Ride Preview: Cache Creek Sidewalk

By the time I took this ride, I was chomping at the bit to get some real trail riding experience. While riding a bike in general is simple, true mountain biking is harder than you think it should be and I was (and am) impatient to get the learning curve portion of this whole thing over with.

Specifically, I was hoping to get out on some of the trails I discussed with the U.S. Forest Service ranger a few weeks back. He'd mentioned several trails and routes that would be good for a "single-track" beginner, and all of them are accessible from at or near the Cache Creek Trailhead.

Living around here, you hear about the Cache Creek Trail so often that you know what it is long before you know where it is. Running parallel to it is a smaller, dirt trail called Cache Creek Sidewalk that meets up with both the main trail and myriad other trails in the area, and is apparently a good first single track bike ride.

 

Single track, as I found out, refers to the fact that (as this Forest Service pic shows) these trails are narrow, with room for a - gasp - single track. In the Jackson Hole regional vocabulary, this phrase is as commonly used as "pop" in the Midwest, "crawdad" in the South..."Oops" in Washington D.C.

In order to really know how to mountain bike, you have to be able to do it.

So I wanted to do it.

However, in the interest of not getting carried away, I figured starting with the sidewalk was probably wise. One Saturday when I had to work, I resolved to reward myself for the abbreviated weekend by tackling the ride Sunday afternoon. Now, I'd never been up that way, and never really tried a single track trail, but I am not one to back down from such a situation, even when it would be a good idea to do so. I went home from  my day of work resolved - tomorrow, I would dip my toe into single track riding.

My route: Snow King Drive to Vine Street to Kelly Avenue to Redmond Drive to Upper Cache Creek Drive to Cache Creek Sidewalk and back along Cache Creek Trail (kind of complicated-sounding, isn't it?)

Surface - Paved road until Upper Cache Creek Drive, which turns to dirt-and-gravel partway there. Then dirt on Cache Creek Sidewalk and Cache Creek Trail

Incline - Nothing all that significant. Anything there is ends up being pretty short.

Distance: Around 7.5 miles one way. Cache Creek Sidewalk itself is 1.5 miles long.

What you'll see: The actual Cache Creek runs parallel to the trail below the whole length of the sidewalk. Plus great views of the hills and ridges in the Greater Snow King Recreation Area. And wildflowers. More now than I saw on this ride.