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Riding the Pony Express National Historic Trail on an off-road bicycle, such as a gravel or mountain bike, is a great way to travel back in time to see the original trail as it was in 1860. So says Scott Alumbaugh, a writer and avid cyclist, in an article the National Park Service published. This page retells his experience in new words. In summer 2020 he rode the California portion in day rides and overnight trips and scouted sections in central Nevada, and in early summer 2021 he bikepacked from St. Joseph, Missouri to Salt Lake City, Utah over five weeks.
Why bike it
- Closer to the trail. A bicycle can follow the route as nearly as possible from point to point. Some sections are closed to motor vehicles and others are too rugged, and bikepacking, carrying food and camping gear, lets you ride without dedicated support and cover sections that even the horseback riders of the annual Pony Express Re-Ride have to skip.
- At the right speed. A bike travels at about the Pony Express riders' average of ten miles per hour. Alumbaugh describes approaching Chimney Rock over an hour or more, seeing its tip appear between hills, vanish and reappear, rather than reaching it minutes after spotting it from a highway. With enough planning a rider could start each day at one home station and end at the next, as the Pony riders did.
- Out of the car. In every town someone asked about his ride, and many had a personal link to the trail, such as an ancestor who rode for the Express. He found those conversations came back more vividly than the landmarks.
What to expect
He warns that this is not a casual tour. Hills, weather and trail condition can make any day extremely hard physically and mentally: a 25-mile-per-hour headwind on a paved highway, or a stream too deep or muddy to ride through. Long stretches between Casper, Wyoming and Carson City, Nevada are extremely remote, and a rider might go days without seeing anyone. Crossing the Great Basin means being willing to camp on government land with no designated campsite, host, electricity or toilet, and possibly no water nearby. Some off-road sections can be done on electric-assist mountain bikes, for example the trail between Pollock Pines and Echo Summit in California, where hotels along US 50 allow recharging, but riders should check whether electric bikes are allowed at each site.
The riding season runs from late April to mid-October. The Bikepacking Route, which its creator Jan Bennett says is over 85% off-road, takes six weeks or more including rest days and bad weather. Alumbaugh had unplanned layovers to avoid heat above 100º and thunderstorms.
The route in seven sections
| Section | What it is like |
|---|---|
| The Prairie: St. Joseph, MO to Kearney, NE | Kansas is hilly: the trail drops into and climbs out of creek beds in the Glacial Hills. Towns along the Little Blue River are small and often have no services. No easy days at the start |
| The Platte River Road: Kearney to Sidney, NE | Nearly 150 miles of flat or gently climbing riding, much of it paved or well-graded gravel with light traffic. The longest relatively easy stretch of the entire trail |
| The Monuments: Sidney, NE to Casper, WY | From the area of O'Fallon's Bluffs the trail climbs slowly toward South Pass, still nearly 500 miles away. Courthouse and Jail Rocks, Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff come into view |
| South Pass: Casper to Fort Bridger, WY | High desert more than a mile above sea level most of the way to Salt Lake City, very few towns, campgrounds or services, and legendary wind with a fierce headwind at some point. The most challenging and remote part between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City |
| The Wasatch Mountains: Fort Bridger to Salt Lake City, UT | Hills become mountains. Between Henefer and Salt Lake City, riders choose mountain bike trails or highway, and Big Mountain is a long, hard climb either way. Recreational cyclists appear, and so does support |
| The Great Basin: Salt Lake City to Carson City, NV | From Salt Lake City to Austin, Nevada, about 400 miles, no towns lie directly on the route. Resupply needs a day's detour to Ely or Eureka. An unsupported rider must carry extra water and ten days to two weeks of food. A mountain bike with very sturdy tires is best |
| The Sierra Nevada: Carson City to Sacramento, CA | A steep climb to Echo Summit, then a mostly downhill but rough ride with single-track and some hike-a-bike sections. Trails become tamer toward Folsom, and a fast, gradual descent along the American River Bike Trail leads to the western end in Old Sacramento |
Sources
- National Park Service, Pony Express National Historic Trail, Biking the Pony Express Trail, by Scott Alumbaugh; his photographs are not reproduced; rewritten in hubnx's own words.
In these publicationsPony Express National Historic Trail
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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