Fat Bike Ride - Packsaddle Rd. to Horseshoe Canyon (with Packsaddle Spur)

At Daniel's suggestion a group from Rexburg made a little expedition over to the snowmobile trails well maintained by the District 33 (Big Hole) groomers.

These are gracious folks who we met on our way out and doubtless spend many hours keeping these beautiful tracks groomed.

There's a great write-up of the trail by the folks at JH Nordic here, so if you want trail details and description head on over.

We chose to start at the trailhead at Kay's Dairy.  Apparently many prefer to start at the south end of this trail to avoid the first killer uphill.  (Now we know why.)  Once we'd crested this initial rise we were treated to wonderful views and a much kinder slope the remainder of our travels towards  the first junction where we turned south to Horseshoe Canyon.

Along the way we took a moment to stare at a moose that was having a much tougher go of it than us.  It probably wanted to be on the groomed trail too.

We continued along the trail to Horseshoe Canyon past the second intersection (Packsaddle Horseshoe) and turned around where the trail topped out a little bit more than a mile south.  On our way back we decided to go 15 minutes up the Packsaddle trail and got our intervals done for the day as the trail went up 500 feet in half a mile (average grade = 19%), with several portions much steeper.  Kudos to Shae who I think was the only one who didn't touch a foot on the way up.

The ride out was a bunch of fun, and we made it out in a little less than half the time it took to climb up.  At some point we'd undoubtedly be back to ride more of these gorgeous trails.