Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25126
" There's a whole lot of mud, ruts. flats. cacti. sand. mountains. moose. snakes and antelope when you bike from Canada to Mexico." Divide crossings were ca use for celebration, whether they were brazenly marked on the slices of interstate the route followed or untouched, with the map and odometer as the only means to figure out where X marks the spot. But the path also had its demons. Shortly after a divide crossing in Montana, Jan took the first of several spills, wiping out on some sinister sand, bloodying her legs and elbows. That day we saw only two other people. On a ride like this, self-sufficiency is key. A Colorado crossing was where I discovered that the U-joint of my trailer-an essentia l little part that keeps the bike and trailer together-was cracked. Our call to the manufacturer was greeted with advice to seek smooth surfaces until they cou ld send the part overn ight to a local bike shop. Intentions were good, but overnight delivery in certain parts of the world doesn't absolutely, positively get there the next day. When it did, Jan fixed it. Heavily forested northwest Montana is grizzly country. The local papers had headlines about a killer griz in Glacier National Park, to the east of the route. Locals talked of people getting "munched." We did n't feel much like being meals-on-wheels, so we armed ourselves with canisters of pepper spray. Thankfully, we never had a shoot-out. On occasion, thru -bikers are led to slaughter, like lemmings over a cliff, by riding over steep mountain passes like Montana's Fleecer Mountain. There, if riders haven't already considered severa l of the alternate routes offered on the maps, they wi ll . Fleecer is the Tuckerman Ravine for mountain bikers, technical and steep. Entertainment? Real lasso-tossing cowboys lead cattle drives right on the trail. "Mooooooove" is a common cry, cycling through lackadaisical herds. One night, while din ing on Spam and pasta, we watched a tent-side cattle drive. One lone ca lf jumped over a wire fence, followed by a cowboy on horseback. As if on cue, 01' Hoss tried ringing the bovine's neck and missed. The renegade then slipped back over the fence. The cowboy actually moseyed over to us to apologize for distu rbing our peacel Isn't that better than a twofer at Duffy Square? Spirits of the West can be spotted along the way. Decrepit gold mines, posts marking former wagon trails on which pioneers rode to start a new life and ghost towns are all part of the scenery. One deserted town in Bannack, Montana, came al ive for a weekend, when locals recreated life there wearing period dress, read ing cowboy poetry, playing music and the like. They also served modern-day cuisine, like Rocky Mountain oysters. Don't ask. The sandy path of Idaho is but a blip before the broad-ranging basins of Wyoming. Antelope do play in the sage. Wild horses, their 34