IDBDR part 3
July 5, 2021. I had a long day today, 103 miles, with an average speed of 17 mph, over lots of winding, steep, rough roads. The roads are still in better shape than I expected. I have not aired down my tires, nor thought that I should. I was pretty tired at the end of the day. I’m very comfortable sitting in the truck seats, but whenever I stop and get out, I feel the miles. I think its just maintaining a certain level of muscle tension as I concentrate on the driving, and a little anxiety, being aware of the drop-offs, and wondering when the next ongoing vehicle will appear. I decided that doing over 100 miles on these roads was not desirable.
I met two adventure motorcycle riders on BWMs. They were completely kitted out and obviously doing the IDBDR, but North to South. They were planning to ivy in a wide spot on the road. One of the guys dumped his bike and sprained his ankle. After riding a short distance on it, he decided he could go no further. I can’t imagine riding a motorcycle up some of these steep. loose dirt roads. These guys were no spring chickens. The uninjured guy was late 50s, but the injuries guy was mid to late 60s.
Old guys rock !!!!!
I asked if the bikes were a bit unwieldy with all the gear. They said yes, they were just discussing what they could have left at home in Virginia. After exchanging trail notes, they told me that they had to bypass the Lolo Motorway because the downed trees hadn’t been cleared, the Burgdorf Hot Springs were closed, making sure I couldn’t do anything to help them, I got back in the truck and headed north.
I was trying to reach Burgdorf Hot Springs, which they informed me was closed, so my new goal was the little historic town of Warren. I only made it to a Sheifer Campground where a bridge crossed over the South Fork of the Salmon River. Camping was free, the water was refreshing, but the fish were uncooperative.
July 6, 2021
I continued with my implementation of enjoying the morning, and hit the road at 10 am. The road was narrow, most of the way, with great views. I stopped at the Guard Station in Warren to obtain some info, but no one was home and no maps were in the lobby. On the north side of Warren, was a USFS airstrip. It ran parallel to road and didn’t look much different, except for the signs saying don’t park vehicles on the airstrip and snowmobiles prohibited from the air strip.
As I climbed out of the valley, I passed a couple of ranches with mailboxes, then passed a small settlement of houses and cabins. There was a mailbox in front of every driveway. About 30 minutes later i pull over to let a oncoming Subaru Outback pass. The woman stopped and we chatted awhile. She is Mykita the mail lady. She works for a contract flying service that delivers mail all year long to those ranch and houses, twice each week. She is the driver and her boss is the pilot. In the winter the mail gets flown in, during the summer for the past 30 years, Mykita has delivered the mail. We sat in our vehicles, blocking the road and chatted about all the places I would visit along my route, finally after 20 minutes, I said goodbye.
Hours later the route took a sharp left and turned to pavement. It was very strange to be suddenly drive 50 - 60 mph. So strange, I completely missed the turn but on dirt to Burgdorf Hot Springs. I decided to stay on the pavement and visit McCall. I fueled, stopped at the Ranger Headquarters, grabbed a map and a couple of phone numbers to check the status of the Lolo. The woman at HQ, was very helpful and said that the Lolo would probably be cleared before I got to it. I parked in their parking lot with a full rack of Verizon bars on my phone, checked messages, emails and posted part 1 & part 2 on my blog. I headed back the way I came, and made the correct turn. The road to the Hot springs was wide, graded, gravel road so at 40mph I made up for lost time until I got to the French Creek Switchbacks. Incredible views, sharp 180 degree turns and long drop offs along a very narrow road. I finally settled into a campsite on the Big Salmon River. Air temperature was 100 degrees, and the water was 60 degrees. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the water. I had thought about staying a couple of days but at 11pm it was still 92. So I’m heading north and to much higher elevation tomorrow.
July 7, 2021 - I don’t need no stinking ATV
It was extremely warm camped next to the Big Salmon River. My neighbors, from Spokane, informed me that it’s typically around 100 degrees in the canyon. I was up at 5 am and on the road by 7am.
Today was definitely a BIG adventure. The first hour or so was wash board gravel, then good smooth gravel on FS Rd 221, the map said to leave 221 and get on FS Rd 643. At this point I think the BDR gods and map makers were screwing with me. 643 turn into a very rough ATV trail, with wash outs, gullies, mud and not much more that a two track. There were incredible blow downs which had been clear, but barely wide enough to get the truck through. There were also a number of hanging blow downs that I barely cleared. I took a number of wrong turns, which I was only able to determine as wrong because they became almost impassable. Luckily, I was either able to back up or make a many point U-turn. At some point, I miss judged my clearance and not only broke my fly rod vault, but my Orvis rod. Its all good, my rod has a 25 year replacement warranty if I break it. I have already broken one. So it will cost me about $50 to get a replacement. Considering they sell for lots more, I’m good. The fly rod vault is a DIY project, which cost me $50, I was able to salvage everything except the aluminum supports, so its a project when I get back to CORA. The other good news is that I brought two extra fly rods with me, so I’m still able to fish.
I am extremely happy with how the truck is performing, I haven’t even had to air down the tires and the built in compass was probably the reason I didn’t get lost. I finally made it to the old historic mining town of Florence and its historic cemetery. If any body reading this decides to do the IDBDR, avoid FS Rd 643, stay on 221, 643 eventually merged with 221 and I was happy to be off 643.
Another problem that appeared today…… my house AGM batteries did not charge off my alternator while driving, so tomorrow, I have some diagnostic work to do and hopefully I get that taken care off. If not, I’ll have to find a sunny spot, near a fishing hole to hang for a day until the solar panels charge the batteries.
FS Rd 221 eventually became paved, and at the junction of ID Hwy 14, I headed east towards Elk City. I decided to leave the IDBDR and Hwy 14 just before Elk City and drive 11 miles up FS Rd 233 in the hope of locating a campsite at higher elevation, which I did. I was rewarded with a small pond with rising trout right near to my campsite. I guess the BDR gods were satisfied with my sacrifices and I did catch and release four nice 12” Rainbows, and probably lost twice as many, plus at 8:45 pm, its already cooled down to 70 degrees. I’ll sleep well tonight.
I also, passed a total of seven southbound Adventure motorcyclist southbound on the IDBDR. I have started driving with my lights on to give then a little more advanced warning. They appear to be a little shocked to see me coming head on in a fully loaded F150. :)
By the time you read this, I will pass through Elk City on 7/8/21, fuel up, grab some connectivity, post my blog and then enter the McGruder Corridor, which is an acclaimed overland adventure worth doing by itself. It’s over 120 miles, so I plan to overnight somewhere on it, then its 50 miles of pavement to Darby, where I will find out it the Lolo Motorway has been cleared of the winter dead fall trees. FINGERS CROSSED !!!!
By the way, Idaho is just gorgeous, very green, not a lot of tourists, large towering conifers, and I deer every day, today a Mountain Sheep ran across the road in front of me, almost to close. The people I’ve met are friendly. But, I have learned that unlike TX, they don’t wave to strangers just because you are driving a pickup truck on a dirt road. I’ve stopped waving. LOL
BY THE WAY, I have decided to put all the photos at the end of the blog. Its much faster and since the only place I have connectivity is in town in the middle of my travel day, I need to be able to expedite the process. I have received a couple of texts, suddenly while traveling, but usually by the time I stop the truck I’m back to NO SERVICE.
Tight Lines and Safe Travels
No comments:
Post a Comment