Sunday, May 25, 2014

Wagonhammer Trail Days

The Salmon ID MTB Assoc's 1st attempt at working on Wagonhammer was snowed out.  When we got word that the Back Country Horsemen were doing trail work in Wagonhammer, we rallied to meet up with them.  The North Fork USFS Ranger came out to meet us and some Youth Employment folks brought the trail tool trailer.

So after shaking some hands, swapping some stories, making some plans, and just sharing trail love; we all rode out to get to work. The Horsemen went up high to Silverleads Connector to clear deadfall while we focused on tread repair on the lower end of Elk Loop below Meadow Surfer. This trail is aka Lewis and Clark Trail, we worked on the steep section that drops down to Wagonhammer Creek from the east.

We did not finish the tread repair on Saturday and came back on Sunday.  While we were up there the 2nd day, we saw several groups of riders from Hailey and the Bitterroot.

While this descent was pretty fun before, it was rather harrowing.  We traded the harrow for sweet with a little sweat!

The next SIMBA Trailday is June 14 tentatively on Butcherknife/Ax Park.

Heading up the steep climb. Photo: C. Swenson.
Our treadwork from Saturday. Just below Meadow Surfer.
Finished Sunday, time to test ride
Before photo of the middle section.  Blom is perplexed.
After photo of the middle section.

Chris test riding the middle section.
Brian test riding the lower section.

New propaganda on the Wagonhammer Trailhead sign board.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Foxwear Sale

Salmon clothier Foxwear is having a sale,

The Spring is Around the Corner Sale

Give Lou a call: 877 756 3699

$95 gets you a custom Neoshell Jacket.  Neoshell kicks ass.

Check the colors


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Additions

Disco Hill and Barracks Lane Trails have seen some improvements during 2013.

The Rippey Loop has a new bridge (installed by the neighboring rancher!) and a couple of reroutes. There is a short reroute around the mud patch at Rippey Spring, dry this year but is usually an obstacle course of logs and rocks.  There other reroute is about 1/4 mile long and adds some climbing to get around the new fence that cuts off the old trail.  Check the Rippey Map below and the photos for details.

Disco Hill has more substantial improvements.  First, the trailhead will be getting a new map very soon to replace the old one destroyed by summer cloudbursts.  It will show three trail additions to the Disco Trail System:  Slump Ridge Trail, Powerline Trail, Spare Rib Trail.

On top of this, the Enduro Trail has had its northern two-track section (aka BLM Road #126) replaced with singletrack! Check the Disco Map below and the photos.

The Slump Ridge Trail and new portion of Enduro Trail both had trail crews improve the tread over the summer. They are riding nicely but need more tires to break them in.  We are currently installing trail markers so be patient (or let us know if you want to join in).  Powerline and Spare Rib are cow trails right now, awaiting improvements...they will get posts after these improvements (again, let us know if you want to join in).

Barracks Lane Improvements

New bridge just east of the wire gate.
New tread just above Rippey Spring.
New tread to avoid the mud pit (when there is mud).
Barracks Lane Map

Barracks Lane - Mulkey Creek on Trailforks.com




Disco Hill Additions

New Enduro Trail where it crosses the two-track.
New connector to Slump Ridge Trail.
Slump Ridge Trail.
Disco Hill Additions Map

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

BlomFest'13

Return of the BlomFest
Blomfest returned to Salmon August 3-11. Many Salmon-folk participated and we were blessed to have visitors from far and wide.

We had 3 totally new rides on the itinerary for the B-Fest this year; Thunder Mtn/Henry Creek, Butcherknife/Ax Park, Bradley Gulch/Sheep Creek.

Look for another "unorganized" Blomfest again next year...Zombie Blomfest Attacks!!!!And more great rides. The pressure is on now to come up with 3 new rides.  We are not worried.

Here is a map and a rundown of the rides below it.
(Click the little arrow thingy on the map legend below to Zoom to that ride)




B.Bever Photo
Day One -
Twelvemile to 
Lime Creek
  • 12.5 miles
  • 2360'up
  • 4660'down
Day Two - 
Thunder Mtn Trail
to Henry Creek
  • 14.5 miles
  • 630'up
  • 6000'down
Day Three -
Big Timber Creek;
Trail Creek to
Snowbank to 
Cabin Creek
  • 26.8 miles
  • 4850'up
  • 4850'down
S.Nieder photo

Day Four -
Big Timber;
Rocky Creek Loop
  • 23 miles
  • 3700'up
  • 3700'down
Day Five -
Lower Stein Ridge
to Wagonhammer
  • 13.4 miles
  • 1300'up
  • 3500'down
Day Six -
Butcherknife Ridge to 
Ax Park/Hughes Creek
  • 15.5 miles
  • 1800'up
  • 5800'down

Day Seven -
CDT (Bradley Gulch)
to Sheep Creek
  • 13.5 miles
  • 2100'up
  • 5000'down

Day Eight -
Divide Trail to
Twin Creek
  • 15.6 miles
  • 2700'up
  • 5500'down
Day Nine -
CDT (Anderson Mtn) to
Threemile Ridge
  • 20.0 miles
  • "All DH"but,
  • 2980'up
  • 5420'down

This is the video Stacey made from 2012 Blomfest footage.

Occupy Salmon 2012 from Doc Nieder on Vimeo.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Audio Live


Pod 1 - Podcast Loop Orientation.
Pod 2 - Recreation and Travel Management.
Pod 3 - History of Discovery Hill.
Pod 4 - The Greater Sage Grouse.
Pod 5 - Lewis and Clark on Discovery Hill.
Pod 6 - The Peregrine Falcon.
              

Audio Pods for the Lewis and Clark Podcast loop are now available.

Check the Salmon Valley Stewardship Podcast page for descriptions and iTunes for downloads.

The six audio pods were written and recorded by students from the Carmen Charter School and Salmon High School.  Each audio segment is about 2 minutes in length and corresponds to the numbered trail-markers found along the trail.

This trail is 1.3 miles long and starts at the Bluff Overlook parking area. It also shares a section of trail coming from the Discovery Hill Trailhead so you can start there too.

Existing game trail was improved and connected to Disco singletrack to make a walkable (and ridable) loop last summer.  This dirt project was completed by the Salmon Savage Volleyball Team, the BLM, and members of your Salmon Id Mtn Bike Assoc. (Here is the Blog Post about that project.)

Check it out on the map below.




Geschichte wäre anders gewesen, wenn ich Podcasts hören.
(Click to Translate)


Friday, December 21, 2012

Rocky Canyon



Last spring several SalmonIDs ventured to Rocky Canyon in the southern Lemhi Mountains.  Rocky Canyon is in the Birch Creek Valley, just to the south of Meadow Canyon and to the north of prominent Diamond Peak and the booming metropolis of Lone Pine.

This out-and-back ride is about 21 miles long to the head of Rocky's Left Fork, 23 if you add a jaunt up the Right Fork to the total.


The ride begins on a two track near mile marker 55 on ID28, 81 miles from Salmon and not too far north of Kaufman Guard Station.  Look for a random stop sign there marking the intersection with this road.

After leaving the alluvial two track, a trail ascends the bottom of Rocky Canyon where singletrack climbs a gentle 1500' in the 7 miles to the base of The Brow Peak (11,005 feet).

Remote. Scenic. Singletrack.

Thanks to Mr. Hecker for the great photos.





Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Big Timber Creek Rides

Crossing the head of the Park Fork drainage.
There is some amazing singletrack in the southern Lemhi Mountains. Big Timber Creek accesses some of these trails with two great loops; Rocky Creek Loop and Trail Creek to Cabin Creek.

Both of these rides first climb on Road #105 south-west of Leadore. The mileages from the chart below are taken from near the end of the road, it is best to start riding a couple miles earlier as the road gets rough and slow.  The rides then drop down to the trail in Big Timber Creek on a loose ATV section. There is a gate closing ATV access once in the bottom of Big Timber Creek and it is all singletrack from there.

The Rocky Creek Loop briefly follows Big Timber Creek then climbs along Rocky Creek. The trail crosses two passes on the shoulders of Yellow Peak then descends 2500' in the next 8 miles.

Trail and Cabin Creek loop heads up Big Timber then crosses the creek and climbs up Trail Creek not quite to Timber Creek Pass. Then it head west across the top of the Lemhis for a little over a mile before dropping down Cabin Creek back to Big Timber.

The return to Road #105 from Big Timber is steep and both rides climb well over 3000' total. Expect some standard Idaho hike-a-bike, and don't let the relatively short mileages of both loops lead to thoughts of easy rides.

Included for reference on the map below is the Snowbank Loop. Snowbank and Trail-Cabin Loops share the trail along the divide between them. Snowbank Loop is accessed from the Little Lost River Valley, check out the Blog post from last September.





Big Timber - Rocky Creek Loop:

18.3 miles. Singletrack. 3600' Up and Down. High 9710' and Low 7250'.

Mid climb in Rocky Creek





Big Timber - Trail Creek - Cabin Creek Loop:

14.2 miles. Singletrack. 3300' Up and Down. High 9480' and Low 7250'.

Lake Creek is an Out and Back option.      (WHecker photo)





Snowbank Trail Loop:

24.2 miles. Singletrack and twotrack. 5400' Up and Down. High 9600' and Low 6960'.






Snow in July.

The cabin in Cabin Creek. (WHecker photo)
The climb back to Big Timber Creek

The top of the Rocky Creek Trail.
Somewhere along the Big Timber Creek trail.