It’s a short video I did while biking to show the scenery around us for those last miles of dirt road. The speech is in French but due to the wind you can’t get most of it anyway ;-) enjoy the landscapes !!!

[Great Divide - La fin du voyage][] from [Marc-Aurele Brothier][] on [Vimeo][]. Le dernier bout de chemin en gravier avant les 60 miles sur route pour aller à Antelope Wells [Great Divide - La fin du voyage]: http://vimeo.com/5778825 [Marc-Aurele Brothier]: http://vimeo.com/user655055 [Vimeo]: http://vimeo.com more ...

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This is the third of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to Mountain Bike the Continental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. 

Day 5: Eureka – Upper Whitefish Lake (68 miles)

Day five was a significant turning point for me. I felt healthy, fit and my stomach was felling a lot better.

The first part of today’s route was on pavement and we made fairly quick progress over the first 20 miles before the real climbing began. As we progressed upwards towards the Whitefish Divide I took it slowly but chose to keep going rather than stop for short breaks. As a result I was the first to arrive at the top of the divide and sat watching a bear high up on the hill as I waited for the others.

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”Decent from the Whitefish Divide”][/caption]

The decent from the Whitefish Divide was fantastic and we made swift progress down towards the Ford Work Center before starting the next big climb up towards Red Meadow Lake. By the time we ...

[caption id=”attachment_297” align=”aligncenter” width=”550” caption=”Screenshot of the SPOT tracker page”][][][/caption]

I’ve been following the SPOT on and off for most of the day following Simon and Marco’s progress as they have made their way from Silver City across the desert to Separ, along the dirt track parallel to Highway 10 down to Hachita and then south down the 47 longest miles in the world in the heat to the Mexican border.

At 12.28h (New Mexico Time) 19.28 (GMT) they made it to the Antelope Wells and the Mexican Border. In doing so completing nearly 3000 miles of cycling from Banff, Canada in just over five weeks.

Well done guys! Hoe you enjoyed the beers!

[]: /images/2009/07/Antelope-Wells.jpg

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This is the second of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to Mountain Bike the Continental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. 

I arrived late in Banff and in hindsight I should have had a days rest and preparation before heading out on the trail. Instead, after I arrived I stayed up late and with the help of the Simon and Marco put my bike and trailer together and sorted out our equipment.

Day 1: Banff - Chester Lake Trailhead (43 miles)

Before starting the route I posted my bike bag and a few things that I didn’t need on to Phoenix, Arizona. As with previous trip I posted my stuff to the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Phoenix. Quite often people don’t know that you can do this but actually as long as you are not in hurry for your package to arrive, Greyhound is a pretty reliable service for parcels and they specialise in taking oversized and overweight packages (like bike bags).

We eventually got started at 10am – the first day did not go well for ...

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Thisis the first of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to Mountain Bike theContinental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

It’s been a week since I stopped cycling atthe end of my Canada to Mexico Mountain Bike Trip down the Continental Divide. The week has gone very quickly mainly because I had to get to Phoenix, Arizona and then back to the UK ready to start work.

During my commutes around Scotland over the last couple of days I’ve been pulling together my thoughts on the expedition, writing up my diary and trying my best to catalogue photographs. In the meantime Simon and Marco have still been battling on with the fierce New Mexico climate and terrain in a bid to make it to Antelope Wells and the end of their journey. All being well they should get to the end tomorrow (Saturday 25^th^) and I wish them the best of luck and some strong tail winds!

In the next series of posts I will catalogue my experience of the trail, the
route, details ...

We are in Silver City, around 120 miles to go to Antelope Wells so we will be done by tomorrow. It’s sad it’s so soon the end but at the same time I’m happy to think I’ll be able to do something else than just riding every day. I have to catch up with sonme many emails, and you’re all waiting for the pictures which I never forgot to take every single day! Even if I’m riding fast ;-) I’m taking pictures all the time so they could catch up with me …

We are almost at the border - 130 hot miles to go. Please visit the Charity page on this site and make a donation to charity if you’ve enjoyed reading about our journey. It really helps to keep me going through the pain, knowing that some good is coming from my efforts!

Thanks so much everyone for the messages of support - really appreciated. Next stop Antelope Wells and then on to Phoenix, where I promise we will get some pictures uploaded. Maybe they will inspire some of you guys to do something similar…..?!

I thought the road to Grants had been tough, but when Marco went on ahead to Pie Town (we heard that the grocery store closed at 3pm and we needed to stock up), I didn’t know that it would be so long until I saw him again.

My day started well, the legs felt fairly fresh and I seemed to be coping well with the climbing - a long steady uphill to make another Continental Divide crossing. After a short section on the highway, I turned into the West Malpais Wilderness, about which I had heard many horror stories. The track was surprisingly good and the first 20 miles passed very quickly.

With less than 10 miles to go to the highway, I got my first flat tyre. I sat down at the side of the trail and got it fixed, had a bite to eat and got back on my way. Less than 2 miles later, the bike was back upside down as I had ripped a hole in the tyre. That, and the resulting puncture fixed, I got back on my way ...

Simon had to get a ride today to Albuquerque since he had different problems with his bike. I don’t know the details since we weren’t biking together (I was trying to make it to Pie town before 3pm to get some food… which I did). So we will meet again in Silver City tomorrow evening or the day after.

I found a new challenge for me, to make it to Silver City in one day… 180 miles and a few climbs of course. Stay tune on the live tracking to see if I’ll make it or not ;-) I’ll start early tomorrow morning in the dark with the food I have left…

The story of how I got the news about Simon in a town without any mobile reception, is simply: the Spot device! Simon’s dad contacted different people here to forward me the news when he spotted me in Pie town, looking for the shops & services next to where I was. I was really starting to wonder where Simon was…

Since I started the trip I mostly enjoyed every day without suffering much compared to Simon (and Ollie for the time he spent with us). But New-Mexico is something different! I left Simon who wanted to make a shorter day for his calf muscle after Platoro and I biked all the way up to La Manga Pass, arriving at the top before 9pm. I spent the night with a family camping a mile out of the road who offered me beers, chicken, hot-dogs… A dream night before what I can call my hardest days!

The day afte started with a turn I missed and ended up doing a few extra miles and climbs for “free”… Then I had to push my bike a few hundred meters for the first time.. grrr I was upset! And then, with the rough road my bike computer reset itself twice in the middle of check points on the map. It was such a bad day… I was so angry! And for the happening of the day, I biked hard to make it to El Rito for the night ...