Boise, ID to Idaho City, Lowman, Garden City, Banks, Cascade, Warm Lake, South Fork of the Salmon River.
Elevations: 2552' to 6605'
Length of Trail: 334 miles
Approximate time: 9 1/2 hours
Date of Ride: July 6-7, 2008
I had an opportunity to do a ride with my son, Mark, my favorite riding partner. I trailered my bike to Boise and we took off Monday afternoon up through Idaho City, Hwy 21. This is a great segment of the ride and
Idaho City is a very interesting town. We grabbed some ice cream and cruised main street before heading north to Loman. The ride gets better with lots of twisties and beautiful mountain views. From there we head back towards Hwy 55 on the Banks/Lowman Hwy 17. We fueled up in Garden Valley as my son's TLR1000 Suzuki has about a 150 mile range. The road up 55 is sweet riding along side the Payette River which was running especially high and beautiful. We grabbed some dinner at the Lake Front Steakhouse at the golf course. (pretty good food). From there we headed up to Warm Lake, which has a newly paved road that is smooth and beautiful with wonderful twisties. It was getting late so we hooked up behind a speeding chevy pickup to help ward off any stray wild animals! Just before Warm Lake we headed north on a paved single lane unnamed road. The sign said McCall and Yellow Pine. The pavement goes about 20-25 miles and then turns into gravel. We were told the gravel is pretty rough to McCall. About 5 miles up the road we camped along the South Fork of the Salmon River. It was a beautiful place right along the river.
The next day we went about 15 miles north on this single lane road to see where the pavement ran out, but we got too hungry and turned around before we hit the end of the pavement. We went back to Warm Lake to the lodge to have a late breakfast. Since we know quite a bit of the staff at the
Idaho Youth With a Mission base we ran over there for a visit. We headed back to Boise around 12:45 and got to Boise around 3:30, stopping in Cascade for fuel and some snacks. Again the ride from Warm Lake to Cascade is awesome. I touched my toe on the pavement for the first time rounding one of the sharp corners trying to keep up with Mark. Then on Hwy 55 I actually lifted a footpeg on the pavement on a surprise corner! I'm way to old for that!
Google Map
(By clicking on the "View Larger Map" you can export the data into Google Earth and get the full effect of a 3-D view in which you can turn and spin.)
Elevation Profiles:
Boise to Warm Lake, via Idaho City
Warm Lake to Boise