A New Year's Eve Ride

By Becky of the Barefoot in the Burley Blog We wrapped up 2017 with a day of family fat bike training around the south Teton Valley groomed fat bike trail system. Thanks to the volunteers of Teton Valley Trails and Pathways and Fitzgerald’s Bicycles, we have an awesome network of groomed single track specifically for fat bikes just minutes from our home in Victor, Idaho.

April tagged along in her Burley Solo for our outing. We ran the 16+ wheel set for the adventure, switching to the ski set, when we hit Sherman Park, less than a mile from the house. From Sherman Park there is over 10 miles of groomed fat bike single track to ride. The trail network winds through Sherman Park, Teton Springs Golf Course, and then through the forest to Mike Harris Campground. Bryon is currently wrapping up his training for his first winter ultra, JayP’s 200k Fat Pursuit, next weekend in Island Park, ID. Becky is in training for her first fat bike races, a night race at Grand Targhee, at the end of January and The Bear, a 45 mile fat bike race near Steamboat Springs in February. April is training for long hours in the Burley this spring and summer. If the weather and trails are adequate, April will tag along on her first fat bike race at Togwotee in March. We began our ride with a loop through Sherman Park. Sherman Park, has just over 1.5 miles of groomed trail that leads out of the park, under the highway and then a mile up the road to Teton Springs. Teton Springs has a 4.3 mile loop of groomed single track. We met up with our friend Gary, who will also be competing at the Fat Pursuit, with Bryon, next weekend. He joined us for the loop through Teton Springs and what followed.

After looping through Teton Springs we headed out on the powerline trail up to Nemo’s, a popular mountain bike trail in the summer months, that recently was approved for winter grooming. This section was another 3.5+ miles of groomed trail. After a steep climb that involved teamwork to get Bryon’s bike with the Burley and April in tow up the hill, we descended through the forest. The trail then led to the parking lot of Mike Harris Campground, which is near the base of the Teton Pass. This is where we swapped April’s skis for wheels and took the road home. We were happy to wrap up 2017, with a wonderful winter ride. We have several bikepacking aspirations for the 2018 year. We will be completing a 160 mile ride through Grand Staircase-Escalante, this March. We have plans to ride the Idaho Hot Springs Tour this June, and in August we intend to complete a 1000+ mile trip following the Fitzbarn course and a Tour Divide segment from Butte to Lima. 2018 will help us to build our fitness base, as we ultimately would like to complete the Tour Divide in 2019. Of course, we will also be completing a number of fat bike and gravel races in between our bikepacking adventures.

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