STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

You didn’t need a ribbon cutting to tell mountain bikers fanning out on the trails around Galena Lodge that the new trails were open for business.

Bikers in their 20s and Moms and Dads escorting youngsters as young as 3 and 4 rolled right past nearly three dozen people that had gathered next to an orange ribbon that young Lucy Stevenson had stretched across the Lodge Loop.

“See that! That’s what I’m talking about right there!” said Alan Hogg happily, as he watched a couple adults pedal past followed by their children. “Here it is a weekday and the parking lot is full. Three years ago when we started building these trails you might have seen three or four cars in the parking lot.”

The ribbon cutting signified the completion of 47 miles of mountain biking, hiking and equestrian trails built around Galena Lodge 24 miles north of Ketchum. The trails, which are dubbed such names as Mine Shaft, Horsefly Hill, Psycho Ridge and Outhouse Loop, offer a good mix of beginning, intermediate and advanced terrain

Jenny Busdon, a longtime champion of Galena Lodge and the trails, was as excited as she gets at the sight of the winter’s first snow.

“Can you believe it?! I never thought this day would come! I’ve been telling they need to put mountain bike trails in for 20 years, but I thought I’d be dead and buried before it ever happened,” she said.

The project had its genesis with SNRA Ranger Ed Cannady and BCRD Trails Director Eric Rector as they discussed the possibility of decommissioning old mining roads that were subject to erosion and replacing them with more sustainable trails that would be more user-friendly.

Within a day, Cannady recalled, Rector had mapped out a proposal.

Kirk Flannigan, area ranger for the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, said he’s never been involved in a project where so much tender loving care was given.

“I hope that’s reflected in the product,” he said. “When I go up to Stanley at 9 or 9:30 in the morning, the parking lot is already full. And, when I return in the evening, it’s nearly as busy. It’s great to see people using the trails because people who get out on forest lands are going to be the people who help protect them.”

It’s difficult to determine just how many people are hiking and biking the new trails around Galena since they’re offered free of charge.

But Keating estimates the area is getting 25,000 visits per summer based on the number of people who purchase food at the lodge and the number of vehicles in the parking lot. That puts usage of the Galena trails up there with the number of users at Adams and Greenhorn Gulch, the most popular trailheads near Ketchum.

The new trails have given Alan Hogg, the new chair of the BCRD’s Galena Trails and Advisory Committee,  a new place to take guests.

“I’ve introduced more people to mountain biking by using the Senate Meadows Loop,” he said. “And my wife Mary also took it up recently, as well. Most of the trails near Ketchum are too difficult for beginners, but the Senate Meadows loop is super friendly. People not only feel safe while on it but they’re ready to come back.”

In addition to providing trails for hiking and biking, the Galena Trails provide the setting for 5,000 feet of elevation gain over a 40-mile course for Galena Grinder Mountain Bike Race each summer. And they are now serving as a spectacular venue for racers in the Idaho Interscholastic Cycling League Race Series.

Jenna Vagias said the trails around Galena helped her family decide to move to the Wood River Valley a little more than a year ago.

“We came here from Yellowstone so public lands were important in deciding where we wanted to live. And this was one of the first places we found,” she said.

If you were to poll mountain bikers, you’d find the overwhelming favorite trail is Spring Creek, a 7-mile intermediate/advanced trail that starts off the Spur Trail in Senate Meadows and rolls through woods past a miner’s cabin to Spring Creek Road. Bikers usually cross the highway there onto Owl Creek on the opposite side and take the Harriman Trail back to the lodge.

“It has a lot of enjoyable rollers and some great views of Galena Peak and others,” said Hogg.