Dreux's Great Divide Adventure

Here’s the profile of the ride, 200k’ of climbing. Really not a flat section on the entire ride. It’s either up or down. Elevation gain is equal to climbing Mt. Everest 7 time!  Along with the climbing is spending lots of time at high elevation and the weather. Max elevation is close to 12k where there are wild weather swings.. Along with the extremes come spectacular scenery. Likely to go through several sets of brake pads on the route. 

In spirt, Mike will ride the Divide with me. I'm a big fan of ultra endurance bicycle racing and Mike continues to be a shining star. Not only was he an unstoppable competitor, he was so well liked by his peers. A tragic loss.  Mike Hall -  https://bikepacking.com/plog/in-memoriam-mike-hall/ Like Mike, I'll begin my ride from Banff, Canada as a touring Great Divide rider and take approximately 50 days to complete. Some how, Mike completed the Tour Divide race in 13 days! 2700 miles, 200K' of elevation.  Mike will be in my thoughts and with me on the ride .... I hope he doesn't mind the pedestrian pace. 

How to navigate the Great Divide Trail? Adventure Cycling Association does a great job producing routing maps for all of their routes. I'm lucky in that they just refreshed the GDMBR  last year so the data is current. There are 6 maps chocked full of info, elevation, distance, where to find water, food, local history, camp sites etc. In addition, I'll be using my Garmin Etrex 20x GPS. All the tracks have been loaded for the route, easy peasy just follow the pink line. While smart phones and car GPS devices are intuitive, the Garmin etrex has a big learning curve. It's like using DOS compared to a modern smart phone. Mona and I have been practicing with the unit on our weekend hikes. Why not just use google maps on your phone? The smart phone is too fragile, the battery life is too short and getting  a satellite signal is not dependable. The phone will be the triple backup! I'll likely pick up state maps as I work my way down.

Time to start putting in more gravel miles prior than  the event. The focus will be getting my tuchus conditioned for riding everyday. This picture is at Cockaponset State Park, great gravel roads and trails. This is the steed, Specialized AWOL that I'll be using stripped down. Soon I'll be installing 2.2" mountain bike tires, rack and panniers. Once the bike is loaded with 25/30 lbs of gear it's becomes a different bicycle. Let's hope there is enough gearing for the 200k feet of climbing!

Dreux's Great Divide Adventure I had to go back and re-read my definition of adventure. Adventure, def.- stepping  out of your comfort zone and opening yourself up to the experiences and beauty that life gives you. Well this adventure will be more of a leap than a step. Comparing this adventure to my TransAmerica ride,  It seems worlds apart, even though the route intersects several times.  http://dreuxsadventure.blogspot.com/2015/05/planning-is-over.html      So what is the great divide mountain bike route, here's a good link for a description -  http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/great-divide-mountain-bike-route-gdmbr/# I'm thinking in terms of attempting the GD rather than finishing the GD ..... Failure “I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” Michael Jordan. Here's a link to my TransAm blog - http://dreuxsadventure.blogspot.com/2015/04/creating-blog-for-big-adventure.html...