Tad, Dean, Josh, and I enjoyed a week or so on the Idaho BDR. We started at Porthill, at the Canadian border, and traveled south on the many Forest Service & logging roads. Highlights for me were the Lolo Motorway and the Magruder Corridor. All in all, it's a pretty easy route to drive, only occasionally was 4wd required. The scenery however, was incredible!
Josh and I left the route at Elk City, returning home. Tad and Dean pressed on farther south for a couple more days. We all got out before the big September Snowstorm that is now pounding the area.
Route finding along the way can be difficult. The Idaho BDR map is a good start, but there are many different logging roads, and telling which of the four or five roads leading from an intersection is the proper route can be tough. Fortunately Dean had downloaded the free Idaho BDR track to his tablet and he did a superb job of navigating the spaghetti of logging roads! The Lolo Motorway was pretty simple, just get on the 500 road, and follow it about 100 miles from Pierce towards Lolo Pass.
A note - this is extremely remote country. On the Magruder Corridor travelers are in the midst of a huge wilderness area. Comms are almost impossible without a satellite device.
I'll be back, with my fly rod. :)
That is a good trip sounds like you all had a good time. Last year I started in Elk City, ID and headed north on the IDBDR, got passed Pierce and like you said the roads all over and not marked very well. I ended up in a couple of different logging camps and loggers were not very happy having outsiders in their domain. I never did find the route from Pierce to Wallace, so had to bypass on main roads to get to Wallace where I picked up the route again. All very beautiful country.
Off and on, I've happily fished for cutthroat trout on the Lochsa for a good 15+ years. It's pretty amazing country. Next time I go - it won't be for "overlanding" but for the fishing. :)
Beautiful country. Glad you were able to get away from the salt mine to enjoy some trail time. Vicki and I spent 8 days camping on the Lochsaw river about ten miles above the confluence with the Selway 5 years ago. Gorgeous country!
Idaho really has a lot to offer - The Custer Road starting in Challis ID and heading down to SunBeam ID is another must-do route.
So much beautiful area in Idaho, looks like it was a great trip. We did a little exploring around the Elk city area, just made hungry for more.