The Canadian Rockies are spectacular. We’ve always been told, while living in Silverton, that the San Juans are really beautiful but second to the mountains around Banff. It would be hard for me to put Banff in first place but I’m sure I’m not an impartial judge. The highway up here does get you a closer and longer look at the Rockies above tree line, and the forests surrounding them are pristine and beautiful. It’s just hard to say.

We’ve travelled shorter daily distances than I’d imagined, but that’s a good thing for several reasons. My riding partner, Don, spent the month before the ride rowing lots of whitewater and not biking; he had to configure all his gear bags, several of which I delivered to the trailhead. And most importantly, the last time I tried to knock off miles on the Great Divide, I DNF’ed the route due to saddle sores. So this time, with a different saddle (Brooks, which they say takes 500-1,000 miles to break-in and I’ve only got 750 miles on it), it’s probably prudent to take it easier. And lastly, I asked a northbound Rider who was about to finish in 30 days, “What would you do differently?”  His answer was, “I would take more time.”

The second night we made it to a trail-side old cabin that is posted as “User Maintained.” It was nice not to have to get the tents out and we stopped early enough to do wash and sponge ourselves off with very chilly creek water.

Most of the riding has been on old forest service roads, some power line access tracks, primitive campground access roads, a delightful old logging road around a very long lake, and occasionally some paved highway between gravel roads. Two sections have been described as “a pusher” and the other as “Start climbing a virtual wall”. Fortunately these are short-lived and soon overcome without cardiovasculating.

We are now in the British Columbia side of the Great Divide and have about 75 miles to the US border.