| Description: | This ride is located north of Boise, starting at the confluence of Deadwood and South Payette rivers. Deadwood Ridge trail climbs on the west side of the ridge, mostly in the shade of the forest. The first 1/2 mile is quite steep, the rest has steep sections sandwiched into gradual ones. It was a relatively slow go and I was pretty hot even though it was not too hot outside. The steep sections were also often loosened by motorcycles which required some pushing. In about 6.5 miles of climbing, the trail slowly descends for 2 miles to Stevens Creek and then climbs a bit more for another 2 miles, albeit more gradually. The highest point marks the turnoff left to Julie Creek trail, 5.5 mile descent to Deadwood River. The trail was in a pretty decent shape, there were only two quite steep downhill rocky sections that I rode with one foot off the bike. Then follows a 7 mile ride on old logging road back to the trailhead. It first climbs a bit high above the river and then descends down. Several parts of road were loose but the rest was good, maybe too good because I crashed relatively hard after hitting something in a moment of attention lapse. Fortunately there was a creek nearby to wash the dirt off and decent doctors in Boise.
Overall a great ride, tough initial climb but great singletrack after that and lots of good views. Having paid more attention on the dirt road return it would not have any negative. |
