Help us with some major upgrades to one of our Valley's most loved trail systems! We are joining forces with the National Forest Foundation and Higher Ground to help the Ketchum Ranger District of the Sawtooth National Forest to extend and improve Forbidden Fruit Trail for a better adaptive mountain bike experience, replace or rebuild the current trail bridges along Adam's Gulch Trail and improve the current trailhead area. We are stoked to tackle this massive project with awesome partners and make your trail system a more inclusive space! Keep reading for more project details.
Expansion of the Trail Network
The Adams Gulch Adaptive Sports Trail Improvement Project will expand trail opportunities for adaptive cyclists by widening existing stream crossing structures either by re-planking (where feasible) or rebuilding where necessary. Currently, the bridges are too narrow for adaptive cyclists to navigate and they instead have to ford the stream. We are replacing or re-planking four bridges.
Current bridge on Adam's Gulch Trail.
This project will also include a new section (about one mile total) of purpose-built trail extending off of the current Forbidden Fruit Trail. This will provide a new opportunity for adaptive cyclists while minimizing user conflict and improving overall trail safety across the entire Adam’s Gulch trail system. We also plan to do heavy maintenance on the existing portion of Forbidden Fruit in order to fix current issues and ensure a safe and fun experience for adaptive athletes.
Forbidden Fruit Expansion The current trailhead at Adam’s Gulch reaches capacity nearly seven days a week. This has resulted in visitors creating their own parking on native vegetation and/or illegally parking on a nearby private neighborhood road. There is a significant need to update the trailhead area to address flow of the parking, better accommodate visitor use, including safe and reliable parking for adaptive sports users. The current trailhead is equipped with a single stall restroom that is desperately in need of an upgrade to meet demand and ensure sanitary conditions. We plan to replace the current pit toilet with a double vault toilet and locate it out of the floodplain (where the current one resides).
We cannot do all of this without community support! Here are some of the ways we will put your dollars to work:
$5 = Constructs one foot of new trail
$10 = Heavy maintenance on three feet of the existing portion of Forbidden Fruit Trail
$50 = One new grubbing tool for volunteer finish work on the new section of trail
$100 = One hour of crew time to remove existing bridges
$500 = One new trailhead sign
$2,500 = Removes existing vault toilet
$35,000 = Removes existing bridge, purchases materials and installs one new bridge
This project began in the Summer of 2021 and will continue in 2022. There will be many opportunities to get involved, with donating being just one. We will also be holding volunteer trail work parties, so stay tuned to get your hands in the dirt!
If you see something that interests you and you want to learn more, or donate outside of this page, please contact our Executive Director at [email protected] or 208-471-8152.