Trail of the Week: Three Bears Trail, Boise Foothills

Judging by the overall success of the first "Trail of the Week" feature, there are quite a few people who want to know where to ride and what they're getting into when they head out.  Today's trail review is another one of my favorite trails, one that until this year I hadn't ridden all that much because it requires a bit of commitment to aim your bicycle that direction in the Foothills.  Three Bears Trail is one of the ultimate downhill rides in the area.  It can be very high speed, but there are enough technical features to keep you alert and off the back of the saddle.  It is rocky in many places, and involves climbing up 5 or 6 miles before you plunge back down to Boise in an adrenaline filled rush.  Three Bears is on the Eastern side of the Foothills main trail sections, and is accessed through the Military Reserve area.  On the Ridge to Rivers map, you'll find Three Bears marked as trail number 26 and it is listed at 4.35 miles in length (almost all of it thrilling downhill riding).  Now how do you get there?

Gaining the top of the Three Bears Trail is no easy feat.  It is most easily accessed via the Rocky Canyon Road but who wants to ride a boring road up to the beginning of a high speed mountain bike roller coaster ride?  My favorite way to get to Three Bears involves starting at the parking area in the Military Reserve and taking the Central Ridge Spur (#22A) to the Central Ridge (#22) and then over to Shane's loop (#26A) which drops you off less than a couple miles from the Three Bears Connnector on Rocky Canyon Road.  Climbing is going to happen, so dig in for a decently long climb up the Central Ridge area until you reach Shane's.  Shane's Loop connects with the lower portion of Three Bears, but I'll get to that later...  I usually continue heading East on Shane's until reaching a signpost that directs you further East to Rocky Canyon Road.  The Shane's Loop segment offers a brief break from the climbing, and the drop down to the road is a bit technical.  Once on the road, you continue climbing for about 1.5-2 miles until you reach a steep access trail identified as the Three Bears Connector.  This is a nasty little slog up to the actual Three Bears Trail and it can be loose at certain times of year which makes it even nastier.  I usually settle in on my granny ring and drop my fork down to steepen up the head angle (one of my bike's many cool tricks) so the climb is a bit easier.  After climbing some very steep sections you finally reach the trail of the week, Three Bears.

Rocky Canyon Road

From the top of Three Bears you have a fantastic view of the valley, Boise laid out before you as the earth falls away towards the city.  In the dark morning hours of my normal riding time, this is a magical view, similar to the view of landing in a city at night on an airplane, except better because your not breathing in recycled air and stuck between two smelly passengers.  Descending on Three Bears is an exhilarating experience.  The trail never gets to that scary steep "omg" level, but it certainly keeps you on your toes.  The rock gardens are fairly regular, and braking bumps and sharp corners abound.  The descent of Three Bears is also broken up by a few uphills that are short and easy if you carry a lot of speed on the downhill sections. Throughout the entire descent, you are treated to views of Boise, if you can look up to view it with your speed induced watery eyes.  After a bit of descending, you'll come to another junction with Shane's Loop (26A).  It is here where you must decide if you want to continue down Three Bears and eventually jump onto the road that leads you back to the Military Reserve parking area, or take a left and go back to the original junction with Shane's Loop and descend via the Central Ridge trails.  I'm split on which is best, but I think I like the Three Bears all the way option the best.

Like so many trails in the Footies, the Three Bears Trail can be accessed through other options and can be linked to other trails.  One nice variation is to continue past the Three Bears Connector trail to 5-Mile Gulch (Trail #2 on the RtR map).  Once here you can climb up a more mellow grade, albeit longer, to Watchman's Trail (#3 on the map) and put together a really nice ride.  At the bottom of Three Bears you'll find a junction with trail #5, Freestone Ridge, which you can climb up (way up!) to another really fun trail called Fat Tire Traverse.  This will take you over to the more central trails like Sidewinder which you could hit and go to the Freeway and back towards Camelsback park or take a ride down Lower Hulls Gulch, or perhaps even go way over to Corrals, Bob's, or Hard Guy.  That sounds like a good one for next week..  Here's the Garmin Course Map, check out the Ridge to Rivers website as well and get out there.  Happy trails!

Screen grab from Garmin Connect...  Check out the link above for more info.

New Feature: Trail of the Week!

Giving my flighty nature and general tendency to move quickly from one thing to another, I hope that I can buck this trend and post a weekly feature one local area trails and loops.  One of the great challenges one faces when trying out the sport of mountain biking is finding suitable trails and navigating along them.  In Boise, its one thing to take on a trail and make a wrong turn, you'll have little trouble getting back where you need to be and often you can seek directions if you find somebody to ask; but in the Owyhees, you're likely to not see any other riders/hiker/equestrians so you'll be on your own.  In no way is this blog guaranteeing that you'll never get lost, however, by taking on routes I feature you'll at least know what you're getting yourself into when you head out.  Enough introduction... show me the trails!

Wilson Peak is at the center in the background.  The road to Wilson Creek is only gravel for a short ways.

I want to start by saying that when you head out on any ride or run in the mountains you need to be prepared and be self-reliant.  What will you do if you get a flat?  What if your bike breaks?  What will you do if you roll and ankle?  Do you know basic trail-side bike repairs such as: fixing a flat tire, repairing a snapped chain, or tightening a loose part?  Go see your local bike mechanic if you don't.  If you're in Nampa, Rolling H Cycles will show you basic repair skills if you ask and bring some cookies for the owner ;)

Parking lot at Wilson

Let's start off this feature with one of my favorite loops in the Owyhees; the Wilson Creek to Bingo Loop.  The overall difficulty of this loop is probably intermediate with some sections that experts will enjoy and be challenged by, particularly climbing up Wilson Creek.  For more information on Wilson Creek in the Owyhees of Idaho, go to the BLM page and click on the map link at the top of the page.  You start in the main parking area and immediately begin climbing on a trail towards the South where W100 exits the parking lot.  For about 3/4 of a mile you'll climb across a couple dips and up some loose sand to the top of a small ridge.  Its pretty steep starting out so if you like a warm up before you begin a climb you may want to consider riding down the road a bit and then coming back to tackle the first hill.

Last little section before gaining Wilson Crk Rd again.

Shortly after topping out the first climb you'll descend a short but fun section until you cross a small drainage and come to a junction where you must go left or right.  At this point you you'll turn left and follow a doubletrack trail East, still on W100.  There is a junction to the right that you'll go past first and then you'll begin the see the canyon carved out by Wilson Creek itself.  Ignore the sign that points to W140 and stay on W100 (Wilson Creek Trail).  This is where you'll begin to feel more challenged technically and if you can ride the whole climb clean to the end then you should stop, pat yourself on the back, and admire what a great mountain biker you are.  The Wilson Creek Trail takes you uphill mostly and you'll pop out back on Wilson Creek Road about 3.5 ish miles into the ride.  Once on the road, turn towards the North and head up the slight incline for roughly a mile until you gain the highpoint of the ride and come the a junction where W500 goes off to the right, downhill towards the East and the Reynolds Creek area.

High Point of the Ride/Run looking back...

Trail W500 is affectionately known as "Bingo!" and you'll see why when you start tackling the two steep, butt rubbing descents in the first mile or so down Bingo!  These are the two toughest challenges on this trail, but the rocks can be a bit sketchy too further down the trail.  If you're on a cross country or trail bike, avoid taking W501 partway down W500.  It gets a bit rough going down W501 and you'll have a bunch more fun on the fast, flowy, and skinny main trail.  W501 does come back to W500 eventually though, so if you take a wrong turn, you can catch back onto Bingo! soon enough.  Enjoy the descent on Bingo! until you come to a dirt road that is labeled Pigeon Rd. on most online map programs.  Take this dirt road straight downhill and stay left at a junction with a branching road that goes off to the right and towards the China Ditch.  After passing the junction to the right you will come to an area on the left side of the road that appears to be set up for camping or other such activity.

You'll find a trail (W400) going up the hill at the end of this circled off area that takes you back towards the start of the ride.  Overall, this loop is about 8.25 miles and is a ton of fun.  It easily can be made longer with different options that I'll post up in future Trails of the Week features.

This is a Garmin course for those of you with a Garmin, however, this particular route is for the W501 option, which is fine on foot but by bike it can be a bear.
Garmin Connect - Wilson Creek to Bingo (501 option)

Taking a break...

After recovering from the trip to Ohio, things have been strangly busy around here. We were constantly doing something, or, we were totally wiped out and thus, doing nothing. I have been having some good training, but just to see, I decided to run a little loop called "Wilson Creek Mini-Moab" out of the Boise area trail guide. The difficulty rating on this loop is "Gonzo" whatever that means. Apparently, as I found out, it means "you will regret trying this and you should plan on being sore for 6 full days afterward." Anyway, 15.6 miles and 3000 feet of elevation change and you have yourself a dirty little pain in the quads. I had planned on running the loop with company, but apparently they all knew better and stayed home, so after 3 hours of intense physical effort, I completed the longest distance I've yet to run and the most vertical feet I've ever traveled by foot before. I should note that I knew exactly what this loop entailled because I rode it with a couple of friends back in the Cafferty's days and vowed to never take my race bike back there again. Regardless, this insanely challenging workout left me feeling the need to switch it up a bit so I decided to put the shoes away for a week and do some riding. Sunday I rode my Neuvation F100 road bike on a sunrise ride up to the Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge. It was a great ride, but I and decided that the frame just wasn't working out for me so I listed it on Ebay (just the frame, so I still have all the necessary ingredients of an awesome road bike but lack the bike itself...) and sold by Tuesday. That left me riding my old friend, the shiny Sette Razzo 29er for the remainder of the week. Needless to say it was a great week of doing something different and just enjoying the outdoors and the feeling of movement and speed. The week was capped off by a great little ride in the Boise foothills on some of my favorite trails.

(Looking back down to Boise from the 8th street parking lot at the access point for trail 4.)

(The last section of our ride took us to Bogus Basin Road via "Corrals")

(Close up shot of the Razzo, love those big 29 inch wheels!)

I managed to land some great company this time, with Mike Lapp and his father-in-law joining me. We covered about 14 miles and about 1500 to 2000 vertical feet. Looking back, we rode less than I ran one week earlier, ouch... No wonder I was so sore.

Now its Monday again, and I have put my feet to the road once again. Six miles in 43 minutes on an 85 degree day tells me my legs are fresh again and ready for the big push to a fall race. If I could just decide what that will be... I'll be looking forward to some time on the bike when necessary.

The bike of choice for the my endurance races

Many of you may wonder what kind of bike someone rides for 100 miles in the woods. I have ridden all kinds of bikes, and for now I've come to the conclusion that simple is better when your relying on your bike to get you through hours of riding in remote places. I picked a hardtail 29er for my endurance bike because I needed this simplicity but found the standard 26" wheels on a simple hardtail (no rear suspension) to have less desireable traits for racing 100 miles. After much debate I set my sights on the Sette Razzo 29er from Pricepoint.com. I have been impressed by the bike on all my training rides, and have now completed my first long race on the bike. The race was the annual Galena Grinder in Sun Valley, Idaho. The course involved over 3000 feet of elevation change on each lap. Riders in my race category complete two 22 mile laps. I can say that the bike performed flawlessly. With the bike taken care of, now I guess its my turn to make sure I'm ready for the challenges that lay ahead.

**UPDATE** I just made this video... sorry its lame, I'll blame my camera man :)