Comments (0) I wanted to let you know what I will turn this website into a community blog for people biking this fantastic trail. In this way, everyone will be able to share their stories and create a good common source of information. I hope to get it ready for this summer. So if you’re planning to bike the GDT and you want to have your “adventure” blog, send me an email and I’ll let you know when you can register and start using it.
- Marco
As far as I can remember from all the travels I’ve done and experiences I had, this one goes in the top 5! When I’m looking back where it started, it makes me smile and remember me how incredible it is to travel and to meet people.
I liked this trail very much because it gave me a total different view of the USA and the people living there. We went through small towns most of the time, places where you wouldn’t go and visit if you were coming from Europe for sure. I could appreciate how friendly and helpful the people are. I know now why they have these big pick-up trucks: to pull their huge trailer anywhere in the mountain. The food isn’t great and it’s not going to change I think, we struggled to find pasta in restaurants all the time. It’s really a burger & food chains land, no doubt! But the USA are big, huge, it’s a big sky country with amazing landscapes, reason why I came back with more than 1300 photos…
Continue reading 'An amazing journey!'»
It’s a short video I did while biking to show the scenery around us for those last miles of dirt road. The speech is in French but due to the wind you can’t get most of it anyway 
enjoy the landscapes !!!
Great Divide – La fin du voyage from Marc-Aurele Brothier on Vimeo.
Le dernier bout de chemin en gravier avant les 60 miles sur route pour aller à Antelope Wells
We are in Silver City, around 120 miles to go to Antelope Wells so we will be done by tomorrow. It’s sad it’s so soon the end but at the same time I’m happy to think I’ll be able to do something else than just riding every day. I have to catch up with sonme many emails, and you’re all waiting for the pictures which I never forgot to take every single day! Even if I’m riding fast I’m taking pictures all the time so they could catch up with me …
Simon had to get a ride today to Albuquerque since he had different problems with his bike. I don’t know the details since we weren’t biking together (I was trying to make it to Pie town before 3pm to get some food… which I did). So we will meet again in Silver City tomorrow evening or the day after.
I found a new challenge for me, to make it to Silver City in one day… 180 miles and a few climbs of course. Stay tune on the live tracking to see if I’ll make it or not I’ll start early tomorrow morning in the dark with the food I have left…
The story of how I got the news about Simon in a town without any mobile reception, is simply: the Spot device! Simon’s dad contacted different people here to forward me the news when he spotted me in Pie town, looking for the shops & services next to where I was. I was really starting to wonder where Simon was…
Since I started the trip I mostly enjoyed every day without suffering much compared to Simon (and Ollie for the time he spent with us). But New-Mexico is something different! I left Simon who wanted to make a shorter day for his calf muscle after Platoro and I biked all the way up to La Manga Pass, arriving at the top before 9pm. I spent the night with a family camping a mile out of the road who offered me beers, chicken, hot-dogs… A dream night before what I can call my hardest days!
The day afte started with a turn I missed and ended up doing a few extra miles and climbs for “free”… Then I had to push my bike a few hundred meters for the first time.. grrr I was upset! And then, with the rough road my bike computer reset itself twice in the middle of check points on the map. It was such a bad day… I was so angry! And for the happening of the day, I biked hard to make it to El Rito for the night, but there wasn’t any campground, the grocery store closed 2 hours earlier, and the restaurant was exeptionnaly closed for 4 days… You should have seen my face when I was in front of the restaurant door! For my dinner, well, let’s have a dry meal. But before I had to find some water somewhere and went to ask the locals to get some.
I kept on biking a few miles to find a camp spot for the night in the desert out of the road, and spent a bivi night watching the stars for a few minutes before falling asleep. Breakfast for the morning, tea and one cereal bar, all I had! And 20 miles to bike to Abiquiu to get something else to eat…
You could think it was it, one hard day to get into New-Mexico… but no! The maps I ordered for the 2 last sections of the Great Divide didn’t arrived at the Motel Abiqui Inn, and since we were a saturday, no chance for me to get them (I wouldn’t wait until Monday). After some shopping, time to leave this little little town to get to Cuba where I will wait for Simon again since there was nothing to do here. It was around 1pm, the sun was shinning as much as it could and I had to climb… climb out of Abiquiu for 800 meters in altitude, and for 30-40 miles… 45 degrees Celcius was the hotest I got in the climb, and it felt terrible to bike. I was trying to bike in the shade of the trees as much as I could. Moreover the road was very poor and not easy at all to ride, making the progress on my bike computer looking like I was walking… What a hell is wrong with New-Mexico? Is it suppose to be a test, just to see if you can make it to the border or if you prefer to quit before the last State?
Continue reading 'New-Mexico = tough'»
Yeah I know, I signed for it. I can’t say I didn’t know… It was just to tell about two long days we had, one to get to Swan Lake, and the next one to Seeley Creek.
To Swan Lake, we arrived there around 9.30pm after a long day of lots of up & down all the time and a last long hill to climb. We thought first to camp somewhere but couldn’t really find a spot and the mosquitos were sooooo bad! No way! We ended up at the campground before it got dark at least.
The second day, we just made it before it was completely dark… We left a bit too late Swan Lake and with the last hard climb before Seeley Creek, we only arrived at 10.15pm there. Campground again, but no one would serve us food, all kitchens were closed 
So we had to cook our “emergency pasta” on the ground, with our headlight and we were pretty tired (some more than others of course, but all starving and sleepy). This day we made almost 100 miles, the longest day so far!
Otherwise on the scenic part, the rockies are amazing. It’s such a pleasure to see the landscape changing almost each time we are going down in another valley. It’s also started to get warmer during the day, warm enough for me… How is it gonna be in New-Mexico?
Today between Lincoln and Helena, the landscape looked very closed to the Swiss Alps & Chamonix, even in temperature and frsh mountain air. A true pleasure to bike!
The bikers are still doing fine, getting different variation of colors on the skin (from red to brown) and still joking or smiling most of the time. The trailers are great and I start to forget about it, even when I’m climbing uphill like a mountain goat… Especially after lunch since I lost one kilo or two.
No resting days planed, chamois butter every morning, big breakfast, sunscreen… I forgot about one thing… If any of you knows where to get 2 pairs of mountain goat bikers legs, it would be helpful 
Thanks!
Time to go to bed…
The Great divide route changed this year with a new route to avoid a long part of Highway. We heard from the racers that it was even harder then they thought. I was really willing to do it, so we split and I went on my own to the Flathead valley in Canada, just after Sparwoods. The valley is really wild. You can see the difference and feel that there is nothing close to you. Just bears, moose, deer…
When I left Simon & Ollie, it felt a bit strange to be on my own and to bike into this wild & remote spot… After a few heavy rain showers I found a cabin (Butts cabin) where I could crash for the night, warming up with the stove and drying the wet stuff from the previous camping night. It was a good start!
Later during the evening it started to rain again, and it kept raining until 4.30am when I woke up…. grrrr… I had a hard time to get out my sleeping bag! But by 6.30am I was out, in the rain and in 5C degrees. The point I realized that I spent the night at 1300m, and I had to climb 2 passes, one at 1700m and one at 1850m before getting to the US border and getting back with Simon & Ollie.
The trail got more wild and deep in the forest… where I finally met my first bear who was slowly walking on the trail in front of me on a downhill. I got scared a bit until he looked back to me and didn’t seem to be interested by me. But he was still going on the trail…. “Move! I have a hard day, I have to bike. It’s already very muddy so it’s not easy at all with the trailer…” Of course when I took out my camera, he was gone
Then I kept on climbing up and always a few meters down afterwards, to make the climb to the pass harder…Until about 1600m when I started to realize that the rain was transforming into snow! 1C degree! Before the pass I met a pick-up with a tree planter guy who told me to go down the pass and to their camp about 5km under the pass. At the pass I saw the trees getting a nice white color… Not good at all for the second pass much higher…
By the time I arrived at the camp, I couldn’t move my fingers, neither my toes, and was wet under my Goretex jacket… I found a big tent with a stove on and 2 super nice cookers who made me an extra breakfast 
I was so happy to find such a place!!!! I got a blanket and some socks to warm up on the couch near the stove… I even took a nap. That was a happy ending of my terrible biking morning trip.
At the end of the day I got a ride back to the main road since it didn’t stop raining all day and I had to get to Eureka where Simon & Ollie were waiting for me. A bit before 6pm I got on the bike again to do the 30 miles to Eureka on the road, under the rain, but no snow this time! I arrived before 9pm and they were waiting for me with a room in a Motel where I could take a warm shower and a ready plate of pasta!! The second happy ending of the day… It was a long day, even though I didn’t bike a lot. It used a lot of energy and I was not really in shape the day after…
No we had the first full day without rain, so I hope it will stay like this for a few days! We are all back on the road together, biking as we can every day.
First thing this morning was to sort out what we will get rid of. I was almost gonna send my big Canon camera but it was too hard and I will carry it in my backpack instead. We also put the flags on
At the post office, we sent a box of 3.9kg! The trailers felt so much more easier to tow. Definitively it makes a big change! After some pasta in Canmore it was time to head to the trail to get to Banff to get some taste of the off-road of the Great Divide. We climbed up the Spray Lakes road and Simon had a kind of disfunctional cycling problem… no more energy in the legs! So he also trained to push the bike & trailer wearing his bike shoes… But he didn’t complain. He was mad at himself to not having any energy in his body.
After the climb comes the downhill (or almost should I say) to Banff on the Goat Creek trail. It was a nice feeling to be i nthe forest biking with the trailer and letting my mind thinking about the next coming days in the rockies when we will set off on Friday! That’s gonna be gorgeous! I love it already
The trailers are also stable on the gravel road, I went up to 31 mph (about 50 km/h) on the trail, but it takes a bit more distance to brake… So far no crash
Arrived in Banff we went back through the highway and I got my first flat! I haven’t had any in Switzerland for ages, but here I get one on my second day… What’s the proble? Well the front tube wasn’t set up properly and it broke right at the valve. It was pretty sketchy to stop with the weight of the trailer though. I don’t want to have one again while going downhill at 31mph, especially on the front tire, because I won’t be able to stop without crashing…
Now with less weight and less comfort as well, because it was mainly comfort things we sent, we are pretty much all set to start this gorgeous Great Divide tour down to the Mexican border!
Tuesday morning we were before 10am at MEC to hopefully get the trailers. We were crossing our fingers, and finally they were here! We unpack everything right in front of the main door and assembled them in half an hour. Then we had to get back home to send 43kg of gears down to Phoenix before being able to leave. But yeah, there it started… Putting the trailer on the back of the bike was quite…. how to say… surprising! It’s heavy!!! It’s really heavy… How are we gonna do it. But let’s give it a try for the first day to Canmore on a paved road.
We left Crystal & Shannon who hosted us during almost one week (thank you so much for your hospitality and all the good time & parties we had!) and started cycling toward Canmore on the 1A. About an hour later we got a huge rain with thunders…
It was raining so much that someone stopped and asked if we needed a ride somewhere Thanks but we have to go through this rain and to Canmore on our bike. anyway, next time we won’t be on a paved road, so no one will be asking. But Canadian are really friendly and helpful.
But after the rain and as we were getting closer to Canmore we could enjoy the beauty of the Rockies. Nothing to say, just enjoy the pictures…
The point we both agreed on by the end of the ride was WE HAVE TO GET RID OF AS MUCH WEIGHT AS POSSIBLE! It’s just too heavy, it would be a nightmare to climb the different passes we have on the route.
The good point was that the trailers are very stable, and we went downhill at more than 40 mph (more than 65 km/h)!
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