Check.
Even longer singletrack descents?
Check.
Pristine bluebird skies?
Check.
Views that rival those anywhere in the world?
Double-check.
I'll have to let the pictures portray today's ride. Hit some classic Sun Valley trails right from town. Deep forays into the national forest are not possible right now, unless you want to risk a $5000 fine by entering the fire closure area. But what is open is goooood!
First bit of climbing up Cold Spring Trail was this crazy steep double-track,
much of it greater than 12% grade. Climb starts at 5800ft.
Cold Spring singletrack. Gravel, often loose. Grade stayed pretty close to 8%.
No idea what this is. Almost ran over it. Look at the spike on its back end! Thing
was almost as big as my thumb. Creepy.
Looking back down Cold Spring Trail from around 8000ft.
View from Bald Mountain 9151ft summit. I believe those are the Pioneer mountains
in the background. Nearly monotonic 3350ft climb, mostly on singletrack.
Just down from the summit in slightly different direction from photo above.
Town of Ketchum in single frame. Reminiscent of views from Italian Alps.
Heading back down Broadway Trail from summit to pick up the Warm Springs Trail.
Area in background burned during the month of August. Over 100,000 acres.
Warm Springs Trail, a continuous ribbon of singletrack from summit that went 12+ miles.
Surface was quite loose and chunky at times. I ran silly low pressure (15psi front?) and burped
the front tire. Might have dinged the rim too. Oops. Stan's saved the day after I got more air
in the tire.
Looking almost straight up from Warm Springs Trail to capture color saturation of sky.
Much of this area burned in 2007, probably why it didn't burn again this summer.
Fuel hasn't had time to recharge. Had this area not burned in 2007, there'd
probably be almost no open trails around Ketchum right now.
Lane's Trail in Adam's Gulch area.
Asked a cute hiker taking in the view from a picnic table at this knoll to take a picture.
On Lane's, which is on the "Sunnyside" of the Gulch.
Can't go any further into Adam's Gulch.
A trail not on the map I took down to connect with Forbidden Fruit. Some pretty sick
exposure here. Forbidden Fruit is a downhill-only trail that has numerous features
sculpted into it.
So as you can see, it was a good day to ride. I could have ridden all day but had a dinner engagement to attend. I covered 42.4mi with 5450ft of climbing in 4.6hrs moving time. Spent a little more time taking in views on this ride. Wife and mom also explored a chunk of Bald Mountain on foot, hiking approximately 1000 vertical feet to a lookout above town. One more riding day left before boxing bike up.
4 comments:
I think your 'cute hiker' was a bit off, he cut off your front tire. You look so happy.
Seriously some nice riding there!
Nice single track but that would be even better with a few feet of pow and skis and skins. I think I need to live in Ketchum.
I would definitely BC ski if I lived here. Riding over all these bald summits and open valleys, I wondered a lot what winter would be like here.
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