The Magruder Corridor

I have other very famous (or infamous) stretch of road in front of me – the Magruder Corridor. Once again, it’s an ancient route through the mountains used by Indians, settlers, cattlemen, miners, highwaymen, gamblers, women of ill-repute, opportunists and thieves. Motorcyclists fit in with that lot beautifully! 

With more bitumen at the start than expected, once I hit Magruder Crossing, the road started rising. While higher than the Lolo Motorway, the track was a much gentler climb. It was good clean road, a bit powdery and sandy in places but solid and hard packed underneath. Some of the switchbacks were a bit interesting, so I reduced tyre pressures to 24/22. This made quite a bit of difference and allowed me to hook along at a good pace. This was an absolutely awesome bit of road and for 40 or 50 km across the top of the corridor, it was fast and hard packed, with light stone and just loose enough to make it fun.

I met up with Blaine and Eric (I think it was) just north of the Burnt Knob (ha ha Nic) Lookout. Eric was on a Husky 701 which made me envious and think a bit about the nearly finished 690 back at home. He had Mosko Moto bags and it looked the business. Blaine was on a KTM 990 and had really set it up well. They both looked like pretty serious operators. The 990 was a big bike though – heavier than my 1190. Dropping and being able to pick it up had been on Blaine’s mind as well – at least there were 2 of them though. He got halfway up the side track to the Burnt Knob Lookout and bailed, while Eric buzzed up without problems. I’d been wondering whether to try and tackle it – that answered my question. The views were spectacular from the road and other vantage points they said, so wasn’t going to miss anything at all.

The boys were saying that the main BDR route south was closed due to fires – funny that Arrin and Joseph hadn’t mentioned this last night? They’d had a detour of what must have been well over 100 miles to get around it. Hopefully it will be open by the time I get there and things will have settled. They said there were some great hot springs and excellent camping just north of Pine and not to miss out on them.

The road from Burnt Knob was out of control – smooth, fast, clean – 3rd and 4th gear stuff at between 70 and 90 km per hour. Awesome. Today has been the best days riding in North America so far. Wonderful, good quality roads that still tested and really kept me on my toes – the 1190 was handling it all spectacularly. At least 3/4 of the forest I was riding through had been burned due to forest fires and there was barely a hint of green. The effect was stark and severe, but majestic in it’s own way.

About 25 km out of Elk City, that’s exactly what I saw. He raced out of the trees and blasted across the road in front of me. This was definitely a male elk as he had a massive rack. I know nothing about these animals, but even I could see he was a magnificent specimen. Ironically, when I was fuelling up in Elk City, a couple of guys, both hunters, we’re talking by the bowser and complaining that that hadn’t seen any elk over the last few days. Ha!

You were right Kiromara – I did have an awesome day in the saddle

It was here that I discovered my first proper, stupid mistake for the trip. The servo offered WIFI and I thought I’d check mail. As I’d been using the phone to take photos (due to my disappointment with my DSLR), I’d taken to keeping it in my tank bag instead of in my pocket. I’ve learned the hard way in the past to keep everything in it’s place – always! If I can offer one piece advice to anyone contemplating a big trip, it’s to be completely disciplined in this regard. Keys in the right hand pants pocket, wallet in the left side of my jacket, phone in the right and all super important stuff (passport, plane tickets, spare bike key and duplicate credit cards) on my back and never put down.

It was gone. I couldn’t believe it. I double checked and triple checked everything, but nope, gonski. I’d been so careful with all of this as I really have a habit of leaving my … stuff … everywhere, all the time. I was furious with myself. I’d probably managed to put it down on the topbox or dry bag as I was putting my helmet on. Damn, damn, damn. It was insured, encrypted and password protected, so the only thing lost was a couple of days of photos. Very disappointing none-the-less.

I met 3 blokes on R1200GS’s at the servo who were, as usual, heading north. They were very, very heavily laden, but looked like they knew what they were doing. They also mentioned the fires, but the detour they took around them only cost about 10 miles of the BDR. I’d tried to buy a gas refill for my stove without luck in Elk – have had troubles finding the small ones throughout the whole trip. The guys had plenty between them and gave me one, duely outraged when I offered to pay for it. The brotherhood again!

In a bit of a flustered funk, I rode the 50 km of bitumen to where the dirt began again. I arrived here just on dark and found a nice spot to camp. I’d bought supplies in Elk City (that really does overstate what the town offers – a city it certainly is not). Picking up food to cook later in the day has the advantage of temperatures being cooler and allowing you to buy perishables. I picked up another nice looking steak, avocado, tomatoes and yoghurt to go with some muffins and a small tube of strawberry jam I’d bought in Darby that morning when I’d grabbed fruit and protein bars for lunch. The little frypan is working so well as is the collapsible plate and bowl. I carry salt and pepper and a little plastic container with oil, plus another with balsamic. As always, dinner was good. Amazing just how self sufficient you can be.

It was a perfect campsite and the creek was quite deep and fast flowing. It offered a nice rocky platform leading into it, despite being dark, and was perfect for a swim and a proper wash. I could clearly see big fish by lamp light in the water – with a little know how, I’m sure they could be easily caught. There were a few other interesting grubs and bugs about – particularly one little green one with a huge head and eyes. He was kind of cute – would have been good in a Disney film (or as bait!).

I was a bit down on myself that evening and had to very consciously push the lost phone out of my mind. Despite this, it had been a very good day and I slept well, waking with a fresh perspective. As I said in the introduction to this blog, I’ll have some bad days – it’s part of the deal. I had to push past this one and look forwards. After all, I’ve got some of the best parts of the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route in front of me!