Get Snyder Station dates on Monday

The Snyder Guard Station — includng a ranger house, cookhouse, cabins, RV sites and corral — on the Moyie River in the north tip of the Idaho Panhandle will once again be available for rent this summer.

Applications will be accepted by the Bonners Ferry Ranger District starting at 8 a.m. on Monday.

Procedure: Show up at the Bonners Ferry office and get in line early on Monday morning or call (208) 267-5561 and get into the phone frenzy starting about 8 a.m. Once you obtain a reservation for specific dates, you can download a form or ask for one to be mailed. You’ll be given a deadline to send back the form and payment of $50 to $110 per night, depending on number of people and facilities requested.

The facility, first used by the Forest Service in 1908, has been closed for repairs.

Forms and details are available online at www.fs.fed.us/ipnf/rec/ yourplace/rentalguide/ rentalmap.html.

Rich Landers

NATIONAL FORESTS

Colville to start ORV talks

A series of public meetings dealing with off-road vehicle recreation travel plans for the “south end” of the Colville National Forest will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The meeting will be held at the Chewelah Peak Learning Center, 3215 Flowery Trail Road, near 49 Degrees North ski area.

The “south end” area includes the Chewelah, Calispell and Tacoma creek drainages, roughly between Chewelah and Cusick. Officials say the first brief meeting will set the stage for subsequent meetings.

ATV and off-road motorcycle use is popular in this area, and enthusiasts want more authorized routes and better route connections, officials said. However, the area is deteriorating from illegal motorized use.

Forest officials are planning three-day meetings, once a month for the next three months to work out issues with forest user groups.

New routes stemming from the meetings would be reflected on the 2010 Motor Vehicle Use Map.

Contact: Jim Parker, (509) 775-7462.

Rich Landers

NATIONAL PARKS

Plowing begins in Yellowstone

Bicyclists will soon have a brief path through Yellowstone National Park.

Plows have begun clearing roads in Yellowstone as the park prepares to open for spring automobile traffic.

Snowmobile and snow coach travel on the park’s interior roads was scheduled to end today.

Depending on plowing progress and weather, bicyclists can enjoy the paved interior park roads before they reopen to automobile travel. This car-free biker’s dream generally begins around the last Friday in March and runs through the third Thursday in April.

Rich Landers

DOG SLEDDING

Iditarod guest ride quite a Tripp

Spokane’s Mary Ann Tripp, an 82-year-old great-grandmother, is back from her Alaska lottery prize as an “Iditarider” — a guest rider on a racing sled on the first 11 miles of the Iditarod sled dog race.

She said it was a breathtaking adventure and that her musher, Robert Nelson, was a “sweetheart” who treated her like a queen.

She said the ride was exhilarating and included a near tip-over. She said she was bundled into a “cocoon” on the sled.

“I took a lot of pictures,” she said, “but mostly got a lot of dog tails!”

Jim Kershner