Backcountry Byways LLC

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Backcountry Byways LLC Idaho-based Backcountry Byways LLC provides detailed plug-and-play, GPS-guided wildland-travel routing, planning and personalized support in the American West.

Visit us at www.backcountrybyways.com; and on Instagram at .byways. Backcountry Byways LLC specializes in developing plug-and-play wildland-travel routes for adventure motorists who yearn to experience the American West's most remote, beautiful and historic backcountry roads. Our clients include overlanding enthusiasts, adventure-motorcyclists and long-distance mountain bikers. Many pu

rsue a mix of outdoor experiences. They turn to Backcountry Byways LLC for easy, convenient and reliable solutions after realizing how much time, knowledge and resources are required for a successful extended trip -- whether for a week, two weeks or even longer. Our solution: comprehensive, detailed, field-checked GPS-guided routing that not only includes suitable unpaved wildland roads, but also ...

-- primitive and developed campsites;
-- rural fuel sources;
-- potential trouble spots;
-- historic sites;
-- prompt, personal responses to your questions and concerns;
-- access to our advice and counsel, from inception to completion; and
-- real-time rerouting as you travel, if conditions become impassable. Our promise: We will do the work, taking the frustration out of planning a complex wildland journey amid unfamiliar terrain. You get to live the dream. We offer two services:

1. affordable plug-and-play, ready-to-go GPS-guided routing; and

2. personalized custom-routing tailored to each client's interests, time restrictions and skill level. Both can include camping and lodgings. To each custom commission, and to our ready-to-go routes, we apply decades of professional experience chronicling the American West's wildland roads for guidebooks (visit: www.backcountrybyways.com), magazines and Web publications, and individual and corporate clients nationwide. For both options, the navigation-and-execution tools you will need will be delivered conveniently and promptly, ready to go when you are. Our personalized custom-routing services -- the more resource-intensive and expensive option -- will introduce you to our affordable GPS-guided "Heart of the West Adventure Route" -- a ready-to-roll wildland roundabout of backcountry routes -- or our "Sierra to the Sea Adventure Route," a trans-California route between the highest mountain range in the Lower 48 to the Pacific Ocean. Whether you and your group are looking for a custom route -- tailored to your circumstances -- or the simplicity of our plug-and-play adventure routes, we have the solution. To learn more, visit us online at: http://backcountry-byways.blogspot.com/

Then contact us at: [email protected]. Tell us about your vision. Then we'll tell you how we can make it come true. Happy travels! Tony Huegel, principal
Backcountry Byways LLC
Idaho Falls, Idaho U.S.A.

American veterans ... 📷 Tony Huegel/Backcountry Byways LLC
12/11/2024

American veterans ...

📷 Tony Huegel/Backcountry Byways LLC

Mexican standoff? It appears so.We were privileged recently to encounter three threatened desert tortoises within a shor...
02/05/2024

Mexican standoff? It appears so.

We were privileged recently to encounter three threatened desert tortoises within a short distance along a remote Mojave Desert road.

They are native to the harsh environments of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, in the western U.S. Yet even here, their numbers are plunging toward extinction. Threats include predation, grazing, wildfires, invasive vegetation and habitat destruction, road kills, active military reserves, development, solar-energy farms and other human impacts. Even Joshua Tree National Park, where preservation is a core mission, says its desert tortoise population has declined by 90 percent over the past 40 years.

Naturally camouflaged, tortoises are easy to spot if one drives slowly and watches for them. We carefully moved the tortoises we encountered off the road's treadway in the directions they were headed, following the rules for doing so.

📷 Tony Huegel/Backcountry Byways LLC

1990 SR5 22RE 5 SPD 4Runner, bought new in fall of '89, retired now after almost 280,000 hard miles. She fires right up ...
13/04/2024

1990 SR5 22RE 5 SPD 4Runner, bought new in fall of '89, retired now after almost 280,000 hard miles. She fires right up each spring, eager to get back on America's backroads. Let's hope the new 6th gen 4Runner continues the legacy of its forebears.

From The New York Times, April 12, 2024:"The Biden administration on Friday made it more expensive for fossil fuel compa...
12/04/2024

From The New York Times, April 12, 2024:

"The Biden administration on Friday made it more expensive for fossil fuel companies to pull oil, gas and coal from public lands, raising royalty rates for the first time in 100 years in a bid to end bargain basement fees enjoyed by one of the country’s most profitable industries."

For the first time ....IN 100 YEARS!

Photo: A drilling rig on Wyoming's Pinedale Anticline, the state's largest natural-gas field and the nation's sixth-largest. The 198,000-acre former sagebrush ecosystem it occupies lies adjacent to the western slope of the Wind River Range. (file photo from 2013/Tony Huegel)

Fifty-six years ago today, white drifter James Earl Ray aimed a rifle out of this rooming house window at black civil ri...
04/04/2024

Fifty-six years ago today, white drifter James Earl Ray aimed a rifle out of this rooming house window at black civil rights leaders standing on a balcony outside the Lorraine Hotel room of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and pulled the trigger. The shot killed Dr. King, forever creating a martyr for the cause of racial justice in America.

📷 Tony Huegel

From the Washington Post, March 27, 2024"Oil and gas companies will need to stem the release of methane, a potent greenh...
27/03/2024

From the Washington Post, March 27, 2024

"Oil and gas companies will need to stem the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from their drilling operations on federal and tribal lands under a highly anticipated rule the Biden administration finalized Wednesday. ...

"Wednesday’s rule seeks to prevent accidental and negligent leaks of methane — the main component of natural gas — from wells, pipelines and other infrastructure. It also aims to discourage venting and flaring — the practices of intentionally releasing methane into the atmosphere, rather than building equipment to capture it.

"These practices have become prevalent on public lands across the country, federal data shows. Between 2010 and 2020, companies reported venting and flaring an average of about 44.2 billion cubic feet of gas per year — enough to meet the energy needs of roughly 675,000 homes, according to the Interior Department.

Some fossil fuel companies argue that they need to vent or flare gas because they lack pipelines to deliver the fuel to market. Environmentalists counter that the practices are wasteful and harmful to taxpayers, since companies pay royalties for the oil and gas they sell, but they make no payments for the vented or flared methane."

📷 A natural-gas facility in Utah's Nine Mile Canyon, an important archaeological zone famous for its concentration of centuries-old rock art and structures from the native Fremont Culture and Ute people, as well as white-settler sites. Photo by Tony Huegel/Backcountry Byways LLC

From The New York Times, March 15, 2024:"As a candidate in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned to end billions of dolla...
18/03/2024

From The New York Times, March 15, 2024:

"As a candidate in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned to end billions of dollars in annual tax breaks to oil and gas companies within his first year in office.

"It’s a pledge he has been unable to keep as president.

"Mr. Biden’s budget request to Congress this week was his fourth attempt to eliminate what he called 'wasteful subsidies' to an industry that is enjoying record profits.

“ 'Unlike previous administrations, I don’t think the federal government should give handouts to big oil,' Mr. Biden said after his inauguration. His new budget proposal calls for the elimination of $35 billion in tax breaks that would otherwise be provided to the industry over the next decade.

📷 by Tony Huegel. A gas-well truck crosses a rare section of Wyoming's historic Lander Trail, an alternate  route for 19th-century emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail across the Pinedale Anticline, near Pinedale. Invisible air pollution here from the region's energy industry and distant cities has in winter rivaled that of Los Angeles.

"More than half of Nevada’s (groundwater) monitoring wells show significant decreases in water levels since 1980. And al...
07/03/2024

"More than half of Nevada’s (groundwater) monitoring wells show significant decreases in water levels since 1980. And almost one in five monitoring wells hit record lows in the past. But large water users, including real estate developers and mining companies, have pushed back, arguing the state is exceeding its authority to curtail pumping." -- The New York Times, March 4, 2024

📷 Groundwater fills a water truck at a northern Nevada gold mine. It will take thousands of years for natural processes to replace the desert state's most precious resource, the Times reports -- if it is ever replaced at all. (photo: Tony Huegel)

"Idaho has the worst rate of groundwater decline in the country, as measured by the share of monitoring wells that have ...
06/03/2024

"Idaho has the worst rate of groundwater decline in the country, as measured by the share of monitoring wells that have shown a decline in water levels since 1980, according to The Times's investigation. Much of that water is used to irrigate crops, particularly alfalfa grown to feed one of the nation's largest collections of dairy cattle." -- The New York Times, March 4, 2024

📷 Tony Huegel / Backcountry Byways LLC

I've been informed today that cattle grazing is good for the environment of western lands. Perhaps it is, so long as rip...
28/01/2024

I've been informed today that cattle grazing is good for the environment of western lands. Perhaps it is, so long as riparian banks trampled by hooves along our rivers and streams -- not to mention surface waters contaminated with E. coli carried by cattle -- don't count. Would you drink this water, untreated? .

📷 Sweetwater River, South Pass, Wyoming .

Don't believe your own eyes! We were just informed by a fellow recreational motorized user of public lands that ever-pre...
28/01/2024

Don't believe your own eyes! We were just informed by a fellow recreational motorized user of public lands that ever-present, taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing on public lands is good for the environment. Sure fooled us ... 🤔 .

A rare dentalsaurus, just one of the Jurassic and ice-age sculptures found amid the ocotillo of Anza-Borrego Desert Stat...
19/01/2024

A rare dentalsaurus, just one of the Jurassic and ice-age sculptures found amid the ocotillo of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California's largest state park. It's a great place to take a break from winter's cold and gloom. .

📷 Tony Huegel

-borrego

Today's good news: On this date (December 28) in 2016, President Barack Obama designated Gold Butte National Monument, i...
28/12/2023

Today's good news: On this date (December 28) in 2016, President Barack Obama designated Gold Butte National Monument, in southern Nevada (photo). .

Its 297,000 desert acres lay on the doorstep of far-right outlaw, fugitive and taxpayer-subsidized cattleman Ammon Bundy, who has long abused America's publicly owned wildlands. .

Today's bad news: On this same date in 2023 we were reminded of the continuing battle to preserve what remains of America's relatively healthy natural environment, which we've enjoyed for decades as mechanized and non-mechanized wildland travelers. .

The reminder came as a self-serving letter to constituents from Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson (R), a career politician and beneficiary of related largess. In it, Simpson brags that "my FY24 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill PASSED (his emphasis) the House." .

The bill, he states, "slashes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Budget by 39%." At the same time, Simpson continues, he worked to prohibit the listing as threatened or endangered the West's rapidly declining Greater Sage Grouse, which struggle to survive as wildfires, drought, subsidized ranchers and miners degrade the West's beleaguered sagebrush ecosystems. .

He also worked, he says, to continue the royalty-free, environmentally catastrophic and heavily mechanized extraction of publicly owned minerals by even foreign mining companies. .

As longtime advocates for healthy, accessible and sustainably managed public lands, we take hope from the good news ... and motivation from the bad. .

Today belongs to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. .📷 Tony Huegel .
10/10/2022

Today belongs to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. .

📷 Tony Huegel .

Colorado's has just released its map to the initiative's new Wyoming BDR. This extends even further the reach of our s...
11/05/2022

Colorado's has just released its map to the initiative's new Wyoming BDR. This extends even further the reach of our six-state, GPS-guided , an easily accessed web of interconnected loops that includes convenient connectors to most Western BDRs. In the case of the Wyoming BDR, the connection is seamless. .

At heart of these detailed maps: the outstanding cartography and graphic designs of Maps. .

The adventures of wildland travel by motorcycle, SUV and even mountain bike are waiting -- and better than ever for 2022. Start planning your journey of a lifetime today! .

Follow the crowd this year ... Or not ... .📷 Backcountry Byways LLC .
23/03/2022

Follow the crowd this year ... Or not ... .

📷 Backcountry Byways LLC .

"After a year that included one of the largest wildfires in California history and ended with an unseasonably late blaze...
16/02/2022

"After a year that included one of the largest wildfires in California history and ended with an unseasonably late blaze that became the most destructive ever seen in Colorado, the Biden administration on Tuesday announced a 10-year, multibillion-dollar plan to reduce the fire risk on up to 50 million acres that border vulnerable communities." -- The New York Times, Feb. 16, 2022. .

📷 Tony Huegel/Backcountry Byways LLC. Along our 825-mile, trans-California "Sierra to the Sea Adventure Route." .

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Heart of the West Adventure Route, June 23, 2017. . #HoW #wildlandtravel #publiclands #overlandingUSA #overlanding #overland #ADVriding #adventuremotorcycling #4runner #flooding #adventuretravel #getoutside #dirtroads #backroads #backcountryroads

Even the wildland desert roads of southern #Utah can require fording a river. Learn more in our guidebook #UtahByways. Visit us at: backcountry-byways.blogspot.com #utahtravel #wildlandtravel #utahbackroads #backcountrybyways #tonyhuegel #4Runner #toyotatravel #wilcooffroad

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America’s wildland-travel specialists

Backcountry Byways LLC specializes in developing wildland routes for adventure motorists who enjoy traveling the American West's remote, beautiful and historic backroads. In doing so, we advocate Leave No Trace backcountry practices; respect for privately owned lands; for keeping public lands in public hands; and for preserving America’s remaining wildlands and wildlife.

Our clients include overlanding enthusiasts, adventure motorcyclists, auto manufacturers, even long-distance mountain bikers. Each comes to Backcountry Byways LLC with a unique vision, seeking reliable solutions to the challenges of safe and responsible travel through wild America. Our solution to those challenges: comprehensive, detailed, field-checked GPS-guided routing that not only includes publicly accessible wildland roads, but also ... -- backcountry lodgings; -- primitive campsites and developed campgrounds; -- rural fuel sources; -- historic sites; -- prompt, personal responses to questions and concerns; -- access to advice and counsel even as you travel, from inception to completion; -- real-time rerouting when necessary as you travel; and -- a Leave No Trace ethic that always puts preservation of America’s wildlands first. Our promise: We do the work, taking the frustration out of planning a wildland journey through unfamiliar terrain. You get to live the dream, your way. Clients choose from our two core services: 1. affordable, easy-to-follow GPS-guided routing that is ready to be loaded onto a GPS unit, smartphone or tablet (Fees vary*); or 2. custom routing tailored as much as possible to the client’s interests, timing and skill (Fee varies, $750 minimum*). To each custom commission, and to our ready-to-go routes, we apply decades of professional experience documenting the American West's wildland roads for guidebooks (visit: www.backcountrybyways.com and www.backcountry-byways.blogspot.com), magazines and internet publications, as well as individual and corporate clients. For both options, navigational resources are delivered electronically, ready to be loaded onto your laptop, GPS unit, smartphone or tablet. Paper maps may be provided when available. Among our ready-to-roll, GPS-guided wildland routes are:

-- "Heart of the West Adventure Route," a 2,800-mile, six-state wildland roundabout of interconnected backcountry routes; and

-- "Sierra to the Sea Adventure Route," an 825-mile trans-California journey between the highest mountain range in the Lower 48 and the Pacific Ocean.