Continental Divide Ride

I'm out on a ride right now doing some scouting where I made up auto routes in CN2013.30 using Mapsource, then converted them to tracks using WinGDB.

Guess what? Not all those roads in CN were actually there! Ran across one just today - heading east out of Laramie it showed a road up the mountain just north of the expessway..... all that was there was a faint, very faint, two track mostly blocked off.

So, if you use that method to create tracks, be aware that they may not work. I've has numerous occasions of this being the case the last 3 weeks and 5800 miles...

You are learning the realities of adventure riding. Probably the majority of minor roads shown on CN are not open.

I find I have to augment my trip planning with maps that show land ownership. Minor roads on private land are rarely open. Minor roads on forest and BLM land usually are open.

A great new resource are travel management maps that are becoming available online for forest and BLM lands. At first the idea of using these was repugnant to me on the general principle of being violently opposed to land closures.

But these new maps show lots of minor roads that are actually open. They often show roads that don't appear on any other digital or paper map I have. You have to search online for the particular forest or BLM district you are interested in.

Yeah, I'm well aware of the maps being off - posted that note to warn the newbies....

I've been scouting a long time.... since before my Army M/C scout days in the late 70s.

But even the latest (or almost latest) Garmin maps show stuff that isn't there. That's the point.

That is one main reason to use R&R which are basicaly 1980s 1:100,000 USGS maps. Guess what, at least the BLM designated virtually every rouite on these maps as Open plus many that were user developed between the 80s and 2,000.

Unfortunately Jerry, that road that no longer existed was on R&R too.

I love R&R - it's the primary maps that I run, but it is getting a bit long in the tooth.

With R&R on the GPS that I use (Garmin 498 - marine chartplotter/fishfinder) I can see all roads in front of me for 10 miles on a 5" color screen with buttons. Yeah, it uses the Garmin data cards, and yeah, it's the older receiver chips so it drops signal, yeah there's no battery, but waterproof, a 'find' button, buttons at all.... I'll live with it. In fact, I have 3 of them - one for each primary scouting bike.

The ability to see that far ahead to find ways around things and see what's coming up far outweighs the disadvantages. So I run a 76cx to record high res tracklogs for editing later and charge on with the 498 and R&R for navigation.

Working with the PC version, I find often that important roads don't appear unless I zoom into 800 feet.

I was waiting for Garmin to come out with a big screen version of 60/76 with micro SD, and new receiver chips so didn't go the 498 route. Now sorry I didn't. I have R & R loaded in my Nuvi in my morothome just so I can see dirt roads. Als shows more towns.

The only good thing about new 78 is downloading 200 tracks to see out in front of you. I am in Houston working a space job this week. I will be back on GWT next week and think I will run 78 with every possible track showing for navagation but 76 to record tracks. It makes it so much easier to turn log off/on each time you want to start a new Active Log.

With R & R everything shows at under 2 Mi.

Thanks to thread my wife and I were successful in riding the divide this summer. I just finished editing our videos and uploading them to youtube. It is a sampler of the roads and landscapes of the ride.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j3CyRQRp7v0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

From the video above it looks like way too much pave and way way too much open gravel roads. Is this the nature of most of the ride?

Did folks follow big dogs tracks or countdown. I have heard that countdown follows the divide more closely but if that means more boring gravel roads then I would look for a more interesting route.

Any pref on who's tracks to use?

Thanks

Yes the route is pretty but much easier than the TAT. Thumpers are overkill. The one tricky section we found ourselves on had a no Motos sign facing the other way, we discovered upon exiting.

All posted tracks for CDR are the same bicycle route. I did scout a route across NM tha follows the divide as close as possible and it is much more Dual Sport than Adv Bike.

I got side tracked before I did CO which will have tons of single track suitable for trial bikes.

If you want a much better moptorcycle ride, look at the Great Western Trail. It has as much 2-track as possible and a lot of single track but all with Adv Bike bypasses..

Does anybody ride CDT?

I think lots of people ride it. I routinely ride the portions in New Mexico and Colorado.
There are lots of reports in both the Ride Report and Rockies Regional forums.

Sometimes it is referred to as the CDR.

Ok thanks.

I might have been misleading in my reply. Even though many use the terms CDR and CDT to mean the same thing, they really aren't.

I believe the CDT is the congressionally designated trail that closely follows the Continental Divide. I don't really don't know much about it.
I believe is for hikers and may also be legal for mountain bikes.

The CDR is the motorcycle route that follows the CDT for as much of the way as is legal and practical.

In addition to Cannonshot's tracks, there are other versions such as the one by Countdown that tries to more closely follow the Divide itself.

Even though I am spouting off, I am not a world class expert in this subject.

The site you posted is for bicycles. Is there a map set or gpx set for CDT that is motorcycle specific?

The very first entry on this thread by BigDogAdventures has downloadable gpx files, and Cannonshot himself has a great set of gpx files in his iconic thread...
https://advrider.com/f/threads/a-cannonride-down-the-great-divide-solo.603076/

Have a go at it, you won't regret it!