Saturday, March 19, 2016

Dirt Buggers–Doyle Mountain 3/19/2016

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Loop – 68 miles
Riders – John , Paul , Chad , Eric

Had a couple of goals on this ride :

1) Help recover a bike that was drowned in the North Fork of Castle Creek last week.
     A father and son didn’t pack any tools and no one in the group had a 4S plug socket .

2) Learn more of the roads , two tracks, single tracks and just generally explore.

3) Unintended consequence – first ride  this year to produce dirt buggers .

Mike , Greg and Ryan left town about an hour before we did. They doubled up on a 4-wheeler and rode a bike
into Savage Crossing , then hiked along Castle Creek to the bike   .

 

 

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We took the road into Savage Crossing. It was chilly at road speeds.
Missed a turn but it just meant we got to ride a bit of single track to Savage.

 

 

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The creek was running high from the snow melt and recent storms. We crossed  upstream in a spot that
wasn’t as deep. Couldn’t see the bottom. I went first , worried about a square rock in the bottom I didn’t
carry much speed and had to dap .

 

 

 

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The saddle above Savage.

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Side Hill into Squaw Garden.

 

 

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When we caught up Mike , Greg and Ryan had already de-watered the bike and were trying to start it.
Eric took a turn kicking and it started .

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Beautiful spot an intersection of two canyons .

 

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We rode with Ryan back to Savage Crossing . 
Had lunch and made sure the bike got across the creek. Mike and Ryan decided to push it across.

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After the bike forded the creek we started on our ride.

 

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At the bottom of the saddle above Savage there was an old jeep trail that went up to White Horse Reservoir.
You can make your way into Triangle.

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Paul, Chad and Eric after a deep water crossing, it was deep but not fast.

 

 

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Climbing out of Portland Gulch. I had to stop and remove a layer.
We had just crossed paths with a big group that had Sean Robinson , Brian King and Steve Frisbee .

 

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Chad after climbing up a greasy tight side hill above the creek , he was happy to be on top.

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As we climbed out of Portland Gulch onto the road there was a bunch of tracks headed south.
I figured it must be the group we just passed and maybe there was another trail to find.
We followed them but lost the tracks at a watering trough , State Springs .

 

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Gamble Gulch on the upper end of WF Birch Creek.

 

 

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Doyle Place

 

 

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End of the Day

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Return to Doyle Mountain 3/12/2016

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Loop – 67 miles


Confused Trail Boss – Spode Daddy

Riders – Loyal, Trent , Dan , Jim

I had planned to do a variation of The House that Dirt Built but got confused by the amount of road to
connect the single track and missed Portland Gulch / Squaw Garden , the best legs.

 

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Poison Creek

 

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Half Moon Pass


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Upper end of West Fork Birch Creek.

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Lunch stop

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We climbed up the hill to use the monoliths as a wind break.
This part of the canyon was a wind tunnel.


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Looking at last months ride – the trail head for Portland Gulch was another mile of so from where I dropped
into the Savage Crossing single track ( the red track ).

 

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Above Savage Crossing we discussed riding Portland Gulch/ Squaw Garden the opposite way but decided to ride over Doyle Mountain so Loyal and Dan could split off and head back to the trucks.

 

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Hog Pen – the sand is getting deeper the more it dries out.

 

 

 

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Weather was moving in by the time I got back to Boise it was raining.

 

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I hadn’t ridden this stretch in years took me a while to recognize where we were.
Ridding the sand wore me  out. Trent had to help me up the lip on the hill climb.

About a mile from the trucks I hit reserve.
I dropped my bike in the slow sand washes 2-3 times loosing some gas.

 
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