No Mountain Biking at Soldier Mountain Today

Soldier Mountain Lodge is Gone

No Mountain Biking at Soldier Mountain Today

Mountain Biking Washout
The last two weekends have been rather wet in southern Idaho and summer cabin fever is worse than winter cabin fever in my opinion. Even though the weather forecast indicated there was a very good possibility of rain and thunderstorms, I had to take a chance and get into the mountains. My plan was to park near the Soldier Mountain Ski Area and mountain bike along the North Fork of Soldier Creek.

I had intermittent rain showers most of the way to Fairfield, Idaho but the last 12 miles into the mountain the rain stopped and some blue skies showed through the clouds. The dirt road was rather wet so I decided to walk a little way up the road to see if it wasn’t too muddy to ride my bike. In the 15 minutes it took to walk up the dirt road past the Soldier Campground and back, rain started falling. By the time I got ready to ride, thunder and lightning were crackling around me. Then the skies opened up and the rain came down in buckets. I waited about 30 minutes before deciding my biking trip would be a complete washout.

Soldier Mountain Ski Resort Lodge is Gone
I knew something was missing when I drove past the ski area. That something is the ski lodge. The lodge burnt down at the end of March 2009 …burnt to the ground I guess. Below you will see pictures from before and after except they are taken from different sides of the now missing building.

Soldier Mountain Ski Area Lodge during better times
January 17th, 2009
 Soldier Mountain after the fire
June 14th, 2009

Details

  • Before Picture was taken on January 17th, 2009 at 2:40PM from the south side of the lodge.
  • After Picture was taken on June 14th, 2009 at 12:05PM from the north side of the "lodge".
  • Photographer: Tim Bondy from Mountain Home, Idaho.

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