A century and a half ago, America set forth to lay two thousand miles of track, connecting both coasts and cementing the cultural legacy of Manifest Destiny. This is the historic Transcon Railroad Byway. For me, this was an epic ride, perhaps one of my favorites to date. If you are an adrenaline junky, this ride might not be for you. But if you love history, solitude, and silence, then hopefully this inspires you to get out and explore!
Pushing the season a little too much. The high desert of southern Idaho and northern Nevada is deceiving. Especially in early spring when the desert is waking up from winter. Tracks move from dry and dusty to snowy, wet and muddy with no notice. When wet, the ashy soil is slick like snot, and when saturated it has no bottom. This was the first leg on our TransCon Rail adventure and just a warm-up for the next phase to come!
The Steens Mountain Wilderness lies within one of the most remote regions within the lower 48. Sparsely populated with few roads, the desert area where Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon all come together is a special place to ride and explore. The Steens area stands tall here.
The Idaho Back Country Discovery Route is a 1200 mile ride which crosses Idaho from Nevada to Canada. The ride is majestic and showcases Idaho’s public lands and wide-open spaces. Virtually all of the route is on gravel and illustrates the geographic diversity of the Gem State.
This is Part 2 of our IDBDR Adventure. After riding the desert portion of the route early in the season, we waited to ride the more northern Alpine sections until later in the season—but apparently not late enough.
The deserts of SW Idaho are vast. They are an open landscape of sagebrush, juniper, and grasslands and home to an abundance of wildlife. This ride takes us on Mudflat road, accross Owhyee County to Jordan Valley, OR. It is a backcountry byway perfect for a weekend afternoon.
Expect solitude. In the hundred or more miles we rode this day, we might have passed just one or two autos enroute. I call this nirvana.
A late afternoon ride into the Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho is a great way to escape the sweltering July heat of southern Idaho. This is an area I have been visiting since I was a lad. The emptiness, the remoteness, and the incredible Sawtooth Mountains have not changed in 50+ years thanks to the foresight of Idaho’s past legislators and their hard work to pass wilderness initiatives and conservation easements.
The region is unspoiled, unchanged, and open to all—not just the rich.
In 2014 we rode 8K miles from our home in Idaho to one of the northernmost points in North America accessible by road, a small village called Inuvik, near the Arctic Ocean. After losing most of our images when our camera equipment was lost, we were able to scab a few remaining elements together into this video to document a very small part of our trip.