I did the Wyoming BDR and the Red Desert Loop from Baggs to Atlantic City the last week of July 2022, solo. I was in my Gladiator and I too had to turn around on the Bridger Peak difficult section. That section of mud you went through, I had to turn around there as it was 4 times as big and I had no one with me. Plus, it was hailing and in the 40's when I went through there. So I turned around and took the bypass to Encampment. The rest of the trail was awesome. I had 6 days but I camped 2 nights on the Encampment River. I am coming back in September to finish it.
We were the first to complete the entire Wyoming BDR route in a vehicle, as defined by them. Sure, someone else might have done that exact thing in the past, but not as the designated Wyoming BDR route since it was impassable when it was announced and we even had to winch through deep snow.
My friend, forgive me another comment. As a Wyomingite, we take our horses seriously. I have got to say "GREAT". From ur drone footage, notice how the stallion of the herd was leading the group? Then, to make sure the ones laggin behind, the stallion circled back to push the stragglers. As a true cowboy that section of video meant more to me than a million bucks. You have footage there that would lend credence to those that study our roaming herds of the west. Thank you so much that yall flew a drone to capture ur escapades. Can u allow me the location of where that herd of horses were? That looked like the herd down Green River way, but don't think the BDR trail is that far west.
It was in the Beaver Rim area. I'm glad you found the footage useful. I had to really zoom in the camera as i didn't want to spook them with the drone or the Jeep.
@Kerry Garrison thanks, we have a band in Green River, McCullough Peaks, and a small band in the Dubois area. To watch the stallion of the herd as a leader and "drover" to the lag behinds, shows the way a herd survives. Notice the mare at the end that sorta balks? He nipped her in the rear or "squealed" at her to get the move on. Great video
@@williamlloyd854 And thank you for sharing your knowledge of the horses with us. It was certainly a magical moment for us. It was our favorite experience of the trip.
When you rip a tire valvestem out these replace from outside stems would be just the ticket ! Colby Valve Permanent Valve Stem Replacement - installs from Outside of The Wheel
I run Apex Performance Valves which are metal, the stem was sheared off and the rest of it could only be removed and replaced by removing the tire. If I would have had standard valve stems, then Colby’s would have been the solution.
I grew up in Wyoming. I ve seen litteral clouds of mosquitoes. Looked like a dark bank of fog. If you could make it to the ridge top the high wind would give you relief
I've been having good luck with the Thermacell units. You can see the critters just buzzing around about 10' away but not coming closer. Taking a bunch of garlic pills has been pretty helpful if I start them about a week before a trip.
Questions for everyone- I am thinking of bringing a 2015 f250 FX4 on this trip. Im not new to wheeling, but never been here before and I am not sure if it would be a good idea or not. the truck is plenty capable and has good tires, but is a long box and is thirsty. Any help is appreciated.
While the route is designed for good fuel stops, bring extra fuel. At one of our key fuel stops, the pumps were not working and we had to continue to the next one. The vehicle should do fine although the northern hard section will be pretty rough on the vehicle.
Normally that would be a good backup solution, but I run Apex Performance Valves and the tire has to be removed to get the valve out so I didn't have a choice.
I use the Colby’s as well. I’d junk those Apex parts, that wasn’t a bad hit and it left you stranded. A Colby you’d have been back up and running in no time. Not to mention having to change a tire in a not so ideal situation. I don’t think the Apex are worth it just to air down.
@@MegaCabCummins6 It was pretty bad, it rashed the inside of the tire pretty bad. I do love the Apex valves for airing down, it takes less than one minute to go around and drop all 4 tires from 35 to 12 PSI. The downside...well....you saw the downside for sure.
@@FilmmakerCentral You guys should pack a Bead Buster with you. I just got one and it's awesome, change my own tires right in the driveway. It will be going on the trail with me from now on. I wish I had the time to run this trail, I'll have to run The Whipsaw instead. Going to bring some guys up from down south and run it both directions, should be a lot of fun. LOL they have no idea what mud is lmao.
@@MegaCabCummins6 That's a valid option since it isn't very big. I may consider that for our next big solo trip. Better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.
First of all, amazing videos of an amazing trail. Well done! Second, and an important question for me, when you traversed each section and the trail as a whole, and assuming you fueled at each possible fuel stop, did you ever have to any external fuel tanks (jerry cans, etc) or were there enough fuel stops? I don’t carry external gas, so I’m very curious. Keep up the great videos
Great question. There was one fuel stop early on and the pumps were not working. If we had to wait for them to fix it, it could have cost us hours of time. Fortunately, we put some of our extra fuel in and we did just fine. Aside from that, we never needed to use our external fuel. We put the 10 gallons from the Jerry cans into the Jeep at the very end of the trail just to avoid hauling that much extra weight all the way home.
I never had to use any fuel out of my roto-packs. Definitely fill up in Alcova before you hit the Beaver Rim, that is a long run. I couldn't find any fuel in Atlantic city and ran down to Carson, 45 miles, and got gas. And since it was late and I had camped for 6 nights straight, I got a hotel.
@@ericpartin6711 Keep in mind we are towing a trailer, so our gas mileage is pretty poor. One of the gas stops, the pumps were not working so we were thankful to have plenty of extra.
@@TrailTraveler That is true. I have towed a trailer before and I think I lost about 3-4 miles per gallon. Great video though. Just watched part 2 and I can't wait to get back out next month and finish it.
We did it on bikes end of August 2024. The deep ruts and rocks made it quite difficult and actually dangerous on a motorcycle. Not for a novice rider on a big bike in my opinion. Would not recommend solo trip in case of injury as it is very remote. Cell coverage on T-mobile most of the trip except for the 2 final segments.
I'm so jealous. I have a 4x4 expedition truck here in the Netherlands, and I need to travel to eastern Europe or Spain to finally hit the dirt with the old girl. Here they fine you for looking at the woods funny. That track looks amazing and doable with a big rig and I'm sure you have many more of those. 900 miles offroad sounds fantastic. Greetings from Europe.
This is fantastic, some nice footage. I did leg 1 and 2 in Sept '22 and faired much better without all of the issues, no snow, mud or bugs. I took my Ford Ranger on 33's and it performed excellently. I took 412 off of Deep Jack Road up over Bridger Peak and let me tell you it was a tight fit and took me several hours to get across, but well worth it. Came off of Bridger Peak pass onto 70 and picked the BDR back up in Encampment. if you ever find yourself on leg one again, There is a neat little Campground called Bennett Peak Campground that sees almost no traffic but is a hidden gem right on the river.
I’m impressed you got the tire off the rim by yourself, I struggle with the rear tire of my GS Adventure. Also, I’m curious as to why your replace the tire instead of popping in a new valve stem onto the rim. What’s up with that?
We didn't pull the tire off the rim, we just swapped out the spare. The reason why we couldn't just pop in a valve stem is because we use Apex Performance Valves and it sheered off, leaving most of it inside the wheel. This required going to a tire shop and having the valve replaced.
@@TrailTraveler Makes sense. I only go off-road on motorcycles and was thinking about it as a motorcyclist. Of course you have a spare wheel. Maybe I can fit a spare 18” knobbie in my backpack 😉
a lot heavier traveling than I prefer, but nicely done video. The wide open areas make for good drone footage. and yeah there are at least 2x more cows than people in WY
And what would that be? Every inch of it is double track, designed for 4x4 vehicles. On top of that, I didn’t go off trail to get around snow drifts and do damage like the adventure bikes did. The route is simply a series of waypoints along existing 4x4 routes, designed for adventure bikes based on their fuel capacity, not because 4 wheel vehicles shouldn’t be on them.
good video. We have a group of us with Off grid trailers Expedition 2.0 planning on doing this trail but definitely later in the year, late summer. So this gives us a good idea what to expect but will have fewer mosquitos and no snow...hopefully. You never know.
Chains are great when you are on top of ice or can get to hard ground. Soft snow on top of water soaked ground wouldn't do much, especially when it is so deep that you get framed out. I probably wouldn't have had any issues if I didn't have the extra weight of the trailer.
@@TrailTraveler Quick Reply! You must be inside enjoying a winter fireplace! I looked at your equipment list -- what's that trailer affair you're pulling? Says "Alpha" or something like that?
Love the vid..a lot of my old stomping grounds..I've crisscrossed wyo for 50 years. Not to Take away from your outstanding experience but it looks like what you guys went through a cake walk..enjoy....
I concur!! I lived in Wyoming many years also and explored all over on trails such as this... year 'round. He passed through Alcova, which is where I worked for Bureau of Reclamation, as a power plant supervisor for the Alcova and Fremont Canyon (Pathfinder) hydroelectric Dams. My area was far and wide. In the winter, we used tracked vehicles to get to work.
Did I hear you say you lost the Rotopaxs off your spare tire? If you don’t mind, how? I am about to purchase the ratchet strap and mounting hardware for my JK and would appreciate any insight you could provide. Thank you.
The expert sections were kind of fun, but it was MUCH MORE about the scenery and the views than it was about obstacles. 10/10 would highly recommend and would do it again in a heartbeat.
Stay out of Wyoming with the social media please. If you like it enjoy, but please don’t advertise. It’s not designed for adventure bikes! It was there long before such things. It won’t take long to ruin a good thing at this rate.😢
@@wirebrush I'm basically a beginner. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but - it seems to me that disconnecting the sway bars on this kind of trail would make the ride smoother. Am I wrong?
@@TrailTraveler what made you go with 5:13 vs 488? I live in utah and if you are from ID we are in similar country. My jeep bogs down with the 315s on it and rarely gets to 8th gear and I have the tazer installed.
@@brandonke690 I like the deeper gear for more difficult rock crawling and the extra ommph when pulling the trailer. We are from northern Colorado. 4:88s would have been fine, but with all the extra weight, I am very happy with the 5:13s.
@@TrailTraveler thanks for that info, I didn't even consider the trailer having an affect. Did you do an axle swap or just gears? I'll be going to colorado next weekend to do some exploring down south.
@@brandonke690 We changed the rear axle shafts to Yukon Chromolly and the fronts to RCVs. We haven't done axle replacements at this time. That is a huge investment.
First off, these are double-track 4x4 trails and RideBDR has absolutely nothing to do with curating and preserving the trails at all. Secondly, the ONLY thing that RideBDR did was to create waypoints along EXISTING 4x4 trails with gas and hotel stops designed for the limitations of Adv bikes. There was not one single motorcycle trail along the entire trip.
@@TrailTraveler it's a disservice to the mission of RideBDR to say all they did was set waypoints. I'll acknowledge this is public land and you have a right to be there. That said, you are clearly using "BDR" and RideBDR to generate content and clicks and clearly acknowledge many times in your content the work of RideBDR is meant for ADV. Then you proceed to invite all the cagers to the website to download and enjoy. 🍅🍅🍅
I was also promoting RIdeBDR to bring more attention to the work they do. I’ll also point out that some of the Adv bike guys were the most disrespectful to the land there, going off-trail around snow drifts and causing damage to the surrounding area. That is something we do not do. RideBDR put together a good route and deserves credit for that. Yes RideBDR is Adv bike focused but that does not mean other people can’t use those routes.
@@TrailTraveler what some call "promotion" others would call "exploitation". Especially when your benefit is in conflict with their mission. I very much regret this click on your exploit of their work. 👎
If it matters at all, I have a Suzuki Samurai and somehow discovered the BDR routes on YT, and looked for any videos where someone rode them with a 4x4 because I'm figuring my wife and I would take the SAMMY on some of these NEXT summer (2025). I knew from the get-go that all these routes are/were forestry kinds of roads totally made for 4x4 vehicles, literally none of them being for just bikes. Your whole viewpoint here seems far-fetched. Is there seriously a revenue issue here? A guy with 13,000 followers and this video getting 50,000 views, what's that worth in money? $50? Maybe? Is it even that much? Using "BDR" to get "clicks"? So he can make $60 instead of $50?
There was not one second that we were on a motorcycle-only trail. Where did you get that idea? The ENTIRE TRAIL is double-track. The "route" is designed for adventure bikes, but the trails that make up the route are NOT motorcycle-only.
@@TrailTraveler because when the state creates a motorcycle specific route it means ATV and 2 wheel only not full size 4x4s. Why call it a motorcycle route if they intended for 4x4s to use it?
@@GregariousAntithesis The state did not create the route, it was created by the BDR team. There is not a single piece of the route that is is considered motorcycle-only. The BDR group is not affiliated with the state at all, they are more of a motorcycle club. We simply followed their route they built. We did nothing illegal in any way. A route is just a series of waypoints and has nothing to do with the designation of the trail itself.
Looks like on the equipt side well preped. but on the pay attention to detail a much better plan is in order, leaving the control for winch just 1 example always designate a person to check and recheck after a break or prob. for anything left behind, ALWYS REPEAT ALWAYS TAKE BACKUP AND PLAN FOR THE WORST AND HOPE FOR THE BEST. at certain time of the year these pay attention to detail could save your life or not paying attention could cost u. great vid and I thank you for it, great respect Sir do not take my comments as an insult Thank you
