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

Wild Horses...Wyoming desert

Antelope in the Wyoming desert...

Aspen Alley...Nearing the Colorado border...

no trees, no shade, just high Wyoming desert...

Preparing for a night session...

Tetons from afar...

Montana singletrack...

First Day, Montana wilderness

A quick stop in pinedale, WY

To those who have been trying to follow us, we apologize for our lack of updates. We wake up eat, ride, sleep and do it again. We are busy and we try to manage our time well in order to get the miles we want. Right now I am losing time on my bike. I will ride later into the night this evening. This trip has been going well. We are one day behind on our ambitious schedule. The reason for this is a package. We had to wait for a package in Lima, MT. We were scheduled to get there on a Sunday and of course we could not get the pakage until monday. We took a rest/injury day in Wise River, MT knowing that we had this extra time in our hands due to the package. My knee was and still is bothering me a bit because my seat was too low. Who cares, I can rest it later, we have to get down the road right? Thats what we're doing.

The temps are slowly falling as we get deeper into fall. The mornings are the coldest so we have changed our plan a bit by riding later into the night and rising a bit later, waiting for the sun to rise. The land that we have covered has been gorgeous. The turning of the leaves is in progress and we have had epic views from the passes we have climbed. We'll give you all some more info later.

Thanks to Roy and Casey for getting us up to our starting point in Rooseville,MT. Dave and Rosana thanks for helping with the drops, and everyone in Tahoe thanks, you've been helping us since who knows when. Looking forward to Colorado. gotta go south. Duncan

Welcome!

Look here for news from Jake and Duncan as they make their way south. Stay tuned...