Great Divide Mountain Bike Route Day 12 & 13

Aug 6, 2026

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Ken Luken

in GDMBR Bike Ride 2026, Uncategorized

Wednesday, August 5th, 55.3 miles and 2770 accumulated vertical feet up.

Today after climbing about 1400 feet we crossed 6349 feet, the highest point on the GDMBR in Canada.

This is what the trail looked like most of the climb to the top, some spots got very steep and required hike-a-bike

The top, and Now Entering British Columbia, my 4th and final Canadian Province

Screen Shot From Ride With GPS — at the top

The GDMBR on the way to Elkford British Columbia

Over the past two days I’ve met these two cyclists and we are loosely “riding together” Front guy is Justin (43 YO) from Chicago. Back guy is Jarred (56 YO) from Melbourne, Australia.

We have seen so many, ~10, riders going North to finish in Banff that we quite stopping to talk with them. Have not seen any other riders going south….

Today we passed a great looking herd of horses & mules — all were branded and the were being lead by a big mule with a bell hanging from his neck. It was an exciting experience to watch them freely graze and browse. I took a short video but it’s not working on this WordPress blog….

Thursday, August 6th, 49.1 miles and 1900 accumulated vertical feet up.

Our loosely banded group of South Bounders appears to have dis-banded. So, this morning we met another young guy leaving the camp ground at the same time as us three and he rode with us to the bottom of the first hill and then he disappeared ahead in about the first quarter of a mile then Jarred screamed out in front and before we got even half way up that hill I became the last man standing 🚴‍♂️. The young guy passed me twice through out the day, he must have pulled off a few times— he was hoping to get 140 miles done today🤩 Wow!!! At least that hill was smoothly paved…..

Just in case you’re wondering—here is a list of what I ate today (hope Dr. Jim is not reading)

Breakfast: 3 individual serving packets of oatmeal with about 1/3 cups of raisins, dried cranberries and mixed nuts,

On the road snacks included, one packet of apple sauce, several 6” beef sticks, a cliff bar and several dehydrated fruit snack bars.

Lunch, 2 Quarter Pounders with cheese—no fries & Large Coke,

First dinner at 4 (in time for Happy Hour), Excellent rice & quinoa bowl with veggies and grilled chicken. & 2 happy hour Canadian Molsons.

2nd Dinner, grilled chicken sandwich with large bun, bacon and pickles, with a generous serving of mashed potatoes….finished by 8

Anyone want to run out and get me some ice cream?

You’re asking where’s the pictures.

As soon as I got done with that long climb on the pavement I got dumped on to this, beautiful ROAD but PLEASE can’t I catch a break

Good thing I have Ride With GPS, what if the weather was bad, this would be impossible

Smoke got bad as the day went on but this is a beautiful hay field with mountains behind

Gravel Roads turned to trails and back all day

Me, Griz & the metal plates in my left arm needed a break.

So, I stopped for the train, this nice older guy pulls up in his black F150 and says “hey you racing or just riding for fun?”, I say “fun”, he says “where you staying tonight?” I reply “the Best Western in Fernie” he says “that’s great, my daughter is the manager but she is not there today, but my wife is their maintenance and cleaning manager and she is working today.” We talk small talk and then he says “look her up when you get there, her name is Josy” we are talking a bit more about the Trumpster and trains and stuff when the gate went up and about 2 hours later I was talking to Josy in the Lobby of the Best Western in Fernie — very nice lady, it was a pleasure to spend a little time with both her and her husband!!

Hey I’m finally caught up with this Blog…

Comments

One response to “Great Divide Mountain Bike Route Day 12 & 13”

Rags

August 7, 2026

Nice ! I can’t believe that you can do all that . Good for you! Be safe and enjoy Ken. The scenery does look amazing. Rags

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