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Tags: Fall Culture Travel / Animals / → All Tags

Fall Culture Travel: Run with the Sheep in Idaho

Last year, no one was nuzzled to death: The Trailing of the Sheep festival in Ketchum and Hailey, Idaho (October 10-12) allow our four-legged woolly friends to walk the streets in honor of the region's long history of sheep herding.

Idaho used to be as well known for its mammal population as the Australian outback, but now towns like Sun Valley are better known for their Polarfleece-clad ski denizens than wool production.

Sing sheep-shearing songs with Wyoming poets and Navajo singers, or prove that your sheep dog is a top herder to win $3,000 on Saturday. We'd recommend the lamb tasting fair, too, but don't take your flock to it.

Related Stories:
· Hemingway's Idaho Garden of Eden [Jaunted]
· Spotting Sheep--to the Extreme! [Jaunted]
· Fall Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: cvjanecek]

Tags: Dangerous Travel / Odd Travel / Kent Couch / Cluster Ballooning / → All Tags

Lawn Chair Ballooner Lands Safely in Idaho

Maybe the secret to helium balloon-powered flight is staying over land. An Oregon gas station owner named Kent Couch made a 9-hour flight from his hometown of Bend, Oregon east to Cambridge, Idaho this weekend. His tricked out flying lawn chair was loaded up with a BB gun for popping balloons, a parachute, three GPS devices, a satellite phone and, obviously, beef jerky.

Couch's journey sounds much easier than the one that tragically ended earlier this year, when a Brazilian priest disappeared while coasting over the Atlantic in his own helium balloon rig.

The fortunate flyer financed his $6,000 trip with the help of Google Maps, and Couch plans to have a detailed route map up on his website soon, pulled from the GPS data he collected along the way. Also sponsoring his flight? The folks behind the Spot satellite tracking device.

Related Stories:
· Oregon Man Completes Flight of Fancy [AP, via Google]
· Super Dangerous Travel: Balloon Ride Goes Awry in Brazil [Jaunted]
· Dangerous Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Kent Couch]

Tags: Summer-Vacations-With-An-Edge / Summer Travel / Base Jumping / Adventure Travel / Videos / → All Tags

Summer Vacations with an Edge: Booming B.A.S.E., Phobics Need Not Apply

If this video whets your appetite to take a short leap off a tall object, you're probably not as afraid of heights as we are. Base jumpers leap from buildings, antennae, spans and earth with special suits, parachutes at the ready but unopened.

There are plenty of videos of jumps gone awry on YouTube, but the right shots capture a pure surge of adrenaline like nothing else. Do it safely by taking a three-day course with APEX Base in Twin Falls, Idaho, where they'll help you get the blood pumping safely.

Related Stories:
· APEX Base [Official Site]
· Summer Vacations with an Edge coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Ski-Areas-Near-Airports / Skiing / Ski Travel / Ski Resorts / Winter Travel / BOI / → All Tags

Easy-to-Reach Skiing: Bogus Basin

We really like skiing and boarding. But that doesn't mean we want to spend our whole vacation just getting to the mountain. Our Ski Areas Near Airports Map will help you maximize your time on the slopes.

Bogus Basin is one of only a handful of non-profit ski resorts in the States, which is why its website ends in an o-r-g rather than a c-o-m. And while we find web addresses fascinating, you might like Bogus Basin because it's about 20 miles from Boise Airport.

Now just because the resort is operated by a skiers collective doesn't mean it's shabby. An 1,800 foot vertical drop allows for long, groomed cruisers, and a broad swath of terrain is designed for glade skiing. Bogus Basin catches about 225 inches of snow a year, meaning it usually stays open well into April.

Full-day tickets are a reasonable $46, and Bogus Basin stays open till 10 pm, so you can still get hours of skiing in even if your flight doesn't arrive until the afternoon; night passes are just $20.

Related Stories:
· Bogus Basin [Official Site]
· Skiing coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Bogus Basin]

Tags: Ski Travel / Celeb Travel / Sun Valley / → All Tags

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Sun Valley Ski Mishap

Over the holiday weekend California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 59, had a bit of a ski mishap on Sun Valley Idaho's Bald Mountain. The Terminator's right femur was fractured during a run down Baldy's Lower Warm Springs, a green, or easy run, at least by definition.

No reports on what caused Arnold, an above average skier, to bite it on a green trail. Ironically, a black diamond trail just above the trail Schwarzenegger fell on, is named "Arnold's Run."

Named in 2001 for frequent Sun Valley skier Arnold Schwarzenegger. It had originally been called Flying Maid, a name given by Hofstetter in honor of two young women from Seattle who worked as maids at Sun Valley. He said the women often hiked on Baldy and frequently stopped to visit with the men cutting the run. One day, he said, they realized with a panic that they were late for work, and crew members watched the maids bounding downhill to get back to Sun Valley on time.

Related Stories:
· Sun Valley Trail Guide [SunValley.com]
· Sun Valley Ski Guide [svguide.com]

Tags: Travel News / Celebs / Resorts / → All Tags

Graff and Agassi's Idaho Project

Because having 30 Grand Slam titles means you can pretty much buy whatever you want, Steffi Graff and Andre Agassi have announced their company, Agassi Graf Development LLC (clever name guys), is planning to a build mountain hotel and residential development at Tamarack, an all-season resort in Donnelly, Idaho.

The resort's hotel will have 225 condo-hotel units, a spa and a restaurant. A gigantour 89,000 sq-ft lodge already begins business this month, with the whole thing planned for completion in 2008. No plans for tennis courts yet...but we doubt that will remain.

Related Stories:
·   Next, It's Real Estate [NY Times]

Tags: Festivals / Books / → All Tags

Hemingway's Idaho Garden of Eden

Even way back when resorts still lured celebs with free rooms and perks. Ernest Hemingway was first invited to Sun Valley in 1939, to the then-new Sun Valley Resort in hopes that his fame would lure tourists. Hemingway fell so in love with Sun Valley he decided to stay until his death in 1961.

Sun Valley has decided to honor Papa with the first annual Ernest Hemingway Festival from Sept. 22nd to the 25th. The festival includes tons of lectures, tours, theatrical presentations and even a shootout. Many of the events are hosted by friends of Hemingway's. Most everything is free, except a tribute dinner Sat. night ($100) and a play ($10). You just have to register online first.

While there, check out suite 206 at Sun Valley Lodge for some inspiration, that's where most of For Whom the Bell Tolls was written...

Related Stories:
·   Ernest Hemingway Festival [Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau]
·   Datebook: Sun Valley/Ketchum [NY Times]
·   Sun Valley Resort/Lodge [Official Site]