Memories of the Great Divide

By J. R. Patee

A memoir of two guys ride along the Continental Divide. Their route followed the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Banff Canada to the Mexican Border and is listed as the longest mountain bike ride in the world traversing the lower Canadian Rockies, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico ending at the border area of Antelope Wells

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. R. Patee
• Release date: Dec 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310216213

J. R. Patee

J. R. grew up in southern Idaho and Utah. He attended Colorado College for 2 1/2 years then worked for Outward Bound Schools in Texas as a logistics director. Moving to Alaska he graduated from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks with a degree in biological sciences and worked for 7 years in the biology field. Primarily he worked with researchers and native hunters studying the bowhead whales in northern Alaska. In 1982 in graduated in nursing and changed careers to nursing where he still works retiring from hospital work in 2010. Currently J. R. lives in Anchorage with his wife Jeanne and two cats. He is trying to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up.

Book preview

Memories of the

Great Divide

Rumination’s of a Bicycle Ride

~~~~~~~

J. R. Patee

Memories of the Great Divide

Ruminations of a Bicycle Ride

By J. R. Patee

Copyright 2013 J. R. Patee

Smashwords Edition

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Dedicated to

Jeanne Molitor

A very loving

and supportive wife

and

Joe Britton

who not only is a friend

but put up with me

for many long days.

Continental Divides of North America

Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

from Adventure Cycling Waypoints and Garmin GPS

Table of Contents

Introduction

Ideas

August 1, 2011, A short test run

Preparations

The Drive South

Departure Banff

Second Start

Helena MT-Victor, ID

Warm River Campground - Steamboat Springs

Steamboat Springs - Cuba, NM

Cuba - Antelope Wells

Epilogue

Appreciation

Footnotes

Introduction

I never intended to write the following story. The purpose of this trip wasn’t to create a book or even a story, but to undergo a journey. Journeys always seem to create stories and memories. Memories and previous occurrences in one’s life affects how you think, react, feel, and remember. One’s attitudes can change how you see and feel something.

I have usually kept a personal journal of various trips, but it was always scribbled notes just to remind me of the day and what was going on. When I returned from this trip the stories went on, and I thought maybe I should write these down in more detail, just to remember them later. Thus, I took my journal of only a few scribbled lines each night and expanded it from my memory. It is as with most stories created from my memory, they are notoriously inaccurate and often create something from nothing.

The following is the story as I remember it. It is my story and mine alone. Jeanne and Joe may have the same story or it may be a different version of the same story. They may look at it from a very different angle having had different life histories influencing their recollection of the story. I have a 63-year history of memories from my viewpoint, and claim this to be accurate, from my viewpoint, but memories of events vary for whatever reason. Joe, Jeanne and others involved have their viewpoints and are just as valid.

Ideas

It was a long, long, time ago, maybe 2006 or 2008, in a land far far away, (Anchorage, Alaska), there were two fellows, a geologist and a nurse, who were both approaching the zenith of their careers. They were looking to the future and to retirement, of some sort, whatever that meant. Both were a tad overweight, J. R. tipping the scale at occasionally obese (BMI greater than 30). Like most people they were trying to figure out what they wanted to do when they grew up.

Joe, trained as minerals geologist, worked as a vice president of a Canadian mining exploration company. His primary job was at an exploratory mine in northern Alaska. Every summer, for many years, he had spent working in a field camp out of Kotzebue, Alaska. He had spent most of his summers working in field camps, primarily Nevada and Alaska. He had a wife and two children, both entering college, when this plan evolved. Joe also had another adult child from a previous marriage.

J. R. works as a nurse, in Anchorage. His first career had been in biology working with Bowhead Whales on the North Slope of Alaska. J. R. had a love of the mountains and had done several trips and expeditions involving hiking, biking, climbing, and traveling. He did not marry until he was 41 years old, and has no children. He became interested in bike touring at age 14 during a trip to Yellowstone National Park. He talked with a cycling tour group, who were riding cross country. The next year he joined a self supported tour group for a month that toured Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Washington D.C. 15 years old, he travelled solo from Utah to Philadelphia on the train, riding his bike across Philadelphia to meet the group and trip leader who was 20 years old. His aunt Shirley had taken the train from Peoria, Illinois to meet him in Chicago for a change of trains on his return. She wrote about it later in a newspaper column she wrote in Peoria. The following is an excerpt:

I hadn't seen him since he was little and hardly a picture since. J.R. had been on a bicycle tour out East and he'd told me to look for a grubby kid with sleeping bags and stuff. I scrutinized every teenager getting off, discarding most immediately. One was smoking. No, it couldn't be him. Not grubby enough - not him. Maybe? I'd say, J.R? loudly, which brought on strange looks. When I saw him I knew. He belonged. The identifying thing he should have told me about was a blackened galvanized pail stuffed and overflowing. Nobody else had luggage like that. He explained it had served purposes such as washing dishes, feet and making lemonade.

I liked this adventurous and carefree J.R. He was such fun.

Times have changed. I am unsure if parents today would let their kids take off on such adventures. It changed me forever. Since then I have been on several group and solo tours, supported and unsupported. The last 20 years have found me exploring the mountain bike trails of Anchorage and southern Utah. J. R. was looking for something else to do.

The Great Divide Mountain Bike Ride (GDMBR) extends from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. It is listed as the worlds longest mountain bike ride and was created by the Adventure Cycling Association in the mid 1990s for those wanting a more wilderness off-road tour. The original goal was to stay within 50 miles of the great divide. Approximately 80% is dirt and gravel roads, with 10% pavement, and 10% single track. The GDMBR is not a single trail but pieced together sections of trails, logging, forest service, ranch roads, and if necessary paved roads. Adventure Cycling Association has put together seven maps which detail the 2750 mile route, and lists interesting sections and history along the way. The maps are necessary as there are no directional signs along the way. An example from one of the maps reads:

42.1 – Bear right onto gravel Elkhorn Rd., as the road going left (also gravel) leads to Indian Mountain. Road is wash boarded and wide.

43.0 – Cross cattleguard and head down into drainage.

45.1 – Continue on Elkhorn Rd., as Indian Rd./Co. Rd. 5696 goes left.

47.1 – Cattleguard; first Reinecker Ridge Rd. goes right. Many roads going left and right over next several miles (hopeful subdivision type roads).

49.8 – Continue straight uphill as Remington Rd. goes left to Elkhorn Ranch.

50.2 – Cross low watershed divide.

51.5 – Road going left to The Buffalo.

52.8 – Picturesque old log cabin on left.

53.9 – Continue straight over cattleguard. Antelope Ln. goes left.

56.8 – Wildwood Recreation Area on left.

57.2 – Playground/baseball diamond of South Park SportsCenter on left

61.9 – At T, turn right on US Highway 24. Narrow and potentially busy.

Some navigational skills are required. To make it more interesting, times and roads change. Trails become roads, dirt roads become paved, owners of private property decide they no longer want a road or trail through their land, and printed maps have a hard time keeping up. Adventure Cycling puts out tweets concerning updates and ask for corrections to update their maps every year or so.

For Joe’s sixtieth birthday (the minerals geologists), J. R. gave Joe the book,

Cycling the Great Divide.

From Canada to Mexico on America’s premier long-distance mountain bike ride

by Michael McCoy.

J. R. made a notation inviting Joe to accompany him on the trip on the GDMBR. Joe dismissed the idea quickly.

A few years later, in discussions about potential retirement, Joe inquired if J.R. was still interested in the GDMBR. J. R.’s response was, Absolutely, and they began planning and scheming for 2011. J. R. retired as a nurse at the hospital in June 2010, although he still works part time on an as-needed basis at a clinic. Joe though, was bribed extensively, by his company, and was not able to do the trip in 2011. Joe returned to the field camp the summer of 2011.

A 78 year old friend of Jeanne and J. R., when hearing of the plan said, Go as soon as possible, as every year it just gets harder. Warren Miller of ski movie fame said, If you don’t do it now, you will be another year older when you do. These words of wisdom drove Joe and J. R.

J. R. really wanted to go in 2011, and was disappointed when Joe was unable to go, so he made plans to ride the first part solo, as a test ride. J. R. departed Banff, Canada, on August 1, and rode 370 miles to Columbia Falls Montana. J.R.‘s sister, Barb lives in Columbia Falls. During the eight day trip, J. R. stayed in a motel twice, ate out three times, camped and enjoyed the wildness of the Northern Rockies, the rest of the time.

August 1, 2011, A short test run

I arrived at the head of the goat trail, in Banff to signs saying it was closed due to a dangerous bridge. I chose to ignore it, and rode off, with that usual feeling of what have I done?. I had seen too many closed signs, on trails meant only to protect the park, but were perfectly adequate for travel, or an alternate route was available. I felt good, but alone. Solo makes it a different trip, not bad but different. The biggest difference is one of a decreased margin of error. It is a calculated risk. I made it about 6 miles and came to the bridge which was three logs maybe one foot in diameter and approximately 10 feet above the water, with a foot of air between each one. The bridge was maybe 50-75 feet across. The original bridge had probably set on top of these logs. I decided to go for it, as I did not want to go all the way back down through Banff, around to Canmore, and up a very steep hill I had seen, a 20 plus mile detour. I decided to carry the bike across and balance on the log; in retrospect probably a bad decision. I got about halfway across and started to lose my balance. I began to run, jumped to the middle log, then