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
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LathLY577Uo[/media]
End of day 1, stay tunned for day 2
