Patti and Wayne's Grand Adventure: Burgdorf Hot Springs, ID September 14-21, 2012

Each year in the fall a group of riding friends all get together to ride motorcycles in Idaho. Not everyone is currently living in Washington, but we all have a connection of some type to the state. Washington does have its share of riding opportunities, but Idaho is the favorite place for most of us. As our group is primarily retired, we have some who only want to ride the trails, some who only want to dual sport on gravel and paved roads and some who want to do it all.

This year we had a great mix of folks, from all over the west. They came from Colorado (Chris), California (Bob and Steve), Salt Lake (us, it is our last known address!!), Idaho City (JD and Raydonia), Ferndale WA (Lori and Tom), Monroe WA (John), Puyallup WA (Carol), Belfair WA (Tommy and Linda), Clarkston WA (Jim and Cindy), Bangor WA (Ralph) and Port Angeles WA (Patsy and Kurt).

Sun through the smoke

We had planned to ride out of Stanley ID at Custer on the Yankee Fork River. However the dry hot weather we have had in the West has made for a wild fire season the likes of which we haven’t seen for too long to remember. We always have to take fire and smoke into consideration, but this year all the forests seem to be on fire.

After much email discussion Burgdorf was chosen despite the new fire in that area. We did have smoke on and off as you can see in the photos. Some times were good, some were horrible, but if the wind came, it would get better. We stayed there for 7 days. Wayne and John went on many trail rides.

The group begins to arrive

JD, Raydonia, Wayne and I arrived on Friday afternoon to find a spot that would hold our whole group. Jim and Cindy arrived just after dark. Saturday was spent getting camp set up and getting bikes ready to ride. John made the mad dash from Monroe in one day, arriving around 3:30 Mountain Time. He reserves our couch a year in advance, and is a great guest to have. Besides he always brings good beer, so what can we say!

Sunday: Ride day

Not everyone has arrived, so a small group has gone out for a trail ride to get an idea of the trail conditions. Cindy and I tried to go to the War Eagle Look Out via the Ruby Meadows. We didn’t get far before we came across down fall on the trail that we could not get our bikes over. Three ladies on mountain bikes came from the other direction and said there were more trees down. So we turned around and went back to camp.

Monday: Ride Day

We asked the boys to start their ride on the Ruby Meadows trail. Jim and Wayne both carry chainsaws on their bikes, they cleared it out so we could all enjoy the trail. Later that day Cindy and I started again, and this time the only down fall we found was on the connector trail to Chinook Campground. It was low enough to the ground that we could get over it. From there we took the historic Warren Wagon Road until we took a left on FR 355. This took us up to the War Eagle Lookout. We visited with the man who lives in the fire tower with his dog for the season. He gave us updates on all the fires in the area.

From there we went to California Lake. This small jewel of a lake is tucked below a rocky hill covered in vegetation that was just starting to turn color for the fall. We had a flock of Loons take off and give us an aerial display. I should have tried to film them, but I was so involved in watching that I forgot I could video them. Once that was over we continued on our way on this very rocky road. It finally returned to dirt, which is much easier to ride on. To return to camp we took the Willow Creek Quad trail down to our road and back into camp.

Tuesday: Warren Idaho

A group of us went to the town of Warren to see all the old buildings and mining equipment. Kurt, Patsy, Cindy, Wayne and I went on our motorcycles, Linda and Raydonia came in Linda’s car. While the riders waited for them to catch up (it was very dusty and the bikes went first to reduce the amount of dust we had to ride in) we started to look around. As a retired postal employee, I love old Post Offices. This post office shows that either the postmaster has a lot of time on their hands, or the post office is truly the center of town. The entire inside lobby is covered with paperback books. Right up my alley, eh? They are even organized by author.

We walked through town and saw all the old buildings, some falling down, and others in good enough condition to be used as summer cabins. The road to Warren is not plowed in the winter, which makes me wonder how the mail gets to that post office in the snow. Does it come by snow mobile or plane? Sounds like a nice route to me!! People come and go the same way. The Warren Wagon Road is only plowed as far as the snow park near Upper Payette Lake, and that is still 30 miles away.

We had just about given up on the car riders in our group, when they finally showed up. They had been having their own big adventure. Linda had a flat tire on the way, and as both ladies have husbands who take good care of them, neither knew how to change it. But good Samaritans appear when you need them, and soon they had a couple of guys come by and change their tire for them. They joined us in Warren and soon we had looked around enough to all head back to camp.

Wednesday: Yellow Pine

Yellow Pine is a small community located in the Boise National Forest west of McCall ID. There are no paved roads that go all the way to Yellow Pine. The snow plow does go there in the winter, which would make it easier to live in than Warren, but still, miles and miles of gravel and one-lane roads to get to the nearest decent sized grocery store? That doesn’t quite do it for me. The town is a well know destination though. Every summer they have a huge harmonica festival. Hundreds of people attend each year. We have never been to the festival, but I have been to Yellow Pine before.

This year we started from Burgdorf and made a 165 mile dual sport ride out of it. Nine of us went: Jim, Cindy, John, myself, Wayne, Tom, Kurt, Ralph and JD. Most of the route was on gravel roads with beautiful views. Some roads were narrow enough for only one car at a time. We met a Forest Service pickup truck that was coming at us fast enough that he forced one rider into the ditch. John was not hurt, but still not a good situation. We had a great lunch at the café and gas was available for a reasonable price. The route back to camp was two lane roads and 30 miles of pavement. It took us 4 ½ hours to go 80 miles to get there and 2 hours for the 85 miles to get back. It was a great day.

Thursday: Patti Rest Day, Wayne Ride Day

It was nice to spend the day just hanging out, working on my computer and cleaning house. When your house is only 300 sq. feet, it doesn’t take long to clean it. I love it! Shake some rugs, run the vacuum and wipe down the counters and you’re done! Yes we do have power. We have 2 solar panels on the roof, and 4 coach batteries, with an inverter to convert the 12 volt batteries to 110 house current. I can use the vacuum, small appliances and the microwave for a short amount of time. If the sun is really strong, like in the summer, I can have a crock pot going all day. However to use the convection oven I do have to start the generator if we are boon-docking (camping without hookups).

Each day that we have been camped here, we have gone to the Burgdorf Hot Springs for a soak. It is a very old resort. The current owners are working to get more of the old hotel and cabins repaired enough to rent out. With no electricity and wood heat (they supply the wood) it is more like camping in a building. You bring all your camping gear; put your sleeping bags on the beds, use your gas lanterns and ice chest and you’re good to go. Overnight rates include the use of the pool.