Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Elkhorn Hot Springs - Fall 2013

We arrived the empty Grasshopper CG at midnight, it was about a four hour drive from Victor, ID to Polaris, MT.  We briefly scoped out the hot springs which was 1/4 mile up the road from the CG, then headed to find a camp spot. Our selection was slim, 24 out of 24 spots were available.  We rolled out the mattress, sleepin' bags, down comforter and watched the stars. It was chilly, so our 70 and 90 lb squiggly furboyz decided to snuggle in between us in the early a.m. hours, we were warm and AWAKE!  

The next morning we checked out the other camp sites, looking for sun since we would be camping here again. While the water was boiling for coffee and oatmeal, the furboyz totally ripped around, chasing chiselers, squirrels, checking out every sound, movement, nook and cranny of the wide open empty CG. Although it was uninhabited by humans, it was filled with gorgeous Ponderosa pine trees, huge rocks, tons of firewood, streams, birds and at times, silence. 

We had b-fast and headed to the hot springs. There was a lot of work going on from a recent wind storm which had blown down and damaged thousands of trees. When we got to the pool, there were 4 people there, 2 were leaving, within minutes, we had the place to ourselves. After soaking, it was time to ride! The plan was to ride from Elkhorn to Wise River and back, 66 mile (empty road) ride. We were both looking forward to riding and reminiscing about this section of the Tour Divide.  We had a nice tail wind on our 2 hr ride to The Wise River Club, where we had lunch and reminisced some more, JayP shure has some good stories! The wind was not our friend on the 2.5 hr return trip to Elkhorn, thankfully JayP is used to pullin' me around.  After grabbin' a recovery drink A.K.A. beer, we went for our 2nd soak of the day, then headed back to camp. Jay made a nice big fire while I made diner. Not long after that, it was back to watching the stars and the fire. 

The next day we pretty much repeated our previous day, except we headed towards Jackson, MT for an out-n-back dirt road ride. We saw some hunters, but the road was still quite.  There were great views of the valley and open fields.  At times the forest got really thick and smelled so fresh. We went back for one last soak, then it was homeward bound. The furboys were so tired, they slept the whole way home. 

There is a lot of exploring to do in this big and quite area, so I am shure we'll be heading back.  Hopefully my camera will be working. 

Til' next time!


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