Lottery set for St. Joe cabin

The popularity of a St. Joe National Forest rental cabin on one of Idaho’s world-class trout streams has prompted officials to switch to a lottery system for reservations this summer.

Feb. 25 is the deadline to postmark applications for the former Red Ives Ranger Station quarters on the upper St. Joe River.

The accommodations, which have been closed the past two years for renovations, will be available for rent from Memorial Day weekend through Sept. 30. Maximum group size is eight. Cost is $60 a night, a higher rate than less popular forest accomodations. No pets or RV camping are allowed at the site.

“We’ve gone to a lottery instead of doing the old call-in, or putting it on the National Reservation System, because of the overwhelming number of people who want to rent it,” said Mary Price, Forest Service recreation staffer in Avery.

“We wanted to give more people an equal opportunity to enjoy the facilities.”

The “cabin” has the plushest accommodations for miles in the rugged mountains, with two bedrooms, kitchen, living room, flush-toilet bathroom and shower, propane cook stove and refrigerator, hot water, plus heat and lights powered by a generator.

However, cabin renters must bring their own drinking water, food, bedding and personal items. A campground host resides on-site.

The St. Joe River runs 133 miles from the Idaho-Montana border area in the Bitterroot Mountains to Lake Coeur d’Alene. From the Red Ives Cabin at elevation 3,711 feet, there’s more than 90 miles of cutthroat trout fishing downstream toward St. Maries. Just upstream, a trail parallels a 17-mile stretch of the National Wildlife and Scenic River.

While many Forest Service cabins or lookouts can be rented for up to five days, the limit for the Red Ives cabin is three days, she said.

“When we used to take reservations by phone, we’d book the cabin for the entire summer in less than an hour,” she said.

The historic Clarkia Ranger Station bunkhouse south of St. Maries can be reserved directly through the St. Maries district office.

“It’s unusual in that we will rent the entire bunkhouse or by the room, and the National Reservation System doesn’t have a way to handle that,” Price said.

Most other accommodations on the national forest, including the St. Joe’s Surveyors Ridge Lookout, remain on the National Reservation System, where people can make reservations up to 180 days in advance by phone or online.

The St. Joe Forest’s Arid Peak Lookout is not scheduled to be available for rent this summer because of maintenance issues.

Indeed, repairs are preventing several cabins around the region from going on the reservation system this summer, even though they were previously announced as available:

•Liz Creek Cabin off the Lolo Motorway in the Weitas Creek drainage has a leaking roof.

•Gold Meadows Cabin just outside the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness has rot in some structural beams.

•Avery and Shoshone cabins on the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District require repairs to the water systems.

“Avery Cabin won’t be open until 2010, but there’s a chance we’ll get lucky an make Shoshone Cabin available by midsummer,” Kent Wellner, Idaho Panhandle National Forests recreation manager in Coeur d’Alene, said this week.

All of these cabins eventually will be offered through the National Reservation System.

Even though it’s bound to be popular with anglers, this year’s debut of the Kelly Cabin on the rental list is being handled on the National Reservation System. The cabin is on the North Fork Clearwater River, another top cutthroat trout fishing area in the Clearwater National Forest.

“The Red Ives Cabin is one of the big exceptions that doesn’t work so well in the national system simply because it’s so incredibly popular,” said Joni Packard, Forest Service regional recreation coordinator in Missoula. “Going to the lottery will prevent people from being up at 2 a.m. in their pajamas trying to get a reservation.”

The Hogback Homestead Cabin on Rock Creek in the Lolo National Forest east of Missoula is another regional example of a cabin on a fine trout stream that’s too popular for the national reservation system, she said.

Applications for Hogback summer reservation requests must be postmarked to the Missoula Ranger District by March 2.