Since the mid-1970's, people in south-central Idaho have enjoyed biking in some of the most stunning natural landscapes - on mountain and foothill trails and valley trails crossing public and private lands.
With the help of mountain bike enthusiasts, county, state and federal agencies have created more than 20 miles of mountain bike trails on Bureau of Land Management land in the Croy Creek area west of Hailey, Idaho.
During the summer of 2010, the latest section of mountain bike trail took shape in Wilson Gulch. It is just a little over a mile in length and it is designed and built specifically for mountain bikers. The trail has a lot of different features in it. We've got a lot of different types of jumps, table tops and rollers to really enhance the mountain biking experience.
This new segment of trail features six single rollers, twelve double rollers and eight table tops. This is a table top jump. We have several of these scattered throughout the trail system. The idea is to jump it from one end to the other, but you can also roll through it and never let your tires leave the ground.
The contract to construct the trail was funded with an allocation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and was awarded to extreme excavation of Shoshone, Idaho. The project represented immediate stimulus to the local economy - and in the longer term, a "draw" for visitors and future residents.
There is absolutely not any extra dollars available for things other than the requirements that the state government gives us that we have to do. So, if it wasn't for this program, and if it wasn't for the cooperation between Blaine County and B L M, there would be no way that the County could do this on their own.
The thing that really drove this was the demand of the users. Several years ago we had gotten letters of requests of that from state representatives, county commissioners and by me attending local trail organization meetings for several years we realized that there was a demand for spring trail opportunities closer to the City of Hailey. Right now there is an absolutely world class trail system up in Ketchum on Forest Service land, but there was nothing down here where the good majority of the population lives. That really drove the need to have a designated trail system down here in the southern part of the valley.
Located near the growing town of Hailey, the Croy Creek Trail System allows local residents to enjoy exceptional public land opportunities virtually "right out their back doors"! There's a lot of people that actually ride from town, it's only a three mile ride out here to the trailhead. Then from there you can easily ride for a good two and a half or three hours if you like or you can come out on the lunch hour and get a quick forty-five minute ride in. So it really provides a nice spectrum of experiences for people.
Mixing the cooperation among trail users and local and federal government agencies...with unique public land opportunities...and economic recovery funding will attract visitors and future residents while building and maintaining community in the Wood River Valley.
We have found that the cooperation that we have had between B L M and Blaine County, as well as the Forest Service, allows us to implement visions that we would not have otherwise.
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Idaho Homesteading - Whiskey Springsby BLMIDAHO202 views
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