We are still working on our mountain biking video and the location for this week’s footage was at Thain Creek in the Highwood Mountains, part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest.
To start with, the drive to Thain Creek Campground was absolutely spectacular.
Although, we were running late and yet I wanted to stop and take photos along the way. I didn’t but only because I knew our biking models were waiting.
Patient, yet eager to ride, our biking models had been waiting at Thain Creek Campground, our designated meeting place, for almost a half hour. And we still weren’t there. The solution for them – take off on a trail that had good visibility of the forest service road below and they would see us when we got there.
It is a slow road getting to Thain Creek Campground. We were behind schedule because of another video subject and you can’t really make up time on a road like this.
Fortunately, the mountain bikers saw us as we were driving in. One of the more aggressive riders agreed to ride ahead fast and connect with us.
I was pretty sure they were nearby because I saw two vehicles parked at the campground where we were to meet and no camp setups. All of a sudden a mountain bike came whooshing by, finally stopped, and asked if we were the video crew.
Well, yes to that question!
Daylight fades quickly in the mountains when you are surrounded by tall trees so we had to do some fast work. A trail was identified and the mountain bikers, who had just completed a pretty ambitous ride, went to work for us. Back and forth, uphill, downhill and lots of “that was great but let’s do it again”.
I was so impressed with these riders. Besides being in great riding shape, they had amazing stamina and were eager to please with whatever we asked them to do on their bikes.
One fast hour later and we were losing daylight too quickly to continue.
A brief gathering at the campground trailhead where we had parked, many thank yous, and plenty of “awesome riding” kudos to this group rounded out our not-long-enough evening at the beautiful Thain Creek campground.
The Lewis & Clark National Forest has recently worked to restore Thain Creek after some flooding a few years ago.
It is in tip-top shape and is obviously great for mountain biking but it would also be a fun place to camp, hike and maybe toast a few marshmallows.
It has been years since I have camped at Thain Creek and I’m going to put it on the list for a great place to go.