September 2015 -- Baumgartner Hot Springs

Our Fall ride this year was out of Baumgartner Hot Springs on the south fork of the Boise River in Idaho. It is located east of the tiny town of Featherville, on the road to Dollarhide pass and Sun Valley. If you've never been there, you have got to go.  The Forest Service Campground has a wonderful developed hot spring pool, which is free to all.  And there are tons of dispersed camping along the river, for those of us who do not like to camp in little slots with paved pads for our RV's.  Please, with our motorhome and trailer, we just don't fit.



It was a very small group, just us, Lyon, John, Brady and Rick. This is a place where I like to dual sport, but the boys like to trail ride.  So they rode each day and I cooked for them.  We all had a great time.

 Andy just hanging out!

 There were some fires in the area a couple of years ago, and we are still feeling the fall out.  This year during a large storm some of the creeks that feed into the Boise River let loose with mud and debris slides.   

 The water is now running down where the road used to be

 In the distance you can see the mud dam that has rerouted the river and created a long narrow lake behind it.  

We understand that these are still stuck in the new lake

After the trail riding was done, Lyon decided to stay and dual sport with us.  We went on the loop from Featherville, through Pine, over to Prairie, through the Trinity Mountains and back to camp. 

 This is Anderson Ranch Reservoir.  We went along the coast and past the dam. You can see the road in the photo above.

 These rocks are found on the Burnt Creek road that goes up to the Trinity Mountain road.

 View from the Trinity Mtn Look out.

 Lyon at the look out

 This is a manned fire look out.  It is over 9000' in elevation

 View from the top

 View from the top

 The day before wee left the area a bull moose came through camp.  He must have been pretty young, as he was prancing and dancing past our motorhome.  When we left the next morning we saw him again, crossing a road.

We moved about 60 miles away, to the town of Fairfield, camping in town at the city park.  From there we did 2 days of dualsport riding.

 On day one we rode south to the Gooding City of Rocks.

 Don't confuse this with the City of Rocks National Reserve.  That is a major rock climbing mecca, this is just some rocks in the desert.

 They do kinda stand out

 View from the  City of Rocks. From there we took small two track roads south to I-84, then paralleled the highway to Glenn's Ferry for lunch. Then it was north on the Bennett Mountain road to the Hill City Road, then back to camp.

 On the second day we rode on Wild Horse road to Cow Creek Reservoir

 From Cow Creek we took two track roads through the forest. We spent the day trying to find a way through to the east on roads, but ended up coming back down to county roads.

Lunch in the woods

From Fairfield we headed back to our friends place in Idaho City for visit and ride.