HELL’S CANYON JET BOAT RIDE 3/28/08

Scott and I spent a couple of nights in Hell’s Canyon and took a half day jet boat tour below Hells Canyon dam.

http://www.hellscanyonadventures.com/pages/bernard_creek.htm

Mitch was tied up with school, Marilyn thought it was too wet and cold and I couldn’t talk Emily and Kevin in joining us.

 

Monday evening we stayed at Eagle Bar, which was in sight of Hell’s Canyon damn. Across the road was the Red Ledge Mine trail.

Boat docks

 

We got a break on the weather. Tuesday morning it was only 40’ degrees and the clouds were starting to clear. Still decided to wear long johns.

At several of the rapids, they would open the front windows for photo opportunities.

The boat stopped at Benard creek for a look at Indian drawings and a home stead.

The cabin was occupied ~ 1900 by a black smith. It looked like the homesteads you find in the desert, a bit more preserved because of the remoteness.

When we got back to the dam the hatchery trucks were releasing steelhead.

Tuesday night we stayed at Big Bar.

Succor Creek Adventure Ride 3 22 08

Riders – Byron - KTM 950 Kurt - KTM 950 John - KTM 950 Mark - KTM640 Thad - BMW 1200 Loop ~ 225 miles 4 of us met at Rockies at 8AM. We rendezvous’d with Kurt in Homedale. It was a COLD ride down I-84 !

Took some side tracks off of the main Succor Creek road, which ended at the base of the cliffs or at the creek.

Took a short jaunt up the tracks across the bridge at the campground. I’ve been told you can reach Jump Creek Falls on them. They are better suited for thumpers although one probably could ride the big twins on them if you had time.

	Followed a ranch road the looped us back north above the cliffs. It dropped out of cliffs at Devil’s Gate, a grotto with a small water fall. There are a couple of memorials at the base of the falls. I’m surprised the BLM hasn’t removed them.

Took a lunch break, Byron gave us an oral history of Boise – he knows everyone in town.

Then buzzed down the main road to Leslie Gulch.

DAGO GULCH- Freshly graded “non-motorized” road ? Map shows a homestead up the draw. You also can see some mine roads on mountain at the end of the draw.

Mark – Owyhee Reservoir I wonder how far you could make it down the shore.

Birch Creek Ranch – Jordan Craters recon Sunday 3/8/08

I wanted to ride into the Birch Creek Ranch as a recon trip for a spring break destination with the camper & trailer.

Byron was to meet me at my house at 8AM , but he showed up at 7AM. After a cup of coffee he told me it was daylight savings time now.

As we headed out I noticed my front brake wasn’t what it should be, the front end wasn’t diving much less no stopping power.

Turned around and went back to the house. I cleaned the front disk with some solvent, which seemed to fix the issue.

	Riders- Byron Defenbach KLR 650 John Aiton KTM 640 Loop -240-250 miles mostly pavement.

 

 

 

NEWS FLASH- IT’S STILL WINTER IN JORDAN VALLEY! We topped the tanks off in JV. The gal at the Chevron told us it took a couple of days to get the road plowed back to the ranches from a storm earlier this week. She didn’t know is the road was plowed or open all the way to the Craters. The road is gravel & had been plowed by a cat, so the bed was firm. Not sure what the air temp was other than cold. The boys didn’t like you standing up. As we got closer to the crater there was more creeks & water holes. This one was a couple of feet deep and a skim of ice when I rode thru. We decided the next big one we would turn around. We got to within ~ 5miles of crater and decided not to push our luck. It was too cold to be paddling thru the muck & we didn’t know what type of drainage was ahead. Byron liked to hit the water in 3rd. I think he was trying to roost me even though I was in front.

The Succor Creek road was dry. This might be a better spring break choice. A couple on an ATV said there are lots of two tracks to ride, including a loop that takes you to the top & bottom of Jump Creek Falls.

There is a big sign at the park of everything you can’t do in Oregon, including operating a metal detector w/o a permit