The West Virginia Trip - A Video Report

Eastern Continental Divide Trip Report Parts 1 and 2

Part 1

Part 2

The Delorme map files, and GDB files suitable for downloading to a GPS are linked below.

The GDB files contain a route, waypoints and the GPX track and are dividing into 3 sections:

• Section one is Highlands NC to Fancy Gap Va
• Section two is Fancy Gap to Bartow WVa
• Section three is Bartow to the finish at the triple point near Gold Pa.

The Microsoft Streets and Trips file is a turn by turn cue sheet with times between stops.


The PDF map files are exports from Delorme Street Atlas Plus that can be printed and a back up to the GPS.

File share on Google Drive - click link to access

Eastern Continental Divide trip update, more background information: During my experience in the 2011 Tour Divide, I thought a lot about its route and history and began to wonder about other routes. I know from years of traveling in the Southern Appalachians, that we have the Eastern Continental Divide as marked by the familiar green and white signs, but I did not know much more about where it started and ended and if there are defined routes. A quick Google search revealed much information and sections that have been mapped, but I could not find a complete route. So I started patching together a group of roads that traverse, as close as possible the ridge, or crest of the ECD from a Southern terminus at a triple divide point near Highlands NC and a Northern terminus in a field in NW Pennsylvania at another triple divide. Between these two ends lay 950 miles of, mostly paved, mountain roads. Another conclusion about my Tour Divide experience was that I can travel these distances much faster and with less extreme fatigue on a motorcycle. But first I had to learn to ride a motorcycle. Almost three years later I am ready to begin this next chapter.

Click this link to watch a preview video of the ride report:

The Eastern Continental Divide and the planned route. 
The ECD is identified with the red line. The blue line is the route. The tan color on the western side of the Divide is the watershed that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Starting point is Highlands NC and finish is a field in Northwest Pennsylvania near the town of Gold.

The world map below shows the major watersheds in North America. The red line denotes the portion of the Eastern Continental route I will explore.

the journey continues June 9, 2013