Lost in Idaho

     Friday wrapped up the first week of our trip and marked our departure from Wyoming and the Teton area. We were up early to find some beautiful weather. After fighting off a chipmunk that wanted to steal our breakfast, we packed up the tent and then went for a quick hike out the back of the campground over to the Gros Ventre River. We explored the river for a few minutes, then made our way to the car.

Gros Ventre River behind Gros Ventre Campground

     As we got into the car, we noticed a man walking down the road carrying a fully set up tent. He was walking down the center of the road like he was a vehicle and didn't even move when we got behind him. We snapped pictures as we creeped along behind him. Then he turned off the road and into the woods. I have no idea where he was going, but the campground "traffic" had us laughing as we pulled out and headed for Idaho.

Campground traffic

     We passed through Jackson and over Teton Pass again, dropping back down into Victor, ID for the second time this week. We stopped for milkshakes again at the Victor Emporium, then drove further north to the town of Driggs. We then turned west toward the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Our destination for the day was the Horseshoe Canyon trails inside the national forest. It was my first time to ride in Idaho and I was pretty excited about it. We had some trouble finding the parking area. Once we did find a parking lot, there were no signs or anything mentioning mountain biking, only a list of rules for snowmobiling on a sign riddled with bullets. We finally saw some other mountain bikers and some dirt bike riders. One of the dirt bike guys told me to climb up the gravel road out of the parking lot and it would take me to the trails. It didn't look exactly like the map I had printed off of a random mountain bike trail website, but it was close enough that I went with it and began climbing. Again, I went out first to scout and then planned to come back and take Shannon on the more tame trails that I found if there were any.

Just after entering the Caribou-Targhee National Forest

     My map wasn't the best, but I could tell that something wasn't right. I climbed for two miles and saw no signs of anything resembling a trail. Then I came up to a doubletrack path going off to my right, which is the direction where I thought the singletrack should be. I saw a few mountain bike tire tracks, so I opted to try this path. It quickly turned into the steepest trail I have ever encountered, going straight up the side of the mountain. I was able to ride most of the climb, but then it became so rocky that I had to get off and hike-a-bike for a while. When I got to the top, all I could see was more double track crossing the ridge. No singletrack anywhere. The wind was howling at about 30 mph across the top of this mountain. I rode another mile and then called Shannon to inform her I was lost and frustrated. I gave her a general idea of where I was, then continued down the doubletrack, hoping to run into the trails or the road we drove in on. I came across a dead cow skeleton at one point which was kind of creepy.

Doubletrack on the ridge

That was a cow...

     I finally found another doubletrack trail to the right and I took it. It was a fast descent with many huge rollers that were perfect for jumping. Finally, I found a reason to smile on this ride! Then things got even better. This doubletrack dumped me out in a parking lot where the real trailhead was. It turns out we parked at the wrong place. The real parking lot was up a nasty gravel road that I thought no way would have been a road to the trailhead. There is no way our car could have driven up that road. A trail map was posted at the start of the Bovine trail and I was able to orient myself correctly.

     I climbed up Bovine for several miles to get back up onto the same ridge I had been on before. Turns out that if I had continued down the first doubletrack road on the ridge, I would have run into the singletrack trails in another half-mile. I cruised around Sodbuster and Cody's trail. Both were fun, but very tough with a lot of climbing. There was one section on Cody's that was a super flowy stretch through some huge pines. That was one of the best sections of trail I have ever ridden. There was also a lot of cows on Cody's as this area is full of free-range cattle. There are hundreds of cattle on that mountain.

Looking toward Driggs and the backside of the Tetons from the top of Bovine

    I came to a crossroads of multiple trails at the end of Cody's. I hoped to make a loop on the north end of the trail system, then take the popular Shark's Belly trail back toward the car. I got lost yet again due to some poor trail marking on that north section and had to back-track to the trail junction. I was tired now after so much difficult climbing at high elevation. I decided to just take Shark's Belly back to Bovine and end this ride.

     Shark's Belly was awesome! The trail was mostly descending from Cody's to Bovine, providing some fast, flowing singletrack deep in the woods. Some sections of the trail were covered in pine needles, but they still had good grip. This was probably the most fun trail I have ever ridden. It's just some good, flowing singletrack. No berms, no jumps and no over-benching. Just classic trail in the forest. The descent down Bovine was also very fun, but there were a lot of hikers coming up so I had to hold back a bit as sight is limited in several spots. There were a few other trails I would like to have ridden, but I was too tired and out of time after being lost for most of the ride. There was nothing for Shannon to ride here, so my day was done. The climbing here is much too difficult for her to enjoy the ride.

Some wood on Shark's Belly

     Below is a video of some of the trails around Horseshoe Canyon filmed from my GoPro mounted on my handlebar.

Video: Handlebar cam from Horseshoe Canyon

     We took the scenic route from Horseshoe Canyon south toward the Utah border on our way to Gma's house in South Jordan. We visited another part of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest between Victor and Swan Valley on Hwy. 31. We then made our way southeast through Palisades and past the huge Palisades Reservoir and Dam, which is filled by the Snake River. We continued on backroads through southern Idaho past the small towns of Wayan and Soda Springs, passing many free-range cattle areas and the Blackfoot Reservoir. There were cattle in the road in some places. You really have to be on your toes when you drive here.

Golden fields in southern Idaho

Palisades Reservoir

     Our goal was to get to Bear Lake before dark, but it was dusk as we arrived. We didn't get to see it clearly, but I could still see it is a huge lake. Bear Lake straddles the state line of Idaho and Utah. We drove the western side of the lake, then traveled down the twisting canyon road of Hwy. 89 into Logan, UT. It took us forever to get to Logan. We were tired by this point and the last hour and a half to reach Gma's house felt like an eternity. Thankfully, we had college football on the radio to keep us occupied. Amber was at the BYU-UCLA game in Provo so we listened to it as we finished our drive under a huge full moon. We rolled into the house really late, but everyone was still up to greet us. Shannon's mom flew out to spend the week with us as well. We were worn out and happy to be sleeping in a real bed in a warm house for the first time in over a week!

Evening near the Idaho-Utah border

    Sunday was a day of rest and catching up with the family. Utah felt so nice after dealing with the harsh weather we had in parts of Wyoming. It was sunny and in the 80s. It felt good to be back somewhere we are familiar with and I couldn't wait to get on my bike and hit up some good trails! I had one week until my target race for the end of the season at the Snowbird Ultra Hill Climb.

Cache Creek

     The fourth morning finally brought some reasonable weather. It was cold, but it was clear. The sun made it feel fairly warm. It was finally dry enough for us to drive the other part of Mormon Row to see the original homesteads occupied by some of Jackson Hole's first settlers. We then made our way to Blacktail Ponds for breakfast at the overlook, followed by a short hike along the creek.

View leaving the campground

Pronghorn in the fields with mountains behind

An old barn on Mormon Row

Mormon Row homesteads

Our view for breakfast at Blacktail Ponds

Blacktail Ponds trail

More awesome reflections

     I got a strange phone call while we were at Blacktail Ponds. The IT Department from work just happened to catch me in one of the very few spots in the area where you have cell service. The call was to tell me to turn my computer back in to the company since I hadn't worked there in three years. I was like, "What? I just worked last week. Did I get fired?" He had gotten some bad info from my old boss, who said I had not worked for the company in three years. It's only been two years since I worked full-time at his clinic, but I still go down there sometimes when they need help. He had just called me during this trip to ask if I could come to their clinic to help them. It took some convincing to get the IT guy to believe me and then he still wanted my laptop by the next day for some updates. I told him that wasn't going to happen as I was in Wyoming. He finally called my new boss and got things worked out. It was so weird. You go on vacation for less than a week and suddenly nobody knows you anymore.

     After I got my work issues straight, we drove down the road just a little piece to a gravel road that descends down to some of the small splits off the Snake River. The road is known as Schwabacher Rd. and takes you down to Schwabacher Landing. I highly recommend you go here if you are ever in the area. There is no official hiking trail, but there is a path leading out of the parking lot that weaves along the edge of the water. You can follow it for some great views of the mountains and their reflections in the calm streams. We saw lots of wildlife too including some ducks and an immature bald eagle. Bald eagles start out dark brown, but once they reach adulthood they get the white head and turn a different shade of brown on the body.

Ducks at Schwabacher Landing

Bald eagle flying in

Immature bald eagle

No shortage of reflections in the Schwabacher area

Eagle from far away

GoPro shot from the trail

     The further out you hike, the better the views get and the more you get away from the crowd. Everybody hikes to the first big pool, but after that you can get the trail to yourself. The eagle flew off after a crowd spooked it, but we got to see him soaring above the trees while we hiked further out toward the river. Some of the ducks by the landing kept flipping upside down as they searched for food. We laughed as their little booties were all that stuck up out of the water. I could have sat and watch those ducks all day.

The eagle soars above the water

Diving ducks

     After the hike, it was time for some more mountain biking. This time we went to the east side of Jackson to the Cache Creek trails. It was perfect riding weather. I explored the trails on my own first, climbing up the mountain and taking a brand new trail called Skyline across the ridge. I saw two moose on the way up. I saw many riders out enjoying the nice day like me, but most of them were not very friendly. I seem to have a lot of trouble finding friendly riders on our trips which is crazy considering mountain bikers are friendly in general. I finished my loop with a fast descent back down the mountain to the parking lot, where I picked up Shannon and we climbed part of the way up the mountain to a small cascade next to the trail. We then took our time cruising singletrack back down.

Putt Putt trail

Moose in the trees

Skyline trail

The cascade we climbed to

Video: Flowing cascade along the Cache Creek Trail

Shannon rolls over Cache Creek

     We finished our ride before the sun began to set, giving us just enough time to get back into Grand Teton National Park to watch sunset at the Snake River Overlook. That overloook was not the best for sunset views as the sun drops behind the tall mountains very quickly and things get dark in a hurry. We moved south one overlook and had dinner while we watched elk graze in the pastures. At first there were many other families there with us, then a bus full of high school kids stopped in for some pictures. They were pretty rude, taking over the overlook and being loud. They were very inconsiderate of all the other people and it caused everyone to leave except for us. We waited them out and finally they loaded back onto the bus, which left us to enjoy the view and rising moon by ourselves for a while. We drove back to the campground in the dark yet again, dodging wildlife along the way. We were treated to seeing a porcupine crossing the road, an animal neither of us had ever seen before.

Snake River Overlook at sunset

Big cloud across the valley

Elk grazing

The big cloud turned red

Moonrise

     That was our last day of exploring Grand Teton National Park. We would have to depart for Utah the next day. We sure did enjoy our time here despite the cold, and sometimes rainy, weather. It's one of those places that anyone who enjoys the outdoors should visit at least once. Below is a video from some of the views we saw within the park.

Video: Grand Teton National Park views