Quick side trip into Alaska

The morning was our coolest yet, as we fueled up the bikes and headed North again. Temps in the mid 50s made for pleasant riding as we turned onto the Cassiar Highway and were surrounded by trees on both sides, as well as stunning views. I was in the lead, setting the pace at "around" a reasonable speed for a while until we spotted a rather large bear crossing the road in front of us. Anyone who knows my history of large game animals and motorcycles is probably not surprised to hear that I slowed down a bit, and was on high alert for any other Cassiar crossing critters.  

After a couple hours of riding, we veered West over towards Hyder Alaska. A very small town, mostly isolated from the rest of the state, accessible through an unmanned boarder crossing in Stewart B.C. Chip had been here before and wanted to take me up to Salmon Glacier, several miles up a dirt road outside of Hyder. We passed the Fish Creek observation area just before we hit the dirt and thought about checking it out on the way back. The road to the glacier was fun, and dusty. In my typical style, I discovered the best way of dealing with dust from larger vehicles, is to pass them. Quickly. Win-win in my book.  

Once we reached the overlook, we were greeted with an absolutely amazing view of the glacier, and by what will most likely prove to be our new nemesis, the Alaskan mosquito. Larger than it's lower 48 relatives, they prefer to travel in swarms and have an appetite for human flesh. These were smaller than what we might encounter further North, but they were certainly annoying. Taking pictures, and posing for pictures was a short time activity. A gentleman from one of the campers we passed earlier, was kind enough to take our picture, and I returned the favor for him and his wife (while discretely adding in a selfie of yours truly to his phone).  

Heading back down the mountain to escape the skeeters made us realize that we must have beaten the main traffic flow to the glacier. Multiple oncoming vehicles added dust to the air and there was no way to avoid it. We pulled into the Fish Creek parking lot and decided to pay the entry fee to go take a look around. The Forest Service has built an elevated walkway overlooking the creek where apparently bears like to feed on spawning salmon. Walking the length of the pathway revealed thousands upon thousands of large salmon, but no bears. Either way, it was cool to see that many fish, just would have been better if I had my fly rod with me.  

We talked to the ranger as we left, thanking him for the information he gave us, and that we were headed for lunch at a great spot down the road. He told us that the ticket was good for all day and that we should come back after lunch.  After riding the short distance back into town, we had lunch at "the bus", a small outdoor food stand ran by an older couple, next to their house. She is the cook, frying up incredible fish and chips, while he acts as a tourist information booth, until she tells him to go catch more halibut for her kitchen. (Small world story, met a guy there who rode dirt bikes with Paddy Holloway in Colorado a couple years ago. I just saw Paddy at my friend's wedding before I left Virginia)

After lunch we rode back towards the Canadian border, which actually has a manned immigration checkpoint.  Chip pulled over to take a picture just before the boarder, and I pulled up beside him thinking that we should take a lap back to the Fish Creek station just in case any bears decided to make an appearance. He agreed, and we planned to turn around in the parking lot after we read people's faces on the deck that you could see from the road. As we eased by on the pavement, anyone who wasn't already at the far end of the walkway, was making big steps to get there. The ranger recognized us as we pulled in and said there was as bear, and we should hurry up to see it. Ditched the bikes and headed through the gate and down the walkway. At the far end we saw what we were looking for, a fair sized grizzly that had just finished its lunch of salmon. Pictures were taken, and a few minutes after the bear disappeared off into the woods, we decided to do the same.  

We are now at an outpost called Bell 2. There is nothing else around here for many, many miles. There are 15 employees who live here in the summer taking care of guests, and cooking meals for guests, employees, and road crews. And in the winter it grows to 50 employees to run a heli-skiing service from the same location. Should be as good a nights sleep as we can get, with many new things to see tomorrow. 

Long post, hopefully not too boring, but I thought it was a lot of great stuff today, so here we are, and we were parked early.

KS

100 Mile House to New Hazelton

We got up early on Wednesday morning and hit the road at 7am hoping to get some miles in before it got too hot. When we left it was under 60 degrees and stayed in the 60’s all morning so real pleasant riding. The road and scenery were great and we ran pretty much straight to Prince George where we stopped at a Tim Hortons for coffee and a snack.

After fueling up and a quick trip to Walmart to pick up a tiny Phillips screwdriver bit to pull the back off my Garmin, we headed northeast on HWY16. This 720km stretch of HWY16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert is also known as the “Highway of Tears” - for the numerous women who have gone missing or been murdered along this route. Apparently violence against women continues to this day along the highway. Very sad such a naturally beautiful space has such a horrible history.

We passed lots of beautiful lakes in between rolling hills while looking ahead at snow covered peaks. The end of the day got very hot - but not nearly as extreme as yesterday. Highs today were about 95 vs 115 on Tuesday.

We ended up in a small motel in New Hazelton, BC - with good A/C. I had stayed here on two previous trips up to Alaska so knew it was a decent place to sleep - despite its obvious lack of curb appeal.

Tomorrow we will visit a small town in Alaska called Hyder. It is unique in that the only way to access it by land is through Stewart, BC. There is a tiny one booth border crossing there and we will cross over, and then right back. But not before visiting the Salmon Glacier and then “The Bus” - a delicious Halibut fish shack in Hyder. I’ve been to both and it is well worth the slight detour side trip as we head north. Pick of the bikes parked below our balcony just because. We will have better pics tomorrow from Stewart and Hyder + a couple of glaciers.

CN

KS. we have crossed the border, eh!

Chip arrived at Stoney and Nicole's later in the day on Sunday. It's good to see him again, and now it's really starting to feel like the journey is on. We spent the next day on Monday prepping bikes and organizing gear. My bike was due an oil change, and a new set of tires. So that's another benefit of staying with friends, use of garage and tools.  

Stoney was nice enough to run us into town for some last minute supplies, I needed to replace the headset in my helmet because Sena apparently doesn't realize that some people might ride motorcycles in the rain. Luckily I was able to find a box of 2 older model Sena headsets for cheaper than 1 new model, so that gives us a spare set if (when)we should need it. Added bonus being it snapped right on to my existing mounts, downside is it's probably going to be the same poor reliability that Sena is becoming famous for in my book. Yeah I could have bought something else, but for various reasons, I didn't. Moving on. 

Nicole cooked us an incredible dinner that evening, honestly she fed us way better than we deserved while we were there. Thank you so much Nic! Tuesday morning after breakfast, we geared up and we're rolling out at about 1045am, not an early start, but since we had to travel through the middle of Seattle, we wanted to wait for the traffic to die down a bit. After a couple hours ride, we came to the Canadian border, and crossed through with no issues at all. 

As we made our way up through Fraser Canyon, we were expecting the temperatures to drop, they had been in the 70s and 80s through Washington, pretty comfortable in the dry air. But as we climbed up through the mountains in Canada, it got hotter, and hotter, and HOT!  104 degrees to be exact. And it stayed there for hours, prompting us to get a hotel for the night. So that's where we are, the town of 100 Mile House, British Columbia.  I still can't figure out why they haven't renamed it 160 Kilometer House, but oh well.  

 

Other updates are as follows

-no arguing about gas stops, because for the first time in history, both our bikes have the same fuel range. 

-arguing about navigation has been put on pause, we have discovered that Chips GPS is not loaded with Canada maps, so currently I have the only 2 functional visible nav units while riding (we dont count cell phones, they stay protected inside pockets)

-new tires on road bikes are nowhere near as nice as new tires on a dirt bike. It's going to take a few hundred miles and some pressure adjustments to get these things to tame down a bit. Higher pressure means longer life (which I need out of these tires) but slightly twitchier handling over uneven highways.  Everything is a trade off. 

KS

Stoney & Nicole’s

Sunday I rode from Ontario, OR to Puyallup, WA to meet up with Ken at Stoney and Nicole’s place. Beautiful day with cool temps and twisty roads. Went through wine country in Southeast WA and then the Rainier area which was the highlight of the day. A layover day on Monday and then Tuesday we head north into BC. It was great to spend some time visiting with Stoney and Nicole. Thanks to you both for hosting us!

CN

Playing catch-up

This one is going to be a quick update to get things back on pace.  Spent the day with Team Torg and crew. First Dan gave me a tour of Schweitzer mountain, their local ski area.  Looked like a really fun place to ski, lots of steeps and more moderate trails.  After that we meet up with the rest of the crew at City Beach.  Pretty much as the name says, a beach in the city with crystal clear water and a huge park.  

After lunch we headed back to the house, playing games and hanging out while we waited for the wind to die down so we could head out on the boat. Following an early dinner, the wind had calmed and it was time to hit the water.  

Starting out with getting a couple smaller kids up on wakeboards, and finishing up with getting a couple of us bigger kids up on a wake surf board.  It was a blast, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. 

The next morning I packed up and thanked Team Torg for an awesome visit to their really cool area, then headed west to my last destination in the 48.  Riding through Eastern Washington, there were familiar clouds of dust rising up.  I had caught up with the wheat harvest and I must say, it was really tempting to go see if I could catch a ride in the latest greatest offerings from John Deere. But I wanted to get to Stoney and Nicole's house before too late, and I'm still perfectly content with my current 34 year old combine.

The air cooled down to a very comfortable upper 70s as I crossed the Columbia River gorge and headed towards the mountains.  Soon caught a glimpse of Mt Rainier, and knew I was getting close.  While crossing Snoqualmie Pass, the temps dropped even more, and I started zipping up any open vents I had.  Traffic greeted me as I dropped down the pass into the Seattle area, slowing down progress, and making me thankful for the quieter rural area I live in.

Eventually I made it to my destination and was greeted with drinks and snacks.  There was a new set of tires sitting in the garage, and I have been debating if I should install then now, or carry them further north and have it done there. But before I leave here, there will certainly be an oil change, and maybe some bugs scraped off.   We went over Jason and Amanda's house for a cookout last night. Jason works in excavation, and is also a BMW motorcycle mechanic at his home shop, so we had no problem finding things to talk about.  It was later when we came back to Stoney's, but I couldn't resist installing the new tankbag on my bike that Marybeth bought me for my birthday. Thanks Honey! 

If all goes well, Chip will arrive here today, then the "real journey" begins. Really looking forward to traveling with Chip again, together over the years we've literally ridden around the world, and from Virginia to the bottom to of South America.  33 countries ridden through so far. This trip will complete my top to bottom journey of this continent.   

So, all caught up for now, and it's time for another cup of coffee.

KS 

Chip’s Day One

All packed up and an afternoon start due to morning meetings on Friday. Super hot and thankfully a short day from Breckenridge to Rawlings. Only hiccup was the hotel I booked was closed and looked like it had been abandoned for quite a while. Booking.com still took my money. Spent an hour on the phone with customer service trying to tell them it was closed and I would like a refund. The rep indicated they had to call the property to get permission to refund me! I said good luck! The front desk door was boarded up! We will see if I get refunded. Today is Saturday and I hope to get past Boise today.

Things get better

After a late night of catching up and swapping old stories with my old friend Greg, I awoke to a nice clear and cool morning in the mountains above Bozeman Montana.  All bugs have been removed from my helmet, water drained out of my comms, and tire pressures were holding steady.  Greg headed off to work, and I rode off through the farm country, eventually making my way back to the interstate.  There were not as many miles to cover today so I backed down my speed to a more comfortable level and just enjoyed the scenery. Clear skies and beautiful landscapes we're the theme of the day.  

Coming into Missoula, I made a slight detour to a motorcycle shop. Hoping to find a new pair of gloves that fit, and a power adapter for my heated jacket that could come into play as we get further north. Didn't have any luck on with either, so I headed out of town towards Sandpoint Idaho.  

Instead of the interstate, I opted for a smaller road that wound is way through a valley following the Clark Fork River.  After a couple hours winding asking the river, I arrived at Lake Pend Oreille, the largest and deepest lake in Idaho.  

Our friends Sam and Dan live on the lake, but on the other side from where I was sitting, it took close to an hour to make it to their house.  Sam and Dan have 3 kids, and 2 other families in town visiting, each with several kids.

It was chaos, but the fun and entertaining type.  After board games and an excellent dinner, we sat out on their deck overlooking the lake and just chatted for a while.  Once the darkness had swallowed up the lake, people started disappearing off to bed.  If felt good to lay down and know that I had a day off tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have a chance to get out on the lake, and see if they can teach this old dog any new tricks. Today certainly was not as exciting as yesterday, and I'm okay with that.

KS 

Get the bad one done early

Every trip, is going to have a "worst day". Usually you don't know which one it was until after it's all finished.  But in light of that fact, I submit my entry in hopes that it wins as the worst.  Even though this is only a short ways into the journey, and Chip hasn't even joined up yet, I think it's got a chance.  

I had a big day planned, early start, lots of miles, dodge a couple rain systems and cover about 750 miles in hopefully more comfortable conditions.  As my English friend Mark always says "the first casualty, is always the plan" Now for the reality...

Wake up, pack up, gas up, and roll out.  On the road headed west at 630am out of Mitchell South Dakota.  Radar showed a rain system West of me that was moving north, had a chance to get ahead of it.  Stopped and put on rain gear just in case there was a miscalculation.  There was, a big one.  Riding fast across the open prairie, miles away from anything, I was watching the clouds south of me, and for about 15 miles or looked like I had a chance to get ahead of it.  Then it got dark fast, and the wind started picking up, then it hit. Hard.

  I had only a short time to make a decision, I could try to find a way across the median and head back, into the storm I had just outran. Or I could continue forward in hopes of breaking through the one in front of me.   I chose option B, and it wasn't great.  Within about 20 seconds of the rain starting, it became torrential, the breeze became 50+ mph gusts, and the lightning became almost constant, and very close.   Cars and trucks turned on their hazard and pulled off the road, I turned on mine and followed 20ft behind a semi,(hoping the lightning would pick the taller target) i could barely make out his tail lights as the wind and rain pounded far worse than any storm I've been in. The lightning was a strobe light,  so close and constant that at times it would white out everything I could (almost) see.

I've never fought a bike so hard to keep it upright, and I've never been so tempted to lay a bike down on the side of the road and run for cover. But this is South Dakota, and there is no cover.  After the most terrifying couple miles of my life there was an exit that went down and under the interstate, just before leaving the interstate, several lightning flashes revealed an overturned trailer in the median.  There were about ten cars and trucks huddled under the bridge as the storm continued to rage. I joined them, thankful to have survived.  Pulling out my phone and looking at the radar showed a large section of red that had grown as it hit the interstate.   It was 745am.   It took over an hour for the storm to pass.   But that's not all. 

A couple hours later I was on a two lane road about to cut across the corner of Wyoming into Montana when I felt the bike twitch like it had ran over something.  I hadn't seen anything, but the coarse tan reddish asphalt acts like camouflage.  I checked tire pressures on the dash and all was well, for about 30 seconds.  Then the warnings started flashing and I pulled over on the shoulder in a hurry.  A hissing hole in the rear tire like a nail had been pulled out of it.  Riding gear hit the ground and I pulled out the patch kit as fast as I could.  After plugging the tire I spent about 15 minutes pumping it back up with a hand bicycle pump(that's going to be replaced with an electric one, soon) 

With about 5 hours of riding left after the patch, my headset started going on the fritz, turning off, turning on, resetting itself, quite, loud, then finally it died.    So I just tucked my head down and headed to Bozeman Montana to spend the night my friend Greg's house, in silence. 

So this is my submission. But in the end, as usual, it all worked out just fine, really.  Headset was opened up dried out and is working again. Tire patch is holding good. And I didn't get electrocuted. All good things.  

KS

Long distance relationships

I left Bentonville Arkansas this morning after enjoying a great evening with Brandon, Tracey and the kids.  It's unfortunate that life tends to put so many miles between such great friends.  It was a great day of riding north, only traffic of much note was when I passed through Kansas City, about the same time I got included in a rapid fire group text, my helmet whistling with each new message. Normally on open road I can hit cruise, pull out my phone and scroll through what's going on (dont judge, most of you do it in a car). For now I just had to use my imagination as to what the conversation could be.

 Crossing State lines brings a slight sense of accomplishment, and in the case of South Dakota, 80mph speed limits!  Time to let the big bike eat!   My body is becoming more accustomed to the bike again, but there are still times of standing up, doing calf stretches and raises, and some squats to get the blood flowing again. I sometimes wonder what the drivers behind me are thinking when they see this, but I didn't really care that much.  

This cloud formation was looking pretty cool, but it also had the potential to become very uncool since it was on an intersecting path with my route.  Feeding more fuel to the bike seemed like the best option, and I skirted the worst of the storm with only minimal rain.  

The day ended in Mitchell, South Dakota after about 650 fairly warm miles.  My first, and hopefully only hotel room of the trip is far from glamorous, but I've stayed in worse, much worse.  A short walk to a local chain restaurant rewarded me with a salad bar and a steak, and a very good conversation with Brad, a technician trainer for John Deere Ag. Combines, tractors and crops were all discussed in detail.  

After returning to my room, and being greeted by the smell of sweat soaked riding gear hanging on any available piece of furniture, I decided a shower and sleep was probably the best option.  Tomorrow is going to be an early start, there are about 750 miles between me and one of my best friends while growing up. (Not that I ever grew up, but that's a whole nother story) 

So I guess the keywords of today are miles, friends, and motorcycles. It works. 

KS

West of the Mississippi

Tom and Karen, and me

The morning consisted simply of coffee and my usual route planning, where am I going and what weather is between here and there.   Tom and Karen were watching the local news and it was showing a very large storm over St Louis,  and since I'm not a fan of lightning and motorcycles mixing, I opted for a more southern route to hopefully avoid the worst of it.   

It paid off this time, I stayed dry if you don't count sweat. Crossing the Ohio River and immediately after that, the Mississippi River. Both were spanned by huge steel bridges on a two lane road. Looking downstream you could see the confluence of the two mighty rivers about a quarter mile away. Pretty cool spot to see. 

Over the Mississippi, I wasn't riding in the wrong lane (this time)

Looking down at the confluence. 

After the second bridge, the land flattened out, covered by large farms, and somehow the air lost quite a bit of it's humidity. Which was good, because the temps were climbing well up into the 90s.  The detour added another hour to a long day, but was worth it to see the rivers.   I arrived at Brandon and Tracey's house in Bentonville for a great evening catching up with great friends. Thank you again.   

I'm heading north in the morning, headed for South Dakota, and hopefully cooler weather.   

KS

Launch day, for one of us

So it's launch day, after a couple final packing things and looking stuff over in general. Hugs and kisses with my wife, and down the road I went. I still don't think it's set in yet just exactly what is happening. Was just shy of 500 miles of helmet time, burning up the interstate, and being sufficiently cooked myself by the temperatures in the 90s. 

I arrived at our friends Tom and Karen's house outside of Louisville Kentucky, before they did. Thankfully they were trusting enough to give me the combination to their house door and even their address to where it is after that. So now I'm showered and relaxing, waiting for their arrival to get the tour around their home and catch up with life in general. 

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of anything interesting, no funny stories or anything like that, just a day of miles with many different thoughts rattling around my head. 

Tomorrow I expect quite a bit of the same, as I have 600 miles to cover to my friend's house in Arkansas. Maybe the pieces will start to fall in place in my brain and some stories will come of it. Bear with us, it will get more interesting as this goes on, just got to get back into my traveling mindset again, and I'm guessing it won't take long. 

-KS

And it begins..

Just testing the waters with the new blog platform.  The bike is ready, I haven't packed, I'm going to be visiting friends across the USA as I make my way to a yet undecided meeting point with Chip.  Probably somewhere in the northwest region.  Going to be an awesome trip with some of the usual twists thrown in as we go.  

What's the Plan?

This is to be our third moto trip together. In 2014 Ken and I rode around the northern hemisphere in RTW East to West (rtweastwest@blogspot.com) and from Virginia, USA to Ushuaia, Argentina in RTW North to South (rtwnorthsouth@blogspot.com). 

This third trip we will attempt to reach the top of the world - 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Prudhoe Bay, aka Deadhorse, AK and do the polar plunge in the Arctic Ocean. The plan is to meet in the Seattle area in about 10 days and head north into Canada making our way through British Columbia and Yukon to the Alaskan border. We will make up our route and stops as we go with no real plan. I've made this trip twice before, in the summers of 2018 and 2019 so have some idea of the various choices in routes to the top. The choices narrow down the further north as roads become scarce. The final stretch is only one route, the famous haul road, The Dalton Highway. 

Ken is leaving from Virginia in a couple of days and I will be leaving on Friday from Colorado. Onward!

CN