Comedian and animator Jeff Boudreault is a motorcycle fanatic. This summer, he decided to go on an adventure, alone, on the trails of the American Southwest. Second sounding with the biker, on the border of Utah and Wyoming.
Posted at 11:30 a.m.
“I’m tired, I haven’t slept all night… Yesterday, I had the idea of going camping in the mountains in Wyoming, but the temperature dropped to 4 or 5°C! I froze like a creton, so much so that at 4 o’clock in the morning, I took off my tent, lighting myself up with my headlamp, and I took to the road again! »
Jeff Boudreault was resting behind a hotel in Evanston, Wyoming when he was contacted at the start of the second week of his motorcycle journey on the trails of the Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR). After a stint in Moab, in the heart of the desert landscapes of Utah, the biker actor was looking for a change of scenery in a less arid setting, but he had not expected that the mercury would drop so low.
“When I left Colorado, I went from 9 to 36°C, indicates Jeff Boudreault. That evening, I went to Mexican Hat, where I slept in the least bad of the three motels. In the only restaurant in the square, I literally thought I was in a film by the Coen brothers! He then headed for Monticello, before heading to Moab, a much more difficult route than expected.
-
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JEFF BOUDREAULT
Dead Horse Point, which overlooks the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park
-
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JEFF BOUDREAULT
The Four Corners, where the borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet
-
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JEFF BOUDREAULT
The famous Balanced Rock, in the center, another of the many attractions of Arches National Park
-
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JEFF BOUDREAULT
Jeff Boudreault with his friend Guy Cinq-Mars, in the No Name Bar pub, in Park City, Utah
-
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JEFF BOUDREAULT
While visiting his friend, Jeff Boudreault took the opportunity to record the voices for an advertising contract. He drags all his recording equipment on his motorbike.
1/5
A “rough” end
“I had ridden in sections reserved for experts in Colorado, in particular through the California Pass, in the rain and the hail, he tells us with a laugh. I wanted to live an adventure, I wanted to put myself in shit, I was well served! But still, the trails weren’t that difficult. »
Arrived at Monticello, I was told that it was more rough. I had everything, so I took a chance. I thought it was going to take me two or three hours, it took me six!
Jeff Boudreault
In particular, he took 45 minutes to collect stones to build a ramp allowing him to pass an otherwise impassable section. “That’s when Thomas and Marco, two Frenchmen who now live in Saskatoon and Houston, arrived on their Suzuki DR400s,” says our adventurer. We helped each other, the three, they really arrived like guardian angels. They helped me transport my motorcycle on two occasions; I realized that this section of the BDR, you cannot do it alone. In fact, it’s more a place for UTVs…”
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JEFF BOUDREAULT
French riders Thomas and Marco rode with Jeff Boudreault through the toughest BDR sections between Monticello and Moab, Utah.
Heart stroke
Despite the difficulties and the heat, the Mexican Hat-Moab section is one of Jeff Boudreault’s favorites so far. “It was my initiation into the Wild West. It’s mind-blowing, with the red stone monuments and everything, I dreamed of seeing this and I was really thrilled, even if it was difficult. I was also completely alone, saw absolutely no one between Mexican Hat and Monticello. »
The actor ended up spending two days in Moab, visiting Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point, at the entrance to Canyonlands National Park. After which he went to join Guy Cinq-Mars, a childhood friend now living in Salt Lake City, where he also took the opportunity to change his tires, his brake pads and one of his saddlebags, damaged during an unexpected fall the day before.
The sequel will take him to Nevada via the Great Salt Lake desert. From there, he finally intends to go through Las Vegas before joining the Californian BDR, heading north. “I want to play the tourist a little more, because until now, I’ve always had my buttocks sitting on the motorbike quite a bit! It doesn’t look like much, but it’s hot, and I don’t want to come home any more tired than when I left! »