Teton Valley

Friday I left Bozeman driving to Driggs, ID in the Teton valley. Namesake river is polluted by cows, many grazing on our public land. It just ain’t right for a few people to earn their livelihood destroying resources owned by all of us.

Last night I slept at a spot right on banks of S fork of the Teton, cows grazed right to the banks both sides. Cows don’t recognize requirements to defecate in a 6″ deep hole at least 200 feet from water source. Cows don’t wear diapers for “accidents”.

Rolled into town, parked behind Peaked Sports, a store I have visited on my past visits. They honored me after this article in Bike Mag was published

A woman working there recalled meeting me last fall back on Lower Black mtn trail in the Pisgah. Connections.

Enough day was left to ride Aspen trail which is to the east above town in the sate of Wyoming. Drove to TH which is in FS land and a spot to sleep. Out and back ride. Big climb right from the van at 6xxx’. Mix of loose rocks, buried rocks, and smooth horse tread. Seems I was the only recreater who did not pack bear spray. Chilly night that the furnace kept the chill away.

On Sat I drove up to Horseshoe canyon stopping first at a free camp spot on the Teton river. I scored the last open site, I locked my chair to the picnic table. I rode this trail system 2x on previous visit. Fucking cows. Local mtn bike club maintains and builds trails here.

Spent quite night on shore of Teton river. No cows in the campground.

Sunday I drove back up the canyon to ride out and back up south fork of Horseshoe creek, another out and back or rather up and down. Shared trail with several mtn bikers, several dirt bikers, and 2 horse riders. Trail Forks shows the trail is black diamond, never rode over what made it black. A loop could have been made but the mtn bikers described the loop trails as steep, loose rocks, and double tracks. And that the trail was so much fun to ride back down. I headed their advice. years ago I did ride a big loop which required miles of paved road riding to return to van. I decided out and back was just about right. 13 miles climbing 1847′. Didn’t pack bear spray.

Sat night at the campground I checked my chain for wear using a gauge. Like 2 weeks ago I checked stretch with same tool which showed not stretched. Sat the check revealed that the chain had stretched between the .5 to .75. I elected to replace the chain with a new one. Afterwards I pedaled a bit to check for chain skip or crunching sound of worn chain ring. Chain and gears appeared to be happy. However, once I started climbing I felt the grating which spoke of worn chain ring. I kept a previously used chain ring that I replaced before the wear so my recovery plan was to swap out the rings and order a new one. The Praxxis bottom bracket is a self extracting affair requiring an 8mm Allen and plenty of strength to break the bolt loose. My wrench is standard short handle which lacked sufficient leverage, I needed a cheater. I drove down to the local ACE hardware store: it was closed as was the grocery store. WTF? These people take their “day of rest ” seriously. Plan B was returning to shop to either borrow a longer handle wrench or a strong buck to loosen it for me. Guy loaned me a longer tool and with much strain I was able to break the bolt loose and extract the crank arm. I soon learned that the used ring was a 32 tooth and the worn one is a 30T. Able to keep 3 rings differentiated, I installed the 32T that while parking lot pedaling no grating was heard. I ordered another 30T ring. Swapping the chain saved the cassette but cost the chain ring. I could have left the old chain on but it would have cost me a cassette.

So back to Bozeman. On Thursday I rode from the N end of the Bangtail down to Olsen creek road for the climb up to the trail. Well maintained gravel road climb, 4.54 miles took 54 mins of solid pedaling gaining 1322′. I wanted to ride the long descent at the north end of the trail but did not want to ride the entire trail again, this would be shorter and not so hurtful. I stopped to pick a small amount of ride blueberries for future pancakes. Downhill is same with patches of loose sharp edged rocks, bumpy, steer straight and flow with the jolts. Just scoot. Spent the night city sleeping. Laundry later back in town.

Today I made a non ride day to save myself for volunteer trail work this evening on a reroute of Bovine out at Horseshoe. Fucking cows. Will spend the night up there. Tomorrow I will head over Teton Pass down to Jackson, WY for several days of riding. I was told of several camping spots which will make my stay more enjoyable.