Friends of Pathways has a formal partnership with the USFS to collaborate on design, construction and stewardship of local trails for all users – hike, bike, horse, and ski. We’re committed to providing easy year round access to trails that is essential to maintaining our high quality of life in Jackson Hole.

Cache Creek Road Closed Until Further Notice

Conditions at Cache Creek have become increasingly icy and difficult to manage. The road was closed over the weekend, but vehicles did attend to drive up to the trailhead, many getting very stuck. People are still welcome to walk, ski, or bike into the area

The Bridger-Teton National Forest staff ask that the public please stay off the Cache Creek Road until further notice. A facility tech did attempt to open the Cache Creek road on Monday, but was unsuccessful. On Thursday, conditions significantly deteriorated and the snow base turned to slush overwhelming the capability of a plow on a pick-up truck. Despite the road closure, vehicles did attempt to drive up to the trailhead over the weekend with many of them getting very stuck.

Currently, only one lane is open up to the Cache Creek trailhead and it is VERY icy. It does not allow safe passage for both incoming and outgoing vehicle traffic. The USFS is unable to plow the road at this point without damaging equipment or potentially tearing up the road. Patrollers will still cover the area and check conditions daily.

Cache Creek Road is closed until conditions improve. People are still welcome to walk, ski, or bike into the area but recognize that there is no parking. Please do not block driveways in the residential area.

New Singletrack Grooming Approved for Cache Creek this Winter

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We are excited to announce that Friends of Pathways, Mountain Bike the Tetons, and Teton Mountain Bike Tours have worked with the Bridger-Teton to pilot a Singletrack Trail Grooming program in Cache Creek for this winter.  This program which is being supported by donations at our Crowd Rise campaign site and will include a mixture of snowmobile and human grooming on 10 miles of trail.  Cache Creek saw an average of 286 trail users per day last winter, 66.1% hikers, 14.7% bikers, 10.3% runners, and 8.9% skiers.  This program will help to maintain a compact groomed trail surface for all trail users that is wide enough to allow people to pass each other without stepping off into deep snow on the side of the trail.  We worked with the BTNF to provide options close to the trailhead as well as additional grooming farther up the drainage to help spread out use.  We also are grooming upper Cache Creek road to Noker Mine an extra day each week to help bolster Parks and Rec’s grooming efforts.  If you enjoy using the trails in the winter take a look at our Crowd Rise site to learn more about FOP and MBT’s  joint venture to groom trails in Jackson, Victor, and Driggs!

Trail Conditions for 9-8-16

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We are working to finish the last 2 miles of the Skyline Trail.  We are working downhill towards the Game Creek Trail narrowing the wide bench that the trail machine built to support itself.  This involves pulling down the backslope to prevent erosion, slightly outsloping the tread and making it 18 inches wide, and raking away the excess dirt on the downhill edge to allow snow and water to drain off the trail and to allow any vegetation covered up to regrow more quickly.  Crews will be working throughout the fall and into next spring to complete this project.

 

Skyline Trail Connected, not Finished

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After a ton of hard work by everyone involved the crews made a rough connection on the Skyline Trail this week.  I emphasize rough!  The trail is passable and we encourage people to go explore it but to heed all closures and instruction by the crews working on the trail.  There are several switchbacks where crews could roll debris onto the trail below and when they are working the trail may not be passable so plan that into your outings.  Know that crews will be continuing to work into the fall to cut the backslope, rake the outslope, and narrow and improve the tread.  The photo above illustrates the full bench cut the trail machine made so it didn’t roll down the side of the mountain and as he works his way back the machine and handcrews will be improving the backslope and slightly outsloping the trail for better drainage.  Both of these will narrow the tread behind the machine and we will end up with a nice singletrack trail.  Thanks to everyone who has helped so far and feel free to stop while you’re out there and help the crews for a few minutes, I hear they also love cookies…

Ferrin’s Trail

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You may have noticed some trail names and junctions changing in Cache Creek this summer.  This is part of a larger signage project Friends of Pathways is working on with the Bridger-Teton National Forest.  One of the first parts of the process was to simplify trail names, especially connector trails, and to consolidate dog leg trail junctions into simple 4 way junctions.  With help from volunteers from STIO and Lillard Flyfishing over last weekend we were able to finish one of these reroutes on the Ferrins/Hagen/River trail junction.  If you take a look at the map above you can see the old names and alignment and the new, the main difference being bringing the River to Hagen Connector Trail and the Tiny Hagen trail together at 1 junction and renaming all of this the Ferrin’s Trail.  We did this for 2 reasons, one being the surplus of trails with Hagen in the name (Hagen, Hagen Highway, Hagen River, Tiny Hagen) and the other being that Ferrins is one of the more popular trails and finding it was difficult as it used to start miles up from the trailhead through a combination of junctions.  So get out for a hike or bike and try out the “new” 3.36 mile Ferrin’s Trail.

Youth Trail Crew Update

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The Friends of Pathways Youth Trail Crew has been hard at work this summer on projects on around the Bridge-Teton National Forest.  They have installed several dozen rock steps and drainage features on Josie’s Ridge and the Woods Canyon trails, built the new Nelson Knoll trail and installed a new bench at the overlook, improved the Ski Lake trail above the lake to the ridge line, dug parts of the new Skyline Trail, pulled weeds in Game Creek, mapped weeds and trail problems on the East Table Creek trail, moved several tons of gravel to turnpikes on the Big Rocks trail, and cleaned hundreds of drainage features and improved line of sight on almost all of the trails in the front country system.  A big thanks to them for their hard work and to Mountain Khakis for supplying them all with uniforms for the summer.  Look for them out on the trails!

FOLLOW THE YOUTH TRAIL CREW! @FriendsOfPathways on Instragram We’ll Be Taking An In-Depth Look at the #YouthTrailCrew During Their Last Week of the Summer!

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Skyline Trail Update

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7-15-16 Trail Conditions

 

2 Miles of the Skyline Trail are Finished!  To date we have had 159 volunteers and 38 dedicated trail crew members from FOP, the BTNF, SCA, and MCC help to build the trail.  The Montana Conservation Corp is currently camped on the ridge and will be building the middle section over the next 5 weeks.  The BTNF and FOP Youth Crew cleared the first 1.5 miles from the Cache Game divide this week and the local crew from DIRT will begin building from the eastern end of the trail next week.  Thanks to everyone who has donated time, money, and sweat equity to this project, it is great to see the community come together and invest in a trail that can be enjoyed by all for years to come.  Get out this weekend and explore the new views and wildflowers on the Skyline Trail.

Trail Conditions for 6-27-16

With all of the trails open now we wanted to focus on a new issue on the forest – E Bikes.  Currently E Bikes are not allowed on any trails in the Snow King or Teton Pass areas but there are a few areas where you can ride them.  Munger Mountain is open to motorized vehicle from July 1 to Sept 9, there is a new series of loops going in at Mosquito Creek that are designed for motorized singletrack, and the Horsetail and Bubba’s Trails near slide lake allow motorcycles and E Bikes.  Please take the time to read the Bridger-Teton press release at the link below and use E Bikes only on designated trails.

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Trail Conditions for 6-17-16

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The trails are open!  Teton Pass, Munger, and Snow King trails are melted out and have been cleared and are in great shape.  Thanks to the USFS Trail Crew, the FOP Ambassadors, and the Youth Trail Crew for all of their hard work.  Also check out the improved trails at the Nelson Dr. trailhead.  The Western Governors helped rebuild the trail to Nelson Knob and the Youth Crew improved the Woods Canyon trail and added rock steps and drainage.  They also added drainage to the Black Canyon trail and the Wilson Canyon trail and cut back the willows in the upper meadow so those 2 trails should be at the top of your list for a weekends adventure!

Trail Conditions for 6-10-16

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Teton Pass trails all almost fully dry!  Get out this weekend and check out the Arrow, Ridge, Snotel, History, Phillip’s Pass, and Ski Lake Trails which have only a few small snow patches remaining.  Everything has been cleared of trees but if you find any new trees down after the storms this week let us know though social media or #jhtrails and we will get the crews out to clear them!