A truly intrepid route, spanning 2,490 miles – the length of the Americas from Roosville, MT down to Antelope Wells, NM on the border with Mexico. And an extra 215 mile stretch reaching down from Banff, in Alberta, Canada to Roosville, MT. What makes it so amazing is that something like 90% of this route is off paved-road, making it the longest “off-pavement bike route in the entire world.”

Anybody who has ever been on a bike tour, or even commuted, knows the depths of vehicle´s ability to be a nuisance. It can really take away from your experience when you are consistently contained by a white line on the side of the road and speeding automobiles. We all owe a huge debt of grattitude to the people who helped create this route.

Put on by the Adventure Cyclist Association, who first made a name for themselves with the Bikecentennial Tour in 1976, rallying over 2,000 cyclists to traverse the country on bikes. They have since created almost two dozen bike routes creating a network of over 38,158 miles of scenic routes and built up a membership of cycle tourists 44,500 strong (and growing). They also put out a great print magazine titled, “Adventure Cyclist” keeping you up to date on the latest happenings in the bike touring world.

In Uruapan, Mexico, at a bookstore, I came across an old National Geographic documenting the adventure of two couples called “Hemistour”, riding from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego on bikes. One of the riders got hepatitis in Southern Mexico and had to bail, but the other couple managed to complete the journey, arriving in Tierra del Fuego in February, 1975. During their trip, they got the idea of celebrating the nation´s bicentennial by organizing a bike tour across the country. Quite the grassroots movement, they got together flyers and sent them around to bike shops across the country and plotted out the most scenic route, and amazingly enough – made it happen. Read their FULL STORY.

The Great Divide MTB Route really seems to exemplify the spirit of their original adventure giving riders one of the best ways to see the country, while also challenging them physically (over 200,000 feet of climbing) and technically with the drastic topography of the rocky mountains. Beginning in the Southern Rocky Mountains, the trail winds through a surprising amount of single track along the glacier carved valleys of Banff National Park, where bears and beautiful vistas are a common site (would also recommend riding the Icefield Parkway north of Banff). It passes through the heavily forested mountains of Montana/Idaho, crossing its many clear mountain streams and picturesque lakes. You head down through Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National park and wend through the barren high desert known as the Great Basin, in Southern Wyoming.

I unfortunately had to drop off the GDMBR after this because the snow had piled up and made the trails unrideable – my group had gone too slow and began too late to complete the entire trail. However, some of the best riding I´m told begins as you climb up into the high elevations of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and continue through rugged mountains until you drop into the Chihuahua Desert near the border of Mexico.

You are guaranteed a certain degree of hardship and challenge on this route, facing every possible obstacle, from steep, endless climbs to windstorms, snowstorms, thunderstorms, to lack of water and food, to bike troubles and sleepless nights. It can be difficult, but if you are prepared with the right gear and the right attitude, you will enjoy every moment of it.

The maps are beautiful: detailed with all the pertinent information to a bike tourist (like water sources, bike stores, places to get food, etc), accurate (updated every year and accompanied by GPS data, they give you narrative instructions down to the tenth of a mile), and affordable (the Adventure Cycling Association is a non-profit and gives discounts to their members) with the entire set of maps costing around 40 bucks.

In recent years, there has been an ongoing GDMTBR RACE to see who can ride the entire route the quickest, challenging human potential in an extreme self-supported race that takes even the strongest at least two weeks to complete. There has also been a spur race called the Tour Divide that come about for reasons I know nothing about.

For most tourists, they can expect about two months to complete the entire route, or for those who can´t get that kind of time complete it in sections over the course of multiple years. If you have a good mountain bike and some spare time on your hands, checking out a section of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route will be an experience traveling through the United states you´ll never forget.

Some Useful Links:
http://www.bikepacking.net
Ultralight Bike Touring Information
Ultralight Cycling Packing List
Cycling the GDMBR by Michael McCoy
Xtracycle Cargo Bicycles
Paula & Scott´s GDMBR Trip