This update is long overdue, but here it is!

Blue River to Whistler

After leaving Blue River BC I headed to Whistler to meet up with Dave, Jody & Nik to do some more riding. Its pretty much a days drive between Blue River and Whistler but there is plenty to see! Nothing really stood out on the drive other than the scenery and I was tired from being “Last Man Standing” Sunday night. My new Canadian friends harassed me all weekend about not being able to party like they do. I can, I just prefer to be in good riding condition!

I arrived in Whistler around 5 PM and parked in front of the condo.  Then, not even 30 seconds later the gang rolls up with huge smiles on their faces after a great day at the park.  This was going to be a great week!  We all got cleaned up and walked over the Splitz Burgers.  Man, those are delicious.  Everything is super fresh.  We ended up eating here twice during the trip it was that good!  The condo is a funny story in itself.  We all thought it was going to be bigger than it was.  But, hey, the price was right and we had a roof over our heads.

The North Shore

Go Nik!

The plan Tuesday was to head down to Mt Seymour on the Vancouver North Shore and do some riding.  I also had to head into Vancouver to drop off my rental so it worked out great!  The North Shore is one of the mountainbike mecca’s in North America. The natural and man made features are outstanding!  It was a completely different riding experience than any of us had ever had.  On the way we stopped by the Cove bike shop.  For some reason bike shops up there carry massive inventory in both bikes and accessories.  It was like being in a candy store.  Once we had directions on where go we parked my rental at the bottom and drove the van with all of us up to the top.  It was maybe a 20 minute drive up for an awesome 2-3 hour down.  My helmet cam was on its last legs but I did get some footage.  I wish I had some of the later stuff we got to ride.  Then you’d get to share the whole experience!!! We got some great pictures as well!  Check out the photoalbum to see them all!

Just incredible riding.  I highly recommend anyone going to Whistler to not miss this place.  I think it was just as good if not better than the park.  During the ride I had another SRAM failure.  The Matchmaker that holds my shifter pod on the bars just snapped off.  No damage, no crashing.  Just snapped off.  So, the last third of the ride I got to do single speed style!  Still a good time none the less.  Afterwards we stopped by the Cove Shop again to see if they had replacement parts, and they did.  But they couldn’t cover it under warrantee since my bike was bought in the USA.  Weird policy.  I’ll send SRAM the bill.

Dropped off the rental car at the airport.  The drive there was entertaining as Vancouver has no belief in highways.  I think there is one.  And half of it is on city streets.  Then, we went on down into downtown Vancouver to see what we could see.  Had some great Schawarma!  Wandered around some.  Interesting street performances.  And even walked into the more seedy part of downtown.  Good times.

Whistler

I was really excited about the bike park.  The rest of the gang had already been a few days prior. So, we started out easy on Crank it Up.  Easy is relative. Haha!  The first run down this trail my jumping muscles were tired!  I had never hit so many consecutive jumps in one run in my entire life.  I know there were more than 30 at least.  By the end of the trip this was my favorite trail.  We did some all mountain exploring.  One run down Freight Train I tried to roll a drop I should have dropped and managed to fall/slide down about 16 feet of ladder ramp and dirt.  Kinda shook me up and pretty much finished my day.

Thursday we took a day off and wandered around and did some window shopping.  Everything up there is way more expensive.  But, they have a ton of stuff in stock which just amazed me.  Bought a few presents.  Got a couple of things for me.  Dinner, drinks etc.  Then off to bed for another day in the park on Friday.

Friday it was spectacular out.  I knew Luis and Gracie from JensonUSA were going to be up riding with Candace so I made plans to join them for a bit in the afternoon.  Dave, Jody, Nik and I got to the park earlier today than we did on Wednesday.  Did a few of our favorite runs and then we made our way to some of the tougher stuff.  Dave picked Dirt Merchant.  I don’t know if this was a black or double-black.  I just know some of the stuff was way over my head.  I got about halfway down and caught up with Dave and Jody and said “Hey guys, this is way over my skill level, I’m gonna find a bail out.”  Apparently I wasn’t the only one.  Nik was behind me and took a pretty bad spill.  We got him down to the bottom but he was done for the day.  Nik headed back to the condo to get some rest and I broke off to meet up with Candace, Luis, and Gracie.

Riding with these guys was much more mellow, at the start   We did a few runs, then at the end we met up with Candace and then she broke off to ride with some friends.  We later rendevouzed with Candace and her friend Jeff for one last run down the mountain.  Jeff is a coach from another mountain bike camp.  At one point they decided they were gonna school me and I was between them going down the trail pretty fast.  Jeff saying “Follow me!” and Candace yelling “GET OFF THE BRAKES!  ROLL THROUGH THE CORNER!”  So, I did!  What a blast!  I said farewell to them and waited at the bottom of the lift for Dave and Jody to do one last run.

After we wrapped up the day we went to check on Nik.  He was pretty stiff and it appeared that his neck took a brunt of the impact.  Kept the evening low key.  Saturday morning Nik headed over to the urgent care to make sure it wasn’t serious.  Fortunately it wasn’t, but its not good either.  (2 weeks later he’s still stiff).  Since Nik was down we took the day off and packed up the bikes and gear.  Did some more bike shop pass throughs and watched the UFC fight that night in a local bar.  I had one last thing to accomplish this trip.  I had to have a Caffrey’s.  The finest Irish cream ale ever made.  You can’t get it in the USA.  So, I sought out the Irish pub and Dave and I shared an awesome beer to cap out and awesome trip.

The Journey Home

I’m not going to elaborate on this much other than to say read my post about the travel industry.  Alison picked me up at the airport in her car, cause she used my truck to Monster Truck Dan’s Accord (Its actually pretty damn funny).  Had a great steak at the Turf Club and got home safely.

Sum it up

I’m pretty glad I took the trip even though it was expensive as hell.  But, already I remember how great the trip was rather than how much it cost me in surprise expenses.  And, I got to practice my newly refreshed skills for nearly a whole week.  Thanks for the good trip guys!

Day 14
Today’s Mileage: 657
Total Mileage: 5468

The ferry docked at 8 AM, I was the last bike off at 8:45 making sure everything was squared away on the bike before I bailed out. Got gas and was on the highway by 9 AM. Kevin was heading off to Idaho to park his bike at his Dad’s so he didn’t have to pack it up and move it to Idaho the next week. I had a appointment with South Sound BMW to get an oil change as I was a bit overdue for one. I think South Sound is the biggest BMW only dealership I’ve ever seen. Their service department was great and their floor sales people were awesome. I picked up some new gloves since the ones I’ve been wearing were pretty beat. After heading out from the dealership with new synthetic oil I motored down the freeway towards home.

Once again passing through Oregon (That weird state). I still don’t understand why you can’t pump your own gas other than to employ people who need to be employed. The two gas stops I made in Oregon were interesting as always as I won’t let someone else pump my gas on the bike. I passed Crater Lake and was really tempted to take the scenic bypass to see the lake but I decided not to, and save it for another ride. I’m not a fan of Interstate riding but the 5 from Bellingham to the California border isn’t too bad of a ride. I finished off today after dark by getting a hotel room in Shasta Lake. Overall, pretty mellow day.

Day 15
Today’s Mileage: 685
Total Mileage: 6153

I woke up early and got on the road before 7 AM. I had fueled up the night before so I basically had to throw my bag and my ass on the bike and twist the throttle. After coming out of the mountains north of Redding the 5 got well, boring as hell. Good thing I had music and XM Radio! I found several new ways to sit on the bike. With my feet on the crash bars, on the rear pegs, laying on the gas tank…etc. In Sacramento I stopped to get gas and some food at the McDonald’s across the street and a nice lady waved at me as I pulled through. After going inside for food I noticed she was wearing riding gear. She invited me to sit with her as she was waiting for the rest of her women’s riding club. She was fascinated and asked to take some pictures so she could share with her husband. Apparently her husband really wants a bike like mine to make a similar journey.

Eventually I hit LA and realized that the worst part of my whole trip was LA. Traffic was bad. At one point someone thought they were Johnny Law and tried to cut me off by closing the gap on me while I was lane sharing. He discovered that I really didn’t care and was going to get around him anyway, unfortunately my left boot scratched the side of his car as I squeezed through. I really don’t understand why people get upset when a bike is moving through traffic. Most people don’t realize that bikes will overheat if they aren’t moving, and it increases the risk to the rider if you’re sitting still in traffic as people will forget you’re there and roll into to you. Anyway, after fighting my way through LA I hit clear traffic in Orange County and motored on home from there.

I’ll post a trip recap in the next day or two.

Not much to report really. I learned how to play Rummy (And kicked some butt). Finished my Ghost Rider book and started on Harry Potter. And, it was the last day the Fairy…Ferry Biker Club would get to hang out.

(Jason, Anna, Di, Phil & Kevin)

And here’s a picture of the room we stayed in. Pretty small. If I did it again and the weather was good I’d sleep in the Solarium up top.

Day 13
Ketchikan
Today we arrived in Ketchikan Alaska with a 7 hour layover (I’m not sure what they call it on a boat but this will do). With that the Columbia Ferry Motorcycle Club took the bikes off the ferry and rode the highway here. All 22 miles of it! We started off by heading north and visited the Bight Totem park. This park had a number of totems with different meanings. There’s quite a story behind each totem which I don’t have the knowledge to get into. Each of the animals on the pole mean something different and somehow indicate the status of the house that owns the pole. Quite interesting indeed. Also Di, our team eagle eye spotted several bald eagles and got a few pictures of them. I was either not paying attention or was too slow to get a picture of any of them. (DOH!)

After visiting the totem poles we proceeded north to the ‘END’ of the road. Since we had found the end, it was time to go find the other end and we turned ourselves around and headed south. Shortly after passing through downtown Phil spotted a pod of Orca out in the water. We all hurried to park and we hustled down this driveway to get pictures. I took a bunch and you can see the best one I have here (again, I SHOULD have bought a telephoto lens). Then turning around we noticed several bald eagles perched behind us. Now it was, do we watch the orcas or the eagles? I got a few pictures of the eagles which you can see in my flickr album. Resuming our trip south to the other ‘END’ of the road we looked for the Forest Canopy tours. Basically its a nature hike/ride through the forest canopy on zip lines. We missed it and backtracked. Unfortunately upon finding the tour we discovered 1) we didn’t have enough time and 2) it was a $150. So, we asked about a good place to eat and hopped on the bikes back into town.

We had lunch at Anna Belle’s. It turned out to be a pretty good lunch. Most of us had some form of Halibut (Fish and chips here) and enjoyed it muchly. Phil (Adventure Rider Guy) bought is lunch which was pretty cool. After wrapping up for lunch we all split off to do things on our own for the last hour and a half. I dropped by a bar called The Raven which had good bear and the Internet. I updated my pictures and blog for the day and then moved on to catch the ferry again. Not much happened after the ferry. I read some more of my book and got some rest. With mention of the book, there’s a quote in there that has stuck out in my head.

All of my friends have seen me change in the last 4 years. And, I have to admit I’ve not been too happy with the change. My divorce with Danae affected more than I would have admitted to most. Which is why this paragraph from this book stands out to me. Granted, I didn’t loose as much as the author did, but this stood out. This trip was pretty significant to me as it gave me time to focus on something I enjoy, and to find something new to build on moving forward.

Everything that we were, everything that we based our lives upon, everything that we believed is gone. In my journal one time, I expressed the feeling of hurt that I carried around, so similar to the feeling of being betrayed, and I concluded that I had been betrayed, by Life itself, and that’s pretty deep. So, the betrayed ones, like you and me, have to start all over again, from Absolute Zero, and construct some new version of “Life,” one that we can “live with.” no way can we hold onto what we used to believe, and no way can we forget what has actually happened in our lives, and in our worlds. We will never trust Life again.

(Neil Peart, Ghost Rider, p. 257)

This trip was pretty significant to me as it gave me time to focus on something I enjoy, and to find something new to build on moving forward. Look for a future post explaining why I took this trip, if you care to understand. But to wrap it up, here’s a beautiful sunset from the boat.

Ciao!

First night of sleep on the boat was tough. Its constantly shaking and vibrating. Especially after it stops in port and takes off again. We socialized some more with Di, Anna, and Phil and told some motorcycle stories. Spent some more time reading. I’m about halfway through this book. Its a good read and i’ll pass it on to Di to read on her summer adventure. She’s going to spend her summer riding around the states and visiting places before she heads back up to Alaska for the school year. The boat stopped in Sitka and we got to get off and wander around there for a bit. Some interesting history but unfortunately the town is a tourist trap due to the number of cruise ships that drop in there. Not much else really happened today so I’ll leave it at that.

Today we slept in and checked out of the hotel late. Since we had been through some construction zones where they mix in some calcium chloride stuff (verify) we thought it would be wise to clean the bikes and our gear. The unfortunate side effect of this is we don’t really look like we went through and adventure. Sad indeed. After washing our bikes down Kevin decided the best way to get the bike dry was to take it for a spin. Something most of you probably don’t know is there is no helmet law in Alaska, so he took full advantage of that and sped off down the road. I personally have only ridden without a helmet once before after we finished the Baja 500. After Kevin got back from his spin, l took mine and was putting my helmet on and he says something like “Hey, you should try it. You probably won’t be able to do it for a while!” So, I figured what the hell and went for it. I started out slow and got stuck behind some truck spewing black diesel soot all over the place and slinging gravel. So I backed off a ways and let him go. I have to admit, after all the water quit hitting me in the face, and the one bug that nailed me in the cheek. It was pretty fun if you couldn’t tell by the smile on my face. (I’ll update with a pic later)

We cruised around town on foot for a while looking for memorabilia and gifts before heading up to the Chillkoot (Verify) park just a few miles north of the Haines Ferry stop. Along the way I got some pictures of a bald eagle and a juvenile bald eagle hanging out on the coast. Then a few miles after that I got a pic of one of the animals we wanted to see the most. A brown bear. We found out that brown bears and grizzly bears are the same species but the brown bears get bigger because of the greater amount of food found on the coast. Where as the grizzly bears live inland and in the mountains don’t reach the same size. Either way, it was a grizzly bear to us and we didn’t care. At this time I had wished I’d bought the telephoto lens.

We showed up at the Ferry Terminal around 6:30 and waited to board. We ran into Phil again who we had met on the road the previous day. Apparently he was about 15 minutes ahead of us all the way to Haines. We thought he was going to Watson Lake but he apparently reconsidered and went down to Haines to catch the Ferry. he’s got a story to tell which I’m sure he will at some point. Then I’ll link you guys to it. We also met Di and Anna. Two school teachers from Emil Alaska (verify). They teach a school that is in the Alaska outback in a village of 280 people. They rode together on Di’s bike from Anchorage to Haines on a Honda Shadow 250. They make us look like noobs when it comes to ‘adventuring’ after hearings some of their stories from where they live

Getting our bikes on the ferry and tied down wasn’t a fun experience. The crew was marginally helpful except one guy who is a fellow rider. The way in which they have you tie a bike down on the ferry is a bit disconcerting. After that ordeal we got our cabin and dropped all of our stuff off and settled in for the ride. I got to see some whales before turning in. I don’t think my pictures do them justice (again, shoulda had that telephoto). Then I got ready for bed and started reading Ghost Rider by Neal Peart (of Rush).

The Road to Haines
Today’s Mileage: 645
Total Mileage: 4811

After spending two nights and a day in Fairbanks. Kevin and I both agreed it was time to hit the road. Fairbanks wasn’t what either of us expected. I was thinking a mountain town, Kevin was thinking of a place on stilts to keep off the perma frost. Neither of us were correct and it was basically a small town middle of nowhere. We had planned to get started on our way to Haines today and finish tomorrow before boarding the ferry. Change of plans, we basically kept riding since it is light so long.

I said earlier that if I got on to the ferry without seeing a grizzly bear, I’d ask for a refund. Today while on the road between Haines Junction and Haines, we got to see two! They were running along side the road as we were coming down a hill. I looked and thought “Wow, they run really fast”. Then considered stopping to get my camera out, then went back to my first thought “Wow, they run really fast” and kept on riding. After that I stopped and took a picture of the Haines Highway Summit. It was kind of spooky as it was funny twilight and it was also 11:30 PM. This area is pretty cold if you couldn’t tell by the amount of snow on the ground. We rolled into Haines just before Midnight and found a hotel room pretty easy. Tomorrow we’ll wander around town, maybe see a bald eagle or two, and go watch the grizzlies feed in the river before we board the ferry.

To the Arctic Circle and Back
Today’s Mileage: 394 (230 Offroad on the Dalton)
Total Mileage: 4166

The Haul Road

I’ve been meaning to write this for the last two weeks, and I’ve finally got around to doing it. I want to preface this with the fact that reaching the Arctic Circle was a personal goal. I know its not a glamorous place, and honestly, there’s really not much to do up there. But it was an objective, a goal, an achievement. As it stands, I personally only know one other person who has done this. And, he over achieved and went on to Prudhoe Bay. But, here’s a short story of this special day for me.

I woke up this morning at about 5:30 AM and quietly geared up. I had unloaded my bike the night before of anything extra that I wouldn’t need for the day. Unfortunately I had to wake Kevin up briefly to find his pump in case I got a flat tire. I had only read about where I was going and heard many stories of trips gone wrong, bikes dead on the road, and worse… So I tried to push all of these things out of my mind and focus on getting onto the bike, getting gas and getting on the road.

The Elliot Highway is a beautiful road and a total blast to ride. Twisting through the low mountains with nicely banked turns and beautiful views. Its cold out, maybe 45 degrees so I’m bundled up with the big thick Mickey Mouse gloves on. (I’m from San Diego, 45 is cold!) It was about 97 miles from Fairbanks to the head of the Dalton Highway. My bike can go 200-230 miles before I’m out of gas. With that knowledge I had decided that if I got 50 miles into the Haul Road without finding gas, I would turn back so I wouldn’t be stuck out there. They call this road the Dalton Highway but its not much of a ‘highway’. For the most part its a dirt road that only exists so the trucks can haul their cargo up to Deadhorse for the Alaskan Pipeline. The truckers own this road, it is undoubtedly theirs and I am just a guest passing through. I took it easy for the first 10 miles as I wasn’t sure how the conditions would be. Today, its sunny and generally nice out. So there is no mud and the road is mostly hardpack with a few soft spots. I’ve ridden a lot in the dirt so the bike moving and shifting underneath me doesn’t really bother me at all. Actually I’m impressed with how well the bike handles in these conditions. About 20-30 miles in I hit this nicely paved section. Totally unexpected but hey, not to shabby! Somewhere shortly after I leave the paved section I run across a road crew washing their pickup using the water from the water truck. I think it was about 42 miles in or so. But ask them “Is there really gas at the Yukon river ahead?” They confirmed, and let me know there is a flag worker about 2 miles up along with an escort through the construction.

They say there are two seasons in Alaska, Winter and Construction. I arrive at the flag worker to experience my first Mosquitos. They are big and slow, and if you’re on the ball you can shake them off before they get to snack on you. The flagworker confirmed the gas at the river, but said I shouldn’t eat there. She said “Eat at the Hotspot Cafe about 5 miles past the river, they have the best burgers ever!” I pondered this as I watched huge tractors push dirt around and observe how much loose gravel there is where I’ll be going. Eventually the escort vehicle arrives and waves for me to follow her. The dirt and gravel here is really loose and my bike was kind of meandering all over the place. It didn’t help we were only going 5-10 mph, haha. Made it through here with no problems and got moving on the other side.

The dirt road here is in exceptional condition and I find myself moving along between 50-70 mph. This road would be a highway in Mexico as it was in better shape than any dirt road I’ve ever ridden. I encounter my first trucks on this section. Generally coming in the opposite direction. These guys move along so fast here that I never overtook one and only had them coming at me head on. Generally they’d slow down but as a good practice I always moved over as far as I could and tucked in behind the windscreen so I wouldn’t take a rock to the face. About 8 miles past the construction I came to the river with this good sized wood planked bridge. There were some good sized chunks of plank missing which would easily eat a motorcycle tire. And the bridge itself was at about a 5% grade downhill. So, I paid attention and picked my way across the bridge. Wonderful view by the way.

I gassed up quickly at the Yukon River Camp and hit the road north looking for the Hotspot. Just like they said, about 5 miles past the river I found it. Big sign and some other decorations to get your attention. I turned down the road leading to it and parked. Turns out I’m about 2 hours too early for them. So, I snack on a Clif Bar and some water and mount back up. At this point I have about 62 miles to go to the Arctic Circle. A few miles north of the Hotspot I ride ‘through’ an airstrip. Apparently they close the road when the planes come in as they land right next to the road. They had a tower and a small hanger there. Kind of neat really. Somewhere about 12 miles north of the Hotspot I got to see a timber wolf. Magnificent creature, but scary in its raw form. These are not small animals, I’d guess he was a bit bigger than a German Shepherd. He was mostly white with some brown showing through (Either dirt or a new coat) and very feral. He looked at me for a second, then disappeared into the brush as I was riding by. Very unreal, and most memorable.

Other than the wolf siting the ride to the Arctic Circle was pretty uneventful. There was another section of paved road, but it was in pretty bad shape. I think the hardpack dirt was far better to ride on. No potholes or sudden gravel spots. I stopped at Finger Mountain and took a few pictures. There was a small van with some people taking a tour up to Coldfoot. I spoke to the driver for a few minutes. Apparently people pay to be driven up to Coldfoot or Deadhorse, then fly back out. I don’t see myself ever doing something like that…

As you can see, I made it! No one else was there. It was quiet with the sounds of the wind in the brush and some bugs flying around. It was 84 degrees. I was sweating, and completely surprised that it was that warm. Global Warming? I walked around for a few, setup my camera to take a picture of me here at this imaginary line that intersects the road I was traveling. I’ve made the goal, now I point myself back towards home and head on back.

I stopped at the Hotspot, and definitely had the best burger I’ve had in long time. I’d have to put it up there in my top three to be quite honest. I met a nice family who was on their way to Deadhorse in their RV and we smalltalked while we finished up our food. They told me the BLM Volunteers would give me a certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle. That would be a neat souvenir! Just as I was wrapping up a tour bus showed up and the passengers exploded into the place all looking for some food and souvenirs. I bailed out of the Hotspot and got some gas down at the Yukon River Camp. Across the road was the small BLM office and I picked up my ‘certificate’. The rest of the ride back to the Elliot was pretty much the same. Crossed back through the construction area with no issues. Once I hit the Elliot I was still sweating from the heat and wished it would cool down. My wish came true and about 15 minutes later I was in a total downpour. My gear was waterproof so I didn’t get wet, but it sure felt great.

I made it back into Fairbanks, and pulled up to the hotel just as Kevin was walking back from some errand. I didn’t get back until 4:30, so about 2 hours past when I thought I’d make it back. Not too bad.

Now, for the ride home

This picture says it all.

More Pictures Here

Day 8 – To Fairbanks
Todays Mileage: 497
Total Mileage: 3772

Today started out with that dark drama music from Long Way Round playing in my head. Last night before going to bed Kevin and I were discussing the mileage, and on my chart I have us doing alot less than we have been doing. I thought “Did I miss a day? Did I add a day, then delete it? WTF?” After he and I talked this morning we’ve come to the conclusion that the GPS seems to be off by 10-20% on the road mileage, in the wrong direction. It will tell us 432 miles and in reality its 474 miles etc… I think this same problem is inherent in the mapping software that comes with the Garmin. Next time I plan a trip, I’ll have to make sure I buy actual maps and verify my routes are indeed taking us where they should. A few days it ago it wanted to run us down a 70 mile dirt road…

Not an eventful day. We saw wolves running on the side of the road. Kevin’s anti-monkey butt powder exploded in his rear luggage. We made it to Fairbanks a day ahead of schedule. And we did reach the ‘official end’ of the Alcan Highway. I have to note that Kevin scored us a great room at the Town House Motel. At first it looked like a not-so-nice place but I’ll share pictures tomorrow. Its actually quite nice and I’m going to have to make sure I keep this as one of my favorites for a later visit.

Looking back on the trip so far. I would have to say we’re going too fast. Most of the trip has been riding with little to no site seeing. Granted, we’re seeing alot of sites, as the zip by and disappear into the rear view. Next time I’d like to take time to see more of Whitehorse, make it to Denali, see a glacier, and go kayaking near the icebergs. I will have to say I’m disappointed that I haven’t seen a grizzly bear yet. If I don’t see one before we get on the ferry in Haines I’m asking for a refund.