I’ve had fond memories of Bull Mountain over the past 8 years and Monday I decided to see how my memories compared to reality. We got up to the trails early and found only two other cars in the parking lot but at least there weren’t any horse trailers around. Mudhunny and I have always ridden the loop clockwise so we started the climb on the washed out and eroded singletrack.
The climbing felt about the same and believe it or not the trails didn’t seem to be much worse off than when we last rode them 8 years ago (not to say they aren’t horribly eroded). We took the Bear Hare loop but we weren’t sure if that was the right option (turns out it was) and had a nice break at the top of the climb to admire the 80s Huffy bikes hanging from the trees. The downhill was steep and challenging and we really opened things up on the overgrown roadbed descent.
Down at the big creek crossing (you know the one) we were confused about which gravel road to take (hint: take the right fork after you cross the creek) and we really got lost around the cabins. It’s a shame the trails aren’t better marked, we found ourselves looking for bike tire tracks in the sand to find our way.
After the loop we at lunch in the car then I headed out on the Jones Creek Ridge trail to check it out. The scenery was nice but once again I could have used some better signage (how the heck does trail 1J go left and right at the same intersection?). I eventually found myself making a loop using the singletrack and FR 77, not what was intended but a nice ride nonetheless.
We’ll definitely be back up to the Bull Mountain area soon to check out the Turner Creek loop, hopefully it will have a bit less evidence of horse use than Bull Mountain and Jones Creek Ridge 😉
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