2011 Tour Divide

[elitheknife]

Banff Photography on the corner of Banff Ave. and Buffalo St.

Looking good today in Banff!

Scott

[Rob Colliver]

Matt - I unleash hell on Wednesday 8.00 AM. Tobermory Cabin on D1,  Castle Mountain B&B (Fernie) D2, then let the winds take me...

[rocky rode]

Reconnaissance on Indiana Pass was performed 10 days by Steve B. (Rec Specialist for Rio Grand FS district). He's currently touring the route from AW and may provide additional reports. He said the snowline there was about 10,800 or so.

When Steve rode that section we'd just had a bit of snow and it was cold.  Today we're 88* in Del Norte and the wind has been insane for weeks.  There may be a drift or two over Indiana for NoBo riders but don't fret it.  Wait to fret for the snow up north!  From the Mexican border to Platoro is good.  I had two sisters riding the route NoBo call last night, they chose to bypass Indiana Pass but said all of NM is good to go.

The SW is burning up.  All the areas to the north stole our moisture this year.  There's a fire in the Gila, two fires in AZ and and fire in NM SE of Taos.  The San Luis valley is full of smoke at the moment.

Steve B called from Separ today about 1:00.  He'll probably average 100 miles a day so I'll update the Indiana Pass conditions when he gets to Del Norte- too late for racers though.

I haven't been following this thread too closely- 61 pages!- but thought I'd look in to see what the latest was.  For those riders that don't know, we're on the map as a place for bike repair and camping in Del Norte.  It is NOT a business.

Gary

[DaNM]

Security put up some barrier posts on the dillon dam bike-path, just when you thought you were safe. Better than the wolf repopulation program perhaps.
 I`m glad to see it broken up a bit this year after all the popularity. The skiing is much better this way.
 
 
 

[THE LONG RANGER]

The bike path over the dillon damn is still available 24hrs. I had a nice chat with the police there around midnight.
EDIT: actually, are you talking about the bike path itself, or just the road? When I was there, barriers were on the road, not the path. This was just last weekend.

[russmcb]

... yes I'm *just now* doing my cue sheets, elevation profiles, and I might even have luggage on my bike in an hour when Jeff from Carousel gets here.  My first bikepacking night will be Thursday night in AW on more or less totally untested systems ... because this TD experience needs more adventure. :-)

Question as I'm doing cues: Is it safe to assume that all (or at least most) campsites along the route have H2O?  I'm used to campsites in CA where all of them do (except for maybe Joshua Tree).

[sluttyduck]

very few have water, usually noted in the cues.

[6thElement]

Everyone should note the snow detour gpx was corrected last night, we're doing the first half of the Richmond Peak climb before Seeley Lake. There was an email from Matt about it.

[novrmyhed]

Ever wonder why bears won't mess with you while playing dead?

[Giegs]

I don't know if you guys remember, but a while back I posted about an app I made that show elevation profiles and climbing stats for the Great Divide.  Well, I've improved it to now let riders carrying a SPOT show up on the map along with blog info and elevation profiles/stats for recent days.

I thought some racers might want to be included.  If you do, visit http://eatsleepridegreatdivide.com or you can read more about it here: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,2171.0.html.

Good luck,
Dave

[Slowerthensnot]

site i found that could be of use

http://nmfireinfo.wordpress.com/

[Mathewsen]

I don't know if you guys remember, but a while back I posted about an app I made that show elevation profiles and climbing stats for the Great Divide.  Well, I've improved it to now let riders carrying a SPOT show up on the map along with blog info and elevation profiles/stats for recent days.

I thought some racers might want to be included.  If you do, visit http://eatsleepridegreatdivide.com or you can read more about it here: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,2171.0.html.

Good luck,
Dave

Hi Dave,
Neat stuff. I admire your enthusiasm for the Divide Route tracking. It's pretty addictive, eh?

Speaking on behalf of TD and Trackleaders, we respectfully prefer the TD live race tracking reside on the TD event website exclusively. I'm sure you can understand. It will offer the complete ('official') picture, plus plenty of other TD analysis like race-flow / projection charts, playbacks, individual histories / bios, additional map layers, etc.

Regarding your live profile, Scott M. has developed a similar nifty 'live elevation plot'. We've been testing it on old event data and its ready for release. It will be pretty cool to watch the athletes trudging along. Geeking on it sometimes reminds me of watching the old Price is Right 'Cliff Hangers' game. Remember? (below)

As well, Trackleaders has been operating a GDMBR citizen tracker since 2008. It would be great to keep citizen tracking centralized too.

Regards,
Matthew Lee

Cliffhangers Loss on the Price is Right

[krefs]

Be careful out there, NoBo racers. Don't destroy your lungs in this smoke if it hasn't cleared out by next week.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/

Best of luck to all!

[DaNM]

The bike path over the dillon damn is still available 24hrs. I had a nice chat with the police there around midnight.
EDIT: actually, are you talking about the bike path itself, or just the road? When I was there, barriers were on the road, not the path. This was just last weekend.

The barrier posts are on the bike path and a definite hazard, a topic of the bike community here. After 10pm the dam is closed to cars.

[stappy]

Tour Divide course. Startline up to hydroline and elk pass trail. I started 8:30 saturday night. Water levels are extreme but there are bridges over everything. Camped at mile 27.5. Then, the next morning and after the first corner, snow. The section between canyon dam and mt. shark trailhead took about 2-3 hours longer than dry conditions. Dry dirt, snow, dirt, snow. Patches were anything between 10 meters and 1000. Sometimes posting-holing up to two feet. By the time I reached mt shark trailhead, my feet were utterly frozen. Most of the snow has been sheltered by trees, I was surprised to find it so low. I would wear some type of waterproof footwear for day one, or possibly bring snowshoes that are quick to take on and off. I imagine there are similar sections in Montana?
Elk Pass. As stated, the snow started just after the trailhead. I was off the bike pretty much straight away. Elk pass trail is a major xc ski trail and even as it melts, it still has a packed quality. I only would sink two or three inches and made it to the hydroline in 20 minutes, pushing a fully loaded bike. At the top the hydroline is snow free, just about clear of mud. There's an avoidance that drops the trail right, off the hydroline down to fox creek and then regains the powerline. This is also full of snow, it seems to have the same packed quality as the climb from the trail head, It's only few hundred meters at most, descend then climb. I had to turn around part way down, needing to ride back to Calgary. The hydroline looked to be partly clear on the other side. With some luck you might be riding all the way to elk pass. That's all I know. Sorry I can't give a more complete report.

[stappy]

More.

[stappy]

Elk pass trailhead to hydroline.

[Mathewsen]

Wow, that's great news about Elk Pass, Craig. Out-of-towners ought buy all of Stappy's Kokanee before the start.

I am surprised--and not--about the section from Canyon dam to Mt Shark. It's pretty treed-in there. The PLPP guys reported these same open patches in last Thursday's trail report, but I was inclined not to believe it. I think riders will still find that the BC side of Elk Pass a bit worse off. We shall see how it goes for our Wednesday ITTer. FWIW, Rob Borstmayer also reports surprisingly low soil moisture content considering the late melt-off, so I think you folks are going to have a really nice ride, chance of rain or not. I am sooo envious.

Way to really throw a wrench in riders' snowshoe strategies, Craig!

[trebor]

man, i wish i didn't work at a waste treatment plant... this is such a nail biter

[bmike-vt]

Hi Dave,
Neat stuff. I admire your enthusiasm for the Divide Route tracking. It's pretty addictive, eh?

Speaking on behalf of TD and Trackleaders, we respectfully prefer the TD live race tracking reside on the TD event website exclusively. I'm sure you can understand. It will offer the complete ('official') picture, plus plenty of other TD analysis like race-flow / projection charts, playbacks, individual histories / bios, additional map layers, etc.

Regarding your live profile, Scott M. has developed a similar nifty 'live elevation plot'. We've been testing it on old event data and its ready for release. It will be pretty cool to watch the athletes trudging along. Geeking on it sometimes reminds me of watching the old Price is Right 'Cliff Hangers' game. Remember? (below)

As well, Trackleaders has been operating a GDMBR citizen tracker since 2008. It would be great to keep citizen tracking centralized too.

Regards,
Matthew Lee

so, the bluedot app for the TD?
is that official, or not? sanctioned?
does / will bluedot have access to trackleaders data?
or is bluedot, like eatsleepridegreatdivide voluntary?

curious. have enjoyed seeing these various route / tracking / elevation / etc. takes on the same route / race / etc.
will likely follow all of them, come the GD.