Every year at this time of the year I look forward to reading the travel blogs by people mountain biking the Great Divide Route (GDR). (Do not confuse this with backpacking the Continental Divide Trail.) The GDR is a selection of dirt national forest and BLM roads, and occasionally paved highways, that stays close to the continental divide. The northern terminus is Banff park in Alberta, whereas the southern terminus is the New Mexican/Mexican border at Antelope Wells.
Yes I know, some readers think I dislike travel blogs. But there are some that really do involve adventure. It is a great thing to find them and read them. For instance, if you read the blog of this group getting ready to mountain bike the GDR, you will probably be infected with their anticipation.
An opportunity is being missed here. A person might love the scenery and mountain biking, but dislike the tent camping and the need to find water, biking too many miles per day, biking during monsoonal afternoon hail storms at 10,000 feet, etc. You might love sharing a campfire at night with other people, having somebody in a supportive group to pull your vehicle through a sandy spot, etc.
There are many things to enjoy about an adventure like this if you could just eliminate tent camping. I love coming into my RV at night. The same could be said of camping out of a CUV, pickup truck with a cap, or full-sized van. Vehicles would not need to be outlandish and extreme four-wheel-drive rigs. But they couldn't be suburban houses-on-wheels either: Class A motorhomes, Class C motorhomes with 15 feet of butt hanging out the back, or 30 foot long travel trailers.
It is easy to combine mountain biking and "vehicle camping" by playing leap frog with the mountain bikes: you ride off in the morning, checking out the dirt road. When you've had enough, you ride back to your vehicle, and then drive your vehicle to some spot you found on the morning's bike ride.
It takes the right personality to get a group like this going, and I doubt that I have it. But it is worth talking it up, nevertheless. One of these days, somebody who is right for the job might get the idea and act on it.
Yes I know, some readers think I dislike travel blogs. But there are some that really do involve adventure. It is a great thing to find them and read them. For instance, if you read the blog of this group getting ready to mountain bike the GDR, you will probably be infected with their anticipation.
An opportunity is being missed here. A person might love the scenery and mountain biking, but dislike the tent camping and the need to find water, biking too many miles per day, biking during monsoonal afternoon hail storms at 10,000 feet, etc. You might love sharing a campfire at night with other people, having somebody in a supportive group to pull your vehicle through a sandy spot, etc.
There are many things to enjoy about an adventure like this if you could just eliminate tent camping. I love coming into my RV at night. The same could be said of camping out of a CUV, pickup truck with a cap, or full-sized van. Vehicles would not need to be outlandish and extreme four-wheel-drive rigs. But they couldn't be suburban houses-on-wheels either: Class A motorhomes, Class C motorhomes with 15 feet of butt hanging out the back, or 30 foot long travel trailers.
It is easy to combine mountain biking and "vehicle camping" by playing leap frog with the mountain bikes: you ride off in the morning, checking out the dirt road. When you've had enough, you ride back to your vehicle, and then drive your vehicle to some spot you found on the morning's bike ride.
It takes the right personality to get a group like this going, and I doubt that I have it. But it is worth talking it up, nevertheless. One of these days, somebody who is right for the job might get the idea and act on it.
Comments
By the next morning all of my clothes had been washed and dried, even folded. Breakfast was served and a few stars were written in my journal next to LaJunta, Colorado.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_28YltsuY
This would work great if you could find drivers that were willing to move the rigs everyday, have them set up, a hearty meal ready and a cold adult beverage at the ready when you arrived. That might even get me back on a bike.
A bicycle should be the moral equivalent of the horse: fast, glamorous, the transportation choice of an aristocratic warrior caste, rampaging and conquering on the Eurasian steppe or the Iberian peninsula. Loading up a bicycle with camping crap lowers the noble steed to the level of a peasant's burro.