Last week, I did two solo trips — one near Kelly Canyon and the other at the South Valley Trails area south of Victor.
At Kelly Canyon, I began skiing up the road headed toward the Y Junction. About a quarter of a mile up the road, I came to a snowshoe trail called the Big Slot. I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out my climbing skins. It was just the thing when there’s no one there to tell me “that’s a dumb thing to do.”
Climbing skins come in all widths and lengths, and I purchased these several years ago from Black Diamond for my skinny skis. What happens is it basically turns your cross-country skis into snowshoes (only generally better). Once when skiing up to the top of Kelly Mountain near the warming hut, I put a set on my daughter’s skis. Her comment was, “This feels like cheating.” She was used to going up hills with lots of zig-zags and extra effort. With climbing skins on, we both chugged our way up the hill in half the time.
Last week, I skied up the Big Slot gully over the snowshoe tracks. I removed the skins after arriving at the Buckskin-Morgan Ridge. From here, I followed ski tracks along the ridge and down to the Morgan Summit and the upper warming hut that is there. If you’ve never tried these trails, they are worth doing. It may help you to bring along a map so you won’t get lost. There is a map of the trails in the local guidebook, “Eastern Idaho Sweet Spots.”
After a snack in the hut, I skied to the Hidden Vista Overlook and on to the Hawley Gulch Overlook. These trails offer an extra loop with some nice scenery. From Morgan Summit, I returned back to the parking lot via the road down.
My second adventure was a solo trip up the little canyon off the regular groomed trails at the South Valley Trails area.
This area features cross-country trails, fat bike trails, snowshoe trails and sledding hills. The parking lot is near the Mike Harris Campground. One of the loop trails goes through the Mike Harris Campground.
I headed up the groomed trail on the road from the parking area, then turned off on a self-groomed trail (not on the trailhead map) heading up a canyon and following a small stream.
The route turned out to be adventures in stream crossings with the previous skier bravely finding snow bridges across the stream. I liked the texture of the snow on this non-groomed, unpacked trail. Most of the time the stream was no wider than a yard or so and 6 inches deep, but I still didn’t want to make a splat in the running water. I guessed I was following an alpine-touring skier heading up into the hills looking for turns. The skier was obviously using climbing skins, but I stubbornly decided to make a go of it on my waxless skis. There were a few times when the going got steep, and I had to resort to side-stepping.
I only managed to sneak up into the canyon about a mile or two before it was either put on the skins or turn around. The way had narrowed to the point that sidestepping was not going to be an option. I opted to turn around.
The return trip was a zoomer, with a couple awesome crashes, due to unexpected dips or branches reaching out and grabbing me.
As I neared the junction with the groomed trails, I met a couple coming up the trail who asked about the way ahead.
“Adventures in stream crossings,” I said.
The woman was ready to turn around, but the guy she was with persuaded her to keep going “at least until it gets dicey,” he said.
Personally, I enjoyed the adventure of skiing through the deep forest on a self-groomed trail and wondering if the snow bridges were going to hold my weight over the stream below. I figured it wasn’t a life-and-death situation. At worst, I’d get a bit wet and probably embarrassed when I met other skiers. Being embarrassed is not a new thing for me.
Jerry Painter is a longtime East Idaho journalist and outdoorsman.
The snow squalls, the rapidly dropping temperatures, and the whip of a Wyoming wind have filled the air on this late December day.
At the bottom of a short and at times stout boot pack on the south side of Teton Pass, a bunch of wooden planks stick out of the snow near a group of trees.
It might as well have been a beach for Dave, Dan and Walker Bender.
With a beautiful swell on hand, the gettin’ is good.
It’s hard to imagine a better setting to catch the white wave.
Powsurfing, “the perfect combination of skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing,” according to Dave Bender, is done by simply standing on a very stiff all-wood board and turning down a slope.
There are no bindings (although there are foot grips), there’s a leash to keep the board from sliding down the mountain, and powsurfers are meant to be used with soft boots.
Even snowboard boots are built too stiff to take advantage of the surf.
Walker Bender takes his first steps up the bootpack to go for another round of turns on Teton Pass.
“You look at the shape and it’s way different than taking your bindings off of a snowboard and trying to ride it down the mountain,” said Bender. “These things are tailored and perfected for just soft boots.”
One of the sweetest parts for Bender isn’t limited to the copious amounts of bindingless turns on the way down.
The moments that have tended to stand the test of time better than others are the smiles on the faces of those who have seen the light of powsurfing.
“I’ve taken close to a hundred people out on their virgin ride on a powsurfer and I get a very similar reaction every time,” said Bender. “The smiles at the bottom of the hill, after their first run, I wish I had a camera for every one.”
Bender has seen nothing but youthful exuberance on the faces of those that have got it good.
“All reactions point to the youth, I hear a lot of this is taking me back to when I’m 12 again or this makes me feel like a little kid again,” said Bender.
What does a 12-year-old think about powsurfing then? Just by the way he surfs, one can tell how highly Dave’s 12-year-old son Walker rates it.
Even with the snow both flying and falling all around him, Dave’s veteran style cannot be obscured.
The ability to share the surf is something that keeps Dave thankful.
“It’s a pretty special thing, and I’m pretty grateful for my health and the ability to be doing it,” said Dave.
You best believe that while catching the winter swell is a favorite of the Benders, it is just one of the activities that they share and excel at as a family.
“As a family, mountain biking has been a huge part of our lives,” said Dave. “We mountain bike a lot, we skateboard a little bit, we do some backpacking too.”
The rhythm with mountain biking is distinctly similar to that of powsurfing for the Benders. Dave likened it to the source of all the fun.
“Mountain biking kind of complements the snow ‘cause we’re riding the same mountain slopes that we do on a powsurfer and a snowboard,” said Dave. “The flow, looking around these mountain bike trails, they are built like a river.”
“It kind of goes like water does down a mountain,” he added. “It doesn’t make sharp turns, it goes in a really flowy line.”
Walker has clearly taken to this belief with the energy one would expect from a kid his age. It’s apparent not only in his powsurfing, but also in his biking and snowboarding.
In summer of 2020, Walker stepped to one of the classic Teton Pass freeride test pieces, the notably large and exposed “Canyon Gap.”
“Me and my friend Bennet went up and we were thinking about it,” said Walker. “Bennet went first and so I just got motivated to send it, it was a lot easier than hitting it by myself.”
Walker Bender follows through his turn under the proud eyes of his father Dave.
After stomping it (of course he did) Walker took it in stride according to Dave.
“It’s about a 30 something, 35-foot gap, and he’s getting it good,” said Bender. “He’s doing it with no hands and taking his feet off his pedals and doing all these knack-knacks and can-cans.”
Being in the right environment certainly never hurts.
“The trail system here helped on by Mountain Bike the Tetons and TVTAP in the valley is incredible,” said Dave.
The way the Benders’ lifestyle works is due to capitalizing on the chance to build with a degree of flexibility.
The Benders homeschool their children, which allows them to spread lessons through the year and make time for outdoor fun.
“We’re homeschooling so when I’m at work the kids go to school, bang some lessons out, and when I’m off it’s pretty much recess,” said Dave. “We got a pretty good schedule.”
The Bender clan talks over some different Grassroots boards during a pre-bootpack break. For Dave (left), Walker (center), and Dan (right) discussing shapes and styles was the second most common topic of conversation, of course after the quality of the surf.
That great schedule is why we were able to meet up at two in the afternoon on a Thursday. Dave and his brother Dan have put on some small demos around the area, not for any company, but the love of the surf.
Through his personal relationship with Grassroots Powsurf founder Jeremy Jensen, Dave gets some boards that may or may not have made it up to Grassroots’ high standards.
It’s not a “why do this” but more of a “why not do this” for Bender.
“I don’t have any stock in the company but he’ll send me some boards and I’ll take people out and put on some demos, usually just kinda word of mouth with people from work, hockey, or the neighborhood that are interested in powsurfing,” said Bender.
Bender and Jensen met while working a cafe and riding together at Snowbird in the winter of ‘97-’98, but lost touch not long after.
“We rode together a bit at Snowbird as acquaintances for a few years,” said Bender. “I called Jeremy and reconnected with him, I still keep in contact with some buddies from Utah and I got his contact information and rekindled that relationship.”
Bender is very loyal to Grassroots not only through his personal connections, but personal experience on their boards.
“I had tried this powsurfer up on Teton Pass, it was like a dog trying to run away from its owner,” said Bender. “I couldn’t stay on the thing. I tried it again a couple of years later on a Grassroots board and I stepped on it and powsurfed the whole way down Telemark Bowl without falling.”
I had to give it a good try, and I ended up with the exact same experience that Dave had. I didn’t fall once that first run, and there were arguably some of the best feeling turns I’ve ever had. Hitting the ground running.
The distinct level of purity in a non-metal-edged wood board without bindings is apparent from the bootpack to the blower turns.
Softboots, like the ones you would take out on a blustery day to snowblow or shovel, are best for the surf.
Powsurfing is also ideal for avalanche danger days, where any unexposed slopes can yield at least a few waves.
“If the avalanche danger is high you just go to the little neighborhood hill and session it,” said Bender. “You think you’re going to be there for thirty minutes and half the day’s slipped by.”
The Benders have even gone on splitsurf adventures (a powsurf board that splits a la splitboard) with Grassroots’ Jensen, a day remembered fondly by Walker.
“There was this one day up Taylor, Mr. Jeremy (Jensen) came out and we skinned up Taylor, went off the backside,” said Walker.
He described the day’s snow using a name that I will use more often.
“It was a bit thin at the top, but it got better as we went down,” said Walker. “It was so fun, it wasn’t super steep, it was great hippie-pow.”
Dave elaborated on the label.
“We call it hippie-pow, that low-angle shallow snow,” said Dave.
Some of the best turns can be had where you least expect them, and Dave knew that I had a tough job ahead of me with writing this report.
“You’ve been on the board powsurfing, it’s hard to articulate how much fun it is without sounding like a kook,” said Dave with a good laugh. “I call it the fountain of youth.”
Ever since he found it, Dave won’t ever let it go.
“This place is home, I’ll probably die here,” said Bender. “The winter is what made it stick really.”
I love the show season. And if you’ve been reading any of my articles lately then you know I’ve been flying around the country hitting the Dallas Safari Club Convention & Expo, the Safari Club International Convention and the mother of them all, the SHOT Show.
Even though I love the big shows, I have to admit. I’ve been stretched out thin. Between giving seminars at all of them and working the shows from daylight to dark, maybe flying in late to one of them at 2:30 a.m. and getting up some mornings at 4 to write articles covering them — I was drained by the time I flew home from the last one on a Saturday night at midnight. Only to have to get up at 3:30 to fly out again for two and a half weeks on Wednesday morning.
But now it’s time for some more relaxing type of shows. Gun shows! I don’t think that I’ve ever been to a gun show that it didn’t have something that I couldn’t live without. Gun shows have something for everyone.
If you need a brand new rifle, shotgun or pistol have no fear, you’ll find it there. Want an old M1 Garand? Saw a collection of them today. What about cowboy pistols? Yep, you’ll see a plethora of them.
Then there’s always a few vendors with a ton of old Army gear. Then if you’re looking for knives, you’ll find a ton of them. A lot of old school leather handle knives on up to some modern ones that are good for … I just don’t think their use has been discovered as of yet.
Knives that fit into my hunting world, I usually don’t see too many of them — although today I did.
And who isn’t infatuated with old lever actions? There are always a few tables of them that I have to stop and google over. The old lever action has to be the coolest rifle ever designed, doesn’t it? They’re the gun that won the West and still win the heart of any true westerner. I shot a cinnamon bear a few years ago with a Henry’s Golden Boy 45-70. That made for a beautiful picture with the brass lever action laid on the cinnamon bear.
If you need some décor for a mountain cabin, I don’t know how you could do better than hit a gun show and grab a box full of old-school ammo boxes to set up on a shelf. I saw a guy that had a whole box of old ammo boxes for sell today.
Usually at every gun show I can find at least one deal on a couple of boxes of ammo that I need. But one word of caution. I’d advise against buying any ammo reloaded by some individual local. Years ago I bought some at a Nampa Gun Show and it nearly blew the firing pin back through the end of the bolt. It was protruding out the back of the bolt. Little Tommie’s forehead would have been the next stop. So only buy reputable ammo.
One thing that I really like to stumble upon is a unique local dealer. One year at the La Grande gun show I met a guy that sold imported knives from Finland. They were unique. The handles were made out of reindeer horns. He had a mushroom knife that had boars’ bristles on the end of the handle to brush dirt off of your mushrooms as you gathered them.
Today I met a young man named Justin that owns Dakota Prairie Ammunition. They manufacture ammo, of course. I’m going to be testing some of his ammo. I love helping guys that are just getting their feet on the ground and many times you’ll be able to meet a new fledgling company at your local show.
Some upcoming gun shows in Idaho include: The Amoureux Homedale Gun Show on Feb. 19 and 20 and The Boise Gun Show at the Ford Idaho Center on March 5 and 6.
So don’t just set around the cabin bored this winter. Get out and hit a gun show. If nothing else I always see a few old-time books that I can’t pass on. Have fun.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.
For my sweetheart, this is a must-do trail every winter.
We showed up on a Tuesday and had the Buffalo River trail in the Island Park area all to ourselves.
Julie likes the trail “because it’s pretty.” That seems to be a thing for the ladies. I will admit, with the sun shining, the bluish river flowing and the thick, snowy woods, the trail is a beaut. It’s also flat. That makes it a great trail for a group of mixed levels of experience.
The trail begins just out of the parking lot of the Island Park Forest Service Ranger Station just south of Pond’s Lodge. The access couldn’t be easier.
The trail is a “Park ’N Ski” trail, meaning that skiers/snowshoers are asked to purchase and place a Park ’N Ski sticker on their windshield for the winter season. The money goes to pay for the cost of grooming the region’s ski trails. Three-day permits can be purchased for $7.50 and annual permits can be purchased for $25. Find the permits online at the Idaho Parks and Recreation website.
The 2-mile trail makes a big loop just south of the Buffalo River on the east side of Highway 20. If you’re looking for some more mileage after doing this trail, drive a quarter of a mile north to Pond’s Lodge and park just south of the lodge’s parking lot at the Moose ski trails. This trailhead connects into a series of trails continuing along the Buffalo River and over to the Island Park Reservoir dam area with options to do several miles of varied terrain.
The Buffalo River trail is set up as a self-guided nature trail with occasional factoid signs along the way talking about the geology, local animals, waterfowl, fish, etc. We found that we usually had to scrape the snow off the signs in order to read them. A long section of the trail parallels the river. We were hoping to see some water birds in the river, but the only birds we saw were off in the distance downstream west of the Highway 20 bridge.
The Buffalo River is a shallow river a few miles long that flows in a southwesterly direction and connects with the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River just south of Island Park Reservoir. This mellow river attracts anglers hunting brook trout and canoes looking for a mellow place to paddle during milder weather months.
We did see a few moose tracks in the snow, but it was a day for all the critters to be somewhere else.
Yellowstone National Park has updated its backcountry reservation system to allow people to do it all online.
Beginning this spring, visitors will be able to make advance online reservations for backcountry permits at www.recreation.gov.
The park said moving to an online system allows backcountry users to check availability in real time and receive instant confirmation when reserving a trip.
Starting March 1 through March 20, the system will offer a lottery system for backcountry permits.
From April 1 to April 24, people will be able to reserve single reservations online.
Starting April 26, people can reserve additional reservations.
After April 26, the remaining permits will be available for reservation on www.recreation.gov.
Walk-up permits will be available on a first-come, first-served basis up to 48 hours in advance. Walk-up permits cannot be reserved online. Fees apply for all backcountry sites.
“Early access lottery and general permits will account for approximately 75 percent of permits issued for the season,” Yellowstone National Park said in a news release. “The remaining permits will be available as walk-up permits.”
So it sounds like if you want to get that prized backcountry campsite for this coming summer, you’d better get online this spring.
Yellowstone offers more than 1,000 miles of trails and 293 designated backcountry campsites, the park said. Permits are required for all overnight stays in the park’s backcountry.
Jerry Painter is a longtime East Idaho journalist and outdoorsman.
If you read any writings that are 50 years or older, anytime they wrote about winter there was a dark foreboding sinister feeling portrayed about it. There were cliches like they were entering into the winter of life and you knew they were about to die. You could almost hear the creepy music playing in the background.
As a kid, I didn’t have a lot. When I was 8 years old I’d pull on two to three pairs of socks and cram my foot into my already tight pair of cowboy boots. My toes would have zero circulation. I’d be shivering like a cartoon character.
Even up until after college I thought I was decked out if I had a set of red one-piece Union long handles. Of course they were made out of cotton and we now know that cotton doesn’t wick away moisture. In those days everyone advised wearing wool because it wicks away moisture and you’d survive even if you got wet. But the downside, wool itches.
Fast forward 50 years. Now suddenly a big percentage of people can’t wait for winter! You have to wonder, what caused this big shift in the paradigm? Here’s my explanation. Now we have a ton of fun winter outdoor activities. Skiing, snowboarding, ice fishing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, winter camping, sledding, ice skating, varmint hunting and who knows what else?
And I think the thing that allowed this change is the availability of new winter clothing that the market offers. Let’s list some of those items from the toes on up.
FOOTWEAR
Manufacturers offer moisture-wicking socks from medium weight on up to thick. Thirty years ago, there was a trend to wear a thin pair of polypropylene socks under your regular pair. This did two things.
1. Wicked away moisture.
2. The socks slid on each other so you didn’t get a blister.
Now there’s a design of boots to fit your every activity. As a kid, I never heard of waterproof boots, but now, nearly all of them are waterproof. (Although in a meeting with marketing guru Ethan Peck with Garmont boots last week at the SHOT Show he told me that sometimes he likes non-waterproof hiking boots because they are better at wicking away moisture. Never heard that before but it makes sense.)
You can get various heights of boots according to how much snow you’re going to encounter. You can also get varying degrees of insulation in them, according to how cold it is or how sedentary your outdoor activities will be. When snowmobiling or ice fishing you may want some Sorel Pac type of boots.
If you’re new to Idaho and haven’t used gaiters before, you need to get a pair. They’re a plastic like/canvas deal that zips up around your ankle and extends almost up to your knee. They clip onto the string on your boots and prevent snow from coming in over the top (curse of all curses).
BASE LAYERS
According to how active that you’re going to be but you can get light, medium and heavy weight base layers. Most are made out of polypropylene and some of silk. These are a must have in cold weather. Don’t get cotton. Remember the old saying, “Cotton Kills,” said because cotton gets wet and clammy.
For pants, it’s nice to have something that is water resistant. It may be cool looking in town but you don’t want your pants skin tight. You want them a little baggy. For a shirt, wool is great but I usually end up wearing some kind of a cotton shirt (flannel, etc.).
If you’re new to Idaho, you need to learn how to layer. You don’t want to wear just one jacket like an oversized Eskimo jacket. Otherwise, you get a little warm hiking and you have to tough it out or pull off your monster size jacket and freeze.
Maybe wear a decent fleece jacket and then a bigger coat over it. That way if you get warm you can just pull off your bigger outer jacket and strap it on your backpack. For a jacket you want one that goes past your waist to block the wind and contain your body heat. And talking about wind, you want one that is windproof and water resistant. And never, never buy a coat without a hood. Otherwise, wind will whip down your neck as well as snow and rain. I always wear a cap. Throw the hood over it and the bill sticks out and protects your face/glasses against the rain and snow.
A gaiter is nice to wear around your neck to keep wind from whipping down your collar. For head cover, everyone now wears some kind of sporty beanie. For extreme weather, Katy bought me one years ago that is four-layers. It’s the ultimate.
Then of course you’ll need some good waterproof/resistant gloves or mittens. You can also supplement with hand warmers to stick in your gloves or pockets.
Well, I could go on for a while but this list ought to at least be enough so you’ll live to make it back to town alive and be able write me some hate letters to the editor pointing out some item I forgot to include!
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.
I’m blaming a major bout of sentimentality on the fact that it was the middle of the week and I was the only one for miles around in the Kelly Canyon area.
Once I cross-country skied past the resort, I had the place to myself. The only sound was the swishing of my skis and a bit of puffing as I skied up to the Morgan Summit warming hut. All that quiet got me thinking of past winter visits to the area, back before all my kids had moved away and my dog was still alive.
I paused at the warming hut long enough to fire up the woodstove and chew on a Christmas Clif bar, a gift from a daughter.
I sat in silence and remembered talking my dog into an overnighter skiing up there years ago (before all the “no dogs allowed” signs) “to test out a new tent in the snow.” My dog Sunny was game for any outdoor activity no matter how flimsy the excuse was to get us out there. We slept about 50 yards from the warming hut, but in the morning cooked our breakfast inside the hut. I couldn’t resist the table and chairs inside. About the time we finished with breakfast, I heard voices nearby and suddenly the hut was invaded by half a dozen college students “checking out the trails” early in the morning. They came from places all around the West and even Texas, where snow was a new experience to them. Sunny was happy with all his new friends.
After my Clif bar was gone, I decided to go the distance and started skiing down the Pine Loop trail and then on down the Hawley Gulch Trail (about another 4-mile loop). The Hawley Gulch trail turned into an adventure when I had to do some route-finding. There were no previous tracks to follow, and snowmobilers had attacked the area leaving 2-foot-deep ruts to avoid. The route is marked with blue diamonds on trees, but they always seem hard to find at critical junctures. Fortunately, I’ve done the route several times and never felt too lost.
The snow last week was nearly ideal for backcountry cross-country skiing.
Where the trail connects with Hawley Gulch there is a large slope that flows down to a small footbridge. As I looked up the slope, the memory came rushing into my mind of my oldest son deliberately bombing down the hill on cross-country skis at Mach speed. He did a complete somersault disappearing into a soft spot. He slowly rose from the snow, dazed, moaning with a bloodied face. It’s always later that you think of the foolishness of it when we still had an hour of skiing to return to cell service.
Farther down the trail last week, I popped out on the road next to a sign that says Poison Flat. As I skied up the road, I passed the spot where years ago I paused during a ski trip with Sunny. “Sunny look up, turkeys.” A flock of 11 turkeys hurried across the road and up into the woods maybe 30 yards in front of us. Sunny never looked up. He had his nose buried in the snow sniffing turkey tracks, as if to say, “Dude, check out these amazing smells of all these turkeys.” I relished the sights, Sunny relished the smells.
Where the road reconnects with the Y Junction, I finally heard other humans during last week’s ski. Two women skied up the road and past me on their way toward the lower warming hut on the logging road. They nodded as they passed, one woman chattering non-stop.
By the time I had zoomed back down the road to the ski resort, cars were starting to arrive for day skiing. My stomach was telling me it was time to get home for lunch.
Next time I plan to bring along some pals to adventure with to avoid slipping down into that deep hole of sentimentality.
Jerry Painter is a longtime East Idaho journalist and outdoorsman.
BOISE — Idaho wildlife officials on Thursday approved expanding trapping for river otters despite widespread opposition.
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved a plan that lifts trapping restrictions on the mainstem of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River, mainstem of the Snake River and mainstem of the main Salmon River. It also lifts restrictions on portions of the North Fork of the Payette River.
Commissioner Ron Davies of Clayton voted against the change, noting the commission should also consider Idaho residents who want to see otters in the wild but don’t want to kill them.
“There is a significant portion of the residents of the state of Idaho that don’t want to see this happen, and the responses are overwhelming toward that,” he said. “But probably my biggest reason against this is that trapping is under a microscope right now, particularly after the changes that were made to wolf trapping in our state. This will add fuel to the fire of that community that is against trapping.”
About 100 otters have been killed in Idah so far this trapping season, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. The maximum number of otters that can be trapped is 160, and that’s broken down to maximum quotas in various regions of the state. The current season runs to March 31, or until a region’s quota is reached.
The change approved by the commission expands where trapping can occur, but retains the maximum quotas for each region.
State officials said there are between 50 and 80 trappers who pursue river otters, and that the Idaho Trappers Association expressed interest in the expansion. Backers said trapping is part of Idaho’s heritage and cited in the Idaho Constitution.
“When I first heard this I thought, well, OK, I can see their point,” said commission member Don Ebert. “Maybe we shouldn’t trap the river otters. People can see them, everybody loves them. I love them. I love to look at them. But the bottom line is, the heritage of the state of Idaho is to preserve the right of hunting, fishing and trapping. That’s a big deal in Idaho. With more population, more infringement on wild areas, that’s going to become more of an issue all of the time.”
Idaho lawmakers last year expanded wolf trapping and snaring to reduce wolf numbers, an action decried by environmental groups and that is being challenged in federal court.
John Robison of the Idaho Conservation League called the commission’s decision to expand river otter trapping baffling.
“While hopefully river otters will still be seen in these rivers, there will be fewer opportunities for folks to have memorable encounters with river otters,” he said in an email to The Associated Press. “Decisions like these tend to alienate large swaths of the public, just at a time when Fish and Game needs more volunteers, partners, and supporters than ever before to accomplish their mission.”
I don’t know what makes varmint season so appealing. Maybe because our hunting seasons are all over and we feel like we cheated the system and snuck in one last hooray. Or maybe it’s just because it is flat out fun. Or maybe it’s because after a hard-core regimented big game season you can run ‘n’ gun and shoot multiple animals. Elk/deer hunting is like a chess game. Varmint hunting is like a high-speed video game!
Who knows all of the deep psychological reasons why varmint hunting is so much fun? If you’ve never varmint hunted, don’t be a deep thinker, just do it! In this article I’m going to cover techniques and gear that you’ll need. But everyone has a budget so if you’re a kid on a paper route budget don’t despair — just buy a hand call and go cheap. You can still get some shots.
First off let’s start with what gun(s) to use. Two decades ago, a good bolt action was the ticket. Now, ARs have taken over the scene and for good reason. They’re semi autos so you can get fast follow up shots. I just got an Anderson Mfg. 5.56 and tricked it out and am now ready to have at it.
I love rifle hunting but if there’s more than one of you in your hunting party, I’d recommend one of you carrying a shotgun. I kept count one year and 40 percent of my shots were close enough to use a shotgun. How many times has one busted you when you were calling? Either sneaking in and spooking at 20-30 yards or zipping in at Mach V and you didn’t even get a shot? Have one of the hunters in your group carry a shotgun for one season and I bet it will become a rule.
For shotguns I’d recommend using good quality ammo. I use Kent or HEVI-Shot. Sure, you can use leftover pheasant shells but if you want to reach out there to 50-70 yards you need to use good shells.
CALLS
When I was 5 or 6 years old, dad had an old wood call. We’d call for a minute and then wait five minutes. That philosophy has long gone out the window. Now everyone calls non-stop. That’s why electronic calls are so nice. They save you from blowing out your lungs on a hand call. After a few revolutions we’d then run a flashlight on the horizon to see if we could see any eyes.
Years later Johnny Stewart came out with cassette calls. My brother would plug one in his truck, roll down the windows and we’d stand in back of the truck. You can either run your light on the horizon or about 20 feet out from you in a circle. If you see eyes glistening the shooter gets ready and the light is dropped down on the varmint and you have about a second to shoot before they scatter. This was revolutionary.
If you buy a cheap call, you’re going to get frustrated. Buy a decent call. All the good varmint hunters I know use a FoxPro. It comes with quite a few calls and you can buy/download more. Of course mimic whatever game is in that area. Don’t use an elk in distress if you’re hunting outside of Star. Use a rabbit squeal. You get my drift.
DECOYS
Something that will tip the odds in your favor is to use a decoy. The most popular decoy is some kind of waggler. In a nutshell it is a wire attached to a motorized spinner that rotates. A white rag or piece of fur is tied to the end. You’d think a small white rag spinning around would scare them off but they love it.
Everyone has a budget. If you’re a kid on a paper route budget you get a stiff wire (3 to 4 feet long) and tie a turkey feather 2-4 inches from the end. Stick the wire in the ground at an angle and the breeze will twirl the feather around.
A decoy is important because a varmint hears the ruckus and comes running in expecting to see some action. If they don’t, that throws up a red flag. That also has them focusing on the decoy and not you.
BLINDS
You’ll need to be concealed while calling. Numerous times I’ve just hid behind a fence post or a pile of brush. A few years ago I upgraded and bought a strip of camouflaged burlap that was 3 feet by 10 feet long. I can lay this over a fence or between two bushes. Or there’s C-shaped panels that are lightweight and work great.
I don’t want to get too extravagant but it’s nice to have a chair. You don’t need a full-blown Lazy Boy. I like the Alps Mountaineering Dash Chair which is a backpacking chair. It is beneficial to have a low-profile chair for two reasons: 1. It elevates you so you can see over the grass and sage brush. 2. It’s comfortable so you will hold still longer and not spook the game.
So just because all of our hunting seasons have wound down don’t store away your rifles alongside your summer shorts just yet. There’s one more season in full swing right now — varmint season!
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.
If you’ve never snowshoed, you ought to try it. In the old days when I bought my first pair of snowshoes all that they had were the old wood frame ones which had rawhide webbing. I still think that they’re the coolest.
In the old days, the trappers and American Indians made them out of branches and used rawhide strips to make the webbing. Out on open prairies and grasslands they used longer, narrower shoes. In brush and mountains everyone uses wider, shorter ones nicknamed Bear Claws.
But let’s back up to the beginning. Why would someone use snowshoes? Because in deep snow you’ll sink up to your waist and get buried. It is impossible to walk. And even in shallower snow it is a major pain if it is just slightly crusted over. You take a step and right when you’re putting weight on that foot you break through the crust and slam down into the snow. Snowshoes are the only way to go in snow other than if you’re a cross-country skier.
The bindings on snowshoes are different from those used on downhill skiing. When downhill skiing your foot is tied firmly to the ski. When snowshoeing your toe is in constant contact with the shoe but with every step your heel rises up. The bindings resemble a thick piece of rubber that your toe slips into. Of course, there are varying types of bindings but the original ones 40 years ago were all like this.
A few years ago — I don’t remember maybe 20 or 30 years ago — you started seeing aluminum framed snowshoes hit the market. They’re lightweight and relatively cheap. I still like the old wood/rawhide snowshoes the best but mine finally rotted out. It was cheaper to buy a pair of aluminum ones than to repair my old ones. So that’s what Katy and I use now.
So where should you go snowshoeing?
You don’t want to just randomly pick a mountain to hike up. You’ll want to pick a trail or old logging road to hike on. Think back to where you elk hunted last fall. Where were some good logging roads for hiking? You’ll want to pick an old logging road or trail. Or you can hike across a meadow. Or maybe even use them if you’re going ice fishing and the snow is deep on the ice.
I’ve seen a couple of backcountry yurts advertised as fun to hike to and spend the night in. I’ve never done that. When Katy and I go snowshoeing we just go up in the mountains and hit a trail. It’s a fun excuse to get up in the mountains and get a little exercise. We don’t have a big agenda. We’re just going hiking.
To have a carrot at the end of the hike I like to throw a coffee pot in my backpack. After a couple of hours of hiking we’ll build a fire and heat up a pot of hot water to make hot chocolate. You’ll want to throw a jug of water in your pack. Sure, you can melt snow but remember, 10 inches of snow melts down to 1 inch of water. By the time it heats and sizzles you don’t have much water left so you’ll use a lot of snow. But yes, I use snow. I’ll put water in the pot and supplement it with snow so I don’t have to pack as much water.
So, with the above said, heat up a pot of water and pour everyone a cup of hot water. Pull out the packs of hot chocolate and everyone is ready for a treat. It’s a big treat for everyone to warm up around the fire with a cup of hot chocolate.
A lot of the newer shoes are not quite wide enough so with some of them you’ll sink down in the snow if it is too powdery, soft and deep. I haven’t researched all of the makers so I can’t recommend which is the best shoes to buy.
So in closing, don’t sit around the house and get fat and lazy. Grab a pair of snowshoes and hit the trails.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.
Last week I said I wanted to write about Varmint Hunting but … maybe that will happen next week. A more time-sensitive topic popped up. I’ve been writing a weekly article for the ISJ since… I can’t remember when. You might think after a year or two you’d run out of topics to write about. But if you love something there’s always something new — a new angle or maybe you just get up in the mountains and get refreshed and have five more articles you’re dying to write.
Like right now I’m sitting in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport leaving the Dallas Safari Club Convention & Expo. Suddenly it hit me. I miss Katy. I’d pay $100 if she was sitting here with me right now for 10 minutes holding hands.
It’s weird, we just celebrated our 38th anniversary and I think I love her more now than when we got married. OK, I better switch back to hunting because if Katy sees that I’m comparing our love with my love for hunting this could be my last article!
Anyway, now is the show season and it makes sense. Hunting season is pretty much over so because it’s a dead time, January to March is the perfect time to schedule the shows. The SHOT show is the mother of all shows. It’s Jan. 17 to 21 so everything else falls somewhere around it. Although this year for some reason the Safari Club International Convention moved back to Vegas and is on the tail end of the same week at SHOT. Usually, it is in February.
But with all the above said, let’s talk about why you ought to hit the shows. We’ll start with the SHOT. Monday is Media Day at the Range. They invite writers to test out all of the new (and old) rifles, pistols, shotguns, crossbows and ammo. Of course, that’s a fun day. The show actually runs Tuesday through Friday. All of the big manufacturers are there. Worldwide. I don’t know if every country is there but nearly. Firearm manufacturers, ammo, backpacks, knives, optics, outdoor clothing, backpacks — you name it. The reason I’m there is to see all of the new gear for 2022. I’ll be finding new products to test and write about, lining up sponsors, trips, etc. It is by invitation only but if you ever get to go, you should.
Next let’s talk about the club conventions like SCI and DSC. Probably two-thirds of the booths are guides. If you want to book the hunting/fishing trip of a lifetime, these are the shows to hit. I want to take Katy and Kolby on a South Louisiana redfish/spec fishing trip and to Alaska fishing so I hit some of those booths. I met a good sounding group of Cajuns that run Saltgrassoutdoors.com. Then I talked to Waterfalls Resort, which is where I went for my first Alaska fishing trip years ago, which instigated my writing career. I may take them there.
Then you have the state shows like the Idaho Sportsman Show, The Great Northwest Outdoor Expo (I hope they’re having it this year) and so forth. I love these shows. They’re local so you meet a lot of local manufacturers with a new product that they’ve invented. That’s how I met the SneakyHunter Bootlamps crew.
Then of course there are a lot of guides there, too. You can usually tell by talking to them if they’re legit but check references. You don’t want to save your pennies for the trip of a lifetime only to end up with some bozo for a guide.
Then I love hitting the seminars. But take with a grain of salt seminars put on by celebrities if they’re promoting their sponsor’s products. Like any shopping check around and do some research. I conduct 40 to 60 seminars a year. I had a seminar at the DSC, two at SHOT and three at the SCI Conv. I try to give honest reviews because if I say this air gun is the best, some kid may be saving up his paper route earnings to buy that air gun. If it’s a dud he’s stuck with it until he gets out of college and gets a real job.
But still, here’s a couple of words of warning:
1. Remember the old proverb — a gift blinds the eyes of the wise. If the speaker is sponsored, the gift will sway his opinion.
2. Marketing is made to create discontent. A few years ago the .300 Win. Short Mag was advertised as the best rifle ever and the 30-06 was relegated to the museum. Then the 6.5 Creedmoor came out and overnight the .300 Win. Short Mag was deemed worthless. Manufacturers have to breed discontent or you’ll use the same rifle your dad did, your kid will use it and your grandkid will. That’s bad for business. They want you to buy a new rifle every year.
Everyone likes new inventions but products also have to stand the test of time. So investigate and make wise buying decisions.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.
