Routes » Grand Enchantment Trail
by ScottM
The Grand Enchantment Trail is the brainchild of Simblissity’s owner and operator, Brett Tucker. It’s hard to imagine a more passionate and motivated creator of a long distance trail. A powerful army of one, Brett has created the Southwest’s premier long distance route.
The GET runs some 700 miles from Phoenix, AZ to Albuquerque, NM. It covers some of the more remote and beautiful terrain in the United States.
Though not an official, signed trail, the GET has an excellent set of maps available from Simblissity. Informal GET flagging also shows the way in tricky intersections.
Without a doubt, this trail is for the adventurous, experienced bikepacker. Exploration of the route continues in 2008 and into 2009. Wilderness detours and in general the concept of a bike friendly GET route are still a work in progress.
GPS Data
3D image from TopoFusion software – click to enlarge
The GET “bike” route is a definite work-in-progress, under constant refinement.
GET – Safford to Alma Figure 8.gpx
GET – Alma Magdalena.gpx explorations
Also see GET on Google Earth for a KML file overview of the route. Note this file is not suitable for navigation purposes!
Trip Reports
Solo GET recon by Scott Morris
High stakes bicycle canyoneering on the GET
Looping the GET on roads
Charlie Moore and the Wildbunch
Black hills hike-a-bike
Alma to Magdalena Chapter 1 – Gold Dust and Phantom Trails
Alma to Magdalena Chapter 2 – Wahoo on the CDT
Links
Official Site: http://www.simblissity.net/grand_enchantment.shtml
Wikipedia entry on the GET
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Sadly much of the Gila Wilderness portion of this trail— East of Glenwood, NM is probably engulfed by the mega Whitewater Baldy Complex wildfire. It is the largest wildfire in NM history.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/03/us/new-mexico-historic-wildfire/index.html
Dan and I did part of the GET on our recent “Ranchers’ Expressway” route: we used the “GET bike route, version 5,” above. We met up with the GET in San Lorenzo Canyon and left it in the town of Tajique. Here’s what we found: (1) we couldn’t find the road going E from the Stapleton Well (UTM: 13S 0342138E 3785994N), instead we took the road that passes the Tomas Baca well (13S 0340355E 3782582N), which was excellent, and took us quite a bit south, but the surface and scenery were great; (2) the route going up the Entraniosa Draw (13S 0352810E 3790860N) appeared to follow a wash and to be better for hiking than biking (this could depend on your tire size of course but looked very untamed, aka off trail) & the road that follows Tecolate Canyon east is private, so to avoid this, one would instead head south via the Ponciano Well at the junction just past Buffalo Well (13S 0350801E 3788064N). Anyhew, I have the GPX if you want me to sent it to you, Scott.
Hey Scott-
Is the GET bike route still the best source for bikepacking?
Luke — I’m not aware of any major problems with the route, but the mastermind behind the GET, Brett Tucker, is constantly tweaking and improving the route. So anyone that wants to follow portions (or thru-ride!) should definitely get in touch with him and grab the latest map sets direct from the source.
The GPX here is still useful as a guide to figure out, in broad strokes, how a GET-bike route might go, as far as getting around the major Wilderness and other non-bike areas on the trail.
I’m going to try to thru-ride this route this fall. Hoping the snow doesn’t come in too early, as it will be mid-November as I get to the high elevation portions! I will be recording the route I take, and investigating possible alternates/side trips as time allows. Thanks to Scott and Brett for all of their help to get me started. Hopefully this thing goes!
Good luck Henry. Be sure to post how it goes. I’ve had this on my to-do list for a while…