Exploring My Corner Of The World On Two Wheels

This past weekend, my roommate Ani and I haphazardly loaded camping gear onto our bikes in preparation for a friend's housewarming BBQ... he lives just 4 miles from us on bubbling creek with a waterfront bonfire pit and plenty of space to pitch a tent if you want to have more than a few beers.  It's funny how something as simple as riding a bike with camping gear 4 miles brought back memories of all the things I love about bike touring.  We were flying down the road with the sun at our back and the wind in our hair when I knew it was time for a serious bike tour.

The Adventure Cycling Association released the maps for a new dirt road / singletrack tour in Idaho which features mountains, rivers, and a gajillion hot springs shortly after I came back from Mexico in late 2013.  Tucked in the back of my head was the idea that this would be my next longer-than-a-weekend bike tour.  As time passed, I fell in love with the perfect work-life balance I live in Bend, Oregon, with sunny days packed full of fulfilling work, mountain biking, martial arts, yoga, potlucks, hikes, and teaching salsa, and so my timeline for this tour kept getting pushed back.

It's hard getting used to having lots of vacation time and my work expects me to use it, so I decided I had to do something in June lest I not use enough of my vacation time this year.  I flitted with the idea of backpacking the Cordillera Blanca in Peru, crashing a friend's trip to Indonesia, and doing some local exploration in the Three Sisters Wilderness.  And then I asked my buddy Ryan if I could borrow his copy of the Idaho Hot Springs Tour, and I was hooked.  I decided I would do it, and wouldn't ya know it, Ryan wanted to come, too.

The Bible.

And so I find myself in the throes of researching and reading every little bit I can about this tour online... and planning some more bikepacking overnights to get my touring legs back.  We are looking at 500 miles of dirt road over 12 days of cycling starting around June 21st.

Some of the best resources I have come across so far are the following:

• Q&A with Idaho Hot Springs route cartographer Casey Greene
• ACA Idaho Hot Springs route map addenda
• ACA Idaho Hot Springs GPS data
• Bikepacking.net forum on the ACA Idaho Hot Springs route

For inspirational reading on folks who have already rocked this route:

• https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=13942 
• http://www.gonesouthblog.com/category/idaho-hot-springs/