Took off from the hot springs campground with a route whereby I would pick up the Wieser River Trail just after New Meadows. I have been very curious about this trail since I discovered it on a trip to McCall in May 2020. It is 82 miles long and ideal for bikepacking on gravel bikes. My route was to ride on it from New Meadows, through Council and end in Cambridge. So yeah, I entered the trail after New Meadows and found it to be a complete mess with very thick ground gravel, like riding in sand. So I got back on Highway 95, which has absolutely no shoulder. It felt completely dangerous and after being buzzed a little too close I jumped back on the trail. Joy! This part of the trail had lovely compact dirt, tall trees, streams and plenty-o trestles bridges. Delightful. That lasted about 10 miles then the trail turned to dusty, ground cementy washboard. Again I crossed over to the highway and a double trailer semi truck came super close (<3 ft?) and it completely freaked me out. Back to the retina detaching washboard. Met Bill in Council ID for lunch. Stopped in a cute Mennonite dry goods store and bought some jams, salsa, peach pies.
After lunch back to the washboard for another 20 miles because there is no way I want to die in Idaho. The stretch of the trail between Council and Cambridge goes off into the backcountry range so there is no bailout. Not only was the washboard jarring but every mile or so you have to unchain and re-chain a cattle gate. I thought if I can just get to Cambridge, we are camping at a hot springs resort there and I will be golden. Alas, when I arrived Bill reported that the resort/campground is closed for the season. The next campground is 20 miles up the road. So be it. He offered to load the bike on the car and drive in but No Way! EFI !! (Every #$@‘ing Inch as my Jamestown VA friend Debra says!! So I wrapped my head around riding another 20 miles (it’s simply like doing the morning Rocket Ride, right?) and pressed on. It was smokey, hilly and straight into a head wind.
We camped at Brownlee CG US forest service which was nice and treesy. I ate, took a shower, took two Advil PMs and slept like a rock.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please 1) select to sign with "Name/URL" in the drop down or 2) sign your name at the end of your post so we know who you are. Otherwise the default is “Anonymous”.