The BikeFam Blog

Jon & Carla's Great Divide Mountain Bike Adventure
2006
(or, Two Tails on the Trail)

In 1998, we rode across the United States from Oregon to Virgina with our children, Jodie, age 15 and Todd, age 12. Read about our trip using the links below. Now the kids have grown up and left home, so we we are taking the dogs. This time it's a mountain bike trip through the Rocky Mountains, roughly following the continental divide, called the Great Divide route, mapped by Adventure Cycling. We are driving from our home in Gaylord, MI on July 29th for our starting point in Rooseville, MT, on the Canadian border. From there we will travel roughly 2470 miles to our destination of Antelope Wells, NM, on the Mexican border. The route will be about 85% dirt and gravel roads, 10% pavement and 5% singletrack trails. We will carry all of our gear for camping in two "BOB" trailers, plus panniers. We hope to average about 40 miles a day and have three months to complete the trip. Lander and Afton, our English Cockers will run about 20 miles per day and ride in the trailers the rest of the time. We will experience wilderness, scenery and wildlife. There will be many hard times, but many exhilerating m

oments as well. Why do we do this? Because God has given us a wonderful country and this is the best way to be thankful for it.

We will be posting blogs as often as we can get on the internet at a library. Check in frequently to see how we are doing. Feel free to post a comment as well. We'd love to share our trip with you.

Jon and Carla Elenz,
Lander and Afton (aka, Two Tails)

PHOTOS We will be posting photos periodically from the road. Check back often. Be sure to scroll to the bottom for the latest ones.

FAQ Everything you've always wanted
to know about bike touring.

ARTICLES ABOUT US
Summit Daily News article

Go Blue

This entry was posted on 8/31/2006 12:46 PM and is filed under uncategorized.

"Life is like riding a bicycle--for every up theres a down and for every down theres an up"--me after about 10 hours in the saddle

Aug 29 27.6 miles to Kozy USFS campground
First thing this morning at t he camp, they fed the ducks and geese right by our sight. Drove Afton crazy. Spent the morning in Jackson. Hit a couple bike stores, had our bikes cleaned good. Blogged at the library and went out to lunch. Left town about 1:00. Climbing out of Jackson hole, following the Hoback River--very pretty, wide and rocky bottom and clear. Saw an eagle crusing up the river, looking for fish for dinner. But the biggest surprise of all--we were riding along and all of a sudden came upon a University of Michigan sign right in front of a big metal moose, for some reason. (for those who don't know, we are both UofM Alumni and so are Jodie and Nik). Umm, I think we took a wrong turn. It was the UM Geological Station, where geology students can come to study--looks like it has a nice classroom building and small cabins for the students. So, Nik, Go Blue, here in Wyoming.

Aug 30 51.4 miles to Pinedale, WYO (private campground)
Pushed for a long day, but it was all paved and only one semi-major climb. Strong cross wind almost blew us off the road at times. Todd should be home from Europe by now. Welcome home! Jodie and Nik are leaving tomorrow for a bike trip down the coast of California-Nik's first. Have fun.

We will probably be out of communication for a good week. We will be entering the Great Divide Basin--an anomoly of the Continental Divide. It is a big roundish hole in the middle of Wyoming where the waters flow neither to the Pacific nor Atlantic Oceans. The only place in the whole US. Instead, they flow inward to the basin. The CD actually splits and goes around either side of it. Look it up on a map. We rode across it 8 years ago. It is dry, barren, with nothing but sagebrush and antelope. We may have to carry water for several days (8 gallons or more). We will try to blog again when we come out at Rawlins.