Washington - Oregon - Idaho - Utah - Colorado 2007 : Day 10

Day 10 - Boise -> Stanley (Idaho)

Fisher Creek mounntain bike trail ride (Stanley, Orgeon)

After a very good nights sleep in the great bed, we got up and had breakfast at the Hotel, which was very good.This was the best Hotel we stayed in on this Holiday and was also the cheapest we had stayed in !!

I then rang a couple of places I'd had found on the Internet in Stanley, and managed to book use 2 nights at the Valley Creek Motel. We then loaded the SUV up and headed into Boise to get provisions.

We struck out on bikes shops as they were all closed as we were too early. Boise seemed like a very nice town, very clean with some old buildings. We bought some groceries at a supermarket, and then headed off on Highway 21 to Stanley.

Hi way 21 was very scenic but also very slow and windy as it climbed up and down the mountains, with a lot of slow traffic.

We arrived in Stanley and checked in to the Valley Creek Motel. The owner of the Hotel was a very friendly lady from Spain, who told us the bets palces to eat in the area. We then got our gear together to go out for a ride, and headed south to ride Fisher Creek. It was very hot in the 90's as we set off riding.

Fisher Creek Mountain Bike Trail Stanley, Idaho

From the trail head car park you had to carry on riding south on the road, until the turning for Fisher Creek. The road ride was ok, as there was a large shoulder to ride in. We headed off up Fisher Creek road.

The road turned to dirt, which got quite sandy. In places there were swarms of butterfly's drinking moisture from the trail. They all fly up the air around as as we rode past them.

<empFisher Creek Mountain Bike Trail Stanley, Idahoy>

As we climbed higher we rode into the area where all the trees had been burned down, it was very hot here as there was hardly any shade.

There was one steep rocky but ride able section of the trail to navigate before we got to the start of the singletrack.

As all the trees had been burned back the trail, was composed of loose dirt and decomposed granite, the trail was quite wide at times and as trails go was fairly dull to ride, asides from where the trail has some loose dirt , there's not much to keep you on your toes whilst riding i.e. roots or rocks, so the ride did at time feel fairly boring. At times we could see a large smoke cloud off to the North from another Wild Fire.

When we rode out of the burnt area, the trail became more interesting to ride , the section of trail running along the creek was nice, and as we entered an area not burnt the trail got a lot better.

Video (17 MB)

The best part of the ride was a downhill section through the woods

Video (15 MB)

But one thing about this trail is there is a distinct lag of long distance views, all you get to see is burnt tress, or live tress and not a great deal more - apart from some cows towards the end of the trail.

Video (17MB)

The only part of trail where you got great views was where it broke out of the tress on the final descent to the car park.

Video (17MB)

In total the ride was 17.8 miles, the ride had been ok but we couldn't see why the guide books and some mountain bike magazines had raved about it so much. Email me for garmin GDB file

We headed back to the Motel , and got cleaned up then drove over the Redfish Lake Lodge, on the way we stopped and took some sunset pictures. The food at the Lodge was very good, watch out for the step on the way out though !! - I picked up my 2nd injury of the holiday here when Ii fell down it 8-). We then went out to lake and spent some time star gazing, the sky was amazingly clear and we saw several shooting stars.

DAY 11