The 6,200mi (10,000km) journey, which got underway last fortnight, is the next step in Hema's exploration of North America's most remote places, and there are few better challenges than the Continental Divide. The defining geological feature of the continent, the Great Continental Divide follows the Rocky Mountains through the United States and Canada. This means our field teams will be taking on North America's highest vehicle trails, along passes over 13,000ft above sea level and through everything from basic dirt roads to technical mountainous terrain.
To complete the journey, Hema has taken a diesel 200 Series LandCruiser from Australia to the US, which will be crewed by rotating field teams from Hema's Australian head office and local off-roaders from Overland Journal, Expedition Portal and other home-grown explorers. The trip follows on from 2015's Overland Routes project – also in conjunction with Overland Journal and Expedition Portal – where Hema drove and recorded the best tracks in southwest United States. These included trails like the Arizona Traverse, California's Mojave Road and Colorado's Imogene Pass; iconic trails in their own right, but ones which pale in comparison to the sheer scope of the Continental Divide.
The Great Continental Divide expedition is an opportunity for Hema to explore and document a diverse range of trails and off-road conditions in a single trip, and the perfect testing ground for the newly-released Hema Explorer app for North America. Hema's field teams will be using Hema Explorer to navigate the trip and record their adventures, which will then be posted for public viewing on the Hema Explorer Cloud. These trips include track recordings, notes and geotagged photos that other Hema Explorer users can download to use on their own adventures.
After reaching the Arctic Circle, the expedition heads south to Baja California, Mexico, where Hema's Map Patrol team will spend some time exploring one of North America's most sought-after off-road destinations.