Today's the day we're riding Macgruder Corridor and we're all pretty stoked. It was a good night for sleep and the day was already getting hot...it was time to hit the road! We thought about taking the camp chair and tent, but we decided against it...karma, you know?
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| Rainy's not much help around camp... |
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| Hwy 14: South Fork of the Clearwater River |
I was keeping an eye out for critters since we were riding in the morning next to the river, and I spotted this doe with her two fawns...
We were to visit Elk City for a large breakfast and quick shopping for that night's dinner. There are two places to eat....the 'diner' (yuck) and the Reno Club (bar). Reno is a great establishment...typical bar in this neck of the woods with good food and cold beer. It was too early for beer, but the food was amazing! The portions were the typical American bar-size - ginormous!
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| The Reno Club |
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| Scott's Chicken Fried Steak and Mike's Pizza Omelette (huge!) |
Mike again made small talk with the bar's owner and told him we were headed over Magruder. The owner told us there were forest fires in the area and we may not be able to make it over the pass. He even called the ranger station to confirm that the road was closed. We decided that we hadn't come this far to just do an about-face without at least trying, so we hit the grocery store and headed east to the pass. Not too far into the ride we came upon a group of three people on horseback and a couple in a covered wagon. No kidding, a real covered wagon...and the driver looked a perfect match for the ride. I wouldn't be surprised if he was packin' a Winchester lever-action under the seat. These people had a LONG ride ahead of them...
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| Covered wagon |
As we neared the top it became apparent that this area had suffered a huge forest fire in the last couple years. I remember being in this exact same spot two years ago...there were a lot more trees back then:
Adventure Ride 2011: Magruder Corridor
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| The pass lookout |
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| The pass lookout |
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| Panorama of the pass lookout |
We had made it over the main pass, so we had a pretty good idea that we were going to be able to make it all the way through. I maybe worried a little bit when I saw this:
...but we kept riding and didn't get stopped. We planned on camping out on one of the outlooks on the east part of the pass, but since it was extremely hot and all the shelter had been burned up we decided to move on. Here are a few videos of the Corridor from the pass east:
Magruder Corridor 1
Magruder Corridor 2
Magruder Corridor 3
Magruder Corridor 4
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| Over the Magruder Corridor |
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| Mike and Scott |
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| Scott and I |
The plan was to head south toward Painted Rocks Lake to find a campsite for the night. After seeing some of the amazing rock formations the name of the lake started to make perfect sense.
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| Painted Rock - wow |
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| It's like there's mustard in 'em!! |
It turns out the lake was actually a reservoir, but it was still pretty scenic...
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| Painted Rocks Lake |
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| Painted Rocks Lake - the dam |
The first campsite we came to surprised us all...$20 per night for camping?! Joo gotta be kiddin' me mang. No way...we hoped that the farther south we moved along the river it would get cheaper. We finally found something more reasonable ($7 I think?) with good cover and very limited access to a small stream. I don't know what kind of trees these are, but they were HUGE...
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| Gigantimous Conifers |
We had another great combination for dinner: steak with a dehydrated lasagna meal. Again, very scrumptious. Really it was a pretty uneventful day but a great ride. I like Magruder Corridor, but due to the forest fires I don't think I'll be doing the ride for at least 5 or 10 years.
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| Day 4 GPS track: 144 miles |
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| Day 4 Elevations |
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