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The heavens were tearing themselves apart. East to west, the skies were angry. Transition and dischord, the merging of calm and chaos. And on the boundary, the divide, were two bikepackers, two weary and inspired CDT travelers. To our east the sky was quiet, the sun even shining bright at times. On the west, toward …. [Continue reading] 
Tires sliding on rock, heads continually scanning the horizon. Hoping, hoping that the next false summit will be true. Feet sliding, too. Incredulous. This is an unholy climb. It’s late in the day, and we wish it was later so it would be camp time. Yet another ATVish rubble fall-line climb, right along the …. [Continue reading] 
It’s official — Fall starts on September 1st in Montana. It was just over freezing when we woke up. The sun struggled to poke its head out all morning, and we spent more time riding in jackets than not, for the first time the entire trip. There’s a crispness in the air, one that …. [Continue reading] 
It was a slow morning. We woke up to drizzles on the tarp. I fetched the food and stove from our hanging tree in a lull, then we cooked from within the tarp. More drizzles. We went back to bed. These fools don’t start rides in the rain… if at all possible. After a …. [Continue reading] 
We made some 25 trail miles today, leaving town at 1 pm and with an hour of climbing on the railroad grade just to rejoin the trail. That’s great CDT time. Sure, half was on roads, but there was still hike-a-bike and other challenges in there. Like rain. 50 percent chance in Butte means …. [Continue reading] 
Ah the Outdoorsman. Our first bike shop in many hundreds of miles and more than a month. The last true bike shop was in Winter Park, I believe. Our bikes needed some love. Rob runs a great show and is ever so kind to divide riders. Larry the mechanic got us going with new …. [Continue reading] 
Yesterday felt like waking up from a bad dream, today was a dream come true. We had good trail. All day long. Switchbacks, good grades, sustainable design. I wouldn’t say it’s “mountain bike trail” because I guarantee that the CDT hikers love it and appreciate it too. Who doesn’t like good trail? 
It kinda feels like we woke up from a bad dream. We are actually riding our bikes these days — instead of pushing them. The ID/MT border is done — we are well into Montana, for good! Today we managed over 40 on-CDT miles. And it wasn’t all that hard. That hasn’t happened for quite …. [Continue reading] 
Waking up from the 90 mile epic was a bit rough. Eventually hunger won out over being tired (the dinner of popcorn didn’t really hold out), and we headed to the Crossing for yet another big breakfast. That means big plates of food, a milkshake and piece of breakfast pie, of course. Yum. 
We did a stupid. A stupid ride, that is. Tired and feeling the effects of nearly 3000 miles of backcountry bikepacking? Not the best time to go kill ourselves on a huge day ride. But we did it anyway. And it was fun. We ended up with nearly 90 miles, and over 12 hours of …. [Continue reading] 
The rain kept me up for sometime and had me checking the time, hoping for sunrise. 12:30am. Ugh. Next thing I knew it was 6:30 and though the rest of the world was soaked, we were dry! Our little tarp did its job… and at half a pound, has sure carried well on …. [Continue reading] 
We made it to the continental divide and the first flat ground with minutes to spare. Lean bikes against tree, evaluate possible camp spots. First drops. Get the tarp up! A few minutes later the downpour began. We sat under the tarp, cooked dinner, and marveled at the good timing. Earlier in the day, it …. [Continue reading] 
Simply getting back to the trail today nearly crushed us. Sure, we were wrapping up a 65 mile resupply run from the CDT to Wisdom. But it shouldn’t have been that bad. Headwind, washboard, loose large gravel. Fresh grading of the road in progress. Loose soils. Ugh. We sat down about 10 miles into the …. [Continue reading] 
We haven’t hitch-hiked yet on the CDT, and I guess we aren’t going to start if at all possible. It’s that bikepacking self-support ideal, I suppose. Or maybe we’re trying to prove something — not sure. Either way, we rode the 36 miles to Wisdom for resupply today, and it was actually a pretty …. [Continue reading] 
I think we saw more thru-hikers today than any other. It was fun to bounce around with them, chat, see the different paces, stop times and other habits/styles. A bunch of us were all camped within a couples miles of Lemhi Pass habits styles last night. Birdie, Tony and Cassi (who biked the CDT …. [Continue reading] 
Sunrise at camp I’d love to see the profile for today’s ride. It would be enough to make even the most steady of stomachs queasy. We took a big long ride on the divide roller coaster!! This part of the trail is probably the most true to the divide — rarely does it …. [Continue reading] 
The divide is usually thought of as among the worst places to be when there are storms around. The terrain is high, the trees are few, and the divide itself creates storms through uplift and other forces. I’ve read a lot of forecast discussions from all over the country now, and many of the …. [Continue reading] 
I finally sat down and merged up our GPX files for the trip this far. 2650 miles, more or less. That puts us at about the same mileage as Tour Divide, including the Canadian section. We still have 800 trail miles to go. I expect we’ll end up with well over the 3100 miles the …. [Continue reading] 
The CDT may have given us a nice welcome to Montana, with well constructed and maintained trail, but it’s still the CDT. We found that out today. The challenges were many. It started last night. Soon after inflating her sleeping pad, Ez realized it was quickly going flat. Going to be a long night. 
Today we found all sorts of goodness on the trail. Rideable climbs. Bench cut trail. Fresh raspberries. A picnic table to cook and eat dinner at. A bald eagle and hawks watching over us. Bubbling brooks. We also *didn’t* find bubbling brooks. An off trail and on foot excursion to a possible water source …. [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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