Skid Map

SkidMap is a mountain bike trail-map by mountain bikers and for mountain bikers.  It is a very powerful browser based tool for finding rides.

The map shows all submitted MTB trails at once from Salmon to Moab to Sedona to Adelaide, AU! AND the map works great on your smartphone browser...Bonus.

We spent several weeks over the winter working w/ the SkidMap gurus to include some of our favorite Salmon area rides on their map.  In exchange, they gave us access to the trail database to update the current Trail Conditions and Ratings, add photos, add videos and include local knowledge.  Look for more trail additions and suggested trail directionality soon.

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SkidMap has many great functions conveniently placed its toolbar and in trail information panes.  We worked up a big "How To Use SkidMap" Treatise to post here...but the video below explains all the functions very well (and it saves you from actually having to read more.) There is a list of the basic functions below the video too.

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Current Trail Conditions: Discovery Hill

We have added a Trail Condition pane to each area trail page here, exactly like the one to the right for Disco Hill.

The Green SkidMap button, when clicked, will open a map in a bigger window zoomed to that area.
There are small SkidMap Balloon Buttons that will do the same.  We will add more of these in the future.

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SkidMap How To Video

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SkidMap Toolbar Modes and Functions...

1. Three Modes: Trail Difficulty, Trail Conditions, Trail Ratings. 
2. Home Button (graphic); return to your favorite map view every time you use SkidMap by saving it w/ the Home Button.
3. Search Button; enter the name of the trail, SkidMap generates a list of matches, click one of the matches to zoom straight to that trail or trailhead.
4. Video Button; click this to turn the video icon on and off. If a trail has a YouTube video showing it, the icon shows up.
5. Print Button;  shift the map to the view of your choice, click the Print button to format the view for your printer. Then use your browser "print" function.
6. Elevation Button; click on a trail, with the Elevation button "on", a pane shows that trails elevation profile.

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.

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

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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.

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 .

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.

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Big Timber - Rocky Creek Loop:

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

<GPX Download> (Rt. Click-Save As) <EveryTrail> <August 2011 Blog Post>	Mid climb in Rocky Creek

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Big Timber - Trail Creek - Cabin Creek Loop:

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

<GPX Download> (Rt. Click-Save As)	Lake Creek is an Out and Back option.      (WHecker photo)

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Snowbank Trail Loop:

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

<GPX Download> (Rt. Click-Save As) <Sept 2011 Blog Post> <EveryTrail>

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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.

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Old Bulls Cutoff

Old Bulls Cutoff is a trail that is about a mile long and not much more than a well trodden game trail.  Why should you care?

You should care because Old Bulls Cutoff connects the Continental Divide Trail with the Ruby and Butler Creek Trails. This one mile section of trail can be used to ride two loops along the CDT; a Ruby Creek Loop and a Stevenson Trail to May Creek Loop.

The 14.8 mile Ruby Creek Loop is best ridden clockwise from Big Hole Pass. There is about 4200' of climbing and descending.

Stevenson to May Creek Loop is about 20 miles and can be ridden from the May Creek Campground. Also 4200' of up and down.

These two loops are tough with all that climbing but you will have earned access to some beautiful high-country.

Check the new Chief Joseph Tab above for more trails in the area and info on the USFS rental cabins.

Click the track names in the list on the right side of the map to turn them on and off.
We will be using SkidMap on this site until the Google API dust settles...at which point we will begin regenerating all the maps here.

KPVI

Kris Millgate of KPVI was in town recently filming. Liz Townley hooked us up with her to do a spot on Mountain Biking in Salmon. This footage airs tonight at 10 or can be found on the TimeOut webpage (Video title is Pedal Playground).

Thanks Liz!

Kris and her camera man setting Max up with their GoPro.

Podcast Loop

There is a new loop on Discovery Hill.  The Podcast Loop.  This trail is 1.3 miles long and starts at the Bluff Overlook parking area.  It also shares a section of trail near the Discovery Hill Trailhead.


The BLM Recreation Dept. and Salmon Valley Stewardship have been busy working with Salmon's youth to create audio Pods.  There will be six of these Pods on subjects from wildlife to recreation to Lewis and Clark.  There are 6 numbered trailmarkers corresponding to these audio clips.  Students can then walk along the loop and listen to the Podcast...an outdoor audio tour!

The podcast will be finished soon.  It should be available from the Salmon Chamber, SVS, Lemhi County Historical Museum, and BLM...probably downloadable in the future from iTunes too.

The Salmon Savage Vollyballers volunteered to fix up the trails and install the trailmarkers.  They kicked butt!!  SVS is donating $500 to their program for their efforts.

Click the tracknames below in the map legend to turn the tracks on and off.