Bear Creek Trail Ride
I dusted off the motorcyle for hunting season and decided to take a trail ride for the day, looking for animals. I’m riding a 2008 Rokon Trailbreaker. If you aren’t sure what a Rokon is, it’s a two wheel drive motorcycle that climbs hills like no other machine.
The trail is formally called Beer Creek Jeep Trail 7889 and I actually encountered a Jeep about four miles up. Actually, it was a hot pink Geo Tracker that was getting violently thrown around on the trail and heading back down. The trail is 6.5 miles to the pass that crosses into the Willow Creek drainage, which was my destination for the afternoon. The first 5 miles could be traversed by a jeep, but the last 1.5 miles is steep loose stone and pretty narrow for the most part.
The trail begins at the Bear Creek Campground in Sawtooth National Forest near the headwaters of the South Fork of the Boise River. From the Bear Creek campground, the trailhead starts on the west end with a sign saying, “High Clearance Vehicles Recommended”. Within a couple hundred yards, you’ll need to cross Bear Creek. My first crossing stalled my bike and I got pretty wet. This was September, so I’d image early summer crossings could get interesting with higher flows.
The trail is pretty easy to follow since Bear Creek drainage is rather large. I remember seeing three main turn offs and all were on trail right. The first turn off was in the first mile that leads to Axolotl Mine. The second is about halfway up the trail and it follows the Goat Creek drainage. Lastly, near the top there’s a single track switchback trail on a bare section you can see going all the way to the top. It’s called the Bear-Willow Connector 7197. I stayed on the main trail the whole way up.
Near the top there was evidence of the Red Horse mining operation. About 100 yards from the pass, there was an open gate with a phone number saying private property, although my maps show it as all Sawtooth National Forest.
The peak is above the surrounding treeline and it looks as if the wind blows here regularly. Willow Creek has a trail that meets up here. Willow creek trail starts at the South Fork of the Boise River near Featherville, ID. Here’s a video from the top looking into Willow Creek Drainage