Along the spine...

So we find ourselves in Steamboat Springs, Colorado...1300 miles in 15 days. We are more than halfway across the Great Divide Route and fighting a constant battle to keep the miles up. As I forego some sleep to write this, I cannot keep my thoughts off the 4000 foot climb that will begin our day tomorrow. But I know we will go up it and move on to the next one, moving down the road one mile at a time, one day at a time.

All the climbs scare us. Every day and every mile is a challenge. We fear them and then we ride them. Many things try to stop us, slow us down, break us down...cold nights, hot sun, desolation, washboard roads, fatigue, saddle sores, knee pain. Sometimes it sucks but sometimes it's beautiful. When we wait out the hard times, the good ones always follow. It is a certain kind of patience we have to find. And we take from the experience what we will.

There is always a Point A and a Point B. Right now, for us, it is the Canada border and the Mexico border. I can look at them on the map, but when it all becomes real, and the route comes to life as we traverse it, there is something magical that happens. The adventure unfolds. All of a sudden I'm asking some hunters for directions on a national forest road in northern Montana. Or sleeping under a crystal-clear span of stars. I'm waking up thinking the grizzly is in camp, or riding through the night seeing animals peeking at us out of the forest as our lights reflect their inquisitive eyes. I'm descending the flank of a majestic mountain or hiding from the sun in a drainpipe to eat spoonfulls of peanut butter. I'm waking up staring at the Tetons and knocking frost from the walls of my tent. I'm telling some cowboy about why we ended up in their little mining town in the middle of Wyoming, or believe it or not, riding alongside a group of wild horses as they run with me in the high, treeless desert.

Goodnight for now all...Jake