The end of an epic trip

More pictures on the way. Video in a week or so.

We got up early Sunday, July 5^th and left Hyder, AK. After a cursory stop at the border, we entered the Yukon and started chewing up miles. The thought was to head to Prince George, BC and stop for the night, with the alternative to continue on to Jasper, Alberta. We made good time during the day, with great weather and beautiful scenery. Knowing that mileage was a priority, we didn’t stop for pictures often, and tried to keep our gas stops short (actually, I am the one who dawdles during gas stops, with Dan being his usually patient self with me).

Towards the end of the afternoon, after crossing into BC, we crested a plateau and headed down into a wide valley. The weather had been spectacular today, but some weird looking clouds were off to our right, looking threatening and appearing to move to intersect us within an hour or two. As we continued on, the lightning storm crossing the mountains put on a show that was very impressive. As the storm crossed over in front of us we encountered rain, but as it was warm and not too heavy, it really was nice.

About this time in the late afternoon, we started to see more wildlife with 6 or 7 close bear sightings along with caribou, moose and bison off in the distance. At one point when the rain was heaviest, we came across a mother bear and her cub trying to cross the Cassier Highway. As all the RV’s and cars slowed and stopped to take pictures, a red pickup truck passed everyone in the oncoming lane and Dan and I just shook our heads. It wasn’t as if traffic had stopped, but I guess slowing down was too much for the driver. After we passed the bears, they made it across the highway and became invisible in the foliage almost the instant they entered the forest, something that continues to amaze me. I watched a moose walk into the trees a few days ago and I just wondered how something that large can disappear in 2 or 3 seconds.

We passed Prince George and made it to Jasper and found a hotel. The town of Jasper is located inside a provincial (national) park, an idea that surprised me, as I hadn’t seen that in the United States. The town was similar to my idea of what an Austrian ski town would be like in the 60’s or 70’s, just with modern facilities and RV’s. As we found a hotel, we counted 9 different languages being spoken by the people walking along, and many of them stopped and looked at our bikes, often exclaiming about the Illinois license plates. After finding that my phone worked again and making a few phone calls, we had a decent dinner at the Italian restaurant in our hotel and crashed for the night. We had ridden almost 650 miles.

Monday we got up and knowing that we only had 260 miles to go to get to Calgary, we lounged around and got moving about noon. As we crossed over the mountain range heading south, we hit a storm that drenched to road in front of us and caused massive amounts of road spray from the many campers and RV’s. As we reached the summit, I saw on my gps that we had ascended higher than 6,800 feet and the temperature dropped to 37 degrees. Dan led the way on his ever stable BMW, but my much smaller sport bike didn’t do much to shelter me from the wind. We stopped in Lake Louise for fuel (I remembered to use Gasoline this time and not diesel) and decided that since Dan had to get to the dealership in Calgary for service, he would go on ahead and we would meet at Brenda’s house in Calgary. I drank a few cups of hot chocolate and warmed up, then headed out. Coming down the south side of the mountain range, the sun came out, the road dried out and the final 100 miles was great. Dan was able to have minor service stuff taken care of at Blackfoot Motorsports in Calgary, and we met up again at Brenda’s, where Sassy the dog was supervising me unloading all the stuff I had loaded onto my bike.

Tuesday morning, Dan headed south and crossed the border into Montana and made it through Glacier National Park. He said later that the scenery was spectacular, and the roads were good, without too many RV’s slowing things down. He shot some video of the area, and thought that even though we had traveled 7,000 miles together so far, the scenery here was phenomenal. He made it to Bozeman, MT and stopped to say hello to a friend, before getting on the road again and eating more miles. He said that the people in Montana, just like everywhere we had been the previous two weeks were friendly, and the route he had taken, including MT 200 (a road in Montana I had ridden a few years earlier) was open and speed limits were more of a suggestion. Wednesday he got up and made it to interstate 94, and rode to Minneapolis, where his aunt, uncle and cousins made him a fantastic dinner. Thursday he headed back to Chicago, and arrived home in the late afternoon, not getting caught in rush hour traffic.

Backing up a few days, on Tuesday when Dan headed to Montana, my friend Brenda took me to the Calgary Stampede, which is a 10 day long, rodeo themed event held every year in Calgary. Having been to school in Wyoming many years ago, it was nostalgic to see rodeo competition in person. Not knowing a heck of a lot about anything rodeo related, I was amazed to hear the announcers talk about this 1,800 pound bull that just tossed a rider, or that horse that just broke a calf roping record. Having relayed a story of my own extremely-short-lived barrel racing career a few years ago when we met, Brenda couldn’t resist giving me some good natured ribbing when the woman riders made it look so easy. Trust me, it isn’t easy.

Wednesday morning, I headed out and made it across the border into North Dakota, after many hours of mind numbing highway. After 950 miles, I stopped in Jamestown, ND and grabbed a hotel. When my alarm rang at 6:30 the next morning, I just rolled over and hit snooze, and finally got out of bed after 8. On the road again across ND and into Minnesota, when Dan called and said he was 100 miles Northwest of Madison, WI, about 300 miles in front of me. More miles and more hours, and I arrived home about 10pm, “strung out from the road” as Bob Seger once said.

In all, I traveled 8,700+ miles, and Dan crossed over 9,000 with his alternate route home from Calgary, during the 20 days since we left. The only advice I can offer someone contemplating a trip like this: Plan well, with some room to improvise, as we did often, and choose your companion wisely. I got lucky when deciding to ride with Dan, as he was always patient and helpful along the way, as I hope I was. Lastly, keep an open mind about people. Almost everyone we met was friendly and nice, even if they had chosen to lead a different life than most of us from larger cities.

We hope to have at least some of the video that Dan shot online within a week or two, as most of it is pretty entertaining, and the scenery is spectacular. Without having much practice editing video, that might turn out to be fairly challenging, so please be patient.

Thank you all for your comments and emails throughout our travels. We hope you enjoyed the ride.

TC Rides

DanielR

Random Shots

As I am having trouble downloading the newer pictures from my camera to my computer, I thought I would post some random shots until I can access the newer ones,( probably this weekend).

Another memorial to the gold prospectors, this one in Dawson City, YT



















A great restored building in Dawson City.



















Dawson City restored this old paddle wheel boat and use it for tours. I wonder what they do with it during the winter when everything is coated in ice.















Dawson City General store; as everywhere we went, the people here were very friendly.














Entering Dawson City and a time warp, taking us back to the gold rush era.














Great scenery along the Klondike Highway.















Also along the Klondike Highway. If you look at the bottom left 1/4 of the picture, you can see standing water covered with moss. Whenever we would stop along any road near water like this, the mosquitoes would attack en masse. I had heard stories about them before we came up here, but words just didn't do it justice.














We saw so many views like this, it got to be a problem to remember all of them. This one was along the Klondike Highway, from Whitehorse, YT to Dawson City, YT (I think).














If this picture were at all viewable, you would see a moose swimming across a small lake. He headed across to get to several other Moose that were standing around a meadow.














This is a state run fuel station in one of the many federal parks we drove through in Canada. The design place fit into the atmosphere of the national park much better than a place that had 40 pumps and was all lit up like Vegas. Again, everyone here was nice and helpful with directions to nearby sights.

4th of July in Hyder, Alaska

We are enjoying our day off the bikes with great weather and a 4th of July celebration. Here are a few pictures, that took 15 minutes each to load because the wifi is very slow here.

This mountain appeared out of nowhere as the mist lifted in the morning.














An hour later it was more visible.














The view from our campsite waking up Friday morning.














This bear was eating the berries along the road as we drove past. I only got a few quick pictures before he walked into the woods and disappeared.














We saw this glacier along 37a right before we arrived in Stewart, BC which is essentially across the road from Hyder, Ak. There was no customs to get into Hyder, but getting back into Canada requires a passport. Nice place, but I would hate to be stuck here.



















Great scenery on the Way to Hyder, Alaska














Arriving in Hyder after a short 200 mile day on the bikes. It was nice to take it easy on Friday, and Saturday the 4th, we did some sight seeing and kicked around town before heading out early Sunday morning for a 2 day trip back to Calgary.














Dan studying hard for Karaoke. He sang "Safety Dance" in a psuedo techno voice. The guys in the bar just shook their heads but the girls loved it.

Iskut, BC to Hyder, AK

We made it to Iskut, BC yesterday and stayed at the Red Goat Lodge, deciding to pitch our tents. It rained a bit as we arrived, but then cleared and had a good evening. From Iskut, we headed south and are now having lunch in Tatooga Lake, on our way to Hyder, Alaska, where will we have a day off the bikes in celebration of the 4th. Sunday we head to Prince George, BC and then Monday back to Calgary.
The local wifi access is spotty at best, but I will update with pictures in Hyder if possible. We are hoping to rent a sea plane and go for a sight seeing flight.

Day 13 & 14

We made it from Tok to Whitehorse on Thursday, where Dan hit the hot springs and I opted for the Best Western. Unfortunately, our SPOT gps unit was lost somehow, and we are not tracking. We will try to replace it in Whitehorse before we head to Iskut, BC today, but I don't think it will happen.
I updated the previous post with a few good pictures, and probably won't be able to post again for a few days, as wifi is very intermittent where we are headed.
Thanks for all the comments!

Day 10 -12 Out of Alaska

Day 10, 11 & 12

We left Prudhoe Bay Monday morning with the idea of making it all the way to Fairbanks the end of the day. If you read the previous posts, you know that this was a big undertaking. Without going into too much detail, the road was in worse shape than the two days it took to ride up, with a lot of construction areas that turned the road into a sloppy, sticky, muddy mess. We left Prudhoe at 8:50 am and got to our hotel at 12:10 that night, dead tired.

Dan doing yoga along the Dalton Highway on the way home from Prudhoe Bay.

Along the way, we met several people that we found interesting:

Joseph was from Oregon and he and his dog Star were riding by bicycle from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. He trained for a year to do this and said “It’s harder than I thought it would be.” We met him originally in Coldfoot, as he was having mechanical problems with his bike and we helped him take the front wheel apart to fix it. Unfortunately, the hub was gone and he was going to have to order another. Someone local sold him one instead.

Kenta was from Japan and studying at Centralia College in Washington State. He rode his bicycle from Anchorage and

was heading to Prudhoe Bay, about 850 miles and was going to take him almost a month. After taking a bus back to Fairbanks, He was going to ride south to

Montana, almost 2,000 miles and was going to take him 2 months, camping every night.

We met John at Yukon River Camp on the way south. When I first saw him, the first thought I had was that he could be a stand in for a 1850’s gold prospector in a movie. He carried a big .44 revolver in a shoulder holster and a rifle over his shoulder. When I asked what the guns were for, he replied in his gravelly voice, “Bear spray.” He told us a few interesting stories about bears trying to climb onto the deck on the back of his house, two miles away out in the middle of nowhere. He had a friend that got swatted around by a bear awhile back, and that friend now carries a big pistol around the house, and a rifle when he goes out anywhere.

It seemed at first that the people that we met along the way were unusual, but even though they have chosen to live a different life than those of us back in Chicago, without exception they all were nice and friendly and had a minute to talk if anyone said hello.

After having Nick at the motorcycle dealership check through my bike after the pounding it took coming back from Prudhoe, we left Fairbanks and made it to Tok, We intend to head to Teslin, BC today and then head south on the Cassier Highway and make our way back into Alaska to Hyder for the 3^rd and 4^th of July. We suspect that cellular service will end once we cross the border and wifi will be spotty again, so the next post might be in a few days. I am having trouble loading pictures here, but will add them when I can. The weather here is good and we are seeing scenery that we missed on our way north in all the rain.