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photo by Jonathan Buchanan Agua Caliente sits maybe 3000 feet above Tucson, a prominent high-point between the Catalina and Rincon Mountains. The trail to the top is only 4.5 miles long, so it’s steep. And like all good trails in Tucson, it’s full of chunk and rubble. As such, it’s a brilliant …. [Continue reading] 
What’s an interesting adventure? It’s a question I’ve been repeatedly asking myself since finishing the Continental Divide Trail. What do I find interesting, what’s next? For a while, not much was very interesting, adventure-wise. But the worry was that if nothing was that interesting, I must not be interesting, and what if I …. [Continue reading] 
Some call November the off-season. Some might think after 26 days of moving time over the summer, we’d be looking for some significant down time. Life is too short for an off-season. For me, November has thus far been for re-training. Re-training, as in re-learning, as in reminding yourself how to do something …. [Continue reading] 
I have a few thoughts to get down that may be useful to future CDT riders. As always, take advice you find on the internet with a grain of salt! ] Go light. The CDT is not a bike trail. But you should ride it (and hike-a-bike it), anyway! You really should. But …. [Continue reading] 
Even when you can’t do that much, you can still do some cool things. Looking back at my photos from the last ~month of ‘rest and recovery’ it sure seems like we’ve gotten out a lot. But there haven’t been any long rides. There haven’t been any bikepacks. No new trails explored. No big techy …. [Continue reading] 
From Lincoln, the official CDT is done, but there are still miles to ride. On to the Great Divide Mountain Bike route, with a huge sign of relief and excitement at some straightforward miles. It’s not well a known fact, but Ez is a horse whisperer. Quick ride to Ovando. Look …. [Continue reading] 
We’ve been off the trail for about a month now. But we can still feel the effects of four months spent on the trail. I’m still processing the experience, and still recovering from it. So, how has four months of bikepacking changed us? What were the lessons and insights learned? Here are a few …. [Continue reading] 
It’s hard to describe the kind of fatigue that settled in during the last quarter of the trail. We could still put in big days and cover difficult terrain, but resting no longer returned much strength to us. Huge town meals were a way to survive, instead of giving us an instant boost of energy …. [Continue reading] 
yum! We spent some time in the town of Wisdom, eating and watching it rain. This would become a pattern all the way to the Canadian Border as cold storms continued to hammer Montana. They seemed to come at a frequency of one per week. We needed rest badly, so the rain was …. [Continue reading] 
We pedaled out of Lima, a day too early, as it turned out. When fatigue sets in two hours out of town, you know you might be in trouble. Luckily the first 30 or so miles are on the GDMBR, so it’s a gentle warmup. These are beautiful GDMBR miles. Though I know …. [Continue reading] 
Though I managed to keep up on daily blog posts, I fell woefully behind on photos in Montana. No matter, I’m loving going back through them now. These start at West Yellowstone, where we waited out a couple days of rain, then finally hit our first section of Montanan CDT. I loved the giant …. [Continue reading] 
CDTBike 2014 May 12th to September 12th – 124 days Total mileage cycled/hiked: 3737 miles Mileage without day rides: 3623 miles Mileage without resupply runs and day rides: 3260 miles Moving time: 26 days, 14.5 hours Elevation Gain: 453,000 feet Zero days: 26 Average overall travel speed (including zero days): 30.1 miles per …. [Continue reading] 
We are done! Finished with the CDT! Starting out in New Mexico, exactly four months ago, this moment was anything but certain. We didn’t even have a plan to make it the final miles to the northern terminus (you can’t ride bikes there), and some of the ideas to reach it were pretty …. [Continue reading] 
We made it to Canada! And it’s not just like a different country, it feels like a completely different world. These are the Rockies as I’ve never seen them. Huge, towering, majestic… and covered in snow! It feels a storybook-esque, like a fantasy land. It feels a little unreal to be finishing this thing, …. [Continue reading] 
If there is one thing the CDT teaches you, it’s flexibility. The divide decides your pace and whether it makes sense to proceed or not. Sometimes we’ve busted out 70 mile days, others we struggle to hit 20. You can’t be in a hurry or have rigid plans. It’s funny that of all the …. [Continue reading] 
Well that was fairly to moderately epic! We made it through Glacier… barely. It’s snowing outside, but we found ourselves a roof and a warm bed for the night. We woke up in Whitefish earlier than we needed to. We hit breakfast and were primed and ready for a big day. Post office 15 minutes …. [Continue reading] 
Neither of us slept very well, though the night was not overly cold. Failing and turning back never tastes good. But it was absolutely the correct choice for us. Some mental demons needed a night to be worked out. When the sun finally lit the horizon I looked up, through fuzzy eyes. Are those …. [Continue reading] 
“If I seem superhuman…… I have been misunderstood.” — Dream Theater. The CDT is long, and hard, and full of hike-a-bike. But it is not a superhuman feat. We’re just regular riders, and we get tired. We run out of patience with unrideable trail and difficult conditions. We get frustrated, we crater. We …. [Continue reading] 
It was another lovely day on the Great Divide. These really are some of the best miles. If only the divide had more like them… The highlight of the day is the closed road below Richmond Peak. It’s double track that rides like singletrack, or has deteriorated into singletrack. Apparently it’s called the Swan …. [Continue reading] 
Tonight we sleep in a Jail. It costs $5, on the honor system, and has two rope strung beds. The little town of Ovando has really taken to setting up touring cyclists well. It’s really cool to see. Besides the divide route, the Lewis and Clark road touring route comes through here. There’s …. [Continue reading] |
 Scott Digital Nomad, nowhere, USA Lifelong mountain biker, trail mapper and programmer. Sometimes bikepacker, sometimes runner, sometimes packrafter. I love to ride my bike, get out, and explore this beautiful planet we find ourselves on. I live in a 20 foot GeoPro Trailer, traveling about the west. Main author of TopoFusion GPS Software, co-founder of Trackleaders.com. More... Projects / Sites  
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