a bicycle ride over border summit, Utah by Bicycle - Velo

In Utah and this part of Idaho some very low summits are named and marked with a summit sign. In this case the reason is historical. The summit was once on the California Gold Rush trail and informational tablets along the road side tell the story.

1.(00.0km~0.0mi, 1853m~6079ft) START-END EAST: jct Wy89 - US30 south of Geneva, Id
2.(02.4km~1.3mi, 1847m~6060ft) low point
3.(05.7km~3.5mi, 1938m~6325ft) TOP: Border Summit
4.(13.7km~8.5mi, 1832m~6010ft) START-END WEST: route reaches Sheep Creek, south west of Geneva

From West. From its junction with Wy89, US30 barrels straight west up a hill on Boundary Ridge. But first it crosses Thomas Fork, where a sign relates a story of early capitalism along the California Trail ( more below ). About halfways up the straight approach is a rest area. The top is a road cut. But just a few steps further on the old abandoned highway on the right waits a great view of the Sublette Range and the swampy Bear River at its foot (picture beolow). It gives the appearance of having climbed much more than was actually the case.

From East. (described downwards). The descend seems even smaller than the other side, even if the profile shows them to be about equal. Maybe the reason is the lack of a vista on this side. It's just a short roll down a grassy ravine on the way to Geneva

Geneva Summit : Montpelier > Geneva Summit > US30 south <> short out and back to Raymond > Border Summit > Bench Road > back to starting point: 50 miles with 1600ft of climbing in 3:4hours (r2:10.9.17).

Oregon Trail: In 1849 California gold seekers started using a short cut to the Oregon trail, that roughly followed today's US30 across Border Summit. On the lower west side the road crosses Thomas Fork. By the early 1850s two toll bridges had been built to cross the stream. The 1 dollar per wagon fee was quite high for the day, and many poorer emigrants still struggled to cross the stream. for free.

During the early trail days the difficult climb along the route was not this little summit. Instead the road crossed something called "Big Hill", visible from US30 a few miles east of Montpelier. At least one emigrant noted in his diary, that this was the most difficult hill to cross on the entire Oregon trail east of Fort Hall. Enterprising emigrant Tom Mc Auley soon built a toll road through the gully south of this hill, following today's US30. The road was not maintained after 1852 and fell again into disuse