The road from Warren was wide and fast and we made pretty good time. We passed by Burgdorf Hot Springs which was closed due to not having any managers. I have to say, the location was a little disappointing. I guess I was expecting it to be tucked way up in the mountains along some narrow road. Nope. The dirt road was wide and flat. We blew by at around 40 mph. Still, it would have been a nice place to camp. About 7½ miles later we came across the old school bus which everyone takes pictures of. So naturally we had to do the same! From there it was an excessive amount of switchbacks taking us down to the valley and the road to Riggins where we'd be looking for food, fuel, and lodging. By the time we got down to the valley, it was quite warm. We really wanted a campground with a shower, but none were to be had.
We ended up picking an RV park in town and after we paid and had started to set up camp, we realized something was missing: bathrooms! We made it work, but that part was super inconvenient. Who has a campground without bathrooms?? Tim walked down to the convenience store to use their's, Dave and I just sort of held it, if you know what I mean. But we compensated by having a really nice dinner. We sliced up some steak, cooked corn, mashed potatoes and sourdough bread. Our neighbors were from California with a nice home-built RV using a large work van.
He offered us some of his pot stash. Guess we looked like his kind of people. Dave gave himself a bit of a bath in the river again. Tim and I passed on it. Riggins has decent cell coverage so we were all able to call home. One sad note was a text Dave and I got from Glenn and Janet. Glenn had a slow speed fall and broken something on his fuel pump and so they had to return to Mountain Home and would be heading back to North Carolina. We had been wondering why we hadn't see them. They were a nice couple. For us in Riggins there would be no campfire, but we sat around talking until probably 9:30pm or so. After that it was time for bed. Today's mileage: 127.
Monday, September 14, 2020
We had decided the night before to have a nice breakfast this morning. So we cooked up bacon, along with the leftover steak from last night, had some strawberries, and Tim whipped up some pancakes. Not bad for a bunch of guys on motorcycles! We got packed up and out of Riggins by 9am.
This morning's initial target is the ghost town of Florence. I had been to the cemetery before, but not really anywhere else. Already in the morning we passed a pair of riders heading south and also passed a couple that were heading north. We took a couple of wrong turns before we actually found one of the town buildings. It could be a replica but it's possible it's not. Certainly the fallen down buildings are originals. Florence was a wild place in its day. A lot of killing happened – life was cheap as the saying goes.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
