Great Divide Expedition

[Spiker]

Just came across this thread and was so pleased to see how many people want to get out there! I'm sure Scott will put together a spot-on trip for you.

In the meantime, I noticed how many were strapped to find info on how to get out there to explore on their own. I hope this info helps. I offer it with the sincerest gesture of a fellow off roader with the interests of getting more people on the trail.

To assist you all, I just put up a "download section" which has loads of files for your trip planning.

• Simply to to the offroving site
• Click on any of the sections [calendar, sliders, anything]
• At the bottom of any of the pages will appear a tab which says "downloads".
• There, I put all of the GPS files for Garmin and Google Earth, the GD3 trip sheet which gives context to all the trails, etc.

Get out there and explore, all brands, all ages!

 

[haven]

The site Spiker is referring to is http://www.offroving.com/
This site uses Flash extensively, so those with slow internet service beware.

The fastest way to Spiker's useful information is to click on "skip intro"
and then click on "home." The link to the downloadable files will
appear at the bottom right of the page.

The downloadable files do not appear on the HTML site
http://www.offroving.com/mobile/index2.html

Chip Haven

 

[Gore Ranger]

I found a Great Divide badge (it's the awesome metal one) and it is now on my tailgate. Even though my 1989 is not a genuine GDE, I live very near the continental divide so i thought it would look cool on the tailgate. That is the only sticket/badge on my entire truck and I plan to keep it that way.

The early Range Rovers (1987-1989) make great overlanding vehicles (despite what some say on here) but they're hard to find rust free. You better have deep pockets though between maintenance and mods. They're not for everybody.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=25009&d=1232218558

 

[DividingCreek]

This thread popped up as we do research to run the original route in a couple weeks.A group of us are running the original 1989 route with what ever shunts we will need to make for closures.We have Tom Collins original turn by turn route instructions.
Our starting point is the morning or 8/8 from Defender-Imports in Colorado Springs and day one will take us up to the original start point in Wyoming. There will be a 3 RRC's and couple of D1's, a couple 90's, a NAS 110, a row 110. etc think we are @ 12 trucks. As a group we have done stuff like this for years ( most have run the Rubicon multiple times etc) and the trucks are fairly built. Will post again when we're done. We've allotted 10 days to this.

 

[DaveInDenver]

This thread popped up as we do research to run the original route in a couple weeks.A group of us are running the original 1989 route with what ever shunts we will need to make for closures.We have Tom Collins original turn by turn route instructions.
Our starting point is the morning or 8/8 from Defender-Imports in Colorado Springs and day one will take us up to the original start point in Wyoming. There will be a 3 RRC's and couple of D1's, a couple 90's, a NAS 110, a row 110. etc think we are @ 12 trucks. As a group we have done stuff like this for years ( most have run the Rubicon multiple times etc) and the trucks are fairly built. Will post again when we're done. We've allotted 10 days to this.

It's a fun route. There are two significant detours compared to the 1989 route.

The first (coming from north) is Rollins Pass between Winter Park and Rollinsville (thus Boulder, Nederland, Central City, Blackhawk) which will probably be your first day or maybe the start of day two. This is a major one because there's not many options between Wyoming and I-70 that are fun. There's Trail Ridge Road (US34 between Grand Lake and Loveland) in Rocky Mountain National Park (this present problems with traffic and scheduling a time slot to enter the Park) or just going all the way through Winter Park and over Berthoud Pass towards Georgetown. You miss quite a bit of history, to say nothing of just an interesting route.

The other is later in the trip, around day 8, after you do Tincup and want to get south over the Divide near Cameron Park. You run into a 50" limit and motorcycle singletrack eventually on the 1989 route. But there's plenty of alternatives and minimally maintained county roads that are interesting even if they are circituous and not always particularly close to the Divide itself.

Ten days is about perfect but you might build in a couple of padding if you want to explore around Ouray, Lake City, Telluride and the San Juans in general. Good luck and have fun!

 

[DividingCreek]

Most in our group have spent a lot of time in the San Juan’s. Appreciate the heads up on Rollins- read somewhere else a tunnel collapsed on the original route. Had a friend check out the Elkhorn Mountain section for us this past weekend.

 

[LRNAD90]

Damn that sounds like fun, were do I sign up?

(don't worry, just dreaming, I'd never be able to get out there anyway )