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.