Cardinal Classic “doubles the size of town” for the weekend

It was a remarkable sight to roll-up to the Kelly Park Nordic Ski Trails in Soda Springs, Idaho, the venue of the 2025 Cardinal Classic Cross Country meet, as thousands of participants, coaches, staff and fans swarmed the course.  The meet featured nearly 1,800 runners from 46 teams across the six high school and middle school races.  The teams ranged from 1A to 6A schools across Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.  The high volume of racers and tough course made for a highly competitive meet, a challenge for each of the runners involved.

The Soda Springs race staff, led by Jeff Horsley, touted the Cardinal Classic race as a “true cross country” race with a course that features trails, a 3/4 mile incline and a beautiful view as they run through the forested site.  The race began on an open stretch of grass but quickly narrowed into a trail that looped around Kelly Park.  The narrowing trail forced the runners to break out hard to stay at the head of the pack before passing became difficult on the tight trails.  But expending too much energy too soon would make for a difficult climb on the upcoming steep rise, aptly named “Heartbreak Hill.”

At the end of the day, the team from Boise High dominated the proceedings, though as Jody Reeves will explain there were a number of local success stories.

The event also cast a spotlight on the resources that are housed in Soda Springs and Caribou County.  While this year’s event brought in an estimated 500 more racers than in the past, proceedings generally stayed organized and safe.  The team from Boise was given permission ahead of time to camp at the site in preparation for the race, and no major problems on that front were reported.  On the course itself, things proceeded apace, and the large number of racers was handled admirably.  Anecdotally, if the race continues to grow, the first item on the agenda is probably a solution to the limited bathroom facilities problem.  The city provides facilities support as the administrators of the park, but the sheer scope of the race means that some of those logistics require additional input.

Caribou Medical Center once again took the field as sports medicine support for the event, alongside the paramedics on scene.  Dr. Kellen Hansen and the Sports Medicine Clinic were stationed at the finish line to attend to any runners in need of aid after they took those last agonizing steps.

While the attention at the finish line was all focused on the runners and their times, a quick step back and look up revealed just how packed the venue was.  The vast sea of tents, runners, families, volunteers, and onlookers was truly an amazing site.  Given just the number of runners, the population of the town essentially doubled for the afternoon, and more than doubled when the runner’s families and friends were included.  There were reports of some minor traffic incidents, and certainly slower commuting times at the beginning and end of the races, but overall Saturday saw a spike in sales for local businesses, particularly food and gas establishments.  

Recent discussions around the city and county have taken up the idea of expanding economic development to actively seek out events like the Cardinal Classic.  The proposal to make the Enders Hotel, the geyser, and other Soda sites into a state park are on a slow burn, given the pace of state decision making and the overall government finances at present.  In addition to a desire to preserve the local history and area, another motivation for the plan is to help serve as an economic driver for the community.  The location is very well situated to draw in visitors heading through the area to national and state parks in several directions.  A centralized Main Street location, adjacent to the City’s fantastic City Park facilities, local restaurants and bars, boutique shops and services, and even a movie theater make the idea very attractive as a way to increase traffic and business throughout town, as well as the larger area.

The obvious counterpoint to the idea of economic expansion is that the many people have expressed concerns at public forums about the loss of small-town character and values with an increase in visitor traffic.  To some extent, it’s a trade off that most locations will probably go through at some point.  In some cases, the idea of putting all the chips on tourist dollars can lead to a development that outpaces planning, and creates a mess of zoning and infrastructure headaches for the future.  Think Henderson, Nevada or much of the Wasatch front. 

In other cases, it’s an essential shift in the identity and nature of the town itself that becomes noticeable.  Lava Hot Springs is an example of that kind of change since it fully embraced a recreation-destination model of survival.

The trade-off is not always considered worth it, and there are plenty of smaller towns that have chosen to remain that way and done just fine.  

The other part of the story, though, is that without new sources of revenue for a community, the primary method of raising needed funds for infrastructure repair and replacement is through increased taxes of one kind or another.  Streets, water lines, sewer systems, garbage, power, and a host of other modern necessities are incredibly expensive, and subject to inflationary pressures that often outstrip wages.  Recent rate increases across the valley have caused discomfort as they have been announced, and will continue to be a foreseeable yearly issue.  Smaller upward adjustments are always painful, but city officials in Caribou County’s three largest cities have stressed for their part that the smaller increases are in lieu of waiting before having to make a massive increase in utility and service rates.

Tourism, and economic engines like the Cardinal Classic, Bancroft Rodeo, Caribou County Fair and others will not obviate the reality of taxes as an essential fact of modern life, but if well-managed and planned, it can result in additional options for addressing some of the infrastructure needs.  

As a community, Soda Springs and especially race organizers should be proud of the race that they put on to great success each year.  Others in the community should also see it as one possibility of the kind of event that there is both the support for and the right people to put on.