Sam and I discovered a fun little outdoor sport that gives you some good exercise along with beautiful winter scenery. He wasn't too interested in going snowboarding. (It turns out I broke a rib last time I went with Jaden, so I wasn't quite ready to get back on the slope again anyway.) Instead, I took him snowshoe hiking at Bogus Basin, and we had a great time.
I'd never been drawn to Nordic (cross-country) skiing, but I'm glad we went. I may have to invest in a few pair of used snowshoes off of eBay to take more of the kids. I always thought snowshoes were just a practical tool for when you have to walk in deep snow. It turns out that it's a great way to see some beautiful back country at a time of year you wouldn't normally see it. I'm sure there are more pristine and breathtaking vistas to find than those at Bogus Basin, but this was a good introduction, and a relatively easy hike.
Snowshoeing is inexpensive
Bogus Basin charges $5 for the use of their snowshoe trails and Nordic trails. We chose to rent our snowshoes down the hill at a ski shop on Bogus Basin Rd, only because I wanted to stop there to see how much it would be to buy them. I believe it was Greenwood's Ski Haus and Rental Shop that we stopped at.
The cost was $10 ea. to rent, and to buy was in the neighborhood of $130 to $180 before a 30% off sale discount. The purchase price was a little too much to just plunk down that kind of money for an afternoon, so we rented this time. I'd like to check on eBay for used snowshoes that will fit the kids and me. They would be nice to have in case we do any back country snowboarding where you have to hike to the top of the hill. That way, snowboarding would be cheaper, a better workout because of the hike, more beautiful in the backwoods away from the crowds, and more likely to be in fresh powder.
Snowshoe trails at Bogus Basin
Snowshoers can use any Nordic trail, but Nordic skiers can't go on the snowshoe trails. The trails are nicely groomed, so you can always tell when you're on the trail. There was one exception, where Sam and I saw a sign marking a trail turnoff that wasn't groomed. We followed what looked like a snow-covered hiking trail for about 50 yards before the trail appeared to end abruptly. We just returned to the groomed trail and continued on.
I was a little disappointed in how well the trail names were marked (or not marked, as the case may be). I'd say 50 % of the intersections weren't marked with trail names. The other 50% that were marked helped to get my bearings, but we frequently ended up on trails we didn't think we were on. Having a trail map helped, but didn't solve the problem, because it was difficult to get your bearings as to which intersection you were near, and how far you had walked in relation to the last intersection that did happen to be marked clearly.
In addition, the trail map is broken up into a large map of the Nordic trails, and an inset of the Snowshoe trails. The problem is that the Snowshoe trails are a subset of the Nordic trails, so it didn't provide very good cross-referencing to the trail names you see when hiking across a Nordic trail. From a graphic design standpoint, it would be less confusing to put both types of trails on the same map for context, and mark the trail graphically as either a snowshoe trail or Nordic trail.
We started off taking the Billy Goat snowshoe trail, but ended up winding around on quite a few different Nordic trails before returning to the lodge for our hot chocolate.
Beautiful snow covered back country
The trails we hiked at Bogus provided us with some very nice vistas overlooking snow-dusted hills and thick snow-covered pine forests. There were no signs of civilization in the distance, even though we were only 16 miles from downtown Boise. That is what's so amazing about Bogus Basin.
We saw a few small birds (I haven't identified them yet--they were small black and white birds about the size of sparrows), but no other wildlife. As far as wildlife sightings go, I think we'll be more successful next time hiking up near Idaho City. I've heard that there are plenty of good trails up there, although we'd probably have to contend with snowmobilers.
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