Without much information we crossed our fingers and set out on mountain bikes to ride the Highline Trail from our camping spot. The Highline Trail in its entirety is 101.6 miles and the section near us showed black diamond for atv’s, and mountain bikes so we figures what the heck?
The trail starts in an open grassy meadow at the base of some treed mountains. We crossed a couple streams and grassy fields before heading into the trees. Immediately the trail got incredibly rocky. Pretty big jumbled rock fields spread out across the trail and the going was technical and slow. The trail is steep in spots and we had to carefully pick our way up the steeper pitches. Hiking up rock fields in cycling cleats is a challenge! After just a couple miles and almost 1000′ later we came to an impossible hill. Well, not impossible, but not wanting to hike up, we decided to cut our losses and find something else to ride. Now, the ride back down was awesome!
Our day wasn’t over here though. We pedaled down another trail that paralleled the highway for a short distance and then crossed and climbed up a 4wd rode on the other side. This was a beautiful ribbon of dirt that wound through the forest and eventually led us to a dirt road to the historic Stringham Cabin.
Stringham Cabin
Built in 1926, the Stringham Cabin served as a summer headquarters for the Stringham family and their two bands of sheep. The cabin is tucked into the hillside surrounded by trees and a beautiful meadow. Logs for the cabin were cut by axe and hauled by mule to the site. Apparently back in the day, the family even setup a 9 hole golf course for entertainment! Looking around, I felt like an episode of Little House on the Prairie could have been filmed here.
Instead of retracing our route to head back, we explored some other dirt roads that ended up taking us to the road we came in on. As I mentioned before, it might be a bit early for most people to camp and recreate up here at such a high elevation, but give it a month and I bet it’s busy. Fortunately for us we didn’t encounter anyone else on our adventures.
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