Our evening ride lead way to a campfire dinner of smokies and smores joined by a few craft brews. A great sleep soon followed.

Well it was a good sleep until 7am when it was broken by the sound of rv generators. Is the morning news so important that you have to wake all your neighbouring campers?

Giving up on sleep, we grabbed breakfast before heading back to Ketchum and Sun Valley Resort. Our plan for today ws to ride Warm Springs trail at Bald Mountain. For $20 you can access the Roundhouse Gondola and Christmas chair to the peak for the beginning of a 10 mile decent back to the valley.

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Then the rains came and did they ever!

We had found what looked like a nice camping spot with a flat tent placement. Unfortunately we didn’t expect a massive downpour and soon saw water pooling around our tent, threatening to float us away.

While I forgot one important camping item, a shovel, I was able to borrow one from a neighbouring rv, and with pot in hand, bailed water and kept us dry. This was the most epic waterproofness test of our now year old tent, which it passed with flying colours!

Warm Springs Trail, Sun Valley Resort

 

EveryTrail – Find the best Hiking in Idaho

It’s amazing how things look different in the moonlight. We had arrived and setup camp in the dark, blocking our view of the beauty that surrounded our simple camp. By morning light we could see tree covered steep valleys leading to grassy meadows, alpine flowers and a clean clear stream.

Breakfast complete we packed up and departed in search of a campsite closer to town. Local forest conditions, regulations and updated information is best found at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area offices, eight miles north of Ketchum on state highway 75. They offered up two nearby locations to try and after a few minutes drive to Big Wood campsite we found a new site and setup our camp for the next few days.

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Find your way around the many trails in the Ketchum Valley and nearby Recreation Area can be a daunting task without maps, but the local mountain bike groups have created some stellar maps with full details, descriptions and ratings for the hundreds of miles of hiking biking and other trails. A preview of the local trails can be found here.

We stopped into Backwoods Mountain Sports conveniently located on the north end of Ketchum. Armed with map in hand we headed over to the River Run Lodge of Sun Valley Resort. Sun Valley ski areas include two hills, Dollar Mountain and Bald Mountain. The latter offers lift accessed biking which is still in its infancy compared to many resorts through North America.

Tired from a couple of days in the car, we headed back to camp for lunch and a short rest before heading off in search of our first ride.

Galena Lodge offers cross country ski trails by winter and biking trails in the summer. Located on the way to Stanley, the lodge is located where once a thriving mining town stood, built in the late 1800’s. Abandoned mining sites are spotted across the nearby hillsides.

We arrived just after the lodge closed, but luckily a staff member was still there and gave us a map for the summer mountain bike trails. She offered up a selection of trails including Outhouse and Tilt-a-whirl, for about an hour long ride. Just a perfect way to start our road trip rides.

Galena Lodge, Idaho

EveryTrail – Find the best hikes in Idaho

With any long distance trip, there comes the day of long miles to get to your destination. Day 2 was ours, 9+ hours from Indian Creek Campground in Washington State to Ketchum, Idaho.

The day started off well with a scenic drive along man made Rimrock Lake and down into the Naches region. This scenic highway gave us big hopes for a nice drive. The south east portion of Washington includes Yakima and consists of undulating hills and rolling plains.

After switching drivers and stopping for gas we climbed out of Pendelton and traversed to Boise. A few mountain passes later we were on the home stretch towards Sun Valley.

We rolled into town around 6pm and started looking for our campsite. What we didn’t plan for was the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and the amount of RV’s that had pulled into town. Most of the nearby campsites were already full, and after unsuccessfully driving up a gravel road, turned around and headed back to town for dinner.

Being a resort town, I was a bit worried of fancy restaurants and "Whistleresque pricing" but pleasantly we came across Smokey Mountain Pizza, and enjoyed a great pasta dinner and pint of Fat Tire Amber Ale.

As darkness had now fallen, we continued up north of Ketchum on highway 75 to look for a campsite. There are many sites in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, from full service to very basic remote sites. First attempt included passing three full campsites before trying to turn around on this narrow gravel road. A nice couple driving by suggested there were spots just up the road, so we continued inching our way up this valley until finding a small campsite just on the side of the road. The sky was clear, the stars bright and a river flowed just nearby. We setup tent and jumped into bed in our warm woollies (the temp was down to 10 degrees Celsius after a high of the day at 34)

We had made our first destination and looked forward to a few days on the trails.

10 days, 4150km, 5 states, 13 mountain passes, 5 National Parks, 4 unique rides, 2 dirty bikes, 1 leaky air mattress.

All in all a priceless experience which puts perspective on what you have in your own back yard.

More detailed installments are coming soon, but here’s a quick overview of our route.

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Summer. Ever the time for family travels. Some Griswald style, others filled with fun and memorable adventures.

Last year our travels took us through BC, checking out rides in Revelstoke, Golden, Nelson and Christina Lake. We were trying out for a Specialized Bikes Stumpjumper Trail Crew.

As September rolled around, we missed the cut but through twitter and their ensuing rides, we virtually met a few like-minded riders.

One person, John Friedrich, was lucky enough to make the final selection. Through his blogs, photos and videos, we added Bozeman to the list of stops for this year. We also tried to meet up with another fellow twitter user, so we added Sun Valley Idaho to our list.

This years fire season was becoming exceptionally bad in BC and for the first time that we could recall, the weather office reported current conditions “smoke”.

With such unfavorable conditions at home, timing seemed perfect for our departure. The car was packed, our bikes were ready, the house sitter was arranged, and we headed south.

We left after work to get across to the mainland and south of the border. A cheap hotel room later, we hit Seattle and dropped in on the Flagship REI store. If you make it to Seattle, be sure to check out this candy store for the outdoors type.

As with any good trip to Seattle, coffee was in order, and while we didn’t go for old standard Starbucks, we stopped across from REI at Vivace for one of the best espresso’s I’ve ever had.

While surfing the wifi I checked on the webcams for Mt Rainier as the windy road would be just a hinderance were it not for the stunning scenery on the drive. We were in luck and turned south for the hills.

As our projected route will take us through numerous state and national parks, we purchased the $80 annual pass which not only gets you into the parks, it gains you discounts on camping in various state forest service campsites.

Mount Rainier is a stunning trip, with many alpine lakes, glacier overlooks, and opportunities for hiking.

Indian Creek on Rimrock lake was the final destination for today, and after a quick bite to eat, it was time for a quick writing session and off to bed. Big day tomorrow with the hopes of setting up in Ketchum for our next few days of riding.

Had a chance to check out the BC Cup at Mount Washington Alpine Resort. What a great day, happy riders, sunshine and more.

Summer has arrived, and with it comes a great opportunity to hit the road to check out new places. Through the power of the internet, blogs, twitter and the Stumpjumper Trail Crew, we have come to meet a few people who share our love for threads of singletrack.

While Vancouver Island is blessed with an abundance of trails to ride, having met many racers through the BC Bike Race, we’ve heard of great riding in so many other places. Mtnbikinggirl and I have chosen two locations to spend our time riding this summer. Sun Valley, Idaho and Bozeman, Montana. I’ve traveled these areas in the past but haven’t ridden the local trails.

Along the way we hope to sample various restaurants, brew pubs, fruit stands, bike shops, lakes, rivers and mountains.

Be sure to follow our progress.

Road Trip