEN OPEN LATE! affordable food

EARLY & LATE HAPPY HOUR! done right

located beneath loading dock 208.255.4169

OPEN DAILY 4PM

Evans Brothers

operated business in the heart of Sandpoint’s walking district. Offering Only 8, “America’s Healthiest Frozen Yogurt,” in a wide array of flavors. Enjoy a yogurt fruit smoothie, shake or flurry, or simply try it in a cup (choose from a variety of toppings). Also serving Cascade Glacier ice cream. The winter menu (October through March) includes hot soups and beverages, as well as Belgian waffles topped with frozen yogurt and fruit. Summer hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Winter hours: noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. 255-5238.

ECLECTIC OR FINE DINING

w Bangkok Cuisine Thai Restaurant

202 N. Second Ave. Enjoy authentic Thai food in a welcoming atmosphere. All of Bangkok’s dishes, including a wide variety of vegetarian, are cooked to order using the freshest ingredients with no added MSG. Bangkok offers a fine selection of wine and beer as well as Thai tea and coffee. All desserts are made on-site. Takeout also available. Open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner Monday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Closed Sundays. 265-4149.

e Bistro at the Inn at Sand Creek ~ Eichardt’s Serves up the Best of Northwest Microbrews, Food and Local Live Music ~ Full Lunch and Dinner Menu 16 Micros on Tap • Oak Cask Red Wines Upstairs Game Room Open Daily From 11:30 am

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212 Cedar St. • Sandpoint • 263-4005

108

105 S. First Ave. Situated in an old bank building, with natural brick and wood, The Bistro at the Inn at Sand Creek offers a fresh and casual approach to enjoying life in the heart of downtown Sandpoint. The restaurant’s innovative menu focuses on regional fare that emphasizes all-natural meats, seafoods and vegetables.

Seasonal offerings and nightly specials complement an extensive wine list and microbrews. The Bistro’s new cocktail bar is a wonderful spot to relax with fine spirits in a warm and intimate set-

Forty-One South

Ivano’s

ting. Open Wednesday through Monday evenings starting at 4 p.m. www.innatsandcreek.com.

265-2277.

r Chimney Rock Grill

10000 Schweitzer Mountain Rd. Enjoy the warm fireplaces, comfortable lounge style seating in the bar and a diverse selection of cuisine, from high quality steaks, hearty pasta dishes, scrumptious salads and exquisite seafood.

Located inside the Selkirk Lodge at Schweitzer Mountain Resort. Schweitzer.com. 263-9555.

t Di Luna’s Café

207 Cedar St. Di Luna’s is an American bistro café offering hand-cut steaks, homemade soups and vegetarian cuisine. Open for breakfast and lunch, Wednesday through Sunday, serving breakfast all day. Open until 9 p.m. on Saturday with live music. Specializing in theme catering menus, Di Luna’s catering staff works with customers to take the hassle out of special events so they can enjoy the experience along with guests. At Di Luna’s they love good music, so they host dinner concerts and bring in the best acoustic musicians from around the country. DiLunas.com. 263-0846.

y Forty-One South

41 Lakeshore Dr., Sagle. Casual, waterfront fine dining located at the south end of the Long Bridge in Sandpoint. A popular spot for locals, tourists and business travelers. A relaxed lodge setting and great service paired with innovative, classical cuisine make for one of North Idaho’s premier dining experiences. Forty-One South stocks a full bar, extensive wine list and has an outside patio overlooking the pristine waters of Pend Oreille. Hours vary by season. Sunday brunch. Private dining room. Reservations suggested. 265-2000.

u Spuds Rotisserie & Grill

102 N. First Ave. Located on the beautiful Sand

brothers

-Fine Italian dining serving Sandpoint for over 26 years

The Neighborhood Espresso Bar & Tasting Room is OPEN!

Lunch served Mon-Fri 10:30-2:30 Dinner served 7 nights a week starting at 4:30

Coffee • Espresso • Pastries 524 Church Street in Sandpoint

Corner of First and Pine

Open at 7am Tuesday-Saturday

SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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208-263-0211

www.IvanosSandpoint.com

Great Mexican Food Awesome Atmosphere 314 N. Second Avenue Sandpoint, Idaho 83864 Phone: 208-263-2995

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Eats

MickDuff’s Brewing Co.

Joe’s Philly Cheesesteak

Creek waterfront, offering outdoor dining in downtown Sandpoint. For lunch, choose from the savory soup list, a loaded salad, one of the unique sandwich concoctions or the original Spuds potato. Dinner is a casual event, with table service, candles and outdoor dining. They feature specials like grilled steaks, marinated tri-tip, rotisserie chicken, fresh seafood and Southwestern fare. Dine in or carry out.

SpudsOnline.com. 265-4311.

i Trinity at City Beach

58 Bridge St. The “new Café Trinity.” Enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner with the best view of Lake Pend Oreille. Deck seating. Outstanding menu featuring seafood, steaks, salads and appetizers. Full bar serving a great selection of wines, beers and cocktails featuring a daily happy hour. Open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Located at the Best Western Edgewater Resort adjacent to Sandpoint City Beach. 255-7558.

o The Tunnel Cookery + Drinkery

202½ N. First Ave. Simple, good food in the heart of Sandpoint, the Tunnel Cookery + Drinkery is the perfect in-town location for affordable, consistent and delicious food done right. The Tunnel has a kids menu and a familyfriendly atmosphere, open daily beginning at 4 p.m. while the kitchen is usually open until midnight. Catch live music Thursday through Saturday. It’s the best music venue in town. Or stop in and watch your favorite game at the bar or on the huge projection-screen TV. 255-4169

PUB-STYLE

p A & P’s Bar & Grill

222 N. First Ave. A traditional tavern located downtown on Sand Creek. Serving “the best burgers in town” and pub fare. Enjoy Taco Tuesday every week. Pool and dart leagues run every week throughout the year. Enjoy the friendly

tea

ks

Pend Oreille Pasta & Wine

atmosphere, food and drink. Located on First Avenue in downtown Sandpoint. 263-2313.

REGIONAL/ETHNIC

[ Eichardt’s Pub & Grill

1319 Highway 2. In a great location at WestPointe Plaza, Babs’ Pizzeria bakes New

212 Cedar St. A comfortable pub and grill, Eichardt’s is located downtown in a charming, historic building. This relaxing pub mixes casual dining with seriously good food. There’s something for everyone – more than a dozen beers on tap, good wines including oak cask local red wines, and regional touring live music.

Upstairs you’ll find a fireplace-warmed game room with a pool table, darts and shuffleboard.

Eichardt’s has been nationally recognized and locally supported since 1994. Open daily at 11:30 a.m. for smokeless dining seven days a week. 263-4005.

aBabs’ Pizzeria

] MickDuff’s Brewing Co.

312 N. First Ave. Come and enjoy MickDuff’s fine handcrafted ales in a family dining atmosphere.

They offer a variety of top-of-the-line beers ranging from fruity blondes to a seasonal porter.

MickDuff’s also brews a unique-style root beer for those young in age or at heart. The menu is packed full of flavor with traditional and updated pub fare. You will find toasted sandwiches, hearty soups, gourmet hamburgers and much more at this cozy brewpub located in downtown Sandpoint. MickDuffs.com. 255-4351.

\ Slates Prime Time Grill

= number on Dining Map (p 104)

int’s Sandpo b Shop

Local Su

SUBS - SALADS - DELIVERY AVAIL. 10-6 WEEKDAYS • 11-5 SATURDAYS DELIVERY WEEKDAYS UNTIL 2:30 PM

263-3491 CREDIT & DEBIT CARDS ACCEPTED

602 NORTH 5TH

Free the Beans!

& Sports Bar

477326 Highway 95, Ponderay. Slates serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, with mouth-watering Black Angus prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights, and some of the best burgers, salads and steaks in the area.

Numerous big-screen TVs, plus a full bar and happy hour every day from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The kitchen is open late on Friday and Saturday nights and closes at 9 p.m. the remainder of the week.

SlatesPrimeTime.com. 263-1381.

www.monarchmountaincoffee.net 208 N. 4th Avenue • Sandpoint, ID 208.265.9382 Open Daily

Approved BULK FOODS • DELI • BAKED GOODS Approved with changes Changes; please provide another proof Please sign with your approval: Signature

Date

A signed proof releases Keokee Publishing, Inc. from any reponsibility for error on copy. Please read all copy and check this job carefully. Thank you for your participation in ensuring your product is the best we can make it.

Approved

w w w. s a n d p o i n t o n l i n e . c o m

es Authenti Philly Chees c

Mr. Sub

Miller’s Country Store

& Drinks

Jalapeño’s

Approved with-is changes Please note: This color comp produced by an in-house Monday Friday Saturdayprinter 8:30 toand 2:00is not indicative of the quality of the5:30 final printedanother piece. This proof may Sunday not accurately Changes; please provide proof 8:30 to Closed reflect the colors.

Baldy Mountain Rd • Sandpoint • 208.263.9446 Please sign1326 with your approval:

WINTER 2011

Signature

S A N D P O I N T M A G A Z I NDate E

109

A signed proof releases Keokee Publishing, Inc. from any reponsibility for error on copy. Please read all copy and check this job carefully. Thank you for your participation in ensuring your product is the best we can make it.

093-116_SMW11[Winter-Eats], abjLW.indd 109

1:07 PM Please note: This color comp is produced by an in-house printer and10/15/10 is not

& Drinks Eats

The Pie Hut

Pita Pit

Pine Street Bakery

York-style pizza in an open kitchen with dough hand-made fresh daily and four sauces to choose from. Babs and her mom, BJ, use family recipes handed down from Sicilian grandparents, including Great Grandma Frascella’s top-secret meatball recipe starring in the Parmesan Hero and spaghetti. Try Babs’ signature appetizer, Raspberry Chipotle Wings, or sample the

“Tastes as good as it looks!”

710 Pine Street • Sandpoint

208.263.9012 fresh baked breads • cheeses • olives

wine • beer • gift baskets • catering

sausages • ravioli • gourmet sandwiches

www.pendoreillepasta.com 476534 Hwy 95 Sandpoint • 208.263.1352

Stromboli, a pizza pocket of sorts. Open daily at 11 a.m.; some outdoor seating available.

265-7992.

s Brody’s Pizzeria

468810 Highway 95, Sagle. Brody’s brings great pizza, salads and pasta to the Sagle area, featuring eat-in, takeout and take-n-bake pizza made with fresh, quality ingredients. In addition, Brody’s offers a rotating selection of delicious salads and savory pasta dinners. Conveniently located on Highway 95 adjacent to the Travel America Conoco, Brody’s is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 265-2448.

d Ivano’s Ristoranté & Caffé

Deirdre Hill Liz Evans

International Wine Selection Artisan Cheeses & Breads Fresh Pasta Dinners To Go Gourmet Deli

Second Avenue Pizza

102 S. First Ave. Serving the community for more than 25 years, Ivano’s Italian dining accompanied by classic wines and gracious atmosphere add to the enjoyment of one of Sandpoint’s favorite restaurants. Pasta, fresh seafood and steaks, veal, chicken and vegetarian entrees round out the fare. Gluten-free menu. Dinner served seven nights a week starting at 4:30 p.m. Lunch served Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. An excellent bakery featuring coffee, fresh pastries and deli-style lunch offerings, Monday-Friday. Off-site catering is available for weddings, family get-togethers and large gatherings. IvanosSandpoint.com. 263-0211.

f Jalapeño’s Restaurant

314 N. Second Ave. Authentic Mexican food in a fun and friendly environment serving traditional and unusual south-of-the-border specialties, plus even a few gringo dishes! This popular dining establishment also boasts a full cantina bar with traditional frosty margaritas that complement any dish. The banquet room seats up to 35 of your closest friends. And when the weather’s warm, Jalapeño’s invites guests to dine on the outside deck. Conveniently located in the historic Elks building in the heart of downtown Sandpoint.

Slates Prime Time

Spuds Rotisserie & Grill

263-2995.

g Pend Oreille Pasta

476534 Highway 95 (one block south of Walmart). John and Valerie love to help their customers select from their outstanding selection of fine wines and artisan cheeses. Market food items include international wines at competitive prices, ravioli and olives, bulk olive oil and many gourmet grocery items. Fresh homemade pastas and sauces made on-site may be purchased as part of a complete dinner package including salad and fresh, daily-baked artisan bread. Custom quality catering for large and small events. PendOreillePasta.com. 263-1352.

h Pie Hut

502 Church St. Sandpoint’s culinary treasure, the Pie Hut is a gourmet café where the locals like to eat. This charming little café offers exactly what you want: small-town service where quality still matters. Daily lunch specials include homemade soups, panini sandwiches (meat and vegetarian), chicken pot pies, Cornish beef pasties, assorted quiches and salads, with more than 30 handrolled fruit and cream pies, baked daily. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Phone ahead for pick-up. 265-2208.

j Pita Pit

116 N. First Ave. “Fresh Thinking, Healthy Eating.™” A place with great-tasting food that’s healthy, fresh and still served fast. Pita Pit uses lean, savory meats that are grilled to perfection, a large choice of crisp, fresh veggies, and exotic toppings, including their own zesty signature sauces. Try the gyro, chicken souvlaki, a vegetarian falafel, or one of the breakfast pitas. 263-8989. k Second Avenue Pizza 215 S. Second Ave. Try the piled-high specialty pizzas at Second Avenue Pizza loaded with

w w w. s a n d p o i n t o n l i n e . c o m

Complete carry-out fresh pasta dinners Rice crusts & soy cheese now available

“Out of this W orld” • Delivery • Sandwiches • Calzones • Specialty Salads • Homemade Dough • Beer/Wine • Take & Bakes

The Pie Hut

502 Church Street • Sandpoint, ID • 208-265-2208

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The Carolyn

215 S. 2nd Ave.

263-9321

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Eats

Trinity at City Beach

fresh ingredients on homemade dough, or one of the excellent calzones, specialty salads and sandwiches. Beer and wine also served.

Rice crusts and soy cheese now available for specific dietary requirements. Take-andbake pizzas also offered. For an out-of-thisworld pizza experience, come to Second Avenue Pizza! Open Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Free delivery available 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Complimentary Wi-Fi. SecondAvenuePizza.com. 263-9321.

lTango Cafe

414 Church St. Located in the atrium of the Sandpoint Financial Center. Tango has become a favorite among locals, for “Breakfast@The Bank” and lunch creations, including signature omelettes and original lunch specials. Other highlights include fresh salads, scrumptious baked goods and a full barista bar featuring Evans Brothers coffee. In addition, Tango has added a dinner takeout menu – a convenient option that includes unique selections, such as gaucho chicken or bife de lomo (shoulder tenderloin). Tango also offers extensive catering for that special event. Wi-Fi connected and space for private meetings. Open Monday to Thursday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

263-9514.

WINE BARS & LOUNGES

; Coldwater Creek Wine Bar

311 N. First Ave. The wine bar at Coldwater Creek offers many types of wine available by the glass. Although they carry wines from all over the world, the emphasis is on Northwest wines.

Enjoy a glass of wine with any of their delicious appetizers or panini. 255-1293.

The Tunnel

219 Lounge

'Enoteca La Stanza

102 S. First Ave. Enoteca (full bar) La Stanza (the room). Sandpoint’s only specialty martini and wine bar, located in Ivano’s Ristorante.

Serving exotic martinis such as the Fallen Angel, Mayan Temple, Flirtini and the Pear Sage Margarita, classic wines and a bar menu with all entrees under $9. Open Wednesday through Saturday at 4 p.m. 263-0211.

z Laughing Dog Brewing

55 Emerald Industrial Park Rd. (moving to 1109 Fontaine Dr. Jan. 1), Ponderay. Take a tour and taste handcrafted ales at Laughing Dog Brewing, open Monday through Saturday until 6 p.m. The brewery produces ales, IPAs, stouts and many more, including the hoppiest beer you’re going to find anywhere, Alpha Dog. Sample all the ales on tap and view the 15-barrel PUB brewing system.

LaughingDogBrewing.com. 263-9222.

x Pend d’Oreille Winery

220 Cedar St. Sandpoint’s winery produces local, award-winning wines. The tasting room is open daily, plus a gift shop with items for home, garden and life. Quality and elegance in vinting is the trademark of Pend d’Oreille Winery – Idaho’s 2003 Winery of the Year. The winery hosts frequent special events, has live music on Fridays, and offers its new Bistro Rouge menu seven days a week. POWine.com. 265-8545.

c 219 Lounge

219 N. First Ave. Full service bar offering beer, wine and cocktails. A “locals” favorite proudly serving Sandpoint for 75 years. Enjoy a cold glass of “219er” beer brewed by local, award-winning brewery Laughing Dog. Open seven days a week, 365 days a year from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Pool table

Udderly Cultured

Wily Widgeon Café

and big screen TV. Stop in for a coffee, a drink, a game of pool and a good time. 263-5673.

= number on Dining Map (p 106)

at the Elks Lodge & Golf Course

NEW LOCATION, SAME GREAT FOOD!

208.255.7494

Frozen yogurt, ice cream, smoothies, Belgian waffles, hot soup and more!

Udderly Cultured…

Utterly Delicious!

216 N 1st Avenue Sandpoint, ID 208-255-5238

w w w. s a n d p o i n t o n l i n e . c o m

Lunch Dinner Family take-out 102 N. 1st Ave, Downtown Sandpoint Waterfront dining (next to Starbucks)

SpudsOnline.com x 265.4311 WINTER 2011

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& Drinks

Tango Café

SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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10/15/10 4:30 PM

Advertiser Index Aging Better In-Home Care Air Idaho Charters AmericanWest Bank Ammara Anderson, Dr. Steven DDS Anderson’s Autobody Archer Vacation Condos ArtWorks Gallery Bill Jones Distributing Bitterroot Homes Bonner County Daily Bee Bonner Physical Therapy Bridge Assisted Living, The Century 21 Riverstone Century 21 Riverstone, Tom Puckett and Donna Short Coldwater Creek Coldwell Banker Columbia Tractor Inc. CO-OP Country Store D.A. Davidson & Co. Dan Fogarty Custom Builder Dover Bay Downtown Yoga DSS Custom Homes Evergreen Realty Evergreen Realty, Charesse Moore Eve’s Leaves Family Health Center Festival at Sandpoint Finan McDonald Clothing Company Floor Show, The Flying Fish Company Fritz’s Fry Pan Garfield Shores Resort

T h e The

38 50 84 32 40 44 88 53 24 7 88 28 41 21 77 116 85 86 49 57 86 22 28 83 4 37 12 46 41 24 58 32 27 43

Hallans Gallery 53 Holiday Inn Express 98 Horizon Credit Union 55 Howard Johnson Inn at Sandpoint 33 Idaho Sash & Door 50 International Selkirk Loop 89 Keokee Books 96 Kinney Construction 86 Koch, Dr. Paul E. O.D. 28 KPND 95.3 91 La Quinta Inn 42 Larson’s Department Store 17 Laughing Dog Brewing 26 Litehouse Foods 16 Local Pages, The 112 Luther Park 42 Maps & More 95 McMahon & Easterbrook Custom Building 76 MeadowBrook Home & Gift 15 Mountain Stove & Spa 13 North Idaho Orthopedics 30 Northwest Docks & Waterworks 50 Northwest Handmade 18 Paint Bucket, The 58 Panhandle State Bank 34 Panhandle State Bank Loan Center 26 Pend Oreille Shores Resort 25 Pend d’Oreille Winery 40 Resort Property Management 55 ReStore Habitat For Humanity 57 River Journal, The 41 Sa’Haira Salon 28 Sandpoint Building Supply 83 Sandpoint Business & Events Center 13

L o c a l

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Sandpoint Magazine, Subscribe 112 SandpointMovers.com (Miller Handyman Services) 86 SandpointOnline.com 97 Sandpoint Outfitters 73 Sandpoint Property Management 33 Sandpoint Shopping District 92 Sandpoint Sports 73 Sandpoint Super Drug 28 Sandpoint Vacation Rentals 25 Sandpoint West Athletic Club 89 Schweitzer Mountain Resort 115 Seasons at Sandpoint 11 Seasons Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery 31 Selkirk Powder 48, 73 Selle Valley Construction 80 Skeleton Key Art 53 Sleep’s Cabins 57 State Farm, Dale Reed 39 STCU (Spokane Teachers Credit Union) 33 Summit Insurance 82 Sunshine Goldmine 12 Taylor Insurance 56 Ted Bowers Construction 86 Timber Frames by Collin Beggs 86 Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby’s International Realty 2-3, 59-61 Vacationville 37 Watson Construction 86 Western Pleasure Guest Ranch 95 Wildflower Day Spa 28 Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market 28 Zany Zebra 14 Zero Point 53

P a g e s IN

TOWN ™

BRING YOUR BUSINESS TO FULL BLOOM To Advertise Call:

866-854-4434

[subscribe]

have it mailed home gift a friend

208.263.3573

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WINTER 2011

10/15/10 1:09 PM

Marketplace

Marketplace Ace Septic Tank Service “Where a Flush Beats a Full House.” Portable toilet rental, construction/all occasion, permanent or temporary. Septic tank pumping, residential and commercial.

263-5219

North Idaho Insurance Your Cadillac, Buick, GMC truck dealer. New and used sales and leasing. Full service, parts and body shop. Highway 95 N., Ponderay, 263-2118, 1-800-430-5050.

AlpineMotors.net

Scandinavian countries represented in this specialty shop. Kitchen items, table tops, candles, electric candleholders, books, cards, rugs, pewter Vikings, mugs, Danish irons, tomtes, fjord tableware. 319 N. First Ave., 263-7722.

A marketing communications firm providing Web design and hosting, search engine optimization and marketing, graphic design, public relations, editorial and media consultation. 405 Church St., 263-3573, 800-880-3573. www.keokee.com

A full-service, independent insurance agency serving northern Idaho since 1978.

Business or personal risks: property, liability, workers comp, bonding, home, auto, life and health. 102 Superior St., 263-2194.

NorthIdahoIns.com

The best skin care Sandpoint has to offer! Extensive menu of facial and body treatments. Full-body waxing.

Serene, relaxing environment. Geneé Jo Baker, certified esthetician. sugeeskincare@yahoo. com, 324 S. Florence Ave., 263-6205.

Vacation rental management and home watch services for seasonal residents of Sandpoint, Schweitzer, Hope and Priest Lake. Excellent 24/7 customer service. Fair and affordable prices.

290-6847, 877-667-8409. www.northridgevacationrentals.com

See what life is like with alpacas! Shop for wonderful alpaca fiber hats, scarves, sweaters, rugs, throws and yarn. Open year-round, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

1635 Rapid Lightning Rd., 265-2788.

FromTheHeartRanch.com

Over 26 years of rental management experience.

Tenant screening, rent collection, accounting, maintenance and marketing.

Residential, commercial and mini storage.

Friendly, prompt service. 204 E. Superior, 263-4033. RLPropertyManagement.com

Free pickup for quality furniture donations. Find treasures, weekdays 10 to 5, Saturdays 10 to 2.

Proceeds benefit LPOHS students, senior citizens. Volunteers welcome! 101 N. Boyer, 263-3247.

Special gifts for special people. Vera Bradley bags, Big Sky Carvers, Baggallini, Tyler and BeanPod candles, souvenirs, balloon bouquets, Hallmark cards, books, gift wrap, stationery. 306 N. First Ave., 263-2811.

Offering the latest bestsellers, office supplies, machine supplies and free delivery in Sandpoint. Order online. 201 Cedar St., 263-2417.

Vanderfords.com

Get in the Marketplace! To advertise here, call or e-mail: 263-3573 ext. 123 or adsales@keokee.com

Website design & hosting Marketing & consulting Logo design, brochures, ads a ma

rketing communications fir m

405 Church St. Sandpoint • 263.3573 • Keokee.com • SandpointMagazine.com • SandpointOnline.com WINTER 2011

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10/18/10 10:59 AM

Sandpoint of View

20 3

years, lessons

By Chris Bessler

I

n case you missed it, today’s magazine is brought to you by the number 20. Yes, this is our 20th anniversary edition. That makes it a good time to hit the pause button, take stock and ponder lessons learned.

Of the dozens learned these 20 years of publishing Sandpoint Magazine, three are top of mind.

You have to dig in. Anyone who has lived in Sandpoint and tried to make a living here knows about digging in. To make it, you have to really want to live here. For a lot of us, that means putting money or career second to a decision to live in a town that nourishes our spirit more than our pocketbook.

Same goes for a magazine. In 20 years, rolling with some of the punches in the economy and marketplace, we’ve made it through some stretches only because we were just plain determined.

But digging in means more than mere survival. Those that do are the ones who really make a place what it is – by getting involved in the schools and local governments, community groups and cultural life. That’s why families who live in a place for generations are so important. They’re like anchors, dug in.

We’re still digging in. Our goal to make the magazine a mirror, to fully 114

SANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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reflect Sandpoint, has two motives.

First, we think Sandpoint is a great place and we want to help make it better; second, we hope that by showing how nice it is, others will appreciate it, too, and take care of it.

Local is as local does. One of the most popular departments in the magazine is “Natives and Newcomers,” in which we talk to a couple lifelong residents and contrast their views with some new arrivals. Maybe it’s popular because it touches an area of tension for locals about change in our town.

But with a population in our county that’s nigh doubled in the last 20 years, the truth is most people are from someplace else. So at what point do you become a local? For me, that is answered in Lesson No. 1: When you dig in.

People wonder if the magazine is for locals or tourists and new arrivals. I answered that in our first issue: It’s for both. As I wrote in 1990: “If it seems we’re stretching it to reach locals and tourists, let’s put it another way: The magazine is written for people who like it here. If we’re successful in what we do, Sandpoint Magazine will help you get more out of being in Sandpoint.”

That’s still our goal, though I made an interesting mathematical discov-

ery whilst pondering these concepts.

Considering I came to the area in 1978, left for a year, came back, left for four years, and came back in ’90 to start this outfit … that sum subtracted from my age yielded the surprising fact that as of last July I have lived here most of my life.

Not, ahem, that it matters.

It’s not my magazine. OK, as publisher it’s true I sign the checks. I could have gotten rid of that supposedly funny photo on page 6 – theoretically, at least, unless you know the persistence of art director Laura and editor Billie Jean. Spoiling their little joke on me was sadly out of the question. It gave them so much pleasure, they cackled.

Ah, but the magazine is not theirs, either. Bottom line, Sandpoint Magazine belongs to the readers. If the readers don’t read, the advertisers won’t advertise, and there won’t be any money to write and produce and print it. Our job is to figure out what best serves the readers.

So there you go. After 20 years, and 40 editions totaling 2,920 pages, and just under 1 million magazines printed to date, that’s what we learned. It’s not even our magazine anymore. But we’re dug in, and we’ll keep it local.

WINTER 2011

10/18/10 11:07 AM

Happiness here is contagious.

From the coffee topped with a dollop of personality to a lifty’s undying enthusiasm, we know that a memorable day is more than the turns from top to bottom. As Idaho’s largest ski area, Schweitzer’s terrain speaks for itself - with 2900 acres, over 300 inches of annual snowfall and some of the best tree skiing in North America. Sandpoint is the ultimate laid back mountain town with a community chockfull of genuine folks. Unpretentious in every way, we treat our guests as we treat each other; with respect. You’ll quickly discover why it’s impossible to wipe the grin from your face. Maybe it’s something in the snow. Chances are it’s just Schweitzer.

877.487.4643 | schweitzer.com

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10/15/10 1:10 PM

SANDPOINTGAVE US

FASHION & FUN UNDER ONE ROOF.

THE WAY TO PUT

We’re proud to have been a part of Sandpoint for over 25 years. This is where our company was founded and where our first retail store opened. Our flagship store became a true shopping experience.

Then there’s our world-class, locals’ favorite Wine Bar. With our extensive selections of wines, delicious sandwiches, appetizers and desserts, it’s just the place to finish up a great day of shopping. Or a night out to relax and unwind.

Stop by and pay us a visit! At the place we call home.

2 0 8 - 2 6 3 - 2 2 6 5 co l d w a t er cr eek. co m 3 1 1 N . F i r s t Av en ue, S a n d p o i n t , I D

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3/22/10 1:27 PM 10/15/10 1:10 PM