August 10, 2024 – Keep Calm and Pedal On

We had to abruptly pull the plug on our Idaho Hot Springs bike tour due to growing wildfires in the Payette and Boise National Forests.🔥

It’s remarkable how quickly things change.

We rolled into McCall on my birthday, decided to take the next day off to resupply, do laundry, etc. and after checking the Watch Duty app and confirming with the Valley County Sheriff Department, decisions were made. We were done.

Our forest road was closed due to wildfire and Highway 55 was much too dangerous to cycle on back to Boise.

Question was… how would we get back to Boise from McCall with bikes.

We brainstormed several ideas and came up with renting a car at the McCall airport and driving with our bikes back to Boise.

We then had to pick up a second rental car in Boise and drive the first rental back north two hours to McCall (or pay $1,000 one way rental fee or take a puddle jumper from McCall to Boise for $2,000).

So we made a total of three trips on Highway 55 along the scenic Payette River while watching all kinds of fire activity up and down the corridor. And btw, the Sheriff Department was correct on the “bike-ability” of Highway 55: no shoulder, too narrow and no line of site along much of the road.