[CR photos USA] heidi's

Un superbe CR et photos d'un couple passionné de MTB avec ce qu'offre la démesure aux usa.

We started in Bend, spend a day riding in Missoula, MT then drove and rode in Bozeman, Jackson Wyoming, Ketchum Idaho, and Stanley Idaho. There are a billion pictures here and I hope you enjoy them.

Outside of Bozeman in the middle of serious nowhere we rode Curly Lake. Curly Lake was 24.3 miles of insanity. It was a super difficult ride with an elevation gain of 5000’ and extra pressure to not get eaten by a grizzle bear or mosquitos. The book said ride time was 6.5 hours and we completed it in around 5.5 hours so were feeling good. The altitude didn’t seem to bother us much even though the ride started at 5800’ and topped out at just under 10,000. The climbing was long, steep and technical and the descent was awesome! Lots of nice switchbacks and rocks, roots, drops, you name it. It was quite possibly the longest downhill I’ve done in awhile. The views of the entire Tobacco Root Range were phenomenal.

I'm a weeee little speck on the trail.



Bangtail Divide is a relatively new trail that climbs high to the top of the Bangtail Range and provides awesome views of several ranges including Bridger, Crazies, Madison, and Gallatin. It starts with a giant climb through 28 or so switchbacks and the climb isn’t over then. The whole ride was 30 miles with 8 of it being on the road at the end to get back to our car. Elevation gain was 3400 feet starting at an elevation of about 5600’ and climbing up to 7600 or so at the highest point. Whew!














Our last 7 miles were in pouring rain and hail. I took this picture when we got in the car and headed to the bar.

Jackson, Wyoming was our next stop. It had some really great riding and I’d like to spend some more time there in the future.



Mormon Row at sunrise.



The popular photography spot – Mormon Row



There were bison everywhere – hundreds of them.




Moose!









River at our campground.



Black Canyon was a tasty singletrack ride just up Teton Pass. It was a hefty bit of climbing up to almost 10,000 feet and the downhill was SUPER, SUPER fun with lots of roots and switch acks at highspeed. Oh, and gorgeous scenery too of course. We rode between 6-9000’ elevation but I didn’t feel it at all.

This was a little lake about a mile up the climb - called Crater Lake.
















Wilson Canyon scared me when I looked at the map. It was double black diamond on one section and the details said it had “an extreme ending”. This loop was a sweet ride, probably one of my favorites of the vacation because it was hard, but not over the top. We rode about 25 miles that day and I’m not sure on the total climbing, but again, we were at some good heights. This loop had everything from ski slope singletrack riding through wildflowers, stream crossing, dry canyon, streamside skree…everything.

A view of downtown Jackson from the slopes of Snow King.























The ending was so much fun. This was the double black diamond section and I was initially a bit skeptical but rode the whole thing with no problem at all. I even went back up to take pictures!

Next up – Ketchum (Sun Valley), Idaho. We did a giant Oregon Gulch, Adam’s Gulch loop that was close to 6 hours of singletrack riding. This was a serious undertaking with lots of technical sections and a lot of steep climbs as well. But, with the climbs we were rewarded with great downhills.








Awwww, beer.


Mahoney / Greenhorn Creek and Lodgepole Gulch was a hot and dry day. It was somewhere over 20 miles and I forget how long we rode but it was a tough ride. The altitude finally caught up to me and I was huffing and puffing pretty badly right off the back. The climb through the burn was amazing and the fast sweeping downhill was a gem.













Stanley, Idaho was our next stop. Little Casino and Big Casino is a trail I would never recommend because the climbing was insane. It shouldn’t be a mtb trail because most of the climbs in summer are just really steep hikes and I hate hiking with my bike for hours. The downhill was the best I’ve probably ever done though. Seriously, it’s constant downhill with serious rock gardens and roots everywhere with over 15 stupid stream crossings that were all a bit tricky. You had to hop off and negotiate most of them…not rideable. But still, the downhill was awesome and challenged me for the entire way. At the end the trail becomes a small river and I just had to laugh after the insanity of the entire trail.
The sawtooths are very pretty.
























Seriously, that's the trail. It just ended in a big stream that we had to ride down. Derek rode down to make sure it was the right trail but then decided to just walk back up it to let me know it was the right way.



Fisher Creek was the last ride we would do because my calf and hamstring started hurting from my injury back in June. This was a tame ride compared to the other ones we did but still just as beautiful. It took us through a big burn area from a year ago and then down through forested trails that were SUPER fast. Good way to end the vacation.
















After the ride we stopped by Redfish Lake.



Our way outta town - this is the view from Stanly, Idaho.