Twice I lost control of the bike in the deep sand on this miserable section of road:
Good Samaritans! Don and Christi Schiermeier cheerfully rescued me. They run the Soldier Mountain Ski Area in Idaho.
The rope is used by the ranger who lives here to get food, water, and supplies up and down from the living quarters on top. Easier than carrying them up and down all those stairs.
A strange, spectacular gorge. Lush and green at the bottom, hidden away in the midst of this vast, harsh, barren high desert country.
A dust devil, whipped up by the hellacious afternoon winds on this dried alkali lakebed:
A guy in a truck stopped and offered to take my picture. He works for Idaho Power & Light Co. and spends his workdays here in Hell's Canyon at the hydro power plants along the river.
Great sunset, then a huge lightning storm way off in the distance.
Arrived in Idaho yesterday, and found some spectacular, tiny roads alongside huge, raging rivers in the Smokey Mountain range. Found a great campsite at the edge of a river.
Then, today, more fantastic riding all morning.
That came to an abrupt end when I picked up an evil nail in my rear tire, about 25 miles southwest of Hailey, ID. Turned into the knarliest tire repair I've ever encountered. Absolutely impossible to de-bead the tire from the rim. Even swearing didn't help.
After two hot, futile hours rassling with it alongside the road, I was rescued by a fantastic guy and wife who happened to be towing an empty trailer behind their truck. We hauled the bike into Hailey, where the very helpful guys at the motorcycle repair shop were able to get the tire off the rim, with the help of their giant hydraulic tire repair tool. So all's well now.
Tomorrow I'll head north into the Sawtooth Range. Looks like I'll pass right thru Ketcham and Sun Valley; maybe see some movie stars.
Discovered this ugly scene Tues AM, when I stopped to investigate why the "engine overtemperature" light was on:
Coolant leaking from the radiator.
Not from a hose or fitting, but from the radiator itself. Apparently a rock hit it and pierced it. Closest radiator repair shop is 190 miles north, in Salmon, ID, but how in the world can I get there? Wow, this is very, very dire!
Spent a few tense hours investigating my options. Guys in the local auto parts store finally convinced me to try a product that allegedly can seal radiator leaks by simply being poured into the coolant and heated up. I've always been skeptical of stuff like that but really had no other choice.
Miraculously, it worked! As the engine heated up, the leak slowed, then stopped altogether. Right before my very eyes.
Whew! Rolled out of town and north across Galena Pass, and into the vast, spectacular Salmon River country. The massive, jagged Sawtooth Range, along the western boundary, is dazzling. Rode thru a hailstorm for a while, along the river between Stanley and Challis. Whew, I was so glad when that was over!
Now its Thursday AM; all's well, and I'm in Montana, camped alongside Fish Creek, which is actually a wide, hard-charging river. Wide, hard-charging water is everywhere around here, so the distinction between "creeks" and "rivers" doesn't seem to mean much.
Today i hope to explore the area between here and Bonners Ferry, ID ... way up near the Canada border. Tomorrow I need to reach Coeur d'Alene, which should then be easy. There I'll join Annie, who'll be flying in.
Most of my photos are in my real camera, but here are a few email-able ones from my iphone camera:
(Dunno when or where I'll find cell service, so I dunno when this message will actually get on its way):
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A few more photos. These are from the territory along the northern edges of Montana and Idaho.
I wish I could have captured a good picture of the enormous, spectacular Kootenai River. What a stunning spectacle, thundering through its canyon. Its water is intense turquoise color, due to its glacial origins in British Columbia.
Well, no good photos of the Kootenai, but here are a few others:
The enormous Clark Fork river:
This is grizzly bear habitat (sign):
Sunrise from my campsite on Clark Mountain near Yaak, Montana:
Sunrise from my campsite on Clark Mountain near Yaak, Montana:
The Yaak River:
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Left Coeur d'Alene today, bound for home. I'll stick to small, fun backroads thru nice areas -- the same strategy I used for the first half of the trip.
Approaching the Wallowa Mountains, near Enterprise, Oregon:
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The Hells Canyon overlook. It's way too enormous to capture in a photo.
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Found a nice campsite alongside this creek:
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A pretty good sunset:
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The Snake River, running thru Hell's Canyon:
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The Blue Mountains, near Baker City, Oregon:
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Near Prairie City, Oregon. All day it looked like thunderstorms were brewing, but they never materialized.
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Today i realized i was near a fire lookout tower, so i followed an old forest road and reached it late in the afternoon. Fire lookout towers are fascinating; I love visiting them. This one has been manned by the same ranger for the past twelve summers. She lives up there at the top. It's a spartan, one-room living quarters, with windows all around, spotting equipment (very old school), and a lightning rod.
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Found a great place to camp, on a ridgetop near the lookout tower. Big panoramic views in all directions:
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Sunset:
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Sunrise from my campsite. That's the tiny town of Seneca down there in the valley.
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Frenchglen and Fields, in the southeastern Oregon outback. These towns are one block long.
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Hellacious winds on the roads today. Look at the flag in the picture of Fields station above.
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I camped here at the Virgin Valley Warm Springs. The old stone building contains showers which capture some of the warm water from the springs. The shower water runs continuously, 24x7. It never stops.
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There are a lot of opals here in the Virgin Valley. Lots of small, one-man mining operations scattered around, and a few larger commercial ones.
Here's the Opal Negra mine. he labor force is composed of an old guy and his wife. They mine gems in the summer, and make jewelry in the winter.
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This nondescript road rolls across the high sage plains and ends at a turnaround:
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>From here, you you can peer way down over the edge of a spectacular, narrow gorge that cuts thru this rocky steppe.
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If you look carefully you can see a strand of green vegetation; that's way down at the bottom of the gorge: a lush place with a stream running through.
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On the way to Cedarville, at the base of the Warner Mountains in the northeastern corner of California:
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The remains of an old ranch. Impressive stone outbuildings:
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At last: a place where I can finally buy some "fancy groceries"! Good thing I read the sign carefully, or I might have missed it.
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Stopped to camp here, where a small road crosses a low pass thru the Warner Mountains:
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Just rolled into Cedarville, way up in the northeastern corner of Calif. Haven't had cell service for the past few days, and it's not here either. But they have wifi here in this little diner where I'm having a hamburger ... so I can send and receive email while I'm here.
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Sunrise, from my ridgetop campsite way up in the Warner Mountains:
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Heading south. That's a 9500' peak off in the distance. Still some patches of snow left:
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Davis Lake (in the northernmost area of the Sierras):
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>From Davis Lake there's a rough, rocky road that climbs to the Smith Peak fire lookout tower. Gotta check that out ...
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A day at the office:
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It's actually a work-from-home arrangement. These lookout towers contain little cooking areas, a chair, and a bunk.
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Fire spotting and reporting is done with ingenious old-school tools. No computers, no GPS, no phones or internet communication.
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The old beat up road connecting the Sierra Valley with Genesse Valley:
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Picturesque Genesse Valley:
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Sunset was nothing special, so no pictures.
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Sunrise:
Antelope Lake:
Jackson Meadows Lake. Clouds started brewing as soon as the sun came up, and they grew more and more ominous thruout the day. But no rain or hail:
A smaller lake, downstream of Jackson Meadows Lake
Heading toward Yuba Pass, from the edge of the Sierra Valley:
Looking down at the tiny town of Downieville, along the North Yuba River:
Heading way back into the hills, to check out the old ghost town Forest City:
The town is completely vacant:
A pretty good place to camp -- at the old stamp mill:
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Made it home last night!
Here are a few more photos from Forest City, and two from Alleghany: a tiny gold mining town way, way back in the hills near Forest City. Mining operations in Alleghany are defunct now but a handful of people still live there. It was a huge and lucrative operation at one time.
Most of yesterday's route home was thru areas I've explored before, so I didn't do much picture taking.
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Hey Scott ... this looks just like the engine that was in your motorcycle when you bought it:
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Here are the links to the complete photo album:
