Zach Parris can name a few people who likely owe their lives to Ride on Dads, an organization he started about two years ago that raises funds for prostate cancer research through outdoor sporting events.

On Saturday, his nonprofit will host the second Ride on Dads Scavenger Hunt at Pebble Creek Ski Area from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to raise funds for the Salt Lake City-based Hunstman Cancer Foundation.

In 2021 — the nonprofit’s first year — Ride on Dads raised more than $27,000 toward the foundation’s cause through the scavenger hunt, a bicycle tour in Lava Hot Springs and a rodeo event in Pocatello. Parris has set a $30,000 fundraising goal to benefit the foundation with this year’s events.

Aside from raising money for research, Parris also strives to raise awareness about the importance of men ages 50 and older getting regularly tested for prostate cancer. Parris explained one in nine men will get prostate cancer. He said several men whom he encouraged to get screened for prostate cancer have tested positive early and gotten treatment before their cancer became advanced.

“We’ve saved some people’s lives in the past seven or eight years just doing this,” Parris said, adding screening requires an expensive and simple blood test. “I know we’ve made an impact.”

Parris has stage-four prostate cancer. He got tested at the suggestion of his urologist in 2008, when he was 51, and he tested normal. Four years later, Parris was tested again and was diagnosed with aggressive cancer. He’s had his prostate removed and underwent 38 rounds of radiation treatment, plus additional clinical trial treatments. But his cancer spread into his bones.

While in Salt Lake City getting treatment, a friend who knew Parris was an avid cyclist suggested that he ride a 140-mile tour to benefit the Hunstman, called the Huntsman Sportsfest. Parris assembled a team of local cyclists, and together they raised between $6,000 and $7,000 per year over the course of seen years.

When the ride was moved to a virtual format in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his wife, Tami, decided to create Ride on Dads and raise funds on their own, requesting that all of the funds they raise go to prostate cancer research.

“We decided we were going to do some events in Idaho,” Parris said. “There are a lot of people in Southeast Idaho who go to Salt Lake City for cancer treatment.”

The cost of entering the scavenger hunt is $40. The first 125 people to register receive a Ride on Dads beanie. Participants will receive a list of clues directing them to various locations throughout the ski hill, where they’ll find tokens. For example, Parris said one of the clues last year was, “Get yourself up to 7820 where the sun shines aplenty.” It referred to the elevation at the top of the Sunshine Lift.

Tokens will be entered into a drawing for a host of prizes, including gift certificates, handmade jewelry, a mini bike, skis, snowboards, art and a toboggan.

A lift ticket is required to reach token locations. Go to https://hope.huntsmancancer.org/rideondads to register or sponsor someone.

In addition to the scavenger hunt, Ride on Dads sponsors a bicycle tour fundraiser in Lava Hot Springs in June, called Tour de Lava.

In September, Load ‘Em in the Dark Cattle Co. donates a portion of revenue generated from a team roping event at the Bannock County Event Center to help Ride on Dads support cancer research. Parris said September is also Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. 

The city of Pocatello’s ongoing effort to make a recreational asset of the Portneuf River has spurred a local man to launch a new business that rents small watercraft.

Josh Randall, 35, of Pocatello, started Portneuf River Rentals about a month ago, renting small canoes and kayaks from his home. Randall will also provide shuttle service for groups that rent six or more watercraft.

Randall said business has been steady, and he plans to offer rentals through Labor Day.

“The demand is definitely higher than we expected initially,” Randall said. “We just got eight more (kayaks) today.”

Randall’s family has enjoyed floating rivers and lakes and saw an opportunity to to fill a need when the city began developing Portneuf River put-ins, signs marking their locations and maps of good floats a couple of years ago.

To promote floating on the underutilized stretches of river at both ends of the concrete channel through town, the city started a river festival in July 2019 called Poky Portneuf Paddle. The initial event drew more than 1,000 floaters, as well as about 500 people who attended a celebration of the river at Centennial Park. This year’s event was canceled due to COVID-19.

Randall said kayaks are expensive and hard to find, and many people have no place to store them. He rents larger kayaks for $25 per day and youth kayaks for $15 per day. Customers may place their orders on the Portneuf River Rentals Facebook page, or call or text a reservation at 208-339-6484. Randal, who also leases commercial building space, will then send them information about where to pick up their rented boats.

“People want to float. People want to stay local as kayaks and tubes become more available,” Randall said.

His family enjoys floating area rivers and lakes, and he said customers may also take their rentals to other bodies of water. But he anticipates floating will gain in popularity locally, especially next summer.

“This is just something we’re able to do in our own backyard,” Randall said. “It’s a local secret.”

His initial customers have been satisfied, and many have said they didn’t realize the Portneuf River was so big. His favorite stretch to float takes about three and a half hours, from Edson Fichter Nature Area to Centennial Park.

“It’s a very calm and relaxing float. That’s the biggest thing people are going to see with it,” Randall said.

Barrie’s Ski & Sports and the city also rent watercraft.

Lance Clark, the city’s outdoor supervisor, said the city rents tubes for $7 per day, and kayaks or stand-up paddle boards for $20 per day. This summer, Clark said the city has fielded fewer requests from groups interested in renting several large rafts for a float trip in another part of Idaho and far more requests for renting small watercraft to use on the Portneuf. Clark said most of the business has been locals making day trips, but he envisions customers from some surrounding areas will also start floating the Portneuf.

“I don’t think people from Preston are going to drive past Lava Hot Springs to get to Pocatello, but I think people from Idaho Falls might stop in Pocatello instead of (continuing) to Lava,” Clark said.

Hannah Sanger, science and environmental director for the city, said the city and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game will partner during the next month on improving Portneuf River access points between Edson Fichter Nature Area and Cheyenne Avenue.

“There are a lot of jobs in recreation and it’s exciting to see local entrepreneurs making a go of renting kayaks for use on the Portneuf River,” Sanger said. “You look at Boise’s river and other communities that have developed their river into recreational resources and it starts with community members getting out on the water and develops there into dining and drinking establishments and other businesses relocating to be near the river because of all of these recreation resources.”

POCATELLO — Some of the paths within the City Creek Trail system are no longer choked by overgrown brush and overhanging branches, thanks to a new volunteer group.

The volunteers meet twice per month to conduct City Creek trail maintenance. They say trail users should expect to see more sections of the popular recreation area better manicured in the near future. 

Old Town Pocatello-based East Fork Bikes has partnered with the staff at Fairway Independent Mortgage to organize regular volunteer trail maintenance shifts, starting at 7 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of each summer month. The group launched on June 18 and plans to continue with trail maintenance through September. 

Volunteers meet at East Fork, 346 N. Main St., and gather back at the shop after completing their work for a free dinner. The Sand Trap Grill caters the food at a discounted rate, and a few local businesses, such as Brizzee Family Medicine and Art of Motion Chiropractic pitch in to help buy the meals.

“If we want the quality of the trails to stay the same then more people are going to have to start pitching in on the maintenance of the trails,” said Ty Nelson, owner of East Fork. “You don’t have to be a biker to come help with the trail maintenance.”

Jeremy Lambson, with Fairway Independent Mortgage, said he and his staff were mulling ways to do community service. As an avid cyclist since 1994, he thought trail maintenance at City Creek would be an apt way to give back to the community — especially given that the former Pedal Fest mountain bike race, which used to raise funds for building bridges and other projects at City Creek — has been discontinued.

“We felt somebody needed to keep that up,” Lambson said, referring to the void left in the absence of Pedal Fest. “We just saw a need.”

Lambson approached Nelson about the concept. Nelson already had similar plans in mind. During the most recent maintenance session, about 17 volunteers showed up to work for about two hours, trimming branches throughout the entire main stem trail of City Creek.

During the next maintenance session, Lambson said the group will focus on the Burrito and Prison Loop trails — cutting weeds, installing erosion bars and filling in ruts.

Lambson anticipates participation in the maintenance sessions will grow considerably.

“On any give day, we’ve got 400 to 500 trail users on City Creek alone, and I would say we’ve got another 400 to 500 runners,” Lambson said. “It shouldn’t be hard to get 40 (volunteers) one day for an hour and a half.”

The group works closely with the city in planning its projects.

Lambson also envisions organizing a bike festival in August, to be called the Rubber Side Down Festival. He’s planning to host road cycling and mountain biking relay races for teams of four.

“We want to involve anybody who cycles in any capacity,” Lambson said.

Though the group is devoted to trail maintenance, Lambson also plans to pursue approval for a new trail this fall, which would be an advanced course for downhill bikers spanning from the Ritalin trail to 911.

Casey Hyde, another volunteer from the mortgage company, hopes the maintenance nights will “gain traction” so that they become a local summer tradition.

For more information about the group, visit East Fork Bikes on Facebook.

POCATELLO — Now a stay-at-home mom living in Idaho Falls, ChaAnn Rodriguez is still troubled by an observation from her high school days that students with disabilities were missing out on a senior class tradition.

Rodriguez, who graduated from Pocatello High School in 2014, regarded exchanging senior photographs and graduation announcements as a special part of the local student culture. But during her senior year, she assisted six students with special needs as a peer tutor, and only one of them had senior pictures taken and announcements made.

Rodriguez finally sees an opportunity to right a perceived wrong that’s been nagging at her for years, thanks to a new program offered by Inkom-based Pebble Creek Ski Area. The ski area recently started donating $5 of every lift ticket sold on Tuesdays to a chosen philanthropic cause of the week.

On Jan. 22, lift pass sales will help support Rodriguez in her efforts to provide senior photographs for about 20 seniors with disabilities from Pocatello, Century and Highland high schools. Rodriguez discovered a high percentage of students with special needs lack the financial wherewithal to hire a photographer. She explained many of their families also face extra expenses, such as speech therapy.

Other seniors with special needs told her they found the process of getting senior photographs taken to be physically and emotionally taxing.

Rodriguez, who operates her own business called CR Photography, has agreed to personally take the students’ photographs outside of their high schools after classes let out. Any revenue raised from Pebble Creek will help her defray associated personal expenses such as photo editing software and travel.

“These kids get so little of a normal high school experience, and one of the reasons I wanted to do this was to give them a little piece of their youth that they can appreciate and also connect with others on,” Rodriguez said. 

Christian Colonel, special education teacher at Highland, estimates fewer than half of his school’s students with special needs get senior photographs. Colonel has found that income is an obstacle, as is a lack of confidence many students with special needs have in themselves.

“I’ve got a dozen kids who want to do it,” Colonel said. “I think it’s huge for a lot of kids in this demographic. … If we can do it in a comfortable setting, I think they’re all for it.”

Next fall, Rodriguez hopes to expand her program to cover students with disabilities in Idaho Falls, and possibly to also give students hard copies of her photos, in addition to digital versions.

She comes from a family of skiers and snowboarders — including her father, Mike Rodriguez, who works at Pebble Creek — and she and friends and family have promoted the fundraiser heavily on social media.

“I’ve had a ton of my friends and family share it — to go ski for an awesome cause,” she said.

In addition to donating a portion of lift ticket sales to charity, the ski area discounts tickets to $30 on Tuesdays, said Dana Kmetz, Pebble Creek’s marketing and guest service director. The normal cost of a lift ticket is $47.

Kmetz said Pebble Creek encourages the recipient organizations to recruit skiers for the Tuesday fundraisers, which boosts the donations they receive while helping Pebble stay busy on a typically slow day. The first Tuesday fundraiser, hosted Jan. 8, raised $150 for Idaho State University’s Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group. The second fundraiser, hosted Jan. 15, benefited Pocatello Free Clinic.

Kmetz said Pebble Creek still has open Tuesdays on its schedule and invites potential beneficiary organizations to inquire about participating.

“We’re going to be able to get more guests up here, who will be able to purchase discounted lift tickets at the same time,” Kmetz said. “We’re going to donate to good causes, and we’re keeping it all local.”

Kmetz said Pebble Creek has also donated $5,700 worth of lift tickets in support of local organizations.

INKOM — Skiers and snowboarders at Pebble Creek Ski Area will have a bit more room to turn, and potentially better snow cover, when they take runs on Sunshine Ridge this season.

They should also notice a smoother ride up the ski area’s three lifts.

Mike Rodriguez, lift supervisor at Pebble Creek, said the ski area has replaced the short, wooden fence along Sunshine Ridge with a taller, new fence designed to capture snow. He said the drifts that accumulate will be spread throughout the run to bolster the base.

Pebble Creek has also conducted maintenance on its ski lifts, he said. Rodriguez is one of four employees at the ski area who work year-round, making improvements during the summer.

Rodriguez said the new fence is adjustable and can be extended up to 15 feet high.

“It has the ability to keep moving up higher as snow fills in,” Rodriguez said. “As storms and new snow come in, we will slowly bump it up so it can continue to catch snow for us.”

The new fence, made of steel and plastic, will be installed in 20, 100-foot sections with breaks in between them, enabling skiers to move from Sunshine Ridge to the adjacent run, Sun Bowl. Rodriguez said the fence has also been moved over about 20 to 40 feet, depending on the spot, to widen the Sunshine Ridge run. Rodriguez said the cost of the project was about $6,000.

“The old buck-and-rail fence would quickly get buried in snow, and it would be ineffective for catching snow that was being blown by the wind or a storm,” Rodriguez said. “If we’re able to catch snow, it won’t blow away, and we’ll be able to distribute the piles of the drifts onto the run, making it more adequate for skiing and boarding.”

Rodriguez said the lift maintenance included replacing 60 sheaves, which are the wheels on the towers that move the lift cable.

Rodriguez and the staff cleared some brush from within Sun Bowl. They also completed a large recycling and cleanup project, selling a snowcat, a front-end loader and a six-wheel Army truck for either reuse or salvage. He said they also recycled 58,000 pounds of aluminum and steel — including cable spools, metal racks, lift components and old snowmobiles — that had left in storage at the ski area for for more than 30 years.

Pebble Creek has implemented a new computer system to operate its ticketing, season passes, cash registers and other systems.

For the ski area’s 70th anniversary this season, a local artist, Chelsy Harten, has also produced a new trail map.

Rodriguez said the ski area has a staff of about 60 employees for the season. Pebble Creek is already open for the season.