August 23-28, 2013 St Joe River, ID

In the middle of all the work on the trailer we did take a few days off to ride with Jim (Doc) and Cindy at their place on the St. Joe River. What a beautiful place! 

Our yard

From across the river

 

It is a little hard to get into their place.  Jim had to pull the trailer in with his truck and Wayne drove the Beast.  The turn in their road is so tight Wayne had to do a 3 point turn.  I sat in the passenger chair holding Andy and the grab bar with my eyes closed at the apex.  I plan to walk behind the coach on the way back up!

We brought Wayne's brother Rick with us.  In the old days (back in the early 80’s) it was always the three of us riding and camping together.  It was like old times!  It’s always nice to have someone along who thinks everything you cook is wonderful!   

On Saturday the boys went trail riding so Cindy and I went on a road ride to historic Red Ives.

Cindy rode Ruby, her BMW GS700F and I rode my Suzi up the St Joe River to Avery.

Avery was a railroad town.  It was part of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul & Puget Sound Railway.  The section from Montana to Avery was electric. At Avery the electric engines were swapped out for steam and then diesel engines for the relatively flat section to Othello WA where electric engines were again in place for the pull through the Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound. Work on this section began in 1906, took 5 years and cost a record $260 million.  The line reorganized many times through the years, but ultimately went bankrupt in 1977. Trucking and travel along the Interstate highways and through the air all attributed to the down fall of the railroads.

  

Cindy at the Railroad Museum in Avery

We continued up river to the historic Red Ives Ranger Station.  

St Joe River

 

Historic Red Ives Ranger Station

Here we learned more about The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) which was a wildfire that burned about three million acres (approximately the size of Connecticut) in northeast Washington, northern Idaho (the panhandle), and western Montana. The area burned included parts of the Bitterroot, Cabinet, Clearwater, Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark, Lolo, and St. Joe national forests. The firestorm burned over two days (August 20–21, 1910), and killed 87 people, mostly firefighters. It is believed to be the largest, although not the deadliest, fire in recorded U.S. history. There are numerous stories of heroism on the front lines and heart breaking pictures of the loss of forest and homes. We headed home by the same route, putting in 106 miles that day.

On Sunday the boys put their bikes on Doc’s trailer and took them to Red Ives.  It’s the only way they could ride that area without moving our rigs. They had a great ride.  So did we.  Cindy and I took dirt roads over to Wallace for lunch.

This time Cindy rode her little bike she calls Flower Power, because some of the roads were too eroded to take Ruby on.

We started up Slate Creek Road, stopping to look at some of the waterfalls along the way.

 
yes that's me at a waterfall

Most went into culverts under the road. 

But not all

We wandered along beside Slate Creek

 

This was once a very big tree

A trail starts here; just what I want to do, get my feet wet right off the bat.  Not!

The road climbs up high above Slate Creek

Slate Creek Meadow

Once over Slate Creek Pass we headed down to the little town of Wallace.  This is a cute little old town, with the creek running through it.  We had lunch at the far end of town

 

The City Limits Pub is the home of the North Idaho Mountain Brewery.  Wayne should have been here!

After lunch we headed home over Moon Pass

Cindy on the Moon Pass Road

When the Milwaukee Railway was operating one of the passenger trains was the Hiawatha. This was a luxury coach ride with beautiful views, high class food and service.  Now that the trains are gone, the Forest Service has been turning the rails into trails.

 

 

 
 
 

 

Cindy and I decided that we would ride our mountain bikes on the trail tomorrow, so we go to the trailhead to check on the cost of a pass and the schedule of the shuttle bus.  Yes you can take a bus up to the top and ride your bike down.  Works for me!  The only requirements? A helmet and lights.  Yep, there are tunnels on the trail and they get very dark.

We continue down the road and go through seven tunnels and 2 very long single lane bridges (used to be train trestles).

We went to Avery and then we crossed the bridge and take the dirt road home this time.

We stop to check out a swimming hole, and see these three ladies out for a float trip.  I guess it was a ladies day for everyone!

On Monday Doc and Cindy’s friend Aric arrives with his bike in his truck.  Our boy’s bikes are still loaded on the trailer so we went with them up river about 30 miles.  We dropped them off at a trail head and they headed into the woods for more single track fun and we drove both trucks back to Avery.  We then went up to the Hiawatha Trailhead with our bicycles.  Sunday night when we told the boys we were going to ride the trail they set us up with great Trail Tech lights.  They are designed as helmet lights but we put them on our handlebars. 

The current Hiawatha Trail of nearly 15 miles is open to mountain bikers, hiker and wheelchairs. No motorized, but that’s ok. It runs at about a 2% down grade the full length. You peddle that whole time, just because; not because you have to!

 

We were there in time for the first shuttle. It takes about 40 minutes to ride up to the top

The bikes are hung from hooks in the back of the bus

The only drawback of starting from the bus stop is that you don’t get to ride through the ‘Big’ tunnel. The St Paul (“Taft”) tunnel is 1.7 miles long and if you start at the northern trailhead (East Portal) then you get to ride through it, but the buses do not go that far. Maybe another time.  After the bus leaves, so do we.  Right away we go through a 790’ tunnel.  It is really dark, but our lights work great so it is no big deal.

A nice couple from Iowa took our pictures at one of the many information signs. Notice we followed the rules, helmets and headlamps. The lights on the bikes worked better.

The longest trestle was at Kelly Creek, 850’ long and 230’ high

 

Cindy on the trestle 

The longest tunnel was 1516’ long

The sky was amazing

We had a great day, up to and including this. 

It meant we walked the last mile, but still we had enough fun that we decided that next time I came to visit we want to try riding up the trail, then coast down as our reward.  And we WILL do the Taft Tunnel.

On Wednesday it was time for us to leave.  Now we have to get the Beast up their road.
Pulling out of our camp spot

Doc giving directions

 

Cindy watches as Wayne backs up to the edge

And then we were off. We hitched up the trailer down by the main road and headed off to Rick’s place in Spokane and then to my Mother-in-Law’s in Pomeroy.  We had a wonderful visit with our friends and tons of great riding!  We can't wait to come back.