Meeeeee toooooooo! Too many roots down around here, otherwise I think I'd be living somewhere west.

The lookout is cool for sure, and yeah to sit there and watch a storm come in would be great. Probably not a smart place to be when the lightning starts flying. What is the story on the lookout? Manned 24/7? It looks like somebody had to run out quick, left a snack on the table. ????

Cool! I'm ready for the next chapter.
Dan

Looking at it in Google earth.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&to...ed=0CB8Q8gEwAA

 

That is paradise. The names sound so freakin' cool too. Nice report.

 

Great pic and you have that klx loaded up man.

 

Not this one without breaking in. And I'd do that if it was necessary. I've stumbled across many others that have a door unlocked.

 

I think the lookouts are actually a fine place to be in the lightening. They are very grounded. If you look close at the pics, you'll see the grounding wires all around it. In 2010, we hit one at Hells Half Acre on the Magruder Corridor. The operator was a camera buff and showed us some AWESOME lightening photos. He lives for it and has been manning that station with his wife for something like 20 years. Raised his kids there during the summers.

This one is manned, but the looker was not there during our visit otherwise we would have got some pics of her (i'm guessing it was a her from the contents) and visited. They get a break to go get vittles and other essentials, unless they are WAY back there then others bring essentials in.

 

Funny how on a great ride I seem to miss all of the really good photo ops. Above was from our first day on the trail. Camped out at Tincup campground and I'm really kicking myself for missing photos there and other places later. Oh well. Here's what Day II has...













I dig machines . Especially when they dig.

 

 

I like old relics





Deej -- see this? Not quite like the pump you've been working on.




























I think it was somewhere around here that we notice that one of the trailer tires is flat. Oh Shiite.

Things will now be a little tentative. We know that we can't ride out with a busted tire. And there's no spare.

The plan is to pull the trailer down as far as we can. And figure it out from there.















The last few pics above were of the Diamond D and/or guard station. We're heading to Bonanza!

I hear that the Diamond D is a great place to stay. Don't know if its true, but a buddy of mine recently told me that all the staff are gals. No guys on staff. That way they at least get some work done. And the guests tend to enjoy it........wish I had known then.




continued........

 

Riding in really dusty conditions sucks.... Love the pics of the old cars and trucks.

 

So, I mentioned above we noticed the trailer had a flat, and no way to repair and no spare. We continued along carefully, taking time to enjoy the scenery, but needing to find a camp because I had a task.




I think this one may have been near Loon Creek Summit. The next three pics from here. Left (east), middle (south) and right.




Sunbeam Mine, I believe. We're going in the direction of the pic (south). See the road at the bottom? That's where we're going. We'll drop down into the valley and go past the mine's left (east) side and hardly see a thing from the road down there except the mine's access road...unless we look very close. This is big mining country for central Idaho. A lot of gold and other metals. Only a few are still active. Most of the scars are from 50 to 100 years ago or so.











We cruise on down the hill, past the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge near Custer. (Not my pic)

This dredge tore the crap out of this valley and made a few men a lot of dollars. The story behind it and it's operations are quite amazing. You can tour it for a few bucks. We've all done it at least twice so pass on for another time. There's still a task at hand.



Then find a camp site.

My task, you ask? Well, the trailer now has both tires flat. We need the truck and have two options to get back to it: the trail we planned to ride the next day or the slab. The blokes on the four wheelers cannot legally ride the highway. And no one seems very interested in taking the trail. It's really not an option. I keep trying to make it one, but can't get takers. So I ride the 30 to 40 miles of pavement back to the truck. A few fun twisties between Sunbeam and Stanley. There's a "boater's box" hot spring right along the river, just feet off the highway yet completely unseeable from the pavement that nearly sucked me in for a rest. Hot water is piped in from a nearby geothermal spring, and there's usually a 5-gallon bucket nearby to pull cold river water in to make it enjoyable.

At Stanley, you can continue south toward over Galena Summit to the famed Sun Valley on open straight fast mountain highway for a long ways. Watch your speed (no worries on the KLX) and the deer.

Or from Stanley, turn west, gas at Mountain Village, continue through town to a really darn straight open mountain highway toward Lowman.

I was driving this road several years ago from Boise to Stanley, in a smaller SUV with a big 18' Aire Cataraft trailed behind so my rear-view was limited. I'm not in a hurry, putting along at 55 to 60 with not a single other car passing in either direction for the past 15 minutes or more. This is a lonely highway. And then ... how do I describe it ... ripping ... blasting ... flying ( !!! ) past me way into the tipple digits went six or so Harleys. Bad machines. Seriously bad. Reckless. Hopefully mounted by talented, bad-*** riders. Bright paint. Chrome. Extremely wide rear tires. Deafening. Dragstrip speed passing me completely unexpected. If I was one to **** my pants, that would have been the time. The first few were followed by about another 50 or so riders at a more moderate speed around 80 to 110 mpg. They were having fun passing the only rig on the road. Sturgis bound.

If you ride like those guys (again, probably not on the KLX), from Stanley toward Lowman, watch out after the summit where you should have see a "Seafoam" sign before. On and off curves from here on out. At Lowman, take the Idaho City route to Boise for extra highway twisties and a number of trail-bypass opportunities that I've yet to explore.



return from digression....


I really wanted to ride the trail. But riding it alone may not be the best idea knowing these other guys are relying on me, and it would probably get dark half way through even if I was making good time. Turns out highway was a good choice.







So, I go get the truck and bring it back. Non eventful enough. The boys have dinner duty tonight.


















Camp grub is always good.