June 19, 2013

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

June 03, 2013


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.