Hello pilots! Plans for this Summer's Idaho trip are firming up. The
dates are Friday-Monday 18-21Jun2010, and the destination is Smiley
Creek (U87). Talking with Mark Swint, we figured that this would be a
good destination since it is not particularly challenging (perfect for
your first off-pavement experience), it is a bit closer than a lot of
the other places further up into the mountains, it's a great base of
ops for taking sightseeing trips further up into the backcountry, and
there's a great campground there as well as a lodge with some
accommodations. Plus there are a lot of things to see and do in the
local area and nearby in Stanley and other areas, like hiking trails
and forest service roads, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, rafting, etc.
I just got a call back from the lodge this morning and I've reserved
one cabin ($60/night) and 3 teepees ($45/night) for our trip. See
Smiley Creek Lodge for details. Sunday night we only have 2 teepees.
The lodge rooms were already booked for Saturday and Sunday nights,
but they are available for Friday night at the moment, however I did
not reserve those. Whatever of those accommodations are not claimed
by one week prior to the trip I will cancel. The campground has good
facilities, including bathrooms, showers, fire pits, and covered
picnic benches. I think it's first come first served on camping
spots and I don't know yet how many there are.
Mark expects to go on the trip and he would love to do some
backcountry flying and/or taildragger instruction in his Cessna 185 if
anyone is interested. We may have one or more other CFIs on the trip
for that as well.
Right now we have 3 C172s, 2 DA40s, the Citabria, and the Cherokee 6
available for the trip. Contact Allen Condit at 702-592-2919 to sign
up and claim your aircraft!
Smiley Creek Lodge website, and some nice pics and videos
A pilot's blog entry about camping at Smiley Creek
