2011 Tour Divide

[JayP]

WOW, that was really nice of the "alternate route decision making fairies" to think this through for everyone....

[Roland Sturm]

Indeed, that is some incredible support we are getting for our personal and selfish adventure. Tremendous amount of volunteering by many people and great leadership from Matthew et al.!  Beats many commercial efforts and they are doing it for no financial rewards.  

And it is a good reminder that it is possible to get around obstacles with a bit of improvisation. It will never be possible to plan a tour of this length and varied geography perfectly ahead of time, regardless of time or direction. If it isn't snow, it is something else. In fact, looks like we will be doing a detour that I had to ride 5 years ago, no snow then, but fire.

[bgiro]

I need to echo both JayP and Roland on the incredible effort Matthew, Scott and others have made for those of us starting on June 10th, Sobo or Nobo.  You can be sure I'll be thanking each of these volunteers in person as I get the opportunity.

Bruce G.

[DaveH]

You can scope the detours alongside the 2010 route in BlueDot.  I've converted the NoBo and SoBo detour routes to simplified KML files that BlueDot can read - add them via routes->add  new route->shared routes.

It's clear a lot of thought and work went into these changes.  Some are pretty obvious by the look of the snow models, others not so much, and there are places that look to my eye like they need a detour but don't have one.  That's the benefit of having an organizer with years of experience on the route in all conditions.  Way to go Matthew and nice work Scott on the file mashups!

The Canadian section.  Main route in red, reroutes in blue.



Montana:



The big one, Wyoming, allowed for NoBos as well.



Should be the fastest route ever.  The change in potential strategies is somehow refreshing, at least from my armchair

[timroz]

WOW, that was really nice of the "alternate route decision making fairies" to think this through for everyone....

Now if they could just ride for everyone no one would have to do anything...

[Nathan Jones]

I gotta say the transition into Wyoming looks supersweet in terms of services, pavement, and elevation.  Although I'm wondering how the roads are traffic wise, could be CRAP do to tourists.

Still, it should be an extra relief for everyone to get through Montana this year despite the chance for traffic on the pavement.  I'm officially stoked!

[wookieone]

Alright, is anyone still bringing snowshoes?

And am I correct that Wyoming isn't vetted yet? But is it in the new detour GPX file?

Thanks to all the scouts and gps wizards!!! Happy to see a route set forth, now to figure it out.


Jefe

[THE LONG RANGER]

Alright, is anyone still bringing snowshoes?

Sure am. Anyone who wants to try the Flathead with me, let's do it! Wouldn't mind the company on the potentially very hazardous creek crossings.

[threepin]

just got back from checking snow levels. Gave up on going to galton as the border had long lines both ways

Heading from whitefish to upper whitefish lake I was only able to get to .6 miles north of where the olney rd comes in (to approx mile 81.5)
so about 4 miles short of the lake and about 9 short of the pass if snow on the east goes as low it could currently be 18 miles of snow

On the grave creek rd continuous snow started about 1.2 miles after the pavement ended (about 31.2) about 5 short of the pass road slopes more gently the east so could be as much as 15 miles here

On the stryker rd i got stopped at about 1 mile past the turn towards mt marston turnoff - i think thats about 7.5 in from the rd. There would then be snow till near the olney turnoff.

A lot of the distance will melt but the fact is the snow cover will be far greater than 2008- i found my emails from then to Matthew On 6/3 that year i could ride logging rds to 5600 near werner peak ( i am guessing 4600 now) and on 6/9/08 i got stopped by snow at mile 76. since the 08 TD started on the 13th I would assume that we are looking at 3-4 miles addl on each side of the pass relative to 08

I think the ideal weapon might be http://www.altaiskis.com/blog/products/the-hok/  they are pretty light and ski well

[krefs]

Heading from whitefish to upper whitefish lake I was only able to get to .6 miles north of where the olney rd comes in (to approx mile 81.5) so about 4 miles short of the lake

On the stryker rd i got stopped at about 1 mile past the turn towards mt marston turnoff - i think thats about 7.5 in from the rd. There would then be snow till near the olney turnoff.

Thanks for the scouting and the update! So even on the Whitefish/Red Meadow Detour there's something like 12 miles of snow! You're right about the skis...

[6thElement]

Probably easier to strap to the bike than snowshoes too!

[russmcb]

Same issue as DBent.

Anyone have any tips for me about why my Dakota 20 suddenly only shows about the first 90% of the NB TD "track", stopping mid-Montana--???  The track looks fine on my laptop.  I deleted and re-loaded many times, restored to factory settings.  It always stops in the same place.  I believe it loaded fine and looked fine on my Dakota 20 for awhile.  I've loaded the track from Basecamp and from the Road trip software and the track stops in exactly the same place in each case.   

I saw this:  http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,929.msg19902.html#msg19902    DBent, what did you do to fix this?  Any luck?

TIA

russ

[BigPoppa]

Same issue as DBent.

Anyone have any tips for me about why my Dakota 20 suddenly only shows about the first 90% of the NB TD "track", stopping mid-Montana--???  The track looks fine on my laptop.  I deleted and re-loaded many times, restored to factory settings.  It always stops in the same place.  I believe it loaded fine and looked fine on my Dakota 20 for awhile.  I've loaded the track from Basecamp and from the Road trip software and the track stops in exactly the same place in each case.   

I saw this:  http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,929.msg19902.html#msg19902    DBent, what did you do to fix this?  Any luck?

TIA

russ

The problem is likely that the track has more way points than your gps can hold. The new track is 16,000 plus way points and most devices can only hold 10,000.

[BobM]

The problem is likely that the track has more way points than your gps can hold. The new track is 16,000 plus way points and most devices can only hold 10,000.

If you have Scott's Topofusion software you can use that to trim the number of points to 10,000.

[BigPoppa]

If you have Scott's Topofusion software you can use that to trim the number of points to 10,000.

Unless you have a Mac. Then you need to use Garmin basecamp. Not nearly as cool as Topofusion but hey, sometimes you pay the price of being a Mac addict.

[russmcb]

Sweeeet, thanks!  It stops at point # 10,001.  I split the track in Basecamp into two parts and they looks good.  You'd think there'd be a warning when you try to load a track that exceeds the limit ....  Yeah, I'm using a mac and I try not to dip into windows too often

See my fellow NB'ers in AW soon!

[6thElement]

Just done my big weigh in, I'm at 39lbs dry weight for all gear I'll be starting with not including the clothes I'll have on my person.

That doesn't include the snowshoes as I'm still trying to work out if I can strap them to my bike somehow to avoid the need for a backpack...

[BigPoppa]

Sweeeet, thanks!  It stops at point # 10,001.  I split the track in Basecamp into two parts and they looks good.  You'd think there'd be a warning when you try to load a track that exceeds the limit ....  Yeah, I'm using a mac and I try not to dip into windows too often

See my fellow NB'ers in AW soon!

You bet.

The northern part of the track is more point dense so by using my method my first five track will likely only get me through the first five day. I figured this was the best way to get the whole track to fit while still retaining the most accurate points.

[BobM]

Unless you have a Mac. Then you need to use Garmin basecamp. Not nearly as cool as Topofusion but hey, sometimes you pay the price of being a Mac addict.

What is this Mac that you speak of? 

[ONEPLUSONEEQUALSONE]

@russmcb - having problems loading to my Colorado.  I went to Topofusion and simplified to 10K points, but the file still won't work.  How did you split the track in BaseCamp?  I had all 8 ACA files loaded without any issues.  This one big track is giving my Garmin some problems.

Sweeeet, thanks!  It stops at point # 10,001.  I split the track in Basecamp into two parts and they looks good.  You'd think there'd be a warning when you try to load a track that exceeds the limit ....  Yeah, I'm using a mac and I try not to dip into windows too often

See my fellow NB'ers in AW soon!