Garden Valley, ID - Warm Springs Campground, ID: I celebrated my birthday by soaking in the hot springs. Ah! - Four Weeks in Oregon and Idaho - Summer 2006

July 3, 2006

Garden Valley, ID - Warm Springs Campground, ID: I celebrated my birthday by soaking in the hot springs. Ah!

We were up at 5 and out the door at 6:45 AM. Staying in a hotel didn't seem to get us on the road much faster.

We had a beautiful, gradual climb along the river. Occasionally I shifted into the granny gear. The ponderosa pines were tall next to the river. There was very little traffic. We had a good run to Lowman. We stopped first at the forest service building to use the restroom and ask about the pass. Two college age girls working the front desk helped us figure out how much further to the top of the pass and locate campgrounds along the way. When we asked about the gradient of the pass one of the girls looked puzzled for a minute then she replied, "It must not be too bad, my car doesn't have any trouble getting over it."

We were going to eat at a restaurant four miles past the forest service station, but a large group of motorcycles had just pulled in and we could tell there would be a wait for service. We decided to continue on. It was getting hotter and hotter as the sun rose. I didn't resort to the wet tshirt to cool off, but I did put a wet handkerchief around my neck.

I heard firecracker type noises twice. I suspected my delicate rear tire, but could see nothing protruding and continued on.

Look closely. Doesn't that look like a rusty 30's gangster car in the river? Yes - it certainly does! Jacinto said I had been on the road WAY to long - it's very obviously a rock - but I still say it's a car.

Here's a better view of 'the car'. It really did look like one. I circled back to take the photo (and it was downhill).

We ate at the Sourdough Lodge at mile marker 84. We ordered sandwiches and a pizza to go for dinner. I had a milk shake. This was just the kind of restaurant that knew how to fix and old fashioned milk shake where they bring it to the table with a tall glass and the extra shake in the silver container it was mixed in.

The restaurant was next to a motel. We checked the price, which was reasonable, but didn't feel ready to stop for the day. They had tshirts for sale. I've since kicked myself several times for not buying the one for Jacinto that had a couple of cartoon bears on it. One of the bears was cleaning his teeth with a toothpick and saying, "Bring more tourists, we've run out."

Two motorcycle police came in as we were ready to leave. I went over to ask them for details of the road ahead. They were from Boise and were stationed to this area for the holiday weekend, so couldn't answer any questions. They did honk at us a few miles down the road.

We had been concerned about getting a camping spot in an official campground because of the holiday. It was a couple of miles down a dirt road to the Warm Springs Campground.We had no problem getting a spot for $10. I was ever wiser and asked the camphost if they had any critters that might be interested in our food. He allowed that the chipmunks were pretty aggressive.

It had been a good day. There was enough climbing to make dinner taste good. No rain. YEA! Plus the advantage of a hot springs. We got to camp early with the short day. There was an old fashioned pump for water and outhouses. The camp was quite full with the holiday.

There were a fair number of annoying horseflies. Maybe they were attracted to the warm water? When I was growing up there were always lots of horseflies at the town swimming pool.

We set up the tent and secured the camp before walking down to the hot springs. I didn't want to put our pizza in the tent in case the chipmunks ate a hole in our tent. We ended up leaving the pizza box on the picnic table with a large rock to secure it. We had some other snacks. One being a can of mixed nuts.

I wore my cycling clothes down to the hot springs instead of my swimsuit. I could take a dip and do laundry at the same time. The hot springs were nice. We found a spot that was warm. It felt good for awhile. But as the sun started to go down, we felt cool. I checked out some other spots more upstream. None of them were any warmer. We decided to head back to camp. It had been a nice day for my birthday. Even if no one back home remembered me.

We arrived back at camp just in time to rescue a small portion of our pizza. The enterprising chipmunks had tunneled into the pizza box and had eaten all of the pizza except for two pieces that had stuck to the lid! They had also eaten the plastic lid off of the can of nuts and had finished most of those. The chipmunks circled round and round, getting closer, wanting to finish dinner. We had a friendly retired couple in an RV for neighbors. She gave us a cold drink and pudding to help make up for our now missing pizza. The husband stayed outside and chatted with us. He let us put our remaining food in the back of their truck camper. He also lent me some duct tape to use as a boot.

Remember the firecracker sound I had heard earlier in the day? I'm quite sure now that is the sound of the thin steel belts from car tires being run over by my bicycle. My rear tire was very low when we arrived in camp. I didn't look at it until after our dip in the hot springs. Remember that nice new tire I paid a fortune for? Yea, well . . . it was the wrong size. A 26" tire is not a 26" tire. You have to pay attention to the metric size also. All of this time I've just been buying tires and not paying attention. I should have known better, but you'd think the man from the bike shop would have had even more reason to know. What could I do but laugh? I put the Schwable back on with a duct tape boot. I gave the too big tire to the RV neighbor. Maybe he would find someone in need that could use it.

The source of the hot springs - too hot for me. The actual pools were just right - not too hot for a long soak. I wore my cycling clothes instead of my swimsuit to the springs. Got them clean for the next morning.

I started to get chilly sitting out in the dark in my wet clothes. We were in bed by 9 PM.

This had been a good day. I felt silly for all of my nervous stomach issues. I'm way too experienced of a cyclist to get butterflies. What's my problem anyway? As soon as I get on the bike everything is fine, but before that . . .

This was a great campsite. At this point we were not aware of the tunneling abilities of the chipmunks.

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 1,067 miles (1,717 km)

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