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| Sunset in Eastern Oregon |
To see the GoPro video of the trip click here:
Adventure 2015: Episode 9: Southern Idaho
I abbreviated my trip in San Francisco, but I didn't want to head straight back to Colorado through areas I had already visited. I decided to take a northern route up through Oregon and into Idaho. I was not disappointed. I arrived in Boise and immediately like the feel of the city. It is a very small city, but it has enough space on the roads that I was practically the only one on the highway in to town. If you know how much I hate traffic, you know this was a very welcome relief! I headed through the city up to a trailhead which was much closer to town than I would have expected. Boise ends very abruptly at the foothills and they are full of trails! I camped out that night next to some kids that had come up to the overlook to admire the city lights and make out. The next morning I hit
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| Overlooking Boise |
the trails. I noticed that they were very sandy, which made it difficult to climb. The descent down the 8th Street Motorcycle trail, however, was really fun. It was full of bermed corners, fast straight-aways and little whoopdy jumps. I spent one more night here before driving to Sun Valley. The first thing I noticed about Sun Valley is that there are hardly any trees! The hills and mountains, if they get snow, would be like thousands of acres of the Back Bowls at Vail! I might just have to come back in the winter and see. Since I got to the valley fairly early in the morning I decided to hit up a trail a little down valley from the ski areas. It was called Cold Creek and the trails were just finished being rebuilt a couple weeks earlier after a wildfire had devastated the area. The Cold Creek trails are great for beginner and intermediate bikers, but I found myself a little bored. I headed further up valley and found a trail system called Adam's Gulch. These trails were much more to my liking! The climb up Adam's Gulch is pretty steep, but not terrible. The descent is a pretty wild ride. My hands started to ache a little towards the bottom (called the Pork Chop Section) because it is full of very tight switchbacks after short straightaways. A biking guide I have says that no trip to Sun Valley is complete without a trip to the Bald Mountain trails. They have two flow trails which make
up the entirety of their bike park so I didn't bother buying a lift ticket. I figured I could ride the 5 mile Bald Mountain trail up to the top no problem. What I didn't consider was that the trail climbs 3,300' in those five miles! It was very steep and full of loose rock so I found myself walking in a couple areas and being generally exhausted by the time I arrived at the summit a couple hours later. It reminded me a lot of a ride a few years ago from Camp Hale in Colorado up to Kokomo Pass, just inhumanely steep and loose. Once at the summit I decided to do the flow trail rated as more difficult since I figured there would be bigger jumps and steeper lines. I was dreadfully mistaken. The Saddle Up trail is a series of tight bermed switchback after tight bermed switchback. I think there were two straightaways of any note on the whole thing! When I got to the top of the gondola I was frustrated, and then when I found that the only trail that you can take to leave the area was hikers only I was even more frustrated! I downloaded the gondola knowing there was no way I was going to make the climb up to the top again so I called it a day. I've heard that the Warm Springs trail from the summit is pretty fun, so maybe I will come back and try it out someday, but all in all, I was disappointed with the riding on Bald Mountain. On a positive note, I was very excited to get to Jackson Hole, about four hours away. I had never been to Jackson Hole and was excited to see if it lived up to its reputation!
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| The Sawtooth Range from the top of Bald Mountain |
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