Route Review: Railriders Cycling: Joseph Branch, Oregon
Running on the tracks of the Joseph Branch of the Wallowa Union Railroad, Railrider Cycling: Joseph Branch has offered railbike excursions in and around Joseph, Oregon since 2015. The three routes currently on offer collectively form one of three operations in the Northwest established by Kim and Anita Metlen, the pioneers of organized railbiking in Oregon and Washington. I rode the two routes described below on the weekend of June 16th and 17th, 2019, they have already added another.
Phone: (541) 786-6149 or (541) 605-8295
Website: https://jbrailriders.com/
Jospeh to Enterprise: 501 W Alder Street, Joseph, OR
Minam to Wallawa and Minam to Rondowa: 72601 Highway 82, Minam, OR
Railrider Cycling: Joseph Branch offers three separate and distinct rides, each on a regular schedule.
Check-in for the Joseph to Enterprise ride is at a baby-barn office on the edge of Joseph (see Travel Notes below for more details), where I was greeted by the Site Manager Robert Nichols and a Guide named Marshall, a true local whose family also offers horseback excursions in the surrounding mountains.
The Minam to Wallowa ride starts from a turnoff along Oregon Route 82, beside the Minam Store outfitter. I was the only rider on the day I pedalled this route, and my guide Zane was a young, fit football player just out of high school. We surely broke the course record that day.
Since my time there, they’ve added a third route from Minam to Rondowa, running in the opposite direction as the Minam to Wallowa ride.
As noted above, the three routes described here are part of a larger family of railbike tours founded by Kim and Anita Metlen, who deserve great admiration for the work they’ve done to promote cycling and recreation in the Northwest.
The Site Manager Robert Nichols notes that, “our branch options are so much fun because they are such a simple and enjoyable way to get away from it all. A few minutes of pedaling and you can escape the day to day craziness and enter into peaceful wilderness.”
The Joseph to Enterprise 12-mile (19.3 km) round-trip runs through open farmland surrounded by the snow-capped Wallowa Mountians. The Minam to Wallowa 26-mile (42 km) round-trip runs through the Wallowa River canyon and includes a lunch break in Wallowa. On each route, riders can expect to see local fauna; I saw osprey, killdeer, deer, and snakes.
The line was initiated in 1890 by the Oregon Railway Extensions Company as a branch from the Union Pacific mainline from La Grande to Elgin, then extended to Joseph in 1905-1908 by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, totaling 63 miles (101 km). The line was intended to move timber from the dense forests of the region, but passenger service was offered as well. Ownership of the line was eventually transferred by consolidation to the Union Pacific Railroad in steps in 1910 and 1936, which operated mixed freight and passenger service until the 1960s (see the image just below) and freight from local timber operations until it was sold as a shortline to Rio Grande Pacific in 1993. In 2003, Elgin to Joseph tracks came under the ownership of the newly formed Wallowa Union Railroad Authority, which currently oversees freight and Eagle Cap excursion trains and, of course, railbikes.
(1960 Timetable, found at trainweb.org)
While all of the Railriders Cycling sites use a variant of the Railriders aluminum-framed and polyurethane-wheeled concept, Joseph Branch stands out in that they only run two-seater tandem vehicles. Site Manager Robert Nichols described some of the modifications they made to the original design, which are generally found in the nuts-and-bolts details providing increased reliability with decreased maintenance. Robert also notes that, “our retractable seatbelts are really handy, and...our brakes and the placement of where we have the handle works well and is convenient for our guests.”
See the image below of the Joseph to Enterprise guide vehicle, which has been outfitted with electric assist (compare to the vehicles at the Skunk Train). Also of interest is that Railriders Cycling sourced their own wheels. When writing about railbiking in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, I noted that they had replaced the front wheels with cast-iron Speeder wheels to prevent them from climbing up the tracks and derailing in tight curves. This was accomplished on the Minam to Wallowa route by molding a harder compound of polyurethane (below in orange).
I visited Joseph as part of a trip through the Northwest, from the Amtrak stop in Pasco, Washington and the neighboring Tri-Cities and inland port on the Columbia River. While Greyhound offers service to Joseph, neither transit nor cycling fit into my tight weekend schedule, so I opted to travel the 292-mile (470 km) round trip by rental car. The scenery along the ride was impressive, through farmlands, forest, high-desert scrub, around the the majestic Nine Canyon Wind Farm, and ultimately along the tracks of the Joseph Branch.
Joseph, formally a city of population 1,081 (what we’d call a hamlet in NY), is at the core of a region rich in outdoor activity, including hiking and horseback riding in the Wallowa Mountains, boating in Wallowa Lake, and fishing and kayaking on local rivers. I also saw rodeo grounds by the start of the railbike tour. The city caters well to visitors and includes art galleries, cafes and beerhalls and was recognized by the New York Times as the Oregon town to “try next.” From experience, I can recommend the Stein Distillery and the Jennings Hotel, which I booked on AirBnB.
6 miles (10 km) south of Joseph is is the must-see, must-do, must-ride Walowa Lake Tramway aerial cable car 3700 ft (1128 meter) ascent to the top of Mount Howard. Beyond the outdoor restaurant atop one can find paths leading to views of the lake and surrounding mountains, plus joyful creatures looking for treats.
Back in the Tri-Cities, I enjoyed cycling on the paved trails along the Columbia River around Clover Island in Kennewick, Washington. I left the area on the Amtrak Empire Builder to Portland, overlooking the impressive staircase of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.
