raydog

I"m considering riding about 500 miles of this trail, starting somewhere south of the Canadian border. Bivy bag camping when I can't get to a motel, etc. Carry everything in a back pack so super light.
I ride a Cannondale Team Scalpel so it's a pretty light x/c bike. Has anyone done a northern portion of this route (Montana/Wyoming)? Thanks for any input....so far my biggest concern is Grizzley @ the border so I might start 100-200 south!

Daspydyr 

Sounds great! Never been up there but looking forward to what you might experience. Grizzly are a real concern. Keep you decisions posted.

Are you part of the Reno group that rode the Pony Express trail this summer?

corvuscorvax

Did Polebridge to Helena solo in 2010. Don't worry too much about the griz. As long as you keep a clean camp and hang your food, they are unlikely to bother with you. They come with the territory, but you're much more likely to die of hypothermia. That having been said, I had one close encounter with a griz and one with a mountain lion on my trip, although neither amounted to anything other than a little adrenaline.

For detailed route info, do get the Adventure Cycling maps. They also have free downloads of GPS waypoints, which are very handy.

raydog

Small world! I didn't ride it this time (I'm a teacher and it was the second week of school) BUT my good friend Rich Staley (owner of Great Basin Bicycles here in Reno)did and he's still talking about it. I'll join him in two years since that's my retirement date.

raydog

Thanks for that info....I just got a Garmin Edge 800 so that should be awesome for navigation. I rode the Bicycle Tour of Colorado last June and even with a good mummy AND full tent....I froze... so this latest travel brainstorm/challange should be at least as cold (in Colorado we actually rode through a blizzard @ 12,000 ft on the peak to peak hwy).

vik 

+1 - bears are not a concern with minimal precautions. Bears aren't keen to mess with you as long as you don't give them a compelling reason to do so.

raydog

You know how, if you buy a Miata, you suddenly see that the roads are full of them? Well, since I thought up this adventure idea, yesterday I ran across a book entitled "Bear Attacks" and this morning I just watched two hours on Nat Geo channel about mountain lions! Although I'm excited to "try myself on" as a solo adventurer....I might best be served if I hook up with a partner for this experience, someone in similar condition. As we, as cyclists, progress into planning for these things, the complexity increases! (and the fun as well)

vik 

Not a bad idea. Having read quite a few GDR reports the #1 reason for failure was simply mental. Trying something too ambitious, getting worked up about something [weather, distance, bears, climbs, etc...] and not being able to recalibrate back to normal. Having someone to share the experience with and being flexible about your goals would go a long way to resolving anything that crops up.

I'm not worried about grizzly bears because I spent most of my adult life riding and camping in grizzly country. I've run into my fair share of bears. It's anti-climatic. Just be reasonable about how you deal with cooking/eating and food storage. Carry bear spray and some bear bangers where you can get at them on your bike.

Here is a quote from wikipedia:

"According to Taylor Y. Cardall MD and Peter Rosen MD, in their article "Grizzly Bear Attack" published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, there were 162 bear-inflicted injuries reported in the United States between 1900 and 1985. This constitutes approximately two reported bear-inflicted injuries per year.[1] Likewise, Stephen Herrero, a Canadian biologist, reports that during the 1990s bears killed people in the U.S. and Canada, or around three people a year, as compared to the 15 people killed every year by dogs.[2] Multiple reports remark that one is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be attacked by a bear when outdoors; around 90 people are killed by lightning each year."

On a lot of the GDR I'd be more worried about being hit by a car/truck than attacked by a bear.

raydog

Excellent points, thanks for puting it in perspective! Maybe I will start at the border...basically, I'm thinking the actual waypoints will be determined by access to ANY kind of lodging, including campsites.

corvuscorvax

Word. I ran into one guy on my trip who had just completely freaked out after a couple of days on the trail. Was trying to ride it on a Long-Haul Trucker, and had vastly underestimated the difficulties.

Raydog, I would be much more worried about your plan to do the trip with a bivy and what you can carry in a small backpack. Let me ask: do you have experience backcountry touring that would give you confidence that you could make this work?

catmandew52

Great blog at https://outsideforever.com/divide/ on the GD trail.
If you are going to worry about bears, then you might as well worry about clear air lightning strikes too.

raydog

No horntooting here about how manly I am....having said that, I am a 64 year old Viet Nam vet Marine, have riden 120-200 miles weekly for last 3 years(year round), am not a trained survivalist but expert handgun shot, decent bike mechanic, and retired innercity cop....more self description sounds like like a big brag so I'll end this with I'm also quite durable and hardy! I am concerned with the level of gear required, last year I started out across Nevada (roadie) with a Bob trailer and ended up sending half my crud home at a distant post office! If I end up doing this alone, I would rent a SATphone. I don't have enough solo/wilderness travel experience to truthfully speak in depth to the gear required for days "outback". BTW thank you for bringing this up (and everybody elses input as well...it brings me to a much higher level of reality about the magnitude of the journey).

raydog

I forgot to say, I am 65 in June '12 and it would be in late June.

corvuscorvax

You go, dude. I think the bears should probably worry about you.

I saw guys on the trail who were traveling with very little, and moving very fast. It can certainly be done. Myself, I travel heavy. Nothing like having fresh cheese and single malt in the middle of nowhere, but that is purely a matter of personal style.

Have you considered a personal locator beacon instead of a sat phone? Very expensive, but probably less expensive than a sat phone and more useful in a pinch. (I know I'm probably opening up a can of worms here, but don't go with the Spot. Cheap substitute.)

samburger

Reports like this always give me a good laugh. Do you suppose these statistics would remain true if there were as many bears in any given neighborhood as dogs?

Not trying to discredit research...from what I've heard bears aren't nearly as aggressive as Hollywood would have us believe, but comparing bear attacks to dog attacks is ridiculous IMO.

raydog

Thanks Corvus! That PLB and the SARSAT system look like the solution for rescues in the middle of nowhere. I'm cking into it and will report back (including rental possibilities).

electrik

Bears are funny, so much depends on where, when and how you encounter them. Given the proper combination of above, you may get attacked or nothing may happen at all. That is how it goes dealing with a wild animal.

Some back-country bears can be curious, others afraid. I do think an attack is rare, but the numbers have actually been increasing lately. Perhaps because of more bush travel and food pressures from climate change. I argued in another thread that carrying pepper spray in the bush doesn't seem paranoid, but somehow people think pepper spray on a bicycle ride through areas with loose dogs is paranoid. Weird.

Odds are you'll have a dangerous encounter with **** sapien and not ursus horribilis.

corvuscorvax

Does the anti-swear software actually bleep out "**** sapien"? How ****ed up is that?

samburger

EDIT: Fun fact...when you try to link the Wiki page for the word **** (a word used in various ways to describe the human genus), it directs you to the Wiki page for 'For Letter Words", because the censor software changes the page from the actual word to four stars

Daspydyr 

IMO due to the remoteness of the trail (The attraction and the danger) I would travel prepared. Nothing worse than suddenly realizing that what you need is a large caliber pistol, pepper spray or medical supplies. Might be my old Boy Scout days surfacing, but Be Prepared has served me well over time. The Bear situation has changed since 1985. The trail you are riding is not getting pressure from developers. But this is where Predators call home and bike riders can seem to be fleeing prey.

Daspydyr 

We don't mean to be overly PC, but we are slaves to technology. You can get creative with symbols, but then you risk having a Moderator stalking you. Then again, this is the mountain biking thread, pretty loose bunch around here.

corvuscorvax

Ut quid scriptum latine censor. Vos nunquam teneo ut *** quis experimentum labi "santorum" praeterque filter.

corvuscorvax

Well, at least the rules are homogeneous.

colorider

Make sure to find a partner slower than you. A little added bear country insurance you know

raydog

OMG, that is funny!