The better late than never WYBDR ride report

Figured I should FINALLY get around to putting this together. So here we go. Back in January a friend of mine suggested that we should go ride the WYBDR this year as the route was due to be made public in the summer. We worked out the dates and decided the tail end of July would be do-able and set out to getting things together.

Since we didn't really want to ride all the way to Wyoming on dual sports, both for the sake of time, tires and our back ends, we figured out that a u-haul truck rental split 3 ways would be the cheapest way to get the bike out there. We rented one for a day the weekend prior to do a test run and ensure things worked out. Test run went fine, and we rewarded ourselves with In&Out.

Three guys in a little truck all the way to Wyoming, why not?

I spent the rest of the weekend prepping the bike and getting packed. We would be staying in motels so no camping gear needed, despite packing light there was a lot of stuff to bring, it packed down pretty light though.

The Spread:


All packed!

We met at my buddies house as he had picked up the truck the night before and loaded up bright and early. Plan way to see how far we could make it in a day.

Not pictured, my other buddies bike as he was a running late:


I think we ended up being on the road around 9am after packing and everything. We took turns driving and rotated in and out of the middle seat which was decidedly uncomfortable. Didn't take many pictures during the ride, we decided to say in outside of Reno for the night and get an early start the next day.

The excitement, or many the beer, is palpable, I'm the cigar aficionado:


I did pack the proper coozie:


The next morning we got cracking early with the goal of being in Wyoming to check into our hotel in Dixon.

Gas got a bit cheaper, which was nice as that truck had a big tank:


I was amused with the clerks car, I bet she's fun


I considered accessorizing at a later gas stop, but decided not to


Things started looking very Wyoming-y as the sun set and we found ourselves in Dixon Wyoming around 9pm


We got some drinks at the Dixon club, which is across the dirt road from the hotel and owned by the same person. The owner had some very specific opinions on the state of the world but did not kick us out for being from San Francisco. We did not however, attempt to enter into any political debates. Probably for the best since her brother was a gun smith and the bar also offered all manner of guns / ammo and hunting gear. I was tempted to buy the pink concealed carry purse for the S/O, but I did not.

The only shot of the interior I managed:


The Dixon Club


We went to bed around 11pm after enjoying a beer on the porch and some stargazing. The next day we'd do the Red Desert BDR-X which round trip route that goes into the Red Desert and brings you back to where you started, seemed like a good way to warm up

Must read…

Sub'd

Long drive three up in the cab.. Cozy..

bar also offered all manner of guns / ammo and hunting gear. I was tempted to buy the pink concealed carry purse for the S/O, but I did not.

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I love these kinds of places. Guns and Alcohol together in one place

Looking forward to seeing more of Wyoming.

Good read so far... Me want more

Mad

We got up early-ish and were on the road by 9am,

Gearing up in front of our hotel in Dixon:


got to Baggs for breakfast at the only restaurant in town and it turns out there was some sort of reunion (could have just been a big family) so the little restaurant was hopping. Locals from another table showed us the ropes and poured us some coffee while we waited. I figured we'd not eat again until dinner so I chose a to consume the days calories all at once.



After breakfast we went to fuel up and had a chat with a bunch of guys all on KTMs, they were organized and experienced and we looked a bit rag-tag in comparison. Turns out they had the same plans as us and we'd see them a few more times during the ride. As they got ready to head out I was talking with their ride leader who said "be careful out there, we don't want any casualties caused by friendly fire". I assume he thought we were fast, jokes on him!

As one of my buddies was a bit antsy after our prolonged breakfast stop I didn't take time for photos until I'd put some distance on them and had time to stop

Top of a short sandy climb, I had to navigate around a guy on a big Africa Twin who looked like he was having a heck of a time


Next stop was an area called "Adobe Town" which isn't so much a town as a scenic spot, I was a ways ahead of the guys so I took time to hydrate and take photos.





And of course I had to get action shots of the guys as they rolled up.




It was a pretty neat spot, and not brutally hot at around 90 or so.

We took off from there and I managed to take a wrong turn rather soon after, but it wasn't so bad as the view was great.



We kept on rolling towards the next stop, an old fort that was part of the Overland Stagecoach route named Fort LaClede





From there we started climbing up onto the rim of the Red Desert with some pretty nice views as we rode along.

We were about halfway into the loop and everyone was getting more comfortable on the dirt, enjoying the views and all that. I was riding in the middle following my buddy on his WR and thinking his pace was much faster than earlier in the ride. I looked over to take in the view, looked back and saw a dust cloud in place of a bike and a rider and same him sit up and then lie back a good ways off the trail, uh oh.



Turns out his front wheel had hit the edge of the track causing him to lose control and get tossed of off the front, the loose dirt leading up to the helmet is a trench he dug with his head

He was lying on the ground when I got to him, clearly having rung his bell. I told him to just lie there for a bit. He eventually sat up and took his helmet off while I and our other riding buddy got his bike upright. When he asked for a second time where his broken mirror was I got a little worried and gave him a number to remember which he forgot when I asked him after a few minutes, not good.

I decided we needed to hang out for another 20 minutes or so to see if things got better or worse, here he is assessing the situation. I checked his helmet and didn't find any damage to the foam, so that was good.



After about 20 minutes he seemed stable, so we decided to keep on moving with him in the middle, we set a mellow pace and I kept and eye on his line. After about 20 minutes of riding we came to an overlook and that seemed like a nice place to stop and re-assess





No sign in Wyoming goes un-shot it seems...


We spent about 20 minutes or so here taking in the view and hydrating, my buddy finally seemed to get his wits about him as he could remember the crash and what happened afterwards at this point, so that was a relief. Even more relieving, a few miles beyond this stop the trail gave way to dirt roads and the rest of the ride was scenic but easy so we just kept riding all the way back to the hotel.

The gal who ran the hotel was making dinner that night, turns out she cooks quite well and will cook dinners for anyone staying there if given 24 hours notice, we got in around 4 and dinner wasn't until 7 so we proceeded to clean our chains and have a few beers on the porch.



Dinner was great, and we had a couple of drinks afterwards while being regaled with our hosts various political takes on, well, you name it. We eventually bought some beers to go as we were the only ones in the bar and sat on the porch of the hotel to wrap up the night and game plan our departure for day one of the BDR the following morning

Buncha nerds right here...

. Digging this report...with my eyes. Not my helmet!

Thanks, I can confirm digging trenches with one's helmet is ill advised....

Section 1 - Baggs to Centennial

We packed up the night before in order to get an early start on the day, hoping to try a bakery for a quick meal. Unfortunately it was Sunday and that place was closed, so, we headed back to Baggs for another breakfast at the Cowboy Inn.

It was even busier than the day before with everyone there to grab a bite before heading back home, my buddy was a bit put out, I on the other hand was happy for the time for extra coffee to chase away last nights beer. Aisde from a pic snapped that morning as we left the hotel I didn't have a chance to stop for pictures until we'd made some headway.

Leaving the hotel where our truck, and my phone charger would stay for the week.



Cruising along an easy dirt road on the way to Savery (we failed to take the detour to actually see Savory)


Oh Sheep! Along the Savory Stock Drive, I believe that's battle mountain in the background


A bridge near Savory


A scenic viewpoint, possibly of battle mountain, I forgot to take a shot of the sign..


Aspen Alley, several miles of rutted two track through a big aspen forest

We decided to do the expert section that follows a rocky jeep trail up to 11,000 feet leading to a fire lookout. I was initially nervous but the stagnant water behind my bike here produced a ton of mosquitos and motivated us to move along


The first section involved a steep muddy section and we came across a GS very stuck. The guy who was giving advice to the stuck rider looked familiar for some reason. I offered to help get teh big bike moving but they seemed like they had it, we made some comment about the dual sorts being cheat code bikes and I nervously attacked the climb not wanting to screw up with an audience. Happily the bike handled the mud just fine and I made it all the way up that section without stopping, or getting a photo.

Once we got a bit higher the mud gave way to rocks and views, it was a really fun trail.







The final climb to the lookout was two switch backs on loose shale, two out of three of us made it. My buddy who'd crashed the day prior was a little more tentative, we'd also figured out he manged to bend his bars so I couldn't really blame him.



He also barely had a mirror left


We spent some time at the top enjoying the view and those guys on their GS bikes eventually showed up. Turns out the lead rider DID look familiar because I'd seen him on YouTube, his name is Dusty Wessels and he has a channel called West30 Moto. We chatted for a while and we were all impressed they'd hustled those big bikes up to the top. Super nice guys. As we went to leave I decided I'd just ride my bike up and around their bikes over the shale, only to promptly stall and drop the bike right in front of them, and their bikes. Thankfully my bike landed clear of their bikes, and before I could protest two of them had my bike upright. So much for my ego. I did gas the bike to launch off a small ledge onthe trail below the lookout, I'm sure they all saw it and were suitably impressed.

Got to the end of the expert section and my buddy was getting nervous as the hour was late and we had a ways to go yet. But first, I picture with some snow.


After the expert section the rest of the ride was pretty mellow and scenic




Descending into Centennial we came upon a bunch of familiar looking KTMs, guess those guys got an earlier start. We checked in and I grabbed some beers for our pre dinner motorcycle maintenance.


Dinner was steak, I mean, we were in Wyoming


Post dinner sunset


After dinner we went to the bar next door called Friendlies I believe. Played some pool, I got hit on by a very drunk daughter of a local rancher, met her mom who came to collect her, hung out in front of the bar while someone regaled us with ATV donuts, and finally slunk away. It was kinda nice out so we had a few more drinks by the bikes




While hanging out in the parking lot we were greeted by a few local dogs, one decided to hang out for a bit hence this photo of me and said dog.


We finished our drinks after the dogs left and called it a night as we had another big riding day ahead.

looks and sounds like a great trip! And the U-haul truck is a great idea for saving yourself a lot of boring miles to get there!

MTERK said:

looks and sounds like a great trip! And the U-haul truck is a great idea for saving yourself a lot of boring miles to get there!

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It was pretty amazing, and as for the uhaul, boring miles are one thing, but also time, and MY ASS . We'd have needed to add at least two days on each end for a direct push to and from Wyoming and probably a recovery day before starting the BDR to boot. Also, I like my knobbies fresh for rides like this.

Now if I had all the time in the world I'd had found a dirty route to spend some time getting to Nevada, and then continued on to Colorado after completing this ride, but, I'm not Ewan McGregor so that's not happening, though it'd be fun to spend a summer doing ALL of the BDR routes in the west

Enjoying this great ride report. Thanks for taking the time to post it. Gonna do one of the BDRs next summer.

Section 2: Centennial to Elk Mtn

Only 68 miles for day 2 (well that and a 14 mile round trip extension to Kennedy Peak) and a fair amount of pavement, so, seemed like a fairly easy day which allowed a little bit of a slower start while we payed for our sins from the previous night.

A quick vending machine breakfast and we were on our way


Only gas in Centennial was 92 octane which the two of us running DRZs jetted didn't enjoy later, though a little bit of a rich condition is easily addressed by feathering the clutch and extra throttle for the most part.

Initial bit of the ride was a short and scenic dirt stretch called Towner Lake Road which spat us back out on pavement which rode through the spectacularly scenic Snowy Mountains

Still some snow up there


Rather scenic


Moar



We started down the dirt road leading to a "deep" river crossing figuring if we couldn't hack it we'd just skip the side trip up to Kennedy Peak. We made if fine, talking to the guys we'd met on KTMs later that night (they stayed at the same place as us) they all made it as well but one of their group went too the right and got hung up on some bigger rocks, needing help to push the bike across.

Pictures never do these things justice, the initial drop in seemed scary, but a little commitment to the throttle and it was no big deal.


The view from the top was worth it, and the climb up was pretty fun (sadly I'd learn later my GoPro wasn't recording much of anything due to a low quality SD card)


The KTM riders (from Georgia as I recall) were up there when we arrived, we chatted for a bit and learned they were all old motocross racers which would explain their skill on those big ADV bikes, they were probably being polite, but seems impressed that we'd ridden the expert section the previous day. One of them seemed genuinely concerned for me when I mentioned I was from SF "Is it really as bad as they say?" he asked me with the aforementioned concerned expression. I think I said something about SF being a lightning rod for the media, but yes, it's got some grimy big city issues and left it at that.

Buddy taking a moment of solace


I walked around to see the lookout, turns out they also had a building that was functioning as a bee hive, pretty cool, no pic taken.

Proof I get high


Someone is taking the wide open views in Wyoming a bit too seriously


A fun rip back down the 7 miles to the main route and it was an easy, but very dusty gravel road all the way to Elk Mountain where we had a cabin (actually the original house) rented for the night

Awesome stuff so far.

The bell rung rider had to be scary. Glad he could carry on.

Love the cigars...