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ABOUT BOOMER CAFÉ

by Trisha Britt Farrow

Nobody spotted the spill of roofing nails scattered along the roadside until it was too late. Janice, leading our pack of eight cyclists, shouted something like, "Oh, no. Dang. Rats" as her front tire blew flat. The rest of us screeched to a halt. We consoled Janice about her (our!) misfortune and decided to stick together, work our way the mile or so back to the bike shop and have some latte while awaiting the tire repair.

This was the only hitch on our weeklong vacation in McCall, Idaho. We are four active couples, all good friends, baby boomers committed to a variety of fitness regimes. Every year we plan a trip to a different outdoor adventure destination, where we can hike, raft, mountain bike or kayak every day and return to a comfortable lodge-type accommodation for baths and a leisurely dinner.

We stayed at the Bear Creek Lodge, just north of McCall, arriving after a 2-hour drive from Boise airport in mid-August. The sun had slipped behind the 7,600-foot peak of Brundage Mountain as we thought about our hike into the Payette National Forest the next day.

McCall (permanent population of 2,502) borders on the Southern shore of Lake Payette, where the Payette River effluence drains south towards Cascade Lake. Noted for its "first class recreation and world class scenery", according to the McCall Chamber of Commerce, the town bears the signs of its pre-vacation destination heritage as a 19th century logging and lumber center. But it has been rejuventated. The historic Hotel McCall, a restored 1904 railroad inn, has been renovated into a smart dining and lodging destination at the center of town, a half block from a sandy public beach.

The following morning we took off for an eight mile trek starting near the entrance to Brundage Mountain Ski Area on the Powerline Trail. From the parking area, the trail starts as a one-mile downhill (thus a return uphill at the end of the hike) through Oregon Fir and Lodgepole Pine. The fragrance of the evergreen forest and the sound of a distant waterfall in the canyon below us were the sensory signals we all craved. At the bottom of the canyon we found the footbridge that crosses Goose Creek, boasting a series of waterfalls surrounded by granite boulders and lacey ferns.

We crossed the creek and headed upstream on the Goose Creek Trail, as opposed to the downstream direction, which is a 2-mile descent into Packer John's Cabin State Park and the main roadhead. With the rushing stream on our right and stately pines above, we hiked for 3 miles until we came upon the outflow from the 2 mile long Brundage Reservoir, the beautiful lake which feeds Goose Creek. On our return hike we saw late-season wildflowers (Indian Paintbrush, Lupine, Solomon's Seal and Syringa). We even a spotted a hen ptarmigan and her two chicks, so well disguised with their natural camouflage plumage that we would have nearly marched right over them had they not scurried for cover, chattering and scolding us for interrupting their outing. One more pause at the Goose Creek bridge and a foot soak in the icy stream before we trudged back up the trail to our cars.

We cycled too. A great warm-up ride is the 21-mile perimeter road around Payette Lake, starting on paved asphalt and then turning into a gravel road with little vehicular use. We rented 21-speed mountain bikes for $12 per bike per day, including helmets, cables, locks and water bottles. Later in the week we had a more challenging bike outing. This was the gradual climb up a double track service road on the backside of Mount Brundage, along a splendid mountain meadow, before ascending through several eco-zones in a lung-burning assault on the 7,652-ft elevation summit. There we surveyed a grand panoply of meadows, forests and lakes.

We then took off on an exhilarating 7-mile downhill single track ride to the mountain's base area, where we boarded the ski lift which took us and our bikes back to the summit. A Mach 3 plunge down the backside service road rewarded us for our conquest of this stately granite peak, and we were suitably self-congratulatory for having handled the 24-mile challenge with no flats, no falls and no bonks.

All in all, it was a great adventure in an idyllic lakeside setting in the heart of mountain preserves.

Writer Trisha Britt Farrow lives in Mill Valley, California,
north of San Francisco. Her email is britt95co@aol.com.

For a free copy of the Official State Travel Guide,
write Idaho Travel Council, P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720.

Or call 1-800-VISIT-ID. On the Web at www.visitid.org.

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