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On July 11th, 1999, I rode my YZF600R from Spokane, WA to Elk City, ID and back. I've always wanted to scout out this route as it is the jump-off point for an "adventure touring" ride over the Bitteroot Mountains to Conner, MT and skirts the northern border of the River of No Return Wilderness Area.
My Delorme Map'N'Go suggested Hatter Creek road from Princeton, ID to Troy, ID as part of the route. A twisty little line I'd never ridden in an area filled with great motorcycle roads. It started off paved, but with no markings, then turned to gravel. My 600cc sportbike is okay on gravel, but not great. I continued on.
Soon the road turned to pure dirt, freshly graded dirt, very dry, soft, and talcum powder-like. There was a ranch house not too far back, so I rode back to inquire. The nice lady said the road was fine, the gates were all open, and gave very vague directions about which branch to take when I got to the top of the mountain. Here's what the "freeway" part looked like -- the only place wide, flat, and solid enough to park the bike:
Most of it was terrible! Sharp steep switchbacks where I had to plant my foot and slide the rear wheel around on the power. It made me wish I'd brought the BMW R1100GS for that part of the trip. I got pretty tired muscling the bike around for the hour it took me to go 11 miles, but I didn't drop it. And thankfully I had my GPS to help me pick the correct turns or I'd probably have had to simply backtrack and take another route.
When I got south of the Lolo Pass Highway, and turned off ID State Highway 13 onto 14, having the sportbike was perfect! Here's what it looked like:
Perfect pavement for the first 10 miles and no traffic. Then very good pavement for the next 40 miles following the Clearwater River into Elk City. Still no traffic. This road is much like the road up the St. Joe River, from St. Maries, ID, to Gold Creek, one of my favorite roads and a great alternative to the Lolo Pass Highway.
Along the way I passed this pretty little creek waterfalling its way down into the Clearwater:
This shot below was taken just 5 miles from Elk City. With the greenery and the bright sunshine and the golden transparency of the water I just had to stop for this shot:
And, of course, I had to take a picture of Elk City. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's really nicer than it looks. It reminds me a lot of Elk River, another remote little Idaho town about 100 miles north which is often the destination for day rides out of Spokane (and where they have excellent huckleberry pie). I tried for huckleberry pie in Elk City, but had to settle for some fine carrot cake being sold from a card table in front of the general store.
It ended up being a 520 mile day, in 90+ degree temperatures, but it was worth it. As I was rehydrating in a little town back on State Route 13 after returning from Elk City, I noticed that the sides of both tires were all sticky and bubbly the way the get after a day at the racetrack. I guess I had a good time...
