Bike overnight - Shafer Butte

Weather permitting, I’m generally on a bike every few days, whether it’s a quick MTB or road ride or a trip on the greenbelt to get groceries. (Or even on the trainer three times a week in the winter, if that counts.) So even though I’m regularly on two wheels it’s been a while since I’ve done riding of any real substance. A month or more ago I started thinking about this a lot and realized I’m getting a bit complacent and really missed riding big, tough rides. I mean, I used to ride 100-150 miles a week and now 150 miles a month would be, well, a lot. I wanted to fix this and figured some bikepacking trips would be a good way to right the ship.

Consequently, I’ve been trying to get out a bit more recently and get back some sort of riding fitness. This has been a little tricky because my main (i.e., only) riding partner is my wife, Heidi, and she’s currently having some hip/back issues that are preventing her from riding anything that’s too intense and/or longer than an hour. So if I was going to start doing some bikepacking trips, I was on my own. Thankfully my wife is supportive of really any solo trips I want to take (she is probably looking forward to some time alone!).

I’ve done an exploratory ride on a potential local bikepacking route and did a couple training rides in the foothills. We were on a short camping trip last week and I was riffing with Heidi about some bikepacking trips I’d like to do. We both came to the conclusion that it was probably better to just dive in and start doing them rather than spend a bunch of time trying to get back into riding shape, which, truth be told, probably wouldn’t work anyway. So I decided to jump right in and head up to Shafer Butte on Thursday and spend the night.

We had done this same overnight trip in 2021 and it was kind of brutal. At a couple points near the start of the climb, I felt like my bike was too heavy and I just didn’t have the fitness to make it up the mountain. The ride up to the campground is 24.5 miles and has a little over 4800 feet of elevation gain. I am definitely in worse riding shape than I was in 2021 so I was steeling myself for another nightmarish slog. But, the nice thing about a solo ride is you can go your own pace without (much) guilt so I was just going to take it slow and grind it out.

My trusty Surly Long Haul Trucker weighs about 39 pounds without any bags/gear. There’s no water at the campground so I needed to bring all the water I needed. All loaded up my bike + gear weighed in at about 70 pounds. I’ll probably write more on this later because 30 pounds of stuff seems kind of ridiculous, but I don’t really feel like I brought more than a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, some food, and post-ride clothes. Anyway, the bike was heavy.

I left our house around 3:00pm and after three or so miles started the ascent up Bogus Basin Road. The temperature was high 80s/low 90s, which isn’t all that warm for Boise this time of year, but it was one of the hotter days we’ve had so far this spring/summer. As expected, I struggled a bit on the ride. A bit? Uh, more like “A lot.” But, I kept pedaling, telling myself it was going to be better once I got up into the trees and things cooled down.

1/3 of the way up

And it was better. I reached the main Bogus ski lodge area after about three hours of pretty steady suffering. If we’re ever up at Bogus in the summer it’s usually really early in the morning so I don’t know if it’s like this every weekday afternoon, but on Thursday there were a ton of people mountain biking and hanging out, enjoying food and drinks. Which was all a nice surprise since I was able to find a Gatorade and rest for a few minutes.

After Bogus the road turns into a sandy gravel mix for the last five miles up to the Shafer Butte campground. Another slog, but not quite as dire as the paved road below since I now had cooler mountain air, abundant trees, and a less-blazing sun that was making its way down toward the horizon.

Views

Almost there

A little more than an hour after leaving the main Bogus lodge I made it to the campground, which is a small, tent-only affair that has some stunning views of the mountains and valleys. There was only one other site occupied and I was able to find a site tucked away in the trees. It was nice and quiet and, most importantly, had a really nice view.

The author (and tent) :)

View from campsite

I got my tent set up and had my meal – thai noodles with tofu and peanut sauce, which I made at home before I left. I always find that it doesn’t really matter what you have to eat after a tough ride and you’re on the verge of bonking since everything will taste good. This must have been one of those instances because the food was delicious.

After dinner I hung out a bit and simply enjoyed the views and mountain air. I was able to sleep without a rainfly on the tent so I had a full view of the starry sky from my sleeping bag.

I was up a bit before the actual sunrise, enjoyed a cup of coffee and the beautiful morning views, and started working on getting things packed up. The ride back to town was much easier and faster at 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Sunrise

Riding home

So, yeah, mission accomplished with this first outing. I felt tired, yet recharged when I got home and am already starting to plan my next adventure. I’ll probably go back up the mountain, but will load up the mountain bike this time and take the dirt route. Can’t wait!

Ride stats

• Total bike weight (bike + gear): 66.2 pounds
• Ride up: 24.41 miles, 4 hrs 9 mins, 4836 feet climbed
• Ride down: 24.88 miles, 1 hr 33 mins, 727 feet climbed