Adventure Cycling Association

We’ll meet in the late afternoon for our orientation meeting before sharing dinner together. You’ll find this a great opportunity to prepare your gear, meet your fellow riders, and share the excitement of the journey ahead. We will head to bed ready to head out early in the morning for an awesome week on the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route.

We begin our ride on pavement as we ride out of Boise, ID toward the Boise National Forest. We will make a short stop at the beginning of the day to stock up on supplies for our week in the backcountry as no food is available along the route after Boise. We will ride past the Shady Point Recreation area in the outskirts of Boise and do our first significant climb to the Highland Valley Summit at 3769’. Although there are no hot springs today, we can swim in the Boise River arm of Lucky Peak Lake at our overnight location.

We will head up the Middle Fork of the Boise River and into the Boise National Forest today. Wildlife will begin to unfold more as we cycle our Forest Service road. We will encounter the first of many hot springs today along the route and near our overnight campground. Hot springs include Sheep Creek Bridge, Smith Cabin and Loftus. We will dine together under the stars after a good day of riding.

Today will be the hardest ride of the tour as we continue along the Middle Fork of the Boise River. The grade increases along the route as we crest the summit of the route and approach the small town of Atlanta, ID. Keep an eye out for the flora and fauna along the route and visit one of the many hot springs you will encounter. You will cycle past and perhaps dip in the Loftus, Round the Bend, Ninemeyer, Browns Creek, Dutch Frank, Granite and Phifer Bath House hot springs. At days end relax at the Atlanta or Chattanooga hot springs and chill at the local tavern reviewing the scenes and wildlife discovered during the day.

Our next to last day of riding is a real treat. We’ll be reversing our direction along the Middle Fork of the Boise River as we start our journey back to Boise. We will cover in 2 days what we did in 3 days as the route will be a gentle grade downhill all day. We will see the route from a different but familiar perspective as we ride by ALL the hot springs we rode past in the last 3 days, and we zoom down to our last overnight location; the Twin Springs Resort. As the name suggests we will indulge in the Twin Springs hot springs one last time and enjoy our last dinner together under the stars.

We’ll have a last breakfast together before continuing a gentle descent along the Middle Fork of the Boise River, leaving the Boise National Forest. One last climb and descent of the Highland Valley Summit and we will zoom back to our starting point location with memories of our time together on the Idaho Hot Springs route and dreams of tackling another section, or maybe the entire route, in the future.