Joseph Branch Railriders — Local services in Joseph

The Joseph Branch Railriders is an experience unlike any other to say the least, the town of surrounding area alone is easily one of the most must see places in the United States! The railriders experience is one of a kind, from the unique ability to pedal on railroad tracks to the surrounding wildlife, this will be one experience you'll never forget. There is plenty of opportunities to see horses, cows, sheep and of course, deer. My group had 10 people and that's counting four kids that are 5, 4, 3, and 2 years of age. We did the two hour trip and that seemed perfect for the older three kids, but maybe a bit much for the 2 year old. Its a one way trip to a turn around point and then you'll pedal back to your original destination. First you'll head slightly downhill, and that makes for a breezy pedal, and on the way back, there is an electric motor assist and I sat in a double cart with a booster seat for our 3 year old, and my wife pedaled the whole time back and I didn't have to at all except for when we came to road crossings and we had to come to a complete stop, it can be a bit difficult to start back up before the electric motor kicks on. There wasn't any shade when we first departed at noon, but they provided umbrellas for our younglings.

One thing I want to note is for you to double, triple and quadruple check when your DEPARTURE TIME is and your ARRIVAL TIME is. it is imperative that you arrive 30 min before your departure time to ensure you receive the required debriefing to be able to even ride on the railriders. For example: If on your confirmation email the time frame for your ride is from 12pm to 2pm for a 2 hour experience, you'll need to arrive at 11:30am. We misunderstood our confirmation email and had a very hard time determining when exactly we needed to arrive. The morning of our ride, we went to the Joseph Park until 11:45 then arrived at 12 for our ride and was denied on going on the railriders because we didn't arrive at 11:30 to receive the required debriefing that allows us to ride. As you can imaging, a family of 10 visiting Joseph for a couple days and paying a lot of money to enjoy this experience can be frustrating and devastating to be denied to ride on the tracks with no refund. Fortunately, Robert and Tina are people just like us. With a level head and a being calm and collected, we were able to have a adult conversation explaining that it was a misunderstanding on our part for not being able to read the confirmation email thoroughly as well as the booking company for formatting the confirmation email differently as it came in through my mobile device as opposed to a desktop version. We all wanted this to be a learning experience for the both of us, and Robert and Tina were ever so gracious to reschedule us for the next available opening, which fortunately worked out with our vacation timeline.

The moral of story is that Robert and Tina are human just like us, and want us to be able to enjoy this experience jut as much as we do, and if someone made a mistake, to treat each other like adults and with respect, and that will get...

This was such an amazing ride! We were part of the first group to go on their first evening ride the Railriders were offering. Since it was May there were still times of rain off and on that day but by the time our ride was to happen that evening we had a beautiful break in the weather. Since we weren't sure how we would do on the ride with the pedaling since I am recovering from a broken Ankle we had picked a ride that was only an hour and a half long or so. The first part of the ride was mostly at a downhill grade which allowed us to coast most of the ride which made it very pleasant. There were Deer everywhere along the ride, Creeks, Horses, Farm animals and beautiful views of the Mountains the whole way. The folks in the cars in front and behind you are spaced far enough apart it felt like we were by ourselves to enjoy everything without feeling rushed or pushed along. We could stop our car briefly if we wanted to take photos of things or just bask in the views. Once we reached our destination to turn around and go back there were picnic tables that we could rest at or walk around and take photos. The guide told us some history of the area and then we were all gathered up to take a group photo with the mountains in the background. Once the cars were turned around on the tracks we headed back. The track back of course was an upward grade but no worries as Railriders have put electric assist on their Rail cars, it helps do the pedaling for those that need some assistance doing so. It is a family run business and everyone was very helpful and friendly, with even some fun jokes and laughs thrown in. They were organized and kind. We absolutely recommend this ride, we will be returning at some point to take an even longer ride since it was so fun!

Thanks Joseph Branch Railriders Family for such a...

Our visit was complicated by the owner's GF who normally handles logistics having an operation the day before. Here is our critique (not criticism). Tried calling multiple times the day before but rolled over to VM until that was full. Left message. Called us late in the day which was OK and said he would work us in for a 3-mile 1-hour ride the next morning (Their facility was next to our campground and we had to be out by 11:30am.). We showed up the 1/2 hour early and the 2 men got things lined up reasonably. Except our being "worked in" evaporated and we were into the 6-mile 2-hour ride expected back at 11am. Mmm. The ride downhill was great. Not at all hair-raising, just fun. The carts rolled freely at a reasonable speed once some pedaling gained momentum. At the bottom I requested we be first to head back in light of our campground checkout. I may have thrown the young man off his process. For the uphill there is an electric assist which would maintain us at 8mph once we achieved 3mph. Just how fast IS 3mph? As we pedaled furiously no "assist" happened. The next cart was approaching so I jumped off and compared their electronics to ours. Mmm, a connector was hanging loose. Connected the connectors and again pedaled furiously. No luck. Under pressure for now holding up the cart "train" everything looked OK but no-go. The cart behind pushed us all 6 miles back to the "depot" while listening to two very nice young women trying to solve inter-relational problems with a 3rd party.

The main guy located an additional controller on our cart but it still wasn't functional. We were half an hour late leaving the camp site but no one cared.

At 79 we had great fun. Probably checked off my bucket list though...