Lewis and Clark Trail... Dial up beware.

[Sasquatch]

What a trip.  Our group takes a long dual sport ride each Labor Day weekend to explore some other part of the great state of Idaho.  Here is the ride report from this years expidition.



The players:  

John Kranz, Thousand Oaks, CA, KLR 650

Steve Kranz, Eagle, ID, KLR 650

Rick Youngblood, Battle Creek, MI, KLR 650

Janard Jobes, Eagle, ID, Triumph Tiger 955i

Jay Jobes, Emmett, ID, Triumph Tiger 955i



This is almost a father and son ride, except that Ricks son is too young to ride yet.  The plan was 5 days in the Idaho and Montana back country, camping each night along the way.  Other than the first night, we succeded.



We left Boise last Thursday morning and rode asphalt the 140 miles to Burgdorf, Idaho.  This is where we left the pavement.  We took dirt down into the Salmon River Canyon above Riggins Idaho.  Photos do not do it any justice, but here are some shots of that leg of the trip.



Tiger on the prowl:





Life must have been tough 100+ years ago, but the view from the cabin, priceless:













Salmon River, river of no return:







The next leg of the trip took us up and out the North side of the canyon and headed us to the old mining town of Florence, Idaho.  Florence had the reputation as the most lawless of the western mining towns where at least one man was killed each day.  Here are some shots from "Boot Hill".









This was the town bully:







The only person to be burried in the cemetary without their boots on:









South Fork of the Clearwater River.





Because of timing and opportunity, we opted to stay in a motel in Elk City.  This town is at the end of the asphalt that turns into the renouned Macgruder Corridor over into Darby Montana.  A route we have taken many times in the past, but not this year.





The radical environmental movement is solely responsible for the demise of many towns like Elk City in the PNW.  The towns people are not shy at all about showing their true feelings on the matter, and they are serious about it.

(and they had a great breakfast!)





The next morning we headed north towards Kamiah, where we would pick up the Lewis and Clark trail, or otherwise known as the Lolo Motorway, built in 1930 along the original route of the Lewis and Clark expidition.  For those of you that have driven Idaho Highway 12 between Kamiah and Missoula, MT, this route is on the ridges to the north.



Here is heading out of Elk City.





Part of the road was blocked to all traffic except ATV's and MC travel due to slides and cost of mantaining it.  It was one of the best sections of the entire trip.









We fueled our bikes and our bellies in Kamiah and headed up the Lewis and Clark Trail.  We met one of the local natives (a TRUE local native) who was working on an interpritive sign for the trail.  He gave us alot of good information that was not in the brochures.  He was very helpful about where to camp and where the best views were.  He also offered alot of history about the area and his tribe, the Nez Pierce.  The route taken by the expidition was led by members of his tribe along the Nez Pierce trail.  Reading all of the signs along the way showed that without the native help and guidence, the two white boys from back east would have been up the creek without a paddle...





Along the route:





We set up camp near the Indain Post Office.  This area had rock piles that are speculated to be places where a passing indain could leave a note within the pile for another passing indian.  But the views from camp were brethtaking.  How about that sunrise?  The tail rack of the Tiger made for an excelent cooking surface!











Saw LOTS of these:





Here we are at Lolo pass.  We took pavement from here to Darby Montana.  Along the way I needed to stop and replace my aging Coleman Peak 1 stove that simply wore out.  I ended up buying a new MSR stove and it was awesome!



We ran into trouble around the south end of Painted Rocks Res. when Rick's KLR failed to restart after a break.  It was flooded bad, something that simply does not happen much to a KLR.  We field stripped the bike and found nothing.  It did restart, but would not idle, so Rick had to keep her wound up untill we got into camp that night at Horse Creek Hot springs.  We disassembled the carburator and thought we found the problem within the choke circut.  After reassembly, that was discovered to not be the problem.  Rick had to ride the next day playing with the fuel valve to keep from flooding it.  (we ended up lowering the float height and the problem went away.)



Day 4, Horse Creek Hot springs to Eightmile Creek, above Custer, Idaho.







Ever have the feeling that something was built just for you.  I had this feeling with this small building along the road.  The timing was PERFECT.  I will go into no more detail....





Camp, day 4, Eightmile Creek.







Steve and his father, John.





Rick and my dad, Janard.





Day 5 dawned very cold and bright.  Water was frozen in our jugs, so it was definatly down in the low 20's.



Custer, Idaho.





Took a very interesting tour of this beast..





The ride from the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge up and over to Cape Horn GS is brethtaking.















Once we hit pavement at Cape Horn, we had lunch at the Sourdough, and split up for the rides to our respective homes.  We all felt that it was one of the single best rides we had ever been on.



Hope you enjoy the story.  A full fledged report will be in a future issue of Dual Sport News...

[Dick Boyer]

Great report. Looks like fun.

[waltconrad]

Nice pics

[Becker]

Nice pics and looks like a great trip. I've spent some time in central and southern ID but in a 4x4 working for a mineral exploration outfit back in the 70's and 80's. May just have to go back on two wheels though. I think you lit a flame here.

Got a question about the back rack. Does that replace the stock rack or mount on top? Looks like a really handy platform. May have to get one of my more skilled tin bender buds to rig one up for me. Thanks for the pics.

[Sasquatch]

The rack just bolts down on top of the stock rack.  Very usefull.