TR - Beaver

[evdog]

Day 4

Final day, the main trail I wanted to get in was Blue Lake Trail. I'd ridden a short piece of it on day 1 but wanted to check out the Blue Lake itself. Pics looked awesome. I left the moto down at Hwy 153 the night before so just had to drive up to the top to start riding.


I figured based on the topography and elevation profile the road that dropped down would be pretty burly. No surprise it was gated at the top.




It was definitely burly, basically carved into a scree slope




The road down in the flats looked like it would have to be graded in every year following floods




Took a few tries to find where the trail took off from the road. But it was freshly maintained including the signature 4-claw mark. I saw this in a lot of places over the weekend. Thanks to who ever is doing all the trailwork!




The climb out was surprisingly rideable




And scenic




After some of the other trails I'd ridden so far in the area this one was a total surprise. A lot of it was beautiful buff singletrack like this.




There was a bit of scree to climb to get to this point, and some sketchy scree to descend after it, but it was definitely worth it.




Some more buff riding followed. The climb to the high point was about 1,500ft in 3.5 miles. A bit steep but very nice trail. I'd definitely ride it again.




The high point is what I connected to on Day 1, so I repeated just over a mile of trail but continued on Blue Lake an extra couple miles.




Nice view. It looks uphill but really wasn't




Rather than repeating Duncan Creek Trail I planned to finish down another part of the Dixie 311 route. This would have me climb up a tough section of Tanner Hollow Trail which included two hike a bike sections, and then traverse a ridgeline that seemed to be called Jimmy Reed Creek Trail. It started off through a burn area but was all cut out. Note the call sign, again.




Looking back north. The trail followed right along the top of the ridgeline which included a few short steep hike a bikes to keep up with the terrain.




Eventually it dropped down. I thought it would be a short descent dropping on to a forest road, but two segments I thought were road were the awesome singletrack in the two pics below. Win






There was a bit of fire road at the end but didn't lose a ton of elevation that way. What an awesome ride though. Perfect point to point. About 15mi and +2,500/-5,000ft. Huge variation in terrain and scenery too.

A cool thing happened at the end. I'd stashed the bike and was about to ride the moto back up when a couple riders crossed the road coming from the south side. They were on long travel bikes. Didn't think much of it but they were wearing long pants and work shirts. Then their sister pedalled up as well on a DH bike. Wearing a full length dress, the whole nine yards. Guess that's what the locals do after church in Beaver UT?


I stopped for a bit of fishing on the drive out. Fish were skittish, turned out they were browns which explains why. Awesome road trip. Tough riding though, but I'll be back. I rode most of the main trails but there is still more to to explore.

[climberevan]

Nice. I'll be there in a couple of days....

[evdog]

Cool. Here's a route that basically circles the outside of the area and can easily be accessed from I-15. It's basically my Day 4 and my half Day 2 with some other unknown stuff thrown in. From mile 17.5 to mile 28.3 is what I haven't ridden, so they're drawn in. They are on Trailforks for accurate GPS data. First part of the route is on MTB Project. Lots of ways to bail if you need to. I set it up clockwise so it ends with rocky Skyline ending and Hi-Hunt Trail which is fairly rocky/tech. Climbing going clockwise will be tough to the first big ridgeline and again on Blue Lake Trail, but you'll get an awesome descent down to the lake. The climb out of the lake would be fire road. It could probably work well the other way too. I'm sure there will be plenty of hike a bike either direction. Hopefully not a ton of down trees on the unknown 10 miles. It doesn't get you 50 miles but I think you'll be plenty worked at 40. There are a lot of tough miles.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34172763

Bring a water filter, there plenty of streams to refill but also cows everywhere.

This should be the best riding in the area. I'd do this one and then continue on to Durango.

[climberevan]

Well, I definitely owe you a beer. That loop is amazing. The section behind Delano/ Hawley is at least 50% ridable. It makes up for the pushing with ridiculous scenery and a really remote feel. The finish down Hy Hunt was a treat!

I took a ton of pictures but I need to get to another place to sleep so I'll work on it later. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Dantheman]

Sick! Followed you on Strava and it looks like you did a pretty big ride the day before too. Strong work.

[evdog]

Nice! I'd be careful who I'd recommend a route like that to but seemed like you'd be able to handle it. I plan on getting back out there next year to try it.

How was the section behind Delano/Hawley in terms of downed trees and trail condition? Dropping down there from Delano is where the trail disappeared.

[climberevan]

Yeah, I'm always up for a challenge. This was at least as hard as the Toiyabe Crest Trail loop I did, mostly bc of the pushing.

The navigation is pretty easy overall, and signage is very impressive. I never lost the trail for more than 50 feet. There are some downed trees, but I didn't find it excessive.

There main issue back there is that the climbs are so brutally steep and also loose. There are some short sections that are absurd: barely hikable, and quite difficult to drag the bike up. But holy shit, the scenery is incredible. The Pocket is especially great. I would go back there again, but maybe start from higher up like on the SRT so I don't already have 25 mi/7k in the legs before the real hard stuff starts.

How did you know about the dozer road up from Blue Lk? I don't see it on the maps, but it was a perfect link and just the right steepness to be ridable at a tempo pace without requiring hard efforts.

[evdog]

Yeah, I'm always up for a challenge. This was at least as hard as the Toiyabe Crest Trail loop I did, mostly bc of the pushing.

The navigation is pretty easy overall, and signage is very impressive. I never lost the trail for more than 50 feet. There are some downed trees, but I didn't find it excessive.

There main issue back there is that the climbs are so brutally steep and also loose. There are some short sections that are absurd: barely hikable, and quite difficult to drag the bike up. But holy shit, the scenery is incredible. The Pocket is especially great. I would go back there again, but maybe start from higher up like on the SRT so I don't already have 25 mi/7k in the legs before the real hard stuff starts.

How did you know about the dozer road up from Blue Lk? I don't see it on the maps, but it was a perfect link and just the right steepness to be ridable at a tempo pace without requiring hard efforts.

Good to know. I really wanted to check out Boullion and Pocket just got spooked after losing the trail the first day and didn't want a 2-3k HAB back out if it sucked. Just rant out of time in the end.

I found the dozer road on satellite while looking for a way to access Blue Lake trail. Didn't see anything on other map sources either like USGS, which is usually reliable. Everything in the area is partially covered by snow on sat view so you can tell something is there but don't have enough visibility to tell how legit the route is. Even harder for trails in the area. You can see bits and pieces but it's not obvious how well travelled it is. That's like crack to me, I have to go explore it. Almost everything turned out well.

I'm going to send your feedback over to Dave H who put the Dixie 200 and 311 routes together. The 311 reaches this area, it includes the first part you climbed then over to Big John Flat, south on ATV trail and then takes the Hy Hunt Tr (runs east to west). I think going further up to Blue Lake will be a worthy addition. Dixie is run in early Sept now so snow and downed trees shouldn't be an issue. I think that is the reason the route didn't go up that far before.

http://2-epic.com/events/dixie311.html

[evdog]

Someone on a local forum posted this up about the aspen tagging I saw. Apparently it was a thing for Basque sheepherders to carve things like names, dates, hometowns, thoughts, drawings etc into aspens and now these arborglyphs make up one of the few sources about the history of these people. Interesting stuff!

https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...hs-aspen-trees

https://digital.boisestate.edu/digit...on/p15948coll9

[evdog]

I made a stop back in Beaver UT last summer on my way home from CO/Wyoming/Idaho intending to put together the best trails I'd ridden in Fishlake NF into a big loop. Smoke had been playing havoc with ride plans but seemed to be clear enough here to make this ride a go.


Really, what's not to love? Except Chester's Chicken.




I found a nice campsite next to a stream that would let me end the ride at the bottom of a nice descent. Which meant I'd start the ride on this ATV trail that turned out to be kinda nice next to a stream full of trout




A bit of a road climb brought me to Lousy Jim Creek trail which starts off pretty rocky




Then it opens up and climbs up this draw




Near the top it goes into the trees where it climbs up to the ridge top. Some HAB required, followed by some route finding though a burn area.




After hitting a high point you drop down and pick up Blue Lake Trail which traverses a forested slope before climbing through meadows above 11k




Almost at the top




That's Blue Lake down there, looking kinda low. There is some awesome singletrack between me and the lake




Like this




Forgot about the shale climb




Climbing out of the lake is a pretty cool road that was carved out of steep mountain slopes.




Great views from higher up




I crossed the road onto new to me trail down Boullion Canyon




The riding was very nice through here.




I turned off onto another trail and hit this crossing at a low point. To follow was a steepish climb up a bunch of switchbacks. Some riding, some pushing




The trail climbed up and over a ridge into "The Pocket," the bowl at the top of a drainage. Pretty gorgeous in there




There was some silly steep scree riding, both up and down




The route turned onto Poison Creek trail which was much more faint. Lost it a few times in one meadow, but once in the trees it was easy to follow




Passed a couple old miner's cabins




Then a final switchback climb up to a trailhead at the top of a jeep trail




Drop down that for a little, then picked up more singletrack at the end of this doubletrack. I'd be climbing over a saddle somewhere on that ridge top on the left side of the pic




More steep climbs and descents would follow. A few of the climb sections were absurdly steep, hard to walk up even nevermind hauling a bike




There was a bit of nice trail too.




Passed the high point just before last light. Still had to ride half the Skyline NRT and drop the Hy Hunt trail back to the truck. All this would be in the dark. Ended with 40 miles and +/- 9,000ft on the day. 12hrs moving time, 13.5 total time. Saw exactly zero people on the trails. Awesome ride, one that I'll re-do again for sure!

[donutlynx]

Awesome! Love the Tushar Mtns. Used to go there every year from Flagstaff for the Crusher or MTB riding. Beaver Taco still on the south end of town?

[0g]

That shit looks sick!

Real pretty too

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[powpig]

I've been looking at the Trailforks map for rides above Beaver. Thought it would be a worthy one day excursion while staying either in Cedar City or by Panguitch Lake in Sept. Figured I'd talk to the guys in the Beaver bike shop as we got closer but may as well ask here.
I was scoping a point to point shuttle ride that starts somewhere up Hwy 153 either at or past Three Creeks Reservoir and rides in the opposite direction that Evdog seemed to be going.
Maybe up Hy Hunt (or maybe just around on the road), North on the Skyline NRT to Blue Lake and down all the way on the South Fork of North Creek.
Anyone been down that S Fork of N Creek trail? Looks like a nice ride profile, 3K down with only 500' of climbing over 10 miles.
Thanks.