RR footsteps of Lewis and Clark...

Penny S. said:

Lovely moderate grade single track through a dark forest, through occasional clearings waist deep
in wildflowers. Then, the trail opens out into a beautiful high meadow. We startled a grazing bull
elk, huge and with a full rack, up in the meadow.

Cool! When Jon & I went riding last week, we stirred up a big herd of elk, and one cow just flew up
this super-steep embankment. I was very jealous of her climbing skills!

Quoted message said:

Next morning we packed up and headed for Kelly Creek to check out another ride. The creek is known
world wide for it's catch and release bull trout, but that's now what we were there for. Based on
the trail write-up ( for hikers) we envisioned a nice river grade single track, and that is sort
of what we got.

Me & my riding bud went to Lewis River yesterday expecting that as well. We didn't realize that it
was going to just go up and down, repeatedly (so most of the time is spent climbing, in either
direction). Siouxon (near Amboy) sounds more like what you rode - it follows the creek, so the trip
back is the just reward for the trip out. Those are a lot more fun.

Quoted message said:

To me this is the kind of mountain biking I dream of... exploring in the mountains and having a
great day.

Sounds like a blast!

--
-BB- To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)

Penny S. said:

Not really, but pretty dang close. Craig and I had the good luck to be completely childless for the
weekend. Friday morning we loaded up the bikes, the camping gear, the Idaho Gazetteer, a hiking
guide and the Clearwater NF map, NF trail guide and travel ( restrictions) list, and off we went.
Destination... Clearwater Mountains and the Bitterroot Divide,(Id/MT stateline) just for an
explore. This is L&C country, we were just a few mile north of where the Corps actually crossed the
mountains here.

The goal was to find some nice biking, and we did, using the new edition of "101 hikes in the
Inland NW " as our guide.

This area is part of the proposed Great Burn Wilderness. There was a huge first in 1910 that burned
a significant amount of Idaho ( from here down to McCall). There is a lot of restrictions, but
mainly it's to keep the ATVs at bay, which have be come a real problem. We were very pleased to
find that the Goose Creek trail had been re-opened to bikes, closed to all other vehicles...The
trail is well used by stock, but this forest has seems to have a great trail crew; it was in great
condition.

Lovely moderate grade single track through a dark forest, through occasional clearings waist deep
in wildflowers. Then, the trail opens out into a beautiful high meadow. We startled a grazing bull
elk, huge and with a full rack, up in the meadow. As it was getting late, we didn't go the last two
miles up to the lake, where it connects with the Stateline trail that follows the actual divide.

specialtyoutdoors.comgoosecrk1.jpgOpen ↗
specialtyoutdoors.comgoosecrk2.jpgOpen ↗

Next morning we packed up and headed for Kelly Creek to check out another ride. The creek is known
world wide for it's catch and release bull trout, but that's now what we were there for. Based on
the trail write-up ( for hikers) we envisioned a nice river grade single track, and that is sort of
what we got. River grade, yes... easy, er well sort of. The trail is some places has a lot of
exposure. In other places, the single track is really, uh.. single. Just wider than pedal width,
and older and well used, worn to below surface level. Meaning, you have to really pay attention to
your line at all times, otherwise you hit the side of the trail which knocks the front wheel into
the other side of the trail. In places the vegetation is incredibly thick. Not due to lack of trail
use, but just from being in Idaho: lush and green and thick. At times, we would be riding through
places where everything was eye level, and the plants are just whapping at your spokes. It was so
thick you couldn't see the side of this deep narrow trail, so again, hold that line... Sometimes
the alder bushes would push you to one side, or they would hide rocks. But we pushed on. You
couldn't really go very fast as it was windy and narrow.

specialtyoutdoors.comkellycrk1.jpgOpen ↗
specialtyoutdoors.comkellycrk2.jpgOpen ↗

Eventually the trail closed in on a deep forested canyon, and we came out in a lovely meadow. There
had been lots of creek crossings, but this one required shoes off and wading:
specialtyoutdoors.comkellythumb.jpgOpen ↗

At this point we were 8 miles up the trail and decided this would be a good place to stop, swim and
take a nice break. And then we found the best treat:
specialtyoutdoors.comberries.jpgOpen ↗ the elusive huckleberry!!!! A northwest
treat, relative of the blue berry, only grows in the wild, and there was a huge grove. We had
nothing to put them in, so we just ate a bunch and then headed back down.
specialtyoutdoors.comberries3.jpgOpen ↗

The return was a lot slower than you would think, due to the narrowness of the single track and the
necessity of maintaining that line. On the exposed section, I got some pretty serious vertigo
(first time ever) and had to really focus.

To me this is the kind of mountain biking I dream of... exploring in the mountains and having a
great day.

We woke up Sunday to much needed rain, and decided to take the long way home... about 60 miles of
dirt road west to a little town called Elk City. I wish I had taken a photo of the building we
passed, " Elk City Redneck Club, NO Women Allowed" what a hoot... only in Idaho...

For you Idaho-types, we were in the area north/east of Dworshak reservoir, on the N. Fork
Clearwater and some of it's tributaries.

Penny

Good stuff, Bill The mind serves properly as a window glass rather than as a reflector, that is, the
mind should give an immediate view instead of an interpretation of the world.
:-]

"Penny S." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Not really, but pretty dang close. Craig and I had the good luck to be completely childless for
the weekend. Friday morning we loaded up the bikes, the camping gear, the Idaho Gazetteer, a
hiking guide and the Clearwater NF map, NF trail guide and travel ( restrictions) list, and off we
went. Destination... Clearwater Mountains and the Bitterroot Divide,(Id/MT stateline) just for an
explore. This is L&C country, we were just a few mile north of where the Corps actually crossed
the mountains here.

<SNIP THE GOODS>

Quoted message said:

For you Idaho-types, we were in the area north/east of Dworshak reservoir, on the N. Fork
Clearwater and some of it's tributaries.

Penny

Wow, that's very cool stuff. That section between Idaho and MT is considered some of the roughest
terrain in the country. Super cool you found trails to ride in there.

I'll vote for next year's epic to be up there....

Paladin

Paladin scribbled :

Quoted message said:

"Penny S." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Not really, but pretty dang close. Craig and I had the good luck to be completely childless for
the weekend. Friday morning we loaded up the bikes, the camping gear, the Idaho Gazetteer, a
hiking guide and the Clearwater NF map, NF trail guide and travel ( restrictions) list, and off
we went. Destination... Clearwater Mountains and the Bitterroot Divide,(Id/MT stateline) just for
an explore. This is L&C country, we were just a few mile north of where the Corps actually
crossed the mountains here.

<SNIP THE GOODS>

Quoted message said:

For you Idaho-types, we were in the area north/east of Dworshak reservoir, on the N. Fork
Clearwater and some of it's tributaries.

Penny

Wow, that's very cool stuff. That section between Idaho and MT is considered some of the roughest
terrain in the country. Super cool you found trails to ride in there.

It's very steep... high forested ridges with deep rivers and creeks. Only the very highest
things are alpine... for you Coloradans, tree line here starts at about 6000' as we are so much
farther north.

Quoted message said:

I'll vote for next year's epic to be up there....

that's what Mr. Adventure said. Anyone curious, do this little map exercise. Find Idaho. Now find
Montana. Find Superior, Montana, pretty far west on the interstate (there's only one) See that
jiggly state border there? That's the Bitterroot mountains. It's highly unlikely that forest road
250 over Hoodoo Pass shows up there, but if you can find Lolo Pass, go west on the divide about 15
miles. Imagine some trails that follow large creeks up agains the divide there. OK, now find Orofino
Idaho. If you are lucky Dworshak resevoir shows on the map too. My Nat-Geo atlas is pretty good, it
even shows the NF Clearwater river, and the nearest gas, Pierce Idaho. Too sum it up, way out in the
middle of fricking nowhere. It's all
1.5 lane forest road out there. It took us about 3.5 hours to get in via Montana. I can only imagine
that it's about 3-4 just from Orofino! We made a point of not going out that way because it would
have been 3 hours of forest road then 4 of slow two lane highway. So we went on some really BFE
roads that took us four hours, but only two of highway. Go figure. ;-)

But hey, I'd be happy to give y'all a tour...

Penny

Quoted message said:

And then we found the best treat: specialtyoutdoors.comberries.jpgOpen ↗ the
elusive huckleberry!!!! A northwest treat, relative of the blue berry, only grows in the wild,

and

Quoted message said:

there was a huge grove. We had nothing to put them in, so we just ate a bunch and then headed back
down. specialtyoutdoors.comberries3.jpgOpen ↗

The return was a lot slower than you would think, due to the narrowness of the single track and
the necessity of maintaining that line. On the

exposed

Quoted message said:

section, I got some pretty serious vertigo (first time ever) and had to really focus.

To me this is the kind of mountain biking I dream of... exploring in the mountains and having a
great day.

Penny

Very nice RR!!!

I guess you missed that warning about eating wild huckleberries this time of year.......good thing
you're not planning on any more kids.
--
Slacker

"Slacker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Very nice RR!!!

I guess you missed that warning about eating wild huckleberries this time

of

Quoted message said:

year.......good thing you're not planning on any more kids.
--
Slacker

you've obviously never had:

huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry pie, huckleberry jam, huckleberry syrup, huckleberry pancakes,
huckleberry pie....

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Very nice RR!!!

I guess you missed that warning about eating wild huckleberries this

time

Quoted message said:

of

Quoted message said:

year.......good thing you're not planning on any more kids.
--
Slacker

you've obviously never had:

huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry pie, huckleberry jam, huckleberry

syrup,

Quoted message said:

huckleberry pancakes, huckleberry pie....

Come-on, you read that stuff in some children's book.

Now, Marionberry pie..... pbase.com19662686Open ↗ !!!!
--
Slacker