Lolo Motorway and Toboggan Ridge - 08/11/2018

[britz]

We'll be running most of the Lolo Motorway, west to east. After a night of dispersed camping, we'll connect up with the narrow and overgrown Toboggan Ridge and dropping down into some world class flyflishing grounds of the North Fork Clearwater River. The ride terminus is the Kelly Forks Campground, and from there it's an hour scenic drive North to Superior, MT to the I-90 or follow me west back towards Pierce, ID. The trails are rocky, you will get pinstriping on Toboggan Ridge. Good tires and Extra fuel is strongly encouraged. We will be primitive camping but there are 1-2 vault toilets on the first half of the Motorway. We'll stop at two alpine lakes, but hauling or filtering water is necessary. Meet at 9am Saturday morning at the entrance of the Lolo Creek Campground and we'll get to Kelly Forks CG on Sunday afternoon.

 

View Rally Point

[Captain Chaos]

I wish we could make this, but I have a Dr appointment Saturday

 

[britz]

No sweat, I run parts of it all the time.

 

[britz]

@Aaron Niemi and I, with copilots and trail mascot in tow, made a great run.

Ran into an ATV club, where one member changed his oil and forgot to add new oil, so a small donation from my spare fluids kit helped keep them on the trail.

Found one couple carrying nothing but a cooler and a can of gas, thinking they would make the entire trip in one day, hoping they diverted off for better planning.

Wasn't happy to find trash at the Liz Bitte Cabin, but we all chipped in for a quick cleanup.

Here' the stats.


Total altitude gain 16, 634 ft
Max Altitude 6,966ft
Max/min Grade 12%
Total trail distance 155mi.

 

[britz]

 

[britz]

 

[pierceg]

Nice, wish I could have been there.

 

[justjohnthomas]

Looks like it was a good run, wish we could have made it as well!

 

[britz]

I already found three new routes that cross or drive a small portion of the LM, closer towards the MT side I want to check out. Maybe this Fall, maybe 2019.

I thought it was my imagination, but the road is definitely rougher than the actual 468 (Magruder) rd.

 

[pierceg]

We went up to Horseshoe lake today.
Took the longer route via doe creek road up and over down to Horseshoe. Was very dusty
I mean very dusty. If you stopped you had to wait for the dust to settle.

But got to the lake with no problems. It was absolutely beautiful.
The pup did some swimming then we headed back to Lolo.

 

[britz]

I was a little saddened to see people had widened the "problem" at Horseshoe instead of taking the bypass. A little surprised it was so dusty, we had a hell of a storm cell come through last night, maybe that area just got the dry lightning.

 

[pierceg]

That's what causes gates with locks to go up.
Pretty soon we will all have to park and hike up the hill carrying our cooler full of beer.