Day 2: Boulder Creek to Deep Creek

After a peaceful night sans mormon crickets (and wondering where they go at night), we set out for another day of on-again-off-again plagues of red "jumpies" (as Ani liked to call them). We also had some navigation challenges as it turned out that my quick revision to the RideWith GPS map took us through a gated private community instead of the route I had highlighted on my paper map. That led to a hilarious back-and-forth...

How many times did we come back to this intersection?

Somewhere along the way, we bumped into a woman on an ATV who was busy checking that the weekend crowds had shut the cattle fences behind them. Turns out she owns the ranch right next to where we camped. She was super nice, shared some stories about helping other bikepackers out, and off we went... only to turn around one more time. 

Good dirt road turns to sandy double track.

Sandy double track turns to rocky hike-a-bike.

Unexpected reservoir.

Mormon cricket carnage on Ani's pannier.

This section of our route was remote, beautiful, with vast open views and lots o' cows. And praying for another campsite with no mormon crickets. We had some intel on a good dispersed site at Deep Creek and lo and behold, when we got there, it was just about perfect. We went upstream a bit to find a good swimming hole (which was possible this time of year, but would guess not so much in the fall) and a better place to filter water. While a few mormon crickets lingered, it really wasn't that bad and they seemed to subside and hide out as the sun went down. 

Camp.

A few tips for bike tourists:

• This dispersed site is to SW of the bridge and really a lovely spot, tucked away from the road.  
• The water at this site was not nearly as clear or nice as Boulder Creek, but it gets the job done, and reports from Dirty Freehub show that it runs all the way through fall as a reliable water source. 
• We did note there was another less picturesque dispersed site shortly after this one at Current Creek, but more exposed to the road... but it would do in a pinch if this site is already occupied.