AML400 and Tour Divide Preps

Greetings to Chris and the AML 400 Community of Interest,
   Well, it's been a couple months, but here's my AML400/Great Divide Mountain Bike Route Manifesto! I tip my hat to any of you with the patience to read to the end.

   The October loop was an excellent, albeit challenging, experience for me. Like many of you, I love the preparation and training as much as the actual execution of the rides. I've seen many entries looking for comparisons to the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Last June was my first long distance effort, starting Tour Divide with the rest of the Grand Depart crowd in Banff. I was mentally and physically ready, but the first few days forced me to recalibrate my aspirations for a 20-day completion. My shortfalls were my technical skills and my choice of bicycle. I used a 26" hardtail with Continental Travel Contact tires. My rookie logic led me to believe that the slick tops of the tires would be much more efficient in all but the most technical stretches. The tires were too slick for the mud and snow encountered in the Canada/Montana region whose major passes were either snowbound or very, very wet from runoff. Once I got into the drier Colorado conditions, my 26" wheels proved too small for the technical climbing conditions which were full of rocks, ruts, and roots. I can ride for long periods, keeping up a pretty consistent pace, but I don't have the technical skills of a seasoned mountain biker. Last summer, I was running out of leave-time and had to get back to work, so I left the ACA Great Divide Mountain Bike Route at Kremmling, CO, and stuck to the roads through Breckenridge, southern Colorado, rode through Santa Fe, NM, and on to Mexico via the El Paso - Juarez crossing. I plan to repeat Tour Divide this year, but on a 29er with a lot less gear up forward so the bike doesn't auger in during the snow passages.

   Fast forward to this fall once Ed F, a buddy from work, and I decided to take Chris up on his AML400 challenge. Ed's beautiful Orbea 29er can be seen in one of the FLICKR link images provided by tpkruse. As most of you know, the 29ers are much more comfortable and capable for off road adventure cycling efforts. For October's AML400, I was a late arrival and started 20 minutes after the War Memorial departure, so I was playing catch up the whole time. That delay was just the first of many challenges to follow. I made great time on Day one, passing a bunch of folks and having the honor of actually meeting Chris as he was leaving Jack Horner's Corner in Seebert. That was my first opportunity for food because I bypassed the logical stop for lunch along Route 60 because there were buses full of passengers/customers at both McDonalds and Wendys. Dried fruit and almonds get pretty tasteless after 13 hours of pedaling. Lesson learned: Don't bypass the food opportunities when you need them, even if it looks to be too much of a delay.

   I planned to use one of the picnic shelter areas to bed down for the night. It was near midnight and a hard frost was already in the making. All the riders ahead of me had already taken up residence in the picnic areas and their inviting tables, so after I passed James and Ruth at one of the last picnic spots along the Greenbriar River Trail, I decided to just stop on one of the wooden bridges, using its wood-planked siding to anchor my tarp. It was a cozy setup, all things considered. When I broke camp just before first light, I set myself up for my next lesson learned. There was enough ambient light to stow away my bike light for the day. I put it in my handlebar bag, leaving the bag open while I finished packing up my shelter and warm bivvy clothes. Guess what I failed to do before setting out: Yep, zip shut my handlebar bag! When I stopped for breakfast in Cass and found the zipper open, the light was gone. I used my single AA battery flashlight as a headlamp for the rest of the trip's night riding. Lesson learned #2: Keep your bags shut unless you're in the process of stowing/removing gear, then double-check that you've completely closed them when done. I definitely knew better, but fatigue has a way of slacking one's discipline.

   Later that morning, I missed a down-shift on one of the asphalt switch-back ascents between Cass and Durbin. I tried to muscle through a front chainring shift and snapped my front derailleur cable. I managed to find a rock sized and shaped just right to wedge into the derailleur cage to align with my large chainring, so I did the second 200 miles using just my rear gearing. Not optimal, but it worked. Lesson learned #3: Don't force a shift under heavy pedaling.

   The West Fork Trail was a bit soggy, but it was pure fun. Unlike Canada and Montana last June, I had a good set of tires for the wet mud and I was cruising right along. I shot right through Glady and rode the rest of the day until I got to Mountain Grove, where I found Jeff who had already set his tent up in the rain. I opted to just grab my ground pad and sleeping bag and crawl under one of the trailers being stored on the corner rather than break out my shelter. I bid farewell to Jeff the next morning, then 30 minutes down the road, James passed me as I was refilling my water at a stream crossing. I re-passed James and then passed Ruth on one of the muddy ascents between Covington and Paint Bank.

   For those of you preparing for the Tour Divide, the stretch from Glady to Mountain Grove, using the Ridge Alternate, is uncannily similar to the Canada/Montana sections of the Divide route. This second day was a great ride, but not without another hard lesson to be learned. I had the individual map sections cut down and laminated in plastic. They were stacked in order behind my phone, which I was using as a cycle computer, tucked into the clear plastic top pocket of my map case mounted at the stem/handlebar junction. The pocket was a tight fit and had a down-slope, so gravity and my phone held them in place. No worries. It was a good setup... Wrong! While descending the heavily wash-boarded Ridge Alternate section at night, using my feeble makeshift helmet light, all of the laminated map sheets worked their way out from behind my phone. I didn't notice until the last two slipped out and blew into my face. I had no idea how far back the other map sheets were, so I continued on, confident I could finish the route using the overlay map of the entire route I had stored in the zipped up handlebar bag.

   On that third day, I was navigating fine from the big map as far as Paint Bank. I stopped for an awesome hot Sunday lunch the waitress served up to me while I sat on the hearth, using the fireplace to dry my rain soaked clothes. James came in and joined me, and not long after I started on my way, I passed Jeff on the road. Well, my navigating luck ran out and I kept missing turns throughout the afternoon, evening, and night. Jeff, James and Ruth made all the turns, finishing well before I rolled into the War Memorial just after 1:00 AM Monday morning.

   Similar to my Canada-Mexico ride, October's AML400 was full of tough challenges, mostly of my own making, and I was determined to get back on the course to better my performance. Veteran's Day presented another long weekend opportunity, so I phoned the restaurant in Cass to see if the recent Hurricane Sandy snow had melted off the roads and trails. It had, so I made plans to drive out Friday after work and join the AML at the I-64 and VA 60 area between Covington and White Sulfur Springs. I'd ride the route down to the War Memorial and just keep going on the loop.

   The November weather couldn't have been better for AML400 #2. It was cold, but clear the entire period. I set off at 7:00 PM and rode through the night, reaching Blacksburg for breakfast and thawing out before continuing on past the War Memorial and back along the clockwise route. I made it all the way through the Greenbriar River Trail, stopping for the night along the trail before entering Cass. I keep refining my load to minimize weight, so this time I had no sleeping bag and used the same down sweater I've been using for the Divide and AML, and then I got a pair of down pants. The pants are smaller/lighter than the bag, plus I can use them while riding, which I did for the Mountain Lake descent because that first night was really cold, and the Mountain Lake Descent is really fast. The second night on the Greenbriar River Trail dipped below 30, but the down top/pants kept me plenty warm. My third night had me finishing the route. It was cold once again, but the ascents/descents were of shorter duration, so I kept my normal cold weather cycling gear on without the need for the warmer down layers. Just unzip and vent going up, then zip up and keep pedaling going down. Toasty warm!

   Through the first 260 miles, I saw snow patches from time to time in the meadows and banks where there was no sun exposure, but none on the route. The only other Hurricane Sandy remnants I saw to that point were some fallen branches and fresh cut timber along the Greenbriar River Trail. That all changed later in the day when I passed through Durbin and started along the West Fork Trail. Right from the Durbin trailhead, there were downed trees and snow on the trail. I went over, under, or around 46 fallen trees in the first five miles of the trail, at which point I left the trail and got on route 44 which would take me up to the Glady turnaround. In the process of leaving the trail, I had to bush whack through a bunch of storm deadfall and riverside briars. That's not easy with a fully-laded touring bike. I ended up damaging my rear derailleur in the process. There were no apparent maladies, but the rear gears were not shifting right at all. This was the third derailleur casualty out of three successive adventure tours.

   44 is a dirt road and it was still snowbound, but there were a couple sets of tire tracks I tried to follow. Unfortunately, they ended not much further along my route. It was getting on towards sunset Sunday evening and I was faced with running out of time, similar to my Divide situation last June. I decided to return to Durbin on 44, get a hot dinner, and use the roads to beeline back to the car near Covington. I rode through Bartow, Green Bank, and Dunmore, using the Dunmore cut off and route 600 rather than the Ridge Alternate. That took me back to Mountain Grove where I rejoined the AML route back to the car.

Bottom Line: The AML400 is indeed a great East Coast route. Dispite its lack of single track/technical route, it's a great training venue for Tour Divide preparation. I plan on getting back on the loop for at least a couple long weekend sessions between now and the second Friday of June that will find me once again in Banff. Since I see long haul adventure touring as my long term passion, I'm pretty much over the whole derailleur drivetrain approach to cycling. In addition to my AML problems, I crashed on a wet wooden bridge on day-1 of the Tour Divide 2012. My front derailleur was rotated out of alignment. I was too wet and cold to adjust it that evening, so I stopped for the night. I was able to realign it the next morning. Derailleur lesson learned: It's definitely a weak link for off-road use. I've since invested in a belt-drive Spot Rocker 29er. I'm loving the chain-free drive train with no derailleurs to fail. I've got my eye on a Rohloff internal geared rear wheel setup, proven very effective by Ollie Whalley last June during his Tour Divide. But right now, I'm very seriously considering keeping my single speed setup for another Tour Divide while I'm young enough to endure the climbing difficulty not having a granny gear presents. When I head west to the AML400 route this spring, I'll be concentrating on the second 200 miles of Chris' route because that's a telltale section that will allow me to either identify the right single speed setup that will allow me to both climb the tough ascents and spin an efficient top end for multi-day efforts, or scrap the single speed plan and save up for the Rohloff investment.

Cheers,
Greg