STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY ED NORTHEN

Ski or snowshoe North Valley Nordic and snowshoe trails free of charge on Sunday.

The Blaine County Recreation District will offer a Free Ski Day on Sunday, Jan. 11, inviting people and dogs to come out and enjoy the wacky winter we have had this year.

The parking lot at Galena Lodge was crowded on Christmas Day as outdoor enthusiasts fled the dreary Christmas Eve and Christmas Day rain for the winter wonderland that found up north.

Nordic skiing got off to such a slow start, thanks to warm temperatures and rain, that the December Free Ski Day had to be cancelled. But the trails north of Ketchum have rebounded.

The rain provided a good firm base that has been covered with plenty of powder snow so that even the North Fork Trail behind SNRA headquarters is nicely covered. And the trails around Galena Lodge got some nice snow falls this past week that mirrored that on the top half of Bald Mountain with four inches one day, two inches the next and so on.

Groomers groomed Mallory’s Meander, Jaker’s Hollow, Herringbone Hill and the other trails at Lake Creek for the first time on Thursday. And they are also grooming the free Wood River Trail from Hulen Meadows to St. Luke’s hospital.

But you’ll have to put any dream of skiing Quigley Nordic in Hailey on ice for now, unless you fancy skiing those trails on roller skis.

Despite the lack of snow in Hailey and Bellevue this winter, the snowpack in the Big Wood, Little Wood, Big Lost and Little Lost basins is nearly a month ahead of schedule, according to the Idaho Department of Water Resources.

The Big Wood Basin is at 112 percent of average for this time of year; the Little Wood Basin, 145 percent; the Big Lost, 164 percent, and the Little Lost, 145 percent, because of the amount of snow that fell at high elevations.

Other basins around Idaho have received plenty of precipitation but are experiencing a snow drought because the precipitation fell as rain rather than snow.