Monday, August 29, 2016

Sunday Ride–Dollarhide/ Ketchum/ Copper Basin/ Arco - 8/28/206

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Loop ~ 435 miles

Riders – Chris , John

I put out a “call” that I was going to ride the Big Bike into Ketchum .

Chris joined me ( he’s a bad influence , never says “NO” ).

We met at the Emigrant Road * HWY20 intersection.

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Couch Summit Road

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Dollarhide Summit looking toward Ketchum

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Burgers and beer at Grumpy's.

copper basin

We had the Benchmark Atlas out looking at routes and decided we had
plenty of time for a bonus loop through Copper Basin !


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Wildhorse Canyon

 

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Being the weekend before Labor Day we had a reprieve from UTV’s and
ATV’s , only seeing a handful of cars .

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Copper Basin , we didn’t have time to the loop or any side canyons .

There are several really nice houses along the river. Don’t appear to get much
use ,maybe they are on AIRBNB .

 

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Antelope Pass was on my punch list for this year and I want to go back.

 

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View toward Arco , even in the haze you could see the INEL that is in-between
Arco and Idaho Falls.

 

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Copper Basin from the pass.

The atlas showed a road from Antelope Creek to HWY26 allowing you to
bypass Arco. We “found” it but thought it was a ranch access and ended
up riding all the way to HWY93.

They were chip sealing about 10 miles of highway into Arco which seemed
like it cost us an hour .

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We were bucking headwinds and crosswinds along HWY26 through the
Crater of the Moons .

We had highway all the way home.  A  throttle lock would be nice
on long highway stretches. Probably the longest stretch of pavement
I ever have ridden .

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Yellow Pine 8/20/2016

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Loop – 45 miles ( 12-15 miles of trail )

Trail Boss – Off Road Rider & Jerry


Riders – The Crew


I was able to join Dave and Jerry to finish some trail projects between
Landmark and Yellow Pine.

I got up at 4:30 AM and made it back home after midnight .

Jerry is an animal, he rode without gloves most the day.
The only times I saw him stop moving was when he had to sharpen his saw !


Video – Dave
Photos- Dave , John



 

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We met at Highway 55 Cafe in Cascade for breakfast and got on
the bikes just north of Landmark ~ 10:15AM.

 



Dave’s highlights of the ride.

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Just a couple of filters on the trail .

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Lost the trail going through a meadow, eventually found the blaze.

 

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I picked the wrong line and was trying to thread between a rut and tree.

 

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Small creek crossing

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Top of the sidehill

 

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It was steep , loose and off camber .

 

 

 

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3 out of the 6 bikes slid off , including myself. My rear wheel went off
but I was able to walk the bike back on the trail.

 

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Dropping down into the bottom thicket.
I don’t think it had been cut since the fire back in ~ 2008.

I was tasked with walking the ”trail” and marking the old cuts with ribbon.

It took hours of cutting with two saws to go a couple of miles .

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Jerry never stops !

 

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It took some exploring to find the creek crossing.

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Dropping into the creek was easy but a technical , slick climb out.

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We hit the jackpot .
The Riodan Lake Trail had been cut by the trail rangers.

It was a “Gentleman’s Trail” all the way out !
Then we probably had 25 miles of road back chasing daylight the whole way.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Spode Lite & a Warm piece of Summer Sausage | Baumgartner 8/12 & 8/13

 

Tim put out a call for a Baumgartner ride.
The Harrell's drove straight through from the mossy bottoms .

It would be my first campout and mountain ride of the season.  When I rolled in Thursday
afternoon smoke was starting to fill the canyon. During the night the smells would wake me
up along with an occasional cough, however Friday morning it was much clearer.


Friday 8/18

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Trail Boss - Tim
Riders – Scott , Paul , John

Loop – 75 miles

Little Water , Ross Peak , SF Ross Fork , Ross Jeep Road , Johnson Creek ,Vienna Creek,
Smiley Creek , Emma Creek , SF Boise  Road , the wash out trail .


Paul was driving in from Boise and expected to be in camp ~ 9AM but finally found us sometime
after 10. He said he wasn’t that late but the campsite map got him turned around and he wasted time
roaming the campgrounds trying to find us.

We finally rolled out around 11AM.
The plan was to ride into Smiley Creek for food and fuel then ride back up Big Smoky .


 

Snapshot 1 (8-15-2016 5-36 PM)

 

Snapshot 2 (8-15-2016 5-40 PM)

Little Water

 

At the bottom of Little Water I could make out some haze on the ridge
but couldn’t tell if it was smoke or dust – I didn't think Scott would be
THAT far ahead of me.


It was dust from the sheep heard.

 

 

 



Willow Creek Tie

Being my first ride I wasn’t desensitized to the side hills and too
tentative.  

 



The ride up Ross Peak was a grind but I seemed to be moving OK.

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Ross Peak

 

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South Fork of Ross Fork

We took a break to top off our water.

At the bottom of SF Ross Fork we decided to reroute ,not do the NF of Ross Fork and take the jeep trail to
Johnson Creek.

 

Johnson Creek-

At the Vienna intersection I was a bit winded , then the ride over Vienna took it out of me.

At the bottom of Vienna a couple of guys rode up on Honda CRF 230’s .
No helmets , no gloves Danner work boots and big packs. Wanted to know where to find
Johnson Lake , we had no idea .


The initial climb was ~ 1/3 mile of loose side hill then a visually challenging  off camber side hill but it
had a good tread and traction. As I got over the side hill I could hear the Honda’s behind me !

On top the trail meandered through some saddles then a climb through some loose ground that zapped
your momentum then it got real loose and steep. Trying to navigate around a trench I got dug in - one of
the Honda riders , Jamie , trotted up to help. By himself he lifted my bike out of the trench ! 

At the top of Vienna there was a fire crew mopping up a fire. They detoured us around the burn , we had to
boondock across the side hill back to the trail on the bottom. Going cross country was easier than riding the trail.
I also found out that if we had stayed on ridge we would have come out near Emma Creek. 

 

 

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Emma Creek just up from the staircase

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Paul riding through the staircase.

After Emma it would be road all the way back to camp plus a bit
of single track around the washout.

The first detour around the wash fooled us , then we got to trail through
the rock gardened that made Emma look groomed.

Tim and Scott rode ahead then Scott came back and offered to ride my bike.
I was spent and said sure. I walked through the ~ 1/2 mile.
Scott walked it once and rode it 4 times .

Someone spent a lot of effort building the trail. I hope they leave it,
in another year or so it will be pretty good.

I must of got make to camp ~ 9:00 PM.

Saturday 8/13

The plan Saturday was to do a couple of short easy rides.
In the morning we would ride the Kelly Creek and Blue Ridge
ATV trails with David then another short single track loop in
the afternoon.

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Kelly Topo 8 13 16

There was a bit of traffic riding up Kelly Creek but not to bad.

 

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We were thinking about looping the ATV trail back down to the flats but would be heading
against traffic and decided against it. Back tracked to Iron Mountain.

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David and I stayed at the base while Scott, Tim and Paul rode to the top.
We shared a sandwich and caught up on things.

 

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Paul’s pano from the lookout.

Riding back to camp on Kelly Creek there was more traffic and “hold my beer”
knuckleheads but we made it back.

At camp both Scott and Tim said something was “wrong” and decided to soak in the pool
instead of riding.

I used the opportunity to ride the FreeRide  adjusting the clickers and carburetor . 

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freeride topo

 

 

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I dinked around Kelly Flats riding some roads I’ve been on and finding the “new”
trial that connects the campground to Beaver Creek.


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The connector trail between Kelly Flats and Virginia Gulch . The Freeride
is a “different” ride , light and nimble and the engine is very different.

My TE250 feels more plush, the FreeRide engine in a full size frame could
be the perfect trail bike for me.


When I got back to camp Teresa told me both Tim and Scott were chumming
in the South Fork of the Boise. They both looked like absolute crap suffering
from some food poisoning.

 

 
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