At one point during the planning of this years ride, I was going to have three riders joining me. Doug was the first to drop, because of a forgotten camp trip he already had planned. Next, on the week of, Jeff dropped because he had the nerve to go on a ride the weekend before and wreck. He is ok, just sore, but he and his bike are out of commission for a few weeks. So, ended up just being Brad and myself this year.
Wednesday evening, Brad and I got on the phone to determine meeting place and time, me figuring we would meet en route. Brad, being the retired lazy bum that he is, didn't want to get up so early. He eventually wore me down and the new plan was for me to ride up to his house first. So, I reworked by GPS Routes to include first riding up to the Anderson Ranch.
I got the bike mostly loaded up the night before, so I only needed to fill and load my camel pack with ice water, and strap the spare gas on the trunk.
With such little to do to be ready, my internal clock still had me awake early.
So, I took care of some miscellaneous things before doing the last couple things and getting ready to take off.
I texted Brad at 7:54 that I was leaving, taking a scenic route.
I made my way through town and headed up Lewiston Hill on highway 95, turning off onto 195 shortly after reaching the top. In Uniontown, I turned onto Blair St. and headed back west. Turning to Thorn Creek Rd at the Washington Idaho border, this road took me back west and north, eventually back to highway 95. Here I turned south for about a mile, then turned off onto the Old Highway 95 road, taking it over to the Genesee-Troy road. I turned back north and followed it up to Brad's, arriving at about 8:45.
Brad made poached eggs on an English muffin for breakfast. We chatted about this and that while we ate and then Brad got his last few things together and ready to go. We left his house at about 9:45.
We headed east, through Troy and on to Deary, where we stopped to top off our tanks. Now, turning south, we rode just to the outskirts of Kendrick and then turned onto County Road P1. Following it through Southwick, it makes a curve south towards the river and then back east. Once closer to the river, it took us along the north bank of the Clearwater river into Orofino.
From here, we were heading into wilderness country, where gas stations are fewer and far between and ethanol free is even harder to find, so we top off our tanks again. We pulled into the shade across the street for a quick stretch and rest. Climbing back on the bikes, we now headed east, following Grangemont Road to Hollywood on Highway 11.
I pulled off into a parking area here. I had been having issues with my GPS media player playing to the speakers, so I decided to try switching and playing my music from my phone instead. I had to play with the Bluetooth settings on the GPS and phone to get everything set right. Once done, we pulled back onto highway 11, headed north-east to Headquarters.
It didn't take long before something interrupted the connection from my phone and the speakers, which would require me to hit play again on my phone, which was in my pocket. So, that plan went down the drain. Stopping in Headquarters, I went into the Bluetooth settings on the GPS, and turns out it was still trying to talk to the headset I have mounted in my full-face helmet, which was in the trunk. After disconnecting that and reconnecting the speakers, everything worked fine.
From here, we turned left and headed further north into the woods. At some point on this road, I came around a curve and saw the dark pavement stop and turn to what looked like, with the angle of the sun, a dirt road. I slowed down and when I was a couple yards from the transition, I could finally tell that it was still paved, it just had an old white top seal. And we continued on our way.
Eventually, we came to the North Fork Clearwater River and the Aquarius Campground. We turned right and followed the road over to the Canyon Work Center and thinking it was just a mile or so, decided we would go to the end of the pavement. After about two and a half miles, my GPS quit telling me to make a U-turn and said the pavement ends in 5 miles. The road wasn't that good, so I pulled off and we decided to go back to the Aquarius Campground to a rest.
On the way back, I hit an unexpected bump much harder than I'd hoped. Shortly thereafter, I pulled in the campground entrance and stopped to wait for Brad. While waiting, I caught the slightest whiff of gas, and looked back to see that my spare gas was turned upside sideways. I got off the bike to get it straightened back up.
Turns out that bump and had caused the gas can to push down one of the hooks holding the net, thus unhooking that corner.
When I put the net on, I always hook the net around the mouth of the can, so when the corner came loose, instead of letting the can fall off, it just flipped it on it's side.
There were only a couple drops of gas that had dripped onto the trunk, so I cleaned that up and resecured the net.
I had an extra clip carabiner, so I used that to secure that corner to prevent the can from unhooking it again.
And this was about the time Brad showed up.
He had stopped to take some pictures a of the Canyon Work Center.
We proceeded to pull into the Campground and found an empty spot in the shade and parked there.
We got off and stretched our legs a bit and drank some water.
Brad also ate his snack.
We watched a few people come and go while Brad tried to remember things from when he was six.
That was a challenge, I mean, dirt had only just been invented.
With our rest behind us, we headed out of the campground and started down the road. Brad stopped on the bridge to take a picture of the North Fork Clearwater River. And then, once again, we were on our way.
When I got to Headquarters where we turn back onto highway 11, I pulled over to let Brad catch up. When he did, he also stopped to take a picture. back to and passed by Hollywood, this time staying on highway 11. We pulled into Pierce at about 15:05, a little over an hour from the campground. I pulled over by "Miss Lily's Gold Rush", which is the place Doug had suggested we eat. Brad and I discussed it and we decided that this would work for lunch.
We both had the special, an Ancho Bacon burger with breaded jalapeño "coins". Brad had the salad and I had the chowder. It was very good.
After we ate, we both used the restroom. I only mention it, because Brad went first and as he came out grinning said, the sign above the toilet is good. It said, "Please Flush, this is not show and tell"
When we went outside, we both got a picture of the place. The difference was, I stood and watched Brad walk back into the road, trying to get hit by traffic. Ok, so there wasn't any traffic, but he's just as bad as the kids these days, falling off something, running into something or getting too close to something, just to get the picture.
Now, Brad did some looking on his maps on his phone and started talking about going back to Hollywood and then back down to Orofino, the way we came. I said, no no no... We keep going through Weippe and Greer, so we can do the Greer Grade. With a concerned look, he asked about the grade. I said, "You did just fine with the curves we just did, you'll be fine.". Pressing for more specifics and a compare and contrast, I told him it's more switchback-y. And then, we did just that.
Coming out of Greer, we pulled on to highway 12 and headed north to Orofino. We stopped at the Exxon to fuel up. Then, we figured out where Big Canyon Acres was and I set my GPS to it and away we went.
You see, the Anderson's have a wedding to attend at Big Canyon Acres in September and they are thinking they will bring down the motorhome and just spend the night rather than trying to drive home after a late wedding. We checked it out and confirmed that the Canyon Inn has full hookups, which is just half a mile away from the venue.
From here, Brad would be splitting off onto highway three to head back home, while I will stay on 12 back into Lewiston. So, we said our thank you's and goodbye's here and then headed down the road.
For Brad, the ride was 280 miles, for me it was 285. Taking me a little over 10 hours, probably about 8-9 hours for Brad, as his ride didn't really start until after breakfast. A very enjoyable day.
