10,000 miles in 26 days

Back home again! 10,000 miles in 26 days on a motorcycle..... what a trip. The scenery is just incredible up there! Anyone thinking of going up the Alaska Highway.. Just Do It. It was the experience of a lifetime.

Here we are just starting out early in the morning on July 4th. Notice how clean the bikes look, now it's covered in mud, dust, bugs & general road grime.... I don't know if it will ever be really clean again.
Here's the Alaska border...... At this point our two bikes have now been in all 49 states we could drive to and all of the Canadian provinces and territories that have a road to get there. Notice the bike is little bit dirtier... it got much worse shortly after this photo when we hit the mud....


We saw lots of this on the trip.... this sign was changing between this and the next display which said "next 20 miles"..... and it was....... We hit one section that was 47 miles of really bad road that took us about 2 1/2 hours to get through....

When the roads were fairly decent, this is how we made time.......

Back home again! Man was I happy to have sunshine & warm weather. When we started out the leathers were packed in one of the backpacks.... On the third day we put them on & wore leathers until about 3 days from home. Actually wore the jacket in the morning until the day we got back, it was only about 65 in the morning in Amarillo... it was 100 when we arrived home.....


All in all, it was a very successful trip. Mike & I expect a breakdown or two on a trip like this and we only lost 1 day so it was no problem. The tires held up much better than I thought they would, there's still some tread left.. even after all of the gravel.....

We saw some nice hotels and a couple of dumps..... The dumps were very expensive because of the location.... Anybody else planning a trip like this needs to keep in mind the expense... We spent about $100 day on fuel. Motels were mostly well over $100 night.. the nice ones were more... food was high, beer was high...... 2 eggs & hashbrowns (no bacon) was $10.00, I had steak one night, a 6oz ribeye was $26.00.... six ounces! I had King Crab in Hyder and it was $40... Beer was generally about $4.75, sometimes $5....


But, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!!!!!

I might put up one more post here with a link to all of the photo's after I get them uploaded....

On the way home

Remember the photo from the last post of the dejected rider with the broken bike? Well, here's what he looks like after the bike is running (and the dealer washed it) the weather is clear & warm, with an open road in front of us. What a difference a day makes. Heading south at 75mph.





If you look close, you can see Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the background. This is from near the top of Teton Pass through the Grand Teton Mountains . The haze is smoke from the fires out west. My eyes were so bad the tears were running back on my cheeks from the smoke. Everything was lush & green here though.

Here's a view of the Tetons from south of Yellowstone Park. We headed east on U.S.287 just south of the park entrance. This is really beautiful country out here. If you look close at this one, you can see an airplane landing right in front of the tallest peak. Not nearly as much fun to travel that way.

Local wildlife in Wyoming. It was standing on the side of the road as we approched & moved as we we neared..... He was giving us the eye as we passed................

And again... the road goes on forever..... We climbed for a while & reached the top of a large plateau at about 6,600 feet.. it was pretty flat & the road was straight as an arrow for about 40 miles. Also, we had an extreme crosswind here, must have been 40-50 mph. For those who know how long my hair is, it was standing straight to the side as we went 75 mph... that's a might powerful wind! Fought that wind for more than an hour before we descended into Rawlins, Wy... That's where we're spending the night. Less than 1,200 miles home, so we should be back by Wed evening.....

It's been a great trip, but we're both looking forward to getting back to our loved ones.......

Bummer...

Well, I guss I'm just doomed on this trip with trying to upload images. I'm using the nice new Dell system in the business center at the Wyndham in Missoula, MT... I thought that would work great... nope, still blows off. I did find that I can upload 1 image at a time, but then they appear in reverse order.... I'll know next time.... those 12 megapixel images are apparently just too large for the public internet connections.....

So, here are the images (and story) in reverse order... Those who are dyslexic will be just fine...

Here's Mike getting ready to experience the "Wind in your hair, Bugs in your teeth", but on the plus side, his gas mileage is going to be incredible! Check out Mikes blog for "the rest of the story". A piece of gravel got into the drive belt and snapped it, in the middle of nowhere of course. No cell service, only a passing car every 5-10 minutes. I told Mike to take my bike & ride back to the last little town, but luckily we caught a passing car & he was able to get a ride back...


Here's what a very disgusted biker looks like when the drive belt is laying broken on the ground. I stayed with the bikes for a couple hours when a tow truck with Mike in it showed up. It was an absolutely beautiful place to spend a couple hours, there was a river about 15 feet away, with rushing rapids, nice place to just sit & enjoy the peace and quiet. And, when the truck showed up, Mike had a nice cold beer for me! He brought me an ice cold "Moose Drool" beer... what a guy!

This is very near where we broke down, the road follows the river for around 100 miles. We've ridden this road before & will probably be back again (hopefully under better conditions).

This is the beginning of the road... last time we were here, the sign was larger & 22 miles up the road.... it said 77 miles at the time. I have it on my Fotki site, labeled as "The entrance to biker heaven". Now they've made the sign smaller & moved it back to 99 miles......

Coming into Lewiston, Idaho from the north is pretty spectacular. We were climing for hours this morning, but the descent into Lewiston is more than 2000 feet down a sheer plateau wall. This is a view from near the top. There were "runaway truck" ramps every 1/2 mile or so, it was that steep. And big signs reassuring the truckers that there was "no fine for using runaway truck ramps", I've never seen that before... That's Lewiston, ID and Clarkston, WA below. This is on the Lewis and Clark trail. The river that you can barely see is 1/4 mile wide, and the one that we're about to follow to the east.

Oh well, we're "stuck" in a nice Wyndham hotel across the street from the Harley shop in Missoula, MT. The bike shoud be ready mid-afternoon & we'll see where we end up tomorrow. remember, it's not the destination, it's the journey, and this is just a part of it. Mike & I have both broken down (with Kathy & Mary Jo) in various parts of the country.... just a part of riding long distances.

Back in the U.S.A.

Well.. it looks like we finally have a decent connection & I can upload photo's. Laundry's in the washer downstairs & I have a couple minutes.....

Today we were on one of the best roads of the whole trip! Hwy 6 through southern BC is just amazing. Lots of twists & turns, lakes, rivers, mountains, small towns... it's definitely a road to come back to again. Caught a ferry across a beautiful river...
Then the road followed the river for long way. Some portions of this road were more challenging than the Dragon.... motorcycle riders will know about that one. This road is much longer & has some really challenging sections.


It was cool in the morning & stayed cool through the mountains, lush thick forests, saw a few deer, you could spend a week exploring this area.

The heat picked up as we approached the border and we were able to get rid of the jackets. Here's Mike at the border... It's always a sign that you've had a good trip when you see this sign!



And, here's another sign that we're having a lot of fun on this trip......

We've made it back to dallas in 2 1/2 days from near this location, but we have 6 days before we get home, so we're going to do a bit more sightseeing.. Across Idaho, then into Montana, & then depending on weather, across Montana or down into Wyoming.... Might stop by Sturgis on the way home.....

It's warm, life is good!

What a difference a day makes.

On Wednesday morning, we left Stewart, BC and passed this glacier. On Thursday we passed through a hot, arid area in south central BC (Kamloops), which was brown, hot, and very few trees. Check out Mikes blog for more details & photo's. I'm still having trouble uploading photo's, the motels must have limits on upload sizes. Mikes upload very quick, mine take forever & then error off.
The photo below is between Falkland, BC and Vernon, BC.

We've heard from several folks on this trip about a nice road, so that's where we're headed... route 6 will drop us off in the very northeast corner of Washington state, then it's across Idaho & Montana.

We'll finally be back is the U.S. tomorrow!! Prices will be lower on everything... It's amazing how expensive things are here in Canada, maybe Phil Gramm was right, we are a bunch of whiner's (not!) Food is very high, gas is $6 gallon, rooms are high...... I don't know how pay is up here, but it must be a struggle to make ends meet with a family.

Check out Mikes blog for more details, don't want to repeat everything he said.

Finally! Sunny and warm

When we left Stewart this morning it was in the low 40's, but the sun was peeking out. It steadily warmed up all day long and around 4:30 it got to 70 & we pulled off the coats. this is the first time in 2 weeks that we were able to ride without heavy clothes. It should continue to get warmer as we move south again tomorrow. We should end up somewhere close to the U.S. border tomorrow & will most likely be in Washington state on Friday.

I'm still having trouble uploading photo's..... the only thing I can think of is the image size, mine are about twice as big as Mikes at 5-6meg per shot.

Oh well, I got a couple up (even 1 duplicate)

The first one looks like water on the road.... it wasn't. We were waiting for the flagman to let us go, they were spraying fresh oil on the road.... nice slick oil...... I picked my feet up when we got the OK, and looked down & my floorboards were covered in oil from the soles of my boots. Shortly after the that, the road turned to fresh dirt that a road grader was working out....

But again, the scenery is just incredible!





This is Hyder, Alaska.. chck out Mikes blog from last night. We got Hyderized..... It's called the "Friendliest Ghost Town". The Milepost lists the population at 12.... dirt streets at the end of the only road.
I had a nice photo of sunny blue skys & beautiful mountains... but I can't get it to upload & Mikes waiting to use his computer.... Someday we'll be back to civilization where we'll have a good connection.

tomorrow we'll turn south on the west side of the mountain range that is the border to Banff. We hear there's some really nice riding on that route.


Ignore this one... it's a duplicate....

Finally, the sun!!!!!!

Wow, the sun finally came out!!!! We started out this morning in the low 40's.. put on the summer gloves & stopped in less than 10 miles & put the winter gloves back on again... hands were completely numb. But.. the sun was shining!!! first time wqe'vbe seen the sun in two weeks.

I know I sound like a broken record, but this is just some incredibly beautiful scenery again. A short ride today, less than 300 miles, but some ofr the prettiest country we've seen. Deep canyons, glaciers right at the roadside, and nice twisty roads.
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Staying in Stewart, BC for the night, but Hyder, AK is just 1 mile down the road. Stopped at at famous bar in Hyder & got "Hyderized"... even have the bumper sticker. Bought Mike & I the local tradition......... they won't tell you ahead of time what it is ( I guessed it).. they tell you that you can't smell it first, or taste it.. you have have to down it in 1 drink, and if it comes back up, you have to buy a round for the bar....... Mike & I had no problems with that.....

It was Everclear.... 151 proof... Now I have a certificate that I've been Hyderized.....


Met a couple from New Zealand that bought a Suzuki V-Strom here in the US & were spending 6 weeks riding the same country, we've even stayed in the same motels the last several days.... bought them a Hyderized..... The Kiwi's had absolutely no problem downing them...... Also, hung a $1 bill on the wall of the bar, they have over 75,000 $1 bills on the wall dating back to 1956. Put my name & a short saying on it. It'll be here the next time time I come back!

Going in to Hyder is no problem, no US cutoms checkpoint... Hyder is less than 1 mile from Stewart, BC.... And is about 3 blocks long. Called America's friendliest ghost town (from the mining days). However, going back to Canada is a bit more of a challenge...... They have a customs checkpoint....(why????) they ask all the questions... where have you been (1 block) how long have you been here (1 hour) where are you from, going, etc... are you carrying firearms... There's only 1 road, no other way in or out of Hyder..... really, really annoying. Sorry Pete, but Canada is a pain in the rear!

I'll try to upload a couple photo's from the ride today, we'll see if I can get them up here...