Western Wildlands Route
Admin Jun 17, 2024“The 2,700-mile Western Wildlands Route (WWR, formerly known as the Wild West Route) offers bikepackers a non-technical riding experience through the vast expanses of wild and public lands in the Intermountain West. Nearly 70% of the route is on public lands - 18 National Forests, 6 National Parks and Monuments, and 4 areas with Bureau of Land Management National Conservation Lands designation.”, according to Bikepacking Roots. This route took us 12 days, 8 hours, 40 minutes, and 9 seconds of cycling time to cover 4312 km (2679 miles), including 47660 m (156372.46000000002 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 15 km/h (9 mph), reaching a maximum speed of 63 km/h (39 mph) on Saturday, June 1, 2024. During cycling, there was a minimum temperature of 0 °C (32 °F) on Thursday, May 30, 2024, and a maximum temperature of 50 °C (122 °F) on Friday, June 7, 2024.
Continue readingGreat Divide Mountain Bike Route
Admin Sep 12, 2022“The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) is Adventure Cycling’s premier off-pavement cycling route, crisscrossing the Continental Divide in southern Canada and the U.S. This route is defined by the word “remote”. Its remoteness equates with spectacular terrain and scenery. The entire route is basically dirt road and mountain-pass riding every day. In total, it has over 200,000 feet of elevation gain. Nearly 2,100 miles of the route is composed of County, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Canadian provincial unpaved roads.”, according to the Adventure Cycling Association.
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Arranging our flights
EvE Apr 19, 2024After my bike companion Fons and myself decided that we should go for it, it was time to start arranging the more formal things. For example plane tickets. For my previous trip to cycle the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, I asked for help from a travel agency to arrange my ticket. My reason for that is that I could also ask for their help when I required a reschedule for the trip back home. So, this time I got again in contact with the same travel agency and explained them my new plans. Unfortunately, they immediately informed me that they will not arrange any airline tickets anymore that includes a bike. They had to disappoint some customers in the last two years and therefore decided to stop offering that. Seems like the airlines are making it more difficult these days. Bummer!
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Bike & Gear changes
EvE Mar 1, 2024I have started the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route with only 3 days / 2 nights of bikepacking experience. And that was mainly for testing some bags, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and the tent I bought. I based my decision on reading a lot of experiences from others and thinking about what might work for me. Nevertheless, I am still happy with the decision in bike & gear I made. I had no issues during my ride and would not mind using the same setup again. However, I am making some changes compared to the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route setup. Mainly because of convenience and luxury.
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Another bike adventure?!?
EvE Feb 6, 2024Short answer: yes. Before riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, I already wondered how I would be thinking about these kind of adventures after my return. Would it be a ’never again’, or would it somehow attract me to do something similar again? Although I was really looking forward to riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, I had no clue how much I would like it. Already a couple of minutes after arriving at Antelope Wells at the end of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route I was regretting that the adventure had come to an end. I immediately envisioned how it would be if we could continue riding. Normal life called, and the both of us had to get back home. After my return people already started to ask about any future plans. I already had a route that I found attractive, but I kept it to myself for a while. Eventually that little seed started growing and I somehow wanted to assess the feasibility of a new adventure. I do realize that we had no real issues during our Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. So, for any new adventure there is a chance for more bad weather, more mechanical issues, more physical issues, etc. We’ve even seen it with others on our previous ride.
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What is the Western Wildlands Route?
EvE Jan 1, 2024“The 2,700-mile Western Wildlands Route (WWR, formerly known as the Wild West Route) offers bikepackers a non-technical riding experience through the vast expanses of wild and public lands in the Intermountain West. Nearly 70% of the route is on public lands, including 18 National Forests, 6 National Parks and Monuments, and 4 areas with Bureau of Land Management National Conservation Lands designation. Riders will experience the incredibly remote mountains of western Montana and central Idaho, the desolate beauty of southern Idaho’s Snake River Plain, endless vistas from Utah’s high plateaus at 10,000 feet elevation, the canyon country of Navajo Nation and Grand Canyon region, and the towering Sky Islands and low Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona.
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Where am I?
EvE Sep 12, 2022Do you want to know where I am? So do my family and friends. Riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route is a multi-week adventure, often without any connectivity for days. I bought myself a SPOT tracker for its SOS capabilities. However, it also provides tracker options. The tracker option of my SPOT device is configured to send my location every 10 minutes (when moving). My progress is plotted in a blue line, and a marker shows my last known location. The grey line is a projected route that I downloaded from the Internet during my preparations. So it might not exactly reflect the route I will be riding.
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Day 43: Are we already there?!?
EvE Sep 12, 2022Today we rode from Hachita, New Mexico, US to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, US. Sunny weather with no clouds. Road conditions include a paved road only. Highlights of the day include reaching the endpoint of the route. Riding statistics: on Monday, September 12, 2022, day 43 on the route, it took 04:59h (03:45h moving time), between 7:27 and 12:26, to cover 73.15971 km (45 miles), including 158 m (518 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 19.0 km/h (11.8 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 30 km/h (18.6 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 28 °C (82 °F) with a minimum of 21 °C (70 °F) and a maximum of 37 °C (99 °F).
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Day 42: Snakes and other creepy animals
EvE Sep 11, 2022Today we rode from Silver City, New Mexico, US to Hachita, New Mexico, US. Sunny weather with little clouds (some cloud coverage in the morning). Road conditions included paved road, gravel roads, and dirt roads. Highlights of the day include the dirt road with snakes, and the scenery change to desert. Riding statistics: on Sunday, September 11, 2022, day 42 on the route, it took 11:32h (07:57h moving time), between 7:44 and 7:16, to cover 126.87533 km (78 miles), including 705 m (2313 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 16.0 km/h (9.9 mph), while reaching a maximum speed of 45 km/h (28.0 mph). During this ride the average temperature was 28 °C (82 °F) with a minimum of 18 °C (64 °F) and a maximum of 38 °C (100 °F).
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This is my personal blog on which I keep family and friends updated about my bikepacking adventures.