Today we cycled from our dispersed campsite at Morgan Creek to Spring Creek campsite. We had blue skies all day, sometimes a little breeze, but it was welcome. We only rode on gravel roads today.
Riding statistics: on Saturday June 8, 2024, the 31st day on the Western Wildlands Route route, it took 09:12h (06:39h moving time), between 06:45 and 15:57, to cover 111 km (69 miles), including 832 m (2730 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 17 km/h (10 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 26 °C (82 °F) with a minimum of 5 °C (40 °F) and a maximum of 43 °C (116 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 9 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes and 45 seconds of cycling time to cover 3245 km (2016 miles), including 36536 m (119875 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14.4 km/h (9 mph).
The night was not cold at all (lower elevation), and also no damp in the tent this morning. We broke up camp, and started the ride for today.
The first thing we had to do was climb 700 elevation meters over a distance of 20km in total. This, to get on top of Morgan Creek summit. And that on a very good road. Easy. Where our dispersed campsite was in a little oasis between soft mountains with low vegetation (kind of lavender), as soon as the climb started, we rode into a canyon and the environment changed into a totally green environment, with lots of pine trees. This because of the Morgan Creek stream. Normally the forests only start at a certain elevation, below that it is the kind of lavender. All the way to the top was green and beautiful. And where the Morgan Creek stream became smaller and smaller, at the other side of the pass, Panther Creek become larger and larger, being a full and wild river 60km later. It merged with the Salmon River, which we also cycled along when passing through Stanley. The 60km from the top of the pass to today’s campground was almost all downhill. A little more in the beginning and a little less at the end, but nevertheless it made it an easier day. The part of the Salmon River we’re now cycling along is used for rafting. We’ve seen many boats going downstream. Most of them looked very happy and waved. Of course I waved back.
15km later we arrived at the Spring Creek campground. There we setup camp because we wanted to start another huge climb from there in the morning. While refreshing ourselves in the Salmon River, and rinsing some clothes, I got into a conversation with a local guy. A crushed our plans, telling that the pass is not passable yet, probably in about three weeks. He accesses that back country region a lot for his work, and they are eager to have access again. He also said that the Magruder Corridor is also not yet passable. It would be our next remote section. Later we spoke another couple and they advised to ask if the trail is already open at a station which we will pass when detouring to Darby. They agreed the elevation of the Magruder Corridor is much lower. That will decide if we can go into that direction, or that we have to skip quite a bit because there is no easy way around the Magruder Corridor.
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