Wrapping up in Scotland

The crew wrapped up our Glasgow-to-Inverness bikepacking (or expedition biking as they call it here) trip this evening, although I made it here last evening via taxi for a quick visit to the ER to get a dislocated finger x-rayed and reset. The riding and weather has mostly been incredible, and we made friends with some great people along the way, including the members of the Scottish band North Sea Gas, Tour Divide fan/bikepacking enthusiast Iona (who tracked us down via our SPOT), a few colorful cyclotourists...the list goes on. We're spending the night at a hostel in Inverness before heading back to Glasgow tomorrow to continue on with this adventure. Also in town tonight are Simple Minds and Lance Armstrong. Imagine that.

Along the Great Glen Way

None with four leaves?

Enjoying a quick dose of mid-afternoon caffeine

Loch Lochy (and no, it doesn't mean Lakey Lake)

Iona rode with us for a bit on her Salsa Fargo (accompanied by her gopher friend) before continuing on with her own weekend bikepacking trip

Hunter days the afternoon's food supply

Uhrlach Castle on Loch Ness

Hmm. It looked worse than it was.

I managed to be crash-free on all the trails, but put us on a road through a town and accidents happen. Freak accidents. Like the webbing loop on the waist strap of Matthew's Osprey backpack waving in the wind on a descent and snaring my bar end as I rode next to him. I think we had 2 seconds to coordinate a solution before my front wheel got ripped out from beneath me. Hunter and Mike are quite pleased that they managed to catch all the aftermath on film, including the doctor getting the bone back in place, me screaming, and then me putting on a show while sucking down the laughing gas.

Scotland

The crew spent the past few days riding the West Highland Way route up across the Scottish Highlands. Filming definitely throws off the riding rhythm to which Matthew and I have become accustomed, and the miles and technical nature of riding has been tough on Hunter and Mike, so we've been making the necessary adjustments to accomodate all we can. Last night, mechanical and timing issues forced a short train ride for half the group, giving Matthew and I the chance to rip the last 50 miles of the trail into Fort William, though it meant we only could squeeze in a few hours of sleep. But the sensations of riding across the moorlands below peaks silhouetted against the full moon or the faint orange glow of twilight until the wee hours of the morning will not be soon forgotten.

Now we're off to pedal to along Loch Ness and on to Inverness. Here are a few photos of the riding so far...

And follow our trail at Trackleaders.

The first few steps

Filming for The Path began this past weekend with a quick shakedown overnighter in the Colorado Rockies. We learned a lot about the pace of riding while filming, how much camera equipment can reasonably be taken, and thought long and hard about what gear we need to bring along for 5 weeks of riding and traveling abroad.

Not a bad place to wake up in the morning, aside from the thin air at 11,000'. In a few weeks, we'll probably be longing for that much oxygen while far higher in Nepal.

Sunset over the Cochetopa Hills

Hunter in a sea of wildflowers beneath a vibrant morning sun

Matthew fixing a flat after slicing a sidewall on a seemingly never ending descent

After unpacking and repacking all my gear for a third time, waffling on what bike to bring, and swapping out most of the components after settling on my Spearfish, I think I might just be set for our departure for Scotland tomorrow morning.

The adventure continues

No time for too many words describing the Tour Divide adventure this time around. I've been back in Boulder for a couple days after meeting Caroline at Antelope Wells on Saturday evening, but processing all that went on in the past few weeks is going to take a bit longer. I'm still dumbfounded at how far, fast, and long Jefe and I were able to ride each day (and even more so that he did it with only one gear...). The toll on the body during the race was huge, but it's recovered quite quickly, and now I really only have two tired legs and one slightly achy Achilles.

Tomorrow morning, Mike Dion, Hunter Weeks, Matthew Lee, and I head off on the next adventure, beginning in the Colorado mountains for a quick shakedown before heading off to bikepack across Scotland, through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the thin air of Nepal, and the rugged coastline of Alaska. The other guys also have some amazing riding planned in the French Alps while I spend a week at a conference in Bern (I really should probably do something work-related for at least a week this summer...). I hope I have everything packed that I might need for all that. And I also must mention that I owe Joe DePaemelaere of Primus Mootry a huge thanks for dropping everything and fixing some severe chainsuck-induced frame damage that needed repairing prior to our departure.

So I'll leave you with some of my favorite photos from the Divide.

Caroline at the start. Think she ever imagined that she was going to ride away with the women's race? Or finish with a broken rib?

Ben Oney riding along Spray Lake

Mucky Elk Pass

Evening storm clouds over Whitefish

Ethan Passant and I taking a quick break in the Swan River Range

Deep snow and swollen rivers characterized southern Canada and Montana this year

A beautiful place to wake up, high above Helena

Nearing the end of Montana

Ethan pedaling under a mid-day halo

A full moon rises over the Tetons on a very windy evening, some 15 hours into my rather unwise 37-hour push

The ever-enthusiastic Jefe Branham in southern Wyoming

Threatening evening skies over South Park, Colorado. A terrific lightning storm frightened me sufficiently that I spent the night sleeping beneath a camper.

Columnar basalt at the mouth of Carnero Canyon. I had hoped to get well beyond this the previous night, but the sleep monster gained the upper hand around midnight and I was forced to sleep not too far below the pass.

Jefe in Abiquiu: Where the heck am I supposed to put all this food and water?

Sunrise over the Jemez Mountains was a welcome sight after Jefe and I had already been riding for several dark hours.

Deep in the Gila and already out of food for several hours, Jefe picks crumbs out of his bag. Running out of water only made the situation even more dire...

The southern border! Our mission completed, we were almost immediately asked, "So are you guys going to do it again?" I think that's a question for another month. We really pushed the envelope this year, in terms of sleep deprivation and body degradation, much farther than I thought it could be pushed, and I'm left wondering what it would have taken to ride more than a few hours faster. I'm really looking forward to seeing a few other headbangers time trial the route later this summer and seeing how many hours they can knock off the record.