The Pocatello Ride

Happy Memorial Day. A few years ago, John Summers heard about a ride that is popular among Pocatello area cyclists.  The ride is undoubtedly known by various names, but I have heard it referred to as the Four Summits Ride. The route starts in Pocatello, and almost immediately climbs east up Buckskin Road. It turns south in the Rapid Creek area and continues to Inkom where it climbs to the Pebble Creek Ski Area.  The climb to Pebble is one of the toughest in the area with over two miles of uninterrupted 12% grades. After Pebble, the route crosses the valley and continues to the top Of Mink Creek, a climb also known as Crystal by the locals. It finishes up with a climb of Scout Mountain and a return to Pocatello via the Old Bannock Highway.

In total, the distance is a little over 70 miles and the total vertical is in excess of 7000 feet. Quite a few Upper Valley cyclists have done the ride. Since John first discovered the ride, we have tried to go down and do the ride a time or two every year. Cynics are quick to dismiss the scenery in the Pocatello area, but anyone who has done the ride knows the scenery is absolutely outstanding throughout much of the ride and the topography varied and interesting. The ride is hard, but not soul-crushingly hard and it is fun. In my opinion, it occupies a prominent place on the list of truly classic rides in Southeastern Idaho.

In the Upper Valley, we generally refer to this as the Pocatello Ride. This morning, we drove down to Pocatello to do this much loved ride with a group of eight, pictured above at the top of the road to Scout Mountain (Cameron, Jeff, Kellen, Dan, Ryan, Tim, Joe, and me). Joe is not pictured because he had to bail prior to the final climb due to a scheduling conflict.

As far as the ride is concerned today, I have nothing but good news to report. Well, I guess almost nothing but good news. Over the past few days, I have heard from a number of Upper Valley cyclists who really wanted to go down today, but were unable to do so due to various scheduling conflicts. I am sorry we were not able to take everyone who wanted to go. Otherwise, everything went absolutely according to script with no mishaps, mechanicals, or weather-related issues. Often, we have suffered from significant heat on the climbs, particularly Mink Creek. The weather today was cool and mild throughout and the rain which was forecast never really materialized. Everyone in the group worked together very cooperatively and we were able to get through the ride pretty efficiently with a minimum of suffering.

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the ride today. For those of you who were unable to attend, there is no question that we will be back to do this again in the future.