Green Timber Fat Bike

 

The general plan today was to ride over Robison Creek and drop down onto the Fish Creek Road. This is a very familiar gravel segment for people who have ridden in the Ashton area in the summertime. We were disappointed to find a lack of parking at the end of the road maintenance and a long series of no parking signs along the Robison Creek Road. We eventually settled for some dubious parking just south of the Green Timber Road. These are trails maintained for snowmobilers with little accommodation made for skiers or cyclists. You may remember my post about riding fat bikes with Tim in Salt Lake City last winter and how unusual it seemed to ride trails specifically maintained for fat bikes, snow-shoes, and other non-motorized recreation. If you are going to ride fat bikes in South Eastern Idaho, you really have to depend on snowmobile trails.

Here is a link to the extensive network of snowmobile trails maintained in Fremont County. http://www.co.fremont.id.us/departments/parks_rec/pdf/snowmap.pdf You may notice the curious deletion of the Green Timber Road between Highway 47 and the intersection designated “80” on the map which is where we stared our ride. We rode north to intersection “81” with the plan to continue north over Robison Creek. At that point, the majority of the traffic and better grooming turned west. Snow conditions were too soft to continue north.

It was cold today. The snowmobile trail was generally smooth and consolidated as it followed a Rails to Trails route over rolling farmland. (Note: This is not the Ashton to Tetonia trail, but Tony tells me it is an old railroad right-of-way). It was not the exact plan that we started with, but with bright clear skies, minimal wind, and good snow conditions, it was a fine day out on the big bikes. When Dawn saw this photo she commented: “Dan is certainly a sexy beast!”