It's time for another Eaton Cycling Adventure! A lot of people ask us where we come up with the idea of our rides. They usually start with me (Diane) saying something like "what if we....or we could.....mmm.....what do you think does that sound like a good idea?" And then it grows into a plan. We start out on Plan A but may end on Plan B, C etc. Ya never know. Only God knows and he's not always tellin or maybe we're not always listening. Our motto is "Everyday is an Adventure and GOD is always there".
Before I describe our route, let me tell you the ground rules. When I write this blog, I write the first thing that pops in my head, I don't edit or spellcheck or modify. Don't expect perfect grammer!
Plan A is to fly to Edmonton Canada, ride a shuttle to Hinton and start riding there. Our bikes are already in Canada! We shipped them last week. We are riding mountain bikes on this ride, because the majority of our route is in the backcountry. Picture primitive camping, filtering water, freeze dried food, cold bathes in rivers, bears (oh my!), dirt/gravel roads, trails, you get the idea. For the start we will be riding the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Banff Canada. This will be our third attempt at this section. The last two times we tried the weather was so bad we changed the route to Plan B/2. We'll see how this works out!
After riding the 200 miles to Banff on paved roads, we will start riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike route. This route is a 2000 mile + route from Canada to Mexico following the Continental Divide. We will be riding about 800 miles of the route from Banff to Grant Montana. Then turning west to ride a loop in Idaho. Why aren't we riding the whole Great divide route? Last year we rode from Ohio to Idaho. In Idaho we did a beautiful route and discovered how beautiful the state is. Much prettier than riding through Wyoming (sorry Wyoming!). On our cross country ride last year riding through Wyoming was no fun, so why do that again.
In Idaho We will be following another mountain bike route developed by Adventure Cycling called the Hot Springs route. It is a 517 mile loop. Not sure where we will be flying home from yet. We'll figure that out later. Maybe Boise?
Because we are spending so much time in the backcountry I'm not sure how much internet access we will have. But will try to post as much as possible.
Hope you enjoy the blog!
