Admirals Voyages (w/photo's & Video's)

[TheAdmiral]

Succor Creek - Leslie Gulch, Eastern Oregon

Well, I've been busier than a one legged man and a square dancing convention, but I was able to squeeze in a ride last week and just now have the time to post it up.

As are most of my rides, this was a day ride, and this time I started and finished from my house, rather than trailer up to a start point. First and last part of the ride was on pavement, with BLM dirt/gravel roads in-between.

Map visual of the ride
Northern portion (Bench Mark Map Idea from RedRockRider)


Southern portion


So I'm just tooling along on hwy 201 south of Adrian, Oregon along the Snake River when something catches my eye on the Idaho side. You just never know what you might see!


I've got a long ways to go


But it's worth it. Here I've entered the Succor Creek canyon area. Nice and green along the creek. Nice green shade tree too


Some impressive views of the canyon. Much more impressive in person than what the photo's can depict.


Just about out of the canyon, but I get one more cool view. A camp area is just a mile or two back from here (left of photo) that looks like it would be nice camping when it's not so darn hot


Headed out for some sagebrush riding again


Gotta stay on your toe's. You never know when you might run into the herd


Headed for Leslie Gulch and Owyhee Reservoir


About half way between Succor Creek road and Owyhee Reservoir, you start the decent into Leslie Gulch.
The gulch is named after Hiram Leslie who was killed by lightning at this spot


Some more really impressive "you have to be here" views of the volcanic rock formations


Dago Gulch branches off Leslie Gulch, but you can't ride or walk very far before you encounter private land


Looks like this cabin is still in use by somebody. Bars on the windows. Probably to keep the not-so-nice perpetrators out


and then what do I find? A TW landing strip!


Well, as much as we would like to believe we are high flying on our TW's, turns out it's just the boat ramp


Nice little campground before you get to the boat ramp. I'm guessing no one is here because the temperature out
is about 1,000 degrees or so. Feels like it!. Because of some potential sunburn, I put my long sleeve shirt on here.
Actually, kept me cooler throughout the rest of the ride with the long sleeve shirt on.


Needed to head back home so I continued on the loop part of my ride. Depending on the map, this is either Sans Basin Rd or Poison Creek Rd, or both. It comes out on Poison Creek Rd and you never get off the main road, so I'll call it Poison Creek Rd


I know this is part of Sans Basin. I stopped here to pee (which was a good thing and means I was staying hydrated). But looking back in the middle of this valley, 2 great big mule deer jumped right out in front of me and crossed the road. Yep, I wasn't expecting that!!! Which is why I have to pee now!


Just before re-entering civilized territory, I come across the old Poison Creek Stage Station. It was built in the mid 1880's and was one of the stagecoach stations on the old stage route between Caldwell, Idaho and Jordan Valley, Oregon. The road I was riding was part of the old stage route. The new(er) highway (U.S.95) is a few miles east of here and is of course the main route now between the Treasure Valley, Jordan Valley and points beyond. Oh, one more thing, the stage station is on the National Register of Historic places, though it's falling into disrepair.


Well, that's all folks. It was hot, but very pretty for desert riding anyway.

[RedRockRider]

Hey Admiral -- Nice job with the map! I make a color copy of the Benchmark page, highlight the route, then take a pic and add to the ride report. Kind of low tech, but fairly easy and works well. Really places things in context. Plus, if any inmates are really interested in a similar ride it is very easy to grab Benchmark and have a very good start.

If I'm in a new area I often take just the photocopy page from Benchmark with me. Much easier than taking the whole book.

Really enjoyed your pics from this ride. My favorite:



Riding direct from the house has its benefits -- all riding time, no trailer, etc. But taking the bike via truck/trailer definitely increases the range. So far, I've done very little trailering. May have to do a bit . . . we'll see.

A bit surprised to see the reservoir so low. I thought Idaho and parts north had a better snow winter than Utah and the southern Rockies. I guess it's dry everywhere. Even without your text I thought the boat ramp was an airstrip, perhaps for some guy's private cabin. Fly in from Hollywood . . .

As always, nice ride report!

[TheAdmiral]

Originally Posted by RedRockRider

then take a pic and add to the ride report. Kind of low tech, but fairly easy and works well.

Never thought to try and take a picture of the map. I scanned it in. On my Labor Day Weekend ride, I took a picture of the map as you do. Works a lot better, so at my age, I learned something new again. Thanks for the info on the maps.

[TheAdmiral]

After driving around a while, we find a spot on Lake Creek, near (ish) Burgdorf, ID, north of McCall a ways.

Couldn't leave until Saturday afternoon due to my work schedule, but we find a nice place.


Sunday, the crew is up bright an early and ready to head out. About noon that is!! I've been up for about 6 hours already.


Kid 6, FM, and myself want to ride (mostly) while Kid 5 wants to fish. We will eventually come to a good compromise. I pick a route that will take us to a fire lookout, dirty, dusty, rocky, roads, then hopefully find a fishing spot. (I don't have a clue where to fish at this point). Our route

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As luck would have it, I guess (dusty), we find ourselves on an ATV Poker Run route for the Warren area fire department. The good part is our "early start" put us at the tail end of the hoards of ATV/UTV/motorcycle poker parade. We only had 1 group behind us at the start not counting the poker run sweep team.


Our first turn off the main road will take us to the Carey Dome Lookout. Bad part, we are now behind the last poker run group and have to wait for the dust to settle.


Heading up the lookout road (Finance Minister and Kid 6)




Now here's the real lucky part. We run into a poker run checkpoint. Lookout goes left, poker run head right at this point. Ladies are real nice. I ask which way does the poker run trail go. They tell me, "War Eagle Lookout" (I'm interested) and California Lake, (I'm real interested now. Might satisfy Kid 5 if all goes right). I ask, "any good fishing at California Lake?". "Why yes" the ladies tell me. Execellent, now we have a good fishing destination. All parties should now be happy!


Before arriving at the fire lookout, I get a photo of it looking through an old burn


This fire lookout is a rare steel frame lookout and has the living quarters in a cabin on site. Turns out the lookout is manned this year. By Bill. Great guy


From the lookout, Bill points out the Herman Fire to the N.E. of here across the Salmon River. The fire is about 5 miles on the other side of the far ridge (Oregon Butte is the high point to the right. The Herman fire is part of the Maguire fire complex west of Dixie, Idaho.


Here is the back side of the storage building, fire cabin, and lookout. Bill points out the cool cloud formation.


Bill tries to take our picture


Finally gets us in the "photo pose"


I found out if you stay too long, Bill puts you to work!


Few lookout informational photo's




Headed past the last poker run checkpoint, wave to the ladies, and head on the trail the poker run used


No need for directions, but there was another poker run checkpoint here also. They were leaving as we rolled up as the sweep team had already passed us and went through here


Bit of the trail on the way to California Lake. I think this use to be an old mining road, and is very rough in places.


So from my last photo at the "log trail improvement zone", I turned around and got the girls coming through California Creek. Getting closer to the lake!




Finally made it to the lake so Kid 5 can do some fishing. Well, I did too since I was there.


A little lunch before fishing


Kid 5 catches a Rainbow Trout with Kid 6's assistance. This one stayed on the barbless hook long enough to take the picture before it too fell off back in the water. We weren't going to eat them anyway, so no real loss. Bragging rights are to be had by Kid 5, she's the only one that was catching anything . . . as usual. She's fish lucky I think!


And me . . . I'm still trying to get the fishing line untangled . . . again


So after doing some fishing, we head back basically the same way we came. Here's another trail photo. Probably the most dangerous area on the trail.


Nice view from here of the marsh/meadow down below


Here's part of the Idaho Centennial Trail West (motorized portion). We were on it for just a short time. The non-motorized (east) portion goes through the Frank Church Wilderness area.


The small white marker on the tree denotes the Willow Creek trail (#138) with the trail in the background. This is the upper portion on the California trail. Tomorrow I will try to find the lower portion down by our camp.


And before we make it back to camp, I get a photo of Marshall Lake. Down the road we found the trail (hiking) into the lake that we had missed earlier in the day.


Next morning (Monday) while all the girls are still sleeping, I head out to find the Durden Mine and the bottom portion of Willow Creek trail #138. Before I get to the mine there is a fork in the road. I take a left and find the bottom portion of Willow Creek trail. Some day I will come back and ride the trail from one end to the other.


After finding the Willow Creek trail, I find the remnants of the old Durden Mine.




Looks like this was a storage hut mounded up or dug in


I find another cabin. Looks like the walls caved in as I can see what looks like a doorway frame laying in front. Also cool to see the logs are still filled with pitch or whatever they used to fill in the gaps in-between the logs.


And one last photo of Willow Creek as it runs past the old Durden Mine


Well, that's all folks. We all had a fun time riding, fishing and camping. I shan't complain! Take care all!

[trailrider383]

Georgie?

[TheAdmiral]

Originally Posted by trailrider383

Georgie?

I know. There was a long discussion about that!

(California Lake) Girls complain there ain't enough room for Georgie to ride in the back seat with them and wife says Georgie a no-go riding in the back of the (new) camper . . . so it was a Georgie-less weekend. I even shed a tear pleading my case to take Georgie, no effect.

This on top of leaving her home on the Leslie Gulch ride. Too much higher speed blacktop to take her on this trip safely.


The good news, she gets to ride everyday when I ride to the mailbox and back (about a mile round trip).

[RedRockRider]

Yeah, let's hear it for the mailbox run!

I use my bike for mailbox runs also, about 3 houses down the street. Sometimes I'm gone for 1/2 hour. Wife and kid ask me what happened . . . out cruising a few twisty turns past the edge of the neighborhood. I shove the mail in the enduro bags on the TW. Very effective.

Looks like a good camping trip with the family.

[TheAdmiral]

Goal: Ride ATV trails and logging roads from the Zimmer Creek ATV access to East Mountain Lookout and back in one day. My secondary goal was to ride the 10 mile long ATV trail from Skunk Creek Saddle to the lookout.

Reality: It didn't quite turn out that way, and ended up taking 2 days, but it wasn't all my fault. I swear!

For those non-Idahoans, this ride is east of State Hwy 55 between Boise and Cascade, Id.

Day 1, 9/12/2012. Short take; I encountered logging operation #1 which totally blocked my route. I then spent about 2 hours looking over maps (GPS no help at this point) and riding re-routes from the maps. Close to hooking back up to my GPS route, BAM, encountered logging operation #2. Eventually, I was able to hook back up to my GPS route, but it was getting late and I knew I wouldn't make it all the way. So I rode up the road aways, took a break, then headed home to end day 1 not knowing when I'd be able to finish this ride.


Looking at the map, my intended route is in green. My day 1 alternate path is in orange. I turned around at an intersection near Bear Wallow in the center of the map and headed back to end day 1. BTW, I started Day 2 at this intersection.


First part of ride was on the Zimmer Creek ATV trail. Forum member Sscooter posted a video of this back in May I think.


There are some things to watch out for! I saw this same tree in Sscooter's video.


Zimmer Pass. Went right and encountered logging operation 1 (no pictures). Came back here and went left on one of many alternate routes


I was becoming a little more comfortable with the route as I started to see some signs of places I've been


Later in the ride, I encounter logging operation 2. They didn't have any signs posted that they were logging. A tree was felled straight ahead just as I got there. I was a little miffed of the work on a main road without any warning signs. Dust is still in the air in the photo from the felled tree!


Turn around point. Knew I wasn't gonna make it, so I decided to take a short break and head back. Here Georgie's marking here territory for when we return.


And some video action


End of day 1

Day 2 Zimmer Creek to East Mountain Lookout:

Georgie giving me the high sign. I think I heard her say "hurry up, let's get going"

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Lots of smoke in the air from all the forest fires

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Critter tracks!!! Mr Bear, Mr Wolf above Mr Bear tracks, Georgie tracks to the right, and Mr Deer tracks more to the right. BTW I saw lots of bear, wolf, deer and elk tracks today

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Made it to the trail

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Day 2 video


About a mile up the trail, I biffed it. You know the excuse, uphill, loose dirt, not enough power. This was my only biff on the day, but I can see a 55 tooth sprocket in my future!

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Trail still has some obstacles

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During a trail break, I got a photo of Georgie with some trail dust. BTW, I noticed she's starting to get a lot of gray around her snout as she gets older. Just like me!

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We made it to the old East Mtn Lookout!

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The lookout was gonna be converted to a rental and was a historic lookout. Apparently it burned in a fire in 2002.
Photo from Rex's Fire Lookout website.


American Flag placed at the lookout. I was kind of surpirsed to see one flying when I got there

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A family was very kind to place one there. Being retired military, I took a moment to think of some of my friends who are no longer with me (us).

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I also grabbed a few geocaches on the ride today



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Near the end of my ride, I took this photo of Georgie and at a quick glance she looks like a bear cub if you have an imagination

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I think she does anyway


Hope you enjoy.

[RedRockRider]

"During a trail break, I got a photo of Georgie with some trail dust. BTW, I noticed she's starting to get a lot of gray around her snout as she gets older. Just like me!"

Grey whiskers! You know it . . . time marches on!

[TheAdmiral]

Just messing around the ridinghood

[PinkPillion]

Cool little video TA. Ruts galore on that powerline road! Looks like a nice day out for you two.

[TheAdmiral]

Cow Horns! That's right, big old set of cow horns.




I almost guarantee, with this much power, you're gonna leave onlookers and owners of other bikes utterly speechless!

When you sit on the seat behind your handlebars, you can almost feel your new found power, even without the engine running!

Who needs performance exhaust pipes, bigger engines, when a cheap old set of cow horns will work.

And it don't matter if you find a free set out on the range, or an expensive set of simulated designer cow horns, you're gonna feel that raw power!

One note of caution is advised with your new set of cow horn power: be very careful when riding in the woods during hunting season. You may feel a different kind of power if your not careful. I'd suggest wearing bright orange, but hey, that's just my cautious side speaking!

[RedRockRider]

Cow horns! Nice mod! That's going to get the ol' TW lots of attention, especially on trips through a town. Nice touch.

[TheAdmiral]

Been getting a few short rides in on the back 40 (BLM Land out behind my place), but up until a few days ago there's been no snow. Well, it snowed a few days ago so I decided I "needed" to get in another quick ride. I knew the snow would melt rather quickly, so I slapped on the chains and off I went. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared for the snow (should have watched the weather forcast better), so I didn't get the screws put back on the front tire. Turns out, I probably should have taken 15 more minutes and put them on, but I was impatient. Still, it was fun!

[RedRockRider]

Looks like you might have a White Christmas! Enjoy. Not much riding for me lately. We've been having an unusual spell of rain in St. George.

Nice save on the skid at the end!