Mountain Biking in the Sawtooth Valley

With nothing much going on last weekend, Tam and I decided to get out of town and "camp" in the Sawtooth Mountains.  We loaded the trailer and bikes, grabbed Shadow, and hit the road Friday evening. 

Saturday morning was gorgeous, in the low 60's with no wind.  After a leisurely breakfast we drove a couple of miles outside of Stanley to the Fisher Creek trail head.  The planned loop is described in several books as the Fisher - Williams Creek Loop.  It starts with a couple of miles of highway followed by several miles of gravel road.  The gravel road eventually gives way to a gated two track that winds its way up Fisher Creek.

Heading up from the Highway

This area had burned several years ago and the ride alternated between burned and non-burned areas.  The two track followed Fisher Creek up for a couple of miles and approximately 1500 feet elevation gain and eventually came to a pass.

All smiles as we are cruising

Beautiful trail

At the trail crest

Once we reached the trail crest the trail turned into a smooth single track that took us down.  There were a couple of slightly technical sections, but for the most part we could let off the brakes and enjoy the downhill.

Tam cruising through a burned section

A slightly technical section

An example of the single track

All good things must end and eventually the downhill single track took a turn back uphill for a second summit.  The climb was gradual and not too difficult.  After cresting this summit, we enjoyed another 3-4 miles of downhill single track.  But unlike the burned first section, this time it was all forested.  It wasn't long before the trail opened up into a beautiful meadow with multiple creek crossings.

Crossing one of the creeks in the meadow.

We had one more little climb to complete, out of the meadow, before we screamed down the last section of single track to Shadow waiting patiently at the truck.  Too bad the weather didn't cooperate with us on this day.

The view from the last single track section

This was an excellent introduction into real "mountain" biking.  We'll be back for some more this summer!