FAQ
We know from experience that the same questions come up over and over, so let us try to answer a few of them here.
How are you getting there/home? Some friends are driving us in our van to the starting point in Rooseville, MT. This is in the western part of Montana right on the border with Canada. Another friend has offered to pick us up in New Mexico. Since we don’t know exactly when we will finish, we will be contacting her as we get close to the end.
How do you get time off from work? Carla has worked for the State of Michigan for a number of years, so accrues quite a bit of vacation, which she has been saving up. Jon is a self employed handyman and has arranged his work to be gone that length of time.
How far will you ride per day? We hope to ride about 40 miles per day. Some will be much shorter, some longer. The entire route is about 2470 miles. We have arranged three months off to do it, which should allow plenty of time, including some rest days.
Why leave this time of year? The information with the maps say that you shouldn’t leave before the end of June or the high mountain passes will still be closed with snow. Leaving this late allows us to get into New Mexico in October when the heat of the summer is over and the rainy season is past (hopefully).
Where will you stay/eat? We carry everything we need to be self sufficient. For the most part we will be camping in public or private campgrounds and sometimes just undesignated areas (where there is no campground).
We cook on our backpacking stove and carry food for several days. This is a little different from our previous trips on paved roads since we may go days without seeing a store. All stores are marked on our maps, and we will have to plan ahead and buy what we need, including dog food. I have dehydrated vegetables, hamburger and chicken which I have packaged up in zip lock baggies to be sent to us as care packages periodically along the way. Our typical meals will be instant oatmeal and tang for breakfast, PB&J for lunch, and a rice/noodle package meal such as hamburger helper for dinner. Snacks are granola bars, pop tarts, dried fruit, nuts and powdered Gatorade.
We will often be filtering stream water for drinking.
Of course, we happen to go by a restaurant or motel at the appropriate time, we’re there.
How much weight will you carry? As of now (3 days before the trip), we haven’t actually loaded everything up yet. On our last road trip, Carla had about 35 pounds and Jon had about 60 (he carries all the tools). We will probably have more than last time because of food for the dogs. Plus the dogs themselves will be an extra 30 pounds when they are riding. We will have both the BOB (“Beast of Burden”) trailer and panniers (saddlebags). The BOBs are single wheeled trailers that are specifically made for mountain biking and track behind the bikes very well. The BOB company will tell you they are not made for dogs, but we are taking the risk into our own hands. When the dogs are riding, they are attached to the trailer with a loose leash, so that if we fall and the trailer tips, they can jump out and generally clear of the trailer, but stay close enough to be away from traffic, should there be any. We think we’ve worked out a pretty good system.
What kind of bikes do you have? Carla has a Giant Sedona mountain bike. It is actually the bike that Todd, our son, rode across the country when he was 12. We had taken the front shocks off and put narrow tires on for him. Of course, he’s outgrown that bike long ago, so it has become Carla’s. It has front shocks again and knobby tires, of course. For this trip, we added a suspension (springy) seat post and upgraded the gearing from 21 speeds to 27 speeds. Jon bought a new Trek 6700 this year. Like Carla’s, it is a 27 speed with front shocks and a suspension seat post.
What clothes do you take? It’s function, not fashion. Generally: 2 bike shorts, 2 bike jerseys (tops), 1 long biking pants, 1 off the bike pants (ones that zip off into shorts), 1 t-shirt, 1 set of long underwear, raincoat and pants, bathing suit, fleece jacket that doubles as a pillow, a couple pair of underwear and 3 pairs of socks. As it gets cooler this fall, we will probably have sent to us another set of long underwear, arm and leg warmers, and winter gloves, hat and wool socks. We wash our riding clothes out every night and dry them the next day by attaching them to the bike. When we have the luxury of a Laundromat, everything gets washed thoroughly. Cleanliness takes on a whole new meaning.
Have you mapped out your route? There is an organization called Adventure Cycling, located in Missoula, Montana, who has mapped out the Great Divide route and publishes detailed maps with information about stores, motels, bike shops, everything we need along the way. It is not a designated mountain biking trail, but a series of mostly dirt roads, forest roads and fire trails and some pavement which follows the continental divide as closely as it can. We also used Adventure Cycling’s maps on our cross country trip in 1998.
Why the Great Divide? This is our first dirt road tour. We have been road touring since about 1980, before we even had kids. We started touring with them when they were 6 and 9 years old, doing progressively longer trips until our cross country trip from Oregon to Virginia in 1998 when they were 12 and 15. You can read about that at www.elenzfamilybiketrip.com. So now we are empty nesters and have these dogs that love to mountain bike, so the next big challenge just seemed to be the north/south trip on the Continental Divide.
What if you have an emergency? We have been camping and biking for many years. We think we have enough common sense to decide what to do in an emergency. We have tools and parts to fix many parts of our bikes. We also have duct tape! We have a first aid kit and emergency supplies. We will have a cell phone, but will probably not have coverage in many areas. All the planning and training in the world cannot prevent an inevitable bad turn of nature, physical health or extreme breakdown. We will be relying heavily on luck or the Grace of God just to finish.