The calendar flips to 2025 and in most places around the country you look out the window and see less than wonderful riding conditions. It’s brutal. Demoralizing.
Maybe snow packed a few feet high. Maybe cold rain sprinkling endlessly.
It’s time to sit back, dream and plan ahead.
If you’re a mountain bike fanatic, consider Idaho.
A few years back I headed to Idaho on a summer blitz, enjoying mountain resort riding at Sun Valley, Brundage and Schweitzer on a 10-day adventure that included long drives to experience the varied views of Idaho in-between.
We rolled our mountain bikes off the ramp atop the Blue Bird Quad lift at Brundage Mountain Resort beneath stunning blue skies, and marketing guru Jared Montague gives me a guided tour of the panoramic 360-degree view from the 7,640-foot summit.
Looking down you can see Payette Lake with the eclectic town of McCall on its edge, and farther over Little Payette Lake, then over to the Payette Valley, Salmon River Mountains and on and on, literally as far as the eye can see.
Since I’m more of a recreational mountain biker than a hardcore helmet and armor-clad downhiller, Montague opts to lead me down the Elk Trail, and a six-mile joyride through the beauty of the mountain.
Riding through bright yellow wildflowers and crazy views, we eventually duck into some shade with a couple of creek crossings.
More than 20 miles of singletrack on Brundage Mountain offer something for everyone.
Even if you’re just getting your first taste of serious resort mountain biking, they have you covered. Brundage built a practice loop at the base to allow you to hone your skills on various mountain bike challenges before heading to the top.
If you’re looking for big-time downhill thrills, the Hidden Valley, High Voltage and Zorro trails will deliver. Hidden Valley features tight corners, fast chutes, big jumps, drops and log rides on its 1,600-foot drop.
With wildflowers bursting across mountains throughout the Northwest most years, Schweitzer Mountain transforms into a beargrass wonderland looking like a scene in a Dr. Seuss book.
The bright white lollipop flowers dot the landscape and provided stunning images from a chair on the Great Escape Quad heading to the top.
The views from a quad chair of Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint and the valley below appear epic, as well as images from the Sky House restaurant on Schweitzer’s summit.
Instead of simply zooming to the 6,400-foot summit on the quad, I opted to rev up my engine by climbing from the village on the Overland Trail to Picnic Point.
Armed with a map of the 20-plus miles of singletrack it’s easy to lose yourself in mountain biking bliss without getting lost on the mountain.
Schweitzer boasts of the wildlife on the mountain, and it’s easy to spot a lot of scat to know what might be sniffing around in the underbrush.
For hardcore downhillers, they offer a number of options from the summit, dropping 1,700 feet to the village.
As if the resort itself didn’t offer enough to keep you busy, it’s an easy connection to the Selkirk Recreation District trail system that will bring you down into the valley and Sandpoint.
A group of locals lead the way from downtown Ketchum to the base of Bald Mountain at River Run Plaza, preparing me for what awaits on my first taste of Sun Valley mountain biking.
On this day we tackle the River Run to Warm Springs Traverse. The early chit-chat revolves around the sweet feel of the trail, specifically the tight switchbacks that we will ascend.
I’ve never been comfortable with tight switchbacks in either direction, so uneasiness creeps into my psyche.
Then we hit the first, and I zip around it heading uphill like a pro. I’ve really never ridden such a well-groomed trail.
Julian Tyo, Sun Valley’s Coordinator of Mountain Events and Summer Trails, explains the work that transformed the trail.
“We worked on converting that trail by optimizing the downhill a little bit while maintaining uphill quality and hiking quality and trail running quality,” Tyo said. “Rather than doing fully-optimized downhill berms, those are in-slope platform turns, or switch berms is another term the industry uses to describe it. It’s kind of the bellcurve turn. It’s the turn that works for a variety of users in both directions for mountain biking.”
I get it and love it.
Although adjusting to the altitude from my sea level home proves to be my biggest challenge, the climb up Bald Mountain feels amazing. The ride down is just as invigorating.
Sun Valley packs more than 30 miles of singletrack across two mountains, and has something for everyone from weekend rec rider to enduro cruiser to downhill master.
Time to ride
