We’re just back from an outstanding 9 day trip mountain biking in Fruita, CO and Moab, UT. It was a great way to extend summer for another week+ and ride some of the best single track out there. Please excuse the quality of some of these photos — the old cell phone doesn’t do the landscape colors any justice.
I’m no economist, but I don’t understand why police aren’t ticketing folks who are chronically driving above the speed limit in McCall. In this time of fiscal belt-tightening, it seems that enforcing laws that actually generate revenue might be a good thing.
Two roads that I ride and drive frequently, Lick Creek Road and Farm To Market Road need to be enforced. The speeding on these roads is really bad. No other way to put it. Lick Creek Road has a speed limit of 25 MPH. I’ve definitely heard people complain about how slow that is (including my family), but that’s not justification for speeding. You want a speed limit increased? Put some energy into convincing your public officials. Meantime, obey the law. I’d say 35-40MPH+ is literally more the norm for that road.
I about met my maker this morning when some guy in an F250 (or equivalent), smoking and distracted by God knows what drifted into my lane, head-on doing over 35MPH on Lick Creek Road. What the heck people? I know you’ve got to get your Marlboro lit, text your buddy and are still shaking off Friday night’s Bud Light thow-down, but pay attention before you’re convicted of manslaughter. There’s been a state patrolman in that exact spot a couple times over the past month. I wish he’d been there then.
Farm to Market. The speed on this road is 45MPH. It’s actually at the other end of the spectrum. It’s narrow, there’s no shoulder and some people drive it at highway speeds. Frankly, this road “feels” like it should be set at 35MPH tops. When I drive it, I find myself driving around that speed and thinking, “wow, I can’t believe people drive this at almost 2x what I’m doing”. It’s beautiful out there and very easy to get distracted. As more and more homes are built out in that area — like Jug Mountain Ranch, etc., Farm to Market Road will undoubtably get more use. Sometimes it’s actually pretty scary to be out there on foot or bike. Again, normally, it’s fine, but there’s not much margin for error. If people are paying attention, you’re fine. If not, you could be launched into the next county.
So if you’re out there on a bike or on foot, be vigilant about looking and listening for traffic. And if you’re in your automobile, please drive the speed limit and do your part to help enforce the laws that make our community safe for recreation and business. If you’re an officer of the law, or know one, you might politely ask him or her about speed limit enforcement in your area.
The wheel horses with Loon Lake in the background
We rode mountain bikes up to Loon Lake July 13th. It was a great ride, made up predominantly of totally rideable single track. Note that there are a couple ways to do this ride and we went up and back the same way — which was NOT following the Secesh River up or down. We meant to ride the loop, but ended up not doing so. After eating lunch at the lake and chatting with a few other nice folks, we decided to hike to the other side to check out and take a couple pictures of the the B-23 Dragon Bomber plane. Here’s a summary of the documented history:
B-23 Dragon Bomber at Loon Lake
On January 20, 1943, a B-23 Dragon Bomber crash-landed on the bank of Loon Lake. Amazingly, much of the wreckage is still intact as you can see from my photo. From what I’ve read, the crew was on a training flight from Tonopah, Nevada to Tacoma, Washington when they encountered severe storms and flew off course. They were running low on fuel, had failing electronics and when things were at their most dire, they spotted an opening in the forest, which was a snow-covered Loon Lake and made an emergency landing.
Some of the crew stayed behind with an injured crewman, while the others went for help. It took them 15 days to hike to civilization. In all, it’s estimated that they hiked upwards of 40 miles until they found a telephone in the Lake Fork Ranger station. Ultimately a backcountry pilot spotted the plane and was able to rescue the crewman who had stayed behind.
The trail to Loon Lake is accessible for hiking, biking, motorcycles and pack animals. I’ll come clean, I’ve got no problem sharing the trail with these folks, machines and animals, but I did notice something that bugged me on the ride. It’s common to have a few trees across the trail. In the early season there are lots of groups like CIMBA (to name one) that do volunteer trail maintenance for everyone to enjoy. And let’s not forget the Forest Service! When there’s an occasional down tree mid-season, hikers, bicyclists and generally speaking, pack animals can go “over” these while staying on the trail. However, motorcyclists can’t lift their bikes up easily, so they drive off the trail and around the trees. And so does the next one and so one. Motorcycling off the trail can create a big mess. Here’s my personal belief: If you’re riding a motorcycle (or animal) that can’t stay on the trail due to a tree across it, you should be hauling a chainsaw and clearing the tree out of your way. There, I’ve said it. It doesn’t take very many people “making their own trails” to cause significant erosion and damage.
Off soapbox. It was a ton of fun and followed-up with an excellent soak and Burgdorff Hot Springs.
-Scott
I’ve been bicycling around Payette lake the last few days on a road bike as it’s a fun and quick way to get roughly ~16 miles in at tempo. I wasn’t sure how the dirt section would be on a road bike and have spent way too much timing thinking about what kind of bike would be bested suited for the ride — mountain, road, cross, or road with slightly wider tires. I don’t have a cyclocross bike, so that’s not an option, but I was convinced that it would be the machine of choice. Without a cross bike in the stable, I decided heading out on my “training/rain” road bike was the best bet. Like my race bike, it has 23mm tires on it and is built for going fast on smooth and hard surfaces. Despite this however, in general, the dirt section wasn’t a problem at all. I guess this is proof: Through what was evidently a particularly bumpy and “washboardy” section, I came upon a “Trail Rated” Jeep Liberty making it’s way down the road in front of me, carefully dodging holes, ruts and washboard. A minute or so later, he pulled over to the side so I could pass. “Only in a Jeep” his bumper sticker read.
Okay road racing fans. I can’t believe that I didn’t post this earlier. If you’ve got broadband internet and the desire to watch the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy), you are in serious luck. Universal Sports is currently streaming ~2 hours of the Giro LIVE every day. AND ADVERTISING FREE. It’s fantastic coverage. Thursday, May 20th will be the 12th stage — which should prove to be spectacular as it’s an individual time trial through Cinque Terra. It’s a long stage — I believe around 60KM and there should be some big changes in the overall general classification.
If you’re interested in watching, check the site for start times — as they vary a bit from day to day, but usually start around 7AM PST. Enjoy!
I had the pleasure of heading out on my first ride last night with McCall’s local mountain biking crew. The group was headed up by many local CIMBA (Central Idaho Mountain Bike Association) riders who knew the trail well. Also, special thanks to the Careys of Jug Mountain Ranch who let mountain bikers enjoy the trails on their property. The ride was great fun even though I took a digger and cut up my knee a bit. Fortunately for me, a few of the nice folks waited and made sure that I made it back to the car safe and sound. Thanks, you know who you are!
“Merely a flesh wound!” as the Black Knight says in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
With the weather turning a little bit South the past few days — and just a bit too grim to get all that excited to ride, we decided to pull a Shackleton and head out in the boat (canoe) into the arctic (partially ice-free Payette Lake) to do some serious exploration. ”Awesome” is the only word I can come up with to describe it.
Well, maybe not. But, it was pretty interesting because the ice was definitely moving around on us. You can’t really tell from the videos, but we paddled about a 1/4 – 1/2 mile (as far as the ice would let us) and then the ice would shift and we’d have to paddle a bit furiously to try and get back before we got stuck. My friend, who’s not featured in the videos, and who goes by the moniker Cherub of Justice, suggested that I duct tape a sword on the front of the canoe, but I was fresh out of swords. We had no choice but to rely on our simple paddles, skills and guts. Watch the drama unfold!
Think it and you shall receive. On April 14th, I was biking on Lick Creek Road prior to the Little Payette Lake turn off and thinking to myself, “Man, there are some big potholes forming, I hope they get filled before they become so big that they have to repave – that’s expensive.” Low and behold, on my ride the very next day, the potholes were filled! It was a miracle. As if the Pothole Fairy came down in the middle of the night and filled those suckers up. I noticed that there are a few baby potholes that got missed, but overall, it was a job well done. And definitely a big money saver in the long run. I don’t know who to thank — the city of McCall or Valley County for this one, so I’ll thank you both. Thanks!
Today was the first proper road ride of the season — grinding around on the fixed-gear through town doesn’t count. It wasn’t a warm day, but heck 40 degrees in McCall feels like 55 in Seattle. It was dry and we made it out and back before mother nature shook up the snow globe and gave us something pretty to stare at.
Where was the ride? It was a short one over lunch, about an hour, and the focus was a series of hill repeats from the base of Spring Mountain Ranch up through Aspen Ridge. These are a blast because you can cycle (pun intended) up and down on a couple different routes on nice roads with very little traffic. And who doesn’t love a hilltop finish? Maybe Aspen Ridge is my new, personal (super-mini) Alpe D’Huez. (As seen on “tv” below the photos.)
Man Sleeping with Bike Instead of Wife
A family member just emailed me this photo. Pretty funny. I’m not sure what he was getting at though. I’m not this BAD! 
Cheers,
Scott
<sigh>
