So...there is a LOT going on right now...too much in fact.
Friday the annual (skipped last year of course) Tour Divide mtb race started...the normal "Grand Depart" at Banff Alberta was nixed as the Canadian border is still closed...so the race started AT the border on the US side. That cut off about 25 miles or so from the normal route of 2700 miles following the Continental Divide (using the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, or GDMBR).
As always I'm completely awed by anybody that even attempts this. It's SO HUGE! Totally self supported...carry what you want, food, water, tools, it's up to you...and then just deal with everything that comes up...I can't fathom this. Today the front-runners went thru Helena MT (I'm from Helena), and the path out of town heading towards Butte is on Grizzly Gulch...a dirt road that I used to ride portions of on my dirt bike (when I was in high school). On Saturday they rode thru Whitefish and then on down past Flathead Lake and then the Seely Swan route...when I was in Jr. High our family built a cabin on Echo Lake (just north of Flathead Lake and the small town of Bigfork). My brothers and I made MANY trips to/from Helena to work on the cabin one summer, and then after that to go to the cabin summer and winter (we'd ski on Big Mountain in Whitefish once in a while and stay at our cabin to make it pretty cheap).
And I have been watching the Olympic diving trials this evening...that's another sport that amazes me...(I sort-of dove as a Freshman...swam all 4 years of HS but diving wasn't my thing). I've jumped off a 10 meter platform ONCE...THAT is very scary and HIGH UP! Diving off it?? NO WAY!!!
What else...bike racing?? I have yet to go back and watch the final 5 stages of the Giro on the NBCSN internet site (I was on work travel that entire week up in Sunnyvale)...the Tour is coming up FAST!!! It will be here before we know it!
OK..I need to hit it...it's late and 4:30am comes very early...I'm already gonna pay dearly for staying up till now (9:30pm).
Later gators, hope things are good for ya'll, and that you are safe healthy as the country comes out of the Covid nightmare!
Rae, Susie...hope things are well for you both...haven't heard much of late (Susie, I assume you are drunk with sports-binging by now, what with the Olympic Trials going on for a while now...I've watched bits and pieces but it's too much...Olympics before the Olympics). And are you still staying at home or are you back at work now that you've been vaccinated? Here in CA almost all the mandates and such are gone...life is relatively normal now if you are vaccinated. Anyhoo...hope stay safe and enjoy SUMMER!
ReplyDeleteHi everyone, it's that time of year!!! Vive le Tour!
ReplyDeleteMatt, have you read Jill Homer's book on the Great Divide? I loved it!
I think you follow her on FB, so you might have seen that her father died in a hiking accident last week. Very sad news - even though I've never met her, I feel like I know her.
Hey Barbara, welcome back, long time no hear!! I have an autographed copy of her book (and the one before that too)...or was it the one after...about the Iditarod Trail Invitational she rode.
ReplyDeleteI did see Jills post about her Dad...that's SO very sad, he was an amazing man, and a fantastic role model for us older guys (he was a few years older than me, and could hike me into the ground). Every year he and Jill would get together and do a rim to rim to rim hike on the Grand Cyn (I've never even done rim to rim). It had to be a pretty huge shock, but he died doing what he loved...how many of us get that? Still it was obviously quite unexpected.
Gotta scoot...thanks for stopping by...and yes, it is ALMOST THAT TIME AGAIN! Woo-HOO!!!