Divide Trail

1 Carl Lane
Hughes Crick, ID
7/12/03

Today’s ride exceeded all expectations, though our expectations were admittedly very low. We started at Twin Creek campground and rode up 93 to Lost Trail Pass. Despite being Saturday we were not passed by many cars and there was actually a shoulder. Near the top an old couple in a sedan smiled and gave us a huge thumbs up for completing the climb.

At the Montana border we turned left into Lost Trail Ski Resort. We started climbing what looked like a service road. After we passed by the top of a lift the road pulled a 180 and became very steep, loose and rutted. I knew this was not our service road access to the top, but climbed it anyway. It was a challenging climb that was 1) not overgrown and 2) had a decent, not destroyed by horses surface. The
road petered out into a gravel pit and we turned around to find another route of ascent.

We found a very smooth service road. It was a joy to climb: nice trees, cool breeze and good views everywhere. Odin remarked that even if we ended up going back down the road this ride was worth it.
That speaks to how ridiculous our last two rides were.

At the top we entered a burn area and crusied down the ridgeline alternately looking deep into Montana and back towards North Fork. At the supposed junction with the Divide Trail we found only another dirt road–but it had bike tires on it! This was the first sign of mountain biking we had seen in Idaho. Surely this was a good sign that the trail that was ahead was not a complete and total joke.

Soon a singletrack dove off the left side and some nice riding ensued. I kept expecting it to not last long–surely we’d run into dozens of downed trees or a disappearing trail. But no, things only improved. Nice singletrack with some solid climbs and fun descents. It continued
for what seemed like hours.

After reclaiming lost elevation so that we were higher than the top of the ski resort we met our first option for diving off the Divide trail into Twin Creek campground. Things had gone so well to that point that we decided to take the latter and longer option. The topo maps showed switchbacks on the other option too. We continued on the Divide Trail and things got difficult but not ridiculous. We hit a brief hike-a-bike followed by a hair raising descent. Eventually we reached our turn off, or what we thought was the turn off.

It did not look good. It was barely a trail.

After 50 yards I realized we just turned a few feet early and that there actually was a trail here. Now things got interesting. Tight switchbacks, roots, big rocks and let-your-bike-roll style of technical downhill. This was our kind of trail. Gone were the several bike tire marks we had been following on the Divide Trail–this was virgin territory.

After a number of technical dismounts and some stream crossings things flattened out and the trail grew overgrown. We still had 1000′ feet to drop and we were not going anywhere–at times even climbing. We ditched our shoes for a couple of very deep (and fast moving) stream crossings. Odin had said earlier that the trail is only going to get better as we approached the campground. What a lie.

It was a brutal trail. When it was reasonable to ride it would not last long. Frustration grew strong and it was getting hot. I was almost out of water as we approached 5 hours of riding (moving) time. Out of nowhere and quite unexpectedly the trail pushed through bushes to result in a junction with a dirt road. A glorious sight, indeed.

We coasted down it making progress towards the campground at a rate 100 times faster than on the trail. 30 seconds before the campground an RV whipped around a corner and almost took us out. Then, rest and cold gatorades in the Gazebo.

At last a quality ride here in the northland.

Today’s adventure also exposed a bug in TopoFusion: tracks that cross UTM zones give inflated distance and their profiles are completely whacked. We’ve fixed our first bug of the summer. Our email has been pretty quiet since we left–no new bugs. So I guess it’s up to us to find them.