I’m proud to say I’ve finally finished the Great Divide ride from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, Mexico. Unlike the Tour Divide racers who tackle it starting in June of each year and manage to complete it in one non-stop marathon effort over 20+ days, I’ve taken 3 years and 5 legs to “get’er done”.

If it weren’t for a pair of Warmshowers guests 3 years ago I’d have never known about the mountain bike ride shadowing, paralleling and sometimes overlapping on the Continental Divide Hiking Trail.  Purest mountain bikers scorn the GD trail because it’s not single track all the way, but it’s honest tough riding over the 2,745 miles with 200,000′ of elevation gain and loss. I’ve often touted 2,900 miles which is probably correct when you count getting lost and going into towns for provisions and succor.

My first venture on the GDMBR was just to test my mettle from Steamboat to Del Norte inside Colorado on a “gifted” FSR Cannonade Super V whose bottom bracket sounded like a coffee grinder when I reached Del Norte (about 500 miles).  Encouraged to do the whole ride, I bought a newer, lighter, used carbon Cannonade Lefty and set off of knock out Del Norte to mid-New Mexico somewhere.  That effort was short lived when the “new to me” plastic saddle wore silver-dollar-size sores you-know-where after 3 days. So that left Abiquiu to Mexico and Banff to Steamboat remaining.

My old high school buddy that I cycled from Austin to St Augustine with wanted to give the GDMBR a try from Banff last year, so I rode with him, and eventually just me, down to Steamboat.  This April I started at the Mexican boarder and tried riding north hoping temps and weather would warm and abate as I got that southern 500+ mile section completed. After 4 days of rain, below 60 temps and waking up to snow on the tent, I bailed leaving just 200+ miles in middle New Mexico to finish as soon as it warmed up and snow melted.

That takes me to last week when Stanna whisked me down to Abiquiu to finish that last 200+ over one mountain range and across a high desert to Grants, New Mexico. Following the day after a “heavy rainfall” in the high mountains made for very interesting riding.  Fortunately I only spent an hour in the muck pictured above, stopping every 10 to 15 minutes to claw off the mud.

Everything went smoothly until I realized I’d made a dyslexic turn at the top of the mountain and went 12.5 miles downhill the wrong way, giving me a total of 8,500′ of uphill by the time I found my way back on the correct track. So after adding 10% to my total distance the first day I made extra-sure I turned correctly.  Of all the legs of this Great Divide ride, this was the first time I’d ridden a full day with cotton-mouth.  I just couldn’t get enough water in the desert, even though I’d never run out. My goal was to finish in 2 and half days and I had to ride a hard 100 miles the second day to keep on track.

As I was listening to an Audible book the end came as a surprising anti-climax. Only riding home in the car did it strike me: “It’s over, done and finished.”