September 23-25, 2013 -- Clayton ID, Fall Ride (Part 2)

Sunday was a travel day.  We didn’t go far, but we all took the opportunity to shop for groceries, dump tanks and take on water.  We headed to the Sawmill Station RV Park near Clayton for our next stop.  We were moving up in the world, we had full hook-ups, but were told they did not have WIFI or cell service.  I opted to do laundry in Challis where I had both of these, but a horrible Laundromat.  And then when we did get to the park someone had a cell service network extender, so I did have service.  On well, I used the time in Challis to post to the blog and get caught up.

We joined the rest of our group in the afternoon and had a nice spot on the grass

Tommy, JD and Wayne went for a trail ride in the White Clouds today.  This area is part of a Wilderness Study area, meaning we could lose this area at any time.  I don’t get it; the area has been open to motorized recreation forever.  Obviously we don’t have any major impact on the land and trails or how could this area still meet the criteria for Wilderness?  So why kick us out?

Raydonia and I went for an Adventure ride by going west on Highway 93 for about 5 miles.  Then we took a left onto a small, hidden road that went on the non-highway side of the river.

The Robinson Bar Road

I startled 3 deer as I came around the corner, this one hung around for a Kodak moment

This is the rafters' new rest area and put in at Torrey’s Hole on the Salmon River

This must be the original put in.  Imagine wrestling a raft down this.  I bet that’s a rush!!

 

What?? We can’t get fiber optics in Idaho City which is on Highway 21, but they have them buried along this two track road?

This road dead ended at private property so we turn around and head back the way we came.  We stopped to check out the river and I was bummed, Fall Ride but no fall colors.

Oops, spoke too soon.  Look what we found when we turned south onto Slate Creek Road.

This road starts out in a narrow canyon, barely room for the creek and the road between the hills

We wandered up the road, admiring the Quaking Aspens as they shimmered in the sun

That rocky fin is called the Chinese Wall, part of the White Cloud Peaks. The boys were there today too, only at the top

The canyon widens out and becomes cattle county

Wouldn’t this be a great commute?

It could be yours if this was where you called home

Slate Creek

Slate Creek Hot Springs, although this spring was barely warm we could smell it as we came up the road

Campers come in all shapes and sizes

The road ends and becomes non-motorized, before you get to those buildings.  So how did they get there?  Must be magic

 

At this point we turned around and really enjoyed our trip back down through the canyon.  It was a short 35 mile ride, but very beautiful.

In the evenings this little herd munches its way through camp

In the morning we had breakfast with this view

We woke up to cloudy skies, but no snow.  The boys decided to ride on the north side of the river on trails they usually access from Yankee Fork.  That was going to be our next destination, but the forcast there is for snow, so I think we are going to pass on that one.

ElRae and I decide to take a ride through Spar Canyon. We started east on Highway 75 to the East Fork Road.   

We followed the East Fork of the Salmon River upstream past pretty little farms

We turned up Road Creek Rd, up this canyon past some wonderful rock formations.

The soil comes in many colors

The road to the summit

Then it was down through another pretty canyon to Highway 93.

The weather was threatening for us, but not like this.  Glad I wasn’t there

 

ElRae at the summit before we headed down into Spar Canyon

Although we rode mostly through sage brush, there are still beautiful things to see

 

Spar Canyon

Spar Canyon Road comes back to the East Fork road, so we headed back towards home.

I can’t help it, retired postal employee here.  Gotta love the mailboxes!!

This 70 mile ride had us back at camp around 1 PM and the boys had already returned from their ride.  The decision was to move today, this time to Mormon Bend CG farther up the river.  The thought was we could ride some more in the White Cloud Mountains, but the weather finally changed for the worse, with 10 inches of snow expected the next night.  So on Wednesday morning we packed up, again, and moved to lower camping at Pine Flats.  This is on the South Fork Payette River.  We have been here the last couple of Fall Rides because it has all the things we need; riding, hot springs and being at a lower elevation, we usually don’t have snow.  We’ll see about that last one!