BOISE, Idaho — The Sideshow Trail is currently being built by Integrated Trail Lab out of Montana. This mountain bike-only trail will give riders a completely new experience in the Ridge to Rivers system.
"It will be rated a blue flow type trail with no mandatory jumps, everything is rollable, and it will feature big, fat, wide open berms," said Spencer George, one of two owners of Integrated Trail Lab. "Hopefully, we will have the jump line done by next week."
This marks the first time Ridge to Rivers has worked with Integrated Trail Lab. The organization was started by two friends who have been building jumps since they were kids. They have six years of professional trail-building experience, including work at Big Sky, Montana, and Sandpoint in northern Idaho.
"We are super impressed, they know what they are doing, they are professionals, and they are good guys to work with," said David Gordon of Ridge to Rivers. "We couldn't be happier so far."
The Sideshow Trail will be nearly two miles in length, starting near the Upper Hulls Gulch parking area. The trail will end near the junction of Bob's and the Eighth Street Connector.
Building this trail will cost around $150,000 with city funds footing the majority of the bill. The trail will be located mostly on Bureau of Land Management Land with one easement through Governor Little's son's land.
"In order to make it work, we had to cross Highland Livestock and Land Company, which is owned by the Little Company," said Gordon. "We got a revocable easement from them to allow for construction of this, so that was big."
The Ridge to Rivers system continues to grow in popularity. In the past few years, Ridge to Rivers has implemented management strategies to avoid conflicts with different user groups. David Gordon believes this trail that stemmed from the trail plan in 2016 will help space out hikers, bikers, and dog owners.
"The idea for a purpose-built bike trail was obviously supported by cyclists, but even by noncyclists," said Gordon. "One big benefit of it is you are going to pull off a lot of riders from adjacent trails that are mixed use, and they will gravitate here."
Mountain bikers have been hoping for some more technical trails with rocks, roots, and other features. However, that will not be this trail because there aren't very many rocks in this section of the foothills, but that does make building the trail easier for Integrated Trail Lab.
"The dirt is top quality with no rocks, it's going to pack really well and the moisture content is ideal at the moment," said George. "Moving dirt, stacking jumps, and building berms is the fun part."
Mountain bikers can't find any other berms this size in the Ridge to Rivers system of trails. The Sideshow Trail is expected to be finished in early June.
