Winter Rec

Winter is a great time to visit the Bitterroot National Forest

RAVALLI REPUBLIC

From the thrill of downhill skiing and snowmobiling, to the quiet solitude of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, there is something for everyone. Get away with family or friends and enjoy an experience from yesteryear. Rent a rustic cabin nestled deep in the forest or hike through the snow to find that perfect Christmas tree.

When you venture out, always be prepared for cold weather and snow. The National Forest is mountainous terrain and snowy conditions can start as early as October and last until April or May. Refer to the West Central Montana Avalanche Foundation for current advisories and resources to

help assess the risk in avalanche terrain https://missoulaavalanche.org/.

Downhill Skiing

Lost Trail Powder Mountain, located near Sula, Montana, operates under a Special Use Permit on the Bitterroot National Forest. With over 300 inches of snow annually, Lost Trail consistently enjoys the greatest snow depth of any Montana ski resort. 406-821-3211 or www.losttrail.com

Nearby Cross Country Ski Trails

Chief Joseph Pass Cross Country Ski Trails are located off of Hwy 43 on Chief Joseph Pass on the BeaverheadDeerlodge National Forest. Como Trails Cross Country Ski Area offers about

20 miles of trail located on roads 550, 550A, and 13201 out of the boat ramp parking lot at Como Lake. For more information or snow conditions visit www.bitterrootxcskiclub.net.

Snowmobile Activities

Snowmobiling continues to increase in popularity as more people discover the enjoyment of motorized winter recreation.

The fabulous winter scenery of the Bitterroot National Forest is accessible to people of all ages who enjoy the pleasure of snowmobile travel. Please remember that snowmobiling is not allowed in any designated Wilderness Areas.

The Forest travel plan designates 2,246 miles of forest roads and trails

open to motorized use. It also permits motorized over-snow use (snowmobiles) on 543,840 acres, approximately one-third of the Forest. These areas are designated on a Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) and Over-Snow Vehicle Use Map (OSVUM) now available free of charge at all Bitterroot National Forest offices. The maps identify which areas are open to motorized use, the types of vehicles allowed and any seasonal restrictions that apply.

The Bitterroot Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club grooms the snowmobile trails up Skalkaho, SkalkahoRye Creek road, and Lost Horse road. For more information about area snowmobile clubs visit https://www.snowmobilemt.org/.WR

Being active in the winter

MICHELLE MCCONNAHA mmcconnaha@ravallirepublic.com

Being active in the winter is essen tial for good health both physically and mentally.

Lindsay Huls, owner and Physical Therapist, at Willow Creek Physical Therapy in Corvallis, said that it is important to keep moving, yearround.

“Many times people don’t make a plan for different seasons,” Huls said.

“When it’s nice out people are bet ter about going out and gardening, going out for a walk, hiking, camping and being active. Then when winter hits there is not a dedicated effort to continue to stay active.”

She said that staying active takes planning, especially while living in Montana.

“We live in a place with four sea sons and we have to think about how to stay active in all four seasons,”

Huls said. “Find a winter sport or look around to see what is available if it is not safe to go outside due to snow and ice.”

Huls said there are many options in the Bitterroot Valley, ranging from swimming or aquatic classes in the year-round Bitterroot Aquatic Center to going to a gym or taking a class from the Bitterroot College.

“Some people don’t like going to a gym and that’s okay,” she said. “They

do pickleball at the Fairgrounds, we have two rubberized tracks [Corvallis and Hamilton] that are usually safe to walk on in the winter because they thaw in the sun more quickly than the roads.”

She said that inactivity can lead to loss of both your physical and mental health.

“When I see people hunker down and not do anything in the winter, it isn’t good for their heart, lungs, mus

photo Michelle McConnaha- Ravalli RepubliC

Lindsay Huls and son and dog

cles and entire body but also they are prone to be hurt when all of a sudden they go out and work in the yard for eight hours,” she said.

Her client list increases in the spring because community members, “haven’t been doing anything all winter and all of a sudden try to work in the yard or be active again. Their bodies are not prepared for that if they have been sitting around all winter.”

The first step is to find something you enjoy and be consistent. Huls recom mends taking yoga, hiring a personal trainer, finding classes at a senior center, going for a walk in the mall with a friend, or if you prefer staying home find an app to help you do exercise in your home with minimal equipment.

Choose to do whatever activities you enjoy.

“You’re not going to do it if you don’t enjoy it,” Huls said. “Think, ‘How do I change with the seasons?’ You’ll feel better and be less likely to have depres sion, anxiety and other health problems that come with low sunlight and inactivity this time of year. People think, ‘it is cold out and there’s nothing to do’ but there are lots of options for continuing to be active.”

As a physical therapist, Huls said her sport of choice during the winter is cross-country skiing.

“That’s my winter sport,” she said. “I still try to do some hiking and walk ing most days. I put my son in a backpack and that’s whipping me into shape as he’s over 20 pounds now.” WR

Bitterroot Valley’s public lands offer large range of winter recreation opportunities

PERRY BACKUS pbackus@ravallirepublic.com

If you can do it on skis, snowshoes, snowmobiles, dog sleds, fat-tire bikes, fishing rods or a child’s sled, the opportunities are only limited by Mother Nature’s whims on this year’s snowfall.

While the snow has been a little late in arriving this year, it’s now starting to pile up in the backcountry and the initial grooming of cross-country and snowmobile trails is underway. Lost Trail Ski Area plans to open Dec. 16.

Chief Joseph Pass CrossCountry Ski Trail Groomers ran for the first time on Dec. 10 on the extensive Chief Joseph Pass Cross-Country Ski Trail system. The trails are maintained through

the winter with a partnership between the Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club and Lost Trail Ski Area.

“Scott Grasser of the Lost Trail Ski Area puts a ton of time in with his big groomers through the winter to keep the trails in great shape,” said Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club president Benji Schwartz. “He’s out there usually three times a week. Our partnership has been incredibly suc cessful.”

People have noticed.

“One of the things that’s fun to see is we’re not only getting bigger num bers of people using the area, but we’re also getting them from further away,” Schwartz said. “We have a little sign-up sheet that asks people for their name, how many in their party and where they come from if they

care to volunteer that information.”

“We get people from all over,” he said. “One of the favorite times of the year is when we actually enumer ate how many different states we had show up. Each year it seems like we’re getting more and more people com ing from further away.”

Schwartz started cross-country ski ing when he was 2. In high school, he raced at a variety of cross-country ski areas.

“We have one of the best free facili ties that I have ever skied in my life,” he said. “The quality of the groom ing is incredible. I don’t just say that because I’m the club president. It is an amazing facility.”

While Chief Joseph Pass is set aside for cross-country skiers, people look ing to snowmobile, snowshoe, bike

or dog sled can stop at the parking lot just across the from Lost Trail Ski Area to access the Gibbons Pass Road that’s also groomed by Grasser.

“It’s maintained as a multipleuse trail,” Schwartz said. “So we get people going up there with dogs, snowmobiles, dog sleds and fat-tire bikes. Parking can be a challenge on the weekends because there are a lot of activities being funneled into the same corridor.”

The club could face some financial challenges in the upcoming years as competition for the state trail grants is growing.

“We need to try to find better ways to fund it as state grants start to dry up a little bit,” Schwartz said. “There are more and more groups starting to apply for those things. They are lim

photo Perry Backus- Ravalli RePuBlic

George Corn shows perfect classic cross-country skiing form last week during a class offered by the Bitterroot Cross County Skiing Club at Chief Joseph Pass.

ited pools of money. We are looking for other ways to look to sup port it.”

“The benefit is all trails are free,” he said. “You just go and show up and ski. We would like to keep it that way. I think we will figure it out, but it’s definitely a challenge.”

“It’s a sign of a good problem to have because it means that more groups in the state are doing trail work,” Schwartz said. “It’s just an issue of creating a reliable source of money for the community and to maintain that level of quality that we’ve grown to appreciate.”

Lake Como

For those in the Bitterroot Valley looking for something closer to home, the Bitterroot Forest’s Lake Como Recreation area has some thing to offer.

The Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club’s Vice President Jesse Crocker leads the grooming effort on close to 20 miles of trail.

“We will be running the same program that we’ve been running

photo Provided- Ravalli RePuBlic

For over 30 years, the Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club, a valley-based all-volunteer non-profit, has designed, maintained, and groomed the trail system at Chief Joseph Pass that includes the Gordon Reese Cabin warming station.

the last couple of years,” Crocker said. “We will be grooming close to 20 miles of trail for skiing, dog sled ding, fat biking and snowshoeing. They are the same trails that we’ve groomed in the past.”

While the club doesn’t track numbers of people using the area, Crocker said it’s not uncommon to see 20 cars in the parking lot at Lake Como’s boat ramp with ski or bike racks on them.

“It gets a lot of use during the week because it’s easy for people to get to after work during the week,” Crocker said. “I think a lot of times the busiest time may end up being weekday evenings.

Fat tire biking

Fat tire bikers have honed in on what Lake Como has to offer.

”Fat bike use, especially at Lake Como, has been huge,” Crocker said. “It ends up being a lot better spot than Chief Joe because most days it gets above freezing then it drops

below freezing at night so the snow pack sets up a lot better than Chief Joe.”

“Most of the winter it ends up being good biking where as a lot of the time Chief Joe is too soft and you can’t really ride there,” he said. “Also when the snow cover gets spotty, it’s still good fat biking.”

Fat tire biking has really grown over the last five years. Crocker said it may now be as popular as skiing at Lake Como.

“It’s got really popular,” he said. “There is starting to be a lot of people around here buying bikes. Missoula has started grooming some dedicated fat tire bike trails.

People started to put in the effort at Como to make some single-track trails good for fat biking too. All of those things coming together has led to a big increase in use.”

Chad DeVall, owner of Hamilton’s Red Barn Bicycles, has been a good partner at Lake Como, Schwartz

said.

“He and his crew and a lot of bikers have helped maintain those trails and do work on them in the sum mer,” Schwartz said “In exchange, as kind of the end product, we now have a hybrid of fat bike trails as well as trails that are more geared toward skiing. It’s been kind of cool to see develop and grow.”

The single-track trails used by the fat tire bikers are often a challenge to ski.

“I’ve tried to go down them on skis and it’s a wild ride,” Schwartz said. “Lucky I didn’t break my skis. Different user groups prefer a differ ent terrain. What we are trying to do is find the best ride for everyone out there. What does your perfect day in the winter look like and how do we build something that allows for that to happen?”

“Hats off to Jesse Crocker,” Schwartz said. “He is really spear heading Como. He’s the one up doing the grooming. He is the one

coordinating with Chad and Red Barn and making things coming together.”

Cross-Country Ski Lessons

The Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club plans to offer lessons to both beginners and those who want to take their skiing to the next level.

Later on this winter, Schwartz said the ski club volunteers will offer les sons most likely at Chief Joseph Pass.

“We are trying to start up a little more ski education this year,” he said. “We hope to get a window of four to six weeks where we will have subsequent weekends where the club will have instructors up there to take kids and adults at different levels and just really try to get families out there on the snow.”

People should watch the club’s Facebook page or website for more information.

Cross-country skis can be rented at a reasonable cost at Lost Trail Ski Area, Bob Wards and the Red Barn Bike Shop.

“It’s all really affordable,” Schwartz said. “We want to take the temperature on how many families are inter ested in ski education and then hope fully grow that in the future.”

Schwartz said club volunteers are also interested in teaching more advanced lessons to people who want to take their skiing to the next level.

“We want everyone up there who is interested in skiing,” he said. “We also want people who have been ski ing for a while but really want to get better and learn the finesse of the technique. There is an added level of ski-ability I would like to be able to offer people.”

“People ask me often what’s so great about cross-country skiing,” Schwartz said. “I tell them you have to try it and find out. It’s great to be

out there in the winter and breath ing all that fresh air and enjoying the beautiful scenery.”

Bitterroot National Forest

Bitterroot National Forest Recreation Manager Erica Strayer said the winter recreation opportunities at Chief Joseph, Lake Como, Skalkaho, Lost Horse and the 75 Road to Rye Creek wouldn’t be pos sible without the volunteers who spend hundreds of hours each year grooming the trails and maintaining them in the summer.

The Bitterroot Ridgerunners snowmobile club grooms the popu lar multi-use trails up Skalkaho, Lost Horse and the 75 Road to Rye Creek.

“These trails are in place through volunteer efforts,” Strayer said. “The groups try to get some state funding for grooming. The Forest Service doesn’t have the staffing or capacity to do all the grooming. We don’t have the equipment and we don’t have the staffing to be able to go out and groom trails. It’s vital that we have these partners in place who do

that.”

Strayer encourages people to be courteous of other users on the multi-use trails.

“They are open to all uses,” she said. “I’ve been up Lost Horse and seen dog sledders, fat tire bike riders and snowmobilers all using the same trail. It’s nice to see all users sharing one area and being considerate of each other.

“That’s kind of a take-away mes sage,” Strayer said. “These are multiuse trails. Hopefully, people can respect other users. When snowmobilers see people ahead on the trail, they should slow down as they go past. If you’re up there cross-coun try skiing with your dog off-leash, it would be a good idea to rein in your dogs and get off the side when a snowmobile comes by.”

Strayer also urged people to be prepared for the unexpected when they venture into the wilds during the winter months.

“It’s great to go out and recreate in the winter,” she said. “There’s a lot of opportunities but people definitely

need to be prepared as the condi tions can change quickly. Have extra clothing, let someone know where you are going. Just have to take some extra precautions in the wintertime.”

“You never know what the road conditions are going to be like,” she said. “Even when you’re skiing, the valley temperatures can fluctuate so much. You might start out in the morning and have great conditions and then by afternoon it heats up and your skis are sticking. It can end

being a challenge to get back to the trailhead.”

Strayer encourages people inter ested in spending a night out to check out the Bitterroot National Forest’s cabin rental program. The Wood’s Cabin at Lake Como and the East Fork Cabin are both available. The two cabins are mostly booked for the winter, but there are a few open nights left and cancellations happen.

“It can be a fun winter adventure for people,” Strayer said. WR

Clearing the way

PERRY BACKUS pbackus@ravallirepublic.com

There’s not much room for error when snowdrifts are measured in feet on a road that winds its way along the face of a cliff.

One recent morning when the sky was an impossible blue, Tony Neaves kept his head on a swivel as he deftly maneuvered the multi-angle blade attached to the tracked Tucker snow grooming machine up the steep road leading to Skalkaho Pass.

After seven years behind the wheel, it’s a trip that he knows well.

Driving a machine whose com pany motto is: “No hill too steep. No snow too deep,” Neaves knows there’s no time to daydream.

“The light can get kind of flat up here when it’s snowing hard,” he said as he gently pushed the joystick that operates the blade this way and that. “It can be kind of hard to figure out where the edges are. It certainly makes you pay attention. Surprisingly, you end up burning a lot of calories when you’re running full speed all day. There is a lot of concentration involved.”

Save for the straight-as-an-arrow track of a wolverine taking advantage of the packed surface, there was no other sign that anything or anyone had been up the road since the last dump of snow.

In some places, large drifts narrowed the track. In others, snow sloughing off the steep hillside above the road has done the same. Neaves points out places that he knows from experience will experience avalanches sometime this winter.

He hopes that never happens when he and his groomer are passing by.

It’s a 65-mile round trip when he grooms the road over Skalkaho Pass and down toward Philipsburg. He goes as far as the sapphire mine on those longer runs.

On this day his plans called for

I tell them that you haven’t been up very high. It’s a totally different world up here.”

“I’ve had people tell me this isn’t a very good

going to the top of the pass from Bitterroot side. After making a cou ple of trips up and down, he’d leave a 16-foot wide track of hard and smooth corduroy for winter recre ationists of all makes and models.

“I think this year I’ve seen more skiers than snowmobilers using the groomed trail,” Neaves said.

And that’s not to mention the fat tire cyclists, snowshoers, and dog walkers who take advantage of the packed track.

With two clubs working together to create opportunities for everyone,

Neaves said the Bitterroot Valley is becoming a destination spot for win ter recreationists.

Neaves operated a groomer owned by the Bitterroot Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club. The machine was purchased through a state grant program that uses a portion of the state sales tax on gasoline to provide funding for snowmobile grooming through the winter months.

“The Bitterroot Ridge Runners have been receptive to that pro gram for about 15 years,” said Dan Thompson, a longtime member

of the snowmobile group. “Every year we write a grant proposal that’s reviewed by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who administer the pro gram.”

FWP provides funding to operate the machinery. The club is required to pay for the maintenance. It also purchased the truck and trailer used to haul the groomer to both the Skalkaho and Lost Horse trailheads. On top of that, the group built and maintains the building where the groomer is stored.

“We’ve had a lot of fundraisers over

PeRRY BacKuS - Ravalli Republic

Tony Neaves grooms the Skalkaho Pass road once a week for the Bitterroot Ridge Runners. “We just keep getting snowstorm after snowstorm up there,” he said.

snow year.

the years,” Thompson said. “There have been races and all kinds of other stuff. The snowmobile club has been quite effective in raising the money it needed to make this work.”

Initially, the focus was on Skalkaho. A few years ago, the Bitterroot National Forest let the club groom the Lost Horse road up the agency cabin three times a winter. After see ing use there climb, the snowmobile club was allowed to groom the road once a week.

“Lost Horse used to get so rough that people wouldn’t even try to drive it,” Thompson said. “It’s amazing to see how many snowmobile-assisted skiers use that area now. It’s really opened up a significant opportunity for backcountry skiers.”

The snowmobile club and the Bitter Root Cross Country Ski Club work together to create winter recre ation opportunities at Skalkaho, Lost Horse and Chief Joseph.

Neaves is a member of both clubs. The ski club now pays Lost Trail Powder Mountain to groom its

extensive trail system at Chief Joseph Pass. While some areas are set aside specifically for skiers, other trails are open to a variety of recreational uses, including snowmobiles, dogsleds and dog-power skijorers.

Once the ski club turned groom ing over to the ski hill, Neaves said that opened up the use of the club’s snowmobile equipment to begin grooming trails at Lake Como.

“Use at Lake Como has exploded this year,” he said.

Neaves does much of the groom ing at Lake Como as well. He’s seen the parking lots fill to the brim on weekends. There are plenty of Missoula license plates in the mix.

“People will travel long distances to take advantage of these groomed trails,” he said. “The money they bring often finds itself deposited in local businesses along the way. It’s all about these two groups working together for everyone’s benefit. We all win when that happens.

“We’re all in this together,” Neaves said. “What affects their access affects

Tony Neaves flashes the peace sign at a couple of dog walkers taking advantage of the groomed track he had made earlier that day on the Skalkaho Pass. Neaves said he’s seen more skiers than snowmobilers using the groomed track this year.

your access.”

Grooming is allowed between Dec. 1 and March 31.

Neaves said he gets a lot of highfives and people saying thank you during his long hours driving the groomers.

“There’s a sense of satisfaction that comes when you look in the mirror and see that beautiful cor duroy that you’ve created,” he said. “Of course, then all I want to do is go ski it.” WR

PeRRY BacKuS - Ravalli Republic

ski & snowboard rental daily lift tickets & season passes group & private ski or snowboard lessons