INVENTORY
2 BOILED RADIATORS
1 WARNING FROM FS RANGER
50+ TREES CLEARED IN ~ 20 MILES ( I WATCHED), ANOTHER 50+ OVER / AROUND
1 SHOT WHEEL BEARING
1 DEAD BATTERY
1 SUPERMAN OVER THE HANDLE BARS
4 NEW RIDING FRIENDS
The Trinity Ridge and Halstead fires forced a location change from the Sawtooths, ended up at Stolle Meadows.
I hadn’t been there in 5-6 years.
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North Shore Lodge on Warm Lake was 7 miles from camp. Had phone and internet access to check in.
Ran into Barry at the Lodge
Stolle Meadows has a salmon observation deck on the SF of the Salmon. The fish are spent when they make it this far.
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SUNDAY 8/26 /11
LOOP – HARDEST 40 MILES OF THE SUMMER
LODGE POLE /BOULDER CREEK /ROAD / ROCK CREEK / BOULDER CREEK / LODGE POLE
FRISBIE’S NOTES
2) a good one here is east on Lodgepole 108 to Boulder Creek 108 to the main Road (Landmark-Stanley Road) then north on road to Pen Basin and Rock Creek Trail 076 then back west to Lodgepole 108, then hang a left/SW on trail #161 which takes you down to the Stolle Meadows Road just south of the road to the Lodgepole Trail. a little technical in places but a great ride
WHEN I TALKED TO STEVE MONDAY HE SAID “YEAH THE CLIMB UP LODGE POLE IS GNARLY SHIT “.
RIDERS – TIM , STEPHEN , CARL , PERRY , TOM , MIKE , JOHN
Thought this saddle might be the summit , but it wasn’t. Tim had to trace down a coolant leak, found a cut in the crossover hose. He was able to repair with MAGIC TAPE as seen on TV, that Stephen had packed.
We all boiled our bikes. I filled my radiator back up.
I rolled up on Stephen as he was picking up his bike after washing out the front wheel. Said he pounded his knee but was ok. The back side of Lodge Pole was a steep but easy and smooth side hill.
Boulder Creek snaked through a meadow to the Landmark road.
Tom was ripping through the grass when he planted his front wheel in a mud hole. I missed it, he was still walking it off when I got there.
I fell in a mud hole off a corduroy bridge , my whole left side and gloves were slimed. We were able to refill the camel backs and radiators.
Finding the Rock Creek trail head was a small adventure. Bill’s maps are ok if you know the trails. They don’t always show the roads and other reference points. We got a warning and directions from a ranger after we took off on the wrong trail from the road.
ROCK CREEK WAS ACROSS THIS MEADOW
The beginning of Rock Creek. Even after we found the right road , we blew past the single track trail head.
Rock Creek is a mellow trail expect for one short greasy spot.
The loop took us back up Boulder Creek and Lodge Pole to Trail #161, which would take us back to FSR 474 near our camp.
#161 & Lodge Pole . We went a mile or so up 161 when we lost the trail at a gully. Had to turn around and take Lodge Pole down. I had a tougher time going down, got completely exhausted paddling through the rocks. Dropped the bike twice , pushed the front wheel off the trail though a switchback, went over the handle bars once. I hit the wall on the way down , had to stop every few hundred yards thru the switch backs.
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MONDAY
LOOP ~ 35 MILES (+ RUN TO LODGE TO CALL HOME & FRISBIE )
TYNDALL / STONY CREEK / YELLOW JACKET
RIDERS – DAVID , JON, JOHN , JOHN
RODE PAST STONY CREEK TRAIL MARKER & SPENT 30-60 MINUTES TRYING TO FIND OURSELVES. WE PULLED OUT MAPS AND MY GPS. JON AND DAVID TOLD ME THE GPS WAS FU BECAUSE THE CO-ORDINATES PUT US UP AT BURGDORF !
LUNCH ALONG STONY CREEK. I FIGURED OUT THAT THE GPS WAS REPORTING LAT & LONG IN TENTHS WHILE THE MAPS WERE IN MINUTES & SECONDS ! LATER THAT NIGHT I FOUND THE SCREEN TO CHANGE THE GPS TO MATCH THE MAPS.
ALSO MISSED THE TURN FOR YELLOW JACKET. WE SAW THE ROAD BUT YELLOW JACKET WAS THE ONLY TRAIL NOT LISTED ON THE SIGN AT THE ROAD INTERSECTION.
FUN EASY RIDE.
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TUESDAY
Loop- ~ 25 miles 4Bit / Indian Ridge / Phoebe
50+ TREES CLEARED IN ~ 20 MILES ( I WATCHED), ANOTHER 50+ OVER / AROUND
Trail Boss & Arborist – Frisbie
Riders – Tom , Mike , Perry , Carl, Jon, John
At the trail head , Steve said it would be a 40 mile loop, nothing that would kill me and we would be riding the easier side of the road first.
4 MILE CREEK Trail- On the bottom my battery lost it’s juice, so I was back in the stone age kicking my bike.
( Back in Boise , I found it was actually the starter motor .)
Side Hill / SwitchBacks climbing up to Indian Ridge
Indian Ridge
Where the ridge wasn’t burned still had stretches of lush forest.
Because of the down trees, I had lots of opportunities for photos .
The views from Indian Ridge made you feel you were on top of the world.
The whole day I felt like I was riding on rear flat tire. The bike wasn’t tracking like it should.
Every now and then it would hop off the trail, didn’t seem to take the line thru a switchback , even washed out the front end when I changed a line. At the lunch stop I discovered my rear wheel bearing was shot. The wheel rattled
and had 1/4 inch or more of play on the outside diameter.
Lunch on Indian Ridge. Close to 8,000 ft elevation.
The road into Yellow Pine is in the drainage below.
The original plan was to take Indian Ridge to the Krassel Ranger Station. Steve said you can see the station from the ridge top and you ride through 65 switch backs to the bottom. After discussing my bike issues Steve said we Phoebe
would be the quickest route back to the road.
Jonathon rode sweep behind me on the way out. Now that I knew I had a bad bike I was even more self conscious about noises and speed. I poked along in 1st & 2nd which was tiring . I had used a good portion of my water filling up the radiator after climbing the switch backs on 4 MILE , so I had to nurse off Doebler’s camel back. Ihad my filter but there weren’t any streams on top of the ridge.
Indian Ridge had one steep drop with a loose switch back. I don’t think you could get up if you were riding north to south.
Phoebe intersection. Another ~ 6-7 miles & 3,500 ft to the road.
Phoebe had several meadows to cross. If you didn’t know the trail you wouldn’t know which line to take.
We reached this old road bed and I though we’re at the bottom………
…………. until I looked across the canyon. We had another 3-4 miles and couple of thousand feet to descend.
It was a nice trail on the way down , but because I was till worried about the bike bike tracking off the trail I went slow. Even the front brake was fading a bit. The trail had several tight switch backs where you had to walk the bike through.
Steve said the trail rangers had cleared these trails 4-5 weeks ago and had expected to only have to cut a half dozen trees, which is typical for a September ride.
At the bottom I waited at the camp ground for Jon to get the truck, stilled worried about torching the hub.
While Jon went to get the truck , I washed up In Camp Creek and filtered some drinking water.
The drive out was interesting. South Fork Road is a one lane paved road. The passenger side was on the high side driving south. Jon went into rally mode and I was pumping the floor board through the turns.
We stopped at the lodge so I could phone Marilyn to let her know I would be home Wednesday. When we drove into camp Jon commented that someone had taken down the Spodefest signs, at camp everyone had cleared out !
There was a note in my camper door that they decided to move to Burgdorf. Later that evening Bob, from http://www.cyclebuy.com/ , came to my camper and asked about the ride. He said on their ride they were told they were on “ closed” trails by some FS workers , after being told they open by a ranger earlier in the week.
I hadn’t ridden Stolle since the fires. It didn’t have the trail inventory I expected. Several trails had been turned into quad trails.
Still had a fun week. When I got home , I got my parts ordered to get the bike ready for The Lazy Butt !
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