I've been mulling over a late-August/early-September ITT for a couple of years now. 2021 is probably also my next best time for a Divide ride, if the itch remains. The main potential drawback I can see to a late summer start is wildfire, fire-related road closures and smoke-filled air. 2018 was a terrible summer in that regard. This summer has been notably better so far, but as trends go, wildfire issues will probably worsen in the coming years.

Also watching the 4 a.m. dot (I'm in Germany right now.) So excited for her!

Anyone know what’s going on with the Sheila’s?  They spent the last day at BML and are now off route heading south on 80. 

From Sheila R.'s Facebook page: Ok dot watchers - an update. We will be leaving the route today. The weather in Montana put us way behind. We've known for a while we'd not be able to make up that time - to be considered a valid racer, you have to finish within 30 days.
Though not the Antelope Wells exclamation point I pictured, I was able to see most of the route that we had to skip in 2011 because of the snow + new additions:
The High Rockies Trail, Richmond Peak, the Tetons, the new routes at Union Pass and through the Basin.
We are making our way to Steamboat then Salida where the amazing Jeff will pick us up.
Thank you all for following and for your support. And most important, thank you SheilaT for being your badass self. 💚

Wow. i want to hear this story.

I do too. Quite the adventure! Hopefully he can clear things up with the authorities if needed. A couple of years ago Jeff Oatley crossed into Canada at a remote crossing on the Yukon Quest Trail, and was nearly thrown in jail. Not sure if there is different protocol since he's a U.S. citizen crossing into the U.S., but if it were me, I would travel to Roosville and try to sort it out. https://whatsupyukon.com/Yukon-Lifestyle/active/an-accidental-alien/

Jill - there are a some who declared at the outset that they are NOT RACING to AW from the outset - Gary Braun, Bill Littmann, Chantal Hindrup, Mckayla Holloway, Chris Hubick, Sharan Gurkar, Grace Ragland and Shem Simmons.

This is what I don't understand. Why are they starting the Tour Divide? Trackleaders even offers a GDMBR touring page for folks who want tracking for friends and family. Anyway, maybe I have been immersed in the ultrarunning community for too long. These attitudes would not fly at the Hardrock 100. In that race, lots of ordinary folks accept a seemingly impossible challenge. They follow the rules, they follow the course, they do everything they can to battle to the finish in 48 hours. Many of them fail, and that in itself is a worthy experience. I'm certainly not a purist and not about to tell anyone what their experience should be, but I feel sad for those who miss out on the intensity of such experiences by selling themselves short from the get-go.

But I have hijacked this thread long enough. Go everyone out there who is actually riding! ;-)

I agree with most of what you're saying, Adam. Except for perhaps the part about "ultra-fit, ultra-competitive, and ultra hardasses." Endurance bikepackers have always been a sort of motley crew, which is what sucked me into the sport back in 2005. But I definitely agree that everyone has their own idea about what "Tour Divide" should be. Perhaps that's the beauty of it.

Still, when it comes to "racing," I am a supporter of parameters. The Fastest Known Time community is not centrally organized, but they have their guidelines and ethics. I will never set a FKT for a run across the Grand Canyon, but someday I may want to test the best I can be on a storied route, so I would follow all of the established guidelines. Others might not care, and that's their right.

Every ultra I've ever run has a firm course, a set of rules, and time limits. I'm pretty slow and I love just frittering around, taking photos, stopping to observe things whenever I go for a run ... but when I line up for a race, I live by the race parameters, and value them because they push me outside my comfort zone and ultimately lead to the experience I seek. I don't really understand lining up for a race with no intent of sticking to parameters. The GDMBR is an incredible experience in itself, and all of the information one needs to ride it is readily available from ACA. Why show up in Banff on the second Friday in June if your intent is to do your own thing? That's where a lot of confusion falls these days. People want to "ride the Tour Divide." Others among us, even though we can never be the fittest or the fastest, want to "race" the GDMBR to the best of our abilities with the camaraderie  and commiseration of like-minded folks.

The TD is ever-shifting, of course. There are a lot of practices that were seen as okay in 2009 that are disallowed now. In 2015 I rode with a woman who refused to take water from me, even though she was out of liquid and looked pretty bad. At the time I was quite irritated with Tour Divide rules, in this case, because I felt compelled to stick with her until we reached the next town. Sure, we're supposed to be independent out there, but the fact is we are out there riding nearby others, and in that way share some responsibility for each other. I didn't want to be a party to somebody else's heat stroke.

Anyway, I get that this is all just a bunch of blah-blah-blah on a forum. I just wanted to clarify my perplexed feelings about the route deviations and rules. And agree that my views don't really matter to anyone but me.

Also, Brad, I 100 percent agree about Deanna's ride. It was an incredible feat!

In 2009, 38% finished. In 2017, 39% finished. "All those deviations", which are effectively scratches, is probably similar pro-rata to 2009 when only 42 started.

Many of the 2018 deviations are people who are still riding ... so the thinking is they probably didn't want to "scratch" and are still effectively in the race.

You may recall Deanna Adams from 2009. She rode a fixed-gear cross bike with a huge gear all the way from Banff to Mexico. Her time might still stand as a fixed-gear record (not sure what it is or how it compares to Fixie Dave's, to be fair.) She bypassed a small part of the route in Montana while riding with somebody else and was disqualified. To say she was upset about this is an understatement.

There was also Dario, who skipped Brooks Lake, and also was unhappy about his relegation. People may still be "disqualified" for skipping parts of the route they don't like, but I'd be willing to bet a fair number of them don't realize this.

Oh, I wasn't aware of Ben's music tour. The "coverage" is so fractured these days, it's impossible to keep up. He did pick and interesting route to get to Missoula!

I feel a little discouraged by all of the route deviations this year. It appears the growing abundance of fractured information out there has also diluted understanding of what the Tour Divide even is. Ah well. Still fun to dot-watch.

There's been a surprising number of route deviations this year. Ben Weaver appears to have left Seeley Lake and wandered off into the Rattlesnake Wilderness. http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide18i.php?name=Ben_Weaver

I, for one, would love that as well.

There's still the Freedom Challenge, 2,400 km race across South Africa where GPS and smart phones are prohibited (flip phones are okay for calling the race director when you're hopelessly lost.) The Freedom Trail isn't a nice signed route like the Divide — there is a surprising lot of off-trail travel, cattle tracks, ancient foot trails, long-forgotten wagon routes, and it's South Africa so even the major roads are unsigned (not that you venture anywhere near a major road.) I sure improved my map and compass navigation skills during my ride in 2014, but I'm not sure I'd characterize the experience as personal growth ... more like permanently scarred. ;-)

Alexandera Houchin set out from Banff on an ITT yesterday, it looks like she's making pretty good time - might be one to watch.

Thanks for the heads up. She's making good progress after the reroute. I'm excited there's another woman to watch.

This post from Adventure Syndicate answered my question: https://www.instagram.com/p/BV2XeWmDndC/

Her status says 'Alternated from race route' on Trackleaders. I couldn't see anything, except the alternate around the fire where she alternated, so I' thinking it's a mistake.

There was some question about missing the Gold Dust Trail near Como. But didn't she go back and ride it? I believe the decision to change a dot orange is well thought out by the organizers, so I don't think it's a mistake.

Does anybody here know why Rickie Cotter's Trackleaders balloon turned orange? There's now questionable status for the two leading women.

Getting there is always an issue. We fly to Fairbanks and rent a car, then leave it at the trailhead. However, leaving a car is always an gamble because cars occasionally won't start at 40 below, and then you're stranded. The trailhead is an hour north of town and taxis are probably very expensive, but perhaps cheaper then renting a car for a whole week. However, you will want to pre-arrange your ride home. You might not be able to call a taxi upon return, as cell phone reception is spotty to nonexistent out there.

Best to fly into Fairbanks. Anchorage is a seven-hour drive from Fairbanks, so eight hours to the White Mountains. Alaska is not a small state.

Mid-March is the best time of year for the White Mountains. Best chance of good weather, good trails, and the most daylight (and enough darkness for Aurora watching.) It's also the most popular time of year, so you'd need to book cabins as soon as possible. (I think the BLM books them 30 days out.)

A good itinerary is Moose Creek Cabin, Cache Mountain Cabin, Windy Gap Cabin, Borealis Cabin. Four nights/ five days of 20-25 miles each, and there are side-trail exploration opportunities from Windy Gap and Borealis.

Goldstream Sports rents fat bikes. They'd also have the latest trail info.

We take a White Mountains trip every Christmas (usually hiking, sometimes biking.) That's a tougher time of year with only 4 hours of daylight, high chance of 40 below, and trails are less used and generally only broken to the nearest cabins. But it's consistently gorgeous. Solstice is a magical time of year in Alaska.

I visited Jackson Hole over the weekend. There was a fair amount of snow above 8,000 feet. It did cause me to wonder what the road to Flagg Ranch looked like right now. During the drive we stopped at my favorite TD sleeping spot, the Wind River Lake picnic area, at the start of the Brooks Lake loop. It was sleeting and there's about a foot of snowpack on the road, but definitely less than I saw in 2009 and there's still two weeks for it to disappear entirely.

We saw a young grizzly next to the highway just below Togwotee Pass, which is right on the route. He was just munching on grass and ignoring the RV-bound tourists swarming around him. Quite docile but looked young enough for mom to still be around.

Part of the GDMBR has been ridden the winter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_28YltsuY

It's an interesting thought experiment. Parts of the route would be dry or plowed. Parts would have some snowmobile traffic and might be rideable with a fat bike. A fair portion would be full snowshoeing and ice ax terrain, carrying the bike (and being wary of avalanche danger.) It would take a lot of research and time to pull it off, but perhaps someone will attempt it someday.

Ultrarunning is another sport where sleep deprivation is a big part of the game. It used to be just hundreds taking most people 24-48 hours, but more and more multiday events are popping up — 200 mile, remote mountain races, 6 day races. The sleep deprivation in that crowd is extreme. I have friends who brag about being to stay awake for 72 hours straight. The folks in contention for the win don't sleep at all.

In 2013 I tried one of those 200-mile mountain races in Europe, and it ended up being one of the worst experiences of my life. Just staying ahead of time-cutoffs forced my team (teams are mandatory for safety) to keep moving with only 45 minutes of rest, or less, per 24-hour period. Managing endless technical hiking, scrambling, and exposure put me at the end of my rope, and I lost control of my thoughts and eventually decisions. On day four I had a psychotic break and went tearing through the woods convinced I was lost and probably dying. It was like having a split personality. There was a rational side begging me to stop, but something else was controlling my actions.

It was genuinely very scary, very humbling, and completely changed my perspective on what I'm seeking in endurance racing. I will never venture into that depth of sleep deprivation again, if I can help it. So when I participate in multi-day races, I prioritize sleep and carry what I need to get good rest. Still, just as races with mandatory gear annoy me, I also wouldn't participate in a purported "self-supported" race with mandatory rest periods. The effects of sleep deprivation are different for everyone. Self-management, strategy, and decision-making are a huge part of what make self-supported bikepacking such a rewarding experience.

All items have been sold.