Although the name Gloria Moore Osberg may not sound familiar, for many people living in the Valley, she has impacted their lives, whether they know it or not. Perhaps more recognizable than her name is her work—the book “Day Hiking Near Sun Valley.” The small, green, binder-formatted book has become commonplace on the shelves of local bookstores and gift shops and in most discussions of hiking in the Valley.
The book offers an array of hikes surrounding the Wood River Valley and provides hikers a unique advantage because every trail’s page can be removed from the book’s three-ring binding and carried in a plastic sheet protector on the hike. This allows hikers to ditch the weight of caring a whole book without having to photocopy or tear out pages. The sheet protector then keeps the page dry, clean and crumple-free along the way.
The original version of “Day Hiking Near Sun Valley” was printed in 1987, but then went out of print in the early 90s. In 1995, Rick Johnson of the Idaho Conservation League (ICL) asked Gloria Osberg (the previously unwed Gloria Moore) if the book could be brought back to print.
In 1995 the book was updated and reprinted, and since then thousands of copies have been sold.
In honor and recognition of Osberg’s efforts to bring the public out of the Valley and up into the mountains, the ICL, the U.S. Forest Service and the Wood River Land Trust honored Osberg Saturday by renaming a trail for her.
The 10.5-mile trail traverses from the Baker Lake parking lot, up along a ridgeline to Fox Peak of the Sawtooth Mountains. Kurt Nelson of the U.S. Forest Service said the trail offers impeccable views of multiple surrounding mountain ranges.
Nelson said they chose the trail for its beauty, its proximity to the Osberg’s cabin (a cabin Gloria and her husband John built near Newman Creek in 1998) and because the trail was in need of “a little TCL.”
Maintenance on the trail will begin this summer, but Nelson said it will likely be a few years before it is in top shape. However Nelson said the trail is open to hikers as soon as the snow melts.
After Osberg’s first book was brought back to print, she gave the copyright to the ICL and insisted they keep all proceeds to benefit wilderness conservation. Osberg also wrote a second book titled “Easy Hikes Around Sun Valley” and did the same with it, making Osberg not only a motivational force for potential hikers, but also a philanthropist for the conservation cause.
Rick Johnson of the ICL said renaming trails for individuals is a rare practice, but that all the participating parties agreed Osberg should be an exception.
“We wanted to do this for somebody that embodies the spirit of conservation and brings that enthusiasm to the public,” Johnson said. “And her books have been the catalyst for thousands of people [to start hiking].”
Every year, the ICL reprints Osberg’s book (all of the printing is done within Idaho, which is one of Osberg’s requests) and staff members put the binders together by hand. Osberg said working on the books, both the original version and updated version, has been her pleasure.
She smiled Saturday while reminiscing of the hiking club she started in the Valley in the late 70s, which is where the idea to write a guidebook formed, and said she couldn’t find words to describe how much the trail naming meant to her.
The trail is now named the Osberg Ridgeline Trail and is marked with the plaque that was presented to Osberg on Saturday.
