Catch A Concert By A Bikepacking Musician This Summer

Ride to a Ben Weaver show as he takes his instruments with him along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Photo: Adventure Cycling.

To celebrate the 20th year of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Banff, Alberta to the U.S.- Mexico border, Ben Weaver is riding it with his musical instruments and playing shows along the way.

… The whole show … #musicforfree … @salsacycles @ospreypacks @adventurecycling @hedwheels @onyxracing @cedaero @kates_real_food @ridge_merino @bigagnes_ @rubyroasters @wolf_tooth_comp @redtablemeatco @swrve_la @klite_dynamo_power @angrycatfish @bentpaddlebeer

A post shared by Ben Weaver (@benweavermusic) on Jun 1, 2018 at 9:02am PDT

The route is almost 2,700 miles with over 150,000 feet of elevation change. It passes through the Canadian Kootenay mountain range, the Tetons, several national parks in Montana and Idaho, the Wyoming Wind River Range, the Colorado Rockies, and finally down to the New Mexican desert.

Weaver is collaborating with the Adventure Cycling Association, Salsa Cycles, and Osprey for support. He’ll also be making a documentary of the trip with filmmaker Keenan DesPlanques, who will ride with Weaver the entire time.

“It’s been roughly five years now that I’ve been touring with my instruments, and in that time I’ve seen the magic of my tools in action. How the bicycle and songs can draw other people’s stories out,” says Weaver in a Youtube video.

Weaver says there are plenty of videos out there of athletes that bikepack and learn something new about themselves. This is meant to be different kind of journey where the story is centered around the locals the two riders meet passing through on the trip.

The trip started on June 7 and has 15 stops planned along the route. Yet, there’s still plenty of time to catch a show along the route. After all, a tour takes a little longer on bike than it does by tour bus or airplane.

June 7 | Banff, AB | YWCA

June 11 | Whitefish, MT | Whitefish Bike Retreat

June 14 | Missoula, MT | Art Park at Adventure Cycling HQ

June 14 | Missoula, MT | Top Hat Restaurant & Bar

June 15 | Ovando, MT | The Stray Bullet

June 17 | Helena, MT | Great Divide Cyclery

June 22 | Pinedale, WY | Sublette County Library

June 25 | Slater, CO | Brush Mountain Lodge

June 27 | Steamboat Springs, CO | Orange Peel Cycles

June 28 | Silverthorne, CO | Silverthorne Performing Arts Center Lawn

June 29 | Salida, CO | Subculture Cyclery

July 1 | Del Norte, CO | The Mystic Biscuit