idaho backroad ride report

[billmonahan]

Amigos. As reported earlier I was readying my machine and myself for a backroad tour of Idaho, the Nez Perce Ride with the BMW club of Idaho. After installing new chain, sprockets, front tire, and fixing the enricher cable I was off on the 5th of August, a Saturday. I got out of the house about ten o'clock Saturday morning, only to discover about ten miles out that I hadn't remembered to bring my extra master link. Knowing Murphy's Law about such things, I returned to pick it up and so prevented any disasters related to master links. Crossing California via Highway 20, then on to 49, I stopped for lunch in Downieville. Over Yuba Pass, on to Beckwourth, where I dropped over the east side of the Sierra on a little known road, the Milford Grade. It is all dirt, and has some terrific switchbacks overlooking Honey Lake. Not passable in winter, obviously. On to 395 and headed north to Susanville, where I stopped at the Safeway Deli and got beer (St Pauli Girl was on sale) and some chicken wings and potato salad, to take with me to Eagle Lake, where I ate dinner and camped out in the supreme peace and quiet. I don't get much of that in Santa Rosa, just lots and lots of noise. Sirens, boom boxes, car alarms, et cetera. I slept well at Eagle Lake, woke up and had some coffee and a grapefruit, and was off......first I tried cutting across to 395 on South Grasshopper Road, only to find myself almost dumping my fully loaded bike in some deep silt about five miles in on this road. Relieved that I hadn't dropped the bike, I turned around and headed for pavement, heading north on 139, figuring I would have to go to Adin and then take 299 to get to Alturas. But about another fifteen miles north on 139 I found that North Grasshopper Road was paved and took me the quick way to 395. Not even stopping in Alturas, I rode hard for Lakeview OR and gassed up there. Two guys headed for Sturgis on a FJ1200 and a Suzuki Katana 1100 asked me if the KLR was beating me up bad. I told them no, and was able to show them several hundred miles later the evidence of my comfy ride as they were showing obvious signs of serious fatigue as we crossed the OR/ID border together. I had caught up with them after crossing the Oregon desert, they were pulling out of Lakeview as I was pulling in. They were bushed, I made it another fifty miles or so, to get a motel that night in Weiser ID. I just needed some air conditioning and a shower, and I tried out one of those MacDonald's fruit and yogurt parfaits I had seen advertised so many times....mmmmmm, they are really good, especially when it's really hot like it was that night in Weiser. Waking up in Weiser, I made coffee on my stove in my motel room, and took another shower.....never know when you'll get one, you know. Hitting the pavement about 10, (Rocky Mtn Time) I made it up 95 to New Meadows, then headed east on 55 to McCall, where I met and older feller named Tom who was riding a very nice 97 KLR and had ridden it all over the place, up to Alaska, and had bicycled across the US several times as well. He gave me directions up to Upper Payette Lake, where the initial meeting place for the Nez Perce Ride was scheduled to occur. After stopping at the grocery for beer, salami, cheese, and bread, I beat it up the Warren-Wagon road to Upper Payette Lake, a short ride of about 30 minutes, maybe 20 miles or so. There were a few beemer guys there, no one I knew, and no other bikes. I took a really nice swim in the lake, the water was surprisingly warm. I couldhave swum in that lake all day. Fulton, the GS guy from San Diego pulled in. I knew him, he was the beer meister at the San Diego BMW club rally, where I go to camp every year because it is near the Del Mar Bike show the same weekend. Fulton had brought his wife Susan who had left her F650 in Stanley ID, about a hundred mile ride to the east. They were going to travel two up on the fully loaded 1100 GS, which I didn't think was a good idea. I did mention to Fulton that I thought he was going to have his hands full. After a while more riders pulled in, including several fellows with whom I rode last year on this ride. Dave, Mike, and Terry all from Boise, on GSs. My friend Brad Young showed up the next morning on his KLR....he rode all night to get there from Elko, having just gotten off work about 9 the night before. All tolled, when it was time to head out on the first leg of the ride, we had about 35 or so riders...about two and a half times as many as last year. In the morning we got up and packed our gear, eating bagels furnished by Mike Howard, the ride organizer, club president, and sales manager for Big Twin BMW in Boise. We headed off to McCall, to get breakfast and supplies, watching the security men around, lots of them in blacked-out Suburbans....Pres Clinton was visiting McCall that morning, to helicopter up to Burgdorf to view the big fires. Undercover dudes everywhere, no shit. Oh well, we headed up the road to Yellow Pine, a small town with nothing but dirt roads leading to it. It was on the road to Yellow Pine that a number of the GSs crashed in the fine summer silt laying in the turns of the road. My KLR felt like it wanted to go down a couple of times, but I managed to keep it up, and was having fun to boot. The hard part of the day had not come yet. We had beers and sandwiches in the bar in Yellow Pine, then headed south on Johnson Creek Road, where myself and several others elected to take the "expert rider" section of the day's itinerary. Others had been discouraged by the big GS dumping going on that morning on the way to Yellow Pine. Not us. We headed up Trout Creek Road, and had been told there would be a water crossing. There was....I dumped my bike in it. Then there was a steep and gnarly mile of large granite boulders mixed with deep ruts, take your choice. I was amazed that the KLR clawed its way up and didn't dump its rider. My friend Brad flew his KLR up there ahead of anyone, he's a bit of an expert. Several GSs bit the dust, in the same water hole as I did, and then up the steep rocky rutted section. One busted a hole in his valve cover, and fixed it up at the summit with JB Weld. The downhill over the summit was equally gnarly. You had to ease it on down in first gear and hope for the best. The water crossings numbered roughly twenty all tolled. Some easy , some not so easy. After building a bridge over a fallen tree (I was first to it and high centered myself on it) we all got on down the road, and rode for more hours down narrow winding dirt roads while navigating ourselves to Silver Creek Plunge, where we would meet up with the others, and have a dinner of brats and chili. And lots of beer. I was tired. It was 180 miles of tough dirt roads and not-quite-roads. Sooner or later everyone made it into camp. Many were having difficulties navigating the forest roads. But everyone showed up. The next morning we packed up again, and were off to Crouch, where we stopped for coffee, then took New Centerville Road into Idaho City. Crossing 21 and turning off on Rabbit Creek Road, we (Brad, me, Eric from Sandpoint and Chris from Denver) stopped on the Middle Fork of the Boise River to dring some beers and take a swim (bath, really). Then we barrelled up FS 327 (high speed gravel with lots of sliding turns in second and third gear) to Atlanta......you have got to see Atlanta, ID. It is something else. It is a historic old mining town, but without any money or pretense. It backs up to the exact back side of the Sawtooth Range, and has a spectacular view across the river. In the river, there is a fabulous hot spring. We camped at Powerhouse, which is where the hot spring is, and Mike Howard had nice sirloin steaks on the grill with Idaho bakers. Yum. After a soak in the spring, I couldn't do much else but crawl back to my tent and sleep. After coffee and breakfast in Atlanta, we were off in whatever groups we had formed, back down 327, up to Highway 21 for the great stretch of twisties south of Lowman (pavement) then on to Bear Valley Road, which took us on a fantastic ride over 60 miles through alpine meadows and fast narrow two track through aspen forest.....leading us the back way into Stanley for the Stanley Stomp. During this stretch if I had a video helmet cam I could have made footage equal to On Any Sunday......or at least that's what it felt like. It was an awesome ride. At this point the Nez Perce Ride was over.....and I'm tired, having just got home tonite. There's still the Stanley Stomp to report on, and my ride home......but that will come later. The KLR ran withouth so much as a burp.