Riding, Geocaching and Exploring . . . .

Somewhere I haven'’t been before and haven'’t heard about.


I stopped to look for a cache.


Stopping and walking to the area of the cache location provided me with a view I otherwise would have missed. I didn’'t find the cache but I sure found a pretty view. As many time as I have ridden the paved road along the river (Hwy 12) until now I had no idea there was a road here.


Fun riding.


That looks like a good camping spot down there. Another place I need to return to for more exploring.






Another stop to see if I could find a cache but was distracted by the view and didn'’t find the cache. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it )


While I was looking around a pickup with two men in it stopped. They were checking to make sure I was OK. They were very nice and telling me the people at the bottom of the hill are nice even though not many people are down there. They chatted for a few minutes and went on their way.


When I got here I knew I needed to turn right to go to Pardee but instead of doing that I decided to continue on straight to see where the well maintained road went.


The road went about another mile then turned into private property and appeared to end at a ranch. I decided to head back to where I intended to go to in the first place.




Not at Pardee yet but a stop for a cache brought me here.


As I started looking for the cache I became distracted by the concrete structure and wondered what it was.




I found the cache and it was time to move on. I was almost to the river so the road would be ending soon.


Down a hill and round a switch back and I was pretty much at the end of the road. Just around that bend is access to the river. Another good camping place.


I couldn'’t find much about Pardee and nothing about the concrete tower. This site says President Cleveland kept his Mistress in Pardee and had a bit of a trek to visit her.
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/id/pardee.html The site also indicates the only thing left at Pardee is a water tower but that tower would have a difficult time holding water.

Does anyone know what that tower would be used for?

Back up the hill I go. I decided to count the switchbacks on my way up. There were 13.


At the top of Carrot Ridge I took a different road rather than returning the same way I came down. I didn'’t know where the road would take me but I figured I would have fun finding out.

I think I found this in Woodland.


And a short distance down the road this nice barn.


I stopped at a viewpoint.


That’s Kamiah and/or Kooskia down there.


This guy stopped to check on me. Actually he just stopped to chat but starting a conversation with "is everything OK?" probably seems more professional than "cool, it looks like you are having fun let's talk about it".


He told me how much he enjoys the viewpoint and often takes his lunch break here. He point out Gospel Hump across the way and told me I would have a good time riding to Elk River. He wished me a good ride and was on his way.

I was on Woodland road which was a curvy road with lots of pretty views and it twisted and turned its way to the bottom of the valley.




At the bottom of the hill I rode through Kooskia, South on Hwy 13 then East on Hwy 14 following the Clearwater River (I think the south fork).

I really haven't abandoned this thread I was busy with the Hells Canyon Gathering and had to let this thread sit idle for a bit. Now to finish up with this 4 day adventure before telling you about Hells Canyon.

The spring run off has the rivers flowing hard.


Another cache stop and I find a pretty little water fall.


Stopped in Golden, ID to see what was there. This is what is there, that’s it – one building.


Looks like Elk City has everything needed.


A little rustic.


There’s gas available and that'’s always a good thing


Looks like you can get a meal and wifi.


I like that ATVs are legal to ride on roads in Idaho.


Elk City has more than one place to eat.


People live a simple lifestyle.


My plan was to ride over the mountain to Selway Rd. and drop down to O’Hanna campground. I knew there was a chance that I would find snow but I got quite a ways before I started to see snow along the road.


Then I started finding snow on the road but only on half the road so all was good. This was at about 5000’ and I thought I was at about the top of the mountain.


Of course that didn’'t last long and I started finding snow across the road but it was only short stretches.


When I came across a long stretch of snow at almost 6300’ feet I decided it was time to turn around and go back rather than chancing it.


As I crossed about a half a dozen short stretches of snow up and back I kept thinking about this: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357596. I didn'’t want to find myself in that predicament. I try to learn from my friends.

Even though I didn'’t get where I wanted to go it was another nice ride. The views looked different on the way back than they did on the way in.


At the viewpoint I thought it would be a nice place to camp but at the elevation I knew it would be cold and wanted to get to a lower elevation before stopping for the night.


Back down I went and back to hwy 14. Earlier I had spotted a road that look like it would have camping available and I was headed for that. First I needed to stop and check this out.


As a great end to the day I found a nice campsite.


I wanted to go camping as I was missing it and I now I was getting to. There was a lot wood for a campfire and I was looking forward to a nice fire but I couldn'’t keep the fire going. All that wood was super wet. Oh well, I had a good dinner and left overs to put in my thermos for the next day.


I'll be back in the morning with more......

Hi Shooby,
The Hells Canyon gathering will be the same time next year. It sure is a good time in an area with a variety of riding and beautiful terrain.

Saturday June 1, 2013

When the sun set the night before the dew was setting in and everything became damp within just a few minutes. I crawled into my nice warm sleeping bag and was lulled to sleep by the nearby creek. Mmmmmmm just a little slice of paradise until about 4:00 am when I woke up cold. I threw my coat over my feet and tried to go back to sleep. Finally about 6:00 I gave up and got up. I walked around for a bit trying to get the blood flowing and went back to my sleeping bag. Nope that didn'’t work and I was still cold. Everything was covered in thin layer of ice so it had gotten colder during the night than I thought it would. Yep, I'’m a wimp when it comes to being cold.

As I was packing up camp a couple came down the road and stopped to make sure I was OK. The lady couldn'’t believe I was out there camping all alone. They had been out driving in the mountains so she pulled out their Benchmark atlas and showed me where they had been stopped by snow. I wasn’'t the only one pushing the season. They too were having a good time even though they were turned back by the snow.

Back on the road following the river was an enjoyable ride even if I was still cold.


When I got to Kooskia, ID I wanted to find a café and have breakfast and a hot cup of coffee. I decided to take care of business first and get gas before partaking in the luxury of a hot meal in a warm building. I wanted to check my gas mileage so I snapped photos of how much gas and how many miles.




Not bad gas mileage. Time to go find that hot meal and warm building.

I parked behind a pickup parked in the biker parking area.


A man and woman came out of the bar and the man asked me how many ccs my bike had. I told him and he sort of snorted and said something like “I guess it gets you where you want to go”. It was clear he did not approve. They walked to a beat up old car with a Harley sticker in the back window an drove away.

Gotta love people that think they are bikers.


I found a café, some hot coffee and great conversation. As I was finishing breakfast the last of the customers left, the breakfast rush was over and the lunch rush had not started yet. One of the waitresses walked over and struck up a conversation as I was putting on my jacket. She explained she used to ride trials in PA before she moved to the NW. Now she rides horses and ATVs. As we were talking I discovered she has worked during hunting season with an outfitter taking "city slickers" hunting, packing in by horseback and mules. She told me a few funny stories. She was a very interesting gal maybe in her 60s and I would have liked to talk with her more but she needed to get back to work and I needed to move down the road. She had weathered, wrinkled skin of a person who worked hard out in the sun and she was a beautiful person. She gave me a god bless and squeezed my hand as I was leaving. I liked that, it was a genuine gesture.



I don’t know what the critter on top of that building is supposed to be.


With a full tank of gas and full tummy I headed out to see Selway Falls and took my time enjoying the views as I followed the river.



Taking time to enjoy the flowers along the way.




Decided to take a walk.




Couldn'’t resist getting a shot of the Superbug on the bridge.




There’s a lot of water coming off the mountains.








The horses and mules that take the Forest Service workers up into the mountains.


Looks like there are going to be a lot of thimble berries in the area this year.




Another bridge shot just because I like bridges.


When I saw this sign it gave me an idea of how close I was to getting where I wanted to be the day before. I made it a few miles beyond the Indian Hill Lookout turn off. The lookout was only two miles from the road I was on but the road to the lookout was very muddy and rutted so I decided not to go up it.


At the end of the bridge I was looking for another cache I didn'’t find but I found some flowers.


Honeysuckles remind me of being a child exploring the forest behind our home. Finding honeysuckles was always a treat.


Last fall I attended the Wild_and_Scenic_Sober_Gathering and met some wonderful people. It was fire season in the beautiful Northwest and the smoke was heavy in the air. I wanted to see the how different the falls look in the spring time from the fall and be in the area without all the smoke.

Selway falls looks more like rapids than falls but it’s a powerful place at any rate.


At some point in recent history the water was high enough to place a log on top of this rock.


That’s a fish tunnel over there.


After enjoying the falls I made my way back to hwy 12 to look for a few caches and see what else I could find.

I stopped here which is a place I have ridden by a number of times but this is the first time I'’ve stopped.


Went for a little walk to check this out.






Spring flowers blooming everywhere.




A ladybug enjoying the flowers along the way.


A nice big load of wood going down the road.


Stopped for a cache at a rest area and even found it. This is one big culvert.


Another flower that reminds me of my childhood and how their sweet smell would drift through the air as I walked to school.


With being as I cold as I was the night before I decided to head back to the Konkolville for the night. I liked the motel, the rates were reasonable and I didn’'t want to be cold again. It was nice knowing where I was going to spend the night and I went and got checked in.

After checking in I headed back to town for dinner deciding to splurge rather than to eat in my room. But before I went to dinner I took a short ride to check out a road I saw on the map. It started out being a nice road but then it changed to freshly laid deep gravel. I didn'’t feel like playing in squiggle gravel to go exploring so I turned around and found dinner.



It might not be gourmet or have the latest fad foods but the food was good and excellent service with a smile.

On my way back to the motel I stopped at a park to look for another cache. I didn’'t find it but I found this:


Back at the motel I took a hot shower, which felt so good. I think it was the only time I was warm all day. The weather wasn'’t cold once the sun came up but after the cold early morning I just couldn’'t seem to get warm.

All in all it was a good day, even though I was cold I enjoyed being able to camp one day, the ride along the rivers was beautiful and the people I encountered along the way were wonderful.

Thank you I will keep it going, I might get busy at times and let it sit but when I do then I will be back with more. Your idea of what the concrete structure is makes some sense and better than my guess of it being Repunzel's tower.

Glad to have you along.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Waking up warm and comfy Sunday morning I felt good about my choice of returning to the motel and it was confirmed with breakfast. As I was leaving I decided to ride up the road a bit north before heading for home. I found this old school or church.


Behind it was this old truck and a train trestle.


I wish I knew the history of this building, I bet there are stories that go along with it and the Konkolville motel and lumber mill.

As I started for home I was thinking it would be nice to get home early and get some things done. Those thoughts only lasted until I spotted the sign for the Dworshak Dam. I hadn't been there so it was a good time to check it out. I was surprised at how huge it is.


It’'s amazing how large something like that really looks when you are right there. No matter how many photos I'’ve seen of it, including mine, they don'’t come close to conveying just how big it really looks.

After looking at the dam I headed back to go home but once again I was side tracked, this time by a fish hatchery.


Just follow the orange fishies.


A sculpture on the way.


In the visitors center there was information about the sculpture.


Big coffee pots so the fish are wide awake?


The pretend fish were kind of cool.


Dang they run a lot of fish through here.


A fun fish wheel to play with.








After a little education it was time to go back outside and see what I could find there. Empty troughs?


Taking time to enjoy the flowers.
Syringa:
"The Syringa (Philadelphus lewisii) was designated the official state flower of Idaho in 1931. Syringa is a woody shrub growing to nine feet tall with with clusters of white, fragrant flowers".

"Native American Indians found many uses for the syringa - the wood was used for root digging sticks and to make pipe stems, harpoon shafts, bows, arrows, and snowshoes. The bark and leaves were used to make a soap".


I was promised big fish.




No one home


Found the fish ladders but there were no fish there either
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OK I’'ll keep off the walls, I wouldn'’t want to fall in that deep water.


Finally I found troughs with water in them but no fish in the water. Clearly I was here at the wrong time to check out fish.


Stopped for a post office picture for MotortimerSickles Post Office thread.


More to come as I make my way home. . . . .

advNZer,
You sure have that right. I enjoy early mornings especially in the summer time but it can be very cold. I agree with you about the heated grips they make a HUGE difference.

The Superbug has heated grips however they have been working Intermittently and of course that day they chose not to work. I also have a heated jacket liner but I had left the switch attached to my other bike so I had the liner but no way to turn it off once it was hooked up, without stopping to unhook it. The Superbug is limited with it's electrical output so when I have the grips and/or liner on I watch the volt meter and when it starts to drop I have to turn off accessories.

I have had two different people look for the grip problem and neither was able to run down the problem. A friend and I were just talking about the advantage of adding LED lights to the bike and I discovered last week my taillight is flickering so I have some electrical things that need to be taken care of soon.

Cruiser Dude,
Thanks for sticking with this and the nice compliments. Next time I'm in Orfino I'll try that chicken at the IGA.

It's time to wrap this ride up so I can move on with stories about Hells Canyon.

Since the day was still young and I had already given up on that silly idea of getting home early I headed to the top of Dworshak Dam and the visitor center.

Stopped to check out this core sample. I guess if you build a big dam you have to take big core samples.


The visitor center was nice with a lot of North Idaho history. Logging and mining were both a big part of the history. On my fathers side of the family logging operations were handed down from one generation to the other. It seems weird that things that were just staples in my childhood are now museum pieces. (am I getting old or what? ) I remember water bags like in this picture hanging on the front of the logging trucks (and beer stashed in the creeks and streams running off the mountains ).


It seems very odd to see one of these encased in glass.


One of the tunnels in the dam.


“The 717-foot-high Dworshak Dam is a straight-axis, concrete-gravity dam, meaning that it crosses the canyon in a straight line and uses a huge mass of concrete, as opposed to its geometric shape, to hold back the water's force. The tallest of its type in the Western Hemisphere, it is said to contain twice as much concrete as Cheope's Great Pyramid.

“Some engineering projects are controversial, and the Dworshak Dam, built 1966-1973 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is one such example. The siting of the dam blocked a run of steelhead trout, and the reservoir covered an extensive area of wildlife habitat. To lessen the effects, the project includes the world's largest steelhead hatchery. Originally, the dam was to have six power-generating units, but peak loads would have led to flooding downstream and a second dam would have had to be built. So the final three generators were never installed.”

No wonder that sucker looked so huge when I was at the bottom of it.

I like the looks of the curved photo of the dam at the top of the stairs in the visitor’s center but since it's claim to fame is the straight-axis it makes me wonder why they made this curved.


There were a lot of things to see in the visitor’s center and since I was the only one there the volunteers working the desk were telling me stories. Back in the early days lookouts weren'’t posted in nice towers like they were later but instead would find a high spot and look for fires from there. This lady climbed a snag and would sit on it all day looking for fires. If she spotted one she would signal the workers.


The story was that one of the men was very taken with her and he named the mountain after her as a sign of his affection. I don’'t remember the mountain name. Something like Bertha, Bertta, Martha, ah heck I don’'t know but I liked the story.

There is a nice colorful children’s area where they can learn about boating safety.


The top of the dam. There sure is a lot of water in there.


While I was in the visitor’s center enjoying the displays a storm blew in. It was raining hard enough the drops were bouncing when they hit the pavement.


Good thing I'’m waterproof


Luckily the storm didn’'t last long but it was cold and time I worked on getting home.

Cavendish United Methodist Church.


Riding through the Palouse is a treat, it’s always changing.


All those yellow roses around the old farm house sure are pretty.


There is a cache here that I didn'’t find but the bumper crop gave me a chuckle.




This section of the road is very nice. It drops down from farm fields through a forest into a canyon with a river or creek at the bottom then climbs back up again. Very scenic but this is all I got for a picture of it.


All these birdhouses remind me of the blue bird houses around Bickleton, WA which is a fun place to ride to. I want to ride to Bickleton again sometime this summer. It's a good half way point to meet a friend or two from the Portland area for lunch.


Lots of grain in the Palouse which is evident by the number of silohs


I was on Hwy 95 for a short distance but traffic moves fast and passing isn'’t always available. With the Superbug only doing about 55 mph I needed to get off 95 so I took the first road west that I came to and it was a nice ride through the farmlands.


Kids playing at a park in one of the farm towns.


Recap:
It was a good four days where I spent a lot of time thinking about the things I was seeing and the people I met along the way. It was refreshing so many people stopped to make sure I was OK when I was parked along the road and talking with them was a pleasure.

This ride reminded me of why I like small town America and a rural lifestyle. The two cafes I ate in had waitresses with personalities and they were hustling while making sure each customer was taken care of and doing it with a smile. Coffee cups did not get empty before more was poured. Much different than in the cities where the waitstaff act like they are doing you a favor to bring you a menu and take your order. It’s nice having a meal delivered with a smile instead of being delivered with a scowl and the bill. Unfortunately, I have too much city in me and my face scowls while my insides are smiling. There is a lot I can learn from those waitresses, like how to smile on the outside.

As I was riding home I kept thinking of these people. They weren'’t fashionable, no brand names on their clothing to be found. They don’'t spend hours and hours in a gym trying to look good. They didn'’t have hard bellies or six packs. No bleached, white, perfectly straight teeth. No fake tans without tan lines and none of them looked 20 at 40+. Heck some of them were wearing mismatch clothes but all those things weren'’t important to them. T-shirts, jeans, flannel shirts, and sweats were the going thing. They all looked like real people aging as god meant them to age. Best of all they were kind folks that smiled easily and sincerely much different than the people I find in the cities.

When turning on the TV we are bombarded with all the messages about how none of us are good enough. We are told we need buns of steel, 6 packs, longer lashes, flawless skin, silky hair, younger looking, perky breasts, and it goes on and on and none of those messages have anything to do with the beauty found within nor the goodness of people. I'’d much rather spend time with a good person any day than the shallow people with “beautiful” exteriors but little inner beauty.

I'’ll admit that I get sucked into those messages the media throws out and the celebrities that don'’t appear to age and I feel very inadequate. Getting out and being around real people that have good souls brought a realization I needed. Beauty really does come from inside and there are a lot of beautiful people out in the world and they are the people I want to be around.

At home when I checked my mileage I discovered I had ridden a lot further than I thought. I was thinking I rode about 500 miles but my guess was a bit short.


Next up and soon to come will be a week staying in Enterprise, Oregon with 100 other ADVers while enjoy the Hells Canyon area.

Thanks

I was wondering if that concrete thing was a silo but it's in an odd place for a silo. It's along a steep grade between switch backs. The river is just below though so that might be why it's there.

Slowpoke, You'll have to figure out how to get to this side of the U.S. one of these day and come out to the Hells Canyon gathering. It's a lot of fun with tons of great riding. I see you found the picture thread.

Many of the following pictures will be repeats for you but there are others I will be adding in here so hang out and enjoy the ride.

You probably thought I forgot about this thread or gave it up already. Nope, I was just busy playing……

About the third week of June each year I host the Hells Canyon/Wallowa Valley Gathering in Enterprise, OR which keeps me a little busy for a few weeks in June. The nice thing about it is this gave me more stories and pictures for this thread. While the gathering is listed to take place from Thursday –- Sunday I enjoyed spending the entire week there rather than just those few days.

Sunday on my way to Enterprise, OR

FLHTLady and I both drove our pickups and hauled our motorcycles to Enterprise. This meant I could take both bikes and all sorts of stuff to use camping. The two of us decided to caravan down with me in the lead. I did a great job leading, took a wrong turn in Clarkston, WA which dropped us into a small waterfront park with limited room too turn around. I can’'t backup a trailer worth beans so FLHTLady jumped in my pickup towing a small motorcycle trailer and got it turned around then turned her pickup towing a travel trailer around. Meanwhile a sheriff was sitting watching us didn't offer assistance just watched probably waiting to see what the two dingy ding dongs would do. Well, things were off to a good start…..

On the way to camp I wanted to stop and look for a geocache at Fields Spring State Park. Geocaching.com has partnered with the Washington State Parks system to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the parks. Caches have been placed in 100 parks and there are 2 years to find them. They have a small prize for finding 50 and another for finding 100. http://www.geocaching.com/adventures/geotours/washington-state-parks It sounded like fun so I’'m working on visiting at least 50 of those parks in the next two years and maybe even hit all 100.

Just like the caravanning got off to a “good” start looking for my first state park cache got off to a "good" start too. We found a nice big parking lot to put our pickups and trailers in and off we went. We followed the GPS arrow to another parking lot further up. We walked in circles, looked at the clue and walked in more circles but no cache was found. The coords. were placing us right in the middle of the parking lot. What the heck????? After a bit I finally realized we were at the spot listed as parking and not where the cache was supposed to be. Duh!

OK we found the parking lot now it was time to go looking for the cache. Off down a hiking trail we went and we got to another trail where it looked like the cache should be but again we couldn’'t find the cache. The cache was a multi cache and the first multi I’'ve tried to find. A multi is where you find the first cache which holds the coords. for the next cache until you ultimately find the prize. I was getting frustrated because it was clear I had something wrong and we weren’'t even finding the first cache.

We were tromping around in the bushes looking for the elusive cache and checking out these gnarly looking trees.


Then I spotted a man walking up the main trail holding what looked like a GPS. I started laughing and asked if he was a geocacher. He confirmed he was and was looking for the same cache. I said we were going to follow him. He was a nice man and the three of us partnered up to go in search of the cache.

His GPS said we needed to go further down that trail to get to the first cache. OK off we go and finally found the first cache near these trees.


We put the next coords into our GPSs and saw the next one was over there to the right across the valley. This picture doesn’'t show the valley but it does give an idea of what a great area we were in.


Our new friend wanted to do what I normally do and take the straight shot across the valley. I looked at it and decided it would be a bit of scramble down to the bottom of the valley and strenuous climb back out of it and suggested we take the long way and use the trail. I was impressed with myself that I suggested the sensible route for a change. FLHTLady was too because the two of us normally stumble into things the difficult way.

The walk to the cache was nice. Our new friend (his geocache user name is different and I can'’t remember it) was having a difficult time with his GPS and it was trying to lead him a different direction. Mine was still pointing the direction we started with so all three of us were now following my GPS. Sort of, the two of them were hiking in the direction the arrow was pointing and I was playing with my camera.


I’'ve camped in this park a few times & even took a few walks but I had no idea there were views like this in the park.


There’s where the GPS is telling us to go.


I'’m playing with my camera again and the other two are finding the cache.


It sure was pretty there.


I put a pedometer on my shoe before we started our walk to check my miles.


Walking in circles gets the miles to add up. – 3.63 miles. I bet if we cut out the circles it would have been closer to 2.5

With the cache found and pictures taken we headed back to the pickups and off to camp we went. We got set up and called it a day since we needed our sleep because we had riding to do the next morning.

This is getting off to a slow start but I will be back with more.