H bar!

Will this save my wrist? One can only hope.

It's ON!

It's on!

After lots of changed plans, big and small, we have plane tickets to Calgary.

Jennie and I will be flying out June 11th and meeting our good friends Tommy and Laura to start riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route! More on the route here: Great Divide

We will then watch Tommy and Laura ride off into the sunset. They'll be moving much faster than us as they are racing the Tour Divide. A 2800 mile race!

I will update this blog whenever possible with pictures and brief updates. So check back often to see how we're doing!

One last thing: We're riding to support an awesome charity local to Blacksburg, Bike the US for MS. They run supported trips along several routes across the country as well as helping out self-supported cyclists like us. With your donations they support research as well as directly funding home improvement type projects to help people living with MS. 

You can donate on behalf of me (JP) here or Jennie here. 100 percent of your donations go to Bike the US for MS, these donations do NOT fund our trip. 

Home made bikepacking gear

A combination of wanting to do the trip on the cheap and needing some winter/injury downtime projects led Jennie and I to making our own gear. Below are some photos of some of what we made. We'll have a sewing kit along for the ride in case our craftsmanship isn't what we think it is.

Frame bag. There is a divider in the middle that is adjustable to pull the sides of the bag in so it doesn't balloon out too much.

Seat bag. Also put a tent pole in the bottom of the bag and made a bracket for the seat post to add some rigidity.

Top tube little bag, fits a tube, patch kit, and some tools well. Check out that custom velcro fitting...

Feed bags. Two of these for each of us. They connect to the step and handlebar for readily accessible storage.