After scoping out Burgdorf, we headed down the wagon road to McCall for gas and food. I've never been to McCall, but this place is way cool. I'll be back for sure. We rode along the lakes and into town and look what we found...My Brother is already lickin' his chops: The food here was fantastic as was the beers. We still had to get some miles in so we kept it reasonable in the beer intake. I wanted to try them all! I like how they used Topo Maps on their tables.
Out of McCall we headed up into some of the most beautiful riding of the trip. We took Lick Creek Rd / Johnson Creek. It is nothing but eye candy thru here. We ended up finding a nice camp spot on this river. Camp was on the left bank of this pic:
Our camp spot was nice with the river roaring nearby. We had a nice fire and enjoyed hot cocoa and JD. We were definitely in critter country, so we slept with one eye open. Our plan for Friday 8-9 was to make it to Stanley to our Friend Jordan who my brother and I grew up with. He's a killer Chef and heads the Idaho Rocky Mountain Lodge. We broke camp and rode towards Yellow Pine.
We took the Landmark Stanley Rd towards HWY 21. It was mighty purdy. About the time I took this pic I said to my Dad and Brother "man, if you were ever running from the law, this is where to go!" Little did I know we were in the midst of a man hunt for that P.O.S. murderous kidnapper from California. When we got on the bikes we passed an all black FBI car hidden in the woods. My first thought was WTF is he out here for? Then I thought about what laws I broke. A few miles down the way we saw another one parked by a trail head. One we popped out of Bear Valley we hit HWY 21 and were passed by multiple SUV's in full tactical-haul-ass mode. What the? In Stanley we stopped for a quick bite and saw CNN and the "Idaho Man Hunt" coverage. Everyone was talking about it. Turns out we had been very close to that creep. Wish I knew...That .44 mag would've got some use. Anyhow, we made it to the Rocky Mountain Ranch and Jordan and his Wife had a hot spring in their backyard. YES!!! There was a fire to the south that made things a bit smokey, but the lighting was killer. Jordan is an accomplished Chef but he didn't want to cook dinner and I couldn't blame him. Chefs have Chef buddies tho! So we went to the Redfish Lodge at Redfish lake and his buddy Kelly cooked us 5 star dishes that were amazing. The Lodge dining room:
That night we BS'd and laughed into the wee hours and made a bottle of fine southern whiskey disappear. Jordan had to get up in the morning and run his kitchen crew at the lodge and pulled it off like a pro. So we rode up to the lodge and had breakfast as his guests. It was awesome. I had applewood smoked Elk Sausage Patties, eggs, and red breakfast potatoes. Dad had salmon potato pancakes and Aaron had the most killer looking French Toast I've ever seen. Jordan doesn't mess around! Everything is made from scratch and sourced locally there and Jordan creates all the dishes (his cooking made the New York Times this year) . All the guests can pick from the custom sandwich menu and take a pack lunch with other goodies for the day. We took Jordan up on that. Amazing. Dad with his lunch and Chef Jordan: The Ranch is 1000 acres and has a main lodge and many guest cabins. If I won the lottery...Those are the Sawtooth Mtns. As if hot springs in your backyard isn't good enough, he also has the upper reaches of the S. Fork of the Salmon there too. Private Fishing! Man it was killer too. We all caught fish up to 20". Dad with one on:
It was real hard to leave that hot fishing after breakfast, but we needed to get moving. Getting ready to load up: We knew there was a fire between Sunbeam and Challis on the Custer Adventure Road, but we couldn't get good intel on it. Last I checked it was closed. But I wanted to see the Yankee Fk Dredge and the ghost towns of Bonanza and Custer so we went anyways. We turned North out of Sunbeam towards the dredge: It's a big SOB! We made it to Bonanza and Custer and the gal at the Museum said we could get thru to Challis! It just so happened to be the first day it was open too. Thank You ADV travel gods once again.
Make sure and do it! Idaho is a special place. I thank my lucky stars that we get to spend these times together and share these memories.
We left Bonanza and Custer and continued on the Custer Adv Road towards Challis. The ride was beautiful but I don't have many pics - just helmet cam. We gassed up in Challis and watched the Helicopters pick up water and head for the fire that was nearby. Right out of Challis we cut up the Morgan Cr. Rd towards Panther Creek and into the Hamlet of Shoup along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. The Shoup store has a new owner and he's dedicated to it's survival. They serve food and the gravity pumps had gas too! This is for us ADV riders - especially if you come from Elk City thru the Magruder Rd and cut over the mountain to shoup. Shoup Store: We found a nice place to camp right on the river all to ourselves and did some fishing It was way too dry to have a fire here so we sat around and made dinner and drinks. The bugs were so out of control you couldn't turn your headlamp on! Finally I smartened up and hung my headlamp on a tree. The bugs flocked around that instead of us. Problem solved.
Sunday 8-11 Today we'd leave Shoup and head over the mountain via warm springs and FR038 towards Darby, Mt. We quickly climbed up to nearly 9000 Ft from Shoup and saw a lot of fire damage from the previous year. In some ways, forest fires make a beautiful mess. I have mostly helmet cam footage but here's a pick at the top: Since the Magruder was closed and we were running the route backwards, we'd have to do some slab work from Darby Montana back to the Lochsa Lodge in Idaho. It was close to 100 miles but was pretty nice riding. We had lunch and beers before heading up the Lolo again and over Toboggan Ridge towards our base camp. The Lodge: We made the 60 mile run back to camp and built a nice fire and relaxed. Then we fished for another two days around camp before heading back home. We rode over 1200 miles and 85% dirt. Elevation gain was almost 90,000 ft! Like all great trips, this one had to end too. It felt like a blur because we were constantly moving and seeing new things, but you knew it was epic. As you get home and see the pictures and videos it sinks in how lucky you are to have had the adventure. We didn't have any mechanical troubles, navigation worked out, other than my Dad's shoulder we weren't injured. I saw things I spent a year daydreaming about. I am thankful to have shared this with my Dad and Brother. We've been riding since before Kindergarten and we still ride now. As little kids Dad always said we had to stick together no matter what in life and always take care of Mom. We have and we will. To me, that's success and that is wealth. Here's to the next big adventure! P.S. The Terra was fantastic. Not a problem to mention. I ran an MT21 up front and a K60 Scout in the rear. It was perfect combo for the trip. The Seat Concepts Tall seat really saved my knees too. I'm confident I can take this Husky anywhere. It's a great adventure platform and it's a damned shame they won't be making more of them.
Wow, what an awesome trip, and so much history around there! Wish there was mountains like that where I am. It's all flat around here.
Great write-up and photos. You have that knack of making us think we were along...pop has done a great job. We travel to various backcountry; but usually fly, rent and try to get lost. This trip is on the radar...maybe a jeep. Thanks for posting.
