Hi all.  Welcome - this is a bit of an experiment for me.  After I decided to leave Massachusetts for Boulder Colorado, my life has taken some unexpected turns.  I've recently begun to lean into my newfound freedom.

In exactly three weeks I'll be jumping on my bike in Canmore, Alberta to ride the length of Adventure Cycling Association's Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR).

This route is an epic ride through some of the most remote and unspoiled sections of America's mountain west - or so I've heard.  It measures around 2,800 miles with 150,000 feet of elevation gain.  The route traverses the country through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico where it ends at a small border outpost in Antelope Wells.

Riding surfaces run the gamut of paved roads, dirt roads, doubletrack and 4x4 trails, and singletrack.  Given the length and purported remoteness, I'm suspicious of how well these roads and trails are maintained.

To tackle this wide range of conditions, I'll be riding a bike I built up over the past winter - a Tumbleweed Stargazer.  I call it my "hybrid" bike as it's somewhere between a gravel bike and a mountain bike.  In the past several months I've ridden it all over the hills and flatlands of Boulder on many of the same surfaces as the GDMBR (I hope!)  It also performed admirably on the White Rim trail in Moab.

There will be about thirty other riders on the tour.  Some of them will be riding smaller sections of the trail, but many will be with me until we reach Mexico.  The tour organizers are providing meals and booking accomodations for us - an area where I normally fly by the seat of my pants - so it'll be nice to focus only on riding.

With three weeks to go I'm collecting the final clothing, spare parts, and travel equipment I'll need.  I'm also training as much as I can!

I'll plan to post updates here, some additional pictures on Instagram, and some videos on YouTube - if I can manage it all.

This ride is sure to be nothing like anything I've ever done before.  I've been dreaming of an epic journey like this for years.  I expect to finish the ride but there's no telling what I'll find on the trail.