A New Adventure Begins



It's official!  Emma and I have decided on our next long distance adventure.  We're planning to take on the 2,700 mile Great Divide trail!  We'll leave at the beginning of July 2019 to complete the Canada to Mexico trail.  We have about 40 days free so that's about 60 miles a day!  Oh, did I mention we'll be on a bike?
2014 Tour Divide
Banff, Canda to Antelope Wells, New Mexico

When I was an undergrad at UNC, I raced bicycles competitively.  I traveled up and down the east coast racing road, mountain, and cyclocross disciplines.  This was also around the time I was long term planning for my Appalachian Trail through hike.  Shameless hewitthikes blog plug.  Anyway, when I heard this guy Matthew Lee from Chapel Hill had raced this huge mountain bike race from Canada to Mexico, I started looking into the trail.  It seemed like a good mix of my two outdoor interests and put it on the adventure list.

 There's a cool documentary called Ride the Divide that follows the annual race on the trail.  Small spoiler, but these gals and guys do it in less than 20 days!  That means 40 should be good for us..... right?  That is what has been fun planning for this trip.  It is so similar but so different to hiking long distance.  What bike should we get?  What trailer for our gear?  What gear do we need?  What tools?  Can we ride to town or do we need to get mail drops again?  Does the bike need it's own seat on the plane!?!  
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Easy-peasy hiking in Colorado.

 Emma and I tend to like the logistics side of planning which is good because the people we noticed were having a hard time on the Appalachian Trail usually weren't because they physically couldn't do it but because they had some flaws in their plans.

 That said, we're in the early stages of planning.  We don't have the bike, or the trailer, or clothes, baggage, flights, tools, spare parts!  But that's part of the fun isn't it?  Having a goal and doing the hard work to make it happen.  Emma and I have been having some small adventures the past couple years but have mostly grinding away at career goals.  It feels good to work toward these bigger goals and they're an adventure in their own way, but nothing like seeing mountains for days, finding supplies, sleeping outdoors, seeing the sunrise and sunset every day.  Those are the things that feed the soul.
One Masters in International Education and Almost Half a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine

Anyway, we'll be keeping up with the blog in the months of planning ahead.  Get ready to talk about lots of gear and logistics!  I am hoping we will be able to post a bit on the trail but we'll have to see how that goes with a 40 day trip.  Either way I'll do some writing while on the trail and might just have to post them when we get back.  Thank you all for your support over the years on our endeavors big and small.  Knowing we have people behind us pushes us to greater heights and allows us to become the people we want to be.  We love you always.
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The trailer only has snacks so don't get excited.

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