This is the account of an epic TOI accomplished by three good friends currently residing in Fort Collins, CO in the fall of 2009.
DAY 1 - POCATELLO TO ARCO
It started on a bright sunny day in Chubbuck, ID after a good haul from Fort Collins, CO to SLC the night before. Unfortunately we couldn't take the time off required to tackle our original plan of riding the Divide from Colorado to Eastern Idaho. There is always next time.
Here are the bikes all shiny and ready to hit the trail…let the adventure begin!
Our first taste of T1 was riding up the severely rutted (thanks to the early season monsoons…) City Creek Road to Kinport Peak.
It was no sooner that we got to the summit for our first scenic vista that we had our first casualty. Brent's rack decided it was time for some TLC. This would not be the last time we would have to strap/bolt/MacGyver said rack into submission, but it will be the last time I mention it, much to Brent's liking I am sure.
After a quick trip back down City Creek Road to Pocatello to pick up a few extra bolts and randomly run into Martin's friend Dan at the local Ace Hardware, we were on our way.
I also decided to make the trip interesting by giving one of my axle bolts a little too much torque after taking out some play in my fork. 3 out of 4 isn't bad right?
To make up time we opted for the eastern route around American Falls Reservoir, leading us to Big Southern Butte-Springfield Road. Brent and I had a little rest as Travis decided to show us how he could use his XR650 to do his best plow impression, catapulting into a potato field and filling his front tire full of dirt (miraculously…a flat was the only result!).
The Old Goodale Cutoff is amazing. It is the closest thing I can think to what it would be like to ride across the moon. Burning across the desolate landscape through pockets of silt and over ribbons of lava rock at sunset was intense.
No time for Big Southern Butte this time…our shadows our shadows were getting a bit too long.
Nice butte! Couldn't resist.
DAY 2 - ARCO TO CHALLIS
After a night of rest outside of Arco, and our bellies full from our previous evenings leftovers from Pickles, we headed out. We opted for the all dirt Arco Pass route and paused for a photo op at our first sight of...
mountains!
The decent took us through rolling hills and creek beds to the Lost River Valley where it was time to open it up. Took a couple scenic detours due to my lack of motivation to look at the GPS on account of the beautiful scenery.
We decided it would be within our best interest not to attempt the Massacre Mountain Loop due to our desire to keep our bikes functioning for another 1000 miles or so. Not to mention the name itself is rather ominous. Had it been called Little Lamb Loop or something similar we may have been dumb enough to give it a try. Oh well, all we got was a few ugly pictures.
We did however follow the Pahsimeroi River up to it's headwaters. This out and back is not to be missed. Some of the best scenery of the trip.
From then it was full throttle to Challis…
or not.
It became apparent rather quickly that Travis was going to be a little tight on gas as we got closer to the White Hills/Trail Creek turnoff. We still had one ridge to go and Trav was just about running on fumes. By this time our energy was running low as well, making for a rather comical ascent up to the crest. There is a distinct lack of pictures of this rather fun ascent due to our sheer struggle to stay on top of our bikes.
Once at the top however it was smooth sailing down to the valley below.
We spent the night at the Morgan Creek Camp just outside of Challis. This is also where we would rendezvous with my dad and uncle who would be joining us for the Challis to Elk City leg and through to Boise in a 1975 CJ5.
DAY 3 - CHALLIS TO ELK CITY
After a cold morning in the canyon, we ended up beside the Salmon River, but not without a little more MacGyver action. A broken clutch cable was quick work for some mini vice grips and a couple zip ties. Both finding a permanent home in my toolkit.
A quick stop at the Shoup Store (which we learned is under new ownership and would have gas delivered the following week! No hand pumping for us…) we were on our way.
The next bit of dirt/pavement/middle of nowhere craziness which is the Darby-Elk City Road was too enjoyable to interrupt with photo ops. So all I have is a few pictures showing just how middle of nowhere we are.
The whole crew…minus people I guess.
Nothing like riding through a controlled burn, gotta love Idaho! On to Elk City for some much needed rest.
DAY 4 - ELK CITY - DONNELLY
After another cold morning and a quick cup of coffee with a few relatives in Elk City, we took fate into our own hands and left T1 behind. We blazed trail from Elk City over the Salmon via a bridge East of Riggins Hot Springs and back up to Burgdorf on the other side of the drainage. Our goal was to hit as little pavement as possible between Elk City and Boise, and that we did.
DAY 5 - REST
DAY 6 - DONNELLY TO BOISE
There aren't any pictures from Burgdorf to Gross, ID (pictured below) due to some inclement weather and a rest day that was snuck into the plans in at the family cabin on Cascade Reservoir. If anyone cares enough to know what happened in this gap…I have some GPX files for you.
DAY 7 - BOISE TO OAKLEY
The next bit of the TR skips from Gross, ID to just SW of Boise. After a good nights sleep in my hometown, we flew through the tank range and crossed over the Snake River. This would be the first leg of our backwards/modified T2 route. We met up with T2 south of Bruneau, ID and made some long albeit fast tracks across southern Idaho.
After seeing what can happen when people with our luck try this crossing (thanks Martin!) we decided to wuss out.
Forgot the name of this dam, pretty impressive though!
DAY 8 - OAKLEY TO POCATELLO
Our last camp of the trip outside of Oakley, ID. The next morning we would ride through the always impressive City of Rocks then up and over what seemed to be an endless (but enjoyable!) series of valleys and ridges. Little did we know this would be the most challenging day of the trip!
After running into snow cover on a few of the higher summits, we began our last climb up to Kinport Peak via the route we intended to take the first day of the trip. The highly recommend single track would be a great way to end out weeklong adventure, right? We should have known better.
I wish I could put into words (pictures would be handy I know…) how tough that last few miles of sweet single track were given the conditions. In retrospect we should have not ridden that section on that day but unfortunately we did not know what we were in for. I plead ignorance. All I have to show is the aftermath. It would be a while again before I would be that relieved to reach a summit.
We headed back to Chubbuck both thrilled and relieved that we completed such an adventure. Over 1400 miles of dirt in eight days. We threw the bikes back in the trailer and high tailed it back to CO, excited for the many TOI's to come.
