Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR)

3,005 miles|40 days|7 states

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After leaving California Sunday, May 26th 2024 my girlfriend Elisa and I drove a rental car to New Mexico. We dropped off the rental car in El Paso, TX and then ubered to Columbus, NM. On day one, we biked 3 miles south into Mexico and officially started our trip!
We originally planned campsites for the whole trip, but after the first couple days we threw out the plan and started living in the moment. We found it best use our evening after riding to plan the following 2-4 days, and update the plan every night.
The goal of this document is to serve as inspiration and a bit of guidance for your journey! Please please please be aware that the route and services along the route are likely to change yearly, monthly, and even daily. Ensure that you are using up to date information.... and have fun!

Instructions :)

There are a few things to warn you about if you plan on using this as a daily guide. Please consider all of the below, as well as continuously use your common sense. There is a thing called Continuation Bias, which is when you proceed with the original plan even if it is no longer the best one. This can be exacerbated when you are stressed/tired/scared, and even working with someone you don't fully trust!

In the daily guides, water and food markers like start/middle/end are not very exact indicators. Start may not be where you sleep, but it would be relatively close to the start of that day. A campsite might be a few miles from town, etc. Or middle might be 3/4 of the way in.
Please please please be aware that the route and services along the route are likely to change yearly, monthly, and even daily. Ensure that you are using up to date information.

3,005 miles
40 days (riding)
3 rest days
95% dirt roads/singletrack
5 states, 2 provinces
0 major mechanicals, 1 new tire, 1 new chain
2 black bears seen, 0 grizzly
1 rainfly lost

Our bike setups were phenomenal! Not only did they get us through the trip, they continue to ride well long after. There are many questions and concerns when choosing/building a bike for the Great Divide, and I hope to help. As an over-arching rule, any setup you choose will work swimmingly if you test and modify on repeat before the trip. You only need to stress things if you only have one chance to build the perfect rig.
While there is not a "perfect" rig, Elisa and I do have some thoughts on things to include and things to avoid.

Suspension Fork - maybe. There were only a few chunks that had me wishing for a suspension fork. For the rest of the trip, the little bit of saved weight really adds up over time, as well as the efficiency of a rigid fork. If you are used to rough gravel on a rigid gravel bike, skip a sus-fork. If you notice fatigue one gravel day rides, then a sus-fork could be crucial for your trip.
Electronic Drivetrain - Yes! Poppy used a 1x SRAM Transmission and Grizl used 2x Shimano GRX. We had no issues with either, but the Transmission system had less foot-downs when changing gear on rough/steep terrain. 1x was also nice, simply in the simplicity of shifting day after day after day. With 2x, cross chaining took a non-neglible part of my brainpower. We brought 3 spare batteries AND a charger, but quickly realized it was overkill and mailed home extras. At the end we had 1 spare battery and a charger, but could have gotten away with no spare battery.
Tire Size - 50mm/2in wide or bigger. At times we were running INSANELY low pressure, like 10 psi on a fully loaded bike (mostly in the sand). We got lucky with the weather, and didn't ride in too much mud. As such, our relatively fast rolling dry tires were a great choice.
Aero Bars - Unsure. There were a few times when an aero bar would have been nice, but I'm not sure they are worth the weight.
Tubeless - Yes. Tubeless was a major win. We did bring extra sealant, spare tubes, and tube repair tools too. However, tubeless allowed for ultra low tire pressure, and who knows how many flats it prevented!
Belt Drive - Maybe. I was happy with our setup, but I don't have anything against belt drives.
Feed Bag - I wish, it would have helped with nutrition. We were often too lazy to dig around and find our food.

***South to North****

Yay	Nay	Maybe
Tailfin - We had 0 issues, and that is worth a ton	Bear Box - we were in the minority with a bear box, and did not need it once. A bear bag may be valuable if you plan on back country camping a lot.	Aero Bars - your call
Used Tent - New if you want, but our used one worked well enough and we ended up losing the rain fly, so we were happy it wasn't a pricey ultra-light tent.	Excess Food - We started with a TON of food from home, but it wasn't worth the weight. It took a long time to eat down, because we always tended to crave different food at grocery stops.	Suspension Fork - depends on how preferences.
Power Bank - it could be life saving, and makes battery anxiety a thing of the past	Pepper Spray - Bring it, but only in bear country! We carried it the ENTIRE time, which was a waste of money and weight. Many places in bear country just give it out for free.	Cameras (Go-pro and drone) - It's a once-in-a-life trip, and if you like photography/film then send it!
Collapsable Backpack - super great for flexible food storage.	Bulk Food - There was a surprising amount of food throughout, so you don't need to bring a 2lb bag of coffee. Just buy small packs as you go.
Electrolytes - they keep you hydrated and make drinking water way more fun.

Unfortionately the travel logsitics of the Great Divide are a huge pain - slow, expensive, and tiring. Here is exactly what we did for the trip, and it was a great plan even in hindsight. We chose to drive to the start, partially because of cost, but also in order to avoid and issues with flying our bikes (either damage or delays). On the way home, this didn't apply and so we flew home.

To the Start

The first concession we made was to start in Columbus, NM instead of Antelope Wells, NM. The reason being, Antelope wells is much harder to get to, and Columbus works out to be the same distance overall. Long story short, we rented a car and started driving. Our first day was the Bay Area to Phoenix, a long drive motivated by a free bed with a friend.
On the second day, we drove from Phoenix to our hotel in Columbus. We then checked in to the hotel and unloaded our gear from the car into the hotel room. Then, we drove to the car drop in El Paso, TX with an empty car. We originally planned to Uber back to the hotel, but we got lucky and the hotel owner drove us from El Paso all the way back to Columbus!
On the morning of our first day, we biked South, crossing the border into Mexico to have an "Official" start!

From the End

We chose to end in Jasper, partially to avoid regret in the future, and partially because we heard good things about the Ice Parkway. No regrets, we loved it. There was a lot of debate regarding the route from Banff to Jasper (road vs gravel) and we were both very happy with our decision to take the road!
Our first night in Jasper we camped at a campsite south of town. Our second night, we stayed at the hotel downtown and used the bike shop to pack up our bikes. We then took a rather long bus to the Edmonton airport where we took another bus to a hotel and flew out the next day.

Average Daily Speed: If you're an avid cyclist, you normally have a pretty good idea of how long a ride will take. Throw that away. It will take as long as it takes, and be prepared for more than expected and be grateful when it's quicker than expected. One thing that really messed me up is that fact that the days are not out and backs... normally the elevation data is the same up as it is down. However, many Great Divide days have asymmetric elevation. This means if your ride for the day is 5,000' vertical you may only descend 2,000'. This is fairly obvious when you think about it, but it definetly makes some days slower and some days faster than expected.
Riding Solo: WOO WEE. Elisa and I have a few thoughts. Riding solo can be pretty scary but also quite freeing. When you come across a solo rider be prepared for a lot of listening, many solo riders have been isolated for a while and can't wait to share stories (this is a great social aspect of the ride in my opinion).
Riding with a Partner: It's very important to make a distinction between the words "friend" and "partner". Partners need to be ready to compromise on life and death decisions, watch the other one cry and struggle, need to be ready to stop when only one person wants to, etc. I certainly have a handful of friends that would make good partners, but even some of my closest friends might not be cut out for this particular adventure. Be honest with each other, and practice hard things with lower consequences first. Elisa and I make an incredible team, and doing this together brought us even closer together.