Riding the Rails

 

Yesterday we decided to play tourist here in Joseph, Oregon, and become “railriders” on an abandoned portion of the Idaho Northern and Pacific Railroad. Unlike riding our bikes on a rail trail, in this case we actually pedaled this strange contraption right on the rails themselves.

Joseph Rail Riders designed these four wheel tandem bikes with adjustable recumbent seats so people can actually ride the rails under their own pedal power. The starting point is just a couple blocks from Five Peaks RV Park where we’re staying.

The scenery is just gorgeous around here, and it was fun seeing it this way. It really made us long for our old recumbent bicycles.

We pedaled six downhill miles to the turn around point in Enterprise. They’ve designed a turntable to rotate each “bike” around for the ride back. Pretty clever.

The turn around point has a porta-potty and a couple of young entrepreneurs selling bottled water and cold drinks for $1.00.

It was an enjoyable couple of hours. We saw ospreys in their nest, a hawk, many, many deer, and a herd of elk. There were at least a dozen but they ran off into the woods before we could get a photo.

Although the grade is only 1.5% we were surprised at what a workout it was pedaling back after we turned around. The last “bike” manned by an employee actually has a motor and if someone needs assistance going back they can get behind and give them a push.

Such idyllic scenery.

We tend to avoid touristy things but this was a lot of fun and something totally different. Today we go back to our usual routine, with one last hike in the Eagle Cap Wilderness.