Large Scale Central

Trail Riding

I play with trains and my wife, Deanna, raises and rides horses. We wanted a hobby we could do together, so we started trail riding with my brother. My brother, Steve and his wife, Linda, have been riding for years and finally talked us into it.

Now for the disclaimer: We stay on the trails and don’t disturb streams or hillsides. We are licensed by the states of Idaho and Washington to ride the back country.

Yesterday was our first trip together. We decided to ride to the top of Monumental Mountain, in Idaho. (about 6,000 ft.)

The view from the summit, towards Montana.

Parked on the summit.

Stopping to pick ripe huckleberries on the way down.

Looks like fun. So it is the two of you in one side by side?

Hi Ric,
The white rig is my brothers and we recently bought the blue one. They are very easy to drive. Even my wife does some driving while I look at the scenery. If the trail gets a little steep and rough, I’ll take over.

I use my Jeep for that because the air conditioning is better .

We drive round the disused Welsh Slate Quarries looking for traces of NG rail stuff .

Mike Brit

A member of our train club is also on the board of the Coeur d’ Alene mining museum. Next spring he is going to show me were there are some lost mines and equipment up in the north Idaho mountains. By then I hope to have a metal detector strapped to the rig. He also knows where all the abandoned RR sites are at. I’m saving up to get a real fancy Garmin GPS that is strictly for the backwoods. All the trails are programed in, instead of streets. You can also link it to your computer and it works with Google Earth. If you spot something on GE that looks interesting, you can enter it into the GPS, and it will get you as close as it can. Fun stuff.

John , that sounds good .

Do you still have high detail maps available in the USA ?

I know there were some , similar to the UK Ordnance Survey maps, made for gunnery (surprise surprise) , but since GPS reared its head , they are not so popular here . We got some for the areas around the White Pass railway , but I can’t for the life of me remember what they were called . Very large scale contour maps anyway .

The great things about the Ordnance maps is the detail showing where things were as well as where they are , so for example you see “disused railway line” , “disused mill” , and so forth .

We use them in conjunction with Google Earth , and with the aid of second hand maps ----readily available because people don’t appreciate just what you can do with them----we find some interesting relics . I have 1" to 1Mile maps from the 1890’s .

I would like to try your trail quad , but would probably fall out of it .

Mike Brit

Mike, They have doors and harnesses (seat belts). I just haven’t put mine on yet, so I use a safety net.

Here’s a pic of my brother’s with the steel doors.

You won’t fall out.

Yes, we have highly detailed maps of the areas. We are required by the forest service to carry them with us. Along with a shovel and a bucket. (Your helmet or cooler can be used as a bucket.)

Actually , John , I wouldn’t need to fall out of it , my weight would roll it as soon as I got in .

The US maps I mention , we were stopped by a patrol vehicle and having ascertained we were tourists , the officer said “I see you’ve got --------maps” and I’m blowed if I can remember what they were called . They were large scale , and showed detail down to the position of abandoned dwellings and their size . They were about 1:25,000 scale .

Any idea ?

Mike Brit

One of my in-laws is big into this. I’ve been trying to convince the wife to let me buy/build a Meyers Manx type dune buggy to go exploring the desert back roads around here but so far she ain’t buying. I’d prefer a buggy or jeep simply because I can drive it to and from on the hwy. No tow vehicle necessary.

Mike Morgan said:

Actually , John , I wouldn’t need to fall out of it , my weight would roll it as soon as I got in .

The US maps I mention , we were stopped by a patrol vehicle and having ascertained we were tourists , the officer said “I see you’ve got --------maps” and I’m blowed if I can remember what they were called . They were large scale , and showed detail down to the position of abandoned dwellings and their size . They were about 1:25,000 scale .

Any idea ?

Mike Brit

Mike, at that scale, they are called 7 Minute Maps, as they cover 7 minutes of both latitude and longitude. Colloquially, they are just called Topo Maps. I prefer them to GPS because I can see interesting things around me that GPS won’t show. Besides, the map doesn’t lie, where the satilites might.

You purchase the topo’s at Forest Service. The cover a certain sector. I carry all of north Idaho in the overhead map bag.

AAAaaaaaarrrrgh!.

(Senior moment scream of frustration)

How on earth could I forget Topo and 7 minute? Simple enough names to remember .

I didn’t even cotton on when I looked at the maps last night and saw “Topographical” .

But I can at least read and understand them . Use of the large scale Ordnance Survey Maps was part of the school curriculum , we went on field trips to practise too .

We got the Topos in Skagway , I think they were from the Station Shop . We put them to good use , found where the railway stations were between Skagway and White Horse , also got ourselves in big trouble taking a marked track and nearly running into a very large bear.

Fortunately, it got as big a fright as we did .

Mike Brit

Interesting note about 7 Minute maps… They were developed initially for use by the US Army. The areas without any color except the color of the paper will not provide any concealment, the light green areas will provide concealment for men, the dark green areas will provide concealment for horses, artillery and equipment. At least, that was the gouge in my USMC basic map course. Note, I said concealment, not cover. They are different concepts.

John, that’s a nice machine. We do alot of trail riding here too. But in these parts we mostly ride quads. The UTV machines are a bit big for alot of the trails.

Terry

The Forest Service and lumber companies have barricaded some of the trails with huge concrete barriers and left a 56" (more or less) gap between them. This is to keep pickups and jeeps out. (I guess). Our rig is 50" wide. With the proper gear, license and permits (Lumber Co.) you can squeeze through and continue to explore. In fact, Inland Paper and Potlatch Lumber Co. have thousands of acres that they allow you to ride in.

Vic, we went out a few months ago and bought a four door rubicon as our play vehicle. A dune buggy would be fun.

The UTV world is growing fast and only the razor is trail legal in socal, the rest are restricted to non-street legal roads on the forest. (our OHV trail network is restricted to 50 inches wide or less)

In Idaho if you have proper lights, turn signals and a horn, you can ride on the roads. Say from your campgrounds to the trailheads, etc.

In Wa., only a few small towns are allowing UTV’s on the streets. They have to be equipped with same as above.

Mine has everything except the turn signals. Easy aftermarket kit to install.

Silly me,

When I read the title I just naturally assumed horses, which are still pretty popular around here for “trail riding.”

We do have our share of those noise makers disturbing the peace of the back country though :wink:

But as I age I can appreciate the advantages of the motorized travel over the horseback or foot travel up and down the high country.

Have fun

Rick

Rick,

As a young lad and a teenager, I hiked miles of trails in the primitive area of Central Idaho. Then after I met my horse-women gal, I tried it with horses. As I got older, I gave that up. Too unpredictable, those horses, even with years of training. My wife still horse trail rides and is going on a 3 day ride this weekend.

Me, I will now stick to the machine. At least it doesn’t have a mind of its own…:slight_smile:

you boys got me motivated. we went on a trail ride in the jeep tonight.