(By Greg Rourke) – Here we have something that’s a but quieter and a lot less powerful than what is usually found on these hallowed pages…extreme rail biking.
Bicycling on former railroad rights of way isn’t unusual, rails to trails are everywhere. Bike paths are built after the rails are removed. The Research Department (me Googling for five minutes) found there are operations where one can pedal a rail car on an active rail line on the trains day off. They use something like a pedal boat one might find at a park, but designed for the rails. Here we have some cats that found that not adventurous enough. They have what appeared to be home built rail bikes on an abandoned mountain railroad in Idaho.
The Camas Prairie Railroad was built in an area that had no business having a railroad built through it. It was known as “The Railroad On Stilts”, and with good reason. One five mile stretch has over a dozen trestles, one is 280 feet high. A bunch of tunnels add to the fun.
The last trains ran on this road about 20 years ago, so of course maintenance stopped. A few sections are washed out by a nearby river, rockslides block the way in others. The railbikes are lightweight, these guys just portage around obstructions and keep on truckin’, so to speak.
What’s going on here? Looks dangerous, and probably trespassing. Maybe just watch the video and live vicariously through these thrill seekers.
How cool is that.
Three or four years ago there was a fire in the canyon and one of the trestles burnt down. Not the big curved one. The tunnels haven’t been maintained for years. I rode my motorcycle down the railroad in 2005, the tunnels were filled with fallen rocks then. I have no idea how bad it is now.