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Transcontinental Railroad Grade 2004

Enlargements of the few pictures presented below may be viewed here.

Completed on May 10th, 1869, at Promontory Summit, the transcontinental railroad shortened the once expensive and arduous cross-nation journey to four days at a relatively cheap cost of $100.  In 1902, officials of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which had taken over the Central Pacific, decided to shorten the route by crossing the Great Salt Lake, which meant laying an additional 102 miles of track between Ogden and Lucin, including twelve miles of trestle over the Great Salt Lake.  The new route was not only 44 miles shorter, but it was also more level, which saved in fuel costs.

The original route was infrequently used in bad weather, and in 1942 the tracks were removed from the original grade and were used a scrap metal for the war effort (WWII).  All that remains now, is an 8-foot wide grade running across the great salt desert-- a perfect motorcycle road.

The tour started around 11AM on a Monday.  I finished some things up at work and hit I-80 from Salt Lake City to Wendover, Utah/ Nevada.  This section of road is pretty boring unless you are on a very fast bike... like my former CBR1100XX Blackbird.  It is relatively boring on a BMW Adventure, but that is what was necessary for the nearly 150 miles of rough dirt I was approaching.

At Wendover, Utah (as opposed to the little-less trailer trash Wendover, Nevada), I stopped and fueled up at the Bonneville Speedway gas station.  If you have any doubts about the range of your bike, you would want to get extra gas here, because this is the last civilization and pavement for the next 150 miles!

Leaving the gas station, there is about a quarter-mile more of pavement and then a sharp turn to the northwest on a dirt road to T-bar Ranch and Lucin, Utah.  This road goes over Leppy Pass and then skirts the edges of a large playa.  There is a road that cuts straight across the playa, but if there is even an ounce of moisture, you may find yourself chest deep in alkali mud.  Since I was by myself, I opted for the safer route.  Above the playa, Pilot Peak dominates the western sky.  There are some good trails up its flanks that lead to some cool camping spots, although this tour can easily be ridden in a day.

After about  55 miles of loose and rocky road, I finally reached the site of what used to be Lucin, Utah.  At this location, the road crosses the "new" railroad (Lucin Cutoff) that comes across the Great Salt Lake.  Another quarter of a mile up the road and you are at the start of the Transcontinental Railroad Grade.  Two signs depict the journey and warn you of imminent death if you breakdown out here.

After some photo-ops, I turned my machine east and started cruising the flat grade.  The grade varies from being level with the surrounding desert, to crossing big fills where you may be up to 30 feet above the surrounding landscape.  For the most part, the surface of the grade was firm and relatively smooth gravel and rock.  A few sections of the grade turned to alkali, which is great when dry, and sometimes impassible when wet.  Luckily for me everything was relatively dry with the exception of a few sections.

Quickly I found that there three substantial dangers on the grade that could ruin your day. First of all, they pulled all the rails in 1942.  However, the sinister bastards left a lot of steel spikes on the grade.  If you are in car... bring at least two spare tires.  On a motorcycle, pay attention and you can easily miss a lot of these landmines, saving you a lot of time patching half-inch holes in your tires.  Second, most of the trestles are still in place, and most of the time the grade/ road goes around the trestles since they are narrow, degraded, and were not built for anything but locomotives.  However, there are a couple of trestles which you must ride across.  These trestles have 2x12s laid across the section where a car's tires would normally ride on the grade.  For us riders, that gives you two paths across the trestle.  Now I mentioned before that most of the grade is relatively firm, leading to motorcycle speeds of up to 60 mph on some stretches.  On one of these fast stretches, lies a hidden trestle that will wake you up and test your reflexes at 60 mph since you don't see these things until you are only about 10 feet away!  Also, the trestles that must be crossed contain a lot of nails that have worked themselves above the wood.  Exercise caution if you are not running beefy tires.

Similar to above, the third danger is paying attention to the route.  As I mentioned, the grade/ road turns sharply in several spots to go around old trestles.  Also in some places, you are far above the surrounding terrain.  If you are cruising at 60 mph and hit a sandy patch or miss the turn around a trestle, you could easily find yourself airborne across the desert.  Assuming you have someway to contact help (cell phones don't work out here), it would take someone over two-hours to reach you by land.

The scenery is incredible.  Everything around the grade is BIG and very difficult to capture in a picture (hence the lack of photos of this tour).  Everything is also very dry.  If you don't like the desert, you will hate this ride.  Route finding is relatively easy, although the grade kind of disappears near Promontory and you must rely on your maps and GPS... or just keep heading east.  This trail is definitely REMOTE.  Take a lot of water and follow the instructions on the signs.  You are on your own on this trail and must be prepared to take care of any problems by yourself.  The riding is relatively easy, the scenery is massive, and the history is pretty cool.  Overall I'd say this ride is a must-do.

To finish the description... the grade emerges at Promontory Point where you hit pavement and ride highways to Brigham City and eventually Salt Lake City.  One last cool thing to see near Promontory Point is the massive Thiokol facility where they manufacture solid rocket boosters and house alien space craft which were captured since they were not smart enough to turn off their "stealth" landing lights when flying around earth-- amazing that beings capable of interstellar space travel could be so stupid.   Take a few minutes and check out the Thiokol rocket display-- just don't ask about the alien space craft... you might get shot.

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