Fun, Frosty And Free The Only Charge For Skiers At Fourth Of July Pass On Saturday Was Down The Slopes And Across The Trails

Scream around Spencer’s S, whistle down White Knuckles, languish along Loose Moose or slide around The Swoop.

Is this an amusement park?

Hardly. This is the outdoor temple of the winter worshipper, the perfect place for that neighbor who cheers about snow while the rest of us grind our teeth and shovel it.

This is paradise for cross-country skiers: Saturday - Idaho’s annual free ski day - at Fourth of July Pass.

Folks obviously got the message.

On hand were camouflaged National Guardsmen, fluorescent-clad racers and wool-wearing amateurs content to plod along among the cedars and be blanketed with wet snow.

“I love to have something to do in winter,” said Jackie Beery, peering through fogged glasses.

Otherwise, the Coeur d’Alene social worker said she’d go crazy. Beery is a member of the Panhandle Nordic Ski Club, which adopted the Fourth of July trails about a decade ago, providing free grooming.

Retired school teacher Jeannette Hill did the ski course, schussed back to her car and pulled out her snowshoes for another round.

Why does she like this cross-country stuff?

“Because I only fell once,” the Hayden resident says, laughing.

An ancient black-and-safety-orange snow machine emerges from the trees, pulling a metal sled weighted with three five-gallon buckets of sand. It’s not deluxe, said Van Bennett, the volunteer groomer, but it corners well and packs a nice 4-foot-wide track.

Saturday was the first time on cross-country slats for one Spokane couple, Phil and Elisa Kiesewetter, who happily discovered the outing was free.

“I’ve been dreaming about this and disappointed there hasn’t been a lot of snow this winter,” Phil Kiesewetter said.

“Most exercise - oh!” he said in mock pain. “Here, you are focused on the beauty.”

Or, as David Zumstein of Pinehurst put it: “If you can’t be on the golf course, you might as well be someplace.”

Back at fireside, in the warming hut, members of the ski club welcomed newcomers and planned their next adventure.

Last weekend, it was Frater Lake and Leo Lake near Colville. Next weekend, club members will head to Radium Hot Springs, around British Columbia’s Kokanee Glacier Park.

On Feb. 6, the club will hold a fund-raising ski event at Fourth of July.

“It’s the getting out in nature, and it’s quiet,” mused Roberta Rich, a longtime skier. “I like to get out in the outdoors, the feel of sliding along in the snow … and the sound (skiing) makes.”