D/S Lewis Clark Trail ?

[radoldguy]

Good cold morning to you all. I am interested in communicating with those that have Dual Sport ridden along all or parts of the Oregon & Lewis -Clark Trail. We are primarely interested in the Neb - Dakota's - Montana & Wyoming sections. We are interested in riding primarely dirt roads & 2 tracks. We are very off road experienced and can handle most of what is thrown at us. please drop me a line at bradecky at G mail dot com
Thanks for your help. Looking forward to studying your responses.
Thanks
Rad
BMW K100 RS XR 650l Hybrid Kx/Kdx Honda Trail 110

[pdxmotorhead]

I drifted about 160 miles of the Missouri river a few years ago in Montana . all along the river were metal markers with the camp number from the journals on them. It was amazing how close the camps were, sometime you could see between them. They seemed to alternate N and S of the river... (I say drifted,, we took two drift boats and rowed down stream for 2 weeks. Silly river has no current to push you and the wind blows the wrong direction... )

One thing I'm sure of, those guys had to be about as dirty as you can get, that mud in the river sticks to everything like glue. 5 years later my hunting jacket still bleeds the color of the mud when I wash it..

If it rains and your off pavement be prepared to just sit it out. You will not be riding. You cant even walk in the stuff, it sticks to your boots so bad you gain about 2" in height each step. It needs to be dry or frozen to drive on.

While I was there they had to use a D8 cat to pull a skid trailer down to the river and load a 4x4 Pickup on it and drag it back out... Cost the guy like 2500 bucks to retrieve his truck..

There are roads paralleling the river pretty much all the way, but your usually about 1 mile from the river. Lots of small roads that drop into the river though and dead end.. Mostly at old deserted ranches.

Dave

[lakota]

Why isn't this in trip planning?

[Buckeye Biker]

Let me know when you plan on riding through Williston, and I'll buy you a couple beers!

[Scoobynut]

Here's a website with printable maps that shows all the gravel roads by county in North Dakota:

http://www.dot.nd.gov/road-map/county-base/index.htm

The two counties in the SW part of the state, Billings and Golden Valley, are where the south Unit of Theodore Roosevelt national park is. You can't ride trails in the park, but there is plenty of nice riding outside the park in the badlands. I believe the Lewis and Clark trail goes through the Williston area, more in the NW corner of the state, but beware of heavy oilfield traffic up there, including most of the gravel roads.

Before travelling to Williston, if you decide to bypass SW N. Dakota, you could visit Washburn, ND (about 40 miles north of Bismarck). Washburn is home to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive center, which is just a mile or so from a replica of Fort Mandan on the banks of the Missouri river, where I believe the expedition made their longest layover of the journey during the winter of 1804. The original site is gone, located where the river now flows, but the replica fort is close to the original site. From Washburn, you can take Hwy. 200 over to Killdeer and shortly thereafter turn north on Hwy. 85 to Watford City where you will hit the intersection (still hwy. 85) that takes you to Williston. Alternatively, you could ride north from Killdeer on Hwy. 22 and work your way around to Watford City, which is in my opinion, the most scenic hwy. in the state, but I don't believe you could get to Watford by gravel using this route.

Not too far from Williston is the Fort Union trading post, a fur and hide marketplace established in 1828:

http://www.nps.gov/fous/index.htm

Myself, I've only ridden gravel in the SW part of the state, but have driven my car -- but not very extensively -- on the gravel roads up by Watford City doing well site and easement work.

If you work your way as far as Missoula, Montana, look into riding the Lolo motorway (all gravel and off-road really), which I rode last summer. Here's the RR I used to help plan my trip:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...=Lolo+Motorway

And should you be interested in any little side trips in Western Montana, here a short guide to ghost towns and deserted mining camps:

http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medial...st%20Towns.pdf


Sounds like a fun trip. Hope some of the info. I supplied helps in your planning.

[Cannonshot]

You can PM LewisNClark and he can share a lot of info with you.