Now this is a mountain bike ride

Hubby and I took a day trip up to the American Falls trail, N of Priest Lake in N. Idaho.

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While not old growth cedar forest, the second growth on this very is very old. The trail is buff single track through cedars and ferns for miles and miles, a very gentle gradient.

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In places the ferns were chest high, but I don't have pics of that.

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Ferns everywhere
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The trail appears to be quite old and well maintained. There were lots of these nifty boardwalks over the boggy areas.

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After 8 miles of the ferns, cedars and boardwalks,
American Falls, Upper Priest River.... 1 mile S of Canada.

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Upper Priest River
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Here's our little lunch spot
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Then back down....whee---yeah!
This trail was very reminiscent of the MRT sans lava

That's awesome!!!! I'm jealous! Apparently St. Louis has some good trails, but not surrounded by such amazing plant life.

Looks like you had a blast :cool:

Gorgeous! Looks like a great ride!

Did you see any bears? And if you did, did you avoid confrontation?! :p

Awesome pictures!

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Originally Posted by Reesha

That's awesome!!!! I'm jealous! Apparently St. Louis has some good trails, but not surrounded by such amazing plant life.

Looks like you had a blast :cool:

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What about at Garden of the Gods in Shawnee National Forest...have you done anything there?

Awesome pics, what kind of camera did you use? Whats for lunch? Nice lunch spot:)

What a beautiful place to ride.
Thanks for sharing the snaps.:)

Irulan, that singletrack looks sweet & inviting :cool: Except for the bears..I'd be freaked out the whole time..

Makes me long for a mtn bike trip back in NZ..no bears..except drop bears :p

Camera, Canon SD800 point and shoot. I'll post up a few more pics when I am on the other computer.

Bears - no reported activity but in retrospect traveling with bear spray in the backcountry in our neck of the woods is never a bad idea. Black bears are pretty harmelss, they aren't typically agressive. Grizzlys are a different story. They are pretty reclusive however, and tend to hide way up the hills. This are we were in is adjacent to a heavily used mountain lake resort area. I would imagine the trail was very busy on Sat the 4th.

Lunch? PBJ. ;)

Truly beautiful up here. :D

American Falls trail? I don't think I've been there yet. I'll have to check it out after I get my mt bike built up. Great pictures!

In 10 years of roaming northern and southwestern Idaho I saw one bear. And he was running AWAY fast.

These are beautiful beautiful photos, thanks for posting them.

Beautiful!

When we went to Red River, NM we hiked a bunch and saw some old bear scat but nothing else. I did see one run across the road while road riding, DH had been there probably 5-7 times and never seen one. He was extremely jealous!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr. Silver

Awesome pictures!



What about at Garden of the Gods in Shawnee National Forest...have you done anything there?

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Haven't been there yet-- still new to St. Louis. Once I have my new mountain bike in hand, I will be sure to explore the Ozarks with other MTB friends. http://lesoftparade.com/boards/images/smilies/th_up.gif

Those are great pics! Sounds like it was a wonderful ride. Thx for sharing.:)

Aw man, and I bet the air was crisp and cool too! (compared to the steamy south) I neeeeed a real vacation!

Irulan, thanks for sharing the photos!

wow, that's beautiful. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Makes me jealous.
Right now all we have around here is a lot of dead brown grass.