Messages

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Temporary ACA Route Road Closures / Re: Idaho Hot Springs Mtn Bike Route - conditions & FR277 closure - Spring 2016

« on: July 05, 2016, 01:47:04 pm »

You mention a detour that we suggested (bolded text). Where have you seen this information? I don't see it on the addenda or within the forums. Since I believe this is the first we've heard of it, I don't imagine we actually have a suggested reroute to offer at this point. Someone will contact the appropriate ranger station for more information and post it when available.

Jennifer

The detour information I found was here: http://forums.adventurecycling.org/index.php?topic=13467.0
Suggested by Nathan Taylor of ACA cartography dept.

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Temporary ACA Route Road Closures / Re: Idaho Hot Springs Mtn Bike Route - conditions & FR277 closure - Spring 2016

« on: July 02, 2016, 01:38:59 pm »

Alright then, now that the facts are out of the way, let me get up on my soapbox and state my opinions about the FR277 closure.

First of all, I really don't understand why this season's snowfall totals (which are now completely irrelevant) merit a prominent mention on the map's addenda page, but the FR277 closure is buried here in the forum. The map addenda main page states:

Addenda only pertain to long term changes and updates. For short term road closures, please see the Adventure Cycling's Routes Temporary Road Closures discussion in our Forums.

The snow totals for this year were clearly a short-term situation. In contrast, FR277 has been closed for 10 months and counting. Is that not a "long term change"? It's time to update the addenda page.

Second, I suggest that ACA get on the horn with the forest service and find out about possible re-routes that are not as big a detour. Anecdotal evidence suggests that such a route does exist. Motorcyclist #3 that I spoke with as I climbed Dollarhide never reappeared later in the day to backtrack his way out.

Finally, should you ride this? Almost definitely. Unless you are a real pack horse, you are looking at at most a 2 hour delay, and the countryside down here is really beautiful.

3

Temporary ACA Route Road Closures / Re: Idaho Hot Springs Mtn Bike Route - conditions & FR277 closure - Spring 2016

« on: July 02, 2016, 01:18:31 pm »

FR277 is closed from   43 35.0191N, 114 59.5907W on the west to 43 35.0332N, 114 59.2484W  on the east. This is a distance of about .35 miles. Here is the situation in detail. The road is on the north side of the river. There was a mudslide on the south side that dammed the river and caused it to flood the road. Eventually the river punched through the slide at the lowest point, which is where the road used to be. The edge of the river is now the base of rockslides that come down the north wall of the river canyon. These rocks range anywhere from softball sized to chair-sized. Fortunately, some trail angels have moved enough rocks around to make a sort of path through them.

It took me 45 minutes to push my bike through the closed area. It wasn't terribly difficult because I'm using a pretty light bikepacking setup (see photos) but it is slow going because the rocks shift around under your feet as you walk and you really can't afford to slip and fall -- every surface around you is a jagged rock. I suspect that if you have a single set of panniers, you might be able to push through in one go; with front and rear panniers, you are more likely to require two trips and with a trailer, you will definitely have to make two trips. In that case it is probably going to take about 2 hours to get through this section. Nonetheless, this is probably preferable to the detour that ACA has suggested.

4

Temporary ACA Route Road Closures / Re: Idaho Hot Springs Mtn Bike Route - conditions & FR277 closure - Spring 2016

« on: July 02, 2016, 12:48:05 pm »

I did the Featherville-Ketchum segment on June 29. The road closure on FR277 is not temporary. It's been closed since August of 2015 and I was told by locals that the forest service has no intention of trying to fix the current location of the road -- they are going to have to build an entirely new road higher up on the hillside. At this point, I think this deserves to be promoted to the route errata page.

However, there may be a detour on other forest service roads. I ran into two motorcyclists at the Featherville cafe who were doing the Trans-America Trail (http://www.transamtrail.com/the-trans-am-trail/ , no relation to ACA's T.A.T.). They had no notice of this and were forced to backtrack out to Ketchum and around via Highway 20. However they made a phone call to a friend of theirs who was a day behind them advising him of this. The next day as I was climbing Dollarhide, I saw a motorcyclist coming the other way so I flagged him down and told him he wouldn't be able to get through. He told me he was the third biker in the group and had been warned, and that he consulted with the forest service and they gave him an alternate route. So in theory there is a way to get around this section without going all the way out to the valley, but I don't know what it is. I think ACA's cartography dept should get in touch with the local forest service office and find out. As I said, this closure looks like it's going to be around for the long term.

I carefully documented the closure while I was there with photos and GPS waypoints. I'll put those in my next post.