Trip Report

Idaho Bound

Idaho Bound
June was a busy month for Limberlost. We hustled and launched this site days before the Oregon Outback, rode it, and then when we were done catered a C-Velo training camp in Sun River the next weekend and coordinated the Tour de Clack the weekend after that. Exhausting! Well we’ve been licking our wounds for a few weeks now repairing bikes and gearing up for what is sure to be our best trip of the year: IDAHO.

Last summer we caught wind of a mythical Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route in Idaho. Six hundred miles of singletrack, gravel, mountain roads, and 50 hot springs. All just to the east in a land adjacent to Oregon that we’ve spent very little time in. We swallowed the bait, sinker, bobber, and rod. Since then we’ve been scheming. We started with more than a dozen in our group, pouring over maps in the dark winter rains. Now we’ve dwindled to the most hardcore enthusiastic group of 6. We’re buried in our garages tweaking tubeless setups, trying out new bag systems, and preparing flat rate boxes to ship ourselves with Portland luxuries like Stumptown Coffee, Olympic Provisions chorizo, and Union Gin.

I ran out of time to finish my homemade chair/tarp system and my framebag. We got our CPR certification last week, and threw a shakedown BBQ last night. I’ve got my Tenkara rod set up, Jason just upgraded to a suspension fork with the thru axle dynamo from Schmidt, and Howard has outfitted us with Stanley flasks. Last Saturday I passed up an invite from a pretty girl to go ride the pumice fields of Mount St Helens under the supermoon at midnight to wrench on my bike and pack my bags instead. Priorities? There’s still so much prep to be done but frankly I’m ready to be out there!

We’re allowing ourselves 3 weeks to complete the route with all the singletrack options. This is not enough time. We’ve inherently added in some major bushwhacking shortcuts on which I’m suuuure everything will go exactly as planned. We’ve got Trudy in Idaho City watching our cars and the Ryder clan in McCall hosting us at their cabin for a night. We’ve got jobs to get back to approximately 12 hours after we’re planning on finishing. I guess we need to vacation with a certain sense of urgency.

The trail reports are starting to roll in. Early season riders have seen 12 hour slogs through snowed-in passes and over downed trees. They’ve found rivers swollen with snowmelt and hot springs flooded. They’ve reported extremely rocky and technical trails, and recommended not-to-be-missed spur loops. They’ve left cold beer caches for us at each hot spring. (Right? You guys didn’t forget that did you?) And we’ve got trail condition reports and re-routing suggestions from local OHV & MTB riders.

And so on. I’m excited. I’m still/already packing. Keep your eyes open this week for a post or two about our gear setups, and we’ll be posting updates once we hit the road too. Eastward ho!

Early season riders have seen 12 hour slogs through snowed-in passes and over downed trees.
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