First: Background – How did I get here?

A quick background so you have a reference point for my story of our great Ridaho GRIT#1 ride.

I have had the good fortune to live in the woods my whole life.  I also have parents that rode and I got my first “dirt  bike” in 1976, a 1959 Honda trail 90.  For a 7 year old – it was heaven!  And I never stopped riding.  Like most, as I got older, the bikes got bigger and riding better.  As always, it was all day rides in the woods.  Never more than 30 miles from the truck or my house.  Light bikes with, at best, a camel pack and water.  Rarely I would actually have a tool with me.  Never a long distance bike, and never anything street legal.  I rode all the time, usually about 30 days a year.

This changed in 2009 when I bought my XR650L – a 2007 still in the crate.  My first plated “dirt bike”.  I ended up hooking up with a riding group in my area, Motherlode Dualsports. They showed me the advantages of a long distance street legal dirt bike.  A member there asked, “Where are your tools, tire repair parts, etc?”  Why would I need that – the truck is never too far away.  He said – not on our rides.  “Plus, do you want to be an Asset rider or a Liability rider?”  You need to be self sufficient – whether riding alone or in a group.  You don’t want to be “That Guy!”.  That really sunk in – so I always have tools and tire repair parts to fix my bike for any reasonable trail side repair.  If I throw a rod through the case – not too much to be prepared for that other than I have boots I can walk in if needed.

Shortly there after, I went on my first long distance multi-day ride – the Sheet Iron 300.  A group of us followed the Sheet Iron 300 route – not the day of the event, just the route.  2 days, 300 miles!  Are you kidding me – 300 miles – 150 miles in a day?  That is crazy talk!  Plus, I need to bring some clothes and essentials for my overnight stay, on my bike?  Wow – that seems a little excessive…..but we did it!  Some of it was not the most graceful of packing a bike, but it worked.   After that, I was hooked.

This made my XR650L my go to bike.  I still have my CR500AF – it is fun, to be sure, but to do any real miles on it, it takes a KC10 super tanker to keep fueled.  My XR650R is my back-up, though not plated.  So, after over 7 years of ownership, this is the 650L’s 3rd Idaho trek.  It has served me extremely well, and has done more than the engineers at Honda expected.  For these Idaho trips, I did a few upgrades, so better suspension (USD forks), different carb, etc.  But the biggest for these out in the middle of nowhere trips – I added a kick starter as I did not want to be in the bottom of some canyon, in the dark, with the wolves howling and a dead battery.  Though it may make for a good story later, at the time it would not be classified as pleasant or fun.  And for the Ridaho trip – it got a rebuilt motor and a new frame.  Did I mention the pool 650L drew the short straw from the factory became my bike.  I feel sorry for the poor thing sometimes – just kidding.  I think it likes the riding abuse as much as my body does.

Second: The Title:  2 Click or not 2-Click (you can decide at the end).

Mike and I have been riding together for some time now – at least a few years.  We have also ridden in Idaho together as well last year, on a 1600+ mile epic adventure.  We had a blast and decided we needed (Really, it is a need – though my wife did not say need – I think she said “want”, whatever…..it was a need!) to do another similar trip.  I am an internet junkie when it comes to anything dirt bike and stumbled across ridaho.info.  Looking it over, it was exactly what I was after.

On a previous long distance Idaho ride, Mike and I were accused of being “2-Cliks into stupid” for riding such big bikes on so long and rough a terrain.  Mike was riding an XR650R at the time and I was riding my trusty XR650L, neither of us felt the bikes were too big or that we were any more stupid than normal.  But, the name stuck, and it does describe my riding at times.

Enough already!  I don’t need your life story – I want to hear about an epic trail ride with some carnage.  NASCAR is fun to watch, but the wrecks make it exciting.  You better make this story a lot more exciting.  I am un-impressed so far!  OK – you’re right – let’s get to the good stuff!  And yes, there will be exciting parts for you NASCAR wreck fans.

Day: -90

Day -90?  What is that?  I want wrecks!   Patience – that will come soon enough.  But, we need some preparation for this trip.  This is not just a few hot laps around your neighborhood.

I believe there are 4 parts to getting prepared: Navigation, Communication, Bike Prep, Body Prep and Mind Prep.  Logistics falls under navigation, I think.  But that may be 2-Clicks showing its ugly head – another decision for you, the reader.

Navigation:  I believe navigation is #1.  You are not going to make it to the end if you do not know how to get there.  You may have the best bike ever made, a body that would make an Olympic god jealous and a mind sharp enough to cut steel, but it won’t matter if you don’t know where you are going.

Decision 1 – which GRIT route.  There are 3 to choose from, and a lot of description on the ridaho website to help make your decision an informed one.  For me, it was GRIT#1.  It is the long one, and it goes through 3 states and 2 countries with at least 359 miles of trails over 7 days.  How can you top that?  So that was easy – what’s next?

Download the routes and study the maps.  Seems easy enough, and it is.  There is a down load button and, pow, like magic you have a 1200 mile route on your computer and gps device.  Now were talkin’ – lets go!  Not so fast Skippy!  We need a little more that that.

Joe (AKA: The Man) broke the routes into 7 days and even further by trail, road, atv trail, advanced, etc.  That is awesome.  Lessens your work load.  Joe also gave extensions to the routes – .gps or .map  That lets you know if it was ridden by Joe, or a local, or if it is a route from a map.  This seems trivial – but it is not.  It the prep part, it is not very important, other than to take note of it.  When you are on the ground, looking for a trail, because of blow-down, over-growth, your own ineptitude, etc, you can be pretty sure if it is a .gps, if your marker is on the track, you are on the track or it is very very close by.  If, for the same previously mentioned reasons you do not see the trail, and it is a .map extension, you will have to open your eyes and use that grey mush between your ears and find the trail.  I am a firm believer that Stevie Wonder works for the USFS, USGS, Google or any other map maker.  Their marking of a trail and where it actually is, well, there is some latitude there.  At home, in front of your computer sipping a soy free latte, it is not a big deal.  When you are on your bike, low on fuel, and it’s getting dark – it might be a bigger deal.

I am a mechanical engineer – so I have to have everything mapped, potted and calculated to the Nth degree.  So I downloaded all the gpx files onto my computer and imported them into Base Camp.  I then made an Excel spreadsheet that had every trail, road, etc on the planned trip.  They were then listed in order of our ride, and I gave a column for difficulty, length, name, etc.  One thing that was awesome, the .gps files are raw files.  So, they included moving times and average speed, etc.  The average moving speed was a great thing, as it gave me an idea how difficult the trail is to ride.  If the average speed is 20 mph or higher – way easy.  15-20 mph – easy, 10-15 mph – moderate, below 10 mph – advanced.  It also gave me a best case scenario how much time I can allot for each section.  Well, you know what they say: The best intentions……….

This is page 1 of my spreadsheet.  Pretty simple – but it helped a lot.  It also has miles between gas, so if I need to carry spare gas or if what is in the tank is enough.  Made decisions so much easier.  I like thinking at home on a computer more than at a stop&rob gas station in the middle of nowhere.  I try and not carry extra gas in the fuel bladder if I don’t need it.  My wife says I am a geek.  Probably true – but she married me so that speaks to her character I think.  Maybe she likes geeks, or motorcycle riders, or hill-billies?  She is a confused girl falling for me – but that is a whole different story.

For the GRIT #1, this is a 6 page spreadsheet.  But it is simple and easy to follow.  It was very useful and Mike and I used it our whole trip.  Kept it in a Zip-Lock bag in our backpack for easy access.

After all that is said and done, what do you use as your gps device.  This has been discussed at length and opinions abound.  I will let you know what I did, and have done for 3 years now, and it has worked without fail and is very accurate.  USB charger on the bike, with a Ram Mount and a Gear Best water proof zipper bag mounted on the Ram Mount.  Worked rain or shine, though if real hot, like day 1, I would have to unzip 1/2 way so air flow will keep the phone from over heating.  That was only an issue in the desert, and when unzipped, no issues.  It also has foam inserts so the touch screen is up against the clear plastic, so it will operate.  A 90 degree USB charge cable, in the zipper bag, allowed it to charge even in the rain.  It worked perfect in the rain – never missed a beat.

My primary was a HTC Desire  I purchased from Amazon new for $79.99.  It will only work on the Sprint network – but who cares – I am not using it as a phone and never activated it.  If you are not a total geek – you may want to skip this part.  If not, let’s get the Geek on!  The Desire is a large phone, so a nice large screen.  But – it had so much bloat ware in it!  So, I had to Root the phone, so Geeks – follow along – non-geeks, skip to the trip on day 1.  After rooted, then deleted a bunch of stuff and loaded Back County Navigator.   Then down-loaded the route areas in USFS and USGS maps.  I did the topo of each one, but not shaded relief as that takes too much space.  I am a big fan of the USFS maps, as they are not as colorful as the USGS maps and makes the route track easier to see.  But, some areas are not covered by USFS, so the USGS was the backup.  I also loaded the whole trip, so I did not have to rely on internet connection on the route, and there was enough memory in the Desire to do so, though just barely.  My backup is my primary phone, a Samsung Note 4.  Instead of 8 GB like the desire, it has over 80 GB.  I down-loaded maps to my hearts content.  It was also my phone and my camera for the trip.  It stayed in my pocket for quick access for pictures.  It also ran a track as we rode, and I kept it in a Zip-Lock bag on the rain days, as there were plenty of those.  I like both those options as my gps, as they work well and are very accurate.  I make sure the phones I use have gps, agps and glonass capabilities.  The glonass helps, as the phone gps chip set will use the US gps sats and, with glonass, the Russian gps sats as well.  Even in wooded cover and deep canyons, I always saw at least 8 sats it was picking up.  Accuracy was superb!

 

I also had paper maps of Idaho complete with trails as a complete back-up, in case the Zombie apocalypse started without my knowledge.  They were never used, but you never know.

Communication: OK – we are not Ernest Shackleton trying to get to the South Pole.  It took months (over a year if I recall correctly), and he didn’t make it.  People knew when he left – but that was about all.  Well, we live in the modern world, and communication is a little better now.  There are people that probably want you to return and would like to know where you are and how you are doing.  There are also the people watching that are waiting for the wreck, mishap, etc…they also want to see where you are.  Seriously, no one is hoping for you to get injured, but a little unplanned reroute, slight disorientation, etc adds to the excitement.  Plus – if everything went according to plan – would that be any fun?  Would you have any memories that will last past your next meal?

I purchased a used sat phone and have a 10 minute plan.  That is my emergency communication.  I prefer to talk to someone if I am on the ground with bones poking out verses a light that is red or green letting you know if a message got out or not.  I did not win the lotto, the used phone, if you look around, is about $100-150 and the service is $25/month.  But, it does not do tracking and it is not waterproof.  Keep safe in the backpack and sealed in a zip-lock bag.

We did want tracking – so Mike and I borrowed Sean’s (Mike’s best friend – not me) SPOT.  I had one, but let it expire after I got the sat phone. The borrowed SPOT tracked just fine.

In evenings, being whipped as I am, I needed to call my female I have been married to for over 21 years.  She says she likes to hear from me when I am out riding, and since she has dealt with many ER visits and even a real life flight – I bow to her wishes.  Plus – I do not overly like ground glass in my food.  It turns out – my AT&T phone was about worthless.  Mike with Verizon worked in some towns and ridges – but not mine.  I did find out you can make a call over Facebook, with a good wifi connection in your room, so I used that to talk with the female.  Worked perfect.

Bike Prep:  Like I said – my poor bike drew the short straw.  There was a lot of bike prep – and a short list is a complete motor rebuild, transmission rebuild while installing a wider ratio gear set, and a new frame.  The old one had been broke countless times and welded so much – it was worthy of retirement.

The important bike prep for the trip – assuming you have a good shape bike: New brake pads front and rear, oil change, new chain and sprockets, and new cables (Mike learned that one this trip).  New wheel bearings, as I have read many people doing long distance rides like this and having wheel bearing failures.  They are cheap, and a real pain to change in the woods.  I highly recommend new bearings.

Now the big one: new tires.  Everyone has an opinion on tires.  I will not debate that, as hammering a nail through my forehead is less painful.  Suffice to say, I used a Kenda K270 rear and an IRC TR8 front.  Traction is acceptable using the TuBliss system, and they wear like iron.  Both front and back could do the trip one more time they had so much tread left.  The TuBliss works great, in my opinion, but just my opinion.  I carries plugs for flats – I had none this time, and a spare 21″ tube is it all went bad.  It didn’t, at least for me, so I am satisfied.  Change a tire with the tools in you tool kit at home, just to make sure you can.  You may find you need more or less in your kit.  Easier at home then on a trail, in the rain.

Know you bike, and its weak points.  I have a tool kit and can do almost anything on my bike with that kit.  I have used it in the field many times.  Asian bikes like 12mm wrenches, Orange bikes 13mm, so be sure you have you bases covered.  My bike has ignition module failures (at least keyboard jockeys say this in the XR650L forums.  The really have a 650L forum?  I believe they have a forum for everything…..you are here reading this, need I say more), so I brought a spare module and spare coil.  The are small and light, and if I am in the middle of no where, and the module quits, I will be happy I am carrying that extra 14 ounces on a 360 lb bike!  Your bike may have no faults, but I doubt it.  Staying the night in the woods with a bear as an alarm clock is not as nice as 2 screws and a plug to change a module.

Big gas tank and a way to carry more.  I have 4.9 gallons, and a 2 gallon fuel bladder.  I had no gas worries.  Why stress about gas, there are plenty of other things to stress over, as you will soon read.

Body Prep: Well, I’m getting close to 50 and am shaped like Jabba the Hut.  Not a lot to work with there.  But, I ride almost every weekend, literally.  My wife has said, more than once, “We were invited to so and so’s house, on Saturday.  I know you will be riding, so I said you were busy, but I will be there.”   Good wife.

So, being out of shape is an issue, but I can ride 150 miles in a day with not a real problem, so I was pretty set there.  That was not so bad.

Party of body prep, what if I do have bones poking out somewhere during the trip?  I am a firm believer in being a member of an air ambulance service.  I am a member of CalStar in Northern California.  The have agreements with other companies in Idaho, so I was mostly covered.  I had the joy of being air lifted a week before my 40th birthday.  I was a CalStar member, but since I was not conscious during the air lift, they did not know that.  They got my address from my wallet, and a week or so later I received the bill, $29,512.00.  Good Lord – I could buy 3 super nice bikes with that! I called them, gave them my CalStar ID number, and they said, “I hope you enjoyed the ride.  Please disregard the bill.  Thank you for being a member.”  I could never go to Vegas with $50.00 (my yearly premium) and come home with almost $30K.  I recommend it, and I never let mine lapse.

Mind Prep: I like to ride.  I like the woods.  I like trails.  I have done long trips before.  Mind is prepped.  Plus, the whole 2-Click thing – you can only prep stupid so much.

Day: -30

Are you kidding me?  We are over 3300 words into this, and still no riding?  You’re killing me Smalls!

Don’t feel bad.  My employer loves it when I am studying maps, making routes, reading trip reports and writing trip reports at work on their computer.  Feel better, you’re only reading this dribble, not paying me to work while I write this dribble.  See – all better.

Around a month out from our start date, Mike pulled out of the trip.  He cited a few reasons, I guess, I didn’t really listen, as I had to reformulate my plan, while he was talking.  So, it became a solo trip, and, to save money, I would ride the IDBR back to the truck.  In retrospect – that was not a great idea, but seemed good at the time.  Plus I was going to cam along the way, and hit every special test section.  Well, intentions and real life are not the same.  So, I made another spread sheet with camping spots and my return route.  Was going to be 10 days and 2000 miles or so. Well, that didn’t happen.  turns out, the real deal breaker for Mike was riding back to Jackpot, NV and he was not a fan of camping.

A few days later, he called and said he was back in.  He explained he got his neighbor to drive from Tracy, CA to Eastport, ID with his truck to pick us up.  Really?  That is awesome!  Mike said there is 1 hitch – Mike doesn’t want to camp!  OK , I’ll give on that for a ride back in a truck – with AC – and dry.  even with fresh clothes.  So, the trip changed again.  And we made another spreadsheet and our routes.  I think we are actually ready to go.

DAY: 0

Are you ever going to start your bike?  Is this for real.

Patience – we are so close.  So, typical night before a big ride – no sleep.  Toss and turn, think about riding, am I ready, is the bike ready. is Idaho still a state?  The things that go through your mind.  If you ride a lot, you know.  If you don’t, well, play along anyways.

Met Mike in Jackson, CA at 10:00 am.  I borrowed my mom’s truck, a little Ranger instead of my 3/4 ton Dodge.  The Ranger gets better gas mileage, and it’s AC still works.  Unload his bike and load it into the Ranger.  I give his wife a bag of clothes to stay in the truck for the ride back from Eastport.  Also, I didn’t forget tie-downs to give her, as the ones on the bikes will stay with the Ranger in Jackpot.

We talked, planned, and generally tried to pass the time for the 9 hour drive to Jackpot.  Get there, got a room at Barton’s Club 93.  I asked if I could keep my truck in the parking lot until we return in 8 days.  They said they do not keep track of the vehicles, so it SHOULD be fine.

Unloaded the bikes and pack them for the trip starting in the morning.

Another sleepless night – all you can think about is riding and if we are ready.

Day: 1 – (Stage 1), Thursday, August 4th.

Up at 5:00 am.  Quick walk to the cafe for some breakfast.  I feel lousy.  My stomach is way off – I barely eat.  My wife was sick the previous week – great – now I have it.  This sucks!

Back to the room, and change into nice, clean and dry riding gear.  Enjoy it Buddy, the clean and dry part won’t last.

Out to the bikes, and were off!  Not really, it took a few times to get mine to lite!  Mikes took even longer, this is not good.  Problems before mile 1, not cool.

A preview of things to come I suppose.  But – it finally lights!  Awesome!

A cop was patrolling the streets of Jackpot, and we watched him pull over and ticket someone on the main drag through town.  He finished his ticket, and was parked up the street right before we hit the dirt.  Our bikes are an the skinny side of street legal, so we were somewhat concerned.  Nothing like a ticket before we even start.  We hit the street anyways, and ride past him, like we own the place.  He didn’t pay us much mind, but we overshot the turn-off and u-turned across a double yellow and go past him the other direction.  He may have noticed us then, but we were on the dirt before a reaction, and grabbing a big fat handful of throttle.  Yea-haw – we are on the GRIT and moving!  30 miles of dirt road, in the desert and 5th gear.  Life is grand – other than I feel like crap!  My stomach is doing flip-flops the whole time so far……cuts into the fun.

Everything is flowing good, the bike is good, I think Mike is good, but he rides desert and is faster than me.  But his dust cloud affirms that he is good, I am sure.  We crank through a few miles and get to our first decision point – the bypass or Swanty Peak single track.  DUH!  The single track.  It shoes as untested, and we go through our first gate.   Who makes those gates?  I guess Mike and I are complete wimps – those things are tight.  It takes 2 of us on quite a few of them to close them.  This one was the same.  Once past it, the trail was faint, as in, barely see it at all.  Mike says I am better at trail finding, so told me to go first.

It cuts up a little valley, with seat high grass to obscure the trail.  It was a little slow going, and a few spots I hit stuff in the grass and it stops me.  Then it gets steep and a little loose.  I have to duck-paddle a spot or two, and stop, back up, and hit it again where I miss the trail in the grass.  At this point it is hot, and I am sweating like a pig.  The good news, the exertion killed my stomach problem, and it never came back the whole trip.  We make the top, and with 2 of us going through, make the trail much more visible in the grass.  This is the top looking back down the valley and the trail:

We then rode the Joe’s Mountain single track and came to a decision – the special test section for day 1.  I had planned to do it, and it took a lot to convenience Mike….I believe the convincing was” The special test is to the right”  Mike:”I’m right behind you”.  So we hit it.  Loose desert side hill and awesome single track.  It was hot, but we were moving, it was nice.  Then it crosses a small creek and up a hill with side-hill and rock step-ups.  I get over the first one, pushing and spinning, but over.  I keep going and see the second step-up, and it is big, with a loose approach, and boulders on each side.  I stopped there, and walked back to the first one and help Mike over it.  Man that 450 is lighter!

It takes 2 of us to get both bikes over the second step – and it was some work and we were sweating.  And it was hot – very hot.  No breeze in that little canyon.  We are not even to the bad spot yet!  The skull&cross-bones on the track!  What did we get into!  I walk up to that spot – and yes, there is a lot of exposure, but the obstacle is not too bad.   I have long enough legs, so I ride it, ignoring the big drop to my left.  It was not bad, ignoring the drop.  Mike has me ride his over it as well, as he could not touch in there.  Once past, we took a short break, and then were moving again.  We felt great!

We get to the Shell station, and fuel up. We didn’t linger around – still a ways to Pine.  We wanted to hit Pine before closing time.  So we kept going – no break – a common theme for us.

Hot, dry desert.  Day was about 97 degrees.

Later in the ride – I dreamed about hot days.

Single track, jeep roads, and hill climbs.

But – all in all – day 1 was fairly tame, and flowed well.

 

 

We make it into Pine with time to spare.  Fuel up the bikes and the fuel bladders, as it is 188 miles from Pine to Idaho City for gas.  We have to hit Idaho city because of the Pioneer fire.

We then check in at the hotel, and the lady with the purple hair checks up in. She is a hoot.  Then food, burgers, of course.  I do not eat a lot of burgers at home, trying to maintain my girlish figure, but on this trip – it is a staple.  I love burgers, so I was in seventh-heaven, Mike – not so much.  With all the exertion – I eat all I want!  Oh the joy!

With full bellies, we go back to our room.  Plan the next day.  The smell – ooohhh – not so good, ripe – and only going to get riper as we go.  We get a fan to try and blow the sweat dry from the gear.  Left our socks outside – thank you.  After some Facebook calls home and Facebook updates – it was sack time.  I slept OK that night – not great – but OK.  The lack of sleep and the lack of breakfast and lunch on most days will rear its ugly head later this trip.  We will save that for later.

Mikes phone works there -something about a Verizon extender – what ever that is – but it works.  Mine does not, but I use him to confirm our reservations at Sourdough Lodge, our night 2 stay.  I asked about the fire, and they said they were fine there and no problems staying there, just don’t come up highway 21, it is closed.  “Roads – where we are going we don’t need roads .”  I feel good about our stay, so good to go.

Jackpot, NV to Pine, ID

226 miles, 27.3 mph moving average, 66 mph max, 11 hours, 6 minutes on the bikes.

This ended up being our fastest moving average day

Day: 2 (Stage 2)

Up again at 5 am.  On the bikes at 7 am or so about.  Nothing like putting on gear that has a days ride on it already.  My wife says a day ride gear is completely disgusting – I just tell her it is “Man Scent”.   She does not agree.

No breakfast – Day 1 will be the only day we have breakfast on a riding day.  We generally leave before anyone is awake – or at least serving breakfast.

The morning was peasant, slightly cool.  With a little road ahead, we donned our jackets, started the bikes without incident and headed out. Once at the top of the Paradise ATV trail, we were warmed up and decided to ditch the jackets.  It is dry and dusty, but we both have gps units with the track – so we spread out and it is a non-issue.  I am feeling pretty good and we are flowing well.  Mike is faster, as always, but not too much faster, so it clicks.

We then rode the Porcupine Trail with the entertaining bridge.  Bridge is closed as unsafe, but there is no other way to cross.  I went with the theory the less time you are on it, the lower probability you will fall through.  I ripped across it fast.  Mike took his time, as he was thinking, if it held Sean – it will have NO problem holding me.

Then some desert stuff – hot and dry, but we were moving good – so no big deal.

It was entertaining – as we rode some of the same road from the afternoon before – but in the opposite direction.  You could see our tracks from yesterday – along with some places with skid marks off the corners where we were racing a little and blew a few corners.

We kept moving, and had finished Lime and Presidents trail.  Then a decision – do we do the spur up to a Iron Mountain look-out.  It was light blue as a bypass – so I was sure very easy.  The bottom portion was smooth and flowing – I thought – this is alright, roost up and back – easy-peasy.

Not so fast, Jack-O.  It ended up being steep and very loose and rocky.  A friend of mine said with loose rocks – the faster you go, the easier and smoother it is.  Very true.  But he also said – the faster you go, the more spectacular the wreck – also true.  I decided a medium pace with medium risk.  Made it no issue – but it is loose.  Here is Mike coming up.

 

The Pioneer fire is not far away – and the smoke was there.  The views would have been even more spectacular – but a little hazy.  Still awesome:

Here is the 650L, in all her glory, at the top, fully loaded with extra gas.  Put me on it and haul me up 9000 foot ridges – I give this thing a lot of credit.  That is one big heavy load.  Your’s truly and Mike.  I am not photogenic.

The “Iron Man” motorcycle rider was up there – they knew we were coming!  Not really – I could not claim this at all – but pretty cool.  I wonder what my monument will say?  A dumb-ass rode here?

After the visit to Iron Mountain look-out, we followed the standard route to Atlanta.  We both decided to skip the special test, Snowline trail, because of the river crossing at the end of it.  We were unsure how high the water would be, and after swamping a few of my bikes over the years, I did not want to take the chance and neither did Mike.  In retrospect we wussed out, as Steve went through 2 days behind us with no issues.  Others have as well.  Maybe better safe then sorry, but still wussy.  Oh well, can’t win them all.

We get to Atlanta in the early afternoon.  It is HOT and dry.  But – the food and beer were perfect.  The music on the jukebox was perfect as well.  Yes I has a beer – Coors light.  Being 280 lbs and a single beer – I do not think I was impaired, or at least any more so than I am normally.  While there, we called Sourdough Lodge, and they were still open and didn’t see an issue with us getting there later that day.  “The fire is a ways away  – you’ll be fine.”  Cool – still a place to eat and sleep.

Now – the Pioneer Fire – it made a big change of plans.

We could not ride the route that was much more direct to Lowman, as it is in the center of the fire.  I knew of the fire before we left, and sent Joe a reroute I was thinking about.  He reviewed it, and did a couple of small tweeks, and said it was good.  I had it in my phone gps already.  At this point, Mike showed me his gear shift lever – bent at about a 90 degree angle where it should be straight.  We made the decision to ride the reroute all the way to the top of Arrowrock Reservoir, where the road splits, and we can get to Idaho City.  At that point, we would straighten the shift lever.  Being aluminum, it could break.  If it did, we would ride into Boise and get a new one that Mike checked on while we were in Atlanta.  They would sell Mike one off a new bike.  Way cool if needed.

We finally get to the reservoir – boy is that a long way.  A way long way. It was hot – really hot.  We stop at the road intersection, and break out the tools.  That lever is pretty strong, we had to really lean on it to straighten it.  The whole time, “Don’t break, don’t break, don’t break”  As we get it close, it’s like – “Thank’s close enough – STOP!  Let’s not push our luck!”  It seemed like a big deal at the time, but it straightened and we were on our way.

Thank God for gps, or actually Einstein, since gps will not work without the theory of relativity.  Since we have it, we can spread out on the hot, dry and dusty roads.  That was nice.  We had already put in our supplemental gas so we could make the 188.8 miles between Pine gas and Idaho City gas.

We blaze into Idaho City.  Gas station – yes!  Pull in and see a BMW adventure bike.  Oh-no a wanker!  See the guy in there – built like me with a Scottish accent.  Struck up a conversation.  He had been riding since March, planned on hitting all the adventure routes he could in all of North America.  Figured he was going to ride 80,000 or so miles before the end in the fall.  He was intrigued with our ride, though 7 days and 1300 miles seemed cute.  Plus, he was a foreigner –  but Scotts speak mostly English….great accent.  Seemed like a cool dude.  We wished him well.

At that same time, an Idaho City fire truck pulled up for gas.  There were plenty of fire trucks and helicopters in the area, but he was at the next pump.  He asked where we were headed, and we said we were staying the night in Sourdough Lodge.  “Not now you aren’t”.  He explained the fire “exploded” in the last few hours.  All of Lowman is being evacuated.  Damn!

So we headed to Garden Valley going through Placerville, Idaho.  I thought that was funny as I live near Placerville, California and my kid was born in Placerville, California.  They are not quite the same, by the way.  Anyways, we get to Garden Valley, and head to the Garden Valley Hotel.  I thought we would never get a room with all the fire activity, but the girl said they had some last minute cancellations due to the fire, so a room was available.  Cool – I paid and we took it.  After unloading and getting ready to shower – the power goes out!  Are you kidding me – I’m filthy.  Mike thought it might be a breaker at the motel – so he was going to do a couple of things on his bike since there was no shower.  I hoped on my bike to see how extensive the outage was – and Garden Valley had no power, but Crouch, the next town over did.  I came back, and an older guy and the girl were on the steps of the hotel.  Mike was off working on his bike.  I have lived in the woods my whole life, and the closest “town” to me does not even have a population sigh, my friends call me the “Hill-billy whisperer”.  This guy was just my style, so we started talking immediately.  Turns-out his name is Al and he is the owner.  Michelle, the girl, and easy on the eyes I say, works there.  We all talk, and Al asks what I was doing.  I told him I rode to see where there was power – the next town over.  He said -“oh, yeah?  hhmm.  I’ll call the power company”.  He came back shortly and had a case of Olympia beer.  You like beer?  Does a bear crap in the woods?  So Al, Michelle, and Mike comes over, and I all drink beer and wait for the power to come back on.  We run low, so Mike rides to the other town for a case of Coors light.  We drink that as well.  This is about the perfect night, other than the fire.  Real Idaho hospitality.  After a couple of hours, the power comes back on and we all say our goodbye’s.  Shower and sleep.  Perfect ending to a long long day.

My hill-billy town for reference:

Not all of California is LA, and I do not surf.  It gets quite rural in places.  The town has the general store, post office, saw shop, breakfast diner (Katies – she is cute as well), and a bar.  The owner of the store is Dave – and I worked for Dave as a teenager.  He still likes me – even after that.  I always ask him how many USFS or Game Wardens are about when I ride.  He is always in the know.  He always answers in a deep gravely voice – “No Federals around today – I don’t have much use for those guys.”  Federals – something out of “In the Heat of the Night”  I love my town.  Helps me fit into Idaho as well I think.  Also – the riding community in Idaho has a much better relationship with the USFS then here in Commie-fornia.  Hope it stays that way for you guys.

Pine, ID to Garden Valley, ID

195 miles, 22.1 mph moving average, 64 mph max, 12 hours, 1 minute on the bikes.

DAY: 3 (Stage 3)

Up at 5 am.  I feel bad for Al – the room is not so fresh anymore.  Our gear is taking on a life of its own.  Nothing like donning smelly gear at 5 am.  Oh well – all part of the experience.

We looked over the fire maps and had a few alternatives.  The first one was to ride the Airline Trail – semi-close by.  But Joe said we could tie into the Bitter Trail, which is the second half of the day 3 special test.  This has the same trail miles as Airline, but 5 miles less road.  The Deadwood Ridge trail was closed – so we went for the Bitter option.  I wonder if Bitter was a warning, at least for me.  All you NASCAR wreck fans – get ready – it will get better for you.

We fuel up and get a funky burrito.  In retrospect, that was not the best choice.  When I was young, I had a cast iron stomach, but not so much now.  My mind has not figured out I am getting older.  Some more of that 2-Click stuff I guess.  Between the burrito, last nights beer and lack of sleep – I am feeling a little on the rougher side.  Not real bad – but not ideal.

After fuel, quick oil check and off we go.  Road up to Bitter Creek trail – and on it we go.   I think that may have been on Bitter or Stratton – I am not sure, but it is a typical narrow switch-back side hill.

That stuff is fun, but burns some energy.  Plus – the smoke.  There was plenty of that.  The switch back stuff wasn’t so bad, but the stuff near the creek was the issue for me.  I was looking at my gps, like a complete idiot (why look at your gps on a single track – you can’t deviate…..idiot.) and rode off the trail.  Not too far, but off and I was on the ground.  Me and bike OK, but had to get back up to the trail.  A little pushing and cursing, and back up.  Not too bad.  Then a small stream crossing.  It was muddy and root infested, so I made it most of the way, and a quick step-out and on the ground again!  UUUGGGGHHH!  Man up and ride it!  Then some narrow rock cracks, etc.  I notice a clanking sound.  Stop – and spring and mount for my kick-stand are sheared off. One thing nice about the 650L, I can bungee cord the kick-stand to the passenger peg.  Yes – a bike out there with passenger pegs.  I leave them on there for 3 reasons: 1 – There may be some forest nymph in distress out there one day – and I will be the only one that can give her a ride (unlikely – but don’t burst my bubble).  2: If I make it to the top of some nasty hill, and my buddy doesn’t, I let him know a big fat dude riding a big fat bike with passenger pegs made it up – so what’s the problem.  3: The most likely – and most used – when you break the kick-stand spring you have something to attach the bungee to.

There were a couple of places I got hung up on rocks – and had to push.  That is a colossal waste of energy – plus makes me feel like a complete squid.  That trail really worked me.  Here is part of it:

And the creek crossing at the end:

That trail wiped me pretty good.  I was really feeling it then, and so early in the day.  Not feeling the love like days 1 & 2.  Plus – now I am getting hungry.  Mr funky burrito is not doing his job.

We ride some road – and then we hit the McClure trail.  It is my highlight.  It is my style – faint and hard to see.  We go down it – and there is some evidence of tracks there.  We follow, and it is fine until a section near a dry stream.  The maps shows it goes down it, so we do to.  It doesn’t, at all.  Get hung up some.  Here is our track – and you can see the map track.  It looks like drunk sailors – pretty funny:

The random tracks near the 4089 is us trying to find the trail.  It showed it turned there – but it did not at all.  We spent some time doing that – but it was cool.  Then the track was fairly consistent past that spot – where we reacquired the trail.  We did wander some, as you can see, as we were on a ridge top and the trail was below us about 200 vertical feet.  On the top, I told Mike I think I see the trail on the side hill.  I almost went for it, and if it was a day ride – I would have, but thought twice about it.  We looked some more, and found it again.  That is where it is consistent near the 657 number – and there was trail there.  It was correlating with the map some as well.  You can see we cross 2 creeks, then a side hill.  I go first, and the side hill is very loose and narrow.  I guess between the width, weight and looseness – it gave was and the bike and I slid down a few feet.  No way to get back up – but there was a flat spot a ways below.  I get on the bike, and let Mike know I will ride it down.  He says’ “Are you F-ing crazy – there is no way!”  There was a run-out down lower, it looked doable.  When I lined up and nosd down, it was quite a bit steeper than I bargained for, and we went down very fast.  Mike thought that was the end of the ride right then – but I kept the rubber down and actually make it.  Probably no style points, but made it.  At that point we have burned a couple of hours on this section, so we decide to turn back.  The trail down to the creek, I remember thinking – I don’t think I can get back up this.  Well, now you will see.  That 650L will claw out of anything.  I was happy!  Mike made it out as well – so we back-track and move on.

We then take the bypass to NF440.  We are bummed we couldn’t complete McClure and also Buck Creek.  That, along with no Deadwood Ridge is cutting into our trail miles.  But, we push on and end up taking the Trail 297 ATV route – but just for a few feet.  It is blow-down city.  We did not know it got rerouted as well.  We turned around here:

Ok – that is out.  We will just run single track Trail 073 backwards to the lookout.  It was blown up as well:

There were remnants of it – but not worth trying – so we head to the lake, and the Riordan Trail  – but it was blasted as well.  This is a bust for us, and we wiped out a lot of time trying to find it all – lots of back-tracking.

At this point – we are burning hours, so we blast out of there.  We need to get to Burgdorf before 8 pm, and we have a bit of single track to do as well.  So we put it in high gear and head out.

We get to yellow Pine – and need fuel.  They are having the harmonica festival – and the whole town is blocked off.  I walk into town and find the store with gas.  We do not look as clean and festive as the people there – we stick out like a turd in a punch bowl.  But, everyone was nice enough.  I talk with the store clerk, and he said ride around the back and I will fill you up.  We do, though we had to push a but through the crowd some.  There was some chick selling stuff at a stand in a bikini – not sure what she was selling – but she was blonde in a bikini.  After being in the woods with Mike for a few days, she was a nice distraction.  Sorry Mike, you can’t compete with that.

We grab some drinks, food, fuel and a last ogle at  bikini girl.  Then we are off – next stop is 20 mile trail.

We stop at the beginning of 20 mile trail.  There is a lot of cars there – and I am thinking – great – hikers – they will be yelling at us the whole time we are on the trail.  You know – that is how it works in California.  Well, in Idaho – that is not the case.  Everyone was friendly.  We ate some food at the beginning, and an older lady (70+) comes walking out.  So sweet – nice lady.  We asked how she was doing, she said good, but hot.  It was hot.  She said she is ahead of her husband.  About 3 minutes later, her husband (70+) as well, come walking out.  He was not doing nearly as well, but he was in good spirits.  He said he hated being out of breath – but he was carrying an oxygen bottle with him!  70+, out hiking, with oxygen – he is more studly than any of us Ridaho riders!  WOW!  I just hope to be alive at 70, not hiking.  Very cool.  We ride 20 Mile trail at a decent pace, but not fast.

We finish 20 Mile trail, and then get to Bear Pete and Nethker trails.  Bear Pete was easy, but for a couple of side hill sections.  Not real hard – but kept you on your toes.  Did not want to go off here:

That was fine – it was one way to Nethker.  We get to Nethker and start down it.  That side hill messed with me some as I knew we had to go back up it.  That will haunt me later.  The photo does not do it justice, but the trees below seem awful small:

At the bottom of Nethker we run into a group of dirt bikers loading up for the day.  They are all riding 250 2-strokes.  That would be the bike of choice if it had range and could carry all my stuff.  The could not believe Mike was riding a 450 there, and really could not believe I rode the 650 down Nethker.  I told them we were going back up it in the morning – the said “Good Luck”.  That haunted me even more – I think the mental is worse than reality much of the time.  We talked more – cool guys.  Probably will never see them again – too bad.  Fun set of riders.

We get into Burgdorf before 8 pm.  Check in at the building next to the springs.  A hippy looking guy checks us in – his name is Dannon.  Every time I thought about it, all I could think about was yogurt – man am I simple.  2-Click again I suppose.  He says we have a great cabin, #4 I think, and he will make us dinner.  Hamburgers or pizza.  I would do a burger, but Mike was getting tired of them, so they had an Elk Sausage, Jalapeno and cranberry pizza.  Sounds weird, but we are in.  I ask where we can get cleaned up.  No water or power at the rooms, and no bedding.  Mike sweet talks Dannon and he gets us a couple of blankets.  Guess Mike and I don’t have to cuddle tonight, eeww.  Too bad bikini girl is not around……

We soak in the hot springs – a while as our man scent is getting a little overpowering.  It is not as good as a shower – but it is better than nothing.  It feels good.  They do not open until 10 – so no breakfast for us.  We had some left over pizza, so there is breakfast!  Once in the room, I grab the bottom bunk.  Mike is small – so there you go.  Made for a long, extremely sleepless night.  That will do me a number later.

Garden Valley, ID to Burgdorf, ID

177 miles, 19.9 mph moving average, 60 mph max, 12 hours, 48 minute on the bikes.

DAY: 4 (Stage 4)

We are still on track to be a GRIT finisher – but are at the edge for trail miles.  Mike and I decide the night before we would leave early, and not have the bikes loaded, and do a quick 20 mile out and back to the lake to make up some trail miles – seems like a solid plan. So I get up at 6, as it is dark at 5, and you cannot see in the cabin as there is no light.  I don’t really wake up – I never slept.  Head out to do the morning business, and here is the restroom?

Using an outhouse does not phase me, but the mosquitoes and the angle.  Thought I was going to do a backwards somersault the whole time.  Kinda ruins the morning constitutional.  We are on the bikes, and do our loop with out much issue.  Mike gets stuck in a mud bog – but gets out fast enough – though it was entertaining to watch.

Back at the room, load up the bikes and we are off.  All before 9 am – so no breakfast except the single slice of pizza.  I was dreading going up Nethker all night – so that kept me up, among other things.  We started up Nethker – I was worried.  Then the tough spot!  This will be brutal.

It is steep, loose and side hill.  Loaded bike – this will be a problem.  Mike goes ahead, and cleans the rock step and kept going.  Damn – now I will look like a newbie and not make it.  I will be pushing – I am sure………. Well, it actually went really well – thanks to my supreme riding skills.  Look at the skill:

OK – not my skills.  I looked like a monkey doing a football – but made it up with no problems.  A lot of worry and no sleep for no reason.  Typical idiot!

I did not get too many photos, as this was my low day.  Between no sleep, heat, and lack of food for my girlish figure – I was done.  I was not having fun and I was done with this crap.  Mike – you are too damn chipper – I may need to punch you in the mouth to kill the chipperness…….is that even a word?  Anyways – I was just going through the motions that day – it was sad.  I was in a funk and don’t remember a lot of it.  There were a few high lights, but I was not doing well.

Bear Pete trail was great – the scenery was awesome and the trail was not overly tough or side hill exposed.  I liked it.

French Creek road down to the Salmon River was cool to see.  The switchbacks were just road riding – but it was fun watching on the gps as you go down and past switchback after switchback.

We then crossed the Salmon River and headed up to Chair Point.   This was our first rain event of the trip thus far.  Part way up – I stopped and donned (donned? Wow -I is literate) my rain jacket.  It is not insulated – just a shell – but it works well.  I caught up to Mike at the intersection where a left takes you to chair point – and the right we continue on our route.  When I get there – Mike says, “Did you hear the thunder?”.  “Oh yea – through my helmet and over the sound of the bike – it is getting with it!”  So we headed up to Chair Point – but once in view of the top – FLASH! and BOOM less than a second later.  I immediately turned around and grabbed a hand full of throttle heading down.  Mike followed without any hesitation.

We continued on – and rode Trail 118.  Trail 118 is on top of the ridge – the same with the lightening and thunder – and it was lighting up.  Along with the rail – getting with it.  Luckily Trail 118 was a semi-Quad trail – so we could move quick.  We moved even quicker on the exposed ridge where we were the tallest things around.  We decided a fast pace was in order.  Faster than I would normally ride – but I thought if i wrecked – I would be on the ground and Mike would be the tallest thing around, thus being the lightening rod…. I didn’t really think that as I would be fairly bummed out if Mike was struck by lightening.  Plus – I would not want to tell his wife he is dead because we are idiots.  Hurt because we are idiots – she would accept that as normal.

Once we finished Trail 118, the lightening seemed to be moving away from us – and it quit raining.  We then hit Trail 117 – my favorite of the entire trip.  Why my favorite – I am not sure.  It was like McClure – but we made it through the whole thing.  It was marked by ribbons and ducks.  The trail was extremely faint.  It was on a ridge top and was a blast to follow.  I really liked it.

Then we hit Trail 307 (Telephone Ridge).  That trail was much more established, once we found it at the end of Trail 117 and the road.  As always – Joe’s track was spot on, but the gps is only so accurate.  That trail flowed well, and one section drops from 5800′ to 3600′.  About 1/3rd of the way down, Mike was stopped in the trail.  I stopped.  He asked me is I was the two bear cubs in the tree next to the trail.  I did not – I was too busy trying to catch up.  He said it was a little ways back – he didn’t want to stop too close a mamma bear had to be close by.  So we resumed -and with the flow – we were in full on race mode – down the hill.  What a blast!  I was railing along – and then no rear brake.  Not too big a deal – just boiled the brake fluid – it will come back after it cools.  So I just drop into first gear and use the motor and front brake.  Figured I would eventually get to the bottom and see Mike impatiently waiting there.  That was not to be, as I slowly rounded a corner about 1/8th of a mile from where my rear brake boiled – there was Mike.  “I have no brakes!”  Me too.  So we took a break, waiting for the brakes to cool so we could continue on.

We hit the Marble Point Trail – it was beautiful.  Then kept going going to Pierce.  Some great scenery.  This was a nice looking valley – though pictures are not the same a being there.

We were on another trail, and Mike said he had to adjust his clutch again.  Again?  That is odd.  He adjusted it a second time, and we continued on.  Then he had to adjust it again.  That is not good, and we were wondering what was going on, but kept going so we could get into Pierce at a decent time to get gas and food.  Here is the 3rd adjustment spot, very nice area:

We finally get into Pierce and get fuel.  We check into out motel and then ask what there is around to eat.  There is only one place in town to eat, the Timber Inn, so we head over there. We meet the older owner/owners dad, whom we call “Mr. Sunshine”.  We are there on a Sunday, the same day that Logging Days ended in Pierce.  I guess it was a large event.  So we walk in, and we are greeted with. “We’re all out of food.”  What?  I have had a single slice of pizza all day, along with no sleep the night before.  My mood was, to put mildly, a little on the rougher side.  And, anyone who knows me, knows I am just a ball of sunshine……  Then, he said, “Well, I can make a couple of plain burgers.”  We’ll take them.  “I just cleaned the grill…”  What ever – I am getting some food.  That may help my mood.  Then we ask for a Coors Light -“Were all out”.  We waited for him to say whet he had – but just silence.  We guessed a few beers until we hit something he had.  If I wasn’t so hungry and irritable, it would have been pretty funny.  We did get our food – and it was fine.  May have had some “extra” ingredients, as food has sometimes when you irritate the server, but at that point I would eat anything.

Burgdorf, ID to Pierce, ID

226 miles, 24.1 mph moving average, 58 mph max, 11 hours, 59 minute on the bikes.

DAY: 5

Mike and I headed back to the hotel, the Outback.  I really like that place.  There was a German guy there on a KTM 990 doing some big adventure ride.  He was friendly, but my high school German hand his English made communication a little sketchy, but we were all riding bikes, so that was a common thread.  We then started looking at Mikes bike,to see the issue.  Here is what we found:

One strand left – abound as many nerves I had left at this point, 1.  No where even close is there a place to get that clutch cable.  It was not even close to mine, though I didn’t have a spare anyways.  I was going on the premise the new cable I put on the week before would be fine.  At that point – our ride was coming to a close.  I was not feeling the love anyways – so it didn’t bum me out too much.  I was not having the greatest time at that point – to say the least.  I was definitely at a low point – if I was solo, I would have quit earlier that day.  But Mike is so damn positive all the time, UUGGGHHH!  Mike sent Joe a message our ride was over – no way to find a cable.  Mike was entertaining the idea to buy a propane torch and solder at the hardware store and repairing it.  It seemed pretty far fetched – we are not McGuiver.  He would have fixed it with a Hershey’s bar and gum.

Joe said he would find a cable and bring it to us, in Pierce!  Are you kidding?  5 hours each way!  He said yes, and found one.  Mike did not want the trip to end – so he accepted Joe’s offer.  I could have gone either way.  So, we got an extra day in Pierce.  We slept in the next morning – as there was no riding to be had.  We ate at the Timber Inn again, and Mr. Happy was actually a little happier.  Not happy – but good enough.  The food and sleep did me wonders – I felt 100% better and was ready to hit it again.  The love is back!

Joe showed up later that afternoon, and had the cable.  That was the first time either of us met Joe, super cool guy.  He wouldn’t take money for gas and the cable!  It took a lot of prodding and he finally relinquished and took the cash.  Good – it is the least we could do.  We all talked about the route, what we have seen so far and what we thought.  Joe is also 100% fair, so we were lo longer eligible to be True GRIT finishers, as we would be taking an extra day.  So, we would be Pioneer Finishers, so we were a little bummed, but then thought – just to finish would be great.  Especially after my funk mood the last day of riding.  We said our goodbye’s and Joe was off heading home.  We went over to see Mr. Sunshine again and have some dinner.  The back to the hotel and a good nights sleep.  Life was grand at that point!

I did get a hitchhiker I did not want to remove, as it was not flat.  The hitchhiker stayed with me the rest of the entire trip.  Tire is holding up well given the terrain and miles.

Pierce, ID    (Potential “True GRIT” finishers to Potential “Pioneer” Finishers)

0 miles, 0 mph moving average, 0 mph max,  0 hours, 0 minute on the bikes, but a great day of rest and meeting Joe.

DAY: 6 (Stage 5)

The weather forecast the night before showed the possibility of showers.  In the mountains, possibilities turn quickly into realities.

We get up, again at 5 am.  We left our gear on the porch, as the man scent has changed into man funk.  Funk means bad.  Luckily it was a covered porch, as it rained that night.  The gear was slightly damp, but not wet.  The man funk is not mixed with some sour – so that was pleasant to put on first thing in the morning. It was also much cooler – and much cooler being 50’s at the town to 40’s in the mountains.  It was jacket time, and we were off.  Our spirits were high, mine is now high, I think Mike’s spirit is like Jeff Spicoli, permanently high.

Our first trail is Dan Lee Ridge Trail.  Fun trail, flowing with some blow down, but not much.  Pace has dropped off some as the trail is wet as we are.  The K270 tires works great in the dry, but mediocre in the wet.  Being prudent – we slowed down.  Here is what the trails look like now – a lot different from a couple of days ago.  Slippery, wet roots and sticks ups the difficulty.  We were pretty soaked by the end of the Dan Lee Trail.  We looked at the special challenge, but with the rain, and it saying some over-grown, we passed.  As it was, every time you brushed up against a bush, it relieved all of its water onto you.

Once past, we were on some road stuff.  The clouds parted, and we thought, perfect, early showers and we are good to go.  The weather gods are fickle and will demand sacrifice from us later.   And they will get it.  But for now, the birds are singing and we are all smiles!

We then enter the Larch Butte Trail.  We go about 1/4 mile, and our first down on this trail.  We could see where people went around, but we decided to cut it instead:

Mike is his ever happy self.  I need to know what he is on 😉  Here he is showing his Shogun side!  Do warriors smile that much?

 

We get a little further in, and wham – another.  This time I work on the saw.  As you can see – it is wet.  But, though the forest gods dampen our bodies, that cannot dampen our spirits!  Al right, al right, I will slow down on the corny phrases, at least for now.

At this point, I have had no real repairs on my bike other than the bungee kick stand.  With the lack of kick stand, I just find a tree, or if not one available, shut-off the fuel and lay it on its side.  Before this shot, Mike wass at the log, stopped.  I pull up behind, and he does not notice where my bike is I guess.  I am upfront looking at the log getting ready to cut on it.  Then I hear a commotion… and see Mike on the ground.  Weird?  Turns out, Mike didn’t see my bike, stepped back and tripped over it.  As he did so, he kicked out my headlight and pulled the brake hose free of its mounts and tweaked a fork guard.  Thanks Mike!  Actually was not too bad.  The LED light works without a lens, even in the rain…cool.  The mounts for the hose were loosened and re-installed.  The hose lived with no issues – thank God.  No front brake would suck.  And the for guard was repaired with a zip tie.  This is the modern equivalent of bailing wire for a hill-billy.  Sweet – cut the log, and we were on our way.

The trail was marked as narrow – but on the ridge top is was not too bad.  As we kept going, it started down hill.  After this corner, as a log, not too hard to get over.  Gravity always helps, so going over it down hill was OK, but going back up it was probably not going to happen.  At this point, we are committed to the trail.

Then there was a switch back to the right, and then the real NARROW side hill.  Being wet, it made it look even narrower.  It was not over my head as far as riding, it actually wasn’t that bad – but going off would be a major issue.

Then a nice switch back.  I’m at the top, Mike the bottom, and the switch back in the middle.  Pictures do not do the slope justice.  I know – you’re saying, it is not that bad, you are a complete wuss.  Though that may be true – it is steep, believe me or not…..

We keep going, cutting a few smaller logs as we go.  We then come to a larger one, and we get the bikes over it.  The next one is worse.  Steep side hill.  If we drop a bike below this log – that would be a mess of epic proportions.  This shot shows the log we went over in the foreground and the log we have to cut in the background with yours truly behind the log:

Crappy photo – but is is foggy and raining, and cold.  Mike was shivering I am sure.  So here is the log, we have cut 1 part of it, but we need to cut it twice, as we cannot move it with a single cut….complete bummer.  This took us over an hour – long time.  On the plus side – we were no longer cold – now wet and sweaty!

That is the very tip of a Silky Big Boy 2000 saw, so the log is 14-16″ diameter, and solid.  It was work!  Though it was the last one we had to saw on this trail.  There was a log further down, but at 30″+ in diameter, no sawing.  We could drag the bikes under it – that unto itself was some work.  So, the Larch Butte Trail has now been finished, but it burned some serious time.  People watching our SPOT page probably thought we were walking, or drinking Mai-ties or something.

We were then on the Weitas Creek Trail – fast and flowing – especially compared to Larch Butte.  Don’t get me wrong – Larch Butte was my #3 favorite trail – I really liked it!  In the middle of Weitas Creek Trail – is the Liz Creek Cabin.  I stayed under the porch for a second to escape the rain – but I am already soaked – so what was the point.

We ended Weitas Creek single track and ATV trail.  It was nice – but raining the whole time.  Then onto Windy Ridge.  That is usually a fast, flowing trail, but the Forest Service just added water bars.  I guess they were expecting Noah and his ark to come down the trail – they were tall and sharp.  I rode them slow – well, at least slower than normal, so special slow.  Then onto Windy Bill – I like that trail a lot as well.  The bushes were soaked and drooping from all the water, so when you hit them, which was all the time, all the water was on you and down your boots, pants, shirt, glasses, etc.  Went from soaked to drowned rat.

Part way through, there was a downed log.  Mike was in front – and I was, though it was rare, close behind.  When he grabbed a hand full to wheelie the log, he roosted me with mud – a lot of mud.  Now I am wet and muddy.  Thanks Mike!  Just kidding – it was my own fault.

We followed Windy Bill and to Junction Creek Bridge.  The trail was tight and rocky – but very fun.  The sun was out by the time we were getting to the bottom.  At the Junction Creek Bridge, I overshot the turn – but the trail went across the creek.  So I went for it – well there is a bridge there for a reason I guess.  The water is deep – real deep.  I got 80% across – and the bike conked out.   Damn!  Damn!  Damn!  It would not re-lite!  I pushed it out to the other side as Mike happily crossed the bridge – looking at me like I’m an idiot!  Well – I guess I was.  I was about to start taking the air filter out, but hit the magic button one more time and she lit!   Sweet!  A lot of steam out the pipe – but she is lit.  I am not sure if this helped problems down the road – but they showed up later.  Anyways we end at the river near the Kelly Work Center.  It was sunny and warm – typical in the valleys – but raining and cold in the mountains.

I was still covered in mud – so I did the only thing I knew to do to get the mud off:

With the tall grass – I laid down on it and drug myself around.  OK – I look like an idiot – but it did remove the mud, and make Mike laugh like a hyena at the same time.  So, clean and entertaining – not too bad.  Here is a shot of my hand out of my gloves – did I say we were soaked – and this would not stop until day 7.

This whole trip – Simmons Ridge special test was on my list and we had to do it.  Joe’s note on the gps track says – Simmons Tower – great views!  And they are awesome views, except in the rain:

At that point – I had been smelling burnt oil since the creek flooding incident.  So, I decided to check it at the Simmons Tower.  I had been checking it every day – and no changes.  I checked it now and -not a drop on the stick!  Crap!  I was stunned.  I told Mike this may be the end of the trip and the 650L as well!  It sounds OK though.  Mike had some oil, and after adding the 1/2 quart he had – it at least touched the stick.  Whew -it holds over 2 quarts – so it was not out.  OK – let’s continue on and see what happens.  If it sucks it down too fast – we are through.  Let’s see.

I still wanted to do the Simmons Ridge special test -so screw the bike – let’s go!  So we start down the trail.  I was in front for some reason – maybe Mike knew something I didn’t.  It was still raining and cold – 47 degrees or so.  We were going up the trail – wet and semi-steep:

I guess the “Special” part of the trail is the rocky hill climb.  I was in front, and, wait for it, I managed to loop it out on the rocks.  Mike said it was spectacular! Me and the 650L stood straight up for a second or 2, then over backwards onto the rocks.  Luckily I broke the fall for my bike – so it came out OK.  I was a little worse for wear.  Mike had to get the bike off of me since I was wedged between a coupe of rocks and the bike on top of me.  Boy – did that feel so good!  Thank you sir, may I have another!  Mike was almost yelling, ” Are you OK?”  Yes. ” Are you sure – that looked awful!”  I assured him I was OK, and we got the 650L pointed back up the trail.  I got to the top without further incident, but my look conveys I was not the happiest camper in the world:

 

A little of the Simmons View:

That is the top of the “Special” rock climb.  Then some rocky side hill, while wet.  It was also “special”, I think, but doable.  We press on, but it is getting later and a lot of log hopping.  We are getting nowhere fast – and it is after 7 pm.  We have been on the bikes for almost 14 hours – so we turn around, and follow the main route to Avery.  We make it there just before 8 pm.  They are still open.  Team Paulie is there, wet as well.  We have some food together, and we get some fuel and our room.  The owner is a great guy, and funny as the day is long!  Food is burgers, so I am OK, but poor Mike, if anything dampens his infernal happy spirit, is eating burgers every day.  The Chines say: “Happiness is watching your neighbor fall off his roof”.  Well, see Mike in a little distress makes me smile – at least on the inside.  Sorry Mike, but I am an ass-jack!

 

We get our room -and thank the Heavens – 2 bedrooms!  Sweet sleep tonight.  We get our gear laid out and a fan.  It was a nice thought – but did not even come close to drying it all out.  Well – it’s the thought that counts, I guess.

Pierce, ID to Avery, ID (Our Longest day on the Bikes)

195 miles, 18.6 mph moving average, 72 mph max (make up time!), 14 hours, 42 minute on the bikes.

DAY: 7 (Stage 6)

I was right – sweet sleep.  Up again at 5:30 am.  It is showering outside.  Put on our wet gear…ugghh.  Well – at least it washed off the funk – for the most part.  It was cold though, especially in the morning.  We were planning a fairly early start to the day – looked to be a decent amount of single track that day.  We are both a fan of leaving early so we can get to the next overnight spot in time for food, fuel and rest.  Once again – the best laid plans.

Went outside and packed up the bike.  Added oil to the 650L as this will be common from now on out.  Mike had a rear flat – so we were trying to fix that.  Turns out a bad valve core, it wouldn’t even take air, and Scheffy’s had free air. so no hand pumping – cool.  Mike ended up pulling a valve core from his spare tube – and the tire took air!  Sweet – thought that is burning some time – we are ready to hit the trail.  I hit the magic button, and the Mighty 650L roared to life.  Even though it is burning oil like a 2-stroke – it is running perfect.  No stalls, hesitation, nothing.  She just looks like George Burns once in a while.

Mikes 450 – no such luck.  It will not fire.  Nothing – crank the starter – nothing.  Then we resort to kicking it – nothing.  We take turns kicking it – it just doesn’t want to light.  I an at the point, that if I have to, I will push my bike to Canada.  Mike says – let me get out my tow strap.  We hook the 2 bikes together, and I take off slowly.  We get some speed up, and he drops the clutch and bam!  The 450 lights up!  It died is a second, we pull it again and she lights again.  He keeps it running, letting it warm up.  I asked if he thought it would be OK, and Mike said – Valves.  They are getting tight – but it should be OK once it warms up.  We then stow the tow strap – and up the road.

We don’t get up the road more than 1/4 mile I think – and we over-shoot the trail entrance.  Some how I ended up in front, and started up the Nelson Ridge trail.  Cool trail – a bit of side hill, but it is wider and has a decent footing.  I was digging it – so I upped my pace.  Cruising along, but after a bit of climbing – the rain picked up.  It was a cold rain – but since we started the day pre-moistened from our gear, being rained on was not that big of a deal.   I kept going, and came to a ‘wide” spot on a ridge spine.  I stopped and waited for Mike.  Took a photo of the weather – it looks pretty cool:

I continued to wait for Mike.  After a bit, I started to worry.  Did he ride off the trail?  Break-down?  Abducted?  I turned around, and headed back down.  It was a ways down, and there he was with the bike, in a pool of blood and a psychopath with a knife hovering over him…..just kidding.  He was trying to fix a rear flat again.  The tire would not take air again!  We were going to get into another tube, but Team Paulie came by, and we talked and they had a valve stem!  Sweet – fixed it, air up – and we were on our way.

I was in front again – don’t know why.  I am not the fast one of our group or of their group – but I made it to the top of SheFoot first.  The views – incredible!  See for miles!  The insanely tall cliff we were on the edge looking down!

Well – not really.  This was our view:

Bummer!  I knew it would be beautiful.  I went down the trail a little ways, and parked under a tree.  Kept the bike running and was warming my hands on the exhaust waiting for the rest of the group.  I am not sure what they were doing – but I warmed my hands enough they started to hurt.  If you ride a lot, in the cold and rain, you know how bad your hands can hurt trying to warm them up.  I was cold all over – but was having a great time.  Riding in the cold and wet is nothing new, and it is just part of riding.

Both parties re-grouped and we kept going.  We rode a trail called “Big Dick”.  It made for some interesting conversation.  On top of that – it was a really fun trail!  I was a little concerned, as it was a .map trail, not a .gps trail.  Trails that are .map for us are usually good, but a couple were not what we expected.  The .gps trails were always perfect!  So we rode the trail – it was really fun.  The trail went on top of a Moon Pass Tunnel, and dropped us out at the tunnel entrance – really cool.  This is where Team 2-Click and Team Paulie parted ways for the day.  We would see each other at Gold Creek Lodge at the end of the day.

We rode down the road – and stopped and thought hard about the special test section – but decided not to push our luck with how the bikes were running.  In retrospect – we probably would have been OK, but we did want to finish as well!  So we kept going into Wallace.

We get gas at the Beamis Exxon.  I top off the 650 oil.  At this point, we try and call Gold Creek Lodge, as we do not have reservations.  No luck – they are not open yet.  Mike sweet talks the cashier and has her call Gold Creek Lodge to let them know we need a room.  The cashier looks like an aging Joan Jet – but she took a fancy to Mike and she agreed to call after we left.  I actually think she did -but not completely sure of that.

From Wallace, we head up to the State Line Trail.  Holy crap was it cold – and wet, and crazy cold.  We brought our jackets and warmer gloves, but it was very cold.  We finally get to the State Line Trail.   It was nice being on single track again and warming up!  We start up a few switch backs and along the ridge and some side hill.  Lots of rock scree and the trail goes through it.  Found out in short order, the faster you ride it the easier it is.  The rock scree has decent footing, so it was not bad at all.

That rock made the weirdest sound as you rode across it.  Almost like glass on concrete, it is hard to describe.  On this trail, it was more work than the parts of the trail that were dirt.  This trail had good footing.  It was wet and a little slick – but rode well.  We passed the spot Joe marked to stop and walk over the ridge for awesome views.  We did not.  We were basically riding in a cloud – all you could see is maybe 200 feet and white fog.  Did I mention it was wet and cold?

We finished that part of the State Line Trail without incident.  It was nice, I enjoyed it a lot.  We passed on the Granite Peak special test.  The pictures of it looked great – but not in our weather.  Everything was wet and slick and no view.  We did not exert the energy on it.  It was clear – that one was on our list.

We then hit a paved road NF-9 to Thompson Pass.  We looked a bit for the trail, as we overshot it as well.  There was a lady up the trail a ways picking some sort of berry.  I am assuming Huckleberries – but I don’t know what they look like.  I wish I did – we probably passed a lot of them.  We saw some, and I dared Mike to eat one, but he passed.  As I rode up to pass the lady – I was ready for her to yell at us or give us the stink eye, as that is how everyone in California greets a dirt bike on the trail.  I waved, expecting some sort of poor reaction, but she smiled and waved back.  Very cool.  Way better then back home, stupid state ( or at least ass-hat people).

I was in front again – not sure why.  Mike is faster, no doubt.  But, I thought – I will wick it up some and give him a run for his money.  I grabbed a handful and started moving – at least moving for me.  I was making a slight gap – but it was short lived.  With the wet trail, wet rock and wet logs, I laid it down in 3rd!  Damn it!  My pride was hurt more than me.  I quickly picked up the bike,and grabbed another handful.  Not much further, wet roots, front washed out and down I go again!  This time, I got up a little slower.  It hurt some.  Bent my shift lever, but the 650L lever is steel, not aluminum, so bent it back without a second thought.   I decided to let Mike be in front, and changed my pace to something I could reliable control (meaning slow).  We finished the trail without further incident.

Then a little bit of road – and then hit the Trail 7.4 & Trail 7.5 combo.  I think these are just the State Line Trail a little further north from where we hit it earlier in the day.  This is a wide section of trail, and how it started.  We were thinking it was to be a fairly flowing decent speed trail:

We proceeded, the trail became more narrow and the footing was getting smaller.  This is the footing, but I had to steal the photo:

I was in front.  It was side hill, like the above photo, but also wet.  Then we were riding in and out of a recent burn area.  The footing was almost the same angle as the terrain, so it was slow going.  In this section of trail, the scree trail area was faster than the dirt/wet root areas.  The trail is there, look closely!

This trail was challenging.  It also had this grass, that would grow in clumps.  They were tough enough to knock you off line and they liked to hide rocks or the like behind them for their entertainment – not yours.  We kept a slow and measured pace, and liked when we hit the scree area.  Then more side hill, wet with, this time, ferns.  Cool looking, but slick.  I get through to a scree area and wait for Mike.  No Mike.  Then I hear him yell, “I’m off the trail!”.  I did not turn around – no room for that.  I left the bike and walked back.  Mike was about 30 feet down.  He was in a fern area, steep slope and wet.  Some plants, where I ride, if you slip off, I call them organic traction enhancers.  The ferns were the complete opposite.  Mike pointed the bike uphill and gave it some gas.  This resulted in him and the bike moving about 40 feet laterally and 20 feet further down the slope.  I yell,”Stop, stop, stop.  We are only making it worse.”  I hike down the fern hill to Mike and his bike.  It is pointed uphill again, so he starts it, and I push and he pushes and uses the engine, only to slip another couple feet down the slope.  Not a lot of trees around for the rope and pulleys, but maybe.  We were thinking it, and we decide to try another push.  Mike hits the starter, but forgot to pull in the clutch.  The starter engaged and the bike moved forward!  Sweet!  Kept the bike off, but pushed the starter and us pushing, it crawled up the slope.  Gotta love a Honda starter – 50 feet up the slope and it didn’t miss a beat.  At the top, we celebrated, just hi-fives – but we were ecstatic!    The rest of the trail was slow going, with the wet small footing, but we made it the rest of the way without incident.  It was, however, very windy and rain.  It was pretty neat, watching the cloud (which looks like fog) blowing across the ridge in front and over us, then you can see 300 feet, then fog, then heavy rain, then light.  Being a single track, we were warm enough – so it was really awesome.

We kept going and hit ATV trail 1516.  It flowed well, but some stuff in your face.  It was rocky and rutted – but really fun.  Had a great time on that one.  There was a building – looks like the remnants of an old mine.  The ATV trail went above and below it.  Though it may be the earlier ATV trail to road 137.  Some of this runs together.  Like I tell my female, my brain only can hold so much, so some of it has to get purged.

We were riding down Independence Creek Road, NF-3906.  There was a Forest Service work party, clearing brush.  I slowed and waved.  Every one was friendly, waved or carried on about their business.  Mike was a little ways behind.  I guess the trail boss saw him and gave him a little guff for being in a work area.  Not much, just a little razzing.  I guess I got through before the trail boss – I never was talked to – just waved too.  Everyone was friendly.  It had stopped raining by then, and was warmer.  It was very pleasant.

Then it was time for the Independence Creek Trail.  Last year, it seemed like a big deal.  This year – after riding Larch Butte Trail and parts of the State Line Trail – it was a freeway.  Well, not a total freeway – but it seemed nice, wide and flowing.  Mike was in front and I never saw him again until the end of the trail.  Not a glimpse.  He is so much faster on this stuff, plus there were whoops, and he is the king of those.  I flounder on those badly, but I kept my own pace and enjoyed it.

Wide:

And creek crossings just for fun!

From there it was just a few miles of flowing dirt road to Gold Creek Lodge.  We arrived there at a decent hour, and went into the main building.  A guy behind the counter asked if we wanted something to drink, so we had some beers.  Nice and cold.  We asked if they had a room – he said he would check.  He left and was gone quite a while.  This was not a good sign.  Though it wasn’t raining, it was still very cold and wet.  Man – I guess we could high tail it to Clark Fork – but ten we would bypass the last special test as it was getting towards dark.  Then a nice lady came out and said they had a room – we’ll take it!  Can we buy some gas as well?  She said they only have emergency gas right now, as the pumps are not up and running yet, but she agreed to sell us 5 gallons – which Mike and I split between our bikes.  We went to our room and changed.  About that time, team Paulie came in.  We met them down at the restaurant and it was all you could eat spaghetti night.  I think they lost money on us!  It was perfect.  Warm restaurant,  cold beer, good company!  We sat around the table telling lies about our ride so far.  Probably not lies, but a little exaggeration – that is how riders communicate, right?  Went out to the bike and added more oil – but she is still running good.  Only 1 day left!

After food, it was bed time.  Gold Creek Lodge is a great place – really great.  Comfy bed, very very nice rooms.  I felt bad being so wet and smelly being in that room, but I hear the owner is a bike rider so he knows the score – I hope.

Avery, ID to Gold Creek Lodge, ID

157 miles, 19.0 mph moving average, 58 mph max, 10 hours, 31 minute on the bikes.

 

Day 8 (Stage 7 – the last riding day – August 11th)

The room and beds were so nice, we slept in until about 6 am that day.  It was a shorter riding day, so – what the heck – let’s live on the wild side.

The day was cool, but mostly clear.  Looked to be a dry day, though our gear was anything but that.  The night before I left my boots on the porch.  When I took took them off, I literally poured at least a pint of water out of each one.  This morning – they were still wet.  So another day on putting on cold, wet and pretty smelly gear.  Oh yeah – love that part.  One thing about day riding back home, the gear starts out dry, warm and smelling fresh.  That is a luxury boy – man up.

Once the bikes are packed and our wet gear has assumed out body temperature, I light off the 650L.  No problem – though a little blue smoke.  Guess she is letting me know she is getting tired of hauling my Jabba the Hut body all over Hell’s half acre.  Mikes bike, out comes the strap.  A couple of pulls and away we go.  We left before team Paulie.

We rode down to the shore of Lake Pend Oreille.  Sweet lake – very beautiful.

It was still overcast and cooler – but shaping up to be a great day.  No rain!  Hallelujah!

We follow roads to Gold Creek Single Track.  The bottom of the trail is in a valley, and the rains have hit there as well.  Though not raining now, the trail is MUDDY!  Real muddy in places.  The K270 is not the best in mud – but it does OK.  Get through it with no real problems.  The trail then heads up and there is a note in the gps file, “Cool Trail with One Exposure Ledge”.  HUMMMM, that sounds interesting.  When Joe says exposure – be prepared.  It turns out, it is a stump, with a notch cut in it for your handle bars and the trail was narrow – with a decent 20 or so foot drop into a creek.  Mike later said – that trail section was the worst exposure of the trip.  For some reason, it did not phase me that much.  Not sure why – reminded me a lot of my trails back home.  Exposure, but not big views of open space exposure.  I did stay cautious, but it was fine. We then kept going.

We then hit the last special test, which is a ridge overlooking the lake.  Joe said it was an awesome spur with just a couple of tough spots.  It was an out and back – and going out we went down a couple of switch backs I was thinking these will be tough coming back, but we kept going.  We stopped where Joe marked as a good picture site, and it was.  Pictures never do anything justice, and that is for sure and for certain for these pictures.  It was so beautiful in person, but alas I only have pictures so here they are.  Plus, if you have stayed with me this long through this dribble, the poor quality photos will not ruin the rest of this experience.

Click on the panoramic – it is worth it.

Mike stayed at the photo spot.  He had cell reception and was calling his wife or something.  I said I was going to go to the end – another photo opportunity.  So I pressed on.  It was not too far, and the trail split.  Left was down, not sure where, but right was our track to follow.  Left was cleared, right – not so much:

The trail is there, but I was not in the mood to saw all of that.  So I turned around and regrouped with Mike.  We headed out, and came to the now uphill switch backs.  It did mess with us some, but a little push and paddle and we were on our way.  It was a beautiful trail – here it is going out after the switch backs.

This was an “Adventure Style Ride Day” – so a bit of road.  That is fine, the scenery was great and the day was warm and dry – very nice.

We hit road construction at Lower Pack River Road and Rapid Lightning Road.  They were chip and sealing, and we had to wait and  follow a pilot car.  It took awhile, and Mike took teh chance and shut off his bike.  As the pilot car came into view – he cranked the bike.  It lit pretty fast – a relief!  We followed, and then were out of the construction zone.  Then roads with great views:

We stopped at Samuels Store to get gas – and Joe was there!  We asked what he was doing there, and he said he was following out SPOT tracks and wanted to see us.  We talked a short bit, and he said he will meet us at Fiest Creek Lodge for our victory dinner.  We said it was a date – we will see you there in a few hours.

We headed out, and more great views.  If I ever moved, I could live here:

We kept moving – what a beautiful day!  We then headed to Trail 222, and ATV trail on the other side of the Pack River.  It was marked as a tough crossing.  It had a few deep spots, but was heavily rock strewn.  I liked it!  Plus – it was a nice day, and my already wet boots didn’t mind getting any wetter.

This is where being fat and tall has its advantages.  My weight makes the tire grip – it just doesn’t have a choice……glad I am not a tire.  It also squats the bike down.  That – and being tall – allows me to duck paddle across all the rocks.  I didn’t dab in the water much – I was actually able to time putting my foot down on the dry rocks.  I got across without much incident.  If you saw it, you may have confused this with riding ability, but alas – that is not the case.  You should know that by now if you have read this far.  If not – you may apply the 2-Click or not 2-Click question to yourself.  Sorry – that was not nice, hope Mom doesn’t read this.

Mike is shorter and lighter.  He made the wise decision to walk it across.  He cannot touch like me, and drowning the bike this close to the end would be pointless.

We then hit the excellent White Mountain Trail single track.  This reminds me of a lot of stuff near my house.  No real exposure, but forest and granite and narrow trail.  It was heaven!  And on such a nice day – incredible!

We kept going on the out and back section, and into the special test portion for the “Wilderness Quality Views”.  The trail became narrower and a little more challenging – I was in my element!

Mike was in his element as well – see the riding prowess!

Oh – was that the photo you said I should not let out?  Damn – I should listen better I suppose.  In all fairness, Mike on the ground was very rare, this is more like what his riding is like ( 2 liks?  great English, bonehead!)

We then hit the Dodge Peak single track – which is perfect as well.  When riding, I could not tell when White Mountain Trail turned into Dodge Peak trail.  They were great!  Loved it!

Dodge Peak Trail dumped us out onto the Roman Nose jeep road.  It showed on the gps as a magenta line – so an easy road.  To our surprise and elation (oohh – big word) it was a narrow, rocky remnant of a road.  It was great!  Mike was in front, I was second and Team Paulie was just behind us.  We were ripping the “road”, since we had riding peers that we had to impress with our formidable riding skills (yeah – right).  Towards the end – I really smelt gas.  It was strong!  That is odd.  Mike stops at a wide spot, and I pull up.  Glad I was close, as a branch (did I say it was a narrow, overgrown road remnant) pulled one of his gas lines off – it was pouring out gas!  Gas is worth more than gold in the woods – and I would hate to see Mike having to pimp out his body for a quart of gas!  I yelled that it is pouring out gas – and he shuts off the valve and we make a repair.  As this was going on, Joe Harker from team Paulie puls up, “Do you smell gas?”  I pointed to Mike as he was making a repair.  Then the rest of team Paulie rolls up and we talk for a bit.  Mike takes a picture of team Paulie and me.  Damn am I photogenic!  I may need to send that one off to GQ magazine!

We then rode up for a photo opp at Roman Nose lakes.  Very beautiful.  I don’t think you are to ride on their nice wood trails?  Just kidding – I actually walked to the lake.

Sure looks tempting……

Then thru Bonners Ferry and onto the ATV trail #32.  Sweet – rock that trail and then the last 2 single track trails – Danquist and Mission Mountain – then Canada!  This will be sweet!  I would say the forest gods put a damper on that – but I think it was actually the USFS devils this time.  We arrived at the ATV trail – that was as wide as a road – but seriously blocked.

The trail shows on the MVUM – so we thought maybe it was blocked for 4wd’s but OK for single track motorcycles.  That is fairly common.  There was a single track to the right – fairly established.  We took it, but in about 100 feet – it was obvious this trail is to be no more.

How this is better than a small trail – I’ll never know.  In any case, we later found out that, yes it is on the MVUM, but it will be removed from the MVUM.  They just had not got that far yet.  So, we looked for alternate routes, but did not find anything that seemed realistic from our spot – so we hit the bypass route.  Bummer!  That was a bit of back tracking, and at one spot, we missed our turn.  I said 1 way – Mike another.  We shut-off the bikes and figured it out – and once we did, let’s finish this thing!  Not so fast, Sparky!  Mr. Honda decided we needed to enjoy the scenery there as we tried to start the 450.  We cranked and kicked, and were about to pull out the strap of shame, but it re-lit.  Sweet – now let’s finish!

We rode through Meadow Creek and Good Grief, on our way to Eastport, ID.  We both brought our passports to cross the Canadian border.  I am going to ride my bike into Canada – land of the Maple Leaf!  I am all smiles as I get ready to get into the crossing lane!

I was still thinking we could do a quick shot into Canada, then back and hit the Mission Mountain Trail.  Nice wish, eh!  Is it eh or aye?  Canadian something.  Anyways, I ride up to the border crossing.  I had my passport in my teeth so I could ride forward and not scramble to get it out.  I thought that was thoughtful – but Mr. Border Guard did not!  “Do you expect me to touch that?”  I said it is up to you, it is my Passport.  He gave me the wicked stink eye!  “Is that THING even street legal?!”  I said yes.  “Where is the licence plate?”  I said “Here!” and brushed off the mud so he could read it.  “Where are the turn signals?”  I said,”Somewhere in the Idaho forest.”  “Pull up to the impound inspection area and go into the office!”  Crap – this is not going well.  I thought it may have been my charming personality that set him off – but Mike was in there a few moments later.  Mike is nice, like a male motorcycle riding version of Mother Theresa.  No one can get mad at Mike – but border boy could I guess.  UUGGHHHH………………………….

So I walk up to the counter and they take my passport.  “Sit down until we call you!”  OK – this is a pain in the ass.  They said they are researching any convictions, records, etc.  Hope they don’t have footage of the FBI drones and my childhood……some of those shenanigans could be construed as terrorist acts, but statute of limitations…..will it all work out?    It was actually a fairly long process, and this was boring.  Before too long, “Mr. Cowan.”  Mr. Cowan – that is either my Dad, or what I am called when there is bad news……great.  This was not the best idea I have ever had.   “What is your business is Canada?  How long will you be staying here?”  I explained the trip we had and I just wanted to ride my bike into Canada as the pinnacle of the trip.  I got kinda a strange look, but she was pleasant enough – much better than border boy!  Then wham:

Though a stamp from Canada is not all that impressive, I have Brazil and Chile and more exotic stamps in this passport – a stamp while on my bike makes this one of the best ever!  So I hopped onto my bike and rode in, all be it 1/4 mile, my bike is in Canada, and I rode it there from Nevada through a bunch of Idaho single track!

Proof my bike was there:

The sign makes some pretty big claims – I would have disputed that, but border boy was just looking for an excuse to detain me.  He probably had dreams about me meeting a cattle prod or something, Canadians…….

Mike made it too:

Even after border boy – Mike is still smiling.  Does he ever not smile……..Maybe if I made a joke about being short and he is standing on a rock to look taller?  I’ll have to check that out later.

Rode up the highway a little bit, but had no intentions of going all the way to Creston.  It is 50 km away.  The metric system, which I believe, is the tool of the devil.

We turned around and headed back to the good old USA!

There is no wall separating Canada from USA.  There is a clear-cut.  I hear they monitor it pretty well – but I didn’t push my luck on that.  Canada on the left and USA on the right.

Lined up to get home.  The border guy for the US was very friendly and asked about our trip.  He thought it was a little nutty – but said it seemed very cool.  Nice licence plate, Mike.

The crossing back in was very quick and easy.  Sweet!

Being the Hill-Billy I am, you get all misty eyed seeing the good old USA!  Merica!  Say it with me – Merica!  You might pass as a red neck, maybe.  Plus, how can you stay in a country that the currency is the loonie? I jest – I have been to Canada countless times and I like it, but it is not home.

We defiantly spent some time there – so there was not enough time to hit the Mission mountain single track and meet Joe at Feist Creek Lodge.  We also had to meet our ride there as well, and we did not want to miss either one.  Not sure if either bike or riders were up to riding back all the way to Jackpot, NV.

We ride down there and see Joe and our ride.  Mikes neighbor drove over 1700 miles to pick us up.  And he was all smiles and happy to do it.  Must be something in the water where Mike lives.

We change and team Paulie comes in about the same time.  We all go into the restaurant and start spinning our stories to each other and to Joe.  They had a 26 ounce Rib steak – perfect!  I’ll have it very rare!  No one could believe I would eat something that large…..really?   Look at me!  Plus all that riding…..I ate it and was not even breathing hard.  One thing cool about that trip – I could eat all that I wanted and anything I wanted.  It was like being a teenager all over again.  It was a great time, and we stayed there a few hours – but it did not seem long enough.  Before knew it, it was time for goodbyes.

Gold Creek Lodge, ID to East Port, Canada

174 miles, 26.6 mph moving average, 68 mph max, 9 hours, 59 minute on the bikes.

 

Team Paulie was heading home as well, somewhere in Utah.  They were going to drop off Paul in Pocatello, where he would have to get a new tire for his bike, as his was flat, and then he would ride all the way from there to Jackpot.  We said we were already heading there and had room.  3 bikes in the truck was tight – but it worked out fine.  Paul rode with us back.

It is a long drive, and lots of stories, and general guy BSing the whole way.  We arrived in Jackpot the following evening.  We decided to unload the bikes that evening, so everyone could leave the next morning on their own schedule.  Mike and his neighbor had Mikes truck, I had a truck and Paul had his truck.

Unload and sort out our gear and everything.  Looks like a motocross track threw up in the parking lot with all that smelly gear.  I went to load my bike, as I always do, riding it up the ramp into the truck.  I have done this for years – no big deal.  Well, not this time.  I clipped the edge of the truck bed, and over the bike and I go.  All the way to the ground – hard ground (pavement is hard, you know) at that.  No one saw it, but they all heard it and saw me and the bike on the ground. Al I heard is “Are you OK?” over and over again.  It did hurt, quite a bit, but I could not admit that.  No I’m fine.  What an idiot – Team 2-Click reared its ugly head again!  Oh well – that is how it goes.

I left pretty early. The trip, alone, was boring and without incident.  Home in a little over 8 hours.  Unleaded the bike and put everything away.  Put all the gear in the washer and washed it twice.  It was pretty bad – to say the least.  Idaho was in the high 70’s to low 80’s.  Home was right around 100.  It was warm, but it is home.

After The Ride (Thoughts from under the Lid)

You’re still with me after almost 19,000 words?  You must be at work wasting time, you sure don’t want to spend your personal time reading this.  If you spent personal time on this, I apologize, if you did read this at work, apologize to your boss.  If you work for yourself – you’re an idiot, welcome to 2-Click.

I did not sleep well for almost a week.  It was a strange feeling – you did something big, but now it is over.  Will you do something this big, or bigger again?  Probably not.  You will be like Mathew Broderick after Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – you reached your pinnacle, it is all down hill from here, at least for riding.  Well, maybe – maybe not.  Please don’t curse me like Mathew, please.

I felt like it was a great accomplishment.  We were not the fastest or rode the longest.  We didn’t even make GRIT standing, but we were the first through – ever.  That was something.  We got to test out parts of the route and report back what worked and what didn’t.  Along with how fun the ride was, that was equally fun.

For about 4 nights, I would wake up in the middle of the night, a little dis-oriented, thinking,”What am I doing resting?  I need to be riding to make my next nights stop for food and sleep!”  It was really strange.  For that 20 seconds or so, it was so real, like I was back on the trail.  I cannot describe it.  All that tossing and turning woke my female up a few times.  She muttered something about me being an idiot or something, and would roll back over.

I posted a short report on Thumper Talk – and gave Joe the link.  He liked the report, but asked if I could do something a little more involved for his website.  So, you can blame Joe for this abomination of the English language.  I am writing this a month after the trip, but the memories are still fresh and it was like riding it all over again, without the soaked, shivering and sore body.

After a week, I was back into the swing of things.  Going to work, coming home, going out with the wife, yelling at my 20 year old kid.  (That age, I think you are at least 4-Clicks into stupid.)  I went for a ride the following Saturday after I came home from Idaho.  I even took the 650L, and added oil as needed.  I have not missed a riding weekend since Idaho, but am riding the 650R, as the 650L needs some love.  It will get its deserved love shortly.

My body has mostly recovered, but my left hand, even now – a month later, is still partially numb.  It was my whole hand, but now just my middle and index finger and thumb.  I guess I have to refrain from pointing and flipping people off for awhile.  Hitch-hiking may be impaired as well.

In all fairness, I hope you did get some enjoyment from my experience.  I really hope, anyone that rides, after reading this, thinks about giving this ride a shot.  Joe put on an incredible ride, and his information and helpfulness is second to none.  It was obvious we would not have completed this ride without his help.

I also want to thank smiling Mike.  This is our second long distance Idaho trip together.  He is always upbeat and great attitude were very inspiring along the way, though I did want to strangle him a few times.  I am sure that feeling was mutual.

I also have to thank my great wife.  She has put up with hospitals, life flights, late nights and had put me back together after more than a couple of rides.  How she puts up with that and me, well – at least she does.

If you are on the fence about this ride, or any big adventure, get out and do it!  Risk is fun, but be smart about it.  You can stay safe at home your whole life and die of cancer.  Or, you can get out and do something a little on the crazy side and have memories for a life time!  Get out there and have fun – life is too short not to!

And finally, the real question: 2-Click or not 2-Click?