Route Breakdown: Kleinschmidt Krankfest

THis post marks a pretty cool ANNIVERSARY for the blog. Lawrenceshaw.blog TURNS 1! To celebrate this Milestone, im excited to share my favorite Bike tour from last year.

For Memorial Day weekend 2025, Josh put together a great route. We rode an epic tour through Central Idaho. Josh’s route connected bits of the Weiser River Trail, scenic Hells Canyon, Kleinschmidt Grade, and the Payette National Forest.

This ride group CONSISTED of my friends (and blog regulars), Josh and Morgan. New to the mix was Zack and Collin, who drove up from California. Zack is a prior cycling teammate from Josh and Morgan’s college days. ColLin is Zack’s friend who is a California cycling legend with legs and lungs of steel, IYKYK. One of the most notable highlights from this trip was Collin passing everyone on his Crust fatbike and letting out a nonchalant “SIIIICK ONEEEE.”

Day 0 – WYE Campground

The day before starting our ride, we met up and stayed a night at the WYE Campground. The WYE Campground is SITUATED near New Meadows, ID, on the WEISER River Trail. THis developed campground served as a great start to the trip and made it an easy place to leave the vehicles for a few days

DAy 1 – WYE Campground to Brownlee NF Campground – 60mi, 2.8k Climb

WE had a chilly, damp start to the morning. We packed up the rigs. Then, we were set to tackle the fastest moving segment of the route. We were riding the Weiser River Trail south towards CAMBRIDGE, ID. The northern half of the Weiser River Trail, 40 mi, was slightly downhill with plenty of bridge/trestle crossings.

After cruising through the first 40 mi, we got to our first resupply, CAMBRIDGE, ID. We grabbed lunch at the Oh-Honey Bistro. We believed this was the only resupply of the trip. So, we picked up some food at the grocery store across the street. After our resupply, we headed west on HWY 71 towards the Brownlee NF Campground.

Stoked to end the day with some fireball and some brookies from the stream.

DAy 2 Brownlee NF Campground to HuckleBerry Campground — 70MI, 8k Climb

DAy two was broken into two DISTINCT parts, a cruise THROUGH the SCENIC hells canyon on hwy 71, then a steep climb out of hells canyon on the infamous Kleinschmit grade.

We started our day with a fast descent into Hells Canyon, situated between the Idaho/Oregon border. On this descent, we came across an unexpected gas station resupply that everyone took advantage of. My chocolate pie and lemon Red Bull tasted so sweet. Cruising along Hwy 71 between Brownlee and Oxbow dams, we headed north along the Snake River. We were entertained by the countless carp that were seen in the shallows of the river.

We finished our Hells Canyon segment by stopping at Copperfield Park, a boat ramp and campground managed by Idaho Power. WE ENJOYED a grassy PICNIC area and refilled our bottles at the camp bathrooms.

Full of food and roasting in the sun, we started the steep climb out of Hells Canyon up the historic KLEINSCHMIDT Grade. Albert Kleinschmidt independently funded and built this 22 mi rugged grade in the late 1800s. It was designed to aid in his mining operations in the local area. Copper ore was brought into Hells Canyon on the Kleinschmidt Grade, and then transported via boat down to Weiser, ID.

After a big day of climbing, we found some DISPERSED camping near Huckleberry campground.

DAy 3 – Huckleberry Campground to Butter Gulch — 35 miles, 3.8K Climbing

After 2 big days of riding, we decided to CUT BACK ON MILEAGE. WE had a good climb into the patyette National Forest.

NOTABLY we passed though Bear, ID, an unincorporated town w/ no resupply options. Collin stopped to get on a sick one at this old school playground.

DAy 4 – Butter Gulch to WYE Camp – 25 Miles, 1k-ish climbing

Day Four was a fast ride. We decided to shorten our original route and skip a few miles that would have taken us to the Weiser River’s headwaters.

We rerouted onto price Valley road and fished some water behind the Price Valley Heli-Rappellers Guard Station. This road put us back onto the Weiser River Trail. From there, we biked back to the cars.

Before finishing the post, I wanted to leave a note for the camera enthusiasts. During this ride, I brought a Pentax IqZoom and a roll of Ilford HP5. This compact camera fit well in my handlebar bag. My only issue was that the on/off button would turn on due to vibrations from the road. A camera case might have fixed this.