I tried the BDR-X on August 8. The plan was to get as far as I could in two days, hopefully finishing it. I left my house in Nampa on my 1250GSA about 7:30 am, filled up, and headed out to Riggins. The route actually started for me North of New Meadows, as it joins the 95. I stopped at one of my favorite places for breakfast (Kate's Cattlemen's), topped off at the gas station, and then headed out. The section from Riggins to Cow Creek Saddle is where a lot of the west-facing overlooks were. There was nothing hard, though if you get to the end of Low Saddle, it's a bit tricky to turn around. Many of the overlooks appear overgrown and can be tricky to spot in places, though if you follow GPX tracks, there shouldn't be any issues. In the next section, there were a few more lookouts prior to an asphalt ride into Pitsburg Landing. Unless you are going to camp here, I'd suggest you only ride to the bottom of the switchbacks and back again, as there's actually not much else to see. The remaining part of this section up to Cottonwood is what I'd call standard BDR stuff.
Cottonwood to Lewiston is what I would call the fast section. Not much to add as it seemed to fly by.
If you are planning on motelling it, then Clarkston/Lewiston would be a good place to stop, as there's not much beyond this.
Once you're on Snake River Road, things calm down: it's a 35mph speed limit, and lots of people are prepping to get on and off the water. It is worth stopping at the petroglyphs, but add 30 mins to the ride for the walk up to them and back. They are hard to see, but once at the sign at the end of the trail, they are to the left as you are looking at the river, about 40' from the trail. The road eventually turns to gravel, and right after you enter Oregon, it becomes Horse Creek Rd. On my GSA, this was a bit of a challenge because cows were loitering in the middle of the road, along with rocks buried in the road. You really need to keep momentum on a big bike and just slog it out. I didn't take the alt harder at the end of E Cottonwood, so I can't comment. I can say it was nice to get on a regular gravel road again 🙂
I ended my first day at Buckhorn Overlook and Campground. I'm pretty sure that had I started earlier that day in Riggins, I would have easily made it to Joseph. YMMV.
The next day I decided to head to Enterprise for breakfast rather than eat a Mountain House dehydrated meal. It was about 43 miles there and back, and I had a splendiferous breakfast at the Red Rooster Cafe. I topped off at the Chevron and headed back to where I'd left the route.
The next section was also pretty standard BDR stuff. When I got to the road split right before Red Hill Lookout, a tree was down. There is a bypass just beyond the tree from the main road, but it's a bit tricky on a big bike, and if you are not sure, just head down the main road to Red Hill Lookout and skip this bit.
Going through Joseph to Wallowa Lake Tramway was OK, but I stopped in Joseph on the way back for some food truck BBQ brisket, which was really good! I'd personally skip this bit if I go again and simply continue through Joseph onto the next section.
On the next section, you go through the Zumwalt Prairie - stop at the preserve and sign the guestbook. Again pretty BDRish and on to Imnaha.
At this point, I was wondering whether to do Dug Bar. It's only supposed to be a 60-mile total out and back along an amazing road, but if I continued I could probably finish the route. I decided to do Dug Bar, and it was 2 pm. The ride out is pretty awesome with spectacular views and steep mountain switchbacks.
As you get down to the Imnaha River, it gets a bit more technical, and once you cross the bridge at Cow Creek Trailhead, it gets narrow, steep, rocky, and even more technical. The last few miles were definitely a slog for me on the big bike, and with hindsight I wish I'd turned around long ago and finished the BDR-X. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I got back to Imnaha about 7:30 pm, so I averaged about 11mph. I'd run out of water on the way back, so I stocked up on water and Gatorade at the Imnaha Store. If you're hungry, this is the place to eat!
My choices now were to head home or continue onto New Meadows. Dug Bar had left me a bit exhausted, and I wasn't sure where I could camp, so I decided to call it a draw and head home. I went the long way via Enterprise, LaGrand, etc when the shorter route would have been via Halfway. The times would have been about the same, though, so I chose the easy route.
When I got home, I had a bath and passed out.
