GPS track of Jewel Gulch loop
We woke up Friday morning to crystal blue skies. What? Where's the rain? We decided to head out on an ATV ride while the weather was good. Our destination was Jewel Gulch. We've attempted this ride twice before, but were turned back the first time by my machine overheating and the second time, last month, because of snow. This time I was determined to make it and even carried a small chainsaw in case we were blocked by trees across the trail.
Tree numero uno
We had only ridden a quarter mile up the trail before we hit the first downed tree. I had a GoPro mounted on the front of my ATV to record the ride and I used the video to capture this picture and the next few.
Tree number two
Typical view of the trail
While the trail is called the Jewel Gulch trail, it only heads up the gulch a half mile or so before climbing out of the gulch and heading up the ridge. I think this would be a good trail for Eric and John to ride on motorcycles.
Tree number three
Another tree
Eventually we ran into a part of the trail that had recently been cut out, but only to the width of a motorcycle. That someone would intentionally cut out a trail to block ATVs really bothered Carolyn, but I didn't care. I cut the trail wide.
Widening another motorcycle cut
Trail turned into singletrack
Eventually the quad trail we were following abruptly turned into singletrack. The left side of the trail drops off steeply down a hill. We had to back up a couple of blocks to a place where we could turn around.
Turning down the Beefcamp Trail
We backed up, turned around, and headed down the Beefcamp trail in order to make a loop out of this ride.
Yet another tree
And another
Going to investigate
I could see a whole bunch of trees across the trail. I went to investigate and found a giant ponderosa pine. It was far too big for my little saw so we turned around and rode back up to the ridge and back down the Jewel Gulch trail.
Two Mile Creek
On the way back down the ridge we turned off on an overgrown trail that took us down to Two Mile Creek. From there we popped out of the canyon only a block or two from the start of the Jewel Gulch trail. Finally, we had completed a loop! We rode from Osburn back to Wallace. We weren't home very long before the skies clouded over and it began to pour. We went to our favorite sandwich shop for lunch.
Winch on Carolyn's ATV
I spent much of Friday afternoon installing a winch on Carolyn's machine. When I tested the controls, they worked in reverse, even though I followed the schematic. In addition, the remote would only activate the winch in one direction. When stuff like this happens, I've found it best to stop working and start fresh the next day. On Saturday morning I swapped the motor wires to fix the reversed controls. Figuring out what was wrong with the remote took more debugging. It turned out one of the sealed connections on the back of the port where the remote plugs in had a cold solder joint. I fixed it and Carolyn's winch now works great.
Drive up Pine Creek
Saturday was overcast. In the morning we drove to Smelterville for groceries and then a mile farther to Pinehurst to get a Yamaha part. We decided to drive through the town and up Pine Creek canyon to see what we could see.
Old mill foundation
We passed several old mines and eventually stopped near the end of the road to let Gypsy run around.
Gypsy exploring
56 miles over Moon Pass
So far on Saturday, it hadn't rained and the weather was getting nicer. Mid afternoon we took off up Placer Creek. We turned up Dry Creek Gulch for Slate Creek Saddle. It's a much more fun ride to Moon Pass compared to the normal wide dirt road.
No farther
We climbed and climbed but eventually hit snow just before we reached Slate Creek Saddle. We turned around and went all the way back down to the Moon Pass road and took the road up and over the pass.
Last tunnel on the Hiawatha Trail
Today was the 2013 opening day for the Hiawatha Trail. We rode all the way to Pearson, which is the end of the Hiawatha Trail. We parked our machines and walked on the trail to this last tunnel. The long gone town of Pearson was named after two Pearson brothers, who mined nearby at the Lucky Swede mine. After the devastating fire of 1910, they spent the next several years logging all the downed timber that was salvageable.
Chipmunks
Love 'em.
Tunnel #30
From Pearson all the way down to Avery, the old Milwaukee railroad route is now the road for car and truck traffic. We rode a couple of miles through tunnels and over high trestles.
Road up Rye Creek to Arid Point Lookout
While crossing a trestle we looked down on the road Eric, John, and I took last 4th of July up to Arid Peak.
Carolyn on the trestle
Another view from the trestle
Old telegraph wires above the railbed
View from the railbedThis is looking down from the old railbed to the North Fork St. Joe River. The dirt road below used to be the road for vehicles from Avery when the railroad was still operating. Now the road has deteriorated into a motorcycle and ATV trail.
Cabin at Lucky Swede mine
From the trestle we turned around and headed back up the Moon Pass road. We explored various trails and turnoffs from the main road. One trail climbed steeply on an off-camber trail up Lucky Swede Gulch until we hit the remains of the Lucky Swede mine.
Lucky Swede mine dump
A book said the Pearson brothers drove a tunnel a mile deep into the mountain, but brought out very little ore for their efforts.
Gold Hill
We saw a lot of groups of people camping for the Memorial Day weekend. On our way down Moon Pass we saw a large group of dirt bikers head up a trail. On our way back we turned up that same trail to see where it would go.
Up Bougin Creek
We rode a mile or so up the trail through a few snow patches until we were blocked at the snowline and had to turn around and head back to town. The whole ride was 57 miles with 13k' of climbing.
Downtown
Sunday turned out to be the nicest day of the Memorial Day weekend. Before church I took Gypsy on a long walk to the end of town, up the hill by the pool, past John's place, to the residential end of town, back to our house.
Thompson Falls dam
Our next door neighbors invited us to their place on the North Fork Coeur d'Alene River for steaks in the evening. Since their place is about a third of the way to Thompson Falls, MT, we decided to drive over Thompson Pass to the falls after church. It was a beautiful warm day. This 1915 dam was built at the site of the falls to build up enough headwater for a power plant.
Salmon fish ladder at the dam
Another section of the dam
There are actually three different dams blocking the river at some islands in the river. I bet this part of the Clark Fork River would have been hairy to navigate back in the day.
Bridge to the island
The island in the river is now a park (this photo was taken from that island). This old bridge has been restored for pedestrian use.
1915 powerplant
Old tailings in Murray
On the way back over Thompson Pass we stopped at the tailing piles along Prichard Creek to let Gypsy out and run around. The tailings are what's left over from a 1930's gold dredging operation. We finally made it to our neighbor's place on the river. They have a dog that looks exactly like Gypsy. Their dog likes walking leg-deep in the river but Gypsy was hesitant and stayed along the shore. Eventually after seeing the other dog in the river, Gypsy would walk in the river, too. We grilled out steaks and had a delicious dinner before heading back over Dobson Pass to Wallace.
Painting the upstairs bathroom door
We woke up to a cloudy day on Monday, but compared to the miserable forecast of rain, it was a pretty good weekend. Our next big project at the house is to redo the upstairs bathroom the way we remodeled the downstairs bathroom. The house is going to be full of guests this 4th of July so we're going to have to wait until later in the summer before we start the demolition. Meanwhile, I painted a couple of fresh coats of paint on the upstairs bathroom door. I also installed heating wires in the valley of the roof at the back of the house to prevent large ice dams from forming.
Ninemile Canyon to Burke Canyon loop
Later that morning we took off on a loop out of Wallace up Ninemile Canyon.
Carolyn crossing the East Fork Ninemile Creek
Cable at the Interstate mine
Interstate mine tailings
Graves on Custer Peak
We climbed high on the shoulder of Custer Peak looking for a route over the peak and down into Burke Canyon. We passed by an area with 4 or 5 marked graves, but the markers had no writing. I wonder who they were?
Blocked again by snow
We kept climbing Custer Peak until we hit snow. We walked to the end of this logging road.
Seam of the Hercules mine
We wrapped around Custer Peak into Burke Canyon passing by the location of the Hercules mine, one of the earliest and most successful mines in the area. By WWII, however, the ore in the mine was tapped out. Ore was originally discovered in the seam high on the mountain. Eventually, drifts were driven at various levels up and down the mountain. That's Tiger Peak in the background.
Hercules mine when it was in production
Paige, Dr. Evans, Jane and Fox
We left Wallace for home at 4 pm. We were looking forward to getting home because Paige, Chris, Jane, and Fox would be there. Chris just graduated from USC's dental school on the army's dime and is now officially Captain Doctor Chris Evans, DDS. They're heading to Germany on their first assignment in July. Meanwhile, Chris heads to Texas in a week for officer training. Paige and the grandkids will be staying with us until they leave for Germany.
As usual we stopped at Cafe Rio in Coeur d'Alene for dinner. While we were eating Eric called to say he passed his motorcycle class and license today. He's going riding with me, John, and Lonnie in the Dirty Face Dual Sport in a couple of weeks and he needed to get a street-legal license.
We intentionally left Wallace late so we'd hit Snoqualmie Pass around 9pm, hopefully late enough to miss all the holiday traffic returning to Seattle. Wrong. Ninety miles from Seattle we hit stop and go traffic on the highway snaking over the mountains. We made it home by 11 and Paige and Chris were waiting for us. It was great to see them. We had a blast in Wallace this weekend!
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