Over the last week in March, me, my boyfriend (Steve) and a friend (Gunning) decided to go on an early season bike packing trip. Gunning and I rode borrowed bikes as this was our first long bike packing trip. With 2 trips under his belt, Steve was the “expert” of the crew. We decided on the Weiser River trail, an 84 mile stretch of gravel and dirt path created from the old train route. It starts just outside of New Meadows, Idaho and follows the Weiser River through forests and canyons, passing through several small towns along the way before ending in the town of Weiser. It is the longest rail trail in Idaho. We all are still in the “invincible” stages of life – 20’s and early 30’s, so we essentially hopped off the couch and set off on the 84 mile trip, originally planned for 3 days. Our butts were still in hibernation from the winter, uncalloused and unprepared.
Day 1:
With excitement building, we packed our stuff on Thursday and headed out after work to set our shuttle. Upon reaching Weiser, we realized that the map we got from a trail website just “forgot” to include directions to the end of the trail and overnight parking. Instead it took us to a residential area. Parking there sounded a little sketchy so I decided to go to a gas station to ask directions. (If you get lost, just pull over somewhere and ask directions!) We got directions to a park/fishing pond that was near the end of the trail. Lo and behold, there is specific Weiser River Trail parking right at the end of the trail. Who knew?? I guess that’s how websites suck you into a monthly/yearly subscription – withhold any important information until you pay.
During the first shuttle everyone was in high spirits. Laughing and joking as we drove, we made up games to play on the trail. Like 1st person to see a cool bird/animal/lizard etc would win something. Or the first person to complain about the weather, say they’re cold or tired or admit to forgetting something really important had to buy everyone pie. As we continued driving we left the lower elevations and got up into the mountains and snow lines. We were expecting some snow, but not as much as there was. We were using the same website’s directions to find the “start of the trail,” and we continued driving until it took us to a plowed private road and promptly wanted us to turn down an unplowed road with 2 feet of snow on it. We passed by a couple of trailheads with all of the access roads unplowed and snowed in. As it got darker and darker our stress levels started rising. After the car got stuck in the snow, I was pretty over it. Camping? Nope. Hotel? Yep. Day 1 ended in a New Meadows motel with gas station sandwiches for dinner. So, using the logic that walking the bike while mountain biking is still mountain biking, staying at a hotel while bike packing is still bike packing since we have bikes with us. Hey, maybe staying in a hotel is still camping, since we have our tents with us too!
Day 2:
We got up late to start the second day, because as newbies to this experience we completely over-estimated our abilities and under-estimated the conditions. There was no rush to get started early. Now, the hotel turned out to be a lot more useful than originally expected. Not only did they have a detailed pamphlet of the entire trail, including trail heads, but the owner told us where we could park the car since the trailheads were impassable. Score! We parked at a restaurant that was still closed for the season and got all our gear ready. It was still nippy in the morning, a little above freezing. The excitement kept us warm as we outfitted our bikes and learned how all the gear worked.
We started out at mile marker 79 and there was at least 2 feet of snow on the trail. The snow was not packed down at all, such as for snow biking groomed trails. The trail looked like it hadn’t been used in quite some time. The 3.8″ fat bike tires on my bike floated on top of the snow. The guys didn’t have as much luck in the snow with only 3” wide tires and rear-wheel heavy loads.
The struggle at first was a challenge but in a good way. Try to keep your balance, finding the right spot on the trail to ride so your tires remained on top of the snow, body position so the bike wouldn’t skid out from under you. We took photos of each mile marker to show our progress, with Steve (who never takes pictures of anything) becoming our official trip photographer.
Later in the day. the top layer of frost/ice started to melt, and the snow got more difficult to ride on. We started walking more than riding, stepping carefully so not fall through the snow. When you fell through, you fell up to your knees deep. Nobody wore snow boots; I didn’t have waterproof pants on. Snow got inside your shoes, inside your pants, up your sleeves; it was crusty and granular. We covered 5 miles in 3 hours until we came to a spot on our map that showed the road was nearby. The snow was sucking our energy so we decided to make it up to the highway. The highway was above us about 30 feet, at the top of a very steep tree-lined incline. Tempers flared as we all struggled to haul loaded bikes, backpacks and panniers up the slippery slope. We crawled on hands and knees in 2 feet of deep snow. The bikes got snagged in the trees. We finally reached the road and went to a pullout to assess the situation, eat something and regroup.
It became a joke that the only Idaho native (me) started this trip wearing cotton socks. That may be funny, or a camping faux pas, however remember the game about forgetting something really important? Well, Gunning only brought 1 pair of socks. For the whole trip. And they were currently soaking wet.
Highway 95 is not a very bike friendly highway with limited shoulder space and many blind corners. We slowly rode up the hills and then maxed out on the downhill. I had never ridden a sustained section of downhill like that before! We rode single file, Steve in the lead, me in the middle and Gunning on the end. I got right up on Steve’s back tire and got to experience drafting on a bicycle for the first time! I didn’t even have to pedal and I would gain on him! We rode about 8 miles on the highway before we reached a fork in the road where the highway split off to Fruitvale and it was here we rejoined the trail.
This section of the trail was free of snow, fairly straight and flat. The trees had not started to bloom yet and I bet when they do it would be like riding down a magical secluded path. It was overcast and there was a slight breeze, warm enough so our wet shoes could dry out a bit. This section was very near the river and we started seeing wildlife. I had never seen wild turkeys before and there were flocks of them, big groups walking along the brush at the side of the trail. Steve claims he saw a coyote, though nobody else did. The only other person we saw on the trail was a man riding a donkey. The donkey was skittish of the bikes and we were afraid he might try to trample us. We dismounted and let him pass.
We had a goal of reaching Cambridge, the halfway point where we could camp and soak in a hot spring. With 20 miles to Cambridge, the morning started to take its toll on me. The first 10 miles were just uncomfortable and the last 10 were miserable. All my energy was gone and my back hurt and my butt was on fire! I was wearing a pair of padded biking shorts and it wasn’t helping much. The only relief was to stick both my ninja mask and beanie down my pants to create more padding so I could continue to sit on the seat.
In Cambridge it became apparent that nobody actually knew where the camp ground/hot springs was. I figured Steve knew since he knew the name of it. Steve figured Gunning knew because he was in charge of camping. I just showed up for this trip and didn’t contribute much by way of planning. Asking directions take 2! We ended up having to backtrack to get there, which added 5 miles to the trip. 5 horrible miles. At this point I didn’t even care if we made it to the hot springs if we could just stop. However, we pushed on. Oh, the welcoming feeling of the hot water after a long day! We had an hour to soak which was just perfect. We set up camp in the grass and made dinner of dehydrated backpacking food. Gunning tried to blow up camp, when somehow he unscrewed the release valve on his propane tank, releasing propane out the top. He had no idea how to close it!
Recap of Day 2:
- 2 miles highway
- 5 miles in the snow
- 8 miles highway
- 30 miles gravel
- Total: approximately 45 miles in 10 hours
Day 3:
We woke up earlier than the day before but we didn’t get out of camp until 10am as we didn’t know how long it would take to break camp and re-pack everything. The first time our butts touched the saddle when it was time to pull out of camp, it was agony! They weren’t numb anymore and all the feeling came back. We were in high spirits when we left town and rode 10 really nice miles and stopped in a park to rest in Midvale.
The next 20 miles of trail go away from the road and you are in total seclusion. Cell phones don’t work and there are no services. You are in the canyon next to the river. It was so quiet, no sounds from roads, cars or planes. The only sound was the river and the occasional bird. I was glad that it was still partly overcast and early enough in the season that even when the sun was out it wasn’t super hot and the bugs hadn’t woken up for the year yet. There was no shade on this portion, and since I don’t believe in sunscreen until at least the middle of May, promptly got sun burned. Gunning had been hauling his fishing pole the entire time and finally was able to use it, catching 1 smallmouth bass. This section was rocky and we had to walk part of it. There were also tons of snakes here, thankfully they were all still groggy and not agitated.
Ten miles from the end of the trail we stopped for lunch in the early afternoon. We had ridden 30 miles so far this day and had the choice of stopping to camp for the night or continue. I had hit my 30 miles-in-1-day wall and was pretty over it, so I let the guys decide what to do.
Continue on we did. As with the day before, the last 10 miles of this trip were miserable for me. At this point we were riding just to get done. There was very little talking, no jokes, no exploring. I didn’t even want to stop pedaling, thinking if I did I may not start again. I was just counting down the mile markers, riding slower and slower as the miles passed.
Now we were near Weiser. We started to see houses and farms. Cows ran up to their fences to stare at us like they had never seen a person on a bike before. Finally, we hit the asphalt section of the trail, which passed through Weiser. We finished the trail at 730pm, glad to be done. This was the most riding I had ever done. The experience was worth it, and gave me a starting point to do better next time!
Recap of day 3:
40 miles in 7.5 hours
