Relaxing at Hawkins Camp Ground
On August 29, 2009, my long-time cycle camping buddy, Travis, and I set out for Hawkins Reservoir (40 miles away from Pocatello) to do an overnight cycle camp. We’d never camped at Hawkins Reservoir before, but with a bit of looking around online, we discovered that it did have camping areas and restroom facilities, but no running water. McCammon was 15 miles away from our destination, so we would load up on food, beer, and water there before continuing on to Hawkins.
Please note that I am writing this article on October 7, 2015, because I was lazy and am finally getting around to it. So this article is going to be overly brief, which some of you may appreciate. Anyway, we cycled to McCammon, loaded up on supplies at the local Flying J gas station, and headed out to Hawkins. It was at this point that I remember the temperature approaching 95 F. A portion of the route we chose (Arimo Road -> Hawkins Road) was gravel, which made the going even more slow and difficult. I remember drinking a lot of my water supply during the very hot ride to Hawkins, which worried me. But I knew we’d probably be fine since we’d cycle back to McCammon in the cool of the next morning.
Hawkins Reservoir in the evening
We arrived at the camping area which was right across the road from the reservoir, and set up our tents. We noticed there were a few other tent campers and some RVs around, so we could beg for water if need be. We explored around the reservoir a bit, and drank some of our warm beer, which was less than satisfying. Next, we met a friendly, older couple who had fished that day and offered us some water and cold beer, after expressing their awe at us cycling there from Pocatello. We traded some of our warm cans of beer for some cold ones, and chatted with them a bit. They told us the bizarre news about one of the tent camp sites being some young adults from Downey who had been thrown out of their home by disgruntled family members and were actually living there for a while. The couple offered us some fresh, grilled trout which we gratefully accepted. We ate, chatted some more, and then retired to our tents.
We rose at dawn, packed up, and prepared to head to McCammon. The campground friends told us that it was faster to go to McCammon via Garden Creek Road, through the gap. It was a change in scenery from the way we had came, and we wanted to avoid the gravel. It turned out to be a very beautiful and thrilling route. The downhill grade combined with cycling through the narrow, winding gap of vertical rock walls on both sides of the road was an amazing experience. I had ridden in my parents’ car through Garden Gap many years ago, but it does not compare at all to cycling through it! In McCammon, we drank hot coffee and ate breakfast sandwiches at the Flying J at an outside patio table. A hot breakfast is always pretty fantastic after tent camping. And then we set out for the remaining 25 miles home.
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