RAD Report: Browns Rd - Three Forks - Mud Springs Loop

Ryan and I headed out on a little adventure this Friday, and I'm happy to report that it appears that most of the roads in the Big Hole area should be open for riding.

For those new to our neck of the woods, the Big Hole mountains are the range on the south from Piney Creek pass and the South Fork of the Snake River north to the Teton River.  Teton Valley (Victor, Driggs and Tetonia) lie on the east, and Ririe, Rexburg, and Newdale border the range on the west.

Having grown up in Rexburg, I told Ryan that I really regret not spending more time up in these beautiful hills and valleys when I was younger.  He agreed - it's a great place literally out our backdoor.  You can hop on your gravel bike and ride yourself to any number of gravel roads and make any combination into a memorable ride.

If you're looking for more beta on the area, look no further than Randy Huskinson, who has a mental map of every turn, rock and tree and will be happy to get you on your way.


Friday, Ryan and I did a loop which ended up piecing together parts of previous adventures with Randy.  We started riding east, up from Rexburg along Poleline road and turned south at Walker Siding (some call this the "Oz road", since the silos at the railroad siding rise up out of green potato and grain fields like the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz).

We continued south to 8000 S, and turned east again up the Lyon Creek Road (this is another one often referred to as the Moody Meadows road; which is where Ryan and I were eventually headed). But after turning south again we fairly quickly turned east onto a gravel road, called Browns road, and continued to follow this east to Moody Creek Canyon, and then wound our way southeast eventually past Bowan's Cabin - which serves as a snowmobile warming hut in the winter.

After climbing up to the major power line cut, the road wanders southeast along some sometimes deeply rutted areas.  We dodged a few large areas of standing water that have gotten big enough that even the motorized vehicles have cut alternate paths to get around.  Eventually we came to a fence line with a track on the west side, and a more worn dirt road immediately on the other side.  We followed this road as it went from 4x4 terrain to ATV terrain, eventually to what would best be described as a wicked descent even on a full suspension MTB.  At the bottom we arrived at one of the "Three Forks"; the confluence of Fish Creek and South Moody Creek.  Had we gone north we'd have arrived at the confluence of South and North Moody forks where they become Moody Creek at Graham Hollow.

We first crossed Fish Creek, and then turned west and south to cross South Moody.  From there the ATV trail climbs pretty much straight up and out of Sweetwater Canyon.  I'm pretty sure Ryan climbed the whole thing without tapping out.  Having gone down in a crusty rut earlier I wasn't taking any chances and will admit to stepping off a couple of times to negotiate rocks and roots on the 20%+ grade climb.

Eventually the trail takes you over the top to a more established road that hugs the south side of North Moody creek.  The creek here cuts a pretty impressive little canyon through basalt cliffs. You catch brief glimpses of the cliffs through the trees as you descend back down the road to the creek itself.  This is the only place we saw snow extending down onto the road, as we were in the shade of the north face of the canyon.  Eventually the track is intersected by a couple of trails coming in from the south, but we continued upstream along the creek heading northeast until coming to one last wide crossing where we had to walk the bikes across a ford too cobbled to ride safely.

From there it was up and out to the intersection with the Mud Springs Road, which angled up north (to our left).  Having been deep down in the canyon just a bit before, it was nice to see the valley open up into a wide, gentle south facing slope covered in sagebrush.  The Mud Springs road is wide, smooth and well graded right now, and even though uphill, rode like a dream.  Along the way we passed several slash piles (see the pictures) from logging last season.  We also passed what must be the "mud springs", a couple of watering holes for cattle, one of which has a piped outflow from what must be an artesian well (good to remember if you're low on water).

From there the ride back was much faster.  We turned back west at the intersection with a spur that heads over to the Long Hollow Road, and continued along the graveled road until coming out on the east side of Moody Creek proper.  The road from Graham Hollow comes in from the south along the way, and after two intimidating climbs the rest is all downhill to Moody Creek.  The crossing at the bottom is across a well maintained bridge, and then a long climb up and out to the intersection where we turned west again to eventually come out on Walker Siding road just north of the silos.

Were it not for a pretty brisk wind from the west it'd have been a perfect day.  But when biking in Idaho it's a rare day indeed that you're not fighting the wind at some point.  And now that the snow is melted out it looks to be a great season of gravel rides!