THE DUDE ABIDES–CRACKER TOUR OF OWYHEE AND GREAT BASIN DESERTS 5/27-5/30

 

LOOP  FOUR DAYS ~ 840 MILES

THE DUDE – BYRON

RIDERS – UNCLE KURT , UNCLE TIM , THAD , SPODE DADDY

Byron plotted our route , rooms and gas stops.
Our original intent was to explore Jarbidge and then the different ghost towns in Elko county.

However the road south through Charleston would not be open for another month or longer.

TUESDAY , BOISE TO JARBIDGE  ~ 270 MILES / 7.5 HOURS IN THE SADDLE

We met and had breakfast at the Shari’s in Meridian.

Top of Bachman Grade. Shortly after this I dropped my bike going through a turn that had a fresh load of gravel.
I was sitting down , got out of balance, over corrected and went into a slomo tank slap.

The tank guard was scrapped up but the tank survived.

The east end of Antelope Ridge.

 

 

 

 

Had lunch a the Bruneau One Stop.  Never pass up a meal or gas !
FYI- There is non-ethanol gas across the street.

After lunch I matched my idle mixture screws to Kurt's setting. Bike ran better the rest of the trip.

It was warm in Bruneau almost 90F.

 

The wind picked up after lunch and we had stiff head winds all the way into Grasmere.

Regrouping on Roland road at HWY 51.

 

 

Stop along Tokembamy Ranch entrance

Ride into Roland.

 

 

Roland is an old ranching and mining community that was active in the early 1900’s through the 40’s.

View of the Jarbidge Mountains from the Diamond A Desert .

 

We thought we would be able to take Deer Creek into town but it was marked closed.
Later we found out from the locals that it is passable.

We spent the night and dined at the Out Door Inn.

WEDNESDAY – JARBIDGE to MONTELLO ~ 260 MILES

 

Wednesday morning packing the bikes and waiting for the café to open.

Butch helping us plan an alternative route to Wells, still snow above the 8,000 ft.
Decided to ride Three Creek out of the canyon and loop just west of Salmon Falls Creek to just south  Jack Pot.

 

The canyon just north of Jarbidge.

Kurt and Tim on top of the canyon.

 

Phone break on China Creek road

Cattle round up.

 

 

Fuel stop in Jack Pot

 

O'Neil basin east of Jarbidge.

 

On the way into Metropolis The Dude collided with a cow pie at 70mph.

 

Lincoln School ruins

 

 

Hotel

Metropolis was a planned community that never got it’s water rights secured before being built.

We gassed up in Wells , which has seen better days.



We took a service road just north of  I80 then a series of roads that followed the railroad tracks to HWY 233 into Montello.

We stayed at the Pilot Motel, had dinner down the street at the Cowboy Bar and Café.

THURSDAY-  MONTELLO TO HAGERMAN   ~ 170 MILES

Waiting for breakfast at the Cowboy.

Just outside Montello.
I had pulled over because I forgot my ear plugs. Tim pointed out the boots . The owner , Greg, came out and talked to us while I was taking photos.

The Californian Trail Byway.

 

Tim at Rock Springs

 

 

 

 

High desert range land just outside of Jack Pot , NV.

 

We gassed up in Rogerson and tacos for a snack.

We then took Antelope Spring Road to Castleford.

Balanced Rock

Thor , German Shepard , towed behind a Harley.

Spent the night in Hagerman. Had a great meal at the Snake River Grill .

FRIDAY - HAGERMAN TO BOISE

Friday was pretty much a straight run into Boise. The only issue was me blowing right by Byron on a turn.
We had to regroup in Glenns Ferry.

PRAIRIE , IDAHO 5/24/2014

 

DID A QUICK LOOP ,~145 MILE,THROUGH PRAIRIE AS A SHAKE DOWN BEFORE THE NEVADA RIDE.

FIRST LONG RIDE SINCE THE AIR INTAKE CONVERSION.  BOY WHAT A CHANGE , LIKE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT BIKE !
THE BIKE PULLS THROUGH THE ENTIRE RPM RANGE.

STOPPED TO PUT THE GOPRO ON THE HELMET. QUITE A BIT OF TRAFFIC SO I COULDN’T EVER OPEN THE THROTTLE UP.

THE CAR WITH ELMORE PLATES PULLED RIGHT OVER SO I COULD PASS, THE LEXUS GX WAS PRACTICALLY OBLIVIOUS  
BUT EVENTUALLY SAW ME AND PULLED OVER.

 

 

I STOPPED TO CHECK OUT THE PRAIRIE BAR & RESTAURANT. IT REOPENED LAST FALL. AS SOON AS I WALKED IN SOMEONE WAS CALLING MY NAME ! IT WAS JEFF HAINES , HE HAD RIDDEN OVER FROM IDAHO CITY .  HE SAID HIS SISTER AND BROTHER IN-LAW BOUGHT THE PLACE LAST FALL.

I TREATED MY SELF TO A PAIR OF OAKLEY FUEL CELL GLASSES. THEY WORK GREAT WITH LOW DUST.

OVERLOOKING THE SOUTH FORK JUST ABOVE DANSKIN BRIDGE. PARTS OF THE RIVER ARE REALLY SILTED UP FROM THE FIRES. ALL THE CAMPING IS CLOSED BUT MOST OF THE SITES WEREN’T TOUCHED BY THE FIRE.



IMMIGRANT ROAD ABOVE THE VALLEY FLOOR.

CLIMATE CALAMITY–LIME CREEK 5/10/2014

The impending Climate Calamity -

Fat kids will go hungry , hungry kids will get fat
Polar Bears will date Black Bears
Dead fall on trails
SPODES WILL GET HOT AND COLD ON THE SAME TRAIL  AND THEY CAN’T CLIMB HILLS

 

Loop – 56 miles
Riders – Spode Daddy , Idaspode

The first climate clue was when we pulled into the corrals a snow squall blew in.  I had 3G service and could connect to a radar map. Sure enough there was a single cell right over us.

We waited in truck around 20 minutes for it to blow over. There was a small caking of snow on the bikes when we started unloading. I could of worn another under layer but I fooled myself that I wouldn’t need full winter gear in May.
It was in the mid 30’s when we left the truck

We took the road over to Sheep Drive.
The Lime Creek trails always feel technical on the first ride of the mountain season but by the fall they seem super easy.

Bit of technical climb spots of loose rocks .

Almost on top , a quick shot to the first plateau

 

There was a dead fall across the trail at the top. The detour to the left was muddy slick with some small trees to cross off camber then a root. David made it over the tree then bobbled at the root. I came up behind and high sided when I stopped. I landed against a tree and under my bike. We had to double team the bikes to get them a 100 ft to where we could ride them out.

David catching his wind.

We got around one snow drift and made it to the ATV trails on top of the ridge. Another mile or so we hit more snow in the trees. That was it ,we turned around because we knew we hadn’t hit the deep stuff yet.

Sheep Drive warmed us up. I considered taking off a jersey and venting my jacket.
Glad I didn’t because the road ride over to Hunter Creek chilled me down again.
At the South Fork neither of us wanted to fill our boots up with water. The creek was running higher and faster than two weeks ago.

We rode Hole in the Wall , crossed the South Fork a few yards upstream from the normal crossing.
I was hoping we would be able to make it up to the Coyote connector and back down Coyote.
About half way  there was a pretty good size dead fall on an up hill section that stopped us.

We rode back to the truck and got pelted by pea size hail for 3-4 miles.
Fun day. Snow should disappear in ~ 3 weeks and we will need to start packing the chainsaw.

THE ONLY THING HARDER THAN BEING A SPODE IS BEING AN OLD SPODE –ANTELOPE RIDGE RIDE 5/4/2014

 

Loop ~ 210 miles

Riders – Kurt , Thad , Byron , John

First 2014 meeting for the Brotherhood. Served as a shake down ride for me. The 950 has had a low RPM/idle issue I’ve been trying to solve. Wanted to try a couple of things before I pulled the carbs.
Also wanted to compare the Sony and GoPro helmet cams.

Had breakfast at Shari’s in Meridian. Decided to ride Antelope Ridge.
We routed past Swan Falls then took the Baja Road to 167. Topped off at Gus’s in Grandview.

 

 

End of Baja at HWY167 intersection

 

SONY AS100V HELMET CAM ( NO STEADYSHOT )

 

~Midway on Antelope Ridge. High desert – 6000 ft.

GOPRO HERO3 HELMET CAM

Top of Bachman Grade dropping into Oreana

 

Oreana

LIME CREEK RECON 4/27/2014

IDASPODE’S EXCELLENT RIDE REPORT -

 
“John and I set off yesterday morning to explore the terrain on the south side of Baumgartner with low expectations. The weather was forecast as mid 20s overnight, mid 40s for highs with a good chance of precip in the afternoon. We didn’t expect to get very far up the trails but are totally bored with the desert. I just wanted to get out and ride. Normally we start doing this about mid to late May.
The morning dawned with light rain in town but by our 9am departure time we had partial sun, low clouds over the foothills above town and windy.
We park a few miles off Hwy 20 on the road to Pine/Featherville. From here we have to ride several miles of dirt road to get to the single track. Normally, the creeks are roaring at this time of year so we first tried getting to the only trail that doesn’t entail crossing the So Fk. of Lime right off the bat. We call it Sheep Drive and there is a bridge across the main fork of Lime. We didn’t get a quarter mile down that access trail before we hit snow blocking the trail. Fail.
Option 2, go look at the South Fork crossing, fully expecting it to be very high and fast. Surprisingly it wasn’t high at all, more like summer levels so we crossed it w/o issue. From here we hoped to get to the bridge across the MFk. of Lime and ride Presidents but once again ran into snow blocking the trail. Fail.
Option 3, see if we can get down a trail called Hole in the Wall, maybe cross the creek and ride Roanhide, Coyote or the SFk trails. No go, snow blocking the trail on a long downhill through thick sagebrush. Fail.
Option 4, try to get onto Hole via some old logging roads. Yea, more impassable snow. Fail.
We had about exhausted our options so we headed back toward the truck and could see a storm brewing off in the distance. We did find a short section of cow trail which was fun but dead ended not far in. Light snow had started to fall, that storm wasn’t as far away as it had appeared. Within a few minutes the snow got very heavy and the wind picked up appreciably. At one point on the ride out the cow trail the snow had no vertical component, fully horizontal. John had full wet weather gear on, I had a waterproof jacket on and pants in my pack but didn’t want to stop and put them on in the blizzard. We’ve ridden in plenty of snow and if it’s cold enough, nothing sticks, it just blows off. This wasn’t the case today, it was wet sticky snow, accumulating on any and all exposed surfaces, goggles, chest protector, arms, pants, boots etc. Within ten minutes the ground was covered and getting slick. With the blowing snow, flat light and wet goggles it was hard to pick a line, couldn’t tell where the ruts were. It was a long, slow 12 miles to the truck. When the snow started we joked that the sun would probably be out by the time we made it to the truck. Sure enough, the sun came out a few minutes after we got back.
All in all, it was a fun ride, nice to get out of the desert and into some real trees, we ended up with 43 miles.”


BEAVER POND ON THOMPSON CREEK





SURVEYING THE SNOW ON THE NORTH SLOPE OF TRAIL INTO HOLE IN THE WALL.
WOULD BE EASY TO MAKE IT DOWN BUT NOT BACK UP.


LOGGING ROADS BLOCKED BY SNOW


BEGINNINGS OF SNOW STORM



BACK AT THE TRUCK.

First pass using SONY AS100V helmet cam. Using stock mount your limited on position on the helmet.
These are a few clips with better views.