Eaton Adventure Cycling 2018

Sarah gave us a better route leaving McCall than just riding down busy Route 55 south. We took her advice and headed out. Of course the first thing that happened was we took a wrong turn and climbed up a (unecessary) bonus hill! That was a good start Hap! After a few more do overs we found the right road (Farm to Market Road--yes that is the real name!). A really pretty side road in the valley. Not much traffic either. Our plan was to ride a short day to the west side of Cascade Lake near Donnelly ID. Although it was out of our way we wanted to mountain bike at Tamarack Ski Resort. There are several campgrounds (Lake Cascade State Park) on the west side of Lake Cascade. We had made a reservation at The West Mountain Campground. No showers but we could get one just down the road at the other State park campground. We stopped, set up camp and rode up (UP) the road to Tamarck. Tamarack is a strange place. Apparently what happened is someone bought the property for a ski resort, started building lodges, with all the amenities, ran out of money or stole the money. We aren't really sure. So what we were looking at is a really nice resort, with golf, skiing, mt biking and half built lodges etc. Strange!

We decided to rent bikes since we got their so early. The rental bikes were....let me say this gently..........CRAP! Hap spent alot of time before we rode adjusting derailers, brakes etc. Then as we rode he stopped many times for more adjustments. But the good news was the trails were really nice....once we found them. The trail markings were a little sparse. But our trail markings all across the country have been sparse! We had a great time anyway. Sure is fun to ride mt bikes again. Alittle sketchy at times, as we tried to remember how to shift, and break on gravel, singletrack and some softer areas. The views are spectacular. What an awesome place for scenery. You just can't beat it.

After we got done riding. We talked to the girl who rented us the bikes. Hap said you know you should give us a discount for fixing your bikes. She did give us 10% off. We were hoping to rent them the next day. Another guy, maybe the boss, was there and he said what can you expect for rental bikes? I said well I would at least expect bikes that are safe, having working brakes and shifters. He replied with, we have 25 more rental bikes downstairs if you didn't like those you could have gotten something different. MMMmmm.... alright then Hap you ready to go? Needless to say we left the rental bikes in better shape than we found them!

Back at camp, we stopped for a shower just down the road, and went back to our campsite to cook dinner. Tonight? Noodles with green beans, chicken in it. For dessert we had a freeze dried berry, cooky crumble dish. Good eatin! No trouble falling asleep. But it did rain sometime in the night pretty hard.

We woke up to a beautiful sunshiny day. I hope the pictures I took really show just how pretty the scenery is here in Idaho. We rode by Cascade Lake on our way into the town of Donnelly. Today we are just marking time. The goal for the next few days is to SAFELY make our way south to meet our friends from Boise, Donna and Paul, in Crouch ID. We have been warned by several people about how dangerous riding on Route 55 into Boise is. So our plan is to get up at the crack of dawn in the morning and ride before all the crazies get on the road. After all it is Labor Day weekend. The last big hoorah for summer. The first warning we got was a month or so ago when we were in Challis. Someone said just make sure you don't ride on Route 55 on a weekend. What do we do? Ride it on the busiest weekend of the year! Everyone from Boise is on their way to or from the mountains. Good planning!

We checked into a hotel in the big town of Donnelly, did some laundry and treated ourselves to a prime rib dinner. Mmmmm good! Tomorrow will be a challenge. I think both of us are worried.

We got up at 5 am. Sunrise was at 7:08am. We waited for daylight and put on all our lights. We had
red flashers for the rear and white flashers on the front of the bikes. It was a chilly, dusky, foggy start.
We put on our bight rain jackets that have reflective strips on the, and headed south on route 55
toward Crouch. Before we got to Crouch there are four national forest campgrounds along the river.
We thought if traffic got too bad we would just stop at one of them for the night. We hoped to be off the road before 11a. Before leaving we said a prayer for safety.

As we rode it appeared that cars could see us because we could see them moving over. One of the real dangers is from cars passing other cars coming toward us. There had already been one close call from that situation. The road was fairly level for the first 20 miles. Then we climbed a little bump in the road just before the town of Cascade. We made a pit stop at a fast station. You should have seen the stares from people when I walked in with my light flashing on my head and my wet rain gear on!

Even with the fog this sure is a pretty area! As we got closer to the town of Banks the road narrowed and the shoulder went away. We were riding a long a gorgeous river well known for its Class 4 and 5 rapids. We stopped to watch a group of kayaker negotiate some gnarling looking rapids. Another guy who must have been thick pick up guy told us these guys were pros. This stretch of river had 15 miles of class 4-5 rapids.

We stopped in Banks for breakfast. And then turned west towards Crouch. Another beautiful stretch go river followed the road. When we got to Crouch we were heading up the road to camp at a Boise National Forest campground. Someone told us it was 8 miles UP the road. We started climbing just as a bunch of traffic tried to pass us on a narrow road. We stopped looked at each other and said why don't we just go back to the campground we passed where we are meeting Donna and Paul. Good plan! Goodbye traffic. We set up camp and took a bath in the river and set down to wait for them. We played several games of cards before they got there.

It was good to see them. We went for a bike ride with them the next day we rode down to a hot springs before heading into Boise. We spent a few days with them before our flight home. It's been a great ride but now home to reality!!

One more summary post for this trip. Next bike trip?? Maybe another trip to Europe? We'll see!