Josephine Lake

I'm getting behind in my blog entries....a few weeks back we took a nice hike into Josephine Lake, a popular local fishing hole. It takes longer to drive out to the trailhead than it does to actually walk into the lake. From McCall head north on Warren Wagon road, past Upper Payette Lake & Secesh Summit. You will see a sign for the turn off on the left. The road is fairly rough, most guide books recommend a four wheel drive vehicle. We just took it easy.



At the trail head you start out walking a two track road, then branch off onto a narrower trail. About a quarter of a mile in you will see a small pond off to the left. Josephine lake is just another quarter mile up the trail



You can still tell the area was hit pretty hard by forest fires (in 1994), but the area has it's own beauty.



There were several good camping spots at the lake, if you have a smaller sized tent.



A narrow path goes most of the way around the lake. We should have brought fishing poles, or at least our kid that likes to fish! We did meet a group of fishermen heading in, as we were heading out. Despite the road it is a very popular place. It would be a great place to take your out of town visitors, an easy hike & very pretty little lake.

Bear Basin Trails

Ah, first day of September. Days are cooler, kids are conveniently back in school...time to check out the Bear Basin mountain bike trails. We haven't been up since they first started working on the trail system, two summers ago. The Bear Basin trails are built on Payette National Forest land by Forest Service employees and local volunteers. We have been sending mountain biking tourists up all summer, so it was time to see their progress for ourselves. To get there, you head north out of McCall on Hwy 55, watch for the brown "Bear Basin Trailhead" sign and turn right on N Club Hill Blvd before you get to Little Ski Hill. At the parking lot you will find restrooms, a warming yurt (Bear Basin is a much used nordic trail system in the snow months), and a map of the trails. Click on the map for an enlarged version, print it out for use on the trail!

As on our previous visit, Matt (Forest Service employee and local mountain biking club president) was there hard at work. We chatted for awhile and mentioned the only complaint we have heard regarding the trail system is people getting confused about their current location while on the trail system (notice I didn't say lost). Matt pointed out the nice map they have at the trailhead and said they were in need of names for the trails themselves, which would help with the confusion.

We headed out on the left hand trail, which was a nice wide, swoopy section. The grade is mostly level and really pleasant to ride.

This section empties out into a hub, where you can choose from 3 difficult level trails or loop back to the start on an easy trail. They have put up a nice big information sign with a map of proposed trails, a hand drawn 'you are here' map, and a topo map. The hand drawn map was not quite up to date...to the right of the information sign (kiosk on the map) one of the the 3 difficult level trails begins. But you get the general idea.

We tried the first trail to the left, the west face trail. Note the clear signage and rock cairn.

The west face trail is narrower and has many opportunities to brush up on your bike skills. We were really impressed with the work that went into building the berms, erosion guards and other features. Below you can see Gordy coming up over a berm (he caught major air right after the picture was taken! No really) and to the right of the berm you can see the bail-out, a by-pass of the berm. I took the bail out.

Farther down was an even bigger berm and jump (seen here from the back). I took the bail-out.

Also for your biking enjoyment, mini skills parks:

But we were really impressed with the work that went into the planked section. Complete with options: wider width board walk and balance beam width.
The next section becomes more technical, with some boulders to ride over and around.

Nice view of the rock flat neighborhood. We turned around not long after this, where the trail became more rocky. The climb up was nice and gradual.

We headed back to the car via the other easy trail, a gentle climb back to the parking lot. We only explored less than a 1/3 of the trails, lots more out there for another day!

Don't forget to check out the trails this winter, when it becomes a nordic paradise:

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlM74_Yra3bS6D0_b9MAXbPP_TXtsmfyH4tjTWFsUTD-CzGComKAKHyKhfeLf-X1-1TaKE1pKjBjMOx2NuDWGEOBPU_6SZU1BKEaInZAeuPZXR5Wr1z5Zy4rLFZnF2WoB5HxBmK-JnUyE/s1600-h/stuff+026.jpg">