SAND , WHOOPS , SNOW–WINTER RIDE IN IDAHO DESERT 12/27/2014

 

 

52 mile loop. Did better in sand washes but still not fast and no confidence to hit the snow covered whoops.

 

Greg texted me early in the week that he was in town & to let him know if I was riding.  Friday afternoon JimBob sent a message
that we wanted to ride Saturday. We agreed to met at the “Dead Cow” wash by Grand View.

It was ~ 24F at 10AM Saturday morning when we left and in the mid 30’s when we got done.

 

Old missile bunker

 

 

 

I managed to get hung in hole climbing out of the creek. Greg helped me pull the bike out of the hole.

Dole Cabin

 

 

 

 

 

Greg got a pinch flat in Birch Creek Canyon.

Most of Birch Creek is hammered from the races.
I did OK in the lower portion but still didn’t carry any speed, maybe 40 MPH.

Dirt Bikers Matter Too and other Tales of White Privilege – Grand View 12/13/2014

YMAN  sent out a group text “they” were meeting at the Y-BAR in Grand View at 9AM for breakfast .

Trail Boss – Butch

Riders – Dave , James ,John, Joel 

Joel was running a 19” rim on the front with a rear tire !

First ride with Dunlop Desert AT81, much better in the sand than a trials with 800 miles.
Ran the front at 10 PSI and rear at 7 PSI ( using TUBLISS system).
Still don’t have the confidence to let it rip in deep loose sand, but did OK.

 

James had a close encounter with a sagebrush and parted ways with his bike.
Knocked the wind out of him and may have banged up a rib.  James said he was going to hang back with me,
it lasted about a quarter mile. Another 2-3 miles up the wash he was in lead and had to lock it up to avoid a fence.

 

 

 

 

 

Old missile bunker 

 

 

Butch and James on top of a lower pass below Dole Mountain . We talked about riding up Dole then down Birch, but when we got to intersection decided to cut out
the Doyle loop worrying we would run Joel out of gas. About a half mile from the truck I hit reserve !

Need to a  check plug  , verify my needle . jetting. float …..

Après Ride Follow Up

Sunday I unload the bike , turned the petcock to reserve and leaned the bike over – a few dribbles  but stopped when I put it up again. 

Rolled it into the shop and put it on the stand. Turned around and gas was pouring out the overflow !
Pulled the carb off , removed the bowel, sure enough the was some goo in the bottom and specs in the seat of the needle valve.
I guess I should clean it every year whether it needs it or not.

EVIL BEAVERS : LIME CREEK / BOARDMAN PASS 11-8-2014

Trail Boss – Jeff

Riders – Al, Gary, Gordon, John, David

Loop - ~48 miles

Hunter Creek >  South Fork Lime Creek > Boardman > Boardman > Bremner > Coyote > Roanhide > Hole in the Wall 

Gordon put out a call for a Saturday ride, said it would be his first big boy rode of the year.
I called him Friday morning to see who responded. He told me  AL and Jeff wanted to ride Lime Creek and were going to meet at Jeff’s house.

I alerted Dave ,  he was in and  suggested  Warm Springs/Ketchum. 
I checked with the Ketchum office who told me all the trails were open from the fire closures except  the Deer Creek  drainage  . 

We met the Mountain Home crew at AJ’s . After a bit of discussion they were set on riding Lime Creek because it was closer.

We parked just above Cow Creek reservoir. Turned out it was on a ranch and the owner left us note he didn’t want us  parking there. 

 

When we got to the Hunter Creek trail head , Gordon discovered he had a flat.
After he got the tube patched , Gordon & Jeff suggested we ride on and they would catch up.

 

Al and Gary a few miles up the South Fork Lime Creek trail. It was slow and technical ,mostly 1st & 2nd .  In the sun it was warm , in the shade there was ice.
I had to stop and remove my helmet liner. Later I had to ride with out my goggles because they were fogging up.

 

As we approached Hole in the Wall, a series  of beaver ponds created some deep holes on the trail.

We all gathered up after a deep long hole. It was up to the bottom of the tank and had thin layer of ice.

 

 

 

 

Along the faster upper part  the South Fork , Gordon clipped his handle bars on rock and launched off the trail.
He thought he would be able to ride it out , but a tree swept him off the bike. 
Jeff, Al and Gary helped him walk it along the side hill, over a log where Jeff could ride it back up.

 

 

 

Lunch at Boardman trail head.
David went to stretch his back and popped something, locking up his back. He decided to ride the roads back to the trucks.

 

 

Boardman trail after the first slick stretch of snow. It wasn’t deep and the ground hadn’t froze yet.

 

                                                                                                                                             
Al                     Gary                                                                                                                      Gordon

                                                                                                                                                                      Jeff

Boardman Pass had several  inches of snow, obvious we had to go to plan  ‘ B’.
We rode back down Boardman and took  Bremner > Coyote > Roanhide > Hole in the Wall , back to the trucks.

David  got back to the truck  around 3:00-3:30, took a pain pill and drank a cup of coffee. He was feeling and moving much better.
David said the roads were icy in the shade. When he got down to the valley there was a large herd of Pronghorns that crossed his path.

Stupidity Awareness - Smokey Dome Loop 10/24/2014

Stupidity continues to flourish and there is no known cure .

This the time of year when we learn the collective wisdom of the misinformed and irrational .

 

 

Loop – 62 miles 
Kelly Creek > Bremner > Smoky Dome > Miller Creek > SF Boise road > Conant> Skeleton > SF Boise road.

Riders -  David , John

David and Karen were spending a long weekend at Baumgartner.

I drove up Friday morning to join David on a ride. David said he hadn’t been on his bike in 6-7 weeks.

I got to Baumgartner ~ 10AM.  David said there was light rain all night.


David wanted to ride the Smoky Dome loop. It’s an easy ride with some distance and we could see what the new ATV trail did to the loop.

Much of the east face of the loop is old logging roads and two tracks with some sections of single tracks in between. The ATV trail took out some single track , but mostly
ran along the old two track. Still looked like the Blacks Creek trail system.

 

 

 

Smoky Dome summit. We decided to ride down to the bottom for lunch.

 

View from Miller Creek descent .

 

 

 

Conant Creek

THE MIGHTY CRAIC – THE BROTHERHOOD IN THE BIG EMPTY 10/19- 10/20 2104

Loop – 565 miles

Riders – Byron ( Flat Czar), Kurt , Thad, Carl, John

Byron set up the ride to Fields Station, Oregon .

Sunday 

Sunday –

Boise – Fields  253 miles

We meet for breakfast at 8AM at Owyhee Lanes in Homedale, which meant I had to leave in the dark ~7AM.
It was in the mid 50’s when I left the house, but riding I84 chilled me , then when I dropped into the Snake River Valley the temperature
must have dropped below 40. I was cold and my face shield frosted up.  

Carl took a wrong turn somewhere along the way  and was late , but it allowed me time for plenty of coffee and finish my body functions.

The Lanes has recently changed hands and the food wasn’t as good as I remember but still OK.

Byron took us through Succor Creek and Mahogany Gap into Jordon Valley.

 

I was still cold riding through Succor Creek but it finally started to warm at the Leslies Gulch intersection.

 

We topped off in Jordon Valley.
Oregon always confuses me – can’t pump gas & the speed limit is a guess.  US 95 is posted at 55 MPH but most traffic is driving at 75 MPH or more.

 

 

 
 Charbonneau’s grave site.  That’s not litter but trinkets left at the grave.

After Charbonneau’s we rode the ION to Arock. It has about 2 miles of “lava “ trail.

This section is a cobblely climb. First time I’ve been on the 950 in a 6 weeks and first time I needed any
clutch control.

After Arock we took HWY 95 to Tudor Road > Bone Canyon > Mickey Basin > Alvord Desert

Mickey Basin in the foreground

Mickey Hot Springs parking

 

 

 

This time we found our way on to north end of the lake bed , then buzzed across to Hot Springs access trying to make it to Fields before the café closes.

 

We were too late , the kitchen was closed but the beer tap was open !  After Sandy got the kitchen cleaned she fixed us platter of hamburger patties , buns,
cheese , etc  , that we cooked on a propane grill in front of the room.

 

One of the guest flew in his 172 , landed on the highway in front of Fields .   He said on Monday he was planning on landing on the lake bed.

 

 

 

 

 

The cat made friends with everybody.

 

 

 

MONDAY  10/20

 
 

Fields > Boise    ~ 312 miles

Since I was first to bed I was first up. Spent a little bit of time looking over the Benchmark Atlas
determining some routes home.   I had plotted a route through the southeast corner of Oregon as well as
South Mountain and Mud  Flat into Grandview.

 

The café didn’t open until 9AM , Pacific Time ( 10 AM Boise time ).
We didn’t get on the bikes until sometime around 11AM MDT. Late start but it was warmer than Sunday.

Entrance to White Horse Ranch , also was site of Fort Smith on the Oregon Trail.  The plan was to catch the “White Horse Cut off” a couple of miles
down the road, but I missed the intersection ( it was a entrance to another ranch ). We had to take HWY 95 to Jackson Creek. At Jackson Creek Byron suggested
we ride into Mcdermitt  to top off.

 

 

 

 

Top of Jackson Creek summit.

 

We dropped off the east side of summit and followed the road toward Three Forks.
Some of it was improved and some of it looked like old fire breaks.
All of it through featureless seas of cheat grass and sage brush on straight monotonous stretches.
We were in emptiest portion of  The Big Empty.

 

 

 

Map check at an intersection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Byron repairing his flat, took a couple of tries but he got the hole plugged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kurt and Thad spotted some Big Horn Sheep on the way into Rome.

We got into Jordon Valley around 5PM , gassed up . Decided we would have to take HWY 95 into Marsing since we only had a couple of
hours of daylight left.

A few miles west of the HWY 55 intersection , Byron’s tire was flat again, the plug came out . As Byron was repairing the flat we got a raspberry from
a few of the cars we had passed.   After a few we were on our way , but it was dark when we got to HWY 55.   Decided to take HWY 55 all the way through
Nampa to I84 vs  Lake Lowell and Kuna. Finally got home around 8:30 PM.