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.