Post-Trip Ramblings: The Idaho Hot Springs Tour Edition

We woke up obscenely early most likely because we passed out early the night before from our afternoon of drinking at the Dirty Shame.  Ryan had a 6 hour drive back to Bend, but I decided to take my time in the morning to have coffee and breakfast over at Wild Bill's and then head north via Hells Canyon to my parents' house in Tri-Cities.  It felt good to come full circle since we started our tour at Wild Bill's.  A bunch of wildfire fire fighters were there having breakfast... turns out there was a fire on Highway 55 south of Crouch, which is the primary way to get from Boise to this area and a bunch of people got stuck trying to go home.  As I waited for my food, I saw that the 100+ degree weather was supposed to continue for the next week, and although I was sad that the tour had been cut a few days short, it was a silver lining knowing that I wouldn't have to bike in that weather.  Since I had some extra time, I decided to make a stop at Palouse Falls State Park on the way.  It was blazing hot so I only explored for a very short period of time, but it was worth it!

Scenic views of Hells Canyon recreation area.

Nez Perce national wilderness area... I recalled the old stories of the Nez Perce as I marveled at the stark landscape.

Stunning and unexpected in the middle of southeastern Washington state.

Views down the canyon.

I stalked this momma and her not-so-little offspring for a bit before leaving.

In no particular order, there are some things I think are important to know for anyone who is planning on doing this tour this year or in the future:

• Bring a bathing suit for the hot springs and rivers.  While many hot springs in Oregon are clothing optional, many hot springs in Idaho are bathing suit mandatory.  I did not see a single nude person at the hot springs, though I may or may not have skinny dipped in a river or two.

• Ryan severely underestimated his cycling fitness for this tour despite the fact that he (a) mountain bikes on occasion and (b) has done lengthy bike tours before.  It wasn't that he was unable to do this tour, but he really struggled on the climbs.  Rule #1 in Zombieland?  Cardio.  We saw some other folks on the road who had no idea what they were getting themselves into and looked pretty miserable on the road.

• Although I understand that it was about 10-15 degrees hotter than normal, the weather in this part of Idaho is extremely variable, but it is mostly hot.  Really really really hot.  If you idealize this tour as partaking in all the hot springs, you are sorely mistaken.  The rivers, though, are also awesome.

• We really struggled with knowing when and where water sources would present themselves.  While most of the campgrounds identified on the ACA maps had pumps, not all of the did.  When we had wifi or cell phone access, we tried to research which campgrounds had pumps so we could plan accordingly.   It was also hard to decipher on the map whether or not we would be able to access the river to filter water (bring a reliable water filter... my personal favorite because it is so lightweight is the mini Sawyer).  While much of this route follows rivers, sometimes there are 20 foot steep banks (cliffs, really) which would make it impossible to get to the water.  I hope in future editions that the water sources are marked -- one icon for a pump or spigot and one icon for river access for filtering water.  We sometimes carried enough water for 2 days just in case because we couldn't reliably tell. 

• If you come from a traditional road touring background, just know that you should cut your average daily road miles in half to get a safe estimate for how much distance you will cover on dirt.  We were aiming for 42 miles a day on average.  We had days we biked anything from 28 miles to 75 miles (which included pavement sections). 

• There is cell phone service for much of the corridor between Cascade and McCall, in Ketchum, and in Stanley.  Everywhere else is fairly off grid.  Crouch and Twin Springs Resort both have publicly available wifi at the various establishments. 

• I used PocketEarth on my iPhone with an external battery to have an offline GPS and imported the GPX files from ACA.  I used it mostly to doublecheck our route and didn't keep it on the whole time to save battery.  This saved our butts a couple times and I highly recommend having a GPS for this tour, as some of the dirt road intersections are unmarked or confusing.  It is also very helpful in finding the various points of interests and hot springs, which are not signed many of the times.  Ryan had a bike computer to be able to follow the cue sheet.  These two combined were the minimum needed for this tour.

• We were told that may folks do this tour clockwise, and I think it's because there may be less total climbing that way.  We did it counterclockwise because the ACA map made it seem like that was the logical way to do it.  Regardless, if you don't like climbing, you are going to hate this route.  

• Parking cars in Cascade and Crouch gave us a multitude of emergency bailout options via the Lohman cutoff and Warm Springs road and I would do it again like that in the future.  Starting in Crouch also made Ketchum, the biggest town with the most amenities, around the halfway point-ish, which made us appreciate it more.

• When in doubt, take less gear if you are used to fully loaded touring.  The climbs are brutal with the extra weight and then factor in food and water for 2 days sometimes and... yea.  I have certain luxuries like a hammock I like to have, but I wore the same clothes the entire time and otherwise didn't carry many extraneous items.  Whatever you do, don't skimp on your repair kit.  Dirt road touring is tough on bikes.  Ryan broke his chain and lost a bolt on his rack.  Luckily we were able to repair both from my repair kit.  We were lucky and zero flats!  There are very few bike shops on the route, so prepare to be fairly self-sufficient.  

• Fire season is here early this year.  Use this resource before your trip if you travel mid to late season to see if a wildfire will affect your route: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/13/. 

• If you go early season, check to make sure all the mountain passes are open here: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/. 

Aaaaaanyway, my final words are to just go!  There wasn't a single terrible view or a climb that wasn't worth it.  There wasn't a single ugly river or moment when I regretted this tour.  In fact, I can't wait to come back and finish that little bit of the upper loop I didn't get to do this time... maybe in September, maybe next year, maybe I'll do whole thing again!