June 12, 2026
The 2026 Tour Divide riders departed from Banff this morning on an annual, self-supported underground race of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route: over 2,700 miles of trail, dirt roads, and everything else from Canada to New Mexico. Right now, they're headed south, pushing down the Great Divide toward Mexico. I hoped to be there with them, but I'm in my workshop, seam sealing a tarp. This is not how I envisioned my June. How did we get here?
Twenty Years Ago
I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2004. Two years later, I got about halfway through the PCT before cluster headaches took me off the trail. Out on the PCT, I had many conversations with trail buddies about gear design ideas and what a gear company we started might look like. After leaving the trail, I picked up a home sewing machine and began experimenting. Somehow, that was twenty years ago, and I'm still at it.
What Building It Looked Like
The middle years were a grind, and after leaving my bill-paying job to pursue YAMA "full time", 60- to 90-hour weeks were the norm. For a long stretch, I lived out of my workshop; I built a shower from 2x4s and a hose running to the sink, cooked on a hot plate, and bought groceries from the farmers' market across the street. My effective rate for much of that time was probably something like 2-3 dollars per hour. If a friend told you that, you'd probably tell them to quit. What was I thinking?!
In 2019, I moved to Montana and felt like I'd finally found home. From the end of my street, I can access miles of trail and hike into designated Wilderness without touching pavement. A typical day looks like this: wake up, check email and orders over a bowl of oats, head to the workshop, fulfill orders, answer more email, try to carve out some sewing time or, if I'm lucky, design work. By the end of the day, I probably haven't sewn half as much as I expected, and it's time to seam-seal before heading out for an evening trail run or bike ride to finish out the day. Somewhere in there, I try to replenish my calories.
Freeing and Limiting
People sometimes ask what running YAMA is like, and I often say that it's oddly freeing and limiting, at the same time. The separation between work and life is quite blurred, which I think was part of the goal?
The freeing part is small, but meaningful. I have a lot of flexibility to purposefully arrange the small things in my life. Being able to take a quick trip on a whim or shuffle around the schedule isn't something I take for granted.
The limiting factor mostly comes in the form of financial and time constraints. Family and friendships take a toll. My social time tends to be limited to the trail, and extended trips, the kind that started all of this, are now the hardest thing to make happen.
The Unicycle Ride, and the Race
In 2012, I rode the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route on a mountain unicycle. Banff to the Mexican border. It hurt, a lot, but it happened.
Ever since, I've known I'd be back on two wheels someday. For the last few years, I've had a hard time not thinking about it. Maybe it's a midlife crisis, though I prefer to think of it as a calling or a reconnection.
I hoped to race in 2025, but over the winter, I came to my senses: my gear prep and bike build were moving too slowly, and so were my legs. I pushed it back to 2026 and committed to a shakedown (practice ride) as the race came through our area in Montana that June.
The shakedown was an eye-opener. I went out pretending to race, testing gear approaches and learning how my body responded to a sustained race pace. I thought I'd experienced fatigue before, but this was a different level!
For 2026, the plan was to race, but when the opportunity came up to have family visit, I easily chose that over the start line. I still planned to get out for a week-long shakedown and would have been heading out this weekend as the racers pass nearby. Unfortunately, a nagging injury about a month ago has kept me in recovery mode, and a busy spring season of tent making has made it hard to get everything in order to pull it off. Perhaps a shorter, consolation trip is in order?
If you want to join me in tracking this year's racers, you can follow the GPS dot map at trackleaders.com/tourdivide26 or watch Josh Ibbett's commentary at youtube.com/@joshibbett. Even if you're not into biking, this can be fun to follow!
What I'm Building Toward
I now have my eyes set on 2027. There's still much work to do to get the bike and gear dialed, and finding the time to train will be challenging, but keeping big trips like this in my life is important to me and helps keep YAMA connected to the life that started it all.
~Gen
You can find more about the unicycle journey and my Tour Divide prep at greatdivideride.com. The Tour Divide side is a work in progress, but I'll try to update it as the bike build comes together.
