The alternate from Hell

Before this day officially got started, well, at least before we had rolled more than a couple hundred feet, we had our first major mechanical failure. Alaine's front pannier rack had snapped a screw at some point between our arrival the night before and the morning. Not a good way to start a day. I really thought we were going to have to go find a place to drill it out (how likely would that be, on a Sunday, when there are no bike shops or machine shops around?), but then noticed how the broken piece that was stuck in the hole wasn't "stuck". There was a little movement, at least enough to back it out with my Leatherman pliers and throw in a new screw. Whammo bammo we were moving again with only a few minutes lost. Pretty dang fortunate. 

Now, so far we've not been inclined to take any of the alternates that have been mapped by the ACA; we've stuck to the routes everywhere, even in the toughest terrain and biggest climbs. Today, though, the main route had warnings about "significant deep volcanic sand," though that route was only 31 miles and on a flat-to-downhill rail trail road. Instead, because of Alaine's trepidation in the deep sand, having her wheels gripped by it, we chose the route that was 17 miles longer and included a climb of 2200 feet. Somehow we didn't register (well, Alaine didn't) how steep and long (12 miles) the steady climb would be.

But we figured that was an okay alternate -- it was tougher and longer, but if we could avoid the volcanic sand – that was our goal. Unfortunately, after the first 10 miles --which were very pretty Idaho forested trails--we turned onto another road pointed uphill which was…serious deep volcanic sand. It was a huge bummer and really hard to move, hard to get started after a stop, and lots of swerving, lots of sliding, lots of concentration needed. And this went on for a good 12 miles of that kind of surface at serious climbing. We were grateful that there were very few ATVs while we were climbing. Perhaps because it was a Sunday, or perhaps they all knew that the road just been dumped, clumped and coated with all the new, fresh from the volcano, volcanic sand.

The route did suggest and we'd get to see some pretty good views, including the valley and the hill of CD6 of yesterday, so that was bonus. But Alaine didn't get to see much because she was concentrating so hard trying to maintain headway and finding /staying on the smoothest, grippiest possible rut -- me too. It was very very difficult, but once we got into the zone, we both managed.

The final 20 miles were on pavement but still with a lot of climbing up, and down. Pretty fun. The road was an old forest trail that had been paved at some point, though it had not been maintained, so every crack in the asphalt had 6 inch long grass growing up, and the sides of the road had trees and shrubs encroaching. We had it pretty much to ourselves.

And then we reached the Warm River Campground, and boy what a sight! The river was going fast, fishers fly fishing, a big picnic going on, families of tubers floating several hundred yards down the river before walking back upstream to do it again--it was a nice site to see people enjoying the day. Best of all, no mosquitos. The perfectness of this place called for splurging for a campfire... Great for roasting our sausages. We would really like to return here someday.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a1bes3eAnT0

The camp host, who had spent time in Skagit Valley, told us the old deep-sand rail trail wasn't so deep since they had closed a tunnel at the half-way point - not as many ATVers using it. Oh well. Best intentions... 

The moon shone on us for several hours of the night, and we had enough wood left, and liquid tinder (you know what I'm talking about if you read the redneck post-- I didn't singe myself this time), to have a fire for breakfast before setting out.

Day 17, Sunday July 13, 2014, Big Springs CG, ID to Warm River CG, ID

48.5 miles, 9.6mph avg., 5:00 ride time