June 18: T Minus 14 Days

In two weeks, I will leave the comfort of my Big Island home and venture out to bike pack Adventure Cycling's Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Banff, Canada to (hopefully) Mexico.  Gulp!

The GDMBR is a network of ~80% dirt roads, ~10% single track trails and ~10% paved roads staying within 50 miles of the Continental Divide for 2,700+ miles of exceedingly beautiful but remote and vast country. The route climbs over 200,000' (that's like climbing Everest 10 times) and reaches nearly 12,000' in several places.  I will be traveling through black and grizzly bear country with mountain lions and swarms of mosquitoes.  Services along the route are sparse and at times, I will need to carry 3-4 days of food and water.  What?  Am I nuts?

I have no idea how long this will take as I have absolutely no idea what kind of speed I will be able to attain.  I expect some climbing will knock me back to 3-4 mph with flatter stretches at 10-12 mph at best.  If I am able to keep up with the schedule outlined in Michael McCoy's Cycling the Great Divide, the US portion will take 62 days without any rest days.  That's an average of 40 miles per day.  Add in 5-6 days for the Canadian portion and 1 rest day per week makes ~2.5 months of 4-10 hours in the saddle every day.  Yikes!

Believe it or not, every year there is a RACE down this route.  It's called The Tour Divide.  In fact, it's going on right now.  Check it out at http://tourdivide.org/. 143 self-supported riders started on June 14th; 15 have already scratched.  The leader has already covered over 1,000 miles of mountain biking in just 4.5 days!  Ironman?  Ultraman?  Hah!  These guys are NUTS!  The men's record is an unbelievable 17 days and 23 hours; the women's, 24 days!   It was the movie, Ride the Divide, about the 16 who raced in 2008 that first caught my attention.  Then I read the book, Be Brave, Be Strong, written by Jill Homer about her record-setting race in 2009.  I was hooked.