China Peak

So today's ride was a grueling, 2204 feet in four miles accent up what is known as China Peak on the east bench of Pocatello. This trail is a double track trail that wides it's way up the mountain side until you come to the top where many different radio towers are present. This is a trail that is accessible by Jeep, and I have come up here a couple of times in the Jeep, but I thought I'd give it a go on the bike. Let's just say that I'll be taking the Jeep up it next time I decided to conquer that peak.
I started out from the house where I'm staying at while I'm here in Pocatello and rode along the roads for about two miles until I came to the road that eventually takes you up China Peak. The road starts out as a paved road but eventually turns into that double track dirt road. Because this is the side of the mountain that is constantly in the sun the vegetation is mainly just shrubs and tumbleweeds with very limited trees to provide shade. Did I mention the grueling four mile climb? If not let me repeat it...it was grueling! It's basically a switch-back ride up to the top. Not much more I can say about it. Seeing Scout Mountain off in the distance and knowing that last summer I was able to make it to the top of that on my bike kept me going along this horrible ride up. And yes, hike-a-bike was in play for some of the trail.
Once at the top the view of the valley is pretty spectacular. You can pretty much take in the whole city of Pocatello and Chubbuck from this height. The backside of the mountain looks to be full of green lush pockets of trees and flowers which should make for a nice ride later on (but I'll be Jeeping the bike up to the top next time). I think it took a little over an hour and a half just to drag myself up that mountain.

I didn't spend much time at the top because I was planning on taking a different route back that I was told would make for some fun downhill and I was anxious to get to that. This trail follows the crest line from China peak to the north and goes up and over a couple other little peaks. From China to the first peak it was a fun little ride with a few quick turns and some rolly polly type trails. Then came the first peak. I stopped and talked with a guy who had just hiked over the first peak on his way up to China and he asked me if I was planning on going down the peak on my bike (yes I held my tongue, but a little Bill Engvall came to mind). He then told me that it was pretty steep and rocky and made for a hard hike up. He said it might be better to walk the bike down part of it. I said thanks for the advice and continued to climb the peak. The dude wasn't kidding at all! I got to the peak and just looked down thinking holy crap! It was steeper than I had expected and also much rockier too. So I took his advice and walked down the more treacherous parts. I then jumped back on and headed up the next little peak only to find that it looked pretty tricky as well (however, not as bad as the first one). I decided to give this one a whirl on the bike and see how the two of us do. What I can say is this, my hands and legs were killing me at the bottom because of how much pressure I was putting on the breaks and how much leaning back I had to do to keep from going end over all the way down. I probably fished tailed down half that hill because of the loose gravel and rocks. But it was fun. You'll be able to see those hills on the profile picture at the bottom. They're the ones that seem to drop off.
After tackling that little descent it was all downhill from there. Again the trail was pretty much dirt and rolly polly that made for some good jumps and a smooth ride with the full suspension.
Overall I think I did about eleven miles in a little over two hours for the round trip.