Sunday was a perfect day temperature-wise to take Biscuit out for a long test run into the Boise Foothills.
Of course, It took all of about 5 minutes into the hills before the engine overheated. For some reason the auto temp sensor wasn’t turning on the electric fans. So, using some extra wire i had, I wired up the fan directly to the electrical system, which bypasses the temperature sensor.
After resolving that issue, it took all of another 5 minutes before we hit a gate that wouldn’t open until May 15 … sigh.
So, I drove back down the hill, through town, and tried a different access road that’s on the East Side of Downtown Boise. This time, we found some trails!! We even found some difficult enough terrain to engage four wheel drive and low range.
After an hour of driving, we found ourselves at the top of a pass and made a left, tackling some more difficult terrain. We eventually hit some snow and figured that without a winch, turning back was the smart option. When we got to the pass, I made a left and headed down the other side of the mountain.
As I managed to leave the map at home, we were travelling slightly blind, so we depended heavily on serendipity. Eventually, we found ourselves at one of two tributaries to Lucky Peak Reservoir. Because the lake is low, we could actually drive along the reservoir, which is where these pics were taken.
Instead of heading back over the canyon road, I took the highway back to Boise, which meant Biscuit got to drive at 55 for an extended length of time. All in all it was a successful trip! Here are some pics from the day’s adventure.
Hi!
Cool pics! Just one question: the jeep, is a modified CJ?…
Thanks a lot!
Jealous, How fun, Life is a lot richer with a jeep. Good thing to know about the thermal fan switch I will put in a bipass switch
Brian; yes, mine came with a relay and the ability to bypass the thermal switch. I’m glad I have it.
Roberto: Yes, highly modified. You can see some of the early pics here http://www.ewillys.com/?page_id=366&paged=4. Here is a pretty lengthy specification list: http://www.ewillys.com/?page_id=14324
Woohoo!….Now…..to get mine to run again someday!
I used to drive around in those hills in a 1964 scout, called the pass Aldape summit and that steep switchback grade you went up to the north tops out on 8th street ridge. Good views up there, in between the trees you can see the Sawtooths. Now I have a 51 cj3a (stock) that prefers the Owyhees.
Hi Clint: the Owyhees are on my list as well (For readers not familiar with the area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owyhee_River). Their remoteness reminds me of southern Utah (a long time fav of mine), particularly the Burr trail area and south of that.
Given the 8th street access was closed, I was surprised to see that Rocky Canyon was open, as I did know the systems connected. Have you explored the area north/east of Arrowrock towards the Atlanta area? From the maps I have it appears there are a variety of dirt roads and 4wd areas, including a variety of hot springs as well.
Mitch: Is something broken? Or is buried under dust, daily work and a lack of time at the moment?
Ya, I know the area. I grew up in Star and spent about every summer weekend in that area and other places in the Idaho mts whether I liked it or not. My parents were were obsessed with the outdoors so I know a lot of those roads from childhood and later on mostly driving to trailheads to backpack in the sawtooths and after that mostly driving around with a cooler full of beer just having a look around and fishing. Don’t go there much anymore after the population influx into the treasure valley.
There are a lot of roads going up and crossing back and forth between the three forks of the Boise river and various other basins. The best ones were old logging and mining roads where few people went and you could camp anywhere you made one, unfortunately the forest service gates these so they can funnel everybody into pay sites. I know of a rather rough road to a spectacular view of the wild side of the sawtooths and another that goes to the headwaters of the southfork that took me 4 hours to drive 12 miles. I lost a mirror and had branch stuck into the side of a beat up camper on a 73 gmc 4×4 so this was made for a jeep.
Twin springs just up the road from the arrowrock backwaters has a little bar and a couple hot pools, farther up the road there is a number of hot springs below steel mt. some may have little pools others not ,the best one near Atlanta is a hot spring waterfall into a large pool right where the middle fork of boise river flows by.
Very interesting. I appreciate the info Clint! I can see that I have much of Idaho left see; sounds wonderful! 🙂
Dave…Yes and no… Nothing is broken per se…..But nothing is really together at the moment either…I’ve switched gears a couple of times in what the end result is going to be but right now it’s going to be getting a fuel injected 5.0 from an explorer…IF…I can figure out this stupid wiring in my…Haha…spare time…
Boxes, dust, and no time make it hard to get back at it..