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By simonwraight, July 27, 2009 6:26 pm

Our last day started out wonderfully well. We had slept under the stars in the desert, woke before sunrise and were on our bikes as soon as it began to get light. The air was cool (ish) and the trail was good, and although we were a little bit sad that it was the last day of the ride, I think both Marco and I were excited about reaching our goal; the Mexican border post of Antelope Wells.

We still had about 80 miles to go, including the infamous (among Divide riders) Lonely Highway; the seldom used road that covers the final 45 miles from Hachita to Antelope Wells.  Naturally, it is uphill (if only very slightly) and of course we were riding into a headwind but the hardest thing about the road was the complete lack of traffic; I counted around 15 cars during those miles, and most of those were Border Patrol vehicles.

The silence gave me plenty of time to reflect on the trip overall. It seems like light years ago since we left Banff, but at the same time, the trip had gone by so quickly. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted it to end or not. Maybe we could carry on into Mexico and make a trail all the way down to Argentina and beyond…..? Or maybe the thought of a long lie down in an air-conditioned room was too tempting! Continue reading 'The Final Miles'»

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By Marc-Aurèle Brothier,

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

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By olliebray,

This is the third of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to Mountain Bike the Continental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. 

Day 5: Eureka – Upper Whitefish Lake (68 miles)

Day five was a significant turning point for me. I felt healthy, fit and my stomach was felling a lot better.

The first part of today’s route was on pavement and we made fairly quick progress over the first 20 miles before the real climbing began. As we progressed upwards towards the Whitefish Divide I took it slowly but chose to keep going rather than stop for short breaks. As a result I was the first to arrive at the top of the divide and sat watching a bear high up on the hill as I waited for the others.

Decent from the Whitefish Divide

The decent from the Whitefish Divide was fantastic and we made swift progress down towards the Ford Work Center before starting the next big climb up towards Red Meadow Lake. By the time we arrived at Red Meadow we were all pretty tired and Simon was keen to camp there for the night. In the end we dropped the five miles back through the snowline to Upper Whitefish Lake and found a fantastic campspot.

Upper Whitefish Lake

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By olliebray, July 26, 2009 6:51 am

Screenshot of the SPOT tracker page

I’ve been following the SPOT on and off for most of the day following Simon and Marco’s progress as they have made their way from Silver City across the desert to Separ, along the dirt track parallel to Highway 10 down to Hachita and then south down the 47 longest miles in the world in the heat to the Mexican border.

At 12.28h (New Mexico Time) 19.28 (GMT) they made it to the Antelope Wells and the Mexican Border. In doing so completing nearly 3000 miles of cycling from Banff, Canada in just over five weeks.

Well done guys! Hoe you enjoyed the beers!

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By olliebray,

This is the second of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to Mountain Bike the Continental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. 

I arrived late in Banff and in hindsight I should have had a days rest and preparation before heading out on the trail. Instead, after I arrived I stayed up late and with the help of the Simon and Marco put my bike and trailer together and sorted out our equipment.

Day 1: Banff – Chester Lake Trailhead (43 miles)

Before starting the route I posted my bike bag and a few things that I didn’t need on to Phoenix, Arizona. As with previous trip I posted my stuff to the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Phoenix. Quite often people don’t know that you can do this but actually as long as you are not in hurry for your package to arrive, Greyhound is a pretty reliable service for parcels and they specialise in taking oversized and overweight packages (like bike bags).

We eventually got started at 10am – the first day did not go well for me. I was exhausted from work, the trans-Atlantic flight and the sudden change of routine. I think my traveling companions were annoyed with me, perhaps thinking that I was un-fit and unprepared rather than just tired from travel. This aside the scenery was varied an beautiful and I new that we were going to be in for a real treat over the next month.

We stopped at about 7pm – I was happy to go on further but I was only going at 6mph and I could sense the frustration of my slowness on Simon and Marco. In any case we stopped, we ate, we hydrated and we slept – I slept really well, catching up on vital hours of rest.

Day 2: Chester Lake Trailhead – Elkford (66 miles)

Waking the next morning I felt a lot better and although I felt stronger as I cycled out of the campsite this didn’t last long as I had a puncture within about 15 minutes. Luckily the slime in my tires sealed the hole and I was able to fix it relatively quickly.
Continue reading 'Reflections from the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail (2 of 10) – Canada'»

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By olliebray, July 25, 2009 7:24 am

This is the first of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to Mountain Bike the Continental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

It’s been a week since I stopped cycling at the end of my Canada to Mexico Mountain Bike Trip down the Continental Divide. The week has gone very quickly mainly because I had to get to Phoenix, Arizona and then back to the UK ready to start work.

During my commutes around Scotland over the last couple of days I’ve been pulling together my thoughts on the expedition, writing up my diary and trying my best to catalogue photographs. In the meantime Simon and Marco have still been battling on with the fierce New Mexico climate and terrain in a bid to make it to Antelope Wells and the end of their journey. All being well they should get to the end tomorrow (Saturday 25^th) and I wish them the best of luck and some strong tail winds!

In the next series of posts I will catalogue my experience of the trail, the
route, details of equipment carried and my personal reflections on my month in the saddle. These entries will be cross posted at www.olliebray.com

Before I start I should say that I’m not a cyclist or really a mountain
biker. I bought my bike 18 months ago in an effort to try and stay fit during
the winter. I do, however, have nearly 15 years of wilderness expedition
experience operating from extreme environments and in often remote locations. This experience was invaluable on the trail, particularly for the two weeks that I spent by myself.

I first came up with the idea of mountain biking the Great Divide after my
good friend Mark Salmon suggested it to me during a expedition to the Cascade Mountains12 months ago. I became quite fixated with the idea and was grateful when Simon and then Marco agreed to join me for the journey.

I would recommend the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route to anyone with a sens of adventure. It’s well documented, well mapped and there is lots of advice available on the internet. The big question that anyone should consider before attempting the Great Divide is how much time have you got. To complete the route in thirty days with a BOB Trailer was a real challenge and gave hardly any time for rest, relaxation, reflection and sightseeing. Even for a fit team, I would suggest that 6 – 7 weeks is a more realistic time scale if you plan to tour, rather than race, the route.

In the next post I will start to document the route.

Comments (5)

By Marc-Aurèle Brothier,

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 …

Comments (1)

By simonwraight,

We are almost at the border – 130 hot miles to go. Please visit the Charity page on this site and make a donation to charity if you’ve enjoyed reading about our journey. It really helps to keep me going through the pain, knowing that some good is coming from my efforts!

Thanks so much everyone for the messages of support – really appreciated. Next stop Antelope Wells and then on to Phoenix, where I promise we will get some pictures uploaded. Maybe they will inspire some of you guys to do something similar…..?!

Comments (3)

By simonwraight, July 24, 2009 2:44 pm

I thought the road to Grants had been tough, but when Marco went on ahead to Pie Town (we heard that the grocery store closed at 3pm and we needed to stock up), I didn’t know that it would be so long until I saw him again.

My day started well, the legs felt fairly fresh and I seemed to be coping well with the climbing – a long steady uphill to make another Continental Divide crossing. After a short section on the highway, I turned into the West Malpais Wilderness, about which I had heard many horror stories. The track was surprisingly good and the first 20 miles passed very quickly.

With less than 10 miles to go to the highway, I got my first flat tyre. I sat down at the side of the trail and got it fixed, had a bite to eat and got back on my way. Less than 2 miles later, the bike was back upside down as I had ripped a hole in the tyre. That, and the resulting puncture fixed, I got back on my way. It didn’t last long though. Two more thorns made their way into my front tyre and I was getting very frustrated.

Finally, I made it to the road and I thought that maybe my luck was turning. Sadly not. A thorn had worked its way into my back tyre and so I stopped again. Now, my back wheel has been a problem throughout the trip and had started to buckle a little bit a couple of days before. I took the wheel off to change the tube, and in releasing it, I allowed it to completely buckle. Three spokes broke immediately and by the time I’d fixed the flat, the wheel would only just go back on the bike. I tried to ride on but it was hopeless. I still had 30 miles to Pie Town and from there it would be 180 miles to the next bike shop in Silver City.

I sat at the side of the road, desperate and distraught. I thought that maybe my Great Divide experience was over. Enter Duran and Cindi, a couple of waste management executives from Tuscon, Arizona. They were on their way to Albuquerque, where I knew there was a bike shop or two. I rode with them for the 130 miles or so and they dropped me right outside the shop.

The boys at the shop got my bike fixed and I tried to get a message to Marco, who I knew would be wondering where the heck I was. Lots of international calls and internet research later (thanks Dad) the message got through and I began to ride towards Silver City. I made it to Los Lunas, about 35 miles from the bike shop, before I crashed in a motel for the night, with the bonus of being able to watch highlights of Le Tour before going to bed!

This morning, I was up at the crack of dawn, and began biking South down the Interstate 25 – a horrible road, with a horrible shoulder to ride along. After about 50 miles of riding, I decide to try my luck at hitching and got a ride for another fifty miles or so, to the amusingly named town of  Truth Or Consequences. There, I tried to find out about a bus to Silver City, but none existed, so I was back onto the bike for another forty miles or so, before it got too hot for me and I tried to get another ride.

After a long wait, and several short stints of riding, I got a lift from Kenny and Dominic, cousins who had been working out in T Or C and who happened to be going all the way to Silver City. I’m glad I got that ride. The last 60 miles would have been hellish. A huge climb and a tricky, winding descent would have finished me off, I am sure. I arrived in Silver City and stared riding to find the campsite. Almost immediately, I felt that familiar sinking feeling – my new thorn-proof inner tubes had been punctured by a staple left in the shoulder.

Anyway, I made it here. Marco isn’t too far away and we will meet up tomorrow to begin the final push to the border. Will it be plain sailing? I strongly doubt it!

Comments (5)

By Marc-Aurèle Brothier, July 23, 2009 12:52 pm

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…