Author: roberthuberjr13

We woke up, had breakfast and were on the move from our camp at 8,000′. We took a short trip to find the Trinity Lookout tower and decided against making the ride up to the tower. The guy that mans the tower said last year was the first time he saw motorcycles up there, ever. Those guys were pros. So we figured we wouldn’t fare as well. Tough to see the tower in the pic, but once you took the road over that you can see, the ride is straight up on loose rock.

Our next challenge was the toughest yet. Pics don’t do it justice so I won’t post them. Think road closed to cars, not maintained, huge ruts and sand the whole way up. Certainly fun, but nerve racking. This led us to the 50″ bridge. You can figure out why it’s called that from the pic of Mark crossing. 

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From here things went south. Our intended route was closed due to fires. 

So we found another route. Also closed. Then another, also closed. This took us to Atlanta, which as Mark noted was a dead end. Another mining town in the middle of nowhere. 

We had to backtrack and reroute AGAIN. We finally found a route to Cascade, ID. Thinking the road seemed soft, Mark said ‘I think they must be grading the road’. Sure enough, within a mile, here comes the road grader. Pushing dirt, leaving a tall berm and about 2 foot for us to ride in. This worked for several miles. As I was rounding a corner I saw Mark struggling in deep soft dirt. Figuring I could find a better path I went into the corner lower than Mark, spun my  backend around and dropped the bike. I hit the horn and Mark quickly came running to help out. Luckily I was fine and got the bike back up myself much to Marks chagrin. Damage? None for me, but my pannier took a good shot and is pretty wonky now. 

From there, it was road to Cascade. Beautiful, cold, tired. We wrapped up 11 hours of riding and stayed in a nice 80s hotel where I was certain we’d see the wedding singer. 

After we left Glenn’s Ferry we hit a ton of sand. On a bike, that’s ‘fun’. Fun watching Mark bobble left and right paddling his way through. I was certain he was going to drop the bike at this point. Alas, he made it through without a scratch, but the pucker factor was high. This lead us into the South Fork of the Boise River and the Anderson Ranch Reservoir. The view and drive down was awesome. Quite a bit of exposure here.

This lead us to Trinity Lakes where we setup camp for the night. The climb was several thousand feet but well worth it. Here’s a shot of Mark on the climb. 

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and a view of the lake before bed. 

Day 2 started well with a great breakfast in Jarbidge. Michelle (the host, cook, hotel staff, and town info booth) hooked us up with homemade bread and jams, and loaded our camelbaks with ice. Coffee in the restaurant is self serve, but if you grab the pot, you have to serve everyone. So we also got to meet Curry, who grabbed the pot and filled our cups. He’s been going to Jarbridge for 60 years. He let us know the road we were on that was closed provides frequent entertainment for locals. They often have to go up there to bring people down that can’t make it. That made us feel better. We also learned the town had 300″ of snow last year and that the road to Idaho was closed due to a car sized boulder that had to be dynamited to be removed. 

After fueling we got to see both Ron and Chris from the bar before we left. The fuel pumps were old school. Mark filing up. 

The Outdoor Inn. Bar, cafe, hotel. 

The ride out of Jarbidge through the canyon was great, leading us into the basin. Wide open spaces. 

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We took a quick stop in Glenn’s Ferry for lunch before heading north towards Pine, ID. 

To be continued….

366 miles total today. 250 on paved road, 116 on dirt. One of us ran out of gas, lucky we had a spare fuel can. I decided I dislike highway riding. 

Here’s the route and the start of the dirt section in NV. 

 Once off road it was quite an adventure. Dirt, sand, loose rock, snakes, chukkars, deer, cattle, coyote (dead), hawks and an apparently closed road we took into the canyon that had the sign at the bottom where we turned into another road. Seems to make sense as it was the toughest section we were on today. The locals said it was a ‘good’ road. 

All of this got us to the start of the Idaho BDR, Jarbidge, NV. The Idaho state line is 10 miles north. What this town lacks in people (we were told 2 dozen) it makes up for in character. We met Dot, the bar/cafe owner, Laura the bartender, 82 year old Army vet Ron, who invited us to his 100th birthday in 18 years, 77 year old Chris, and Jimmy with the Hawaiian shorts. Great little town of primarily folks that hunt and fish.

After 8 hours of riding, a few beers, food, and homemade Irish Whiskey ice cream we’re dusty and beat. As I write this Mark is sawing wood. Like big wood. Forest maybe. I’m thinking we may be run out of town.

No mishaps today. So it’s been a success. I’m shocked to have a cell signal. The whole 1 bar.  We didn’t have one the last 4 hours. Next ‘town’ is 100+ miles away. All dirt to get there. 200 miles to our campsite tomorrow night at Trinity Lake, ID. Sounds like 8 hours of riding. 

Hopefully we’ll get enough signal somewhere tomorrow for Mark to load some of his pics.

A little more than a year ago I told my good friend Mark that I wanted to get a motorcycle. Initially I just wanted one to buzz around town since I worked out of my house. Mark convinced me I needed to get an adventure bike and watch the Long Way Round. I was pretty much hooked after the first episode. I took the motorcycle safety course, got my license, got a bike (the red BMW F800GS) and took Fran Tully’s Dual Sport course here in Utah. Then the planning began to ride the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR). It took a year for me to get all of the gear, and put it together, including putting my communication set in my helmet last night at 10 pm. I think I received no less than 5 shipments the past week alone. We’ve plotted and planned for the past 12 months.

This morning at 6:30am, I got up, cleaned the chains, headlamps, put my pack on the bike, struggled to turn it around and get it up on center stand again (that’s a longer story involving Mark barefoot and me slipping in WD-40) and now we’re ready to go. The trip will be 2500 miles roundtrip. Roughly 1100 on dirt roads. Today we drive from Park City, UT to Jarbridge, NV. From there we anticipate 9 nights, give or take, traveling through the center of Idaho, a piece of Montana and into Canada. Very few towns along the way, and those that are have populations of 20 or so. We spend 2 nights in hotels and the remaining camping. Some times in actual campgrounds, some times wherever we find a spot. We expect little in the way of cell phone coverage, or internet access most of the route, BUT, we have GoPro’s (Mark does, I ran out of time to get one), phones and will post things as we can. Follow along on SPOT. It’s sure to be an adventure…