My Adventure: by Molly Ehlers
For background context, The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) is the world’s longest mapped mountain bike route, spanning rougnly 2,700-3,000 miles from Banff, Albert, Canada, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, USA. Developed by the Adventure Cycling Association, this predominantly dirt/gravel route traverses the Rocky Mountains with over 200,000 ft of total climbing. Molly completed this ride at age age 11 (the youngest ever to do so) together with her father in 45 days of bike-packing.
When I was 11 years old I biked the Great Divide Route with my dad, which goes from Rooseville on the Canadian border to Antelope Wells New Mexico. We originally started in Banff, Canada, just before the grand depart, but due to bike problems on my dad’s bike we had to restart at the border with a repaired bike. To prepare for this we biked in almost 100-degree weather in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Closer to the ride we did the Hungry Bear race in Wisconsin. I would get dropped off at my dad’s work and we would bike home, discussing gear and bike setups. During the ride, there were highs and lows like all rides have.
One of my favorite moments was my birthday when I woke up to loud music because a running race was happening right where we camped. Then we went to a little club in what felt like the middle of nowhere but was actually Wise River Montana. I got little gas station cupcakes and they gave me some ice cream while the whole place sang happy birthday to me. But of course there are always lows too.
One of the worst moments was when we were riding and getting so close to a restaurant that may or may not have been open when the rain suddenly turned into hail. The hail started getting bigger so we stopped biking and put our hands and bike computers in our pockets to protect them because the hail was the size of golf balls. We finally made it to the restaurant with a back that hurt very badly from the hail shattering on it. We got some pizza and I put a piece of hail as ice in my root beer.
As we approached the finish my brother was racing me to the Antelope Wells sign (he won). I was just so happy to see my family and to be done. Afterwards, we got some food and went back to the hotel where I went swimming with my brother and cousins. My brother had to leave with my aunt to get home just before my parents and I did. When I got home there was a big party that my brother planned with so many people and my favorite biking snack, cotton candy. I was just so happy I got to do this with my dad and I can’t wait to do more adventures.
Advice to Others:
My advice to others, as I mention in the podcast, is “You can do almost anything you put your mind to. It’s OK to be frustrated sometimes, or feel like, OK, this is hard but, if you keep going, you’ll eventually achieve your goal.”
