The ROUTE

Since some of you have asked:  What is the actual route of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Ride?

The route is approximately 2,700 miles; the terminus points are Jasper, Alberta and Antelope Wells or Columbus, New Mexico along the Mexican border. It stays within about 40 miles of the actual Continental Divide and crosses the Divide 32 times:  the lowest point is a couple thousand feet, the highest is Indiana Pass, +11,200FT above sea level. It is primarily routed on active logging and forest service dirt roads (about 80%) with the balance being a split between paved roads (10%) and single-track paths (about 10%). 

This is a terrific map of the route: you can zoom in on it and see key points along the way.   Along the left edge is the route profile which looks more like the heart rate of someone who is riding this.  There is about 150,000 ft of cumulative elevation gain (about five Mount Everests). I prefer to think of this as 150,000 feet of downhill gliding reward. Interestingly, this route is not considered very difficult ranking 5.5/10 in terms of technical difficulties since it is mostly on dirt roads. (So let me know if you want to join us at any point along the way.) I am guessing the difficult part is getting up every morning and getting back on the saddle.

The only route change we have in mind is the first 200 miles between Jasper and Banff, taking the paved Icefields Parkway. It is spectacular: drop yourself down on GoogleEarth and take a look around.

More on who “we” are in a future post.