Radio Auction Set May 9

Horseback riding in the Sawtooth Mountains, fishing for sturgeon in Hells Canyon, flying into the Middle Fork of the Salmon to stay at a wilderness ranch are among the trips to be sold at auction on the radio May 9 beginning at 6 p.m. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has teamed with the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to host a radio auction on four AM stations across southern Idaho. The program will be broadcast on KID-AM 590 Idaho Falls, KWIK-AM 1240 Pocatello, KLIX-AM 1310 Twin Falls, and KIDO-AM 63 in Boise. About 20 trips will be offered with 10 auctioned off each hour of the two-hour radio auction. Proceeds will be used to improve wildlife habitat. During the broadcast, the announcers will describe each trip. Examples of the trips offered include the Overnight "Photo Safari" in Bear Valley _ a weekend trip for two with Boise National Forest Supervisor Dave Rittenhouse. Stay at Dave's cabin and photograph elk calves and possibly wolves in Bear Valley. Meals will be provided. Hagerman Heaven: an overnight trip for four at the Nature Conservancy's historic stone house at Thousand Springs where bird watchers have recorded 158 species over the last eight years. Enjoy four gourmet dinners at the Snake River Grill in Hagerman where Chef Kirt Martin of the French Cordon Bleu school specializes in wild game. Included in this package are two of Kirt's wild game gourmet cookbooks featured on his nationally broadcast cooking show "Cooking on the Wildside". Hells Canyon Pony Express: a 100-mile mail run journey for two by jet boat through Hells Canyon. It will take two days to cover all the gorgeous scenery along the mail run with guides Jim and Jill Koch of Beamers Hells Canyon Tours. Sulfur Creek Resort has donated three days and two nights for four people in the wilderness with Silver Creek Outfitters. Fly into a mountain landing strip from either McCall or Stanley with a donated trip provided by the expert pilots of Wilderness Air.