Steve Clinger and I took a road ride on our motorcycles yesterday to the end of highway 58 in north Idaho. Our first stop was Rockford, WA where the county fair was in full swing. We met an old friend of Steve's working at the McIndtosh Grange food concession stand. This is where the first pic was taken by an unsuspectiong couple running a trinket booth. I asked them if they'd take a picture of me and my brother. They were willing. We spent the night in the historic logging town of St Maries Idaho on the St Joe River, see a common theme here? Early Catholic Missionaries left their mark. John Mullan in the early 1800's built a road from the Missouri River in Fort Benton, MT to the Columbia River in Walla Walla, WA that went through here originally.
http://www.stmariesidaho.com/history.htm
Saturday morning we took a walk to the city park and county fairgrounds where we read all about the early history. On the return we walked past a yard sale, where Steve picked up on some authentic Harley Davidson leather gloves for himself, a new helmet for his buddy, and a nice HD polar fleece. I am sure he paid less than 1/10th the cost new. BONUS
Second pic is at the old SM High School. You guessed it, they are the Loggers.
This next pic was outside Bud's Burgers, where we had dinner AND breakfast, not by choice, but by necessity. Saturday morning we got to celebrate Archie's 95th birthday with he and his old pals. His advice to me, was don't get old, it ain't worth it!
We rode through Santa, Id, Fernwood, Bovill and finally our distination, the end of the road in Elk River, ID. Here is Steve in front of the Elk River Lodge and at the end of the road. We were bummed not to have dual purpose motorcycles so that we could have ridden to the Granddaddy Bridge, seen the oldest tree in Idaho. 3000 yrs old and 18 ' in diameter. We also missed the Elk Creek Falls, a series of 3 falls with 300 ft of cascading water. Their real claim to fame are the huckleberries. We could have had a fresh baked pie at the Elk River Lodge for a mere $20. We did meet Connie, the proprietor. She and her husband used to run a ranch in Augusta, MT.
http://www.elkriverlodge.net/index.htm
We then road back by way of Harvard, Princeton, ID (and I'll bet you thought there were only hayseeds in Idaho) and I ran out of gas before Potlatch ID where we had a burger at a bar- last pic. Then it was on home by way of Rockford, WA where the county fair was still going full tilt. We started getting a little rain and were glad to be home.
Steve Clinger aka Easy Rider
Chris Howell aka The Fonze
6 comments:
Looks like a fun trip! You have the most interesting places to visit. Amy probably would have loved to have some huckleberries! Sure the guy with the axe wasn't an old high school buddy?
Cool pix dad! i oughta get a street bike and ride off into the sunset. That sounds good about now. Too many kids (I've been suckered into babysitting too much recently). ACK! Are you sure that school isn't the Paul Bunion's? we had to put new brakes on the van last week and a new tire on the car today. call me if you can think of any good news! I'm bumming.
I stare at that route nearly every day. Seriously. Wish I could have been there.
I love it! That is so classic. I remember one Saturday in high school Megan and I drove her VW all the way down Sprague. We stopped along the way at a store here and there and took pictures of our little outing. Sprague is so different now. Good thing we didn't miss out, right? hehehe
Amy, my old co worker called me Tueday, she and her husband have been touring the US for four months and clocked 19k miles on their new HD. Later next week I hope to catch up with them and hear all the stories and see all the pics. I don't know that I'd do that, but a couple days here and there are super fun. The power surge, the oneness with a rolling highway, your senses take it all in, wind, noise, power and such, it's better than Disneyland.
Derek,
This route would be super fun on bicycles too...but should you have time next year, I am sure that with all the guys I know with motors, we could scare one up for you and repeat this run or do another one equally fun going north.
Dad
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