Big Hole Crest Trail - Mid July

I've been thinking about doing this route for pretty much the entire time I've lived in the valley and I finally got around to doing it. Since the north end is less marked, I decided that scouting it on a mtn bike would be easier due to the ability to cover ground faster and if a wrong turn was taken it would be more quickly corrected. So I invited Melissa along knowing she'd been wanting to get out and ride and also knowing she'd have a great attitude towards embarking on an adventure into the unknown.

This ride is a classic. A must-do for anyone wanting to do a full-day cross country route that has everything: Smooth dirt/gravel roads, rough two-track, steep climbs, steeper descents, and enough beautiful rolling singletrack interlaced along the way to make the entire journey an unforgettable one.

We began at Packsaddle Road at the parking area where the road pitches steeply upward and turns to dirt/rock and began making our way west, then south, toward the route's high point next to the radio towers on Realy Ridge. From there, it was south, over to Elk Flat under the eastern flank of Garns Mtn, then skirting the edges of Thunder and Red Mtn before scooting down the fast singletrack traverse past Squirrel Mtn, before the final couple short steep climbs leading to the giant-grin-inducing descent down the Corral Creek and Spooky trails and ending with an easy cool down on the shallow, one mile climb to the summit of Pine Creek Pass on Hwy 31.

The following week, I loaded up a four-day pack and set off on a "simulation exercise" to see what running with a 25lb pack feels like. So after work on Saturday, I loaded up my Aarn Marathon Magic 30 and set off from the same Packsaddle parking area under a blazing hot sun at 2:15pm to repeat the same Big Hole Crest route I had done the weekend before. My intent was to make it the 31 miles to Pine Creek Pass by nightfall. I had just over 7 hours to work with. I made it in 7 1/2. My next goal was to sleep out there that night, then get up the next morning to make my way to the top of Pole Canyon and over to the Mail Cabin/Coal Creek THs where I would meet up with Mark and Kathryn and link up to the Teton Crest Trail. If I were to decide to do the JMT (which, a few weeks later, I ended up deciding not to do), I wanted to see what it felt like to carry a loaded pack over consecutive days.

The short story is, it wasn't good. My shoulders were killing me after day 1. Partly due to the weighty items I was carrying and partly due to how I fitted my pack. I think with a lighter, more streamlined load, and better knowledge now of how my pack fits, it will go better next time. And that's exactly why I planned this route: for simulation. And I learned enough to make next time a more comfortable and enjoyable experience.

Unfortunately, I made the rookie mistake of setting off without making sure my camera battery was fully charged so this is the only picture I was able to take: Me, across from the Tetons, getting ready to leave the Porsche.