Just start already!

From the time I ended my NZ tour I was looking for my next adventure. I'd been seeing a lot about the Great Divide MTB Route and thought it looked like something I might enjoy. 

The route itself was likely to only take 6 weeks, and I wanted to do another long trip. My first thought was to ride up the Pacific coast and back via the mountains. I decided not to do that though, instead starting way up in Alaska and taking 4 months to get to LA.

All these plans were just figments of my imagination until completing a few years tax returns made the 4 month trip feasible. Before I could back out I organised a US visa and booked my tickets. June was go time, 6 months away.

My bike for the trip is my Specialized Tricross. The big change from NZ was no lowriders. I'd heard that they weren't recommended on the divide as they could get snagged, although I think I should have stuck with them. In their place I bought a frame bag and handlebar roll bag. The other change was lowering my gearing from 50/34 to 46/30 at the front with 12-36 at the rear. This has turned out to be quite good. 

Whilst training for this length ride is not necessary at all my commuting and recreation rides gave me around 200km per week, much more than last time. 

I'd been planning to do a decent shakedown before I left, but I ran out of time so I just did a overnight ride, albeit an ambitious one. 200km up to the high country including a lot of climbing and a decent amount of gravel. 

It was a great test, with cold overnight and horrible sticky mud early in the 2nd day. I survived, but it would have been better to have each day 1 hour shorter. 

After that I was reasonably confident, although I had 2nd thoughts until I arrived in Anchorage.

Ready to pop into the box! Always a bit nervous