HEY!!  Winter of 2009-2010 will be our 32nd ski season at White Pass Sports Hut and we plan to serve our customers even better this year.  We will still be offering the same sincere, down-home, person-to-person service to each and every one of our customers that they have come to expect with even better rental gear! If you are looking for a take-a-number operation, impersonal service from untrained employees, telephone push-another-button programs and worn out, unwaxed snow toys....GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!  Our rental operation is bulging with new alpine skis, snowboards, boots, snowshoes and nordic skis.  We still promise a fresh hot-wax on every ski and snowboard that goes out our door and we still will not require you to leave a $300 deposit for snowboard rentals like every one of our competitors does. We have new Head Intelligence demo skis in the Monster 82, Monster 78 and Xenon 7.0 and Xenon 9.0 models.  We are also offering a new fun demo ski from Elan, the Magfire 8.  Plenty of new Head Shape Two and Shape Three skis are waiting for you in our rental racks and our new Head rental boots are hot-hot-hot! We've brought in some new Flow Snowboards and Boots for our rental fleet and all of our snowboard rental bindings are now easy-in and easy-out Flow models.  If you haven't tried Flow bindings yet, stop by and take a look at these popular, patented masterpieces.  We'll be happy to give you an operational demonstration. At the Sports Hut we still wax your skis and snowboards with quality Swix and Toko hot waxes for 1990s prices.  $7.50 for skis and $10 for hand-waxed snowboards. We still sell Columbia Sportswear, Scott Goggles, Kombi Gloves and a ton of accessories.  If you need to rent gloves, goggles, jackets or pants, we can handle that, too. Professional tune-up and maintenance has always been top-notch at the Sports Hut and my right-hand man, George Satterfield, is back for his fourth season to help me stay on top of this brisk part of our business. Don't forget the Sports Hut reservation system.  Once you have used our rental gear this year we'll be happy to add you to the list and all you have to do is call a day in advance to reserve your gear any time you wish for the rest of the season.  You'll get the same boots and ski length and we'll do all the paperwork so you can just gram 'em and go.  No standing in line, no wondering if we'll have your gear when you get here and we'll never ask you to take a number! You can rent both snowshoes and cross-country skis here so if your day-out desires lean more toward the leisurely side than the gravity crowd, come on in, we've got your ride, too. When you need ski rentals for White Pass, stop at the Sports Hut in Packwood, we want to be YOUR ski rental shop! Dave Bliss, Owner

Rivers and Streams The Cowlitz River is open year around below the confluence of the clear and muddy forks. Above that, the river closes along with the lakes on October 31st. Salmon plantings have begun at the Franklin Bridge in Packwood this month. Five loads of Chinook have been planted and last Friday, the 19th of September, the first load of Silvers were delivered. We have moved the fish flume to the other side of the bridge and expect to have fewer problems as a result. While we were told last year by Tacoma Power that we would not receive salmon plantings this fall, it seems that there has been a reconsideration, perhaps based on petitions and letters of support I delivered to TP last fall. In any case we are getting them and it seems likely we will get plenty. Well over 23,000 were planted in Lake Scanewa last fall but due to work on the dam this fall the water level is too low for the truck to get to the water at the boat launch. This may result in many of the salmon planned for plantings in Scanewa to come instead to Packwood. We'll have all the latest info posted in the shop and we offer fresh egg skeins and the hot lures, hooks and termimal tackle you need to land the big ones. Because of previous problems with some unruly fishers, we beg you to please be respectful of the property of residents along the Cowlitz and carry out all garbage. The fewer problems we cause ourselves, the fewer we have to deal with. Thanks!