These are the archives of my first 21 days on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. They were written on the trail during the summer of 2006. This trip was a life changing experience for me, and I couldn't have done it without Mike. He encouraged me, pushed me, and stayed positive the entire trip. He also taught me about bikes and bike touring-- wisdom I lacked that first day in El Paso. Thanks Mike, and thanks to Sarah for letting him ride.

This summer I plan to finish the ride, picking up the trail where I left it four years ago, in Salida Colorado. I'll post as frequently as I can starting in late June. In the meantime, here's a place to get caught up. Please excuse the lousy grammar, I was not an English teacher in training back then--just a hapless ski bum with a head full of dreams. Enjoy!


DAY 4

50 MILES

200 TOTAL


Best day yet. no entries to this point (just bought the notebook) first 3 days were a drag. HOT!! We drove into El Paso at 10:00 AM (just in time. 23.5 hours) ate breakfast. rode about 40 miles. 114 degrees on the asphault. El Paso sucked. lots of trash on road (beer bottles) strange people. camped in the desert. lots of noise (helicopters, cars, coyotes). Border patrol was out! I didn't wake up. Next day we rode to Pancho Villa State park. Saw armys first grease rack. spent a lot of time in the museum (air conditioning). had pizza and beers. called home. found out about twins stadium. thought dad would like to know about grease rack. slept outside the tent. next day to naked hippie hot springs. someone threw a bag of lays at me from a pickup at 75 mph. getting sick of highways. not feeling it. to much desert. long, straight roads. NO FUN!! naked hippie hot springs very relaxing, but not what i expected. lots of baby boomers in RVs. I was hoping to see more people our age. More stars than i have EVER seen. TODAY-i bought this notebook. nice, isn't it? we finnaly got to the mountains. I love the mountains. Lots of climbing today. met some nice people (everyone in New Mexico has been very nice and laid back). We saw our first gravel, and this was our first official day on the trail. we are through 1 of 12 maps. almost there! thinking about the fall and next winter. i'm not sure what i'm going to do. maybe AK then Utah or Colorado. I'm sleeping under the stars again tonight. it might get cold. we'll see. we are starting a long strech with no food and little water along the way. I'm a bit nervous. i hope we have enough.


Divide trip: Day 5

I ran out of ink last night, but i think i was wrapping things up. I will add that last night as we were eating dinner we noticed about a half dozen or more wild pigs. I didn't think much of it at the time. Mike made a few jokes about the pigs eating my feet in the night (i was sleeping outside, he was in the tent). I woke up in the middle of the night and heard the pigs. maybe it was all the "snatch" and "Hannibal" references, but those pigs freaked me out. okay, i think i hear them again! I'm just going to ignore it for now. Anyway, the first time i heard them, they were really close. i turned on my flashlight and cleared my throat and they took off running. I didn't see them but i could hear them trampling off. For the next half hour or so I couldn't sleep. Every so often i would hear one of those pigs (they make some strange sounds) and would wake up. Later that night i heard coyotes (we hear them almost every night) and it didn't phase me. weird, huh?

Day 6
It was cold last night and there were pigs. I'm sleeping in the tent tonight. Today was a good day. We climbed more than I ever have before. All day was spent peddling up huge climbs, then down great hills. we definitely went up more than down. we are about a thousand feet higher tonight then we were last night. I had a hard fall coming down one of the hills. lost control in the sand and went over my handlebars. didn't get hurt too bad, just skinned my knee up a bit (we need a new first aid kit). We stopped at a great campsite for some mac-a-spam-a-roni and cheese and an afternoon siesta. WATER! it was the first running water that we have seen on the trip. I took a nap on some soft grass right next to the stream. heaven. Mike and i got into a bit of what will probably become a bigger issue as time goes on. He's fast, I'm slow. He's pushing me too hard, I'm holding him back. We talked about it tonight. I told him that i don't want to be the reason he doesn't finish the trip. I also told him that if, down the road, he had to go ahead, I want him to do this. I believe I can finish this trip, I'm just not sure if I can do it at his pace. He thinks i will get in better shape and pick it up a bit. Mike Pente...always the optimist.


Bike trip: Day 7

No entry yesterday. We are down to sharing one pen. We biked out of the mountains yesterday and into the planes. The riding was still very difficult. Lots of washboards and hot sun. We biked through ranch lands and by cows. The cows are everywhere! It was a very long day. Today was better. We took an easy pace and took a couple hours off in the afternoon. We met a rancher who let us fill our water from her well. She was tan, thin, and rugged. She looked like someone who worked very hard. you would have to, to make it out here. We talked about the drought and the newly re-introduced Mexican wolves. We took our afternoon break on the porch of an abandoned house. I slept for about an hour and we ate some grub. My bike is all messed up! I told Mike today that the two things that could end this trip early for me are my bike or my body getting completely destroyed. I could see either of those happening. 1,000 miles. that's a respectable round number. 1,000. we've done about 300 so far. oh yeah, we're back in the mountains tonight, and only 30 miles to pie town. mmmm.....pie. 


Divide Bike Trip: Day 14

I've been bad about keeping up with this. Well, this will be a re-cap of the last week. The pie was great. Actually, it was the best pie I've ever had. After a slice and a green chili burger (also great) we stopped at a safe house in Pie Town. It's owned by a couple who lets hikers and bikers sleep on there porch, use there shower, and rest up before continuing on the trail. Unfortunately, no one was home. We spent the afternoon hanging out on the porch. I took a nap while Mike worked on his bike. We camped about 20 miles outside of pie town. The speed thing became an issue again. I think Mike bikes too fast and he thinks I bike to slow. I don't have any major problems with it, I just bike as slow as I need to. Mike, on the other hand, has got to be thinking about his miles. He is on a much more limited time schedule. We worked out a compromise. We would camp together but not bike together. So far it's worked out pretty well. The next day Mike took the long way to grants (70 miles through the mountains) and I took the easy way (55 miles on highway). We stayed in a motel for the first time that night. While in town I picked up a cheap tent at Wal-Mart (I still feel like I may be riding solo at some point here). The next day was a rough one. We left Grants (a town with more paycheck advance and auto title loan shops than banks) and headed up the road and into the national forest. About 10 miles in, (and about 1000 miles up) the road was closed due to fire danger. Rather than backtrack all the way to Grants, we decided to take a "shortcut" to the highway. The road turned into 3 inches of sand about halfway through. We ended up pushing our bikes through a sandbox for 2 or 3 miles. When we finally got to the road, my derailleur hanger was bent almost to the point of being unrideable. We decided to make a push for Cuba and have the part mailed there, rather than go back to Grants. It was difficult riding, as I only had 2 gears I could use. We went about 10 miles down the road to a spot on the map with a bar and a campground. The bar was closing (it was about 8:30) and there was no campground. Mike was asking a Navajo guy named John if there was anywhere around to camp. John said that we could camp at his place about 40 miles down the road. We thanked him, but that was too far to ride that late in the evening. He told us he'd give us a ride. Given the situation we were in ( I was going to have to limp my bike into Cuba) we couldn't refuse the free miles. John was drunk, and he was chatty. Here are a few of the things he said to me.


"I'm a steelworker by trade. When I'm not doing that, I'm just an a--hole."

He told me that the Navajo are survivors, and it's very hard to live where they do.

He said that he once shot one of his dogs for getting into the chickens. It lived.

He gets more snow than his neighbors because he prays

"I once saw a flying saucer in that canyon."

The door of your home should always face east.

Even though they live very close to Chaco Canyon and the Pueblo ruins, they have never been there, out of respect for the dead.


I admired John. I couldn't see how anyone could support himself and a family in such harsh conditions. But as the evening (and the morning) moved on, I just wanted to get out of there. He didn't seem to do anything but talk, drink, and yell at the animals. We made it to Cuba the next day--barely. My bike broke down on the side of the road, and if a bus to Minnesota (or anywhere) had pulled up, i would've hopped on. When we rolled into Cuba, I had no shifting, a broken spoke, and a bent trailer pin. I stayed in Cuba for two nights while I waited for my part. Mike only stayed one. Again, he took the long way to Abique (it took him 2 days) and I took a shortcut (it took me one). Cuba was a dump. It was pretty rough spending an extra day just hanging out in the motel room. Abique was last night. We stayed in a motel that was far too nice for a couple of slobs like us. The lady quoted us a room at $130, but we talked her down to 70. Still, too many nights in motels over the last week. Today was a good day, it was nice to get back into the mountains and on to gravel (it's been paved since pie town). I couldn't really get into a rhythm, but we still managed about

40 miles. That's it for tonight. Time to start cooking dinner.



Divide bike trip: Day 15

We've been at this for 15 days. Decision time is coming. We get to Colorado tomorrow. Before leaving I decided Colorado was my decision point. I would stick it out through New Mexico and decide if I want to keep going when I make it to Colorado. Tomorrow's the day. I haven't made up my mind. It's been hard. I rode 40 miles today. It took me 9 hours! To have your ass on a seat for 9 hours...That sucks. At the end of the day, though, I usually feel pretty okay. I'm not sure if this is what I want to do all summer, but I can't think of anything else that's appealing right now. I don't want to work, and when I'm not working, I'm not doing much. All of my late summer/fall plans revolve around me finishing in Montana. My plan, by the way, is to catch a train from Glacier to Seattle, spend a few days in the San Juan islands with Dustin and Vinny, then take a ferry up to Alaska for a couple of months. We'll see. I think I want to ride at least 1,000 miles. No big deal, though. I've made it out of New Mexico, and that ain't bad.

Divide bike trip: day 16

A good day today. Made it to Colorado and passed 700 miles. Split up with Mike for a couple of days. I'm going to catch up with him in Del Norte on his rest day. It was nice to ride my miles at my pace. Climbed to 11,000 feet today (highest I've been) I'll be at 12,000 in 2 days. I think my plan is to end the trip in Aspen. Once I get to Silverthorne I can ride over Independence Pass. It would be a nice way to finish the trip. I'm thinking of spending a couple of weeks in Boulder.


Day 17


Mike blew a tire! Turns out I passed him up yesterday without even knowing it. He tore the entire sidewall of his tire just passed the Colorado border and hitched a ride into town before I even got there. He will be back on the road tomorrow, putting me a couple of days ahead. I'm going to take some easy days and he will catch up. The end is in sight! Only 300 miles to aspen. 150 of those will be paved. I should be there in a week. Great day today. The best scenery yet. It's great to be back in Colorado. Tomorrow's a big day. I climb to 11,900 feet (the highest on the trip). It's 20 miles up, but then 23 miles and another 1,000 vertical feet down. That should be it for the major climbing until Independence pass.


Day 18


The climb was huge, but not as bad as I expected. I took my time and made it up over the top earlier than expected. Windy coming into town. Got a motel and a double bacon cheeseburger. First real meal in a week! Planning my route to Aspen. Should only be another week. I'm ready to be done!


Day 20-
No entry yesterday. Rode out of Del Norte on a confusing maze of 4wd forest roads. Made it out okay. Only did about 30 miles, but most of it was climbing. I could have kept going, but weather started moving in. It rained last night for the first time on the trip, and again today. I got stuck in a thunderstorm 3/4 of the way up a pass. No sign of Mike yet. Hopefully I meet up with him tomorrow. 2 days to Salida, then I think I'm done.







Day 20

I was trying to go to sleep, but a storm has blown in. I had to go out to secure my "Wal-Mart Special" tent. It was collapsing around me. I hope this thing holds up! I think the worst part of the storm has blown over. Pray for sun!

Looks like i have to go out again.


Back inside now. More rocks! This tent is a piece of junk, but hopefully it stays up. I hope I can get some sleep.



Epiloge

I was reading through today for the first time since I finished the trip. I left out day 21! It was one of the best days on the trip. I met up with Mike at a restaurant in Sargents, and we rode together for the rest of the day. It was also the highest millage day for me (about 70 miles) with a big climb before Salida. We stayed in a motel in Salida and I met up with Scott, Nick, Amy, and Chad the next day. I spent the next couple of days in Salida drinking beers, hiking, and relaxing with my friends. It was a great way to end the trip. That last day biking with Mike, we talked more than any other day on the trip. We both knew that for me the trip was over, and we made to most of one more day riding together. Well, as the song goes, "that's all there is, there aint no more."