Have Pen, Will Travel State Hopes For Best As National Travel Writers Inspect Idaho This Week

A rainbow trout rushed up from the murky pond bottom, snapped at Iris Sanderson-Jones’ fuzzy fly, and yanked it right from her line.

“They know when the greenhorns are at this,” said Sanderson-Jones, one of hundreds of national travel writers inspecting the Gem State this week. “They can sense it.”

Idaho commerce officials hope the writers provide similar lures in the form of stories and photos that tourists find equally appealing.

More than 300 free-lance journalists are in Idaho this month for the Society of American Travel Writers Convention. They met in Boise last week and now are traveling in small groups, sampling the state’s heritage and hospitality.

Their impressions of Idaho soon will fill magazine, newspaper and travel guide pages around the country.

The meeting’s quite a catch for Idaho. The group meets next year in Thailand, and previous get-togethers romped through Tunisia and India, said Myra Waldo, former head of the society from Beverly Hills, Calif.

Waldo and Sanderson-Jones were part of about a dozen writers enjoying the Hidden Creek Ranch, one of the region’s premier dude ranches. Other groups from the convention are touring North Idaho’s lakes and other regions of the state.

Snacking on a bagel before Tuesday’s slate of activities, Waldo said that state tourism receipts jumped 50 percent in the years that followed a much smaller travel writers visit in the 1980s.

The articles expected to be written off this year’s visit will be worth the equivalent of $4 million in advertising for the state, said Georgia Smith of the Idaho Department of Commerce.

The writers at Tuesday’s breakfast called Hidden Creek an oasis from the usual bus-centered tours. The writers had a week to do as they pleased, sampling horseback riding, trap shooting, fishing and a slate of other outdoor pursuits.

The only irritant seemed to be the persistent grass-field smoke that had settled in the canyons around the ranch, which blurred photography and plugged sinuses. The smoke came from acreage on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

All else was deemed top-shelf according to writers. An author of 45 cookbooks, Waldo pronounced the ranch cuisine “fabulous” in its presentation and selection.

“She doesn’t say that often,” said Carol Barrington of Houston, who found the horseback riding at the ranch to be a cut above anything else equestrian she’d ever done. “I raised quarter horses for a living, and I learned things in a 10-minute lesson here that I have never even thought about.”

The ranch hands try to teach a spiritual link between horse and rider, said Barbara Sturm of New Jersey. Sturm plans to write about ranch resorts’ growing emphasis on spiritual experiences for guests for newspapers back home.

Many of the writers were no strangers to Idaho. Jan and Dave Houser of Ruidoso, N.M., considered living in Sandpoint before choosing to live closer to friends and family in New Mexico.

“I think the people out here and in the West are just a lot friendlier,” Dave Houser said. “We’re very partial to the West.”

To the mild dread of many in North Idaho, the writers were curious about the Aryan Nations compound, but were surprised to hear that the group’s numbers were so small. Mark Fuhrman’s presence in Sandpoint also piqued the writers’ interest.

The writers continue their tours through this week. Sanderson-Jones, in her first try at mastering fly-casting, landed a fish Tuesday, said Phil Gager, a ranch staffer who taught her fly-fishing.

, DataTimes