Off the beaten path: A Lander, Wyoming, overnighter. (Favorite Ride).(Brief Article)

The idea was a natural, as living here in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming means that I'm close to some excellent motorcycling territory. So my buddy Brian shipped his Triumph Thunderbird up for a two- or three-day trip. Having done the Grand Teton/Yellowstone Park gig and more the previous summer, however, I needed to come up with another plan. After a quick talk with the fellas at Jackson Hole Cycle, I decided a two-day trip to LANDER, WYOMING, returning through DuBois, would fill the bill.

Braced by the cool morning air, we soared over Teton Pass from my home in Driggs, Idaho, and headed south of Jackson on Highway 26 to the Hoback River Junction. Heading west along the Hoback through the Bondurant Valley, we first stopped at a riverside plaque commemorating the passing of the Astor party in 1811. Led by Wilson Price Hunt and financed by John Astor, the party passed through here on its way over the Tetons to the Henry's Lake area of Idaho, trapping beaver. One of the guides was John Hoback, after whom this lovely stream is named. In 1835, Jim Bridger and Kit Carson passed along the same trail, en route to the Green River Rendezvous.

The Hoback River Canyon is a rider's delight, and the scenery is memorable. As we pushed into the Bondurant Valley, we began to get the feeling of the "real Wyoming," devoid of all the tourism trappings of Jackson. Antelope always seem to be present in the Bondurant area, and today was no exception.

Heading south on 189 in the Wyoming high plains, we were cradled on either side by the Bridger National Forest. We turned southeast on 191 just before Daniel, en route to Highway 28 and South Pass City at the bottom of the Wind River Range.

After a quick lunch in Pinedale, a nice little town with a strong trophy-hunting economy in the fall, we mounted up again, stopping at a desolate little spot named Farson for a giant ice cream cone in a neat old brick building. At Farson we turned northeast on Highway 28 toward South Pass, the terrain soon becoming more mountainous as we gamed altitude, now following the old Oregon Trail through one of the most significant early mountain passes in the west. The Mormon Pioneer, Oregon and Pony Express trails all passed through here. South Pass winds between the Wind Rivers to the north and Antelope Hills to the south, straddling the Continental Divide.

Gold was first discovered in South Pass in 1842, but the rush didn't hit until 1867, when thousands moved to South Pass City and neighboring Atlantic City, based upon a terrific assay report on an ore sample sent to Salt Lake City.

By 1884, the rush was over, and these towns settled into the slow process of abandonment and eventual decay so familiar to boom towns of the Old West. The preservation work at South Pass City was good, and after moseying around for an hour or so, we remounted and headed north for Lander and our night's destination. We arrived in Lander ...