How hard is the NEBDR? . . . (hardest roads ranked)

🙋‍♂️GOT QUESTIONS? ASK! 👇
Once, I was a fresh adventure rider on a Suzuki Vstrom and trying to figure out whether I could tackle the NEBDR. If you are in the same shoes, this should help! After making 3 videos telling the story of riding the NEBDR, this video looks only at the difficulty of the hardest roads that have easier alternate bypasses in the NEBDR tracks.
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00:00 Intro
0:28 Which roads on the route are ranked?
01:04 #15 Perry Road
01:38 #14 Liberty Hill
01:50 #13 Grassy Lane
02:13 #12 Bannis Road
02:54 #11 Green Road
03:23 #10 Pepper Road
03:39 #9 Cookeville Road
04:04 #8 Tucker Mountain
04:28 #7 Dunn Rd
04:57 #6 West Hill Rd
05:28 #5 Joy Road
06:01 #4 Mtn Moses Trail
06:56 #3 County Road 3 (Elevator Shaft)
07:40 #2 Tabor Rd
08:18 #1 Icebed Rd
08:54 Washed out roads
09:28 Overall Route Difficulty

Are you looking to ride the nebdr and are wanting to make sure you don’t miss or do miss the hardest roads on the nebdr while I’ve already made three videos telling the stories of our travel in this video I want to take what are listed as the harder roads in the tracks

Of the any bdr and rank them from easiest to hardest and conclude the video with an overall rating of the route Itself the roads I’m referencing can be found in the bdr tracks wherever you see an easier alternate bypass that is the road that I’m talking about as in harder Road this is not to be confused as the alternate expert sections in track number seven which are both expensive

And you have to pay ahead of time to get your ATV decal but if you’ve ridden the ATV roads in Maine please leave it in the comments let us know what you think about them and in the meantime let’s get to to it oh that’s so cool all right here we

Go at the very bottom of the ranking starting at number 15 is Perry Road near the end of section 4 why there is an easier bypass for this road or even the next four roads on the list I’m not sure who knows maybe it was harder at one

Point I do feel obligated to disclose that the irony is is that this easiest of all the ranked roads was in fact a road that both of us slipped on so it just goes to show you you can never be too careful even on the easier roads but

Outside of this little mishap it was smooth sailing up next is Liberty Hill at number 14 on this list similar to Perry Road in difficulty but it is a tad rougher thus ranking higher an easygoing name for an easygoing Road number 13 grassy Lane going south north it does have a short

Rocky uphill section that ranks it higher than the previous two but nothing too difficult the hardest part of grassy Lane was actually getting past the gate that someone had broken and thrown across the road at the very end the next road is actually a great example of why I made this video having

Been in and out of rain all day and coming up at the end of the day we were actually debating skipping Banis Road since the only other harder section we had experienced up to this point was the notorious Elevator Shaft and we were questioning whether it was good timing

For us to face something that hard at that point in the day while the entrance was a little hidden and there are several roow close signs put up by a couple grumpy locals other than that it was actually refreshing little challenge before ending the day we had no regrets couple

Rocky spots couple dips but a pretty easy Road the following four roads on our rankings are all in section five and turns out they’re all sequential going south north starting with green road on my map at least Green Road is listed as Town Road 25 and it’s coming out the beautiful Green Mountain

National forest with a couple deep potholes couple slippery spots and of course a few Rocky spots we were through this class 4 Road past the middle of Section 5 pepper road takes the 10th hardest spot but only barely however several wash outs make this road just a tad more technical

Than the previous two and earning it the number 10 spot a short 3 miles from Pepper Road comes the number nine Cookville Road I’m relying on memory more for this one and I recall a few steep Rocky climbs and descents that edges out through a Ninth Place ranking even this road which looks

Pretty easy has a lot of loose gravel and with that downhill grade just makes it a little sketchy it really sketches you out approaching the end of section five is Tucker Mountain Road this is where I had the breakdown scare in Chapter 2 of my travel videos and I

Think it takes the prize for the muddiest of all roads on the nebdr this hill climb on Tucker Mountain was no joke either with some pretty large borders cresting the top of the hill in the cold rain and and being slightly lost we found ourselves on number seven dun Road in

Maine the largest water crossing was actually on this road which I sadly was not able to get on film I did manage to get some footage although bad of the rocky climbs on this narrow road I do admit that given the conditions maybe in a different scenario

I would have ranked this below Tucker Mountain but certainly not any further the remaining six roads are the the only that I would consider as significantly above average for the nebdr route West Hill Road is at the very end of Section 3 right past the Massachusetts Vermont border and it

Comes in at number six on the rankings it really does live up to the title of a hard section with endless Rock Gardens and steep grades a ton of fun of course all depending on your perspective if all you do is look at the map you might underestimate number five

Joy Road as not being too bad given how short it is it may be due to 2023 flooding but either way Joy Road is no joke one of my biggest old shoot moments was looking at this big washed out hole in front of me and then falling into it

If you are on the fence it shouldn’t cost you a lot of time by checking it out and if you decide it’s too hard you can easily get back on the route out and go around now if you’re looking at the nebdr trip files for 2023 the kobby pond

Trail alternate bypass is One Singular track that intersects with section 4 to avoid both tab mountain in the South and mount Moses Trail in the north I’m going to consider these as two separate roads and ranking Mount Moses Trail as the number four hardest route in the

Nebdr now this is a long one and both of us had tip overs but it’s also super fun it does have some technical sections but they are on steep grade so they can be slow technical sections you don’t really have to hit them at speed and of course

You can always take your time to the mud puddles and such it has some cool features too like crawling over these giant Boulders and making your way through what is essentially a pond it will definitely feel like an accomplishment when you get to the end now number three has achieved an almost

Legend AR status amongst the nebdr community and it is County Road 3 aka the Elevator Shaft I personally didn’t find it to be as hard as some have said but we were doing it in the easy Direction which is from south to North and I still understand why it sketches people out

It’s just really loose endless Rocky sections kind of like like small baby heads that just skid around on and on top of that you’re on some narrow roads you’re on some steep grades so it seems like an any moment you might just get thrown off the road so while not

Appearing as difficult on the camera I think it deserves a number three ranking in real life as mentioned earlier the Kobe Trail bypass misses both tabber mountain in the South and Mountain Moses Trail in the north number two spot is held by that southern road which is tabber

Mountain tabber mountain is neck to neck for first place it has some very hard hard climbs just look at the size of these baby heads and you’re going uphill I’m not sure I could walk up this look at these Boulders I mean a fall here they’re sharp could be a hole in your

Engine and your chances for falling are very high and unlike Joy Road it’s not short and once you’re on it you’re on it then for the grand finale in number one place of the hardest roads on the nebdr although I admit it was close I think is

Another road that has achieved on most legendary status ice bed Road the mud puddles are pretty big the holes even bigger and The Rock’s biggest of all leading this road to squeeze out the dub for the hardest Road it also holds the notorious Ledges that get many people stuck especially on

Big bikes key here is just momentum and hold on tight if you have watched my travel videos on the nebdr of course you have seen the adventure and many things that are not included in this video however you’ll also note that there were some very difficult roads that are not making

The list and that is because these are roads that were washed out during the big floods and they’re not normally difficult roads they’re roads that are expected to be fixed and once they are fixed should not be a challenge for anyone so there it is folks ranking of

The hardest roads hopefully this gives you an idea of what to miss or not to miss depending on your perspective and a cap off the video I want to do an overall ranking of the video using my own trail reading system I came up with given the five categories of loose

Ground water Crossings obstacles navigability and ruggedness now before I give you this rating I think it’s important to know that much of the nebdr is actually like really easy and in Long stretches too so really these ranked roads you just saw listed are only a small percentage of the the overall

Miles of the nebdr but here we go I give the nebdr a 3 and 1/2 for loose ground and while it was slippery with plenty of mud most of the time puddles had a hard firm bottom so 3 and 1 12 sounds good then for water Crossings there were really only two

Puddles and water crossings that were were pretty big um neither one had a lot of current both of them had pretty firm bottoms so I’ll give it a two out of five for obstacles there were a lot of big rocks big rocks now I do think that I

Hesitate between a three and four here because many of the hardest challenges we faced were by choice when we passed washed out roads that will probably be fixed and much easier for future rides and future Seasons moving on to navigability navigability includes how accessible the trail is single track

Double track how many switch backs and in general the nebdr is a pretty pretty open route so when you are in a technical section you have lots of paths to pick lots of options to pick from and if you make a mistake you have room to

Recover so I’ll give this a two out of five then for ruggedness this includes how steep the road is erosion camber grade Etc and while there were certainly steep sections there weren’t really hill climbs so I’ll give it a three out of five here so there you have it folks now

This is not the kind of video I’ve really enjoy making but I do hope it is helpful for those looking to ride the nebdr and if that’s you I would really appreciate it if you let me know in the comments maybe even consider subscribing the channel and certainly check out my

Other videos on the nebdr chapter 1 2 and three telling the adventures Jay and I had riding this Road