Ghost Riders in the Sky

"An old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day" - Johnny Cash

There we were, 3 against 4500 km's of Rocky mountain wilderness. I must admit, i'm not actually 100% sure how we got here. A casual whatsapp group and a couple of emails, which saw more banter than organisation, helped confirm and plan an adventure of a lifetime through the Rocky mountains of Canada and the US of A.

There she is, the route of the Great Divide. Banff to Antelope Wells.

As this is the first installment in the blog, I thought I'd briefly give you a low down on what we are actually going to be up to for the next 2 or so months. Basically we'll be cycling from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico....whilst battling grizzlies, lumberjacks and moonshine hangovers. The route sees us cross the Rockies multiple times and ride through national parks such as Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. The plan, and I use the word plan very loosely, is to start cycling on the 13th of August once we have recovered from the jet lag and have our bikes and kit sorted. Of course we're going from North to South so its downhill all the way, easy right? That's what I keep telling myself.

With a couple of hours until i start the long haul 35 hour journey to Calgary the butterflies have truly began to flutter. We have the small matter of picking out our bikes, but it seems like there could be no better place than Calgary to saddle up.

 I'll hopefully be able to update the blog regularly with details of our run ins with grizzlies and cowboys, so stay tuned in for our next installment. In the next post I'll introduce the china's on the trip.

Below are a couple of links to articles about the route and a link to the song in the post title.

Also, the Blog title is a song by John Denver. I listened to it this morning for the first time and the lyrics seem to be pretty appropriate. Have a listen!

http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/trips/americas-best-adventures/bike-continental-divide-trail/
http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/great-divide-mountain-bike-route/
Johnny Cash - Ghost riders in the sky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mynzbmrtp9I

John Denver - Rocky mountain high https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOB4VdlkzO4