July 21-28, 2013 – Wyoming, Summer Ride (Part 3)

Our next stop is Adventure Riding in Wyoming.

 

Our friends Kris and Bill’s place in Star Valley is picture perfect. 

 

Rolling hay fields, 2 houses by the highway,

a creek meandering through the place with a swimming hole, a beaver pond, numerous rustic out buildings,

a big red barn which houses the toys, motorhome and a 3 bedroom home all with plenty of parking for their many friends and our big rigs.

 Our rig

We fit 7 big motorhomes (36-40’), a truck & camp trailer and two Van campers all near the barn.   We came from all over the West; Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

Bikes live in the barn at night

Pot luck suppers are a daily occurrence

One night we went to visit the neighbors for a dessert pot luck and campfire.

 The line up to taste Cindy's pies

Mexican train, anyone???

Most of the rides from Star Valley are Adventure rides. I have been calling these dual sport rides, but my friend JD has started calling our Suzuki's Sport Adventure bikes, and I guess that is a better description than dual sport.  After all, dual sport implies that some trails are involved.  We did ride some ATV trail, but no single track, so I’ll try to make the switch!!

 Monday was our first ride

We started with a large group, 12 riders and 11 bikes; Richard, Vicki, Jim, Victor, Dave, Wayne, Willard, Bob S., Larry, myself and Maria who was riding 2 up with her husband Rainer. Our host Bill waited for the last couple to arrive from Oregon, Bob and Cindy who were to arrive at any moment.  We left with Rainer in the lead, and headed south on county roads to by pass the town of Afton as much as we could.  We eventually joined Highway 89 and went south until we entered the National Forest and then took a left on Smiths Fork Rd. We eventually got on the Emigrants Trail which we took around Mt Thompson and through Snyder Basin. We followed Coal Creek for a while until we got to FS 46 which took us over to the Middle Piney Rd.  Then it was up to Middle Piney Lake for lunch.

Middle Piney Lake

By the time our last member made the turn onto the Middle Piney Rd, our other 3 riders had caught up and joined us.  I hear they took a short cut and rode like the wind to do it!!!

After lunch we headed back to Forrest Service Road FS46 which took us through various drainages and down to FS 50 which is a connector road over to North Cottonwood Rd.

Cool rocks

Today was all car roads

The views were wonderful

North Cottonwood Rd took us over to the Greys River Rd, which took us through Black Canyon and down to Alpine.  After a stop for gas, we headed south on Highway 89 to Eton.

 Ice cream stop in Eton

From there it was a quick scoot on the highway and county roads back to Bill's place.  It was a total of 187 miles and a beautiful day!

On Tuesday the girls went into Afton to hike and have lunch.  We started at the Intermittent Springs.  When the water table is low enough, this spring only releases water every 15-20 minutes. This results in the creek below it drying up between times.

 

 Cindy and Blanche

Vickie and Beth

We thought this was the right time of year to see the creek dry up, but apparently not... 

Yes that's the trail

 Cindy off ahead of us

On Wednesday we went on another ride. Bill warned us that there was an ATV trail that was very loose, rocky and steep.  I decided to take the DRZ anyway. After all, we won’t know what to expect on our coast to coast ride next summer, so I should take it everywhere.

Eleven of us started out, Bill in the lead followed by Cindy, Bob C, Wayne, Dave Bob S, Larry, Victor, Richard, Jim and me.  We began by heading north on Highway 89 until we got to the town of Thayne where we headed west into Idaho. The route took us on the Tin Cup Highway (SR 34) to Tin Cup Road past a place called Mosquito Ranch.  Glad I don’t live there!  From there we followed some forest roads and then up the ATV trail.

 

View from the road above Mosquito Ranch

 

 

Waiting for our turn

Cindy had some issues in the shale

 Wayne finds a route around, It worked so good that I followed behind him and didn’t have any issues

 

Bob S and Cindy waiting for the rest to get to the top 

 First lunch

After the hill we worked our way down to a creek crossing for a rest and what some were calling first lunch. After that we went through more forest roads and around Caribou Mountain to our next rest stop, an old mining site.  Rumor has it the mine owner was very broke at the end and couldn’t pay his workers.  Lucky for him an avalanche (some say he created it with dynamite) roared down the mountain and killed a lot of the workers.  As most of them were Chinese no one really looked in to it. That was typical of that era in the mining camps.

 

The group at second lunch at the mine

  Victor, Bob C, Bill and Bob S with the valley in the background.

Then it was back through the forest to Caribou City, to read some information signs (we try to be educated!!) and then a quick scoot down to the Palisades Reservoir and Highway 89.  Once again we stopped at Etna for ice cream.  It was a shorter day, just 102 miles, but what a great day!

Thursday was another rest day for some of us.  The ladies took a walk around Bill’s place checking out the beaver pond and creek, then hiking up the hill next door.  We admired the view, the butterflies and Cindy found a skull from some kind of canine, fox we think. 

Cindy, Vicki and Blanche looking at bones

Some of the boys went for a trail ride.  Wayne and Victor came home first, letting us know that Rainer had gone down hard and dislocated his shoulder. Dave and Richard stayed with him, helping him get out to a road. Victor took Rainer’s wife Maria in his van to pick Rainer up and take him to Jackson WY to the hospital. It was late by the time Dave and Richard got back, but even later for the 3 that went to Jackson, I think it was about 4 am by the time they got home. Not a good day for any of us.

Friday was the last planned ride. Bob C, Cindy, Larry, Bob S, Willard, Jim, Dave Wayne and I followed Bill back south through Afton and Smoot to the Smiths Fork Rd.  This time we stayed more to the south and followed dirt and two track roads through the forest and into the farm lands of Smiths Fork Creek.  We popped out onto US 30 at Cokeville, where some of us got gas. We stayed on the highway a short ways until we passed SR 89, and entered Idaho. We took a left onto a county road which followed the train tracks, crossing back and forth several times.  We eventually left the tracks behind and wound our way through the hills until we crested the top and were rewarded with a view of Bear Lake.  Bear Lake is huge and is half in Utah and half in Idaho.  

 

  

Bear Lake 

My camera doesn’t do the color of the water justice; it is very blue, almost iridescent. Absolutely beautiful! After admiring the view we headed down to the Bear Lake Hot Springs for first lunch.

We are a motley crew….

After eating we headed around the lake to St. Charles where the rest of us topped off our gas tanks. Then it was off onto forest roads that followed wandering creeks and worked our way west.  We headed to the ATV trail that was on our route, one that Bill said was going to be ‘a pleasant 10 mile roll along through the woods’.  We should have known better. The first hint of what was to come was at the start, a creek crossing that was lined on the near side with boulders that were all under water and not touching each other.  In other words: a perfect place to catch a front tire. 

Which is what I did. 

But I jumped off my bike and picked up that heavy pig all by myself; got it started and proceeded to bull-dog it across. 

I was not the only one to get completely wet there.  Once we were all across some of us rested and dried out while some of the others headed out ahead of us.  Bill’s favorite line the rest of that day was “As I recall…”  As in “As I recall, this trail is a sweet little scoot through the trees”. We stopped believing him because the next section we all grouped up at was a rocky, knarly uphill section.  By the time I got to it there was a line.  Wayne was on his way walking down, so I just gave him my bike and let him take it up. It wasn’t the only bike he rode up. I found out later that when he got there, he went up one of the rocks and his bike coughed and died; he went “ahhhhhh” as he toppled over. So he knew I didn’t want to try it.

 

Why do they always have to get the cameras out at a place like this?

After picking up her DRZ, Cindy clutched the crap out of it and made the hill!!

After that hill, we all needed to rest!

The trail really was sweet, most of the way.

After we got off the ATV trail, we meandered over to this canyon that I thought was a box canyon.  I could not figure out how we were going to get to the top, I could not see a road.  But up we went gaining more than 2000 feet over the next five miles.

Here I come zooming up the German Dugway. This is much steeper than it looks

The next stop was the Paris Ice Caves.  As it was a very hot day we all appreciated going into the cool cavern.  You entered in on a board walk past frozen water.

 

Jim after coming through the entrance

Wayne and I, relaxing and snacking again. 

The crew, spread out, enjoying the cool temperatures

  The main cavern is behind that huge rock at the top/right of the group photo. You had to almost crawl to get into it, too much work for most of us. Hey, it was a long day by this time. This would be a 10 hour, 224 mile ride!!  From here, it was out to the pavement in Paris, then on to Montpelier ID. We had one more stop to make.

You guessed it; we had to have ice cream!

From Montpelier we headed out US 89 to Crow Creek Rd.  We took this county road all the way back to Afton, where we went north to Bill’s place. 

Star Valley Wyoming

It was a long, but wonderful day.  I loved that ride.

During our stay in Wyoming Wayne finally made a decision about what bike he wants to take on the cross country ride next year.  Now we are looking for a DRZ for him.  But we didn’t have to look far as Bill has one for sale.  Yeah, Wayne has a bike! Now we have to figure out how to get it.  We are full up in the trailer, plus the bike is actually in Logan Utah.  So plans are made for us to continue on our way and then once we get back to Idaho City and our truck, we will drive to Logan to pick it up.

On Saturday folks began to break camp and head to their respective homes.  We left on Sunday and went as far as Idaho Falls where we spent the night at Travelers Park which offers free camping for one night.

Our campsite

The park had a walking trail next to the Snake River

A crane stands guard, of what, I do not know

After completing some errands, it was time to head back to Idaho City.  It has been a great Summer Ride.  It is always fun to see our friends and ride like crazy.  I can’t wait now for the Fall Ride to start!!! Yes, we do this again in September!!!!

 

 

 

 



 

 

July 9-19th 2013, Bull Trout Lake, Summer Ride (Part 2)

Usually summer ride starts at Baumgartner, and yes we did go there but our group was very small, only 5 rigs and 9 people.  It was really a pre-summer ride! The “Real Summer Ride” was set to start on July 13th and eventually had 22 rigs, 41 people including 6 kids under 18, 9 dogs and 5 cats.  We had folks from California, New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, Utah, and Colorado.   It’s like a really big family reunion, except we all like each other and have lots in common.

 Some of the ladies

 We packed them in

Finding shade where ever we could

When we broke camp at Baumgartner, Cindy, Doc and Bob headed straight to Bull Trout through Sun Valley and Galena Pass to try to get our favorite spot by the pond.  The pond is a shallow catch basin for spring runoff that is about 4 feet deep in the center when we get there in July.  By the fall it will pretty much be dry, with maybe a small stream running through it.  But in the summer, it’s a great place to camp.  The water is warm, it’s shallow enough for the kids to swim in and the dogs in the group just love it.

 Bull Trout Pond

Bailey by the shore...

 

Riding began on Wednesday before the whole gang arrived. I took my DRZ, Cindy was on her BMW GS 700F and Diane was on her Suzuki DR 200 and we took a quick ride over to Stanley ID.  We headed out on Highway 21, but quickly jumped on to dirt on the Cape Horn Road. We paralleled the highway for a bit, then went north onto the Valley Creek Road. At the creek crossing we decided to take a pass and scooted out onto the highway again. At Forest Rd 653 we took a left back on to dirt and connected with the Nip and Tuck Road which takes us to Lower Stanley.  From there it is a quick mile and a half into Stanley.  We checked the Post Office to see if my mail had arrived (it had not) and picked up a couple of things at the market before heading back the way we had come.  It was 62 miles, and a beautiful to be out riding. 

Stanley Idaho

The boys went out riding every day, but not all the trails have been cleaned lately, and one of our trails had been closed due to legal action filed in 2008.  Yes, our legal system at its finest. Although this kind of action we want to take as long as possible, as they have closed the trail to motorized use. And right after the Forest Service spent a bunch of money rebuilding it recently. The boys also loaded up bikes into trucks and hauled them to Yankee Fork (which is farther north east of where we were) to ride.

The next time I road was Saturday. Most of the ladies had arrived by then and we decided to take a trail ride down Warm Springs trail and visit the hot springs at Grand Jean. Michele, Deb, Lisa, Lindsey, Kelly and I started out with Ed as our minder. (Always nice to have at least 1 guy on a trail ride to fix flat tires and stuff). Unfortunately I only made it about 3.5 miles.  I was leading, having a great time swooping through the trees.  We had just got on to a side hill trail when I slammed into a rock with my foot peg and sheered it right off. I was very lucky as I was standing up, with weight on that peg.  I could have pulverized that foot, but lucky for me it was a perfect height to catch on the bottom of the peg. I came to a stop, surprised to find the peg missing but the break lever still intact.  Go figure…  Once the rest of the group caught up, Ed helped me turn my bike around and rode out to the road with me so I could get back to camp.  The rest of the group had a great ride, but I was just happy to still have a right foot!!

 

On Sunday I led the Ladies (plus 2) through Bear Valley to the Whitehawk Lookout.  Cindy, Michele, Deb, Lisa, Kelly, Lindsey, Maria, Diane, Bob, Ed and I started out on Highway 21 for 3 miles before we picked up the dirt road, the Bear Valley Rd to the Fir Creek Campground. After a quick rest stop we got back on the Bear Valley Rd and went through Bruce Meadow taking the south fork (FS Rd 582). 

Bruce Meadows

 The route follows the meandering Bear Valley Creek over to the bottom of Whitehawk Mountain. 

 

The signs describe the history of this valley including the mining that was done.  You’d never know it now. They did an outrageous job of returning it to a natural state. 

We went up to the top to see the lookout for lunch and the view. 

Lunch at the top, at Whitehawk Lookout

 

From there you can see into Bear Valley and over to the Deadwood Reservoir.

 Bear Valley

Deadwood Reservoir

After lunch we backtracked to FS Rd 563 so we could go north to FS Rd 579-Bear Valley Rd. This completed our circle, so we headed back to camp the way we had come for a 71 mile ride.

 

Monday was a rainy day and most of us decided not to ride.  Instead we went to Stanley in the trucks.  I managed to pick up our mail which finally arrived at the Post Office, and then headed east toward the ghost town of Custer, located on the Yankee Fork River.  We stopped at the Sunbeam Dam to check out the history and the view.
 

Sunbeam Dam, located at the mouth of the Yankee Fork roughly 13 miles north on Highway 75 from Stanley, Idaho, is an old dam on the Upper Salmon River that was partially dynamited to allow for fish passage. A large pullout off the highway gave us a place to stop and gaze down at the odd site of the river making its way through the demolished section of the dam.

The dam and the power plant were constructed in May of 1910. Power from the plant was utilized by the Sunbeam Consolidated Gold Mines Company at their mine and mill located 13 miles up the Yankee Fork at Jordan Creek. It didn’t last long, just 11 months, before the company realized this was an upside-down venture and the power plant and dam were sold at a Sheriff’s Auction in April of 1911.  From there we headed north on the Yankee Fork Road, past the sparse remains of Bonanza.  Bonanza came to life in 1876 following the discovery of what became known as the General Custer Mine. The discovery was made on the 17th of August of that year and was the mother lode of Yankee Fork, a name already given to the general area.  A huge mill was constructed a short distance north of the mine which made it necessary for another business and residence center; which became Custer.

This town is now partially restored as a museum, with a self-guided walking tour.  We would have looked at more of the home sites, but the sky kept opening up and raining on us, so we headed down to the Yankee Fork Dredge.

The dredge ran from 1940 to 1952 stopping once from late 1942 until early 1946 for WWII and then again in 1947 when Snake River Mining Co (subsidiary of Silas Mason) decided they were not making enough money and put it up for sale.  In 1949 J.R. Simplot and a partner in mining, Fred Baumhoff, bought the dredge for $75,000 and started it up again in April of 1950.  In 1952 Simplot ran out of original claim so leased a small section from the Morrisons; when they completed that section they shut the dredge off and walked away.  Later in 1953 Morrison ask them to remove the dredge, or pay rent as the dredge still sat on Morrison's claim, and so Simplot's men started it up and dug themselves to the current position where it has sat ever since. The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge is one of the best preserved and presented dredges in the lower 48 states.  It was donated to the U.S. Forest Service by J.R. Simplot in 1966, and in 1980 the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge Association began providing guided tours to the public. Most of our group decided to tour the dredge, but I have seen in many times and opted to sit outside and enjoy the ever changing weather.

On Tuesday the group decided to take some of non-trail riders (including me) over to ride the Deadwood Ridge trail. A small group decided to take trail the whole way and headed down the Warm Springs trail.  I went with the other group, the one that loaded our bikes into trucks and trailers and drove to the trail head.
 

The other group was a little late, but it all worked out. Once we were together we left on the Julie Creek single track trail.

It winds around and rides a ridge back up to the Deadwood Ridge single track trail.

 

We turned left and headed north on it until we got to the Whitehawk Basin trail.  This is located below the lookout we were at a few days earlier, and is a combination of road, ATV trail and single track trail.  This took us over to the Deadwood River and eventually to the dam.  

The dam was releasing a ton of water, the spray felt great as it was really hot out!!!

After lunch at the dam we came across a fire fighting helicopter that was doing a crew change, so we watched that for a while.

 Fire fighting helo

 Picking up the bucket

Headed out for a load of water

 

 A fire had been started by lightning near our camp and they were fighting it. At this point we turned around and headed home via the same route. I don’t ride as much single track as I used to so it was a lot of fun to get out and zoom around the trails again.

Our group began to break up on Friday, and after saying good bye to some of our friends, Raydonia, Michele, Cindy, Bob and I took a ride back out to Bear Valley, this time turning on the Dagger Falls Rd.  This road is a 400’ wide corridor through the Frank Church Wilderness and is used to get rafters and their equipment out to the put-in on the Middle Fork Salmon River.  From this launch spot it is a 6 day float through the wilderness to the take out point. It is a beautiful road with many wild flowers and this year I saw an eagle rise from the ground up to tree top level and take flight!  He was huge!

Dagger Falls

Our first stop was Dagger Falls. The water was pretty low, but the falls are still spectacular. From there it is just a short hop down the road to the put in.  Usually it is a mad house of activity. 

 This is what it usually looks like at the put-in...

Not so much this year. 

Low water and last year’s forest fires resulted in lower requests for permits.  From here we went back to Bear Valley road.  We split into groups, Michele’s bike wasn’t running right so she and Raydonia headed back to camp, Bob went the direct route to Whitehawk Look Out (where he could get cell service and make phone calls) and Cindy and I continued around the loop the opposite way from earlier in the week.  We all enjoyed our rides.
This was the final ride in this area for us as we were leaving this group and heading to Wyoming to ride with a different group of friends. Some of these folks would also go, but not all of them.  We left on Saturday, along with Bob and took a leisurely drive to Thayne Wyoming.  We stopped to grocery shop and then spent the night in a RV park in Pocetello which had a Laundromat. You have to take travel days to do these chores, otherwise you might have to give up a day of riding, and wouldn’t that be a shame!!!