Erik Schlimmer is East Coast Mountain Bike Rider Establishes Longest Mountain Bike Route In America

If you've ever planned a mountain bike vacation, you may recall a period early on when your brain thought up the following brilliant question:

"Where should I go this time-- Montana, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, or Wyoming?"

It's not likely that your answer was "I think I'll just do ALL of them," never mind actually following thru with what some might say is a completely psychotic idea.

But that was Erik Schlimmer's answer when he was trying to plan his next big trip, and boy did he ever follow thru. Having already tackled the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2004, Erik needed a new challenge. But he wasn't content with following in someone else's footsteps.

So he made his own route up, dubbed the Western States Mountain Bike Route. The 32 year-old New York based adventurer, author, and mountain biker of 16 years then spent almost two months riding thru temperature's that swung from below freezing to over 100 degrees, and managed to climb a total of 170,000 feet in the process. For the mathematically challenged among us, that's equivalent to riding up Mount Everest almost 6 times from sea level. Kind of makes you think twice before talking about your next "epic" ride, doesn't it?

ExploretheEast waited for Erik to recover before grilling him about his 52-day journey, but it turns out we could have just brought him an ice cream cake and he would have talked to us. Here's what he had to say:

EtE: Is this a route that you created?
Yes. The Western States Mountain Bike Route combines four major long distance trails: Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, Shoshone Trail, Great Western Trail and the Arizona Trail. I rode extended portions of these trails, bypassing the sections that were not rideable. I connected their terminuses by using my own off-road routes in the form of dirt roads, cattle trails, power lines, rail lines and hiking trails. Sometimes, due to private land and exceedingly rough terrain, I had to ride paved connector segments. Many had ridden the 2,490-mile Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Canada to Mexico, but no one had taken the route I took, now dubbed the Western States Mountain Bike Route at 2,640 miles.

EtE: How much planning was involved before you actually set off?
I spent two months planning the ride. Most of this consisted of marking the routes of the four major paths above on my maps. I also spent a lot of time e-mailing the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and hikers and riders that had already covered sections of my proposed route. One Forest Service employee predicted that planning my trip would be "an expedition in itself." He was right.

EtE: What kind of bike did you ride?
I rode a 17" 2005 Jamis Dakota XC, which is a cross-country hardtail. I swapped the 2.1" tires for a set of 1.95" tires and removed the flat handlebar to put on a riser bar so I was more upright. I had to put on a rear rack to carry my equipment, too.

EtE: Any special gear that you brought?
I had to bring enough specialized gear to be comfortable in temperatures below freezing as well as conditions exceeding 100 degrees. I also needed to bring grizzly-bear-specific gear such as bear spray and a bear-resistant food canister. Overall, I had to bring enough gear to write, photograph, cook, eat, sleep and ride for two months. But all toll, I only brought seventeen pounds of gear.

EtE: How much training was involved before you set out (if any)?
Very little training was done. At the time I was building mountain biking trails full time, which kept me in pretty good shape. Plus I was riding a little here and there to keep my butt firm and my legs loose.

EtE: Where can someone get detailed directions on the route you took?
As interest in the route rises there will probably be a demand for maps. I still have all my maps, about sixty paper maps in all, with the Western States Mountain Bike Route highlighted. If I can find a person that is willing to make maps for a reasonable price I would be interested in selling maps to help others repeat this amazing ride.

EtE: What was your favorite part of the trip?
The Wyoming Range of Western Wyoming. Just prior to entering this area I rode 1,000 miles of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route and that's just not my style; riding an established route. The Wyoming Range marked the first "entrepreneurial riding" of the trip. Plus the range is simply amazing. A land of 10,000-foot-tall scree-clad peaks, meandering rivers, beaver ponds and alpine terrain, which dirt roads flow through. It's an intimidating place but absolutely beautiful.

EtE: Hardest part?
Crossing the Sonoran Desert in temperatures that reached 101 degrees. One day the coolest shade was 96 degrees and my thermometer, when placed in the sun, hit 116 degrees. For nearly two weeks it was impossible to ride between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. Southern Arizona was mucho siesta land. The cold on the other hand (lowest temp. of the trip was 26 degrees) was not unbearable. Being from the Northeast originally, I'm accustomed to freezing.

EtE: Best views?
The Skyline Drive of Utah. Nearly all of one 200-mile section was above 10,000 feet with either side of the plateau falling 5,000 vertical feet into the deserts below.

EtE: Craziest thing that happened along the way?
Riding down Salt River Pass in Idaho I hit 49 mph and I almost got hit my lightening in Montana, but the craziest thing was riding outside Butte, MT. These six crazy, completely wasted locals were flying up and down a dirt road in some huge shit-box car, either screaming like a bunch of wild banshees or they were silent, zoning out during their ride into another dimension. The climax was when they zoomed off then later flew back around a turn with one of the guys on the hood, just staring at me. After they passed, I got off the road and hid in the woods for an hour. I mean, I partied a lot in college but I doubt even I looked that sketchy.

1 | 2 | Continue >>