STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The indoor gathering is coming back to the Sawtooth Ski Festival, which will be held this coming weekend in and around Stanley.

An Apres Ski event will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 1, at the Rod and Gun Club in Stanley. There will be a no host bar and pizza snacks.

The annual Chili Feed and Poker Run will be held earlier that day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 1, on the Park Creek Trails a few miles west of Stanley.

Ski or snowshoe the trails to collect poker cards. A winning hand could win you a great prize—usually snowshoes.

Everyone’s a winner, though, as Sawtooth Ski Club members will be serving homemade chili ranging from white chicken chili to elk chili, plus an array of homemade cookies and brownies. All they ask is a donation in exchange to help groom the ski trails.

The Soup Kitchen Social will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 2, on the Alturas Lake trails. The kitchen will be set up on a hill about a mile from Highway 75.

Expect a variety of homemade soups, including tortellini and chicken and wild rice, along with focaccia, cookies, mimosas, beer and wine. Again, donations will be gratefully accepted to help funding the grooming of trails.

The Ski Festival often marks the start of spring and that looks like it will be the case on Saturday with sunny skies and a high near 48. There is a chance of snow on Sunday, but it’s expected to remain warm.

This has been a challenging year for the cross-country skiing near Stanley. The Stanley Forest Service,  Sawtooth Society volunteers and others removed 200 downed trees from the Park Creek Trails after the Wapiti Fire burned through the area in late August and September, said The Sawtooth Society’s Mike Hoover.

Then, when winter arrived, Stanley started out with no snow, followed by lots of snow at Christmas, then no snow for month, then lots more snow, along with a couple days of chilly temperatures that bottomed out at minus 35 degrees.

But organizers say they’ve been working hard to keep things going with the help of the groomers, Blaine County Recreation District, the City of Stanley and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area staff.

The Park Creek trailhead has been plowed out this winter with the help of money from the Sawtooth Society’s Mountain Goat license plate grant program.

Looking ahead, the Club hopes to purchase another ATV for grooming.