Belfort is a ghost town at 10,000 feet on the flank of Walker Peak … They mined for silver and gold in the 1880s …
There are three log cabins still standing …
The place was re-discovered by a hunter in the 1930s, with many of its artifacts still intact … you can see some of them at the county history museum in Bridgeport …
Belfort’s remote location and difficult jeep-trail protect it … I poked around a bit before rolling on … The road just below Belfort was the section that turned me back years ago …
Challenging KLR riding, ha. Steep, narrow, loose and rocky … a bit of deep sand was my undoing here … had to unload the bike a bit to pick it up, but was soon on my way to Star City, where I’d turned around in 2010 …
Popped out on Atchitson Road at Hwy 338 by the Sweetwater Ranch sign … the plan was to ride on past The Elbow on the East Walker River and try to find the hot spring … I’d searched for it many times, and Kalle and I looked down just about ever little dirt road a few years ago …
Dumped it again on route 765K … this was just about the only road Kalle and I had not searched … It had been blasted by a few gully washers this year and was in rough shape as it plunged down to the river through steep bad-lands to the river … I was trying to scoot along the left side of the pic, but the bike just slid away … broke the rear brake pedal … ouch! 🙂
Still was not sure I was going the right way, and now I was worried about the steep, rough ride back …
So I was really happy to finally find it! I’d ridden right by it and only found it on my way back …
Due to the poor condition of the road it looked like the hot spring had not been used in a while … I climbed in and soaked my bones and watched the Milky Way and Big Dipper … bliss!
I’d worried a bit about the climb out, but after a night of rest and some coffee in the morning, I scooted up and out no problem …
Coffee in the morning … The East Walker River runs along the base of the cliff …
Another beautiful day …
I think this is the hill-climb Ryan and Phil did in July …
A couple of views of route 765K, the way to the hot spring …
View of the west side of Mt Patterson …
The water crossing at the old ranch on Lucky Boy Pass road …
I was thinking I’d start home over Monitor and Ebbits Passes …
The map of the trip that Cary’s new SPOT device generated for my trip …
Cary and John 
Wow ….. that’s really outback …. interesting pics too
By: David Speidell on August 29, 2014
at 9:55 am
These pictures are great! the colors are right on! nice and sharp too! good reflections… what are you using?
By: mikehottle on August 29, 2014
at 3:21 pm
Great trip, I hope you had a gps and marked a waypoint at the hot spring!
By: Steve on August 29, 2014
at 5:58 pm
Hi Steve,
If I had a gps it would not have taken me years to find the hot spring, ha! 🙂
I think Ryan has the gps co-ordinates …
hope to see you soon!
— John A.
By: caryandjohn on August 30, 2014
at 5:24 pm
Hi Mike,
Just using my i-phone 4 that Cary made me get when we got married.
Didn’t want a fancy phone at the time, but now I love it …
thanks for reading and posting a comment! 🙂
— John A
By: caryandjohn on August 30, 2014
at 5:25 pm
Thanks, David. It felt like it was really outback when I was
looking at the bike on it’s side, ha! 🙂
best to Hortie,
— John A.
By: caryandjohn on August 30, 2014
at 5:26 pm
Hey amazing ride, I would love to ride to those hot springs, any chance you can send me the coordinates or a map on how to get there.
By: Andres on September 14, 2014
at 1:51 pm
Hi Andres,
Here’s a link to a bad map, best I could do …
You can get the Bridgeport District Inyo NF map at
any ranger station for $10 …
Very nice to spring, worth finding!
— John A
By: caryandjohn on September 22, 2014
at 4:53 pm
You are lucky you did it last year. Thunder storms have totally washed out the lower part of the road. Got almost to the mine and the road was gone for 100 ft in several places. Plan on walking the rest of the way.
By: Kevin on July 28, 2015
at 9:25 pm
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the route intel, I was just
talking about this ride with Mike Z, who
is planning to ride through that way from
east to west in September (Lake Lobdell to
Bridgeport) … I’ll forward your more recent
info to him! 🙂
Is it the road just below Belfort that was damaged?
By: caryandjohn on July 28, 2015
at 10:59 pm