Five star route! Our second day of riding in Pocatello felt markedly different from day one. Today we were deep in green jungle forest for the first part of the loop and then high up on flowery mountains for the rest. Our loop (with a slight detour the wrong way) was 19.1 miles with 3,023′ of climbing.
We started at the Slate Mtn trailhead off South Mink Creek Road and took a dirt doubletrack up to the start of the West Fork Mink Trail. This trail climbed up along the creek and through the forest before turning at Elk Meadow and continuing around to Gibson Jack. Gibson Jack is a flowy descent with plenty of rock gardens thrown in. This section was very narrow and steep in parts. We came across some bizarre bug cocoon things that were covering a section of trail but I’m not sure what they were..you can seem them in a picture.
After turning on Slate Mountain we climbed up to the high point. The trail is very narrow and follows the contour of the mountain on and on through flowers, and a bit of exposure here and there. We were clipping along at a pretty good pace because an afternoon thunderstorm threatened so we don’t have a ton of pictures. The downhill to finish this trail is screaming! It’s fast and very narrow with waterbar drops all over. The trail is so narrow that if you aren’t careful, your pedals will hit the side and throw you off. Also, it’s so bushy and green here that the trail gets overgrown fast so expect leg and arm scratches.
We had tremendous fun on this ride and I’d ride it again and again.
Leave a Reply