September 25-28, 2013 – Pine Flats, Fall Ride (Part 3)

***For pictures of the river and hot springs(and they are really awesome), check out the post from October 2012 titled "Pine Flats" which covers when we were here last year.  The weather this year was too wet and cold for me to walk all the way to the soak.***

When we arrived at Pine Flats the weather was still not cooperating.  It was very cloudy and cold, but good campfire weather.  Steve and Dana arrived from California in time to join us at the campfire.  We got up Thursday morning to very cold temperatures so ElRae and I decided to stay in camp and huddle around our heaters.  The boys went out and rode Deadwood Ridge and Julie Creek trails, as well as Whitehawk Basin trail.  That night was very clear, meaning more cold weather.  Of course this is the night we had battery issues and woke up to temps in the 20’s and 'dead as a door nail' coach batteries.  We still don’t know what caused it, but we borrowed a generator from Tommy and charged us up enough to get our own generator running.  The batteries did come back to full, thank goodness.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

After a “too freakin’ cold to ride” delay, the boys headed out to find the hot springs a friend of ours has helped to develop in the forest.  ElRae and I headed out about an hour later, meeting Wayne on the campground road as he returned to camp with rear brake issues, again.  After giving him the motorhome key, we headed out on our ride.

We started on the highway to Lowman, and then turned south on Highway 21.  We jumped off onto a dirt road at the first turn.

This soft little decomposed granite road follows up Rock Creek

Where we came from

We wandered around on a road that zigzagged up the hill so close together that on my GPS I could see three sections of our track, the one below us, the one we were on, and the one we would be on soon. And I had my screen zoomed in really tight! Soon we started to smell fresh cut trees, sort of like Christmas.  Turned out they were doing some tree thinning in the area.  This part of the forest really needs it, it will help cut down on the fuel for possible forest fires.

Log deck waiting for pick up

Road through the pines

Snow at elevation, near Pilot Peak

Time for us to take a left and head down to the highway

From there we went to Edna Creek Campground for lunch

Time for a rest

After lunch my GPS finally let me down.  I have been planning rides on my computer, then going out and riding them this whole trip.  This is the first time the maps didn’t match what was on the ground.  It had me routed on roads that didn’t exist, but scrolling around on the screen soon showed me how to hook back into the trail.

We weren’t supposed to go here, but once we turned around we got back on track. Thanks GPS…

We went out the Crooked River Road and took a left on the road to Graham.  This took us up to the top of Banner Ridge where we could look out.

That snow looks like it could be out our same elevation, lucky for us we didn’t get into any

The view looking into the South Fork Payette River valley

We went west on Banner Ridge and then took a right on Archie Creek.  This road is so cool, because it is so open, you can see the road ahead of you for what seems like miles.

 ElRae heading down Archie Creek

You can see her from way across the drainage

Archie Creek Road

Last look at Highway 21 from above

Archie Creek Road near the bottom

When we get to the end of Archie Creek, we go through a small residential area with some great log homes, and then it is down to the Payette River.  Once we cross the bridge we take a left and head back to camp on the pavement.  Our loop today was 66 miles, a tad bit on the cold side but with beautiful views and soft roads.  Nice….

We had a great time visiting around the campfire in the afternoon and evening.  We were entertained for most of that time watching all the new arrivals.  Last year when the weather was better we had the place to ourselves, this year it's a full house.  Plans were made for rides in the morning. The California boys planned to leave in the afternoon, so a short ride was put together.

However once again the weather changed our plans.  Rain came during the night and everyone decided to head to their respective homes.  Steve and Dana headed back to the sunshine of California, ElRae, Linda and Tommy went back to the rain-soaked Puget Sound area in Washington and we followed JD and Raydonia back to their place in Idaho City which also is forecasted to get rain.  Oh well, it is fall!!  I want to know when we all stopped riding in the rain.  When we were young and living north of Seattle we always rode in the rain, of course if you didn’t then you might only ride a couple of times a year!!!  I think the key word there was 'young'!!!