Syrup Trail Ride Report – Utah to Canada and back… on dirt

TLDR – We rode our Polaris SXS 2,412 miles from Utah to the Canadian border.

Background

In December 2022, my daughter, Sandstone Sammy, started getting more serious with a guy she was dating (Bigfoot Ben). Ben is from Calgary, Canada, and was living up there. During a family dinner on January 1, 2023, I made an offhand remark that our next expedition should be to ride the RZR to Canada to meet him. I mean, we had done Highland to St George and Highland to Rexburg, Idaho, so why not Highland to Canada? One requirement for our expeditions is that they have a catchy name. Navigator Nana suggested “The Calgary Stampede” in reference to the famous rodeo that Calgary hosts each year. We all laughed at the thought of riding a RZR on dirt all the way to Canada.

Route Planning 

Fast forward a couple of weeks and my brain couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities of such an adventure. I started researching and checking out maps. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that RZRs cannot cross the border and ride on public roads in Canada. But that didn’t deter me – we could still ride to the border. And then I went really crazy – and decided that we’d ride to the border AND back!

Everyone thought I was crazy. But once I got the idea, I couldn’t let it go. One trick to making a dream a reality is telling everyone about it. That way, you’re committed! So, I told everyone my goal for the year was to drive our RZR to Canada and back… on dirt!

Days turned into months, and the planning was in full swing. Along with catchy names, we like our expedition routes to have some meaning behind them. So, for this route, I planned to go through Rexburg, Idaho, where Axle Alex lives. And I planned to hit the border north of Sandpoint, Idaho, in Bonner’s Ferry, where we spent over 10 years of summers enjoying Lake Pend Oreille. Lastly, it’d be great to pass through Kalispell, Montana, where my wife’s family is from, and she spent her summers on her grandparent’s cattle ranch. 

My initial route had us doing a figure-8. We’d start in Highland, follow the Spud Run trail to Rexburg, then cross the Bitterroots along Lolo Pass, hook onto the Idaho BDR, and head north to Bonner’s Ferry. Once in Bonner’s Ferry, we’d scoot across northern Idaho and Montana toward Kalispell before heading south again. There, we’d cross back over the Bitterroots to the west side of the Sawtooths and follow the Idaho BDR trail south towards Utah. Once around Twin Falls, we’d head south towards Wendover, Nevada, then circle down to the Pony Express Trail and back to Highland.

Sounds easy, right? I mean, it was only approximately 3400 miles. And at a pace of 200 miles per day (generally what we try to do daily on expeditions), that would only take us 17 days of riding! Add a few rest days each Sunday, and we’re just short of 3 weeks of riding. No problem, right? Ha! That is a long time to be out and about, not to mention the cost of that many nights in hotel rooms.

However, my mind wasn’t quite settled on the route. The BDR is an excellent network of trails, but I wasn’t finding myself excited about riding a route that was already planned. I actually enjoy the planning and pre-riding of expeditions more than the actual expeditions themselves. But I continued working on the map and working out each day’s mileage and where hotels existed. 

There were some interesting things to try and figure out on the route planning. Two areas in particular were proving to be troublesome. Heading north from Rexburg, winding towards Island Park, and then to Dillon, Montana, was relatively easy. However, once at Dillon, there were few options to head north without running a lot of pavement. I had a few possibilities mapped out, but I wasn’t super happy with them. Another troublesome area was heading south from Kalispell, Montana. Flathead Lake is huge. There’s a ton of wilderness area, an Indian reservation, and a lot of private property. But I settled on staying on the east side of the lake. The planned route would head south towards Seeley Lake. But then, getting over to Deer Lodge, Montana, took a lot of work. I studied many maps and finally found a little route through some BLM land on our Benchmark map of Montana that went up and over the mountains and dropped into the I-90 corridor around Deer Lodge. Bingo!

Pre-riding

We had our rough figure-8 loop mapped out on OnX, so I began to plan some pre-riding of sections. I like to pre-ride sections of our routes where I have questions about the trail – how difficult is it, what is its surface type, and if there are any gates or private property restrictions? When you’re simply clicking lines between two points to plot a route, it’s not always straightforward if what it’s plotting is the best route. We like our routes to be as little pavement as possible while at the same time not being so rough and demanding that it’ll beat us up and take hours to cover a small distance. 

Petrol Papa and I headed to Dillon, Montana for a few days of pre-riding in early June. We had questions about the route from Dillon over to the Bitterroot Valley that we wanted to check out. We also wanted to see what the trail was like between Deer Lodge and Seeley Lake, Montana. This trip was invaluable as we hit several gates and closed trails between Dillon and Wisdom. The routes around Deer Lodge turned out to be excellent. We did try a detour down a river road that hit a dead end with a closed trail. But that was okay because a black bear was sitting in the middle of the road as we came around a corner! We stopped, and the bear quickly ran to the side of the hill and up into the woods. On this detour, we also had our front diff start acting up. For a while, it locked into AWD and was grinding severely. I thought we were toast and was not looking forward to getting the 80 miles back to the truck. But prayers were answered, and the front-diff went out of AWD, stopped grinding, and we returned safely to the truck in Deer Lodge.

After this pre-riding trip, Petrol Papa started putting pressure on me to shorten the trip to 2 weeks. It was good pressure. I still wasn’t satisfied with doing a large portion of the BDR, so I started to rework the route. Using the knowledge we gained around Dillon and Deer Lodge, I turned the figure-8 route into a simple circle route. However, I still wasn’t 100% sure about cutting out the BDR.

The next pre-riding adventure coincided with a summer trip with Trailmaster Trent and my wife up to Glacier National Park. We decided to tow a RZR up there and do some riding outside of the park in addition to sightseeing in the park. We spent a day going up the North Fork Road on the west side of Glacier, NP. We made sure to stop at Polebridge for some pastries. We found over and down into Whitefish and back to Kalispell. Trailmaster Trent fished along the way while we napped on the shores of beautiful mountain lakes. Trailmaster Trent and I also checked out the route I had mapped from Kalispell to Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho. In all, this pre-riding was invaluable as it gave me familiarity with the Kalispell and northern Idaho areas and proved invaluable for the final route planning and the deviations we took on the actual trip due to fires.

The last pre-riding adventure I took solo. I aimed to check out the riding on the I-90 corridor around Missoula, Montana. I also wanted to see more of the Bitterroot Valley between Hamilton, Montana, and Salmon, Idaho. I spent a week riding over 1000 miles as far north as Wallace, Idaho, and as far south as Carey, Idaho. During this trip, I finalized the map and began to be super-pumped for our trip. While riding the Bitterroot Valley, I realized we were in Lewis & Clark territory. I kept coming across markers and historical sites of their expedition. I had read the book Undaunted Courage years ago but needed to put two and two together to realize the whole area is full of history. On arrival home after the pre-riding, I started working on the route to cover a bunch of their routes around Salmon, Idaho. This quickly led me to abandon the Idaho BDR entirely and stay on the East side of the Bitterroots and Sawtooth ranges. This shortened the planned route to around 2800 miles. I also had a better idea of the surface of the trails and realized that the forest roads in Idaho and Montana are well-maintained, and it is easy to cruise on them for hours without getting beat up. Our estimate of 200 miles daily could rise to over 250 without much issue.

The final route was finished at the end of July. Petrol Papa and I worked on our schedules to have 15 days to do it. We booked the hotels, and I prepped the RZR as best as possible. 

It took us a while to settle on a name. For a time, we called it the “Maple Syrup and Green Jello Trail” in reference to Utah’s infamous favorite food and Canadian maple syrup. But that was a mouthful. Eventually, I shortened it to “The Syrup Trail.”

The Ride

The ride began in late August. August is also monsoon season in Utah, and summer storms were raging. We knew we’d hit rain for the first day or two, but it should be clear sailing afterward. Our first day’s ride to Monticello, Idaho, was wet and muddy! It was also colder than expected. We arrived in Monticello cold, wet, and muddy. We cleaned the RZR as best as possible in the local car wash. But the mud was sticky and everywhere.

Besides the rain, our next hurdle began early on Day 2. We got a warning message on the Ride Command that the engine was cutting out and to not “press the gas and brake at the same time.” We were sure we weren’t riding the brake. But the problem kept surfacing randomly. It was disconcerting because you’d be riding along, and all of a sudden, the engine would cut power. Then it’d start back up a second or two later. I wondered if it was a belt slipping, so we changed a belt. But the problem persisted. Cell service was sketchy as we headed toward our next stop in Rexburg. But I got enough service to do some googling, and it seemed like maybe the brake pressure sensor was bad. I roped Axle Alex into helping find a part, and he quickly found one in Blackfoot, purchased it, and had it ready for us when we rolled into Rexburg. Problem number 3 popped up around Ririe, Idaho. A loud noise was coming from our rear axle. I checked it out, and it turned out we had a rock stuck between the axle and the transmission – and worse, the axle boot had torn, and axle grease was everywhere. We carry a spare axle, so we weren’t too worried. We decided we could make it the ~25 miles to Rexburg and change the axle in the hotel parking lot.

Rexburg was a nice stop. It was great to get the axle changed and meet up with Axle Alex and his wife for a fun dinner. We also pulled everything out of the RZR and did a more thorough cleaning at the local car wash. I honestly had never seen so much mud come off our RZR. It surprised me how much was caked on everywhere.

We didn’t change the brake pressure sensor, as the problem stopped for the final hundred miles of our ride into Rexburg. So we started the next day, heading towards Dillon. About 100 miles south of Dillon, the brake pressure problem reared its ugly head and slowed us down quite a bit. It was frustrating because we’d go 30-40 miles without a problem and begin to think everything was good. But then it’d rear its ugly head and slow us down for an hour or two. Then it’d go away for another 30 miles.. and repeat. Once we arrived in Dillon, we bought some brake fluid and changed the sensor out with the new one Axle Alex had brought us. The fix turned out to be much quicker and more straightforward than we imagined. We didn’t even lose any brake fluid. Dillon is also where we did our first clutch blow-out and air filter cleaning with the air compressor. 

Our next stop was Deer Lodge. The ride was uneventful – we made good time and arrived just as a rain and wind storm blew through. We enjoyed a nice dinner of Thai and Chinese food and watched the Xfinity race.

The next destination was Kalispell. This would be one of our longest days, pushing us over 1000 miles for the trip. We also ran into our first diversions due to fires in the area. Around the Seeley Lake area, we had trail closures. So we rode a little more pavement than desired and had a diversion through a windy mountain road that wasn’t planned. On this stretch, we hit problem #4 (have you been keeping track?). We started getting messages on the Ride Command that our Mag-2 sensor wasn’t receiving a signal. This would cause cylinder 2 to misfire. Once the code appeared, it would cut engine power. So we’d stop, turn everything off, and then start up again and keep going at full power until it would trip again. We also started unplugging the sensor and plugging it back in. Like the brake pressure sensor, the problem would disappear for 50-60 miles and then rear its ugly head again. As you’ll see, this foretells the rest of our adventure.

Kalispell was a much-needed stop. It was our first Holiday Inn Express, which I call my second home. Sunday morning, we drove the RZR to the local ward house and enjoyed sacrament meeting. A father and his daughters sang a song – I’m not sure what it was – but I remember my powerful feeling. It was amazing! We took naps Sunday afternoon and did laundry. Sandstone Sammy and Bigfoot Ben (now married!) drove down from Calgary and met us Sunday afternoon, and I took them on a tour of Kalispell and my wife’s grandparents’ cattle ranch and gravesite. We ended our time together with a nice dinner of poutine and pizza.

Monday morning was the first day of fluid changes on our schedule. It was a fun experience changing the 3 fluids in the hotel’s parking lot. We had planned a short riding day today to give us plenty of time to do the maintenance. After the maintenance, we changed our course again due to some fires and headed up the North Fork road to Polebridge. North of Polebridge, there is an old border crossing, and it would be cool to make that our first time at the border. Unfortunately, as we got into Polebridge, there were signs about the road being closed for construction. So we were skunked for the border for now. However, we continued over to our stop for the night in Eureka. We arrived so early that we decided to head a few miles up the highway to the border crossing. We had made it to Canada! It was surreal to actually be at the border. We took plenty of pictures, cheered, and high-fived. There’s something about being 1200 miles away from home with your primary vehicle being your side-by-side and your belongings tucked in the back. It honestly was a little lonely.

But we had only accomplished 1/2 of our goal. We still had to make it back to Utah.

After our stop in Eureka, we rode over to Bonner’s Ferry, stopping in the woods at the border. Trailmaster Trent and I had visited this spot earlier in the summer. It’s an interesting spot – no fence or markers of the actual border exists. There is just a clearing of trees that runs along the border from side to side. Nothing indicates you’re leaving the USA and entering Canada except the little dot on your GPS. 

After our last border pictures, it was time to start heading south! We made it to Sandpoint. Unfortunately, it was raining, and while I did jump into the lake, I couldn’t spend time in the sun at my “happy place.” Before continuing, we drove the Long Bridge. That was a goal of mine – we had driven across it, ridden bikes with our kids across it, and floated on boats under it dozens of times. But driving an RZR across it was a new and memorable experience.

Leaving Sandpoint, we had to deviate again due to fires in the area. The original route had us staying on the west side of the lake down towards Wallace. But because of the fires, we had to go up and around the north side of the lake and stay on the east side into Wallace. It was a little circuitous (and raining heavily!)… and at one point, Petrol Papa got frustrated as he looked at the map and said, “Why aren’t we heading south yet?”. I assured him we were good; that was just how the trails were laid out. I reminded him that the goal wasn’t to make it to Canada and back the shortest and fastest way – if it was, we’d be in a nice car driving on the freeway 🙂

After a night drying out in Wallace, we continued to our next stop in Hamilton, Montana. The loose Mag-2 sensor wire had been quiet for a couple of days. But as we were going up to the Lolo pass area, it flared up again. We crossed our fingers and motored on into Hamilton. At this point, we still weren’t convinced it was the sensor, as we’d also get cylinder misfire codes (which generally show up on belt slips). I was sure it was belt-related, and so we kept changing belts. In Hamilton, we used a whole can of brake cleaner on the two clutches to try to clean them. 

The codes disappeared as we left Hamilton the next day and headed towards Salmon. Only once did we get the code on our over 200-mile ride into Salmon. 

From Salmon, we were headed to the longest and most demanding day of the ride to date. We had to cover almost 300 miles to Burley, Idaho. The rain had passed, and the temperature was picking up as we kept going south. The ride south of Salmon was pleasant as we crossed Lemhi Pass on the trail of Lewis & Clark. We had 3 mountain ranges to go up over today. I called them the “fingers.” They were incredible passes – one went over 10,000 feet. We made good time into Arco and continued on. We had experienced the mag-2 sensor issue a few times so far, but we continued without any good ideas of what was going on.

As we left the canyon just north of Carey, Idaho, we finally hit the point where the mag-2 sensor and cylinder misfires caused us not to be able to continue. We tried a bunch of things – changed belts, changed spark plugs, cleaned everything. But nothing was helping.

We contacted our chase team (Navigator Nana) and put them on standby. We weren’t sure we’d make it any further. In limp mode, the RZR will cruise at about 20mph. We were around 80 miles from our hotel in Burley, Idaho. We decided to drive down the highway in limp mode, crawl into Burley, and see where to go from there. As we went down the highway, the RPM looked fine (limp mode usually caps the rpm low), and it felt like there was significant belt slippage. I changed the belt (I had gotten pretty fast at this point, having down it maybe 6 times in the last few days), and suddenly, the RZR came to life, and we were out of limp mode and cruising. We turned out and headed back out on our original route through Craters of the Moon National Monument. We arrived in Burley without further issues. We had covered just under 300 miles – a new single-day record for us! It was Saturday, so we knew we had a lovely weekend at a Holiday Inn Express to relax. 

We enjoyed a lazy Sunday – once again attending church and driving around Burley looking for the house my mom lived in for a few years when she was little. It rained a lot, so we didn’t spend much time outside. However, the RZR performed well in our cruising, and we were in high spirits. We had just 2 days to go before we’d be home!

The End

Monday morning, we did our scheduled fluid changes. It was windy and cold. We started, and frankly, because of the wind, it was pretty miserable. As we headed into the mountains, the mud picked up. We slowed down and, on some sections of the trail, would just slide down – we had almost no traction in the mud. 

As we arrived close to the 3 Corners Monument (Idaho, Nevada, and Utah), the mag-2 sensor was going nuts. We limped to the monument and enjoyed setting foot in Utah for the first time in 2 weeks. We had made it from Utah to Canada and back to Utah in a Polaris XP 4 1000 RZR! It was an incredible feeling! 

What wasn’t awesome was that the machine was not as happy as we were. Once again, we couldn’t get it to fire both cylinders. It would creep along, going 6-8mph up any incline. Right after the monument, we hit a locked gate we weren’t planning on. I was kicking myself – this was pretty much the only part of the trail that I hadn’t pre-ridden, and it was coming to bite us. There was no good way around the locked gate. If we could make it across it, we’d be on a decent road and within 80 miles of Wendover.

At this point, Petrol Papa and I were somewhat discouraged. The last few days, the RZR was not happy. The locked gate was not fun. The mud and wind wore us down. Once again, we tried everything we could to fix the problem. I still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t a clutch problem, so we tried to change our clutches. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right tools to change the clutch weights. So, once again, we were frustrated.

We had a decision to make. There was a circuitous route around the locked gate that would take us back to the road that headed south to Wendover. Once in Wendover, we could meet with our chase truck and go from there. The area we were in was super remote – no cell service and miles from any civilization. If we headed towards Wendover, we’d be heading further into the unknown. Driving on 1 cylinder, we weren’t sure we could even make it up and over the trail to the road. 

If we attempted to go back to Burley, we at least knew what we were in for. 

We decided together that this was the end of our adventure. Our goal was to make it from Utah to Canada and back to Utah on dirt. We had fought man vs machine vs environment for 2 weeks. We could hold our heads up high. We had spent months preparing, and we had done it!

We crept 60 miles back to Burley. Once in cell phone range, we officially called Navigator Nana and asked her to meet us in Burley the next day. We rested at the hotel, ate a nice dinner at Denny’s, and slept like babies. Navigator Nana arrived the following day, and we loaded Red Dog up and drove back to Highland. Our official mileage was 2412 miles! I figure 80% of that was on dirt.

Afterword

I shed many tears on the drive back to Burley after we made the official call for the chase truck. This was months of work and a huge emotional and physical undertaking. I had to work hard to keep the demons of failure from getting the best of me. After arriving back home, it took me weeks to recover and escape the funk I was in. I had spent 9 months working on this adventure, and to have it end 1 day short of its ultimate goal was disappointing. I was disappointed in myself for the locked gate we hit. I was disappointed we couldn’t figure out the problem with the Mag-2 sensor. We didn’t have any “simple” days – every day of the 2 weeks, we had issues. Every day was tough, whether it was the elements – rain, mud, wind, sun, or mechanical problems.

With that said, I am super proud of our accomplishment. As I look back. I can’t believe we did what we did. 15 days sitting in an RZR bouncing along the trail is physically and mentally challenging. I’m proud of my 78yo father for enduring this grueling trip. I’m grateful I got to spend so much time with him. The planning process was huge. It’s almost unfathomable. But we did it – we drove from Highland, Utah, to Canada and back to Utah on dirt in a Polaris RZR XP4 1000.

Stay tuned for more – we have a lifetime of stories from the trip that we’ll continue to share.

Zip download of all GPX Tracks