Day 6

  Stats: 222 Miles; 10:14 moving time; 30,973 vert ft climbing

The camp was a-buzz when I woke up, as in it sounded like there was a swarm of bees surrounding my tent! I layered up in my rain gear with my pants tucked into my socks to get out of the tent, I didn't see a single bee! Not sure where the sound was coming from I went to grab my food bag from the tree I hung it in the night before, still no bees.  I took off my silly makeshift bee keeper outfit and loaded up the bike.  The ATV trail descent flew by and before I knew it is was in Wallace. I had passed through Wallace a few years earlier when in the area for Silver Kings, so I had an idea it would be one of the bigger towns I visited with a population of nearly 1,000 people. It was only 7:30 so my first priority was find a coffee shop and to charge my devices, since I couldn't in the wet the day before. I would be waiting until 9 USPS to open and should find a spot to change my oil.

The best looking coffee shop in town didn't open until 8 so I decide to ride over to the gas station first.  On my way I saw a guy on a KTM waiting out front of a closed business.  I asked him where he thought I could change my oil without getting in trouble, he had just moved into downtown and was nice enough to let me change it in his driveway even though he was heading out for a group ride (a group ride on a Thursday morning...I need to move!).  He also confirmed the Tin Snug was the best coffee shop in town! By the time we finished talking it was 8 so I rode back to the coffee shop, on the way I saw an ATV rental shop with a guy pressure washing a SxS, noticing my quick steel bolt repair was leaking more, I asked him if he could spray off the oil build up near it.

I got to the Tin Snug just after they opened, what an amazing coffee shop! Their food and coffee was great! They let me leave some of my electronics plugged in while I went to the post office and subsequently change my oil a couple blocks away.  At the post office I also grabbed the front brake line I had ordered from RMATV, though I didn't need it yet I decided to bring it with me since I was already carrying brake fluid and tools.  I grabbed some more quick steel, rubbing alcohol, and towels from the nearby hardware store. This oil change session was very focused and I added more quick steel to my repair which ended up stopping the leak for the remainder of the trip (note: when I got home I was able to remove all of this quick steel with a heat gun and plastic scraper, the bolt came right out after I pulled off the ignition cover and I put low profile head bolt on here).

On the way out of town I filled up with 6 gallons of gas and some junk food from the gas station.  The road out of town had some serious construction work happening.  Once on the state line trail, it continued its shale rock covered ways.  At the bottom of the road to Sunset Peak there was a man working on a large piece of heavy equipment blocking the road, he said he had been working on trying to get it to run for days!  I asked if he knew if the sunset peak trail was opened or if he saw any traffic.  He said the road had to be clear since it goes to some towers, but he hadn't seen anyone go up.  At the lookout it took me a few minutes to find the trail which starts out on an exposed ledge.  This trail had some legendary status for being a GRIT 1 killer. I got lucky and saw some fresh cuts early in the trail, making it a flowy dreamy ride through the trees for me! Maybe one of the most fun on the route!

I wasn't planning to stop in Murray, but the advertising when I got into town drew me in! Pizza & beer, how could I skip it! The food came out quick! The waitress was a historian of the area, having lived her whole life there.  I guess the BDR comes through here as well and when she asked where I was heading and I showed her my map she told me "Thats not much of a trail, but it will be clear because its huckleberry season".  Add this section of the "Stateline Motor Trail" to the list of magic trails that just climb straight off the highway! Another shale filled dream trail!

The roads and atv trails that connected this to the "Gold Creek" area were amazing, which was good because they felt like they went on for hours.  I noticed on my map how close I was to some of the better trails at Gold Creek I had ridden years ago so I dropped over to them.  These things were steep! They also had more down trees than I had encountered in the whole state so far.  The trails were in rough shape, filled with endless braking bumps and renegade hill climbs scattered about.  It was impressive how damaged these trails had become since I was here in 2021. It was getting dark and I was close to civilization so I decided to see if I could get a hotel near Sandpoint so I could get an earlier start the next day. The ones in ideal locations were already closed, I called one in Clark Fork which was closer than I wanted for making progress on the route. The owner who answered the phone immediately knew I was on a motorcycle calling since I was calling for a last minute room. I told him I was still a couple hours away but I was too embarrassed to tell him I was still riding singletrack the opposite direction from there.  I wanted to pay over the phone and have him leave me a key but he said he would stay open for me.

As I rode past packsaddle trail I remembered the last time I was here had ended catastrophically with my last 350 failing with only 8 hours on it. I decided to pass up packsaddle and take some additional trails to the Teepee Gulch/Green Monarchs special test. While riding these bonus trails at 10 PM I thought to myself how glad I was to not have anyone else on this trip, the past few late nights solo were great, and I don't know anyone who would have enjoyed riding all day & deep into the night in the rain on singletrack with no plan or destination to sleep.

I decided riding this special test backwards would be fine....but with a bald tire this wasn't going to happen.  The final switchback had a extremely steep & loose hill climb, about 50 vertical feet, into a 3 foot ledge up a tree root.  Blindly I made it to get my skid plate on the tree root the first attempt, in hindsight I should have just pulled my bike up the rest of the way.  I decided I could get a better run at it now that I saw it and make it with less effort. I went back down tried again, only to loop out the bike at the tree root step.  This repeated 6 times, in the dark, each becoming more taxing to reset the heavy bike for another run with a new approach.  Sweating, covered in dust, and breathing the heaviest so far on this journey I had to accept defeat. I decided it wasn't worth looping around to ride the test forwards.  I also decided I wanted to make it further than Clark Fork so I called the hotel and told him not to wait up.

When I arrived into Clark Fork I had planned to stop at the gas station to fuel up & get water. It turns out both gas station stores were closed but while fueling up I saw the bar across the street was open, surely I could get water there.  I didn't even finish rolling into the parking spot when a want to be cowboy in the back patio at the bar started yelling at me to "turn your bright ass light off of my face" trying to impress his friends. What a welcoming place....my light was off by the time he finished his sentence and thankfully he let it go and sat back down.

I went in and ordered a beer and asked for a pitcher of water.  The patrons in here were no better, yelling about how they are going to buy the bar.  I didn't have a plan of where I was going to camp, especially with a fire burning above town in the only nearby camping.  It was now 11 PM and getting cold, I put all the layers I had with me on and decided to follow the route until I found an ideal camping spot, I knew there was a decent amount of paved roads to get across the valley anyways and I preferred riding these when there wasn't any traffic.  The miles went by quick and I was soon riding the upper pack river road.  I reached the top of Dodge Peak, setup my tent and placed my bear bag before going to sleep around 1:45 AM.