What is the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR)

In the Fall of 2013 I met a gal who was an avid Mountain Biker and she told me about a trip that her and her husband had taken, called the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR). Within 10 minutes listening to her describe the adventure, I told her; I believe you just added something to my bucket list. Nearly two years later I made my dream of riding the GDMBR a reality.

So what is the GDMBR?  I cheated here and just pulled excerpts from Wikipedia to describe the GDMBR. ‘It is a continuous long-distance bicycle touring route from Banff, Alberta, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, USA. The route is approx 2700 miles long, following the Continental Divide as closely as practicable and crossing it 30 times. About 90% of the GDMBR is on unpaved roads and trails. The route has been designed to provide a riding experience primarily on very low trafficked roads through mostly undeveloped areas of the Rocky Mountain West. GDMBR was developed by the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) and was completed in 1997′

GDMBR map courtesy of Adventure Cycling

After reading a lot of blogs, books, forums and meeting with other people who have ridden some or all of the GDMBR, I set off on my own GDMBR adventure on July 25, 2015. This section of this blog chronicles my story of riding the divide from the day I boarded a plane for Banff and riding all the way to the Mexican border at Antelope Wells, New Mexico. The intent of this blog is to share my experience of the Continental Divide in all its splendor and to also help me remember details of this adventure years later. 

Hope you enjoy my account of tackling the world’s longest mountain bike route as it happened.

Read daily entries of the big trip here. The Trip
Read about the planning and preparation. Pre Trip