My name is Trystan, and this trip is my brainchild....
But in all seriousness, it's a bit challenging and daunting to begin a blog, a shameful rant sent into cyberspace...to be read by...errr...anyone? Regardless though, I suppose, as with any good story, one must start at the beginning...
The idea for this trip was born just over 5 years ago, in the small Sherpa village of Phortse at 4000 m elevation, in the Solokumbu region of Nepal. I was teaching English at the time with my brother at a small elementary school there during the pre-monsoon season. Some of the climbers heading to Base Camp camp would have stopped off at the guesthouse where we were staying, and one of them must have dropped of a yuppie copy of Outside Magazine. And on one fateful May afternoon, after a long day teaching undoubtedly subsidized by coconut cookies and milk tea, I stumbled upon this magazine, and more specifically, an article outlining the 5 greatest bike trips of all time. That is when I first read about the Great Divide Mountain bike route: the longest off-pavement route in the world, that follows the spine of the Rocky Mountains from Banff, Alberta through BC, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and finishes in Antelope Wells, New Mexico...some 4400 kms and 60,000 m of cumulative elevation gain later.
The Trip promptly made it to the 'List of Must-Do Adventures' in the back of my journal, where it lay dormant through an Engineering Degree, some work in the Arctic, Vancouver and travelling in New Zealand, until a Saturday afternoon in November of this past year. Over a casual beer with my Kiwi flatmate Grant, I casually pitched him the idea of embarking on this trip as he had been getting itchy to spread his wings in an 'overseas' trip, but he wanted to do something epic, crazy and memorable. Something a little different than the standard Overseas Experience, or OE as they say here...
But I had been pitching this trip to various people over the past couple of years, and there was always the 'yeah, that would be epic', or 'can you imagine?' or 'are you crazy?'...but this time was different, Grant said 'I'm in', and I knew he was serious. Now I should add that Kiwi's are a pretty 'straight-up' people, and they call a spade a spade, so I knew he was rock solid. I should also add, that while Grant had been racing as a roadie for years, my debut into the word of cycling happened just some 4 months prior and everything about me screamed 'hack'. What I lacked in riding experience though, I knew I could make up in wilderness experience.
So we had a team of two. And we had the will. And everything else just fall into place right? But wait a tick, oh yeah, we were both working full time as engineers for a power company, how could we take that amount of time off? And again, in typical Kiwi fashion Grant pitched the idea to his boss immediately on the Monday morning...for my Canadian personality though, it wasn't quite so easy. Asking my boss seemed as embarrassing as asking out a really hot girl, one that you knew the chances were stacked against you...but, with a bit of gumption it just sort of came out and with a bit of time, we were both given conditional-'go-ahead' which we were (are) very grateful for.
So then, a couple questions still needed to be answered, first off, when? We knew it had to be in the North American summer, and the preferred direction seemed to be south....so we'd have to leave late enough to allow for most of the snow to melt in the high passes of Colorado, but not leave too late by hitting the derailleur-breaking sticky bad weather in New Mexico. So we planned for July-August as the ideal time....
And then, how long should we take? After a bit of research, the route has been raced in 15 days and change, and the 'suggested' riding days by the guidebook is about 67...so, we knew we didn't want to race it, but we had limited time at our disposal, and we wanted to plan for lots of 'rest days' to climb mountains, go fishing and do other things to take advantage of the surrounds....so we narrowed in on about 50 riding days and 10ish rest days.....making for average days of about 90 kms with a little over 1000 metres of climbing....yikes. But, as they say in NZ ...'she'll be right'.
And finally, who else? Other potentials were my good friend Pablo and my brother John, neither of which could make the timing of this adventure in the end. But my two cousins Simon and Ben were both keen as...and so was a good friend Ryan....So with 2 to start, and potential numbers up to 7, the final number is now at 5 (we'll, 4-1/2 but I'll get to that).
So just who are these jokers that think they can do this anyways? Stay tuned to find out....
But in all seriousness, it's a bit challenging and daunting to begin a blog, a shameful rant sent into cyberspace...to be read by...errr...anyone? Regardless though, I suppose, as with any good story, one must start at the beginning...
The idea for this trip was born just over 5 years ago, in the small Sherpa village of Phortse at 4000 m elevation, in the Solokumbu region of Nepal. I was teaching English at the time with my brother at a small elementary school there during the pre-monsoon season. Some of the climbers heading to Base Camp camp would have stopped off at the guesthouse where we were staying, and one of them must have dropped of a yuppie copy of Outside Magazine. And on one fateful May afternoon, after a long day teaching undoubtedly subsidized by coconut cookies and milk tea, I stumbled upon this magazine, and more specifically, an article outlining the 5 greatest bike trips of all time. That is when I first read about the Great Divide Mountain bike route: the longest off-pavement route in the world, that follows the spine of the Rocky Mountains from Banff, Alberta through BC, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and finishes in Antelope Wells, New Mexico...some 4400 kms and 60,000 m of cumulative elevation gain later.
The Trip promptly made it to the 'List of Must-Do Adventures' in the back of my journal, where it lay dormant through an Engineering Degree, some work in the Arctic, Vancouver and travelling in New Zealand, until a Saturday afternoon in November of this past year. Over a casual beer with my Kiwi flatmate Grant, I casually pitched him the idea of embarking on this trip as he had been getting itchy to spread his wings in an 'overseas' trip, but he wanted to do something epic, crazy and memorable. Something a little different than the standard Overseas Experience, or OE as they say here...
But I had been pitching this trip to various people over the past couple of years, and there was always the 'yeah, that would be epic', or 'can you imagine?' or 'are you crazy?'...but this time was different, Grant said 'I'm in', and I knew he was serious. Now I should add that Kiwi's are a pretty 'straight-up' people, and they call a spade a spade, so I knew he was rock solid. I should also add, that while Grant had been racing as a roadie for years, my debut into the word of cycling happened just some 4 months prior and everything about me screamed 'hack'. What I lacked in riding experience though, I knew I could make up in wilderness experience.
So we had a team of two. And we had the will. And everything else just fall into place right? But wait a tick, oh yeah, we were both working full time as engineers for a power company, how could we take that amount of time off? And again, in typical Kiwi fashion Grant pitched the idea to his boss immediately on the Monday morning...for my Canadian personality though, it wasn't quite so easy. Asking my boss seemed as embarrassing as asking out a really hot girl, one that you knew the chances were stacked against you...but, with a bit of gumption it just sort of came out and with a bit of time, we were both given conditional-'go-ahead' which we were (are) very grateful for.
So then, a couple questions still needed to be answered, first off, when? We knew it had to be in the North American summer, and the preferred direction seemed to be south....so we'd have to leave late enough to allow for most of the snow to melt in the high passes of Colorado, but not leave too late by hitting the derailleur-breaking sticky bad weather in New Mexico. So we planned for July-August as the ideal time....
And then, how long should we take? After a bit of research, the route has been raced in 15 days and change, and the 'suggested' riding days by the guidebook is about 67...so, we knew we didn't want to race it, but we had limited time at our disposal, and we wanted to plan for lots of 'rest days' to climb mountains, go fishing and do other things to take advantage of the surrounds....so we narrowed in on about 50 riding days and 10ish rest days.....making for average days of about 90 kms with a little over 1000 metres of climbing....yikes. But, as they say in NZ ...'she'll be right'.
And finally, who else? Other potentials were my good friend Pablo and my brother John, neither of which could make the timing of this adventure in the end. But my two cousins Simon and Ben were both keen as...and so was a good friend Ryan....So with 2 to start, and potential numbers up to 7, the final number is now at 5 (we'll, 4-1/2 but I'll get to that).
So just who are these jokers that think they can do this anyways? Stay tuned to find out....
you guys are living the dream man!! some amazing photos there!! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYou'll be pleased to know that nothing major has changed in Taupo. Has been fricken cold! like minus 4 a couple of nights. James is trianing hard, Nancy has had some weird face swelling allergy, we've all had flu, Marianne heads home in 1 week and then I follow for 2 wks at the end of July.
Off to Bond Bar for Dan Gortons 30th tonight.
look after those muscles, Quads, Hammies, Calves, Back - plenty of massage and stretching at the end of the day aye!!
Andy
hope you've got some garlic and wasabi handy!
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