Scout Mountain

So this weeks trail came a little earlier in the week than the weekend for two reasons; 1) I had Wed of this week from class and 2) I’ll be at Bear Lake this Sat living it up on my ski. We decided to head up Valve House like we did a couple of weeks ago but instead on turning down the wash to loop back around we kept heading up the trail toward Scout Mountain. The trail is a pretty steady incline until we met up with East Fork trail which follows along the base of Scout Mountain until it wraps around the back and up. The trail becomes a little more difficult with steeper, rockier climbs…and more of them. Along the trail we passed a pond that, with the mountainous backdrop the pond didn’t look too bad but upon closer inspection it looked like breading grounds for West Nile and Malaria. We’d been told about the ponds by some other bikers and I was hoping to do some little swimming but that didn’t play out. After the pond we rode up another ridge and came out in a valley of wildflowers and a great view of the country.

Here’s where the fun begins. The actual accent up the mountains begins. We went from 7400 ft to 8600 ft in 3 ½ miles up the backside of the mountain. The trail consists of switchbacks and rocky terrain. It’s big enough for four wheelers and Jeeps to climb up. At the top of the mountain there were a few different tower transmitters and a spectacular view. We took about a 20 min break at the peak and then headed back down. Instead of following the original trail up we decided to ride down the back side of the mountain and wrap around it. This trail is a fun single track trail called Crestline trail and as the name implies follows the contour of the crest. Like I said it’s a single track trail that, on one side hugs the mountain, and the other side a 1000 ft roll down the mountain. We decided it was best not to do anything stupid and go rolling down since neither one of us had cell phone service and only a weak first aid kit that consisted of bandages, gauze, and a wrap. Funny story though, at the beginning of this trail there were a couple of snow banks that cross over the trail. While trying to cross over my friend’s bike did a little slipping and sliding. While trying to control it he went over the handle bars, started running down, jumped, tried to grab onto a tree to stop him, lost his footing and flipped and rolled twice down cracking his head on some rocks. We had just barely begun this leg of the trail and so the fall/roll down was only 25 or 30 feet. Luckily, he was wearing his helmet and there was no head trauma. His helmet got a nice little crack in it on the right frontotemporal side.

After riding along the ridge we came to a downhill that rode through some beautiful forest. For all those Ogdenites reading this it reminded me of coming down Malan’s Peak and Taylor canyon along the switchbacks.

We met up with the paved road that leads up to the Scout Mountain Campgrounds and from there caught the trail that headed back down Valve House, our starting trail. If being out on the mountain for a whole day wasn't fun enough we topped off the ride by chasing a moose down the trail. It was all downhill and after coming around a bend there was a moose standing in the middle of the trail. When she saw us fly around the corner she took off and we followed her down until she ducked out of the way.Apparently my friend didn’t have enough fun falling down a mountain or chasing the moose do he decided that he needed to also blow out the valve on his front tire and get a flat along the last leg. So we had to stop and wait for him to switch out tubes.

The trail took us 7 ½ hrs to ride and hike and a roundtrip of 25 ½ miles. From the beginning to the summit it took us 3 hrs 40 mins and was 11.15 miles. It took us another 3 ½ hrs to get back to the Jeep because of the other trail we took. It was a long, hot, and dusty day but well worth it for the scenery and the shots.

After riding all day on the trail