Deadwood Ridge Trail
(The 17 miles listed is the length of the GPX file, that is, one way. The shortest distance out from there is another 10 miles.)
I’m listing this as an “up and back†because my GPS cut out before the return trip of the extreme downhill down through deadwood river gulch. I will describe the options once you get to the end of the trip as posted at the end of the description.
The GPX file starts at the Julie Creek road parking area. The reason we started here is, it’s a nice parking spot with an outhouse and there is a smooth gradual downhill to get you warmed up. Start by going back down the road you drove up and once you get to the end, cross the bridge over to the Deadwood camp site. From here you will clearly see the trailhead. This is an 17 mile climb that will test you and try to break you the whole way. The first mile or so it’s almost impossible to climb without the front wheel of the bike coming off the ground. Then it winds up the mountain eventually breaking out around the side of the ridgeline giving you spectacular views of the mountain ranges and the deadwood river gulch below. There is very little relief from climbing along this track. There is about a 2 mile stretch that takes you down to the east fork of Steven’s Creek. This proved to be a much needed landmark for cooling off and wetting down. Then the climb continues up to the Steven’s Point trailhead. From here these are your options:
You can climb to Steven’s Point for the view of a lifetime.
You can ride ahead a little further down to the next intersection which has the option of finishing the loop by taking Julie Creek Trail. This is a treacherous downhill with a lot of exciting twists.
If you’re really crazy you can keep going to Whitehawk Basin which is another 9 miles and continue on to Deadwood RSVR which is about five miles from Cascade.
Or you can turn around and come down the way you came.
At this point the only option you will feel like taking is “Life Flight†Membership is $350.00 a year.
If you take option two. This is what you should know. While at this point you would expect it to be all downhill from here, it’s not the case. It will be a mixture up uphill, downhill and a lot of switchbacks for the next 5 miles. Your back tire will be locked up for most of the way until you get to the end of the single track. At this point you have you have a 6 mile dirt road that takes you along the river crossing the occasional creek and sand trap to the parking lot where you started.
We just started biking seriously this year. We have about 6 months or Boise Foothills experience and around 250 single track miles under our belt. This trail kicked our ass. It took us 12 hours and we climbed just under 4000 feet. I would not suggest this for just anyone, but I will say this, that was one hell of an accomplishment and I’m glad I did it. I just won’t be doing it again any time soon.
Peace Out!
