Day 20: To Boise - Hot-springing Idaho and Oregon 2008 - CycleBlaze

September 16, 2008

Day 20: To Boise

In the morning it was 47F inside the tent and 38F outside. Four miles down the road I stopped at Loftus hot spring. It's a primo hot spring on a hillside well above the river. So it's not influenced by the river. And it has good shade most of the day. A very nice free campsite is 200 feet away but that campsite was occupied and there is no toilet. I had a great soak in the 103F stone and concrete pool. It has a partial view of the highway 50 feet below and river below that. It's a great hot spring but I didn't soak long because I have a big day of pedaling ahead.

Loftus hot spring is much more enchanting than it appears in the harsh light of this photo.
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Two more miles down the road I stopped to look at Smith Cabin hot spring. It has pools on both sides of the river. The main pool on my side of the road was 98F but only 6 inches deep. I didn't bother to soak in such a shallow pool. It was the last of 32 hot springs that I saw in Idaho.

Smith cabin hot spring.
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Then many more miles of gravel along the river. The river has less gradient so the downhill trend is less noticeable. And the road gets significantly more rocky and washboarded. That reduced my speed to 6-8 mph. This road is famous for being washboarded most of the time.

Crossing the middle fork Boise river.
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Middle fork Boise river.
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I stopped to heat a can of chili for lunch at a riverside campground. Lunch with a great view.

Middle fork Boise river.
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At the Twin Springs resort I stopped at the bar and drank two cold cans of Coke. They sell candy and chips but no other food. Twin Springs resort is off the grid and has a huge 190F hot spring that is used for drinking, irrigation, soaking, and hydroelectric power. Sprinklers spray extremely high to cool the water in the air and not scorch the grass.

Middle fork Boise river.
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Middle fork Boise river looking into the afternoon sun.
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Eventually I started to see sediment lines from Arrow Rock reservoir. But for the first couple miles it was a flowing river below the sediment lines, not a lake.

Flowing river now but sometimes a reservoir.
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When I got to the reservoir itself, the road stayed high above the highest point of the lake, and right now the water level is extremely low. I was surprised that the lake is so far below that it's almost inaccessible.

Arrow Rock reservoir fills with spring snow melt, then is steadily drained all summer to irrigate thousands of farms.
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350-foot tall Arrow Rock dam was completed in 1915 and was the world's tallest dam until 1934.Lucky Peak reservoir now backs up to the bottom of the dam.
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Below Arrow rock dam is another reservoir, Lucky Peak reservoir. Pavement resumed a mile past the dam. Still another 6 miles to the highway. Forest road 268 ends at highway 21 near where highway 21 crosses over a finger of Lucky Peak reservoir. This is the view from the overlook next to the bridge:

Lucky Peak reservoir.
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Traffic was MUCH heavier going south towards Boise on highway 21. I haven't seen trucks for the last several days. Fortunately the highway has a paved shoulder as it climbs 600 feet and descends 900 feet to the bottom of Lucky Peak dam. I continued on busy highway 21 to the Warm Springs road exit. Warm Springs road has less traffic but also no shoulder. After a few miles I got on a bike trail that goes along the river and through Warm Springs golf course. The trail ends on the edge of downtown Boise. It was almost sunset by then but I detoured a couple blocks to get a picture of the state capitol in the setting sun.

Idaho state capitol at sunset.
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A couple miles past the capitol I pulled into the same economy motel that I stayed at 20 days earlier, arriving at 7:45. It was a long hot tedious day on the road. It felt good to take a "proper" shower after 3 days of unpaved roads. For a change of pace I ate at a Chinese buffet 3 blocks away. The evening was very warm. It's definitely warmer in the city with all the concrete. And I've dropped to 2500 feet elevation.

Distance: 59.2 miles (94.7 km), 34 miles unpaved

Climbing: 1593 feet (483 m)

Average speed: 8.9 mph (14.3 km/h)

Maximum speed: 35.5 mph (56.8 km/h)

Today's ride: 59 miles (95 km)
Total: 833 miles (1,341 km)

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