Hi, I am palnning a ride for mid to late July and will follow much of Dockingpilot's and Questor's routes, but I am still trying to come up with a good route between Payette, ID and Elk City, ID. We are slabbing from California and want to get off the tarmac as soon as possible. I was thinking of heading to highway 55 then to Middle Fork Road (Middle Fork of Payette River). Then maybe to Clear Creek (Road 409)? But it seems there are areas where it may be questionable whether or not the roads go all the through, etc. Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated. Brian
No response yet? The Benchmark Atlas shows the more obvious routes north/south thru Idaho. You might post in the PNW forum and the Boise folks may chime in. That area is a long way from me and I am sketchy on the good roads. Mostly you will have to get east of hwy 55 and aim for Yellowpine, Burghdorf, Riggins. Cross the Salmon River then back easterly. The Salmon-Grangeville Road crosses the Salmon River east of Riggins, but you will need gas, so you still need to go to Riggins. If you have the range you can skip Grangeville and head east on Hungry Ridge to Hwy 14. Then you can connect to the Elk City Wagon Road on the north side of 14. Bring your big tank there is no gas out here. Riggins, Grangeville and Elk City are gas stops. Yellowpine and Burghdorf may/should have gas.
Thanks for the info. I was going to also post in PNW, but i thought it was against the rules for the same thing posted in two places. Anyway, I do have the Benchmark maps, but it just seems a bit sketchy as far as connecting between some of the dirt roads-many turns, etc. As far as moto range goes, what do you think is needed? I have a F650 GS single, 200-250 miles depending, my buddy has an 800GS, maybe 200 miles?, I am more worried about his bike. We are taking at least a couple gallons of fuel with us. Again, thanks for your input. I will post in PNW. Brian
200 should be enough, especially since one bike has more. Exploring and backtracking can use up a lot of fuel, but mostly you run into trouble by passing major fuel stops. Always top up when leaving pavement for the interior of Idaho, unless you know where you are going.
There are several options. I don't have a map in front of me so I don't have road numbers. You can ride up Hwy95 to just north of Cambridge and there is a road through Indian Valley that comes out at Cascade. From there you can ride north on Hwy 55 to Mccall. Then you can take the road to Burgdorf and down French Creek to the Salmon. Go down the Salmon to the Allison Creek road up to the Florence area. Then ride the forest road towards Grangeville. Turn off that at Rainy or 20 Mile Creek and drop down to the South Fork of the Clearwater. You can then take that to Elk City. You can also turn off the South Fork road at Newsome Creek and head up to the Elk City Wagon road and take that to Elk City. I can look up some of the road numbers if you need them, but I have found that the forest service road numbers and other map's names and numbers don't always match.
Thanks for the info Sorebutt. I can check the road numbers. I appreciate your insight. The more options, the better. Brian
I should have mentioned that from Cascade you can take the road to Yellowpine and get to the Burgdorf area that way.