On day 2 we took a lap around the north end trails. Starting at the Lower City Creek trailhead again we pedaled up the North Fork to The Grove/Outlaw/Black Cairn/Switchback/White Cairn/Lower City Creek. This ride was only slightly longer but has around a 1000' more vertical. Both laps are really fun and have some great trails with a good mix of everything.

Over the last few weeks I haven't been posting as many updates as I had been earlier this summer. That's not to say I haven't been riding though. Instead of trying to crank out more map segments I decided to get some rides in for fun. This past month I've ridden Southfork Horseshoe, the lower Horseshoe Loops, Mill Creek, Lightning Ridge/Loop, Sink or Swim and Ferrins. I also spent a couple days taking downhill laps on Teton Pass and Grand Targhee during the last weekend the lift was spinning there. Since I had all of these trails mapped already I was able to ride them w/o having to stop to take photos or check on the GPS the whole time, which was pretty nice for a change.

But this week I had the chance to ride the two newest trails in the area. Both of which are at Grand Targhee Resort, which has been ridiculously busy cranking out the trails this summer. Neither Bullwinkle or Peaked are technically complete and probably won't be until next summer, but both are ride-able and the latter is actually riding awesome already especially considering most of it was only cut in over the last month or so.

As I mentioned, I rode Targhee the last weekend the lift was operating for the summer. After taking a one last lap on all of the other downhill trails, I rolled down Bullwinkle from the top. This trail starts at the second intersection of Buffalo Drop, Sticks & Stones, and Sidewinder and finishes on the Powder Reserve Traverse just above the entrance to Lightning Ridge. Harlan Hottenstein, who has been a key trail builder on Teton Pass, was commissioned by the resort to carve this beast of a trail into the hillside. There is still a lot of work to be done on the upper half of the trail but the resort enlisted the Snake River Mountain Bike Club out of Pocatello to assist in buffing out the lower half for use in the Targhee Enduro Mountain Bike Race that they wrapped up the season with. This is sure to become their most popular downhill trail once it's complete. It's wide, sort of like the interstate of bike trails, and loaded with rollers and head high burms.

On Friday I took a little field trip out to the top of Mill Creek to see what Andy Williams had been up to on Peaked Mountain. After hiking up a dozen switchbacks or so and seeing how incredible this trail was already looking, I decided this would be my next ride. Sunday I parked in Teton Canyon and pedaled up Ski Hill Rd to Lightning Ridge and continued up the new Peaked trail. After a few switchbacks the trail crosses the road. From there until the next road crossing it hasn't actually been cut in yet. I ended up hiking this section so I could map it but you'll probably want to just stay on the road for now.  The Peaked Cat track makes a hard left where the Goat Path (faint two track) continues straight. Follow the more established Peaked road around the corner for another 30-40 yards and the trail picks back up on your right. This next section of uphill has been cut in but hasn't had any finish work done yet so is still a little soft although still completely ride-able.

Not long after the downhill starts the trail merges with the Goat Path. Once you hit that continue south for just a minute over a small rise and you'll see the singletrack veer off to the right, from there you won't be pedaling for quite a while. What comes next is insane. I count 51 switchbacks from the summit of this trail to the bottom where it re-connects to Colter's and Mill Creek. This makes the 15 on the way up seem like nothing. Be prepared for some awesome terrain and amazing views over the next couple of miles. Where this trail ends the ride is far from over, you still have all of Mill Creek to descend.

Speaking of Mill Creek, the second re-route of this trail was completed back in August. This added a little more distance and quite a few flowy turns to what used to be a straight and narrow shot through the meadows. After a few rains and a lot of tires this is all in great shape and doesn't feel like new trail at all. I hear this re-route gives you some views of the canyon but to be honest I didn't notice, this was riding so fast I didn't have time to take my eyes off the trail.

This whole ride, with perfect fall weather on a Sunday afternoon, which included one of the valley's most popular trails, I saw only one other couple at the trailhead for Mill Creek and a solo guy on the way up Lightning. If you haven't been out riding lately you're missing out. It looks like the temps are going to take a dive this week with highs in the upper 40's but with no rain in the forecast we still have some biking left this season. I'd suggest taking a lap on Peaked while you still can.

I updated the trail map pages for Bullwinkle, Peaked, and Mill Creek (includes latest re-route). I also added photos of the new trails to the gallery.

This week Beth and I rode Pine Creek Pass again, taking a more popular loop this time. We started at Spooky, pedaled up to the junction with Corral Creek, and headed east. From there we climbed up to the top of Red Creek and coasted down to the other end of Corral.

The first part of the downhill on Red Creek is ridiculously fun. It's sort of like a mini slalom course through tight trees down to the bottom of the drainage. I really should have stopped in there to take a few photos but I just couldn't make myself do it. From the bottom of this section you take a left across the gully and keep heading down. This span doesn't allow you open it up as much b/c of the even tighter trees along w/a few really sharp turns, but it's still pretty fast.

After exiting the trees and crossing the bridge over the creek the trail mellows out a bit. This section is very scenic with some neat rock formations and views down into the North Fork Pine Creek drainage and of the ridge beyond that. It's also narrow and overgrown in a few places so you definitely need to keep your eyes open. There are also a few creek crossings that can be a bit challenging depending on the amount of water, the last of which is stays challenging b/c of the steep banks in and out of it.

In order to connect this back to Corral Creek you take a left on the Sheep Driveway ATV trail. After pedaling up a short climb there's a fun downhill loaded with water bars that you can launch off. Hang another left just before the creek crossing and the next uphill and you're on the west end of Corral Creek which takes you back to Spooky.

I added a few photos and updated the map page for Red Creek. Next up for this area will be Grove Creek and Drake Creek. 



 

A few days ago Beth and I took G-Money for a ride around a couple of the Pine Creek Pass trails. Starting w/Spooky we pedaled up to the junction of Corral Creek and took a left heading West. From there we rode down to the Sheep Driveway. This half of the trail is super smooth, fast, and flowy. In order to map this one we pedaled back up past the turn off for Spooky. The east end of this trail is a little more challenging. The grade gets a little steeper and there are a few short technical climbs to grind up, one of those being the last quarter mile up to the Crest trail. With the exception of one creek crossing that most people will probably have to walk, this trail is entirely rideable and . We continued on past the turn off for Red Creek up to the saddle where the Big Hole Crest and Grove Creek meet before turning around and riding back down Spooky to the car.

In order to make a loop out of these trails most people ride Spooky to Corral heading east, then over to Red Creek and down to the Sheep Driveway before pedaling back up the west half of Corral and back to Spooky. You could also take Corral Creek west to Grove Creek, Drake Creek, or Rocky Peak and ride those down to the valley but these options require riding up or shuttling Pine Creek Pass.

BTW, these trails were in great shape, probably the firmest dirt I've ridden most of the summer. I'd definitely recommend taking a lap up there if you haven't done so in a while.

I updated the trail map pages for Spooky, and Corral Creek, and added photos of both to the gallery. I'll probably go back to ride/map Red Creek on my next days off.

This Weekend I started exploring the trails of the Snake River Range. I had never gone into this area w/o a pair of skis before this. Parking at Mike Harris I rode up the power line access road, taking a small detour along the way to lap one of the side trails. From there I headed over to Pole Canyon and then up. For those of you who haven't ridden this trail before, it feels much longer than 3 miles. This could've been due in part to the extremely sandy and loose conditions of the trail, or the ridiculously heavy smoke in the air which was making me feel like I couldn't catch my breath, or just the fact that you're gaining 3,000' at nearly 20% grades. Either way it's a beast of an uphill that will have you off the bike and pushing more than once, although the views from the top are a more than worthy tradeoff. In one direction you can see straight down the canyon to the valley below, in the opposite direction you have miles and miles of untouched wilderness. I can imagine riding down this trail would be a blast. A few really technical rock and root drops, and some long, straight sections you could scream down. But instead I chose to keep going up Pole Canyon to Mikesell.

At the summit of Pole Canyon you take a left, pedal 20 yards or so, and then dismount the bicycle. You'll be scrambling for a little while before you're able to ride again. Once you're over the first big hump it gets a little easier but not by much. Be prepared to hike the bike up a few more steep pitches before it's over. Three plus miles later you reach the junction of this trail, Mail Cabin to Mikesell, and Mikesell Canyon. It's all downhill from here, but by no means does it get easier. It's narrow, loose, rocky, drops off on one side, and has a several waist high root drops. That said, it's still incredibly fun. Near the bottom of the canyon you follow the drainage through the trees and can really open it up for a few minutes. This trail spits you out at Mike Harris so I'm right back where I started from.

The next day the the wind had blown the smoke out of the valley and I talked Beth into riding Mail Cabin to Mikesell Canyon w/me. Mail Cabin, up until just past the fork to East Mail Cabin (where the hike-a-bike starts), would be awesome to ride as a short, easy out and back. I'm not sure why more people don't ride this. The trail is smooth and easy to climb but does gain some elevation so the way back would be fast. Instead of turning around, we kept going. As I mentioned, there is quite a bit of pushing involved once you reach the back of the canyon. After crossing the saddle the trail turns into Mail Cabin to Mikesell. From there it's up and down for another 4.5 miles before reaching Mikesell Canyon. While most of this stretch is ride-able there are more than a few pitches that will have you on your feet shoving the bike up the hill in front of you. We ended the ride with Mikesell which was even better after having ridden it once since I knew what to expect.

It probably all depends on the person but for most people these trails are not what you'd consider an especially fun ride. Once or twice I was reminded by Beth that she was not having the best of times. But, if it's  a tough workout, an adventure, great views, or solitude in the wilderness that you're looking for, these trails just might be for you. For those of you looking for a leisurely uphill and smooth sailing back down, believe me: this is not that.

I added photos and updated the trail map pages for Pole Canyon, Mail Cabin, Mail Cabin to Mikesell, and Mikesell Canyon. I kind of screwed up when riding Pole Canyon to Mikesell and forgot to stop/restart the GPS track after merging into Mikesell Canyon. I'll have to take another lap on that at some point. Maybe I can go up West Pole Canyon to get there next time so I can be finished with that area for a while.   

Yesterday Beth and I rode the south fork of Horseshoe to Mahogany Creek. We started at the trailhead to Mahogany and got the 11 mile road ride out of the way first. Having ridden the south fork once already this summer, the climb didn't seem so bad this time. As I mentioned in my last post about that trail, It's come a long way over the last few years. This is definitely one of the best trails Teton Valley has to offer. We have yet to ride anything else up there besides these two trails, so at the summit we kept going past the turn off to Mahogany. From there you may as well get off the bike, it's steep, rutted, and loose. We went as far as the junction w/Relay Ridge and turned back. That was only a half a mile but felt much longer due to pushing the bike most of the way. I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to riding the trails beyond Mahogany if they're all this tough. Someone please tell me that they're not.

The entrance to Mahogany Creek was a little ugly. Lots of fist sized gravel chunks rolling down the trail, bouncing off the spokes. But after the first quarter mile or so everything was all good. The upper half of this trail is rather technical, some sections make Phillip's Canyon look tame, from then on things get a little smoother. We hadn't ridden this trail in several years so I kind of forgot just how long it was. At nearly 5 miles and ~2,000' of decent, you feel like you get your money's worth.  Riding the whole loop makes for a long day, with +3,000'  of elevation gain over 21 miles you'll want to be sure to fuel up before hand.

On Saturday I took a lap on the lower Horseshoe trails so I could re-map Channel Lock to include the re-route which was completed earlier this summer. I usually start w/Bovine and ride the loop clockwise ending w/Channel Lock, but decided to switch things up a bit and rode it in the opposite direction, ending w/one of the area's newer additions. I'll leave out the details for now but I will say that it's going to be a really fun downhill once it's buffed out.

On both days I didn't see a single other user on any of the trails I rode. I know the smoke has been bad but seriously, where is everyone? Oh, and the conditions for all of these trails as of yesterday: Dusty, better bring your moon boots. Hopefully that rain we had last night knocked that down some but I doubt it. A solid week week of torrential downpour might help. One other thing, the cows are out en masse on the lower Horseshoe trails. Watch out for those meadow muffins.

I added photos and updated the trail map page for Mahogany Creek and a couple of others in the Horseshoe Canyon area. I also updated the maps for Channel Lock to reflect the re-route. Next up for this area will probably be Twin Creek and Mount Manning. Has anybody ridden these this summer? If so, let me know in the comments. Speaking of comments and trail conditions, I think it would be awesome if readers of the site were to use the comment boxes on the trail pages to post the current conditions. Just take a sec to let others know how things are riding.

Yesterday Beth and I rode Aspen for the first time this summer. This trail was in great condition, a little dusty on the exposed sections but solid in the shade.  For one of the valley's more beginner type trails this is still a challenging ride. No matter which end you start at there is a bit of steep climb to kick things off. Throughout there are several climbs with technical obstacles and there are a few tough creek crossings. Also, riding this as an out and back is only a little over 8 miles but has over 1,800' of combined elevation gain. Riding this as a loop decreases elevation gain by a couple grand but puts the distance just over 10 miles. Not that difficult really but my legs were feeling it after the 30+ mile ride the day before.

We saw a couple walking a dog near the trailhead but other than that we were the only users. Kind of makes you wonder where everyone else is. Most of this trail is in the shade which is nice on a hot day. It does pop out on the face of the butte a couple of times where you generally have some nice views of the valley but all the smoke in the air made it hard to see past State Line Road.

I updated the trail map page for Aspen and added a few photos of it to the gallery. Next trail I hope to ride in this area is Dead Cow. It's basically supposed to be an extension of Aspen that continues north from Spring Creek to Teton Canyon. I'll try to get that in after work one day this week.

Sunday Beth and I drove over the pass to Jackson. On the way we say a whole lot of cars at the Phillip's/Jimmy's trailhead which we've come to expect on the weekends. At 10am, finding a parking space already looked like a challenge. It seems that the pass trails get more popular every summer. We kept driving and unloaded the bikes at the Cache Creek trailhead. Usually this area is just as busy if not more so on the weekends but for some reason this wasn't the case today.

We pedaled up Cache Creek past the turn off to Game and out to the Gros Ventre Wilderness Boundary, the entire way there we saw only two people. I think I've only taken Cache to the end one other time and that was quite a few years ago. Usually I just take this to get to Game Creek which I suspect is the case for most bikers. It's pretty obvious that the trails sees much less use past that point. From there on it narrows down from a Jeep road, to an ATV track, and finally to a narrow singletrack. This trail is great for beginners as a straight forward out and back that gradually increases in difficulty but can still be a good workout at 11.5 miles round trip with over 1,600' of elevation gain.

After riding Cache I took the turnoff to Game Creek. I hadn't ridden this trail for a couple seasons at least so I'm not sure when this happened but it's been completely re-routed from the summit to just short of the junction w/West Game. It's now much wider with lots of swooping turns. This makes a great ride even better. There's still a long stretch of doubletrack at the bottom end of this trail but it's fast and you can launch the cattle guard. But it would be awesome to see some singletrack cut in paralleling the road.

I took the paved bike path back to town and turned up KC to Linda's so I could GPS the latter. I then rode Sink or Swim back towards the Cache trailhead.

The trails were all just a little dusty but still firm for the most part, we could definitely use a little more rain though. There is a lot of smoke in the area from all the fires around us.

I updated the trail map pages for Cache Creek, Game Creek, and Linda's and added photos of all top the gallery.

Yesterday I took a ride down Phillip's Canyon for the first time in a couple seasons. I took sort of a roundabout way getting there as the only other trail I hadn't mapped on the pass was Snotel. Starting on Arrow, I turned onto and pedaled up Phillip's Ridge, then took Snotel back down to Arrow and out towards the canyon. This was the first time I had ever ridden Snotel and was pleasantly surprised. At just over a mile there's not a lot to it but several tight switchbacks, a couple of straight shoots you can open up on, and a pass through a wildflower filled meadow make it a really fun and scenic piece of trail.

I have to say that all of the trails that were added to the north side of Teton Pass over the last few years are awesome and a great addition to that area. But, after the completion of Arrow the original route to Phillip's Canyon, which took the Ski Lake to Phillipp's Pass trail, was closed to biking. That was a great climb with a couple of really fast downhill sections and the best view of the canyon. I 'll definitely miss this route for biking.

Phillip's Canyon hasn't changed much over the years. It's still one of the more technical descents in the area with lots of rocks and roots. It does look as though a couple sections have been re-routed and a log bridge was installed over the creek crossing about halfway down. Otherwise, nothing new here.

The trail conditions are pretty optimal considering how dry it's been, all of the trails I rode were still very firm. Phillip's Ridge has had some improvements made to the uphill since the last time I rode it. It's definitely nowhere near as technical as it was. Most of the jagged rocks have been removed and the larger rocks have all been ramped up to. It looks like someone even took buckets full of gravel up there and patched all of the potholes. I kind of liked it before but it's  definitely easier now.

I updated the trail map pages for both Snotel and Phillip's Canyon as well as adding several photos of each to the gallery. I've also started to combine the trails I do have into a larger area map. Keep in mind that I have a lot of trails to map still so this will be very incomplete for quite a while.