About three years ago, maybe four, I don't remember, I found a trail and made it better for bikes and motor bikes. It is also a great trail for horses. Twice a year cows migrate from the valley and up to mountain for the summer and back down in the fall on this trail. I did a lot of work to make it ridable and it now a few years later, it's a great trail. Even beginners can ride a trail like this (just the upper part of it which is forest service land). Some of us call the upper part of the trail "Cow Trail" but when we go on rides we just say we want "to go up to Willow Creek".
There's another trail up above this trail where it starts by Lake Hill and I haven't gone up it this year yet, somebody else around here built that trail. It doesn't have a name though but it is a real blast going down that one too. Most riders like to start from the Lake Hill and go down it then go down the Cow Trail then the lower part it through state land, then the Flume Trail.
The lower part of the new Willow Creek Trail is I am not sure if it's going to last because it's so hard to ride on and I don't know if it's ok'd by government. I don't really tell anybody about these trails though but if they close them down then fine. It's on state land. So I just built this one, not found it, it is really short though but it's a good singletrack to get from upper part and down to Flume Trail. It does have a lot of switchbacks and very steep behind the seat sections. I wouldn't recommend this part of the trail for a beginner. You could go down the road down to Taylor's Flat if you don't want to ride on this trail. I made that bridge that goes above a mossy creek so it's a real fun and more challenging trail than most other trails in Ephraim Canyon area.
The two pictures above are some pictures of the new singletrack somebody built last year that goes from the Hydroplant at the mouth of Ephraim Canyon to the A frame house just barely above Taylor's Flat. Most of the uphill climb will be singletrack from the hydroplant until you get on the New Canyon Road then turn turn right where another road forks after you've ridden the New Canyon Road for like a mile or so. So you go up this road and keep another right at the next fork then cross the wood bridge over the river then get on the singletrack again to the Main Canyon Road above Taylor's Flat. I like to ride on this new singletrack then on the Canyon Road to Willow Creek Road then go on the Cow Trail and so on. Later next week or so, everything up higher will be dry and I can go up that new trail up by Lake Hill also.
5 comments:
Sweet,..like to see some maps/gps, not sure where all this stuff is. I'd like to find a few more challenging trails down there for a dirt bike before the 4th of July weekend;)
I don't know the Gps signals but I could explain it to you where it is. I am a good explainer.
I just went again today and it looks WAY packed down, the trail is getting popular or something. I have a feeling people are going to stop going on the Pioneer trail. Maybe they should make the Pioneer Trail an official hiking trail, it would be a good hiking trail though. Pioneer Trail is the only biking trail that is gps coordinated around here. My boss told me that Ephraim Canyon needs a hiking trail, he's goes hiking and stuff. So I rather go on those new trails we barely made. I am not planning to do Pioneer this year. Maybe, I don't know. Pioneer is so dang hard to keep it maintained every year anyway and there is a damn swamp you have to ride over, so many trees fall across it every winter. No trees fall across on the new trails though.
Google maps can tell you the gps coordinates if you know where it is and you know how to use it. I've been thinking about doing a post on what I've learned messing around..it's not much, but I kind of planned out our Ephraim trip just using satellite images. The trails get lost in the trees, but all you need is some waypoints. Paper maps will give grids sometimes, I'm not as familiar as to how to pull gps points of a paper map yet..don't know how good it would be, but I can pinpoint a point on the grid on google maps to the gnats butt, then my gps is accurate within 15 yards or less...most of the time a lot less. I just plug in the route where I want to go and just ride. Any point, anywhere...but I think it's less accurate outside the U.S., like I care though.:) BTW, the gps coordinates of your house are
39.35316529803343, -111.57917082309723
go ahead an paste it into google maps and hit search! It will find it. Should have a big green arrow right on your roof.:)
Cool, I'll try it.
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