We have been hanging out at my brother-in-law’s house in Driggs, Idaho for the last week. Sam has some renovations he’s been doing to our battery box (including some welding by said brother-in-law). Between work, Airstream projects, and the rain, we haven’t had many chances to get out and explore and I’ve been going a little stir crazy.
Apparently my attitude was a little negative this morning, so the boys suggested I get out for a ride. Its amazing to me how quickly getting outdoors improves my mood.
When I went: May 22, 2015
Where We Stayed: With family, but there are a couple of great camping spots in the valley. Check them out on campedium.com.
Trail route: Climb Bovine Bliss, merge onto Shark’s Belly. Turn right on to Bumper & Cody’s at “the five-way”. Go left onto Sodbuster at the “T”. Turn left onto Southbound, and then ride down Channel Lock to the road.
Map: They’ve got a great one on mtbproject.com with coordinates for the trailhead.
I chose to ride the Dude Creek Loop #249 up Horsehoe Canyon. In the Wydaho Mtn Book my awesome brother-in-law picked up for me its recorded as a 6.2 mile ride with a workout factor of 5, a skill factor of 5, and a fun factor of 9. Sounds fabulous, right?
It took me about 20-25 minutes to ride from his house up the canyon. Unfortunately, because of all the rain the road to the trail head was too muddy and I spent about 15 minutes trying to make it. Giving up, I backed down the road and took the fork on the left side of the road instead where there was additional parking.
Getting that all settled, I biked up the road and started on the trail which was (hallelujah) obviously marked with a carsonite post.
Bovine Bliss was a pretty good climb. I was breathing pretty hard, and having just worked my legs with 21 Day Fix Lower Extreme yesterday, my legs were also not happy with me at all. I couldn’t beat the views though:
There were a few breaks in the climbing which was definitely a welcome relief. I merged onto Shark’s Belly and then it got wet. This part of the trail wound through the trees and there were a few streams that leaked onto the trails. Also some bridges to cross, which I felt more comfortable walking rather than riding. A few sections were too muddy to ride (if you leave a track deeper than a 1/2″ you shouldn’t ride it! It ruins the trails), so I attempted to walk around them. I’m just happy I didn’t slip and end up face down in the mud!
A few more ups and downs and I hit the cutoff for Sod Buster and then Southbound.
You can take a shortcut, skip Southbound and go straight to Channel Lock, but I don’t recommend it. Southbound was one of my favorite sections! It would around on top of the mesa with amazing views of the Teton Valley.
Then there was the awesome descent on Channel Lock back through the gate, and then a short ride up the road to my car. I’m pretty sure I had a goofy grin on my face the whole way down.
Overall it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes, and Endomondo clocked 9.5 miles instead of 6.2. It seems like quite the difference in mileage, so I’m not sure where the discrepancy comes in.
It was definitely a great ride, and I would LOVE to come back later in the summer and ride it when it’s fully dry!
Okay, so I know adding a hot dog to a Vegan Cornbread recipe kind of defeats the purpose of the whole vegan thing. Trust me, though, the cornbread recipe is so good I couldn’t imagine using any other one.
I’ve warned Sam that if we really end up back here for a month or so next winter I’m so buying a rope and we are going climbing at least three times a week. We had such a fantastic time, that we did it again a few days later – only this time we brought 
