For the week of July 16 - 22, 2003

Tea Party applauds a beloved trail

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Approximately 103 women gathered last week at the Elkhorn home of Jeanine Burns for the third annual Ladies’ High Tea to benefit the Harriman Trail Endowment.

A committee of hostesses gather on the deck of Jeanine Burns’ home last week. Burns is fifth from the right, standing. Express photos by Dana DuGan

The backbone of the North Valley Trails, the Harriman Trail starts at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters, 8 miles north of Ketchum, and gains a little over 1,000 feet in elevation as it climbs through meadows and thick pine forests ending at Galena Lodge. It’s used year round.

The event was co-hosted by Christie Anderson, Barbara Thrasher, Lynn Kaplan, Linda Badell, Ellen Campion, Carole Lenze, Patricia Darman, Maggie Sturtevant, Janis Fulton, and Sheri Hodge.

Present at the party were also Harriman Trail Coordinator for the Blaine County Recreation District, Cathy Baer, Lisa Stoeffler of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Blaine County Recreation Director Mary Austin Crofts.

Enjoying a Sun Valley day while celebrating the outdoors are, from left to right, Barbara Thrasher, Michelle Griffiths and Page Klune. Express photos by Dana DuGan

Over ice tea, lemonade, finger sandwich and pastry, the group celebrated the strides that the Harriman Trail Endowment has made.

It takes $100,000 a year to maintain the entire stretch of the 31 kilometer trail, Crofts said. She called Stoeffler, "Our best friend in the SNRA. She’s very special."

Stoeffler has been instrumental in working as a liaison between the SNRA, Rec District and Harriman Trail Endowment during the trail’s evolution.

"We’ve been working together for the Forest Service," Stoeffler said. "It doesn’t happen everywhere. The Forest Service would never endeavor to take on a project of this magnitude by itself. The Harriman Trail budget is more than the budget for all the other trails in the SNRA for the entire year. Mary, Cathy and their staff are out there every day."

Unfortunately for the Harriman Trail, Stoeffler is leaving the SNRA for a post in Bozeman, Mont.

"There are magical places along the trail. Places you’d never get to if you stayed in your car," Stoeffler said.

 

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