I rode The Washington Backcountry Discovery Route (WA BDR) in June of 2019. It was my first-ever BDR ride (click here if you wanna read about it). Finishing the Idaho BDR ride in July of 2024, I got home yearning to get back out on another BDR. I’ve always wanted to ride Washington again and logistically, the beginning of September worked great for me.
My usual riding partner, Lance Sallis, couldn’t join. The slacker is “Professor Lance Sallis” at the University of Texas at Austin when he is not riding. He was back in school. I called long-time friend, Norman McFuzzybutt (his stage name). Norman is the keyboardist of the Vicious Cycles punk rock band and publisher of Motorcycho. He just added a Suzuki DR-Z400 to his motorcycle fleet and was ready to try a BDR ride. His buddy, Kim Anderson, an all-round rider and flat track racer, joined us.
Dates were juggled and set. I would drive my van from Somis, California, to Carson, Washington. Norman and Kim would trailer their bikes from Vancouver, B.C., to Kim’s lakeside getaway, about an hour North of the Nighthawk Border Crossing. They would ride down to Carson where we would start the official BDR ride.
We set out on Thursday September 5th. As usual, I want to pass along tips, tricks and hacks I picked up along the way in hopes of making your WA BDR ride as fun as ours was. First recommendation: Understanding my tips and planning your trip is a lot easier if you have a Butler Motorcycle Map of the Washington BDR. You can order one by clicking here. No, I don’t make a commission.
BACKWOODS CABINS
Our basecamp was out of the Backwood Cabins in Carson, Washington. The cabins are cozy, private and nestled in a beautiful setting near the Columbia River Gorge. After making reservations, the cabins are self check-in (a service I appreciate because it takes the pressure off getting there at a certain hour). Best of all, the hosts had a place for me to park Big Red (my van) while on the ride. That’s a major plus. Honestly, I could have left the truck unlocked on the property. The cabins are off the highway and secure. The cabins are not cheap but they are a great value. Highly recommended.
MAKING HOTEL RESERVATIONS OR NOT
We ride dual-sport bikes. We don’t carry tents or cooking gear or biodegradable toilet paper. We stay in hotels and enjoy a shower every night. We decided to wing it as far as hotel reservations go. Like Lance, most kids are back in school so finding a room didn’t seem like an issue. It wasn’t. What was an issue was the cost. There was a time (like on my 2019 ride) when a nice room would set you back $100 to $130. Not anymore. Many of the places are charging $300 a night and the darnedest thing is you can’t judge the price by looking at the hotel. We paid too much a few nights. Recommendation: Make reservations for at least half the nights and research the pricing in towns you don’t have reservations before you leave.
ROUTE CLOSURES (AND OPENINGS) HAPPEN FAST
The BDR organization is great at updating their routes and rerouting riders around restricted/closed areas. But even BDR can’t keep up with the ever-changing conditions on the ground. We left for our ride with instructions from the BDR website to skip the first day’s off-road route and ride straight to Packwood on pavement because of multiple fire closures. Turns out that the entire route had been reopened days (or maybe hours) before our departure. Recommendation: Boots on the ground (or pegs) is the only way to approach your ride. If a road is marked closed, respect the closure. If it is open, be prepared (gas wise) to turnaround if it is closed along the route.
NOBODY WATERED THE TRACK
I remember riding the WA BDR on dust-free, hero-dirt roads bordered with green grass. That was late June in 2019 and I even encountered light rain on a few days. Our 2024 ride started the beginning of September. I can only assume that Washington had a dry summer because the roads were dusty and hard packed. We encountered deep pumice dust sections that totally camouflaged whatever lay underneath and left a dust cloud so thick that the trailing riders needed to stop in order to see past their front fenders. Recommendation: Plan your ride for the beginning of Summer. Leave any earlier and you may hit snow. If you leave later than us, plan on cold temps and hope rain has watered the route.
THE DIFFICULT ROUTES SUCK
The “Difficult Routes” have deteriorated since I rode them back in 2019. The difficult routes on Section 2 were my least favorite riding of the week. My totally unproven theory is that these sections have been discovered by high-horsepower, side-by-side vehicles (that hadn’t done their damage in 2019). Parts of the road are devoid of dirt thanks to these vehicles’ earth-scraping tires. Riders are forced to bounce over, around and between rocks. The steeper the hill, the worse the conditions. All three of us made it (okay, I tipped over once) but it wasn’t fun and it went on too long.
I remember having a blast riding Section 4’s “Jungle” way back in 2019. It wasn’t fun this year. It appears a fire has cleared much of the Jungle and riders are left with an exposed, dusty and rocky descent. Did I say “dusty?” It was bad. Recommendation: Swallow your pride and ride the BDR’s “Alternative Easier Route” instead of the expert sections. Your bike and body will thank you.
THE EARLY BIRDS
The temps were extremely high during our adventure. This motivated us to get on the bikes early each day to beat the worst of the heat. We were finished breakfast and throttles twisting by 7:30 most mornings. I loved this. The day’s ride was over with plenty of time to explore the arrival towns or relax in a park or by a river. Recommendation: Start your BDR rides before 8am.
THE NORMAN/KIM BONUS
So you may assume that I was disappointed by the WA BDR. Sure, the ride didn’t come close to my memory of the 2019 ride. This time there was dust, smoke-filled skies, gnarly rock gardens and hot temps. What saved it was riding with two really great dudes. Norman and Kim, both BDR newbies, set a great pace, got me out of bed by 6:30am, helped me get through the steep rocky stuff and always kept a positive attitude. Any BDR adventure is going to be great with these guys. Recommendation: Try to develop one or two buddies for your BDR adventures. Larger groups are hard to manage on the trail (especially if it is dusty) and even harder to manage once you get into town. I’ve done a few solo BDR rides and enjoyed it, but it doesn’t compare to having a partner or two.
ODDS AND ENDS
A few more photos for your viewing enjoyment…
SAM’S USED CARS
Does anybody know the story behind Sam’s Used Cars in Stevenson, Washington? The place has a large inventory of very-used cars and inside the garage is a collection of flat track motorcycles. The garage was wide open but nobody was there when I visited. I could have loaded a bike or two in the van and left. If you know anything about this place, can you drop an e-mail? My address is [email protected].
