Re: R-Ri-Ride Report

Nice report David. I really miss that place.

Rick.
"IdaSpode" <not@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5rl7351frpjk37v78umiaq3llfbjgt07re@xxxxxxxxxx
There were a few stutters before the "Ride":

The "R" part:

It started the weekend of the Idaho City 100, Murray was working the
event on Sunday and my other riding partner, John, was off on a DS
ride in Oregon 'til Monday, so no Sunday ride for me. John and I made
plans for a Tuesday ride. Monday it rained off and on most of the day.
I kept an eye on the weather radar for the Baum area, it was getting
plenty, Tue should be great!

Tuesday was forecast with a good chance of rain but it was dry when I
awoke. By the time I pulled out it was misting lightly. By the time I
got to John's house about 2 miles away it was sprinkling lightly. By
the time we hit the freeway it was raining, and kept raining on our 45
mile trip to Mtn Home. We decide to forge ahead with hopes it would
lighten up some, we could stand riding in a light rain. By the time we
arrived at our parking spot it was raining heavily. We sat for a time,
then decided to drive the 20 miles into Fairfield to grab a burger,
hoping the weather would clear up. It didn't, we ended up with a blank
for the day but it was Two-Fer-Tuesday at the Wrangler in Fairfield
and the Snow Bunny burgers were excellent.

"How about tomorrow John?"
"Got a doctor's appt..."

"Okay, how about Thursday? As wet as it is now it should still be good
by then."
"Sounds good..."

Miles on truck = 200
Miles on bikes = 0

The "Ri" part:

More rain on Wednesday, perfect...

Thursday dawned mostly clear, I picked John up at 9am and off we went.
No rain to Mtn Home, still good on our way up Hwy 20 then the "road
construction ahead - expect delays" signs appeared, great...

As the luck of the day began, we arrived at the traffic stop just
seconds after the pilot car lead off the line of traffic in front of
us. John yells out the window to the flagger, "we can catch them".
"Can't let you go" he says. Jokingly, I point off to the side of the
highway and yell out, "look over there" and rev my engine. For some
reason, he did "look over there" and oddly enough, there was a cow elk
and young calf walking out of a beaver pond and up the hillside. Small
score on the + side for a wildlife siting.

The pilot car made it back shortly and off we went again. About a mile
past the construction, we come around the curve to see a cattle drive
in process, cows all over the road, kowboyz and their dogs and several
sheriff's vehicles too. The "cop" directly in front of us was trying
to signal us in some way. I couldn't figure out if he wanted me to
pass or move over, his hand signal out the window could have been
interpreted in several differnt ways. We finally made our way through
this first group but ran into the next one shortly. We figured out the
"cops" were actually "Citizens on Patrol", average age appeared to be
about 85, bunch of really old dudes helping out the kowboyz and their
kows...

We finally pull into our parking spot off the Pine/Featherville Rd,
weather still looking great. Unload the bikes and start gearing up
when John says, "Did I bring my boots?"

Duh, no boots...

John is cursing and apologizing and I'm figuring we are headed back to
BOI and may have to settle on hitting our little local foothill riding
area, definitely not on par with our plan of riding in the mountains.

Then I ask John if is son is home, and if so, see if he will meet us
in Mtn. Home with the boots (35 miles from us, 45 from BOI).
Fortuantely John had cell coverage, calls home, we reload the bikes
and head off the meet his son.

Of course it's back through the cattle drive and construction area,
each way...

We finally get riding about 2 hours late and by this time the clouds
are starting to pop over the high country, but not looking
particularly threatening, yet. Off we go. I'd planned a loop up a
trail called "Sheep Drive" partly because we were worried about the
water levels in the creeks and this was the only place we could cross
over on a bridge. We were going to go up Sheep, over to Presidents and
down, back up the NFk Lime and back to Sheep, about 65 miles. By the
time we hit the top of Prez, it started raining and kept it up all the
way down. Aarrgghh...

The creek crossing on the MFk Lime we'd worried about isn't too bad,
it's still raining pretty good so we decide to bag it and head back to
the truck. We make it across the creek fine and head down the trail,
only one more crossing to deal with, the SFk Lime. I'm in the lead, I
get about 90% across and bobble. It's one of those "can't quite get
the leverage or the footing on the slick rocks and slowly lay the bike
over". I had just about reached the kill switch when the bike died...

As bike drownings go, this one wasn't too bad. In the pouring rain,
pull tank, remove air filter, empty float bowl, remove plug and
kickity-kickity-kickity, replace plug with new spare, put tank back
on, kickity-kickity-kickity. No sign of life. Pull tank again and I'm
just about to reach for plug wrench when I figure I might have better
luck if I actually put the plug wire on the plug. A few more kicks and
we are ready to roll. I am soaking wet from my dip in the creek, I'm
frozen by the time we reach the truck.

Cumulative miles on truck = 430
Cumulative miles on bikes = 45

The Ride part:

It is now the following Monday, it's been raining off and on for
several days, can't wait to finally hit the trails in these perfect
conditions. Now it's Murray, John and myself, we decide to do the same
loop John and I had aborted mid ride on Thursday.

For those familar with the Baum area and the SpodeFests, I doubt any
of you have been on Sheep Drive. It's west of the NFk of Lime and
Presidents. It has a couple of gnarly sections but is mostly great
single track that is ridden very little. It puts you out on a FS road
that connects with the NFK Lime trail and President's.

This part is easy to describe, damn near perfect conditions, moist,
tacky, hero dirt, warm and sunny, no deadfall, creeks are managable,
no crashes, not one whoop and we didn't see or even hear another human
all day.

John (09 300XCW) went on reserve about 8 miles from the truck, made it
back though, Murray (09 250XCW) hit reserve about 1/2 mile from the
truck. When he got home, John measured out what he had left, 12oz or
about 3 miles worth. I was curious about my mileage, I still had just
over a gallon left, ended up with just under 33 mpg on my 200.

For all three of us, it was easily the best ride of the year so far!
65 miles and none of us could wipe the grins off our faces. It was
Murray's birthday so John and I bought him dinner for Mtn Home.

Cumulative miles on truck(s) = 590 (at least John drove on this one)
Cumulative miles on bikes = 110

For me, 45 on Thur, 80 dirt road miles with Karen on Saturday, 65 on
Monday and a solo ride yesterday for 30 miles, 'twas a good week.

The weekend forecast is for more rain, can't wait to hit the mtns
again on Monday...

IdaSore***


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