The real Divide

[jameso]

A fantastic trip report from MTBR, Scott Morris and Eszter Horanyi riding the CDT over a period of a few months -

http://forums.mtbr.com/passion/longest- ... 38810.html





Worth a read..

[mountainbaker]

I heard about this a few months ago, and have been awaiting a report, thanks for posting. Some friends of mine walked it NoBo a few years ago, looked incredible!

[Richpips]

Looks a proper tough route that.

[jameso]

Looks like really hard going. The GR5 route we did was very much a carry, ride, push.. ride a bit of amazing singletrack, back to pushing again.. sort of trip, but 20% of the distance. Doing the full CDT is just off the scale. The scenery though .. looks amazing.

[Alpinum]

Read about that on Pinkbike. Stunning, absolutely stunning.
That's how the TD should be.
But probably quite complex routing and getting your bits and pieces together.

@jameso: doff my hat.
I walked Lake Geneva - Menton mostly on the GR5 (high level routes and GR56 through the Mercantour) this September. There were some really nice trails, but often they were in the national parks - no biking.
I love technical riding and have to carry/push my bike on just about every bike trip into the mountains, but I didn't really miss my bike on the GR5...
I guess I hardly would be twice as fast with my bike. We hiked 25-35 km a day which would end up in 2000-2500 m climbing and descending. That was for 26 days. Trying to do that in 13 days would probably cripple me.

[jameso]

Alpinum, agreed, I'd like to walk it one day too. There's a really nice and pretty simple bike-legal trail going through the Mercantour park and we used the Bonette road climb and descent to get through another area of national park. So we didn't ride the GR5 100%, used the GR56 in places also and we did divert off the GR5 a fair bit, usually following trails that just looked more fun then working our way back onto it or avoiding carrying downhill. Mainly after the first few days of excessive HAB .. also too many Piste VTT distractions and no GPS, just maps. It's a great base-line for a route though. There's a few spots that I remember as some of the best riding of my life, the Crete Gites after the Col Bonhomme and the sunset descent from the Col Fromage to Ceilac on that drifty white powder trail.

would probably cripple me.

2 of us destroyed our SPD shoes and finished the ride with gaffer tape holding the soles on.

Makes me appreciate how tough riding the whole CDT must be though, riding the GDMTBR isn't tough because of the terrain but it's still a fairly huge distance, and I expect the CDT is longer in reality?

[Alpinum]

You may rest assured, there are still many highlights you'll have missed cycling - just as many biking highlights you miss when you walk it

I did often see myself riding those long downhills...

The CDT is something round about 5000 km. With the detours you'll have to take due to restricted (bike) wilderness areas and the shortcuts you take out of the same reason, I'd guess it's roughly a draw...(?).
I guess it'd be a solid 45 days or so if slightly focussed on time.
I guess the Colorado trail race route is only a small part of that beast... Yeah, that'd be a couple of shoes...

We awalked through a pair of inov-8. Same goes for my last years traverse of Iceland on foot. Bike shoes will be worse, even those with a less stiffer sole.
Just imagine what the cleat will look like...

I practically went through a set of crankbro cleats on the HTR'13.

There's this nice story; I reached Fort Bill at probably nine or ten in the evening, regularly slipping out of the pedals when setting up for sharp off road turns. Then I see guys still at work at nevis cycles. I knock at the door and one of them opens. I ask if they're working on their own bikes - 'yes'. Then he asks me how he can help. I ask for CB cleats and we chat about the upcoming WC and riding in the region. By the time I had dropped in, they had gathered that there was a bike packing race going on. He gave me a bar for free -'see it as sponsoring' he said. Great guys.

Trail magic for bikers

[Alpinum]

Scott and Eszter rode 6000 km. It's close to the end of the article.
some 152 400 m climb. 1524 m climb on 60 km distance. Gosh...

They're surely strong and experienced riders. Still it took them 112 days.

[jameso]

HTRs rep for HAB continues :) wonder if Nevis Cycles will become the HTRs equivalent of The Outdoorsman.

Think I'd take flats,and boots for anything like that next time.

[Alpinum]

HTRs rep for HAB continues :)

wonder if Nevis Cycles will become the HTRs equivalent of The Outdoorsman.

Think I'd take flats,and boots for anything like that next time.

The Outdoorsman? GDR?

Yeah, good question... Being stubborn, I'd probably stick with clip less - only to feel sorry for myself after 10 days...