Dogs, Blogs, and Bike Cogs

When my brother, Trent, hiked the Appalachian Trail, he often spoke of “Trail Angels” who helped him along his journey.

Quick rewind. Remember that 75-mile day that ended with an awesome view of Holland Lake?

Well, on our way to camp, Clemens gave me the best compliment that I heard on the trip thus far. After tackling a taxing 5-mile hill, he called me a “machine” — because of my consistent pacing up the mountain.

Long post. I know. So, let’s skip the formalities and bad puns and jump right into the good stuff — me messing stuff up.

Don’t get me wrong, town days are a lot of fun. There’s food, people, and all the dogs you can pet.

But, town days can make it easy to forget that I am working under a deadline. The book lays out a 70-day trip and I have exactly that amount of time to reach Antelope Wells.

Every description of the Great Divide is relatively the same. Usually something like, “an impossibly long, winding route that never takes you directly from point A to point B.” The point is to get off the main roads, onto forgotten dirt roads and trails that take you nowhere but always somewhere at the same time.

Believe it or not, sometimes I doubt myself (hoping you didn’t read the last post). But when I started this, I told myself one thing: If I make it across the US border, I’m making it to Mexico.

A few years back, I was eating a steak dinner with my family. I love steak and am a notoriously quick eater. And, as soon as that filet mignon touched my plate I cut out a fat piece and shoved it into my mouth. It was so good, and I was craving more, but as I went for round two, my body engaged in an epic battle of man vs. food.

I was choking. First time in my life. I had literally bitten off more than I could chew.

As I'm typing this, I'm on an airplane headed from Boston, Massachusetts to Banff, Alberta. It's about 6 hours of flying time, which gives me plenty of opportunities to second-guess myself and rethink all of the decisions I made about this trip. Sound like a fun time? Let's get into it!

By now, I am sure I got you hooked on the Great Divide trail and you've probably read up all you can about this trip. You're probably so excited for me that you, yes you, are considering a trip like this for yourself and that curiosity has led you to read about other adventurers who have made this same journey. 

Or, y'know if this is your first time visiting this site, ignore all that and just enjoy the ride (pun intended).

Since the launch of the website (pat yourself on the back for the positive feedback btw), some folks have reached out and asked why I chose an animal shelter as my cause to support. Looking for another opportunity to shamelessly plug my passion project, I decided to write this blog post to go into that question in more detail.