Rocky Fork Exploration #1

I’ve been drumming up Rocky fork as a legit mtn bike destination for some time now. I used to get up there with my best high school friend and dad a reasonable amount back in those days. With a recent land acquisition Rocky Fork was again thrust into the news and it seems finally this pristine area is now under the watchful eye of some people who won’t develop it. Abby and I took off for a day to do some exploratory riding in the old stomping grounds.

One thing I failed to recognize is that in 10 years a lot can change on trails. New ones are opened and old ones are allowed to revert back to a more primitive status or disappear completely. The latter was true of much of my childhood memories for the day, but now I have a good feeling for the lay of what is still a viable option and what is not for riding. I’m hoping to lead some folks around in a month or so to check out what the area has to offer. One word of caution I will offer is that Rocky Fork is not for beginners, especially some of the older trails. I become intimately familiar with what a true rock garden and creek bed riding is by the close of our riding. Flowing single track and easy riding are not hallmarks of this primitive wilderness’s trails system. That being said the ride was a blast and the lush forest was a welcome change to the norm.

We met my parents at the trail head and they went for a hike with our dogs as we proceeded to ride on old loop I remembered doing.

A brief discussion with my dad over a topo map and we knew it was going to be interesting.

The trail starts at a tame gravel access road following the creek bed, but this is a farce.
This area also has a natural trout population that's pretty stout this year.

First of many creek crossings.

One offshoot of the main trail follows Rocky Fork Creek.

Which in some place has become the creek as the trails has been so eroded that it's actually lower that the level of the creek bed.

This is when things got interesting. Mistakes to the center of the "trail" were always big and wet.

We finally turned off of the creek trail and headed up to the ridge. It's called the stairway to heaven here for a reason. This steep grade is probably not ridden/ hiked much because of it's difficulty and as such had lots of overgrowth on it.

And lots of stinging nettles.

We finally cleared the wet areas where the nettle was prolifically spread and enjoyed a few miles of ridge riding before dropping into the next water shed area.

The trails here were far less overgrown and had a scattering of trees to skirt every so often.

Tame trails compared to the creek areas.

Back down into the water shed.

This was interesting we saw plenty of fresh bear scat and prints, but never the bears. My parents on the other hand had a close encounter with a bear when our dogs treed a cub and the mother nearby became very agitated. They had to run for about a mile to get away from the area and luckily everyone was ok.

Picking lines is very important at the fork.

On the upper slopes signs of older logging operations from the previous owners are still around.

Descending back down to our start through some of the tricky creeks.

Lots of rocks.

Dad and dog#1.

Mom.


We both got owned by the last measly creek crossing. Rocks were slick though.