Continental Divide Ride - Phase 1

We have plenty of travel planned for 2017.  A lot of it revolving around my (Ted) riding the Continental Divide bike route from Banff, Alberta, Canada to the Mexican border at Antelope Wells, NM.

My loaded bike.

I plan is to cover the 2700+ miles of the bike route in 2 stints.  The first leg will start on May 16 in Cuba, NM and cover 540+ miles south to the Mexican border in about 12 days.  This is some of the most desolate country along the entire route.  But given the winter we have had in he west this year, it is the only part that can be ridden this early because of melting snow pack and muddy roads further north.

After completing the first leg and getting back home, we'll pack up the RV and start a slow trek to Hood River, OR to visit Jim and Heidi.  Jim recently took a new job with Insitu there.  Our nephew, Nicholas will join us in Portland as well.  After the 4th of July we'll continue on to Jasper and then Banff in the Canadian Rockies.  On July 13th I'll start my bike trek back to NM while Beth and Nicholas drive the RV back.

Cuba to Antelope Wells, NM route

For the first leg of the Continental Divide ride I will have a companion, Russ.  He is the brother of one of my mountain biking buddies, Brad.  When I was telling Brad about my riding plans he said his brother might be interested and put us in touch.  So tomorrow we hit the road.

Unlike most of the bike trips Beth and I take, this will be completely self supported with a lot of camping and few sources of food or water.  So filtering from windmill driven cattle tanks will be necessary, plus packing enough food for 4-6 days at a time.  So my poor bike will be loaded with up to 60 lbs of food, water, clothes, camping gear and bike parts.

I'm not sure how well blogging will work since there are only 4 signs of civilization {and one of those being Pie Town, population 186 per Google) in the next 12 days and I'm writing this hunt-and-peck style on a mini-tablet.