BAP's "deals" section of their site is always a great place to keep an eye on, too. Can't beat buying used/demo Big Agnes gear straight from Big Agnes.

Here's the Demo/used sleeping bags section:

http://www.wearbap.com/home.php?cat=384

They sell demo bags at 40% off, there's currently a used Grouse Mountain 15 for $156.00 there, regularly about $280.00. That's a steal.

Carried mine in the top of my Revelate front pocket, had the zipper open about an inch to allow the bear spray finger ring to stick out so I could grab it easily if needed. I would agree with Mark that it's probably not needed and at the same time would agree with Eszter that it can be nice peace-of-mind wise, I kind of guilted myself into carrying it after initially thinking I wasn't going to. I kept missing open post-offices after Pinedale to mail mine home and finally ended up donating it to the Toaster House in Pie Town. That house sees enough northbound CDT through-hikers that I'm sure someone was happy to find it on the kitchen table with a note saying "Need bear spay? Please take this."

Eszter/Scott - loved your little "Eszter and Scott Continental Divide 2014" note that was on the wall at the Toaster House. 

I hear ya there...definitely an expensive endeavor

I'll be watching your summer and cheering you on Tanner, can't wait to see you complete the Triple. Great riding with you and Tony briefly on TDR this year, you guys really knuckled down through New Mexico. I was impressed.

Johnny the AZT/CTR deal is tough as well. I think I am the only one to do it outside of a triple like Kurt, Eric and Forest did. Its a noble effort I call the "singletrack double". Before Goldberg added the TD it was my concept of a series or crown. It still is just an exclusive a club as the triple crown challenge so good luck and I hope to see you pull it off.

Thanks Mark. Hopefully I will have the strength to persevere. I know it's going to absolutely destroy me.

Oh and Steamboat I see you found some Rocky quotes I must have got in your head

No doubt about that Mark.. and in more ways than just Rocky quotes. 

My aspirations, if all goes smoothly, are to complete the Triple Crown of Bikepacking this summer by doing the AZT750 and CTR to add to my TDR. Then 2016 try for the Triple Crown Challenge and do all three races in a summer as a veteran of all three. I'd love to try the Triple Crown Challenge this summer but after TDR last year I'm still paying off debts, I don't think my pocket book will be able to handle it again this year. Miracles do happen though, so we shall see.

Great approach Scott. I'm hoping you'll get to add my name to both of those lists in the coming years.

Was great to meet you at Hahn's Peak Roadhouse yesterday iohangue, I'll be following along on your adventure! Had a really nice time chatting and had a great day skiing after I saw you, hope you had a nice ride in to Steamboat on the snow packed roads.  Here's the couple shots of you and your rig I took yesterday at the Roadhouse. Best of luck on your journey!

Iohangue in the Hahn's Peak Roadhouse general store:



Iohangue's Surly Troll:



Hahn's Peak Roadhouse(on the Columbine alternate):

From the Start List section of the TD site:

Tour Divide accepts letters of intent (LOI) annually, from Winter Solstice (12/21) until Grand Depart (2nd Friday in June). Prospective challengers are encouraged to declare, but may also simply show up in Banff on June 10th. To be published on the provisional start list, send us an LOI via the contact form.

Note: The info on the site says "show up in Banff on June 10th but it really should read the second Friday in June."

Better let the wife know the rides will just be getting longer! It's pretty cool to get that familiarity with your Forest Service District. I had the same thing happen in the summer I was training before for TD, it got to the point where all the forest service guys knew me and would stop to say hello and chat a bit when I was way out in the middle of nowhere and so were they. Coming through Steamboat this year on TDR  I got to the top of Lynx Pass with Shane Rausch and was telling him that this is where I lived/trained and that I rode these dirt roads more than just about anyone and sure enough one of the forest service guys pulls up at random next to the Lynx Pass work station, gets out of his truck and says "Damn John, you're around the district more than any of our guys!" I just laughed, looked at Shane and said "see?" Keep truckin', those roads will nurture you.

Heya Seabiscuit. This might be a good start... The Washington Backcountry Discovery Route. I've got no experience on the route, I just googled around a bit on your behalf, but it sounds like it'd be an acceptable facsimile(and a fun route to complete to boot!).

Something that I haven't seen addressed in the thread yet is sleeping pads. I currently use a Big Agnes Mystic SL15 sleeping bag, it's a quilt style bag(down only on the top) with a slip in the back for an integrated sleeping pad for comfort and insulation from the ground. Currently I use the Big Agnes Q-Core SL for a pad which is an inflatable. With the nights getting down towards freezing in the desert are those who are cowboy camping doing ok with just their (full, non-quilt)sleeping bags and a ground cloth? I would think you'd want more insulation from the ground. Thorns and cactus needles are probably a consideration too? Wondering if people are using pads, are they using inflatable pads or going with something more like a foam or styro pad. Thanks in advance for any replies.

So as I was doing a core workout today I was watching Aaron's awesome AZTR video for about the billionth time and noticed that the shoes he has on that are "falling apart from all the HAB" look to be Specialized Rimes. I think I'm going to find another shoe for the AZT...

The fact that my petite wife has destroyed 2 pair so far makes me unwilling to go with the Rimes. True, Oracle ridge did some damage on my PI xalps, but the Rimes were worse. And the HAB on Coco was not nearly as rocky - but same result.

I was thinking that maybe she just spends more time off the bike than some folks. But the first time they ripped the shoes had less than 300 miles on them.

Definitely a good red flag to know about. If it had been once I'd say maybe a factory defect or something, but twice makes me have doubts. I'll be watching this thread for suggestions, I've gotta get something soon so I can break them in before spring. April 3 is going to be here before we know it. Thanks again for the good info.

I'm going to order a pair of Rime's.  The Elite model has a only velcro and doesn't have the inside of the ankle pad found on the Expert model.  I'm in the desert of West Texas (not too different from AZ) and will test them prior to AZT.   I've been pretty happy with how every other pair of Specialized shoes fit me, so this look like the best option. 

I'd be very interested to here the results of your desert testing, definitely post back the results please.

Glad you posted that JeffZ, I just did TD in a pair of Rimes and they held up great, excellent combo of durability and stiffness, decent tread with the Vibram sole and they dried fairly quickly, no problems with them falling apart even after rain, snow, sleet, mud, and more rain on the divide this year. The only thing I had to do was replace the Boa system when I got back, I couldn't even turn the Boa tensioners they had so much grit in them from the wet dirt/gravel roads(boa replaced them for free and I was impressed they had the forethought to make it an easily replaceable cartridge system). In total my Rime's have about 10,000 miles on them with a lot of hike-a-bike. I was riding, well, hiking my bike through tons of chunk in the late summer while gearing my training for AZT riding, they've been holding up well so far and I was thinking of using them for AZT750 in the spring but if you're saying you've had some issues with them blowing out in the desert.. hmmm. Might be time for me to start looking for another shoe.

WTB Vigo for me, 16,000 miles and still have never had to use chamoix cream.

Just replying to the thread to subscribe, very interested in this topic myself, going to give the 750 a whirl this spring. Thanks for the responses thus far.

I'm not a tandem person but I did ride in Tour Divide this year and it's worth noting that Katie and Sam finished second overall on their tandem. They had every inch of that frame packed and were absolutely flyin'.

I ride on the TDR every single day, I live directly on the TDR in Colorado, so I'd say I'm familiar enough with it and it's terrain(I have 16,000 miles logged on and around the divide on a hard tail so far in the last two years). I'd agree that a fs bike isn't needed but still would disagree that the TDR is 75% "smooth".

~edit~
I was thinking about this objectively over coffee this morning and maybe it's just the word "smooth" I'm having trouble with. I get your meaning harryonaspot, and I'm not trying to be a snit by contradicting, but I think someone who has not done the TDR before might be misled as to the difficulty when reading "75% smooth" if you get my point.

What nick said!

I got all wrapped up in gear and in the end before I did the Tour Divide I went with:

"things that are simple"
"things that are sturdy"
"things that could act as two things" (a jacket can also be a pillow)

Agreed, my question to myself when packing for the TDR was "what do I really need to ride my bike all day?" I kept coming up with the same answer... "not much."

But the route is 75% smooth 20% washboard and maybe 5% rough trail.

I'll disagree. If the route was 75% smooth for you you took a detour somewhere and weren't on the GDMBR.