Day 7: Thatcher Creek Campground To 9 Miles Past Crouch Towards Cascade

I woke up randomly right around sunrise, maybe because of the whiskey, maybe because I had to pee, but I peeked my eyes open to the most amazing sunrise!  This day of riding was personally my hardest day of riding even though it was mostly downhill on pavement.  Mentally, I just don't do as well on pavement, and the days were slowly growing hotter.  I think it hit 105 degrees, which felt even hotter as the pavement reflected the heat back onto us.  The sun was relentless and since we were on the road, there were no trees for shade at all.


Quick picture, and then I fell back asleep for another hour.

I decided I needed a late morning brain break, so we stopped at the Kirkham hot spring, which ended up being my favorite hot spring of the entire trip.  Nestled on the south fork of the Payette river, this hot spring features over half a dozen pools of varying temperatures, cascading waterfalls of hot spring water, and cold river eddies deep enough to dive into.  We jumped back and forth between hot and cold, then headed to a shaded picnic table for lunch before moving on.

Views of the hot springs and river from above.  Despite all the people, it didn't feel crowded.

Taking a hot spring "shower."

Because we hadn't timed our hot springs detour very well, we ended up biking through the hottest part of the day.  The wind was cruelly hot, so that even when it whooshed by us, it was not in the least bit refreshing.  The downhill was basically negated by a hot headwind so we had to work a lot harder than expected, and both of us were suffering.  About 5 miles from Crouch around 3:45 pm, Ryan finally found some shade.  He collapsed into it to take a rest.  At this point, I could see the finish line, complete with air conditioning and a cold beer.  I decided to keep going and we would meet at the Dirty Shame Saloon.  If Ryan didn't show up by 7 pm, I could bribe someone for a ride to look for him.  I crushed the last 5 miles solo and the first cold beer I drank tasted like unicorn tears.

Happiest sight of my life.

Abut 45 minutes later, Ryan rolled in, having made a stop at the gas station outside of town to chug a cold soda.  We took our time at the Dirty Shame, chatted with a few folks at the bar about our trip, and then headed over to the grocery store to get provisions for the night.  We would bike as far as light would let us out of town, a bit out of necessity since it was the weekend and campsites would be at a premium, and also to get some climbing out of the way.  Every single patch of campground, established or otherwise, was occupied for miles out of town, until we happened upon a site that looked big enough to share.  The occupants weren't there, but their camp chairs and other provisions were out.  We decided to raid their spot and ask for forgiveness later, setting up camp out of the way and as compactly as possible.

Local elk... NOM.  We biked by this ranch and had to chuckle at the sign that warned folks not to hunt the "tame elk" that I presume they had at the ranch.

Cozy spot next to the river.  Thankfully, our neighbors didn't get back until after we had gone to sleep and didn't seem to mind that we had invaded their site.

A few travel notes for bike tourists:

• Weekends and especially the Fourth of July are a shit show in Crouch, so be prepared for extra traffic, even on dirt roads, and full campsites.  Luckily most folks are pretty nice so you can always ask to invade someone else's spot and I'm sure most would happily oblige.