So you say you want an adventure?

*This happened back in mid June, just got around to posting it here*

Left the house for the trails in the pouring rain, met a buddy Randy in Boise to carpool the rest of the way, was supposed to clear by 11:30. Trailhead was 3ish hours away and we timed it just right, by the time we geared up it stopped and the skies cleared about an hour later, couldn’t ask for better weather. Rode some of our favorite trails, then up to a fire lookout that we couldn’t get to last weekend because of snowdrifts. Decided to take a trail back that I never been on before. Should dump us out at a bridge that takes us across part of the South Fork Boise River which is raging right now. Trail is narrow with a lot of exposure, not too terrible, some dead fall, and snow drifts that we managed to get across. Some technical parts too but nothing we couldn’t help each other through. Getting a little tired at this point, been on the bikes for a couple hours now. Got to one section with huge snow drifts, maybe 20’ deep, but there was a line right beside them, bit of a gnarly descent. Not sure if I could make it back up if we had to turn around. Since we were descending this should be the last of the snow. Which it was. Continued on, cut some more deadfall…now getting really tired. Made our way down, can start seeing the river and the main road at this point. One last little gnarly climb with tree roots at the top that gave us trouble, helped each other through to this gorgeous meadow with wildflowers, get to the river, starting to feel relief….no bridge. Then I remember…oh yeah I read about this, there is no bridge here just a shallow section when the water is low. That certainly wasn’t today!

We passed a ”T” about a mile back. Get to that, ride a bit…two tough rock and tree root step ups. I am wasted at this point, have my buddy ride my bike up them, while I push. Get through that and around the next bend we hit a debris field. Well this is our only option, don’t think we can make the climb out of here going back too exhausted, and Randy is low on fuel. I am fricken beat, so Randy starts cutting…then we stop. Ya know probably take 3 hours to get through this, and we have no idea if there is more. It is 7:00 now…we probably should hike out. So we left the bikes. And yep…there was more, hundreds of fallen trees, maybe a 1/4 mile long section. Would take me all week to cut through that. Really dragging at this point. To where I have to talk myself into taking steps. We slogged on for the next 4 miles hiking up and over out of there. Taking breaks and taking turns carrying the saw. Total death march now. Get to the camp ground around 11:30 pitch black now, walk another 3 miles. Get to the main road, dump our packs, saw, and gear. Then start walking back to the truck, maybe another 4 miles. About a mile down that, someone in a car comes up the road, we flag them down. She thankfully gives us a ride back to the truck. She blurts out to be a recovering meth addict, 45 days sober…with huge pit bull, we congratulate her, turns out to be super nice, at least for the 10 minute drive, and we were thankful! Got to Randy’s truck around Midnight, battling exhaustion we take turns driving back to Boise, stopped in Mountain Home, loaded up on caffeine for the final push. Stopped and got my truck where I left it earlier that day, rolled back to my house about 3:15 am this morning. Lucky me I am off today, but Randy had to work, new job and can’t call in sick. Otherwise we would stayed out there.

According to my GPS we were on trail for 12 hours.

And the adventure isn’t over, have to go back this weekend, hike back in to get the bikes, and hopefully we can make it up that gnarly climb, because there are too many trees to cut. That would take several weekends hiking in and out for us to get through by ourselves.

To be continued…

 

That’s an adventure. You left your bikes in the woods all week?
I wish we had open land like that here.

 

Oh to be young again!

 

We did unfortunately. Had to work all week. It was a fairly a pain in the ass to get to them so wasn’t too worried.

Grew up in PA, left when I was 21, and lived in the West (AZ and ID) for the past 30 years, don’t think I could back East now. Too spoiled with the wide open spaces.

Put a call out on the local FB single track page I belong to. Believe there was 8 of us including myself that showed up to help in recovery. Next weekend rolls around, I head out the night before to camp and prep. Brought two saws with me, and plans to sleep on the trail since I thought we might be cutting for two days, and didn’t want to hike back and forth. However luckily enough it turned easier than what I thought.

There was a bunch of chitchatting on the original FB thread, how it is written might seem a little odd, so here is the second part of the story copied and pasted from FB:

“Bikes have been recovered! right where we left them a week ago, fired right up! The hero of this little adventure is Adam ******, he went out there yesterday and early this morning, cleared the whole thing by himself, said he missed the turn hit another avalanche slide cleared that, but didn’t see the bikes, came back did the right turn then cleared the slide where we got stuck. Said it was nothing really, must of look worse to us Sunday evening, of course I was already blowing bubbles by the time we reach it. Randy ******** counted 66 trees that were cut. Adam is an animal! Many thanks to the guys who drove up this morning to help. Michael ******, Steve ******, Whitney *****, Roger **** (Braaap Suspension), Indiana Guy (sorry can’t remember your name). I was prepping for an all day affair, whether we cleared the debris field, or try to ride up and out the way we came in with a nasty climb. Still kinda recovering from last Sunday. It was a relief hearing it was already cleared. Adam ***** thanks again!

About 20 minutes after we got back to the trucks, the skies opened up and was literally pouring buckets, then 1/2” hail. Made it back out in a nick of time, we tucked tail and headed to the lodge for some grub.”

 

Me too!

 

I would have been nervous someone would have stolen the bikes.
Are you guys mostly riding two strokes?

 

I was too exhausted to. By the end of the week was starting to. More worried about some militant hiker sabotaging them. The turn off coming up from the campground is really faint, if you didn’t know what you were looking for would have missed. Coming in the way we came in from the top, think enough people who follow the FB page knew not to go that way or become stuck like we did. There were no tracks other than ours.

Yeah, most of us are on 300 2-Stokes. They are like tractors and very hard to stall. Carrying a chainsaw is almost mandatory equipment. I do saddle bags to keep some of the weight off my back, has tools, extra fuel/oil, a hatchet, wedges. Also have enough stuff to spend the night the night on the trail if I have to. Had to do that last year, got my bike over the side and for the life of me could not get it back up on the trail even after trying to 3 hours. Best to rest and reassess in the morning type of thing.

So cut some firewood, built a ring before it got dark…and huddled by it all night with my emergency blanket. Have a Garmin inReach, so I am able to communicate with the wife and friends. After some rest I was able to get it back on the trail in the morning, and was able to self rescue. And not have to call in the skyhook.

 

Bored so looking for things to read...
Great story! Looks like a fun place to ride as well. My wife and I have Husky 350 fe that we ride the trails around Kalispell. Wish we got out more on trails but she enjoys the adventure bikes to a trailhead and hike type of adventure more.

 

Thanks! Trying not repeat getting stuck on the mountain for 3rd time this year, though I am a slow learner…