The Airline Lost My Bike-I'm Trying to Stay Positive *Great Divide Update*

Hey there. So, this is not where I expected to be on Friday, June 26th, 2026. I thought I would be about a week into my Great Divide ride, but there has been an adventure before the adventure has even started. Factors out of my control, and I am going to do my best in this video to explain everything that has occurred. But, I want to start off by saying that I am okay. I am somewhat at peace with what's going on. You know, I really just have to be. I can't control everything, and the adventure will definitely continue. It's just going to look a little bit different than I had dreamed and imagined, but that's okay. It's going to be all right. At the end of the day, it's just a bike ride. I'm alive and healthy, and life is good. You know what I'm saying? It definitely took me some time to get to this point. In the past week, I've had some pretty low lows, but with a little bit of time and talking to good friends and family and looking at, you know, the big picture of things, it's all good. Here we go. I flew to Calgary from Denver on Sunday, June 21st, with my bike always in a big cardboard box. When I landed in Calgary, I got this bag, but my bike wasn't even loaded onto the plane. And they say that it might take 48 hours to get it to me. I went into the WestJet office, filled out a form, and the woman there said, "You know what? Your bike might even come tonight. We might be able to find another airline to put it on, or maybe even tomorrow morning, but the best bet is that the flight tomorrow from Denver, there's one a day, direct flights from Denver to Calgary. That's probably where it'll be. And so at the time, I was a little bit bummed, but I had hope. She said it could show up that night. >> Oh, hi Mira. Hello, sweetie. Hello, it's so good to see you. You just made every You just made everything better. Let's go ride bikes. >> That's when I get it. When I get it, maybe. >> The next morning, the bike has not come. It did not come at night, did not come in the morning. John and I are just spending the day catching up, going on long walks, hanging out with Mira, my favorite dog in the whole wide world. At this point, I'm thinking, "Okay, this has been delayed by at least one day." Okay? I don't have a lot of wiggle room, but I can handle about a day or two of delay. And here's the big picture. So, the goal was to start at the very, very beginning of the Great Divide in Jasper and ride to the border in Mexico for the very first time. I have attempted this route four different times, and because of factors, again, kind of out of my control, I haven't been able to make it to the end. This route has tested my resilience every step of the way. >> What is going on? >> Oh my gosh. Look at that. Damn it. >> On the other hand, this route has provided me with some of the highest highs of my bike packing life. >> I woke up and looked east, and the sky is on fire. >> Here's the deal. I am meeting a group of people who I invited to join me, and five people from the Priority Bicycles team in Salida on July 21st. So, I had 1 month to get there, and I calculated my mileage being about 65 to 70 mi a day, totally doable. But now, we were cutting into that. So, Monday afternoon comes and I think, "Okay, the flight just landed. It lands in Calgary at 2:45. Maybe I'll hear something or maybe a delivery vehicle will come along and just hand me my bike." That did not happen. So, I called WestJet and the woman on the phone just kind of had a script that she probably tells everybody who calls about their lost baggage. She didn't know anything. There were no updates. She didn't even know if it was in Denver or Calgary or Honolulu or Timbuktu. Who knows? She didn't know anything. Which is a a tricky position for me to be in because I'm like, "I would like some information." And I'm thinking, as I'm talking to her, "Isn't there anybody that I can talk to that can dig into this and figure out what's happening?" She says, "No." So, Monday evening, it's a beautiful evening, by the way. It's like the longest day of the year. I'm up north, so like the sun is shining till like 10:00 p.m. It's beautiful. I'm spending good time with John and Mira, taking Mira on walks and playing Frisbee. Life is still pretty good. I'm I'm hopeful for the situation. Tuesday comes. The bike was not delivered in the morning on another airline. And then I think, "Okay, it's definitely going to come at 2:45 on the next flight, right? They can't miss it 2 days in a row." The time comes and goes. No flight, no communication, no update. I call again and talk to a gentleman and he's a little bit more stern with me. He's like, "We have no idea where your bike is. We have no updates. We will let you know when we find out anything. At this point, we know nothing." And then he said something that kind of scared me. >> Our average response time is 48 hours, and but our standard recovery window is 10 to 14 days. >> 10 to 14 days? >> update. Yeah, if there's still no update after that point, then the file transfers to our claims department for an investigation. >> Okay. Wow. And there is there's nobody I can talk to at the Denver Airport or to see like where it might be. >> We don't know that it's in Denver. So, the Calgary uh airport agent sent a message to Denver to confirm whether or not they have located it. Denver has not responded with whether or not they still have that. >> Mira, I need to cuddle. Where are you? So, at this point, I start getting a little panicky because things are really out of my control and I'm not getting answers. And now I start thinking about alternate alternate plans to get myself riding a bike. So, I call Dave and Connor at Priority and tell them that I might need a bike sent out to me because I don't trust that WestJet is going to find this one. Can you please send a new one? >> You know, not everything happens the way you want it to. It's just normally doesn't happen this early. >> Exactly. The tricky part with that is even if Priority sends overnight to Canada, it's not going to get there overnight. It could get stuck in customs. There could be a whole fiasco just with that. It could take two to three to four days. And at this point, John's like, "Well, we probably aren't going to be able to start in Banff or Jasper. We'll start in Banff and so that will catch us up to where you would have been." I'm at peace with that. It's still pretty much the beginning of the Great Divide. That night, we go on another walk with Mira. We're having a a great time. There she is in her element. And then I start thinking, "Well, maybe sending a bike to Canada isn't a great idea because it might take a while." Then John says, "You know, I could drive you to the border with Canada and Montana." And that It like a 4 and 1/2 hour drive for John. And the whole you know, I was really excited about riding my bike with John and Mirror. We hadn't gone on a bike packing adventure in many years and we always have so much fun. >> Hi girl, you're my favorite in the whole wide world. >> So then I think, "Okay, that's probably the best bet. John, you're so kind to drive me want to drive me 4-and-1/2 hours." So I call a hotel in Eureka, Montana and I book the last room and I tell Dave at Priority to send the bike there cuz there's a better shot of the bike getting to a town in the United States than Canada. That night I start looking at the weather forecast and it looks really scary. There is a major cold front coming through the Canadian Rockies, northern Rockies, through Montana. Record low temperatures, snow in the high country, 1 to 2 inches of precipitation, and it's going to last through like Monday. So now I'm thinking, "If I get a ride down to the border and get a hotel room, the weather's going to turn. I'm just going to sit in this hotel for like 4 days before I can even ride comfortably. You all know I don't really like riding in cold. I already did that during the Tour Divide race in 2024 on pretty much the same section. Didn't like it. No, thank you." >> Oh god, I am so uncomfortable right now. Oh my god. >> And at this point I'm like, "Am I making the right decision? Am I not? What should I do?" I I'm just kind of torn with everything that's going on. I send out a text to Connor and Dave at Priority late at night saying, "You know what, guys? This is just not going my way. I'm going to throw in the towel. I'm going to fly home and I'm just going to do the Salida section." Mwah, kind of a little bit of a temper tantrum. That morning I wake up, they've sent text replying to me. They say, "Whatever you want to do is fine with us, but as your friends, we think you should still try to ride as much of this route as possible. We think this would be good for you. And of course, they are right. I talked to my mom and my girlfriend Rachel, they say the same thing. So, at this point, it's Wednesday morning in Calgary. And I think, okay, maybe I will fly home and regroup mentally, physically, all that stuff. Dave can send a bike to Whitefish, Montana. I can fly out early next week to Whitefish and start from there. That's a pretty good compromise. That's still most of the route. We're talking over 2,000 miles. I think this is the best plan for the big picture of my journey. But I'm definitely sad that I don't get to ride with John and Mira. But I know that I will find them someday, somewhere down the road. And of course, John is so gracious to drive me back to the airport. So, that's where I'm at right now. I'm back in Boulder. I'm waiting out this gnarly storm that's happening up there. And sometimes things happen for a reason, and Dana even said, "Ryan, I think the universe is conspiring for you, not against you. Maybe it's preventing something. Maybe me not starting in Canada is preventing you from some sort of um dangerous situation. Maybe you get attacked by a bear, or maybe the chupacabra would get me, or alien abduction, or maybe I would have gotten bit by a tick that has Lyme disease. Who knows? I'm just thinking about some silly situations to help justify what's going on. I don't know. Maybe I'll find out exactly why this was delayed, or maybe I won't, and that's okay. Maybe I'll meet somebody along the route who I would never have met if I had started at the original timeline or I'll see the most beautiful sunset, sunrise, rainbow, who knows. I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this. The sun just came up over the mountains and on the opposite side of the sky there are two rainbows. It's a sunrise rainbow. Now, that is a miracle. Oh my god, this is so cool. I'm here in Boulder. I'm happy. I'm healthy. I feel a lot better already. I've had plenty of time to think about all this and the situation. And like I said at the beginning of the video, it's all good. It's okay. It's not what I had hoped. It's not what I expected. It's not what I dreamed about for so long. This trip has been planned well in a year in advance with the Adventure Cycling Association. It's their 50th anniversary. I was going to ride this beautiful route all in one go and finally have the experience of doing the whole thing at once. But, that's not quite going to happen. So, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have reached out with messages of love and support. A lot of you have had reached out to WestJet on my behalf to get some information for me. That was amazing. A lot of you Canadians, obviously Canadians are known for being very nice and generous. Lots of Canadians reached out and say, "Hey Ryan, you can have my bike. Take it and go. You need to get started." And so, I'm feeling the love for sure from everybody. I'm feeling the love from the world. I always say that adventures crack open my heart and let in all the good stuff that I get all vulnerable and mushy, and I feel like I'm already at that point and I haven't even pedaled an inch. So, I know that I'm going into this with an open heart, open mind letting in all the love from the world and humanity. It's going to be great. Life is good. And yeah, stay tuned. The adventure will begin. I will fly out on Tuesday to Whitefish and start riding the next day. And uh it feels weird to be at home. I did not think I'd be here till August. I had it all closed down for a month and a half. But uh you know what? I've learned a lot from the challenges throughout my life. Challenges have really shaped who I am as a human. I've learned a lot about perspective. I've gained, you know, wisdom, hopefully a lot of wisdom, clarity on different situations. And it doesn't mean I don't have my freak outs and you know, moments where I'm not in such a good mood. But I'm a human, just like everybody else. But I always come around. And sometimes it just takes some time, you know? Because what else can I do, you know? When something hard happens, you deal with it and you try to keep moving forward. And uh you just trust in the process. And so right now, I'm trusting in the process, trusting in the universe, trusting that the Great Divide Route has something in store for me. Because again, I have tried this four different four different times now. And each time has been difficult and taught me something new. And here I go again. So, stay tuned, my friends. You are all amazing. I hope you have a wonderful month of July while I'm out there riding on my bike. I will do my best to update on Instagram. Um I will definitely be sending updates to my Patreon and here on YouTube from time to time. The the polished, nicely edited videos will not come until after the adventure is over. So, I'm sending you all a big hug. Thank you once again for all your love and support and uh see you down the road. All right. So, I don't know if you'll believe this, but in the process of making this video, I got a ring at my doorbell. And look at this. This bike has definitely been through a lot. And it looks like a You know, we've got Canadian tape. We've got TSA tape. It's been through inspections in both places. Wow, it wasn't even really taped. Um but jeez, there's my bike. Looks like it's all in one piece. Now, I have a decision to make. There is already a bike on its way to Montana. Dave called about an hour ago and said that one is delayed because of weather. So, it might be a better bet to fly with this one again. And and if this one doesn't get there for some crazy reason, maybe the other one will get there in time by the time I land on Tuesday. This is This is This is wild, but uh as you can see, humor is the best way to get through these silly situations.