In the summer of 2014, Eszter Horanyi and I set out to thru-ride the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. As far as we know, our trip was the first attempt to traverse the trail in 30 years. It took us four months, during which we covered some 3700 miles.
This page pulls together all the photos, blog posts and GPX data from our trip.
Intro – before the ride
The shakedown ride. AZT thru-ride in March/April 2014. 15 days on the trail, running very similar setups.
CDTBike introduction and goals
Photo posts
With 30-40 photos per post and not very many words, these posts are a shorter way to see what it’s like to cycle the CDT — shorter than reading all our daily entries.
CDTbike Photos – Crazy Cook to Silver City
CDTbike Photos – Silver City to Grants
CDTbike photos – to Chama
CDTbike photos through Durango
CDTbike photos – Durango to Lake City
CDTbike photos – Lake City to Leadville
CDTbike photos – Leadville to Winter Park
CDTbike photos – Winter Park to Steamboat Springs
CDTBike Photos – Great Basin, Pinedale to West Yellowstone
CDTBike photos – West Yellowstone to Lima
CDTBike Photos – Lima to Wisdom
CDTBike Photos – Wisdom to Butte
CDTBike Photos – Butte to Lincoln
CDTBike Photos – Lincoln to Fin
During the Ride
What we carried: Full Gear List, written by Eszter
Ten reasons bikes are awesome on the CDT, and other thoughts on hiking vs riding the trail
Post Ride
CDTBike – Statistics and report card – miles, elevation gain, percentage of CDT covered, etc.
Reflections and Observations – Simplicity, Back in Normal Life, Thru-hikers/trail community, Changes on the Divide, Slow Beauty, Deep Fatigue, Cows, Working from the Trail, Bike Access, Gratitude, The Future.
Advice to future CDT riders – Go light, Choose your own adventure, maps/GPS.
GPX Data
green – CDT; cyan – CT; yellow – GDMBR; red – CDTbike 2014
Thus far the only thing I have ready is a roughly edited version of our trip. It eliminates most of the resupply runs we took, and fixes some errors, but still needs more work. Remember that we took several trails and options that I would emphatically not recommend other CDT riders take. So, an actual recommended CDTbike route is still to come. But this should be good for illustrative and day-dream purposes!
GPX here: CDTBike_2014_v0.gpx
Drop me a note if you’d like to see the recommended CDTbike route sooner rather than later — esp. if you are considering a trip!
Full diary archive
I didn’t quite write a post every day, but I did write many words! The whole saga is here, indexed to ease frustration of navigating wordpress archives.
See also: Eszter’s full blog post archive. Particularly at the beginning of the trip, she did a better job than I did of telling the stories as they happened.
Days 1 and 2 – CDTbike begins!
Day 3 – Headwinds and Hike-a-bikes
Day 4 – Into Silver City on fresh singletrack
Day 5 – Silver City, Little Toad Wedding and Bears in the Gila
Day 6 – Not being one with the wind, on the GDMBR
Day 7 – Too big a day
Day 9 – Laying over in Pie Town… for more Pie!
Day 15 – Climb climb climb
Day 16 – Can’t touch this (boo BLM!)
Day 17 – On the fly
Day 18 – Deadfall to Ghost Ranch (Canones National Recreation Trail)
Day 19 – Backwards exploration – Abiquiu singletrack!
Day 20 … leaving Ghost Ranch to northern new mexico!
Day 21 – A day of forests. Faint roads and real singletrack
Day 22 – Into Colorado, then back to New Mexico!
Day 25 – A dubious plan
Day 29 – Way out there… leaving Pagosa
Day 30 – Linking dirt to Durango
** 12 day Interlude in Durango for snow melt, Tour Divide, work, day rides. (Not included in day count) **
Day 31 – Back on the trail
Day 32 – This is Big country and a Big bear
Day 33 – In Silverton. It can’t be only 74 miles.
Day 34 – Camp Cataract
Day 35 – Chased by snow over Coney Summit, down to a treeline Yurt!
Day 36 – Into Lake City, via mega super awesome singletrack descent? Pinch me.
Day 37 – Detourin’ Dirt
Day 38 – Sargento! Demento! Retardo! Insaneo! No-braino!
Day 39 and Day 40 – Salida Creed
Day 43 – Empty crest, buggy camp
Day 44 – CDT hike-a-bike beatdown
Day 45 – How to cover miles on a town day.
Day 46 – A Dreamy Colorado day on the CDT
Day 47 – Recovery Money
Day 48 – Cjell Searle, Gumbo Gold
Day 49 – Storm Dodging over Argentine Pass
Day 50 – a grand finale to the first half of the CDT
Day 56 – Wilderness or wilderness? To Grand Lake!
Day 57 – Shadow of Parkview
Day 58 – Lowest mileage day yet?
Day 59 – Inbetween the Rabbit Ears are lots of bugs and tons of rocks!
Days 60 and 61 – Springs of Steamboat and finishing Colorado
Days 62 and 63 – The Battle of Battle Pass
Day 65 – Magic in the Basin
Day 66 – ice cream and tasty singletrack
Day 68 – A choice of nonexistent trails
Day 69 – No shortage of adventure
Day 71 – cyclotouring!
Day 72 – Yellowstone!
Day 76 — CDT Montana
Day 77 – Red Rock Rain
Day 78 – Headache rest
Day 79 — Centennial Goods
Days 80 and 81 — Back to normal CDT, and into Lima
Day 83 — Watcher of the skies
Day 84 — Divide Rollercoaster
Day 85 — Thru-hiker day
Days 86 and 87 – Jackson/Wisdom Resupply and Recharge
Day 88 — Tired country
Day 89 — Slag-a-melt-down
Day 90 — A Wise Nearo. Days 91, 92 .. and? Rest in Wisdom
Day 93 — Doing stupid
Day 94 — Recovery Spin
Day 95 — Awake
Day 96 – Butte dream
Day 99 — Still good through Delmoe
Days 97 & 98 – Rest and Super Butte Ride
Day 100 – Champion trail, Champion hike-a-bike
Day 101 — First day of Fall
Day 102 – Last full day on the CDT proper
Day 103 – Out with a bang
Day 104 – Lovely spin on the GDMBR
Day 105 – Great Divide Richmond Goodness
Day 106 — Misunderstood
Day 107 — When winter calls, run to the border!
Day 108 — Glacier!
Day 109 and Day 110 — Flexibility. Waiting for sun in Babb, MT.
Day 111 – Canada!
Day 112 — CDT done!
