We made the trip from Pomeroy (Wayne’s Mom’s house) to our
friends Norm and Lan’s place in Eagle on Monday. We stopped there because Norm had bought a
2007 Suzuki DRZ 400S that he thought I’d be interested in.
Did I tell you what we are doing next summer (2014)? We are
going to ride our dual-sport bikes on dirt roads from Virginia Beach VA to a
beach in Oregon with our friends Lyon, Cindy and Bob. It will be around 5000 miles and take about a
month. We’ll be camping most of the
time. When we decided to do this ride we
had to make some decisions. The biggest
one was which bikes do we take? I love
my KTM 400, but it doesn’t have the sub frame to support 40-50 lbs. of camping
gear. Neither does Wayne’s KTM 525. Once
I decided that the KTM wouldn’t do, I emailed Norm, thinking he might be ready
to upgrade his DRZ to a newer one.
Instead he located this yellow baby for me. It came with a big tank ( with a range of 250 miles, about)
and a set of saddlebags. I have since
added a framework to hold the bags and a much better seat. Wayne installed another power cradle for my
Garmin GPS, a must for any trips we may take.
From Norm’s we headed to Baumgartner to camp on the south
fork of the Boise River. Every year we meet up with friends from all over the west to camp and ride. We hadn’t
planned to get there on Friday, but it was so hot in the Boise Valley that we
had to head up to a cooler location.
We got the river front camp site, and the rest of the gang
moved in around us.
Over the weekend the rest of our group started to arrive.
John and Michele joined us by the river while Cindy and Jim opted for a shadier
spot nearby.
JD and Raydonia snuck in
along the river and Bob managed to snag the sand-beach spot. There were many other groups that were also
in that area, so it was a very busy campsite for the holiday week (4th
of July).
Michele at Deer Park
While the boys were out trail riding, Cindy, Michele and I
went for a little 38 mile ‘first ride’. We went down to Abbot Campground,
across the bridge and up Abbot Gulch to the FS 166 Road. After connecting with the 166D RD we headed up
the trail to Grouse Butte, then rode the Blue Ridge trail along the ridge back
to the Kelly Creek trail. After a quick
trip out to Deer Park (no deer this year) we then turned down the trail and
back to camp.
Iron Mountain Lookout from Deer Park on the Kelly Creek Trail.
The next day I had my first ride on my new Suzuki. Michele
and I took the roads while John and Wayne took some trails on our way to
Ketchum ID. We met up with Jim and Cindy
in town and had lunch at one of the Mexican restaurants. Also having lunch with some of his friends
was the actor Richard Dryfus. Boy he still has that distinctive voice. The Sun Valley area has more than it's fair share of celebrities living there. This is the first time in all the years that I have been going there that I saw a star that I recognized, other than in their cars driving by. Some of our group wanted to stop and talk to him, but really...I think he's entitled to have lunch with his friends too! On the
way home we got caught in a rainstorm.
Huge drops, but it was so hot out that it really felt good. The ride was 121 miles, and I really like my
new bike! It is so smooth and easy to ride.
Our next dual sport ride was one we do every year. I was going to ride my Suzuki, but the
battery was dead so I rode my KTM. This ride is 70 miles, going from camp at
Baumgartner to Atlanta for lunch and back.
Raydonia and JD headed out first, and once I moved over to the KTM Wayne and I
headed out behind them.
We took the James Creek road, which takes us past this
water fall, which looks pretty good considering that water levels are so
low. The Anderson Ranch Reservoir which
we drive by to get to camp is as low as we’ve seen it in years, at drought levels.
And the South Fork Boise River where we are camped is very low this year.
We both rode our KTM's that day
We had lunch at Riverside Campground on the Middle Fork
Boise River near Atlanta, ID. After
which Raydonia and I headed back, and JD and Wayne went up to the Trinities to
see how much of the burn area from last year is now open. They came back with charcoal on their arms
from brushing up against some burned trees, but most of the trails appear to be
open.
The next day Wayne changed out my battery in the Suzuki so that I could
ride the Trinity Lakes Dual Sport route. Our group included Bob, Cindy, Michele, JD, Raydonia and me. From camp we went to Featherville and
headed out to Rocky Bar. This old town
is slowly being rebuilt. There are
people living here again.
This building is still waiting for some rehab, but check out that original bar.
The road from Rocky Bar to Trinity Lakes takes us past last year’s fire which is very evident up here,
but life is coming back.
We stopped to check out Little Trinity Lake,
and then went
to the big lake for lunch.
From there we went past the Roaring River Lakes and
up to Trinity Look Out.
The road we took to get up there
This has been a manned look out but not at the moment.
The
views from 9500’ are pretty amazing.
We then continued down the Trinity Ridge Road to connect
with the road to Falls Creek. Then it
was down to the Anderson Ranch Reservoir and the town of Pine for Ice
Cream.
Someone loaded for camping on a bike just like mine!
From Pine we went up the pavement to Featherville to
complete our loop.
That was our last ride from that campsite, but stay tuned, more riding was in the future!
Next stop, Bull Trout Lake….
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