Bike-Packing Trip

We had a brief spell at home and had inadvertently rented out our condo for the week of July 4th, so after a beautiful hike to Josefine Lake to see the bear grass and a few trips to the river, we went on a phenomenal bike packing trip for four days.

We decided to park our car and leave straight from our condo.  We biked to the trail head down I-55 past New Meadows.

The official trail started at Wye campground where we spent the first night.

The campground had just opened for the first time a few days prior.

We loved all the trestles across the rivers on the trail.  It's 105 miles long and goes through a variety of scenery from forest to high desert.

It's a private, non-profit group that maintains the trail through donations.  Used to be where the railroad was before it went out of service.  We are very hopeful that the rail from Horseshoe Bend to Cascade becomes a trail also, since that one went out of business a few years ago as well.

We definitely stopped for ton of photos along the way.

All our camping gear and food is packed up in these waterproof saddle bags.

It was a very peaceful ride being away from the road.  We hardly ran into a person on it, but saw a bunch of birds including two bald eagles, a rabbit and a fox.

There were two hot springs on the route, although we didn't stop at either because of timing.  And cute, very tiny towns along the way to stop for a snack or beer.

This section was very remote and far away from the main road, so it was our favorite.

Dave was enjoying watching all the water fowl.  The towns we visited along the way are New Meadows, Council, Cambridge and Weiser.

We rode one way all the way to our ambulance which was parked in a storage place in Weiser.  At the end of our trail we fired her up and drove her back to McCall.  She is now parked in Emily's front yard.

We made it in time for all the July 4th festivities at Emily's house, including the bonfire with Antarctic friends and fireworks.

After the 4th we spent a couple nights at our friend Delta's teepee and went paddle boarding.

Summer is always magnificent in McCall!  The biking made it a very memorable time off and we had so much fun that we're looking into other bike packing trails to ride this upcoming winter.  Right now we just had Tibor and his family come for a visit, so more photos are coming soon!  Love you!!!