On Saturday, I rode the Wilson Creek loop with Josh and Eric. According to those with whom Josh has spoken about riding in the Owyhees, THE PLACE TO RIDE is the Wilson Creek loop. A few years ago, we tried to ride this famed loop, but we did not have proper directions about its route or access point, and we ended up riding this shitty (literally and figuratively) cow path that paralleled the creek. Yesterday, Josh and Eric consulted the trail reference guide Mountain Biking Idaho and we followed the directions for the (I believe) 13 mile ride.
We parked at the main parking lot and then rode up the gravel/dirt road for seven miles. Personally, this climb was my favorite part of the whole ride - - I was feeling particularly good and energetic, and the effort felt very satisfying. At first, the road was gravelly and rocky, which was somewhat taxing, but after a few miles it became this smooth red clay-like substance that I found quite pleasant to ride on. After seven miles, we encountered the trailhead (pictured above).
From there, we rode around this big mountain on a kind of ORV road. I entertained myself by taking a lot of photos while riding my bike, most of which were a tad blurry (shocking).
And after a while came upon a herd of wild horses.
And soon thereafter, we began the descent down 2,000 feet in 4 miles (approximatelyish). While I can see how Josh and Eric had a lot of fun on the downhill, I found it to be consistently beyond my skill level to really enjoy. On the positive side, I was able to ride a lot of stuff that was challenging and felt very accomplished about that. One the less than positive side, I got a bad blister on my foot from all of the hiking in my cycling shoes. The mountain biking guidebook wrote that the downhill "will challenge the best" and compared it to a "mini Moab".
Just for kicks, I filmed a five second movie of Josh descending. I recently had to get a new camera because I broke my old one, and I am still figuring out how to do this movie thing. The image quality is poor, but whatever, it's kinda fun to see.
After the descent, we had to ride along some quote/unquote "singletrack" (which was really a cow path) through a cow pasture to get back to the car. The smell of fresh manure was quite pungent and I became sick to my stomach. I believe the ride was 13 miles (I can't recall what Josh had read in the book) and it took us about 3 hours. It would have taken much less time had we not stopped to take in the stunning views as much and if SOMEONE (points at self) had not done so much hiking. That evening, the three of us ordered pizza and watched an espionage movie from the '70s. Good times.
I wonder if anyone is tired of these posts about mountain bike adventures in the Succor Creek area... I am certainly not tired of riding the area, nor am I tired of the stunning views.
On Saturday, Josh and I returned to the area for yet another Succor Creek exploration. This time, we rode along Camp Kettle Creek road in an Westerly direction. A few preliminary remarks are necessary... First, while driving along Succor Creek Road, we were slightly delayed after a somewhat traumatic and very noisy moment in which a wrench on the road punctured my car tire and Josh performed the quickest tire switch ever. It was kind of a bummer because I do not derive much joy from buying new car tires. Secondly, after mounting my bike, I discovered that my sit bones aren't in mountain biking shape. Despite riding the bike at the gym, apparently the rugged terrain of the Owyhees took its toll, and my sit bones were in a good deal of pain for the ride. Luckily, I was able to perch myself on my inner thigh fat, taking some pressure off the sit bones. Seriously, I've found my inner thigh fat to be quite useful in mountain biking. Thirdly, there was some sort of storm moving through the area, resulting in some spectacular cloud formation as well as VERY STRONG WIND. The whole ride going out, we had a ridiculously strong headwind.
So, the ride out was a bit difficult because of sit bone pain and the strong headwind. And the wind wasn't "bad" it just meant that we couldn't ride that fast. Otherwise, Camp Kettle Creek road is definitely a place that we will return. One interesting discovery was Devil's Gate (entrance pictured above) which was a creepy rocky cavern, made more creepy by the grave marking where someone had died.
Camp Kettle Creek road featured a combination of rocky and more technical riding as well as very fast and smooth riding. There was one hill that we had to hike our bikes, but otherwise it was very ridable. It seemed to be a road popular among motorcyclists and ATVs, which can make for some very fun mountain biking - - with the whoops and banked turns that dirt bikes make.
The ride back, with more downhill action AND the strong tailwind, was very fast and very fun. It was around 6:15 when we started riding back and the temperature had fallen somewhat, so my hands and feet were really cold.
I've been loading all of my Succor Creek photos into one photset, so there are more photos there.
On Friday, while I was taking my standard noontime walk over my lunch break, the gorgeous weather compelled me to call my work and ask to be released for the day. Glorious weather makes me so happy - - it was warm and beautiful and sunny. To be honest, I've been pretty depressed for a while and Friday's weather was glorious.
Having some extra free time, Josh and I decided to go back down to the Owyhees and try to have a more successful experience in the Succor Creek area. Which we did! I'd like to find a mapping tool to track our rides in the Owyhees, but until then, for this ride we took the first dirt road after the cattle guard along Succor Creek Road to the East.
The ride was a lot of fun! It had such variation in ups and downs, with a few hard climbs, and fast downhills. Plus, the landscape was stunning. We descended down into that canyon that we viewed from the previous ride, and crossed the creek (which had kind of a strong current). Unlike most Owyhees creek crossings, the water here was not stagnant and putrid from cow piss - - instead, it was cool and refreshing.
Oh, in the below photo, I am reminded of why I am a very bad girlfriend. You will note that Josh is not wearing a helmet. We drove all the way out there for Josh to realize that he forgot something very important. Of course, when he exclaimed that he forgot his helmet, he acted as though it was HIS decision about whether to ride anyway. I, on the other hand, contemplated the matter and seriously considered driving the hour and half back to Boise just to get the helmet...but by my calculation, we wouldn't have enough time to return and get some riding in before the sun set. Plus, that would be an awful lot of driving. Plus, I reasoned that Josh is very skilled on the bike and that I have not known him to ever crash. So I made him promise to be careful.
It was a very awesome ride. And I believe about three hours.
Afterwards, we went to a restaurant along the highway for dinner. We were going to have dinner in Homedale, but there is apparently no other place to eat in Homedale besides the drive-in we've been to a million times... shocking. We then decided to take a detour and go to the motorcycle bar in Marsing (which serves food). Unfortunately, when we arrived there was no place directly out front to park the car and we didn't have a lock for our bikes, and we weren't about to park our car at the back of a busy motorcycle bar with two nice mountain bikes available for the taking. So we continued down the highway, where we located the Orchard House restaurant near the vinyard that had parking places out front, where we could watch the bikes from inside. The restaurant proved to be a bit on the fancy side, but we both really really enjoyed our prime rib dinner. Yum!
Josh and I finally made it out to the Owyhees this weekend, crossing the border into Oregon and riding around the Succor Creek area. Accurate maps of the Owyhees are a limitation to planning the perfect bike ride - - in our experience, nothing beats continued exploration to find the good places to ride. There are so many dirt roads branching all over, most of which go nowhere, that riding in the Owyhees can be quite the adventure.
After departing from the car, we rode up the road for a while until we came upon an 'open mine'. Our attempts to circumnavigate the mine were unsuccessful, and we returned from whence we came. We then rode down the other direction, hitting the main rocky road for a bit, and then veering off on another road. Here we had some good riding moments. At some point, we came upon a guy shooting a rifle and we rode away from him, up a butte where we encountered another deadend in the road. We took in the view before riding back down, where the guy shooting his gun gave us a recommendation about where to ride. He directed us down a bit of singletrack that would have been cool if it had not been made virtually unridable by cattle grazing and rocks. We turned around yet again.
We rode around for a bit before setting off along another road to explore. Here, we encountered a big group of people shooting guns, and I was startled by how LOUD the guns were. Despite all the gunfire, this road proved to have some good riding opportunities, affording us some satisfying climbs and really fun downhills.
In total, it was about a two hour adventure. On the way back, we stopped at a drive-in in Homedale for some food. I had a very very delicious hamburger with grilled onions on sourdough, which may have tasted particularly wonderful after our riding adventure.
Despite having to prepare for a midterm, this was a very fun weekend.
On Friday, Josh and I had drinks with Lorry and Sam. I have to mention that Josh and I enjoyed several pints of Rogue Hazelnut Brown, a beer which neither of us had before tried but which both of us really enjoyed. Lorry and Sam were a delight.
The next day, we joined a bunch of friends for a hike up Rocky Canyon Road (Amy, Leah, David, Elizabeth, Edvin, and Bowski were all present). After much deliberation, we decided to hike Rocky Canyon because the trails were most likely muddy, and because the road was conducive to socialization during a group hike.
Another positive attribute to hiking Rocky Canyon Road was that it facilitated immature shenanigans, such as tossing chuncks of snow at each other. It was almost immediate that Josh and David launched into a protracted snowball fight, while the rest of us chatted. And that no one else initially participated in the snowball fight did not preclude us from being forced into the game - - in the below photo, notice the two large snowballs directly above Elizabeth and Leah.
Though, after I had satisfied my chatting needs, I opted to engage in the snowball fight and actively sought to hit anyone within my aim that I could. It proved to be a lot of fun.
That evening, my family got together to celebrate my sister's birthday. To that end, we went bowling, enjoying both pizza and beer. There was disagreement about whether beer results in better bowling - - everyone besides me succeeded in improving their score during the second game.
This is the snot-green yarn I purchased on sale without having any good reason. As a stash-down project, I knit up this scarf using all four skeins of the yarn. The scarf makes use of the yarn's merino (75% of the content) stretch-properties and stitch-definition. It is fully reversible, with cables and twisted stitches.
The color is totally atrocious. I'm thinking of dying it, but so far laziness has gotten the better of me. I've also thought about writing out my pattern notes, but laziness has gotten the better of me. If anyone is particularly interested in them, let me know and that could compel me to type them out.
Some knitters may perceive these photos, depicting my newly completed knitting project perched on muddy bike tires something of an abomination, but for me it represents how I hope for biking to occupy more of my time than knitting in the near future. Last weekend, it was sunny and around 50 degrees, so I took myself on a road ride. I totally overdressed and was too warm, which felt pretty glorious for a February bike ride. I rode out to Hidden Springs and back, which features my favorite local hill climb/descent. I was slightly disappointed to find that my cyclecomputer needs a new battery, as I really enjoy monitoring my pace throughout a ride.
In other news, I recently spoiled Battlestar Gallactica for myself by reading character and plot summaries on wikipedia. (BTW, no spoilers here.) As I am always behind on everything (especially modern television programs), I am working through the series by renting the discs from Netflix. Currently, I am almost at the end of season 3. It's taken me quite a bit of time to get this far because I have a love/hate relationship with Battlestar Gallactica - - once in a while, an episode leaves me so emotionally traumatized that I can't bring myself to watch it for a long time, yet the story is so engrossing that I'm pretty much obsessed with it. Normally, I don't want to have any part of a plot spoiled for me and I make a concerted effort to avoid reading anything about it, but season 3 of BG has made me SO CURIOUS to find out certain things in the series that I finally decided to purposefully spoil the plot for myself and read detailed summaries of all the episodes I have yet to watch. I'm very interested to see how knowing certain things about the characters and the plot will impact my viewing of the rest of season 3 and then 4...knowing what I know, I actually think that I will enjoy it more.
