Phil's Shots of Life: Adventure Ride, Thursday, July 28th: Day 6

BBrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooowwww! What the !%&$ is that $*&^# noise!?

Plane buzzing the canyon (click on the pic and look close)

I woke up at like 6:30 to a plane constantly buzzing around the canyon...for like an hour! I couldn't figure out what they were doing, but the second time it went away and came back I was wide-awake! I decided to hit the river for some early-morning fishing...

Salmon River early in the morning

I got two good bites from one deep pool, but couldn't keep them on for much longer than a few seconds...I'm pretty sure they were smallmouth bass. After floggin' the water a little while longer, I headed back to camp for breakfast to find everyone up and getting ready to go.

Scotty trying his luck with the fly

Scott tried fishing a bit too, with no luck...he makes it look professional though!
We packed up and headed out, and believe me when I tell you I was already wishing I was in the river! Jeeze it was hot! These people had the right idea...

Bridge crossing to south side of river

A happy (and cool) family of rafters

After crossing the bridge on National Forest Road (NFR) 1614, we headed south on French Creek road. This was a steep and windy dirt road that started out following a great stream chalk full of pretty little waterfalls. As it climbed higher it turned into REALLY tightly-wound switchback road, which means it was climbing FAST!

Halfway to the top - a view of the switchbacks

A view back on the lower switchbacks

This was a rough road that bottomed out the over-loaded KLR more than a few times. Every time it went 'klunk' I had visions of poor Phil broken down in the butt-crack of mother nature...time to take it slow!

French Road

This really was a fun road...I hope I get to come back 50 lbs lighter with a stiffer rear spring!

The top of French Road

Aaaaaahhh! Back in the trees! Yay! It was finally cool again and the scenery looked a little less like scenes from a dry Italian Spaghetti western. Trips like this really teach you a bit about yourself. This part of the trip made me realize how much more I like the high country with the pine trees, cool breeze, and breathtaking views. Kinda reminded me of home....

A view back to the Butt-Crack...c-ya!

On all our maps, there was a tiny dot called 'Burgdorf'. None of us gave it much thought and didn't expect anything. Mike was hauling ass (or as he calls it "blowing out the carbon") on what we called a dirt 'interstate'- a really wide and straight dirt road. When I finally caught up to him, he had stopped at a small turnout that wasn't even marked and he said "look, a hot springs!". We decided to check it out...

Parked in front of the Burgdorf Hot Springs main building

It's a damn good thing we didn't know anything about this place or it would have been a pretty short day...Fud would have probably insisted on staying! I don't think any of us would have fought it though, it was a pretty charming place! Check out the schnazzy squatin' shacks!

Lords and Ladies baby! Hey! Why is theirs bigger?

I have to say, I really enjoyed using the shanty...I could keep an eye on my bike while takin' care of bidness! And the morning's oatmeal was helping the chicken n' steak dinner right along...

What's the dish for?

The main pool

One of the many rustic cabins you can rent: circa 1865!

The pool was the percolator-type...the hot springs are directly under the pool and come up through a gravel floor.

Main office area. The owner is pictured on the phone to the right

Now, I don't know what the owner's name is, but after you read what happened next you'll agree that he deserves, nay, DEMANDS a better name than 'the owner'. So for future reference, I'll call him Mr. B. (for Mr. Burgdorf). Meow, Mike, with his amazing gift for gab, had asked Mr. B. if he knew where we could get some ice. Mr. B. replied that he couldn't make ice due to the lack of power. This was odd since I saw him on the phone earlier and also had a dish on the top of the building...do you need power for one of these? Thinking this was odd but not dwelling on it too much, Mike then asked where we might be able to buy a cold one. Mr. B. then replied, " 'can't sell you any, but I've got 4 key lights for ya' if you want...". Wow Mike, way to go!
As we waited for Mr. B. to produce the promised nectar, we took in the view...

Her majesty's throne with scantily snow-covered hills behind

Mike and I walked up the hill to meet Mr. B. at his house and collect the cold ones, and wow...these were COLD! We had to ask how he can't make ice but had such cold beer...we looked in his cooler to see it packed with snow. Turns out he makes a weekly run up to the mountains to collect coolers full of snow to use for ice..."it works better than ice!" he said. "Sweet" is all I could say...
We finished up our beers to find him back down with 4 more! Turns out he was on his way out of 'town' for vacation...boy did we time it right! Since my wife was 7 months pregnant, the second beer took me a bit longer to down and I was now in that nice little 'happy place' between completely sober and buzzed. What a pleasant feeling! Off to McCall now...
Once we hit blacktop, Mike 'blew out the carbon' and we started looking for a place to camp. We came across Upper Payette Lake and figured it was as good a place as any. That, and I knew the closer we got to McCall the more likely we'd run into the local Boise yuppies. We found ourselves a nice little camp site...

Famished but friendly camp deer

Mike and I rode into McCall for some groceries, and managed to remember everything but the cola! We even stopped at a 'mini mart', just to find out it was one of those granola 'yuppie' mini-marts. I didn't go in, but he said they had all sorts of things in there he'd never heard of...all but a liter o' cola! No whiskey for me tonight...

Cooling off in the lake

Upper Payette Lake

The boys around the campfire

I have to say, this campsite was probably one of the the prettiest we stayed at. We also timed it perfect, because not 30 minutes after we dropped anchor there was non-stop traffic full of camping trailers trying to find a place to park their houses for the night. Thank god we didn't stay for another beer at Burgdorf...
I have to say that Fud is one of the funniest guys I've ever met...he managed to give me a chuckle every day of the trip. It all started out with the granola chair, but on this day it was his unconventional, yet effective way of eating a sausage. This picture doesn't do him justice...he was damn-near standing on his head for the first bite...I hope all this doesn't sound too dirty...