I've seen many complaints about too little stoke in this forum recently, so here you all go.....
Three of us made a week+ long trip from San diego recently to get some high elevation riding in before the snow flies. Destination this trip would be 4 days in Stanley ID and 4 days in Montana. Fortunate timing allowed us to escape last week's brutal heat and humidity from what was left of the Baja Calif hurricanes. Being on vacation is awesome enough, but being able to rub our perfect temps in the face of everyone sweltering back home was priceless.
After flying to ride the Chilcotins earlier this summer we opted to fly again and rent a truck to avoid the 15hr drive. This would mean traveling light and no camping comfort gear like chairs, cooler, water jug, cooking equipment, or full tools/bike stand. Turned out this was not a big deal and gave us extra days riding without having to drive through the night.
After a late start due to freezing temps overnight we started day 1 with an intro loop to the Boulder-Whiteclouds.
Brian (406) and Gil (Gman) check out the trailhead map
Our route would start with a 2 mile climb to 4th of July Lake and then descend down a valley to the Washington Lakes basin seen here
From there the climbing began and views opened up
When I got to the top of this pass my jaw dropped. The white streak down the opposite mountain was brilliant white, the pic does really not do it justice. This is looking down into the Chaimberlain Lakes basin.
While we were snacking a visitor showed up, came within 20ft of us
Finishing our break we enjoyed the drop into the basin
At first I thought this was one of the lower Chamberlain Lakes but those were tucked in closer to the bottom of the peak
We checked out the first Chamberlain lake and then started an out and back climb to 10,000ft Castle Pass
Views were not bad looking down toward Germania creek drainage
Dropping beyond the pass was incredibly enticing with switchbacks dropping as far as the eye can see, but would mean a 1,500ft climb back up. Gil rode down the first switchback before stopping.
I hiked up a small ridge to get a better view of the mountains to the left of us, which was definitely worth it.
It was a fun drop down from Castle pass
Chamberlain Creek Tr was little used compared to the Castle Divide trail we'd been on. Through a couple open meadows the trail nearly disappeared.
It was steep in many spots, I would not want to ride up this trail!
Hmm, what is this laying on the trail?
We made it down to Germania creek after a longer than expected descent. Germania is a moto trail so we expected to cover distance faster. We did, with a few fun rock sections thrown in
It was either wet shoes or barefoot for creek crossings.
And finally there was a beast of a climb out from 7,000 to 9,500 at 4th of July Lake
Views were excellent again on the climb especially being in the golden hour, so I did not mind too much.
Last came a 2 mile happy ending back to the truck that ended right at dusk, so timing was pretty tight. It turned out to be more than we had bargained for at +/-6,100 ft in 28 miles, but was still a great ride. Things cooled off fast again in the evening and we were looking for hot springs near town. Never found them in the dark unfortunately, but they are all over this area. Great start to the trip!
Three of us made a week+ long trip from San diego recently to get some high elevation riding in before the snow flies. Destination this trip would be 4 days in Stanley ID and 4 days in Montana. Fortunate timing allowed us to escape last week's brutal heat and humidity from what was left of the Baja Calif hurricanes. Being on vacation is awesome enough, but being able to rub our perfect temps in the face of everyone sweltering back home was priceless.
After flying to ride the Chilcotins earlier this summer we opted to fly again and rent a truck to avoid the 15hr drive. This would mean traveling light and no camping comfort gear like chairs, cooler, water jug, cooking equipment, or full tools/bike stand. Turned out this was not a big deal and gave us extra days riding without having to drive through the night.
After a late start due to freezing temps overnight we started day 1 with an intro loop to the Boulder-Whiteclouds.
Brian (406) and Gil (Gman) check out the trailhead map
Our route would start with a 2 mile climb to 4th of July Lake and then descend down a valley to the Washington Lakes basin seen here
From there the climbing began and views opened up
When I got to the top of this pass my jaw dropped. The white streak down the opposite mountain was brilliant white, the pic does really not do it justice. This is looking down into the Chaimberlain Lakes basin.
While we were snacking a visitor showed up, came within 20ft of us
Finishing our break we enjoyed the drop into the basin
At first I thought this was one of the lower Chamberlain Lakes but those were tucked in closer to the bottom of the peak
We checked out the first Chamberlain lake and then started an out and back climb to 10,000ft Castle Pass
Views were not bad looking down toward Germania creek drainage
Dropping beyond the pass was incredibly enticing with switchbacks dropping as far as the eye can see, but would mean a 1,500ft climb back up. Gil rode down the first switchback before stopping.
I hiked up a small ridge to get a better view of the mountains to the left of us, which was definitely worth it.
It was a fun drop down from Castle pass
Chamberlain Creek Tr was little used compared to the Castle Divide trail we'd been on. Through a couple open meadows the trail nearly disappeared.
It was steep in many spots, I would not want to ride up this trail!
Hmm, what is this laying on the trail?
We made it down to Germania creek after a longer than expected descent. Germania is a moto trail so we expected to cover distance faster. We did, with a few fun rock sections thrown in
It was either wet shoes or barefoot for creek crossings.
And finally there was a beast of a climb out from 7,000 to 9,500 at 4th of July Lake
Views were excellent again on the climb especially being in the golden hour, so I did not mind too much.
Last came a 2 mile happy ending back to the truck that ended right at dusk, so timing was pretty tight. It turned out to be more than we had bargained for at +/-6,100 ft in 28 miles, but was still a great ride. Things cooled off fast again in the evening and we were looking for hot springs near town. Never found them in the dark unfortunately, but they are all over this area. Great start to the trip!