Bogus Basin cross country skiing - Skijoring Lessons
Are You Tough Enough?
Enjoy cross country skiing on 37km of groomed trails. Frontier Point Lodge provides classic, skate, and snowshoe rentals as well as a waxing bench. The tables, chairs and couches upstairs provide valley views a gas fireplace and restroom facilities. There is night skiing on selected nights, and a snowshoeing trail system. Also if you have a regular season pass that is your nordic pass as well. While Bogus Basin has a ton of trails there is really only the "Highway" that is suitable for first timers, Beginners, and those who took the summer and fall off. However if you fall into this category, the main drag from the Frontier Point Lodge out to the Bogus Creek Outfitters establishment and back will probably be enough! If not take Redtail back out and climb to the highway when you have had enough. The rest of the trail system varies from challenging to brutal. They have it all, that is, except skijoring.
- Skijoring lessons (donation required), Equipment provided. Your Dog.
- Skijoring lesson with dog rental fee.
NO DOGS ALLOWED, NOT EVEN ON A LEASH.
Really to bad, some mumbo jumbo about conflicts with other users and not having a trail that they could run on separately. I do not see why they could not set a three hour period aside once or twice a week when skijoring would be allowed. Make the users who want to participate take a training class and register etc. or charged them an additional fee of $150.00 a year to have a poop patrol. Dream on, is probably the reply best suited to that line. My response, get your nose out of the clouds, I am speaking here of the manager of a local national retailer who's initials start with an R and end in an I inc., who donates lots of money to both the State Park and Ski (they do not allow dogs either, god forbid they open a loop for dogs)and Bogus Basin nordic facilities. I have heard through the grapevine that the managers of both the areas have to make sure they do not make him(Manager of major national retailer and all around do gooder as long as you do not own a dog) angry. Frankly, I could care less about the people who want to bring there dog to run wild and poop and pee on every sign post there is. As evidenced by the issue the ridge to rivers has been having, a lot of dog owners just do not get it.
Back to skijoring, I want to promote the sport of having my dog or dogs harnessed as if they were pulling a dog sled, only they pull me on my skate ski's instead. I will take you with your dog and my harnesses etc for a donation to the dog food fund. And if you do not have a dog you can rent one of mine! There are some restrictions etc. so if you are interested give us a call. You need at least intermediate skiing skills, and your own skis, boots and poles. It is still quite a workout. It evens it out a little, you just go farther and faster than you would if you were on your own. Just about any dog with a properly fitting harness can do it, some breeds just do it a lot better than others. In northern Europe and the Midwest there are race circuits and the whole shebang, just like dog sledding. The most common dogs are mostly the same breeds used for dog sledding. However there are other breeds used as well, mainly the German shorthair pointer. They have more stamina and are faster than the traditional sled dogs, they are just not able to withstand the cold as well. Quite a number of the dog sledders use German shorthairs for the sprint races.There are a lot of the sled dog folks who are breeding shorthairs into their lines to improve performance. The shorthairs that I own are Greif Linebred german Shorthair Pointers.
In conclusion, there are a lot of places that you can skijor it is mainly an issue of conditions. How many snowmobiles you have to dodge etc. The best is when it is heavily crusted and bullet proof, you can go anywhere. The issue here is that if you are off trail you need to have your dog trained a little better so you can direct them this way and that. By the way here are other areas that allowed dogs on the groomed trails last year, Ponderosa State Park in McCall has a doggy loop, The little ski hill in McCall and Tamarack allowed dogs last year as well. Park Creek ski trails in Stanley allow them to. If I am not mistaken Sun Valley had a loop for dogs as well. It seems as if the only groomed areas that do not allow them to some extent or another are the areas close to my home and my cabin, which accept money from RE&I inc. to support facilities. I know where my sporting goods dollars will not be going in the future.
posted by Mike Carr at
6:55 AM
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