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Idaho if We're Going To Make It...Part 2 Idaho if We're Going To Make It...Part 2 The Burnt Knob Bearing Bust The Burnt Knob Bearing Bust By Jim Bird By Jim Bird 24 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Last month's installment followed our crew of two from McCall, ID to Elk City, ID on a beau ful late September day. On a Monday night we made some repairs, gobbled some grub and suds, and hit the rack hard in Elk City. Tuesday – Woke up early to a cool, foggy, frosty morning. The housecleaner was kind enough to give us a stack of towels to defrost the seats and windshield from her collec on of "stuff too ta ered to let the nice guests see." Nice. A clean windshield and dry seat are appreciated when you have to bump start the big, cold 1150 on the gravel main street of Elk City. A er ge ng the gear loaded, the bikes started and warmed up, we began the jaunt to the Ma- gruder Corridor and on to Darby, MT. The Ma- gruder Corridor is an east-west jeep track ghtly squished between the Frank Church/River of No Return Wilderness to the south and the Bi erroot Selway Wilderness to the north — 126 miles from Elk City to the next anything that didn't want to eat you. The size of these wilderness areas are similar to the size of states in the Northeast U.S. The combined wilderness area is the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. But, unlike those states, nodody lives in the wilderness areas. At least, not legally. The morning fog had burnt off a er 20 minutes rid- ing, and it was turning into a bluebird day. The kind of day riders are thinking of when they plan to ride The Magruder. Zero clouds, zero smoke, zero other traffic, so zero dust. We had really hit the jackpot. Soon we passed the Red River Ranger Sta on on Red River Road and shortly a er took the le onto Magruder Road. Let the games begin. The road climbed pre y con nuously along loosely packed gravel for many miles, winding up through young fir forests and stands of large burns mea- sured in tens of square miles. Forest fires out here are big league and just seeing the a ermath is spooky. These large burns provide miles of stunning vistas but they all eventually topple over. O en into the nearest road. And we didn't have the chain saw this trip, only a li le folding saw. A er an hour and a half of winding along the ridg- es, we got to the Burnt Knob Lookout Trail.