Route of the Hiawatha- Tuesday July 24, 2007

Ok, the Route of the Hiawatha rails-to-trails ride is a little bit out of our area, but we felt the need to get out of town. It was a 5+ hour drive but totally worth it. Camera was not working so you will just have to check the website to see how gorgeous it is up there: http://www.skilookout.com/hiaw/

15 miles of mountain bike trail, going through 10 tunnels and over 7 trestles. Make sure you have a good light on your bike!

Little Mud Creek Loop- Tuesday, July 17

This Tuesday's ride may be my favorite so far. And we didn't even have to drive any where to do it! When our group was all gathered we just headed up Highway 95 to Little Mud Creek Road, approximately 3 miles. This was a little hairy, with the big semi's roaring past, but for the most part drivers were very courteous and slowed down or moved to the other lane to pass us.

At Little Mud Creek we turned off the highway and headed down the gravel road. Before we had gone too far a road maintenance truck passed us coming the other way. He was watering down the dust, which made our ride even more pleasant. We had trees to keep us shaded, and cows for scenery. When the road forked, we took the right hand branch, knowing it would eventually loop around to Kimberland. At this point we lost our nice shade and had a hill to climb. There are more forks in the road along this section, but we kept taking the right-hand branches and eventually were rewarded with a nice mile + long downhill section. There is a barbwire gate near the bottom of this, which could be bad if you were not aware of it.

After we had passed through the gate Gordy closed it after us. We climbed the short hill to the next downhill section, 1 mile to the clubhouse! Here we had a couple of cold beers and a nice swim in the pool. The perfect way to end a ride. Unfortunately we still had 3 miles of hot furnace head wind to get back to the store. Next time I think we will start and end at the pool!
This ride was approximately 14 miles round trip, and sorry, forgot to take pictures.

Ponderosa State Park- Tuesday, July 10

Since our other riders were out of town, we decided to go toodle around Ponderosa State Park.

We parked at the Day Use beach area, and headed down the gravel road to the Lily Marsh parking area, where we caught the Huckleberry Loop trail. The Huckleberry loop is a nice easy loop for hikers & bikers both, but we wanted to try out the mountain bike single track that branches off the huckleberry loop. So at the appropriate little brown bicycle sign, we headed off.
Almost immediately we hit a steep rocky section that I almost was able to ride. Gordy blasted up with no problem, and we both stopped to breath on the more level section. Suddenly we were swarmed by mosquito's! Argg! Must keep riding! Single track, is of course, just that... a narrow, single track. This one weaves in between trees, over roots, up rocks, etc. It was fun and challenging. The hardest part was not sucking in mosquito's when I stopped to catch my breath. At some point the trail comes out onto the road to the Payette Lake overlook, which is a great spot to stop and enjoy the breeze before cruising back to the day use beach. 4 miles round trip, and sorry, no pictures. Here is a link for the park: http://www.idahoparks.org/parks/ponderosa.html

Rainbow Lake Ride - July 3, 2007

This was our biggest gang yet for a Tuesday ride. There were six of us. There were me, Jenni and Nina. Nina brought her two friends Linda and Lynn (probably spelling her name incorrectly). This ride was a blast and it is hard to remember all the funny and cool things that happened. I will try my usual routine of story-telling and see where that gets me. I'll start with riders and their bikes.
Linda was riding her (I believe it is a Specialized) hybrid with 700c wheels. Lynn was riding an 80's vintage Specialized Rockhopper (I think it was a Rockhopper). These two women rocked. Their bikes were of excellent quality but neither were really appropriate for the rough trail we rode. It didn't matter a bit. They ruled.
Randy is a physicist visiting from Oregon determined to ride as much as humanly possible during his ten days in Idaho. He was rocking his Marin Wolf Ridge. Go Randy go!
Here's the gang at the lake. The weather was fantastic.I must say that this trail was no smooth easy ride. There were very steep sections. There long sections of deep powdery dust. There were plenty of downed trees across the trail. There were rocks and roots and stream crossings. Not to say it was a grueling hell ride, but it was challenging for any novice mountain bike rider. It was also very fun, and there were lovely picture perfect bits of trail like this one:
It was while riding through one of these gorgeous meadows Nina burst into song, ala Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music. "The hills are alive with the sound of music!"
Jenni nearly fell off her bike laughing. Nina rocks.
Randy rode the most powerful steed among us and drove it with impressive abandon. He mounted up and attacked terrain the rest of us hiked. Occasionally he would crash with spectacular impacts audible from great distances. He was definitely the most skilled, experienced and courageous of the group, and I never saw a scratch on him.
Jenni rode with great skill and excellent judgement. Everyone handled themselves very well, except me. I made an idiotic decision that plagued my ride.
I decided to install my brand new clipless pedals on my mountain bike right before the ride. I removed the flats/clipless pedals that had served me very well on the 18 mile Little Ski Hill Loop ride. Turns out the springs on these new pedals are much tighter than on my other pedals.
Even adjusted to the loosest setting, it was hard to click my shoes on, and once on they wouldn't release! So I fell over and scratched my elbow (said some words rather loudly too). I fell over three or four times until my little brain became frightened of my pedals. I rode with nervous feet, scared a cleat would lock down and not release. When you make stupid mistakes and suffer miserably as a result, people will often tell you that it was "a good learning experience". Yeah, I learned alright.
When I find the washer that disappeared when I took off my old pedals, I am putting BACK ON my old pedals. I am going to break in my new pedals on next Tuesdays road ride!

Payette Lake Loop Ride

Gordy here narrating the story now. Jenni told of the Little Ski Hill 18 Mile Loop ride. What Jenni did not tell is how she took a spectacular endo which resulted in several minor flesh wounds and a total loss of my sense of humor. Jenni is healing up very well and my sense of humor was nothing to brag about in the first place.

It was Jenni's spectacular endo that prompted the choice of our next ride: mostly flat, mostly paved road around Payette Lake, starting and ending in McCall. Excellent ride for us novice bike riders. Joy.

This was our first ride with a guest! Our friend Nina (pronounced "nine-ah") and her K2 full suspension T:nine Trailhead. Nice bike. I put road tires on Jenni's Specialized Expedition, and I chose my Townie 7 speed. We parked at Lardo's (historical greasy spoon) and pedaled on down the road. We reached the North end of Payette Lake had snackies on the beach. Weather could not have been better.

After polishing off a box of crackers (mostly by me) we headed South down the East side of the lake. Partially paved road and some uphill riding, nothing hectic to report. Saw the latest lake-side condos and cabins and outright mega-mansions under construction. Mostly we saw the reason why we live here, which is pretty trees, lakes and mountains. And nice fresh air!
Got back into McCall and the traffic of a lakeside tourist town in the midst of a tumultuous building boom. And it was along those roads that it was cemented in my mind why I prefer riding mountain trails. Some lady honked her horn and gestured angrily at us as she drove by. What reason could she have to angry with us? We were riding as close to the edge of the road as we possibly could. I was constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure we weren't about to be annihilated by a truck.
I read a blog of a very cool dude in the bicycle industry who said that people, even bicycle people, undergo a personality change the instant they get behind the wheel of a car. Crankiness, the nagging sense of being in a hurry, impatience, insensitivity to all others around your vehicle consume your mind. It just seems to happen.
I would rather challenge my mind and body on the trails in forests and mountains rather than take my chances on the pathways of 4000 pound death machines and their distracted pilots. I will now step down from my soapbox.
All in all it was a very pleasant ride and good exercise. We rode back to Lardo's, loaded up our bikes and headed home. Another Tuesday ride in the books.

Tooth-rattling Good Fun/ Long Little Ski Hill Loop - June 19, 2007

Gordy on the first downhill portion, before you get to Fish Lake. The road wasn't as rocky here.
Admiring Fish Lake. The two gentlemen fishing were the only people (and the only car) we saw all day.
Big Creek Meadow. From here you turn left and climb up the side of Red Ridge.
Lets just say that the longer Little Ski Hill loop in the Mountain biking McCall book is not one of my favorites. Parts of it were really fun, but over all the elevation gains & rattling over miles of rocks on the downhill portions, (OK and climbing over loose rocks!) just didn't balance out for me. On a full suspension bike it might have been better. We had absolutely perfect riding weather- nice sunshine with a gentle breeze that kept us from getting too hot or too buggy.

We found a nifty website that lets you upload your GPS recorded route to a google earth map & add pictures at various waypoints....as soon as we have time we will add that to this post in case anyone with a full suspension bike would like to try it.

Good things about the 18 mile loop:

1. Incredible wildflower viewing

2. The air smells wonderful up there!

3. The only car we saw was parked at Fish Lake

4. The sound of a flock of sheep baa-ing somewhere near by

5. Great scenery

Downside to the loop:

1. 1200 some feet in elevation gain

2. 1200 some feet in elevation gain over loose rocks that make it difficult to gain traction, and fly off your back tires creating a hazard for the person behind you

3. most of the downhill portions were over rocky terrain

We did not take quite enough water. I had my 72 oz camelbak + a 32 oz bottle, Gordy had a 100 oz camelbak. Both camelbaks were dry by mile 10. Lesson learned!

Kayak Day, Tuesday June 12, 2007

Our two daughters are out of school for Summer. We failed to arrange for their care so that we could go after the longer version of the Little Ski Hill mountain bike ride. No timely play dates, no babysitters, no nothing. So my experimental 7 speed mountain bike would have to wait for its test ride. No wait, that is my experimental single speed mountain bike that has been dismantled. Never mind. So we went to the North shore of Payette Lake for some 'yaking and relaxing. And that began with my own personal story of broke-ness, cheap-ness, creative-ness, frustration-ness, and pig-headed git-r-done-ness. What the hell am I talking about? Valid question.

We recently retired our 1994 Isuzu Trooper and bought a Honda Element. Reason I mention this? Our old Trooper had a Thule roof rack with a cargo box. Mounts that will allow us to put our rack and box on the Element? Hundred something something gang of money! But hey! One of our sales guys reps for Yakima! So then it would only be hundred-hunert-sumpity dollars for a whole new rack to mount the box on! My cheapity cheap-ness would not abide.
So I figure and drill and bolt and mostly I shout curse words. And after many cumulative hours of struggle I achieve success!

Thule rack solidly mounted on the Element roof! And with my trusty ratchet straps I was confident our two kayaks would stay on the rack even if we drove 100 miles per hour. All that, and I was only mildly grouchy! Okay, pretty darn grouchy. But I saved hundreds of dollars on extravagant outdoor gear automobile storage equipment without totally losing my mind! Or did I? I'll never tell.

So we drove to the lovely North shore of Payette Lake and unloaded all of our gear. We also unloaded our Doodle. That is we unloaded our Daisy Doodle. we unloaded our dog. And we didn't know if she could swim, if she would try to swim, if she would ride in a kayak, etc. We were concerned about how her little tiny dog brain would respond to the environment. So we took precautions, as outdoor gear purveyors should:

We strapped a foam pad around her body. She did not seem to mind. Excellent. And so we yakked. Of most photo-worthiness was Maddie and Daisy yakking.

And Lydia and I yakked.

And Jenni yakked

And we had lunch and it was a grand day out in the sun and fresh air and very good for our minds and bodies. And Lydia found at least ten bird feathers.

Little Ski Hill Loop - May 29, 2007

With our trusty Mountain Biking McCall guide in hand, we had planned on doing the 18 mile loop from Little Ski Hill. However, on the way to Little Ski Hill we hear a loud "POP" noise...stop the car, get out and see that one of the tires on Gordy's bike was too close to the exhaust pipe and exploded. Back to the store for another tire and with less time we adjust our plans for the shorter 8 mile loop.

With the incredible building boom of the last few years and our copy of the book being 4 years old, I was a bit worried that things had changed. But all in all it was pretty accurate. The short loop directions say to "take the gravel road". This is Fish Lake RD at the west end of the ski hill's parking lot. We cruised down the hill, past the t-bar base and across a paved road not mentioned in the guide. Onto a dirt road that climbed a small hill as described. At 1.2 miles we were to take the second left, and after some debate decided the book was referring to the 3rd left (the first was not as well defined and the 3rd was low as described).

Along the way we hear hooves & crashing noises, look up to our left and see an elk running along the hillside. No, maybe its a young moose. After more debate we decide it is two Sasquatches running hand in hand. Around another corner we hear the Sasquatches again, this time below the road.

Somewhere around 4 miles from Little Ski Hill we come to the saddle junction as described in the book. To the south we can see Council Mountain (? need to look at a big map to be sure). We take the left road and as we near the top we hear a vehicle coming down the hill. An old suburban pulling a trailer with 2 spanky new ATVs and a fly fishing float tube, followed closely by a yellow hummer & 2 bored looking passengers. The two friendly fellows in the suburban ("Have a great ride!") must have been sherpa/guides for the hummer.

Consulting the topo at the saddle junction.

Cruising along the ridge we were surprised we were high enough to see McCall and Payette Lake peeking through the trees. To the west we could see the Seven Devils. Great views all around.

Coming down the ridge there were extreme rocky/boulder (they call those baby head boulders I think) sections but most of the road was in good condition. We did pass some people on ATV's, some wearing full camo (hunting Sasquatch?) but most of the day we had the place to ourselves. Excellent ride! My odometer said 8.5 miles when we arrived back at the parking lot, and I think it took us somewhere around 2 1/2 hours (with lots of photo op stops).

Rapid River Hike! May 22,2007

This has been a very rainy Spring. This Tuesday we were not in the mood to ride through mud and puddles. Yeah, I know; a true bicycle person rides in snow and rain and the fires of Hades. We are newbies to mountain biking, so we must be excused from the rigors of the hardcore elite. Besides, you could say we were scouting our next ride! No more excuses. On with the story.

We packed up the Doodle dog. I don't think she has been introduced. Daisy is her name, and being a ungroomed, stinky Cocker Spaniel is her game. She is almost one year old and she was very happy to go for a hike. Stock photo of Daisy in sad shop dog mode:

We drove North just shy of Riggins, and turned left up Rapid River Road. We came to the fish hatchery and parked in the parking lot. FYI, the hatchery locks up their gate at 5PM so you don't want to park there if you think you will be getting back after then. I mention this by way of a story.

Sunday night, about 11 o'clock Daisy barked me awake. I got out of bed, went down stairs to see a friend of ours we hadn't seen in nearly two years at our door. He and a friend hiked up Rapid River Trail, got lost and wound up hiking nearly 12 hours to get back to the car. Good thing they didn't park in the Hatchery parking lot. So they crashed on our floor, he took us out to breakfast the next morning and we all had some laughs.

As the Hash House Harriers say, On on on! Here is Jenni and the Doot (Daisy has many nick-names) strolling to the trail-head. Another FYI: the hatchery has a nice little picnic area with flush toilet bathroom! Woohoo! They are located off-camera, Jenni and Doot's right.

This trail is listed in our McCall area mountain biking book, and if you ride it you are looking at some serious granny gear climbing. It is steep, but it is real real purdy. Here's an eye shot:

So we hiked and we hiked and it was not raining, but all the green plant things were wet and hanging in the trail and Jenni and I both were wearing cotton pants! Massive violation of the outdoors person code! So our jeans were soaked, and my shoes were soaked. And we few miles in we crossed a bridge.We hiked about 5 miles and then had some breakfast in Riggins. It wasn't riding, but it was fun. Remember, if conditions may be wet don't wear cotton! Nylon, polypropylene, wool, oh yeah. One more thing. If you are going to ride this trail make sure you got tires on your bike that can handle this:

Well, have fun folks. And be safe. No cotton, topo maps. You bet.

Lost Lake Reservoir Ride

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Last week we were going to ride the reservoir affectionately referred to by many as Cow Poo Lake. But we had a sick buggy (daughter) and so rode out our front door. That was cool, but this was more of an adventure. Here is a nice photo of the lake, taken when I hiked up a slope to try to find a trail.

We packed up the bikes and about a 15 minute drive later we parked at the South end of the lake. We were running off our local mountain bike guide book "Mountain Biking in McCall", by Stephen Stuebner and Roger Phillips. We started off trying to follow the routed detailed in the book, but wound up doing our own thing. Here's more pics.

Here we are about a mile down the road, consulting the book and concluding that we have already deviated from the recommended path. Initially we were intent on following the recommended path, and so went down the slope to the lake shore. Also, riding on a gravel road was not too exciting.

This was nice riding, by the shore.There were many downed trees across the path, but it was no big deal.

Looking South, back the way we came.

We came to a sketchy little single track that hugged the shoreline and was fun to ride, until we were nearly to the North end of the lake. We were hoping we could link up with a tail and ride all the way around the lake, but we were confronted with...

Maybe if we were veteran mountain bike warriors with full suspension steeds we would have ventured into the forest, but we are not and were not. So we rode back! And it was neat.

It was pretty like this. A good ride. Then we went back to New Meadows and had lunch at the Granite Mountain Cafe. We were going to eat at the Pine Ridge Cafe, but they are closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Good to know. Also I would highly recommend obtaining a good topographical map of any area you plan to ride.

Dave and the Ride For Andrew

The guy pictured above stopped by the store Saturday, May 12, 2007. Unfortunately I did not get his full name, but he is Dave and he is someone everyone should admire.

Here a couple links pertaining to what Dave is doing:

http://rideforandrew.pledgepage.org/

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=andrewmcdonough

In short, Dave is a co-worker of Andrew's father. Andrew McDonough is 14 years old and was diagnosed with Leukemia on January 27, 2007. The websites above informs of the McDonough Family's efforts to cope, as well as big-hearted poeple raising money to help. Among those are Dave and twelve others riding across the country from Florence, Oregon to Wilmington, Delaware.

I was lucky enough to change out a flat on Dave's steed, and thereby help him on his mission.

Go Dave go.

Second Tuesday ride - May 8, 2007

May 8, 2007
Jenni and I were going to ride around Cowpoo Lake (Lost Lake Reservoir), but our 9 year old daughter was a snerkin' hackin' little mess of a sick girl. So home she stayed, and we did not drive out to our originally planned ride.
We did steal away for an hour, with a two-way radio strapped to me and one in the house for the sick girl. There are forest service roads all through the surrounding mountains, and one starts a quarter mile from our door. So we road, and we climbed. And we climbed some more. And Jenni took a photo of me climbing. And after about three miles of solid climbing, we headed back. It really wasn't all that exciting, but it was good exercise, and it was riding!

Weiser River Trail ride

We are going to run a shuttle service for folks to ride the Weiser River Trail, and Tuesday May 1st was our practice run.
SHUTTLE DRIVER:
Grandpa Keith valiantly served as our shuttle driver with his trusty Ford F150 and his 5'x12' trailer. It was a snap loading up six bicycles, and we all squashed comfortably into the extended cab of the F150.

RIDERS: (we wanted a diverse range of bikes types to get ride comparison. We succeeded)
- Rookie Bike Mechanic (hereafter referred to as RBM) riding mutant novelty bike he built around Nuvinci continuously variable planetary transmission internal hub. RBM is a sucker for new technology and had to see what the Nuvinci hub was all about, and so the Mutant bike was born. Spent so much money buying the wheel with the Nuvinci hub, the rest of the bike was cobbled from cheap or left-over components. Bike weighs 39.4 pounds.
- Jenni (RBM’s lovely wife) riding her Specialized Expedition with Rokshox J4 fork, aluminum frame 24 speed.
- Jesse riding his Specialized Rock Hopper with aluminum frame, front shock (forget the make), 24 speed drive train and recently serviced and repaired by a RBM.
- Shelly (Jesse's lovely wife) riding her Rocky Mountain something something (forgot the name) hardtail 24spd, also recently serviced by RBM.
- Kevin riding his Electra Ratrod cruiser with springer fork and Nexus 3 speed internal hub and coaster brake! He was our iron man, riding a 40+ pound steel framed street bruiser that hadn't been tuned-up in years! Damn RBM forgot to check it over, and so the plot would thicken.

THE RIDE:
We met at Mud Creek Outdoor Gear at 9 AM, give or take 15 minutes. Loaded up and we were off to Tamarack, about four miles West from town. Parked a stone throw away from the sawmill and we were riding a little after 9:30 AM. Beautiful Spring day, perfect riding weather.

RBM brought Jenni's Garmin Etrex Legend handheld GPS and strapped to his handlebar stem. Jenni had her odometer bike computer that RBM had just re-installed since putting on the Rokshox J4 fork. He failed to install it correctly, so it didn't work and the GPS would be our soul source of ride data. It worked fine.

Gorgeous day, mostly downhill trail, we stop on one of the many bridges that span the river for pictures! Yay! Photo time! RBM actually remembered to pack the digital camera. WOOHOO! Kevin, Shelly, Jesse and Jenni glamorously pose with their steeds on the bridge while RBM hippity hops to the perfect place to shoot photos. Even have fresh batteries in the camera, which flashes the following message “No Card”. Hmmm, no card. Could that mean the memory card is sticking out of media port of our computer at home? Yes! That is what it means, which means no photographs of this ride at all. Just colorful narration. Darn.

But what a splendorous (three dollar word to compensate for lack of photos) ride! Oh, the scenery and the stuff and the things! Okay, on the story:

About four miles out (around PineRidge) Kevin's Ratrod experienced a nearly catastrophic failure while bouncing down off a bridge and working that coaster brake. The bolt securing the coaster brake arm to the chainstay flew off and disappeared into the great outdoors. The coaster brake arm spun like a clock's second hand and bound up that Nexus 3 hub tight as a tick.

RBM, sprang into action and quickly determined that he didn’t bring enough tools with him. RBM skillfully refrained from shouting words like “#*%@!!!” and things like “I’m an idiot!!!”. Instead Kevin and he unwound the brake arm and stole a bolt from the fender mount to re-secure it to the chainstay. The wheel would turn grudgingly, and he did not have to use his tenny-runners as brakes.
The hub was in bad shape, and most mere mortals would not attempt to ride any farther than a bar down the street (although there were none so located). It was like riding a big heavy bike, pulling a sack of rocks! But Kevin is a man of stuff that is very manly, and he rode that beast more than 12 more miles! We salute you Kevin of the very tight wheel.

So on we rode. And on and on and I don’t have any interesting things to say about it, except that we were averaging 9.4 miles per hour with stopped time included into the calculation (GPS data). Okay, that wasn’t very interesting.

Between Stevens and Glendale, Highway 95 diverges from the river valley and at exactly 13 (lucky) miles we met Keith at a place where the trail crosses Glendale/Fruitvale road. A nice shady spot, just shy of Starkey hot springs. We later decided that would be the perfect pick-up point.

But the original plan was to ride to Fruitvale, and so we did! And it kind of sucked. Mushy trail, grouchy farm dogs, and Jenni and Jesse were experiencing shifting problems (damn RBM). But we made it! 3.5 miles to the old Fruitvale post office. And Grandpa Keith picked us up and away we went, laughing and smiling.

First Ride of the Season

We thought we would start out with something simple, something close to home. So we chose the dirt road at the end of Kimberland Dr, here in MeadowCreek. Gordy was riding the new Zed 2.0, and I was riding my trusty old Specialized. Gordy added a rockshocks to it last winter and this is the first time I have tried it out. I liked it! Especially coming down the hill, it really saved my wrists and hands going over all the rocks.

So we flew down our hill (paved) and hit the dirt road which was a bit rutted and muddy. Not too bad. The road is a gradual climb for the first hundred yards or so. We took the first sharp left which begins a steep climb. I ended up walking most of the way, but Gordy powered through. We forgot to turn on the GPS when we first started out, but estimate a 1 1/2- 2 mile climb to the top of the ridge looking over Meadows Valley.

It was a perfect day for a ride, nice mild 50 degree weather, and once up at the top it we had a great view of the valley. The top picture shows Gordy riding past Granite Mountain, the other two are views of him just coming up the ridge. It took us probably an hour to get to the top (mostly because I was walking) and maybe 5 minutes to come down! Next time I think we will not take the steep turn off, and continue on the more gradual climb.