Snow holding on along one of our local trails.
We’ll see how things shake out during the next couple of weeks, but for now, the vast majority of our local singletrack remains temporarily closed due to wet conditions. The trails are closed to protect them while they are wet and muddy. When people travel on wet trails the resulting damage is costly and difficult to repair. So, lend a hand and stay off of closed trails.
Most of the Croy Trails are open. Hidden Valley is only partially open for out-and-backs.
On the brighter side, the BLM’s Croy Trail Network is mostly all open. Over half of the Hidden Valley Loop is open, and only about 1.5 miles of the Two Dog Trail remains closed. Open Croy trails include Nadya’s, Wilson Gulch, Punchline, Centerline, Bullion Connector, and the above-mentioned portions of Two Dog and Hidden Valley. Stitching together a number of the open Croy trails can add up to a moderately long outing.
The trails closer to Ketchum and Sun Valley are mostly all closed, but the Ketchum Ranger District has opened the Sunnyside-Lanes Trail #316 for out-and-backs. Citizens Trail #143 is open from its intersection with Lane’s for approximately ¼ mile for a short extension of this out-and-back opportunity. Near to the Adams Gulch Trailhead the Adams-Lake Creek Connector Trail #321 is open for about one-half mile for another out-and-back opportunity.
The higher north-facing portions of the White Clouds Trail is still under snow or has areas that are wet and muddy. Please stay off of it until it drys out.
Also open on the KRD is a short portion of the Fox Creek Trail #149. The trail is open from its south end near the BLM Lake Creek Trailhead/Hulen Meadows Subdivision to the north and across the meadows/ski-trails area; to where the trail enters the woods near the exercise station. All other portions of the Fox Creek Trail are closed.
Out Trail Creek, east of Sun Valley, the Corral Creek Trail #325 is open for a short distance across the Sun Valley Company’s meadows/cross-country ski trails area. Corral Creek Trail is open only to where it enters the woods.
The Sun Valley Company’s White Cloud Trails are partially open. The highest portions of the White Clouds Loop Trail run above the Big Wood Subdivision and face north. This section of the trail is under snow or is wet and muddy. Pease stay off of this north facing section of the trail. Nearby, the Big Wood Connector Trail makes a connection from the Big Wood Subdivision’s Telemark Lane up to the White Clouds Trail. This is also a north facing trail that contains active seeps that are running water. This trail stays wet and muddy for quite a while into the spring. Please stay off of the Big Wood Connector for a couple more weeks, or until it is sufficiently dry.
To view what is open on a map, go to the BCRD Summer TraiLink site. Above the main map, click on any of the listed regions to quickly zoom in to an area of interest.
Click on any of the areas listed in the menu bar above the main map to zoom into an area of your choosing.
I like to toggle between the base-map layers on the Summer TraiLink site.
Look for the toggle option on each map to switch between base-map layers.
The default setting has the base-map in the “map” mode. This provides you with a Google Maps base-map layer. You can change this to “satellite” mode if you would like to have Google Earth imagery as your base-map layer. Each of the site’s maps includes a toggle where you can switch between the two formats.
Look for the toggle in the corners of the various maps (it is in different corner locations on different maps).
To stay abreast of what has opened recently and for other timely updates and information about the dirt trails in the valley visit the BCRD Summer TraiLink site often.