City of Rocks: Circle Creek Trail

Sunday June 17 2012

Sunday we did the most spectacular trail in City of Rocks National Reserve - the loop up one side of Circle Creek, past Elephant Rock, along Rat Poop Trail, past the Bread Loaves (very popular climbing rock), way up into the aspen and fir forests to Indian Grove, and down the other side of Circle Creek. We'll probably do this trail on Day 1 and Day 4 of the July 11-14 endurance ride.

Jose and I are passing through where one of the vet checks will be.

Judy and Milan 

Just a spectacular view of the Circle Creek valley

Steph and Rhett pointing out something else spectacular

You can see my previous stories, and more photos and information on the ride at

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2011CityofRocks/

And… videos to come!

City of Rocks Adventure

Thursday June 14 2012

We're off to City of Rocks, to finalize the details for Steph's upcoming City of Rocks Pioneer Trails Endurance Ride coming up in July.

Camping out with the horses, riding Jose, exploring, taking photos, making some videos... stay tuned!

Good Lord Willing and the Crick Don't Rise

Tuesday March 13 2012

The Owyhee Fandango 25/30/50/60/80/100 is (sort of) around the corner: May 25-27.

We went out on foot and scouted the Whiskey Traverse, a spectacular stretch of trail alongside the Snake river for a mile below the cliffs, among boulders. It was a pretty technical trail which was used during the 2010 Fandango 80 and 100 miler.

We checked to make sure there are clear paths around the boulders, and we found detours around any sketchy spots.

The only thing that would prevent us using it this year, besides a sudden 10,000-year flood which would deposit new boulders along the river, would be if the Snake River rises over the one spot of the trail that drops right down beside the river for about 20 feet. In this case, Steph would cut out this part of the trail and just include the Petroglyphs loop (which is not too shabby itself), and add the mileage on somewhere else.


So, the Good Lord willing and the Crick Don't Rise, the Whiskey Traverse will be part of this year's Owyhee Fandango 80 and 100 mile rides.

[slide show here]

City of Rocks: New Trails

Tuesday October 25 2011

Goldseekers. Hunters. Trappers. Wanderers. Adventurers. Flee-ers. Seekers. Hundreds of thousands of pioneers emigrated westward along the California Trail in the early and mid-1800's. The northern branch of the California Trail passes through the old lands of the Shoshone and Bannock Indians, through what is now southern Idaho, and the City of Rocks National Reserve.

Between 1843 and 1882, an estimated quarter million emigrants travelled through the City of Rocks on this trail en route to the West. In 1852 alone, some 52,000 people passed through.


City of Rocks was a landmark for the emigrants, one that inspired wonder and romantic awe, and a form of relief in their long journey from the East:

 Sallie Hester -  August 3, 1849
"Passed some beautiful scenery, high cliffs of rocks resembling old ruins or dilapidated buildings."

Dr. John Hudson Wayman - July 12, 1852: "This City is walled in on every side with towering granite mountains, some peaks shooting athwart the sky like towering domes. While hundreds of piles, peaks, steeples and domes, of all shapes possible in the distance looking like an old dilapidated City"

The Twin Sisters - 2 side-by-side granite spires, one of which is 2.5 billion years old, the other 25 million years old - have been significant throughout recorded human history. The peaks may have had important spiritual significance for the Native Americans. They were a significant landmark for the pioneers travelling the California Trail. Not named "Twin Sisters" by white people until 1848, there were 88 descriptions in 86 pioneer journals comment on them, including Steeple Rocks, Twin Mounds, Twin Buttes, Twin Pyramids at Gate, Two Dome Mountain, and Castle Rocks.


The old California Trail snakes through the Circle Creek valley, surrounded by the unique granite formations that give City of Rocks its name. Emigrant Canyon, through which runs the old Salt Lake Alternate Emigrant Trail and the old Boise-Kelton Stage Route, spills into City of Rocks with a view of the Twin Sisters where it meets the California Trail. Heath Canyon climbs up and over a gentle pass that also drops down to the California Trail and a view of the Twin Sisters (see my stories of our rides over these other trails here).

Perhaps the pioneers also used this new route we rode on Saturday. Maybe they travelled up the valley of Junction Creek, and turned off and camped at Sparks Spring and watered their animals like we did.


Perhaps they picnicked and rested at this giant granite pinnacle like we did.


Maybe they crested this unnamed pass and were amazed at the Twin Sisters that rose into view and guided them like a beacon as they descended to the Salt Lake Alternate trail, as they did for us.


Maybe our awe matched their own.

[slide show here]

Riding the High Owyhee Country

Friday August 12 2011

Steph has toyed with the idea of a Silver City Ghost Town endurance ride. We've tinkered with the idea of riding from home up to Silver City (the base of the mountains are roughly 6 miles away), spending the night in the old historic Idaho Hotel (established 1863), and riding back home the next day. We just have to find a good route up the mountain - and we keep chipping away at little pieces of it.

Hauling up into the Owyhees today, our goal was to retrace some of our hoofprints from last year in a quest for a loop on top - but without getting semi-lost like we did with Dudley.

Karen was going to bring maps, but she didn't - nor did I - but Karen was pretty sure she knew the correct road to take this time... and if we did get lost, I wasn't worried this time because I was on Jose, a fit horse with tough feet (and Easyboot gloves). And I carried a GPS, a jacket, and food and water and gatorade, and horse treats, for a long day.

Regina wasn't sure her rig would make it up the steepest part of the grade to Silver City carrying 4 horses - so we stopped at the beginning of the steep climb, in the middle of the road (no traffic), and Karen and I unloaded Rusty and Jose, and we hopped on them and trotted them a mile up the road after the horse trailer.

Regina waited for us after the steep climb and we loaded back up in the rig for the rest of the drive up the mountain, to the corrals around the corner from historic Silver City, the living mining ghost town.


The four of us headed up the War Eagle road, past the Fairview Cemetery (established 1873),


past the site of the old town of Fairview, (burned completely down in 1875; a few foundations remain among the sagebrush),


past the old mine shafts and tailings of the Poorman mine (started in 1865, one of the richest bodies of ore for its size ever discovered - 500 pounds of ruby silver were removed from the mine in one piece of ore - this piece was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1867),

below a soaring immature golden eagle and the red cliffs,


up onto Burnam Flats!


Jose had never been up here before. He was agog at the views.


We could see home from up here - or at least where our 2 creeks converge, under the green dot of trees.


We also found a different road down off the mountain... which possibly meets up with the Silver City road, and which possibly meets up with Gerty Creek, which joins with Sinker Creek, which is easy access from our place...

After a good snack on the abundant grass left by the cows still hanging out on the mountain, we moved on into the Pickett Creek drainage and its 'headwaters' - up here, myriad little steep drainages that create Pickett Creek,


and the one flowing year-round spring that Jose drank deeply from.


Another 2 miles brought us through the jungle of aspens to the Pickett Creek saddle, to the other side of the mountain.


We skirted the base of Hayden Peak (highest in the Owyhees at 8403'),


and this time, instead of following what we thought last year was the obvious road (and this was the area of the missing map), this time we turned onto a road with a locked gate, which crawled up the side of Hayden Peak. We'd gotten permission from the local rancher to ride this road, so up the side of the mountain we climbed.


The views opened up below us - we could see the logging road we'd taken last year in error, that petered out on top of a peak and ended far away from War Eagle mountain.


Jose couldn't get enough of the views as we climbed to almost 8000'.


Still on the main jeep road, we eventually descended to the saddle between War Eagle and Hayden Peaks - much easier than our scramble last year. The breeze was delightfully cool (the exciting harbinger of an early fall!?) and Ravens drifted and tumbled above us.


We dropped down to the main jeep road and rode the several miles back to the trailer - an easy 22-mile round trip (5 1/2 hours).

Jose drank his fill at a creek before we loaded back up to drive off the mountain - and we humans stopped for a Murphy burger (!!) on the way home.


We were already scheming our next ride in the Owyhees. Now, about that Silver City Ghost Town endurance ride...

[slide show here]