The Great R'Idaho Trail #3

Stage 2: Stanley to Lowman

From Stanley we make our way thru the towering Sawtooth mountains on our way to Lowman.  But first, you get to enjoy the spectacular views afforded by the Casino trails. Head out of Stanley towards the Casino camp ground. From there you have another trail challenge choice to make. You can either take highlight trail loop of Sunny Gulch and Little Casino trails with a view of the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness and head straight back to Stanley. Or you can head up Big Casino for lots of challenging bonus miles and two new special tests to choose from. At the top of the at times challenging Big Casino trail you have three choices. Firstly you can now just turn right and take the Sawtooth Vista trail 616 across to the top of Boundary Creek trail and descend down it to the road to Stanley. Your second option is to take the new special test out the spectacular and challenging Lookout mountain trail as an out and back. At the end of the climb take a very short walk to the lookout itself for some of the best views on the entire journey. After completing the out and back you can now either escape via the Sawtooth Vista trail to Boundary Creek or take the third option of the special test down Martin Creek Trail to Williams Creek. At the end of the challenging Martin Creek trail you can pick up some bonus trail miles with an out and back to the wilderness boundary on the beautiful but little travelled Warms Springs Creek trail before returning to finish up down the super flowing Williams creek trail. Depending on the time of day and if it is a weekend you may pass quite a number of mountain bikers also whooping and hollaring in joy at the flow.

However you got there. When you get back to Stanley, you take the Nip and Tuck Road to make your way back up to Trail 811 that you came in to town on the night before. But at the end, head up trail 37 this time, with a spur road along the way up to the the majestic view at Basin Butte Lookout at 8854ft. Then continue on intermediate single tracks to loop over to Hwy 21 . Arriving at Hwy 21, you can chose to go south to start today’s advanced special test loop, or head north a short distance on Hwy 21 to jump back off on Flat Creek Road to Trap Creek Trail. Even the standard loop has a short advanced trail section at the end to get of Trap Creek trail where it joins up with the end of the special test loop. Both options head north up Bench Creek and Sawtooth range views  before crossing Hwy 21 again at Bull Trout Lake Camp ground. From here, there is a bypass option to skip the main route trail loop that heads up Cape Horn trail and down Fir Creek. Both rejoin at Kirkham Ridge trail. You have another choice for extra trail miles to either take the standard route of Warm Springs Creek trail on our way to Lowman or to take Kirkham ridge trail itself back towards Lowman. You can either take Kirkman all the way to the end of it’s singletrack and finish with the ATV trail down into Lowman. Alternatively you can take the more popular (for good reason) option to take Eightmile Trail (also known as Link Trail) to enjoy some spectaular ridge views before dropping into the Warm Springs trail near the airport. From the end of Warm Springs trail you have one last choice for bonus trail miles. You can either escape and cruise down to Lowman for Gas, Food and potentially lodging or you can keep adding to the trail riding and take the excellent BlueJay Creek/Ten Mile Ridge/Wapiti Creek Loop before rejoing the road to Lowman. In Lowman, fast guys may even have the time to visit the impressive Kirkham Hot Springs to get some hot waterfall therapy for the body. Most will just have time for a much needed shower and a bed at the Sourdough Lodge.

 See Stage 3 Details Here.