TRIP 26 | Friday-Sunday, October 18-20, 2013

With a perfect weekend weather forecast and a momentary break at work, Carolyn and I drove to Wallace Thursday evening. For once there was no traffic over Snoqualmie Pass and we drove all the way to Moses Lake before stopping for something to eat. I'm reading a book about the Columbia River and the US Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Plateau project. The Grand Coulee dam was finished in 1942. Ten years later, canals had been dug and the Grand Coulee (an ancient river channel high up on the plateau) was filled with water pumped up from the dam. The water from the Grand Coulee flows through ancient river beds and lakes and eventually into two main canals, an east and a west canal. While driving on I-90, I kept my eye out for both of these canals. Moses Lake is the center of the reclamation project. The whole project is controversial because the American tax payer is subsidizing all the farms with an unlimited amount of essentially free water and cheap electricity. We arrived in Wallace around 11pm and schleped all of our stuff inside.

Painting the walls

On Friday morning I masked and painted two coats of light green on the walls of the upstairs bathroom. We're on the home stretch finishing the bathroom project.

Trail across Striped Peak

By 10am we were heading out on ATV's on a long route to visit the ruins of two fire lookouts. I left a handwritten note with our plans taped to our neighbor's door in case we weren't back by the evening. We rode up Placer Creek and up to Slate Creek Saddle. From there we took Trail 16 along the spine of several peaks and crossed Striped Peak in this picture. It was a cold, clear fall day.

Looking down into Elbow Gulch

The ATV-wide trail must have been blasted out of the mountain at this point. Of the 70 trails listed in Forest Service's booklet, Ultimate Motorcycle Loops of the St. Joe River Country, Trail 16 is the only one marked "easy". It's all relative.

Elsie Lake

Riding along the ridge we had a good view down to Elsie Lake. Later in the day, our return route would take us by the lake.

Carolyn capturing a view

Cemetery Ridge in the distance 

Our first destination was the old lookout site on Cemetery Ridge.

Cemetery Ridge

We rode to the base of the open area on the slope, parked our machines, and started climbing the mountain.

Carolyn enjoying the view

Carolyn is nursing a sore knee so about a quarter way up the 500' climb, she decided it'd be best if she waited while I climbed to the top.

Remains of the Cemetery Ridge lookout

A lookout on a 10' tower was built here in 1930 and unfortunately destroyed in 1964. Perched high on a ridge, the lookout had clear views down into East Fork on this side and Bronsen Meadows on the other side.

View on the Bronsen Meadows side

June 17, 1931

I found this reference to the Cemetery Ridge lookout in an old newspaper.

December 22, 1936

The lookout made the news again in 1936.

Point 5652 on Dam Ridge

I hiked back down and we rode our machines over to Dam Ridge, a ridge that projects out into the Slate Creek area, separating Slate Creek from Dam Creek.

Remains of the Dam Ridge lookout

We followed a trail a couple of miles down the ridge until we came across the rusting and rotting remains of the old lookout. It looked very similar to the other lookout, including the rusting bed frame. A lookout tower was built here in 1934 and destroyed in 1954. This area is very remote and a long way from the closest town of Avery. Those rangers must have been tough muchachos to hike so far to a place like this.

Carolyn on the foundation

Nothing but splinters, concrete, and rusty nails

Heading back up the ridge past the lookout site

Steeper than it looks

Climbing back up the ridge the trail gets incredibly steep, though it doesn't look like it in this picture. It's so steep that I can't believe it's possible for our ATVs to climb up this trail. The tires only have 4 lbs of air pressure and they have an amazing grip on the rocky trail surface.

Back on Point 5389

I'm really pleased that we easily found both lookouts. Now we're at the halfway point and turning back for home, but I figure we can visit one more lookout without much of a detour.

Trail 226 up to Point 5953

Here's a section of Trail 226 that steeply climbs the ridge. After climbing up there, we dropped down the other side into the basin with Lake Elsie.

Lake Elsie

Carolyn and her pony tail

As usual, Carolyn does not want to get cold. She wore about every layer she could find, including ski pants and jacket. We climbed out of the basin from here on Trail 106 back up to the shoulder of Striped Peak.

Polaris Peak lookout site

From Striped Peak we followed a trail to the Forest Service Road 330 and rode along the ridge of mountains bordering the Silver Valley until we turned up to Polaris Peak.

Polaris Peak lookout in 1950

The Polaris Peak lookout sat on a 30' tower and was built in 1931. It was destroyed in 1968.

View down into Big Creek and Kellogg Peak across the valley

From Polaris Peak we took a trail down the front of the mountains bordering the Silver Valley down into Osburn and from there, the road back to Wallace.

GPS track of the ride

The 54 mile ride took us about five and a half hours. We climbed 12.5k' on our machines. This was one of our all-time best rides. That evening we drove to Kellogg for Mexican food.
 
Working on the bathroom

On Saturday morning I masked the bathroom ceiling and rolled on two coats of white. Then Carolyn helped me install the toilet. We made our first trip to the hardware store for a new supply line. Next I replaced the old light switch with a new one and the outlet with a GFCI outlet. Then we installed the vanity, sink, faucet, and all the associated plumbing. This took another trip to the hardware store for hoses, parts, and silicone adhesive. After that I installed the new tub spout. The short pipe coming out of the tiled wall was too long. I had to use a propane torch to heat it to the point where I could loosen it. Another trip to the hardware store for a shorter pipe and that job was done. Then I drilled holes in the tile wall for the shower curtain rod. Carolyn decided where all the accessories should go and I installed two towel racks, a toilet paper holder, and a couple of towel hooks. The heat vent was faux wood grain so I sprayed it with a couple coats of white paint. I mounted the mirror above the sink and Carolyn setup the shower curtain. Finally, I hung the door back on its hinges. That is how we spent the whole day Saturday.

Before photo 

Here's a shot of the bathroom last July, right before we started tearing everything out.

After photo

We still have to apply the final touches and install a shower wand.

Fall in Wallace

On Sunday we attended the Wallace Branch and left for home at 4:30pm. It was a fun trip to Wallace. I can't wait to go again.

TRIP 25 | Saturday-Sunday, September 21-22, 2013

Last Saturday Ryan was in Seattle for lawyer business and it looked like he would be here again this Saturday. On Thursday evening he emailed to say he didn't need to come but was thinking of coming anyway just to go on a ride on Saturday. I wrote him back and suggested that if he was willing to drive all the way from Boise to Lake Wenatchee to go on a one day ride, he might as well drive to Wallace and we could go riding there. He was game and so was Carolyn. I hoped Paul could come, too, but he was already booked for the weekend. On Friday after work Carolyn and I drove to Wallace. We arrived in Wallace around 11pm. Meanwhile, Ryan left Boise for Wallace on Friday night.

Carolyn painting the woodwork

I woke up Saturday morning at 4am with a headache. It hurt laying there so I got up and masked all the woodwork in the bathroom. In the morning Carolyn brushed on two coats of gloss white. Meanwhile, Ryan showed up around 8am, we prepped our gear, walked to the gas station and mixed up two tanks of two-stroke gas. Back at the house we filled up our motorcycles, put on our gear, and took off for the trails.

Summit of Bad Tom Mountain

We rode up Cranky Gulch to Trail 16 and then to the top of Bad Tom Mountain at 5,613'.

Ryan on Bad Tom looking down the ridge to Placer Peak

Ridge down to Slate Creek

Our next destination was Slate Creek. We planned to take a trail down this ridge before switchbacking down to the bottom of the valley beyond. When we went to get back on our bikes, I noticed my GPS was missing from its mount. I had a small chainsaw bungeed to the motorcycle's front forks and while coming up the rough trail, the bouncing saw must have knocked the GPS from its mount. Ryan and I rode slowly several miles back down Trail 16 to the top of the Cranky Gulch trail without finding the GPS. I didn't want to spend our precious riding hours looking for the GPS so we turned around and headed back up to Bad Tom Mountain.

Problems

Along the way Ryan's bike coughed and died. He thought he might have a fuel problem but when he disconnected the carb's fuel hose, free flowing gas poured out. Ryan quoted his grandpa, "Fuel and spark, that's all you need." In order to get to the spark plug we had to remove the seat and the tank. Even then, there wasn't room for the spark plug wrench. Ryan had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to loosen the spark plug. At the beginning of this riding season, he replaced the old spark plug with a new one. Fortunately, he kept the old plug in his tool bag. He replaced the spark plug with the old one, we put the bike back together and it started right up. From Bad Tom Mountain we rode several steep miles down 15 switchbacks to Slate Creek 2,300' below.

Upper Slate Creek trail

We rode about 4 miles along the banks of Slate Creek heading up-river. The trail was smooth and easy.

Checking our bearings

My GPS wasn't a catastrophic loss. I only use it for recording my tracks. For directions and maps I carry a Nexus 7 in my backpack. Its large screen, excellent mapping software (Backcountry Navigator), and the ability to easily zoom in or out and pan around, makes it far easier to use than my GPS. It also can record tracks and I used it the rest of the day to record our route. At this trail junction we continued on Upper Slate Creek trail, but would end up looping back down from Mastodon Mountain on the return trip on the Flume Creek trail to this point.

Trail junction

The Flume Creek trail comes in from the left, crossing Slate Creek. The Upper Slate Creek trail continues straight ahead and that's the route we took.

Crossing Slate Creek

A mile farther we reached the junction of the Dam Ridge Trail, 573. We rode across Slate Creek and headed up the trail.

Crossing Dam Creek

A quarter mile later we crossed Dam Creek.

Heading up the valley

While most of Dam Creek was contained within steep canyon walls, there were several places where the valley opened up. These parts were nice breaks from the concentration required riding on the canyon's side walls.

Ryan stuck on the slick rocks

We rode over some incredibly challenging obstacles all day, so it was surprising when we both got stuck on these relatively mild, but slick rocks. Ryan gunned his bike and pushed up and over the rocks. 

Giving me a hand

Ryan parked his bike and came back and pulled my front wheel up and over the obstacle. All morning we followed the fresh track of a bike with a rear trials tire. We never heard or saw the bike or rider.

Riding along the side hill with the open valley below

We rode several miles up this valley until it ended and we switched backed up the trail a couple of miles until we climbed out on a ridge.

The remains of the Mastodon Mountain lookout

From the ridge we rode a steep rocky trail up the shoulder of Mastodon Mountain to the summit at 5,905'.

The lookout back in its prime

The info I found for the Mastodon lookout reads, "Established as a camp in 1926, a shake cupola cabin was constructed in 1929. It was replaced in 1963 with a 10' concrete base topped by an R-6 flat cab was removed in 1978."

Tom and Ryan among the lookout's carnage

We had to make a decision how we'd get home. We could take the known and fairly easy ATV trail back to Striped Peak, but we'd be riding on exposed ridges for miles and miles. With the storm building behind us, that didn't seem to be such a safe route. On the other hand, taking our planned route down the Flume Creek singletrack might get us into something over our heads and we'd have to turn around. We decided to take the unknown Flume Creek trail back to Slate Creek.

Ryan trying to remove one of the guy wire anchors

Ryan looks like Buzz Aldrin collecting a soil sample on the moon.

View down Flume Creek

We'd end up dropping down into Flume Creek and riding out to Slate Creek in the far distance. 

Another view of Flume Creek

Riding down the Flume Creek trail

Back to Slate Creek

After descending down the Flume Creek canyon, the 5 mile trail took us back to Slate Creek. We crossed the creek and rode the trail back to the dirt road that took us back up to the Slate Creek Saddle. 

A recovery operation

From Slate Peak Saddle we had to decide whether to take the most direct way back to Wallace or ride up Trail 16 to Bad Tom Mountain again and go back down the way we came up, looking for my missing GPS. We saw no lightning nor heard any thunder so we took the trail up the ridge. We met an older gentleman looking off the trail down the mountainside. Next to him was a bent up ATV rack and a torn up Polaris seat. That's never a good sign. We stopped to see if he was ok and offer help. Here's the story. Last Saturday his 36 year old son was riding this man's ATV on this trail. One of the ATV's front tires hit the rock sticking out behind the man's feet and jerked the handlebars so the son steered off the mountain. The son bailed off the machine and the ATV tumbled out of sight down the mountain. The old man called his insurance company and they were prepared to helicopter out the wrecked machine, but the man's son wanted to try and recover the machine with a chainsaw winch. At that moment, the son was down the mountain somewhere, but we couldn't see him. Occasionally we'd hear the chainsaw. Even if they were able to winch the wreck, tree-by-tree, back onto the trail, how would they get the machine the several miles back to Slate Creek Saddle? Towing it with another ATV would be difficult. If the wheels are bent or missing, it would be nearly impossible.

The wrecked ATV is somewhere down there

We continued on Trail 16 and rode down Cranky Gulch trail looking for my GPS. Several times I thought I saw it on the trail, but each time it turned out to be bear scat. The trail is only 12 inches wide. If the GPS bounced even an inch off the trail into the brush, I'd never find it. I never found it. We parked our bikes at the house. That ride took us about 5 hours and we rode 47 miles and it was now 2pm. We then went with Carolyn to Angie's for meatball sandwiches.

Steep rocky trail

After lunch we poured the rest of the pre-mixed gas into our tanks and took off at 3pm. There was only enough gas to fill my tank about 4 inches from the top. We rode up to Slate Peak Saddle and then Trail 16 to the Slate Peak Divide. From there we rode the Cedar Mountain trail with the goal of reaching Arid Peak Lookout. John and I tried riding this trail last 4th of July, but we gave up because of a scary side hill and snow on Peak 6162.

Side hilling it

Last 4th of July and not knowing what was ahead and whether there'd be a spot to turn around, we parked our bikes here and walked this trail to find out what was ahead (snow). This time Ryan and I rode the trail and my eyes were zeroed in on the trail right in front of me. This was no place to mess up.
 
Inching along

Still not getting easier

Cresting Point 6162

When we explored this on the 4th of July, the trail here was still under 10' of snow.

Riding Slate Creek Divide

Now we're up on the ridge and following the contours of the mountain. 

Hey, look at that!

More ridge riding

Still on the ridge

Point 6183

Hmmm, this looks interesting. I hope I can squeeze around this. Remember that bike with the trials tire we had been following on this morning's ride? Well, we saw the same fresh track on this trail, too. In fact, while crossing these rocks, there was a fresh wet tire print on a flat rock. Who is this mysterious rider that always seems to be minutes ahead of us, yet never spotted?

Beautiful fall views at Point 5887

The trail is looking good

Eyes glued to the trail here

Throw in an obstacle ahead

It looks like my head (with the GoPro on top) is tilted slightly to the right. I must be tilting my head right to compensate for my body tilting left, trying to hug the mountain. At various trail junctions I'd check the maps and GPS on my Nexus 7 to choose the trail that would take us to Arid Peak Lookout. 

Arid Peak Lookout

Eventually we reached the lookout on an easy trail. Two summers ago, John, Eric, and I struggled on this trail, encountering one log after another. This time was a different story. There wasn't a single log and it was smooth riding. The skinny on the lookout is, "Arid Peak Lookout is a 1934 20' L-4, originally built to watch for fires from the Milwaukee Railroad as it came down Loop Creek from the Montana line to the North Fork of the St. Joe River near Avery, Idaho. In 1969 the legs of the tower were replaced, but the lookout was not used again. In 1996 and 1997, the Idaho Chapter of the FFLA and the St. Joe Ranger District joined in a restoration project; all of the beams atop the legs and underneath the cab were replaced, as were the stairs which had collapsed in 1970. The fully-restored lookout is now on the rental program, as it sits overlooking a companion project, "The Route of the Hiawatha", a rail-trail being developed over the trestles and through the tunnels of the abandoned Milwaukee line. The tower is on the National Historic Lookout Register." The lookout is available as an overnight rental for $25/night. There was no sign of anyone at the lookout, such as a stove, a backpack, or a drying coat. I called up to the lookout and asked if anyone was there. No one answered. 

View inside the lookout

I climbed up the stairs and looked in the window. Clearly there were guests. I wonder where they were?

Needs a fresh coat of paint

Trail to water

I wandered around the perimeter and spotted a trail to water. Perhaps the renters were down the mountain collecting water.

Ryan resting at Arid Peak

1910 railroad trestle

We rode 3 miles from the Arid Peak Lookout to a dirt access road. There we saw the renter's car where they backpacked to the lookout from. We headed down the road to the North Fork of the St. Joe River (between Ryan and the trestle). We rode to Pearson and then on the old Milwaukee railroad through a couple of tunnels until we were up on the trestle in this photo. By this time the sun was starting to go down, even earlier in these deep canyons. We had 21 miles to ride over Moon Pass to get back to Wallace. It started to get cold. I bet those folks at Arid Peak Lookout were thinking their sleeping bags were mighty thin once the sun went down. I considered taking Ryan on a more exciting route home rather than the boring dirt road, but I talked myself out of it.

Almost on fumes

We arrived home at 7pm with the sun just going down behind the mountains. When I opened my gas cap to pour in Sta-bil in the tank for the winter, I was surprised to see I only had a few tablespoons of gas remaining in the tank. Good thing we didn't take any side trips home or we would have been stranded.

Morning ride in red. Afternoon ride in blue.

Our afternoon ride was 50 miles. We rode just under a hundred miles today, most of it singletrack. We were riding for about 9 hours, coming back to Wallace in between rides for fuel and food. We took showers, cleaned up, and the three of us went out to dinner. I was so sleepy I could barely talk. After dinner Ryan loaded up his bike and headed off for the long drive back to Boise. He stays awake on Pepsi and dill-flavored sun flower seeds.

On Sunday morning we went to church. It was the Wallace branch's Branch Conference. The chapel was packed with various folks from the stake in Hayden Lake. After church we went on a walk and checked on John's house. We stuck around until 5pm and headed home, late enough to miss the traffic over Snoqualmie Pass. It was pouring rain over the pass and driving that section was scarier than any of the motorcycling riding we did on Saturday. It was a quick and short trip to Wallace this weekend, but we made the most of it by riding all day on Saturday. The Forest Service booklet I have is called, "Ultimate Motorcycle Loops of the St. Joe River Country." We only rode a few of the trails out of 28 pages of trails (many trails listed per page). We need to go back and ride some more.