Some friends and I are riding Batey Bould to LPO coming up. I am a beginning rider and was wondering how difficult the terrain is. I understand that most of it is single track. I'm not that great at single track, but hope to get better at it. Any input would be great. Thanks in advance.

Rakkasan

Batey to LPO is a pretty long ride if you aren't comfortable with singletrack. It's doable but make sure you have plenty of water, snacks and time. The first time we did Batey to LPO was about 4 years ago and I was a decent singletrack rider but it still took us about 4 hours to cover the distance, I think it's about 40 miles but I could be wrong.

Are you riding over and back the same day? That's a pretty long ride for a beginner.

it depends on which way you go. you can take a shorter ride about 50 miles, or there is a 60-80 mile way. make sure u stash gas somewhere iether way u never know when it will be needed.

as far as dificulty, theres some descent rocky areas and one nasty hill, but thats mostly the extent of it. oh and it is pretty brushy and tight in some spots.

make sure to take the correct turn near the beginning! if u go the wrong way, there is hours and hours of trials-like ridng, huge hill climbs, rocky step-ups, etc. sorry, i dont remember which is which :banghead:

306 is the Connector Trail and you can get gas over on the LPO side if you go to Beaver Lodge. It's 40 miles one way if you stay on the Connector. There are some loops in the Batey System so make sure you have a map.

I'm going with some pretty experienced riders. I believe we're stopping at the lodge for gas and lunch then back again. Wish me luck! :ride:

Did someone cut out the connector trail? As far as I know there are some big messes from logging and windfall.

r4sbergXR600 said:

I cut most of Batey this year. TR306 was blocked by 60 plus 12 to 40 inch trees over 400 yards of trail East of Boulder Mt. I then cut out TR310 to loop around and made it 3 miles in and hit the same problem, lots of big trees down in a short area. Anyway, I did not want the ticket for cutting marketable timber because the area is marked for logging.

There is a way around. Take tr306 out of the Batey trail head and take the TR310 loop. When it hits Calispel Pk. road you need to go North on the road till you hit the 310-306 junction and then go north on 306. However, I quit cutting at this point and there is still 10 miles of trail that as far as I know is not cleared. I would bring a saw just in case.

There is also problems when you hit Tacoma Creek road at LPO. I helped cut out the trail from Sherry creek to the connector. Two weeks ago we quit cutting at the North eroded hill on the LPO side of Tacoma Creek Rd. Thats the status as I know it. If someone goes, let me know trail conditions. I cut so much up there this year I feel like I should have stock options.

If you take all the short cuts its 30 miles. My best time by myself was 2 hours 15 minutes to Beaver Lodge.

I was thinking about putting in on Tacoma Crk. road up by Flodelle (I won't be riding my bike on Tacoma Crk. ;) ) Probably Sunday if I can get a buddy to go. Will take the saw for sure.

Ryan

as far as i know the tacoma divide trail is open, i took it last weekend it was clear to the batey trail.:thumbsup:

of course we have had some pretty descent storms come through so :excuseme:

All the trails at LPO are clear. Batey is not a sure thing, but Deb W. made a deal to have the fire crew remove the huge blowdown on trail 306. It took two full days using two full fire crews to cut through this half-mile??? of trail. UNREAL. Sunday looks to be a rain out, so maybe we will hit the trail Monday or Tuesday.

Where is this place?

Sure wish I was a teacher about now!

It's in NE Washington dakota450 near the tiny town of Usk.

washington_rider said:

Tacoma divide trail is fine. It is the Batey trail (306) from tacoma divide to tacoma creek Rd. that is messed up from logging. Also, when I found the trail again I quit cutting at the eroded (north down hill) not to be confused with the eroded South uphill that I have not yet seen this year. Anyway unless you know this area well good luck on finding the trail to Tacoma creek road junction.

Robb and Dave, along with about 8 others??? tried to make it from Batey to LPO. They ended up doing a lot of cutting from Calispel Mtn Road on. From what it sounded like, there is at least 6-8 miles to go.

r4sbergXR600 said:

Did they happen to see if the fire crews cleared TR310 at the other big blow down? Heres a map I did with my GPS.
Blue is trail and purple is fire road. This is two weeks old. You can see the gaps.

We rode today with 16 people. Dave and Robb did a great job at cutting the downed trees out of the way on 306. They stopped short just after you cross the creek where STOP is painted on the trees. It would probably be better to have someone come in from the Beaver Lodge side and cut downed trees from that direction.

Why isn't the forest service helping get these trails cleared. They sure like to hold a lot of meeting on what we can or cant ride but dont spend anytime clearing them for us.:thumbsdn:

Great job to those who are out spending time, energy, and gas money for those saws so we have places to ride.:thumbsup:

No thanks to the forest service.:moon:

Robb and I are planning on cutting from Tacoma Crk. Rd. on Wednesday or Thursday now. We will cut toward Batey Bould first, then come back and work toward LPO if time allows. We may look for a reroute via logging road if the trail is too ugly toward LPO. See everyone this weekend for Father's Day.

The Brush Bunch got through the rest of 311 today. Said it could use a little more at the beginning from the Betey side, but it is passable.:applause:

Lon just sent us an email, DO NOT CUT EAST OF TACOMA CREEK ROAD, the DNR is doing a salvage sale with the mess that Matt found.