Hi this is Kevin and this is my "blog" of our Alaska Trip, enjoy!
For those non family members reading this a quick note on the names/call signs:
Road Eagle = Me = Kevin = the guy writing this.
Grandpa = RC = Road Captain ---> Because he is large and in charge!
Tue 5-29-07
The grand adventure has begun. We hit a little rain today and conditions got bad enough that we stopped at North Plate Nebraska. We called each-other sissies for stopping at 3:00pm of course. BTW grandpa LOVED the bear I attached to his Gold-Wing. All "wingers" need stuffed animals on their bikes don't they? ;)
Wed 5-30-07
The adventure continues! Weee!! Just learned this morning that stopping was the right choice. A couple came in about an hour after us; they were hydroplaning and dodging hail; enough said. It rained off and on most of the day so we were in rain gear most of the time. I managed to get a migraine headache some time after lunch. All this being said we had some good riding today, and we had fun. In fact we had so much fun riding we forgot to take any pictures. We'll have pictures tomorrow though. We are currently in our "tent" (a.k.a. Motel 8) in Buffalo Wyoming.
Thurs 5-31-07
We woke up this morning, loaded up the bikes ... and it started to rain. We got our rain gear on and rode for about an hour in the rain and made it to Montana, yah! At first it wasn't bad, but then it started raining harder and the wind started blowing. Anyway after about an hour of this we stopped for coffee at the Custer Battlefield Museum. At this point Grandpa noticed that his rain coat was ripped. So we road to Billings Montana, stopped that the Harley Store (cough, cough) and he bought a new rain coat. Please note that it was raining all the way to Billings. We asked around and people said it was clear about 30min to the west. Again we donned our rain gear and headed west, by the way ... it was still raining. We rode for about an hour when we decided enough was enough, so we stopped in what ever town we are in now ( I forgot the name, I know it starts with a C though) Anyway it's now about 10pm .. and it's still raining! To sum it all up we rode in rain all day long!!! Fortunately our camp site has AC and cable TV so we are happy. :) I did take a picture of the overcast sky, just to show everything is on the up and up, here it is!
Friday 6-1-07
Ok, we woke up got the bikes loaded and it started to rain again!!! Someone up there doesn't like us. So we get our rain gear on and head out. Fortunately it quickly stopped raining and within 30min we saw the Sun, yay!! The rest of the day was nothing but nice riding and we ended up in Kellogg. We also got out first picture of a mountain today. Here is a picture of Grandpa at the Silver Horn Motor Inn where we "camped" for the night. I also HAD to clean my bike: dirty bike, clean bike ... enough said.
Saturday 6-2-07
Today was another good day of riding in Idaho and Canada. In the middle of the day we stopped at about the nicest rest-stop I've ever seen. And low and behold the coffee guy was at the rest stop. We've seen him every time we go through Idaho; he sells coffee for donations which he gives to the vets, a very old and very nice guy. Today I decided to annoy the heck out of Grandpa by taking his picture.
Here is RC heading toward the mountains!
RC getting some AC!
RC annoyed at Road Eagle 1 for taking his picture!
At this point I stopped taking pictures. :)
Tune in tomorrow to hear about RC's exciting encounter with a grizzly.
Sunday 6-3-07
The story of the grizzly: It was late at night when the grizzly attacked!! Grandpa was asleep in the "tent" so the grizzly jumped on his bike! He then lay in wait for his victim, Grandpa!! The victim was NOT amused! Animal control officers were called and the grizzly was removed from Grandpa's bike and returned to the wild.
Ok so we took off today and did some serious riding. We went almost 500 miles today through nothing but twisty mountain roads. We estimate that there was not more than 1 mile of straight road in our route today. Our route also included the Crow's Nest Hwy, which is very curvy. Why is it called the Crow's Nest? Good question! I'm not sure myself but I think it has to do with a feature in the middle of the Hwy. About halfway through the hwy you go all the way up to the peak of a mountain (it would have been a 20-30 foot climb from the hwy to the top!) and make a VERY sharp turn around most of the peak. How sharp? Well you have to slow down to 10mph ... is that sharp enough? We ended up in Quesnel, Canada ... I have no idea how to pronounce it either.
All this being said we didn't take to many pictures but here a few:
Donkeys ... you know you're in the country when you see donkeys! (They almost look like the famous Russian circus donkeys! ... get it? ... one appears to be standing on top of the other!)
We also stopped by a logging camp for gas.
Finally we stopped at a little diner to get a drink but it was permanently closed! It did have some interesting old farm equipment in front of it though.
The rumor is that we will have rain tomorrow ... yuck! We'll see what happens.
Monday 6-4-07
Ok, so the clouds starting rolling in when we got up. I'm not kidding you could see them moving! I wasn't expecting a nice dry day. Much to my surprise we stayed ahead of the rain all day and the cloud cover kept the ride nice and cool. :) Now we didn't take many pictures because most of the time we see only a wall of trees! We stopped at this place for lunch, a very rough place. The owner said he was shoveling snow only two weeks ago, and they had 15 feet of snow that winter!! There was so much snow on the mountains that the run off created a rather large waterfall. And of course what would the wonders of nature be like without a little graffiti, it's hard to see but it's there? Today we made it passed St. John and are camping at the Shepherds Inn (no town just the Inn, ... err camp ground, in the middle of no where.)I think we are above the weather system so I don't expect any rain tomorrow, it might be hot but I'd take heat over rain any day.
Also on a more personal note we got an email from the Non Man .. oops I mean Darren today. He hinted at going to Alaska in the near future, and made a comment about RC being on a Gold Wing trike. RC was not at all amused by this comment!!! There was strong talk about upgrading Darren to a Martha Stewart Non-Man Card.
Ok time for bed, night night!
PS: Grandpa might get attacked by another wild animal in the near future! Yipes!!!
Tuesday 6-5-07
Weather Report: Today it was mostly cloudy which made for cool riding most of the day. ... It also made for rain for about half the day.
Ok so we rode about half the day in the rain and stopped at the Toad River Lodge for the night to camp. The ceiling of the Lodge was covered in ball caps. Back to the camping thing, ... yes we actually camped. I used my sleeping bag and we made coffee and did the usual camping stuff. RC described the camp as "very rustic" !! We saw the following wildlife while camping:
On our way to Toad River we were stopped by a bunch of mountain goats. Yes I know I took a picture of a goats butt! In my defense, she wasn't going to turn around and my bike was threatening to slide down the hill, so that's the picture you get! After we started to leave the rest of the goats decided to come out and say hi; an opportunity missed. :P
Wednesday 6-6-07
The day started out just like yesterday ... overcast. :( We did get some nice nature pictures though: a mountain, a river, Kevin in nature (I almost look like I'm going to cry there, nature is scary! ha ha), Grandpa communing with the buffalos. We also stopped at the Forest of Signs in Watson Lake Canada, I even found a dala-horse in the forest!!
After all this fun we hopped on our bikes and headed, again, for Alaska. After a while we hit some dirt/gravel road construction, undeterred we road onward ... dam we're tough! ... Then it started to rain ... so we drove through about 5 miles of of rock and mud (dam we are really tough!). We then saw an Inn, we were saved, Yay! ... Not so fast, the Inn was full, so we hopped on our bikes and road through another 5 miles of rock and mud and found another Inn/lodge. This one was nice, new cabins/buildings, we were happy! ...... Until they told us the government had shut them down for having bad/low well water (at this point RC grumbled, and Road Eagle One started to cry). What to do?!? Would we have to just pitch a tent and tough it out in the rain? Those of you who know how we roll, know this is not likely, especially in the rain. So we got on our bikes again and rode another 70 miles in the rain to Teslin, in the Yukon, and are currently staying at the Yukon Motel. In total we road 200 miles in the rain today!
At this point I have to say how happy I am that we left early to avoid the monsoon season in Alaska! I just wish we could also avoid the monsoon season between Kansas and Alaska. All kidding aside though we are having a blast a wet blast but a blast none the less.
The Alaskan boarder is 500 miles away, if the weather holds out and we push it we could be in Alaska tomorrow, YAY!!!!
Thursday 6-7-07
First something I failed to mention yesterday. When we were just getting into Teslin, and it was still raining, we had to cross this bridge, which sucked because 1) it was raining, 2) it was a long bridge, and 3) the bottom was metal not concrete (or whatever the usual road surface is).
Ok on to today. This morning was overcast and cold, so cold that we wore our rain gear to keep warm. After a few hours it started to warm up which was nice. We stopped to fill up and a little place called Destruction Bay, and boy did it live up to it's name! The highway was horrible. The first thing we hit was frost heaves. ... What the heck are frost heaves? I was confused the first time Grandpa used the word as well! Frost heaves are what looks like waves in the road due to water freezing and unfreezing multiple times, which it does a lot in this area. Anyway these frost heaves were big, big enough to pop me off my seat at one time, which made me more than a little nervous. After that I stood on my pegs and the frost heaves were manageable.
What's that it's just wavy concrete? Oh no, it got worse! On top of this the road construction started. In Canada road construction means cut out the highway, completely, reshape all the dirt and rock and lay new concrete. This amounted to lots of dirt roads and slow traffic. Want more? Ok! On top of this to keep down the dust they decided to wet down the road, so we had to ride over slimy mud roads.
I know what you're thinking now: "Could it get any worse? What about the rain Kevin, what about the rain?" ... Amazingly we didn't get any rain! ... Unfortunately we did get some hail!!!
Ok lets recap: We had to drive through frost heaves (BIG ONES), dirt/mud roads, and we got hailed on. Destruction Bay definitely lived up to its name!
After all this we decided to stop at Beaver Creek for the night, about 20 miles from the Alaskan boarder.
At this point our bikes where DIRTY. Mine was VERY DIRTY!!! My bike was so dirty we had to clean off the blinkers and tag to see them. No kidding! My bike was so dirty you couldn't read the tag, it looked like I had gone mudding!.
Friday 6-8-07
Today we finally made it to Alaska!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are our victory Pictures!!
Grandpa at the boarder marker: Canada
Grandpa at the boarder marker: America
About 4 miles past the boarder we stopped for breakfast in Border City Alaska, which is nothing more than a gas station and a few houses for the border guards. I also went to the restroom there. Yuck, that is gross!!! That's just what I thought when I walked into the restroom, so I flushed the toilet, ... then I flushed it a second time! That my friends is not any yuckyness I made! You are looking at the actual color of the water! No joking! ... This made me regret the cup of coffee I'd just drank!
After this our ride in Alaska was nice, we saw the Kluane mountains you can read about the entire park here.
We rode all the way to Fairbanks Alaska, and I have to say, so far, the roads in Alaska (eat your heart out Darren) are much better than the roads getting here. I'd say the condition of the roads in Alaska are about that of Kansas roads, maybe a little worse. All in all very nice roads, so far.
Oh, we also decided to camp in Fairbanks; no joking we have pictures to back it up!
Kevin cooking up something good!
Saturday 6-9-07
Today is a self imposed day of camping and rest. I'll type more about today later.
... More about today. Ok so I had to take my Honda to the bike shop, ... yes the bike shop! Fortunately this is not for what you think (i.e. my bike breaking down again). I just needed an oil change, my bike is running just fine. Other than that today had been uneventful. Hopefully no wild animals will get us. :)
Sunday 6-10-07
The Story of the cougar: Ok so today before we set out for Denali Grandpa was attacked by a cougar!!! Oh, you think this is funny huh? Look at the fear in the old mans face! After a pitched battle Grandpa defeated the cougar, yay! (He also made me take the stupid thing off his bike.)
Anyway after the above fun we headed for Denali. Along the way we actually got a picture of the mountain itself, keep in mind this picture was taken about 60 miles away from the park. We were also lucky enough to get a camp site in the park itself. This site, much to our surprise, came furnished with a free moose with two babies. This moose was actually roaming the camp sites! In-fact we were just turning in for the night when the moose decided to come and say hi! Note the truck hood between us and the moose, we are not stupid! At midnight Alaska time, about 3am our time, the rangers came in with fire crackers, rubber bullets, and sirens to scare the moose off. We were happy about the moose leaving, we just wish they would have got to it sooner!
Remark: We know the moose are dangerous, and we are keeping our distance from them and listening to what the rangers say.
Tomorrow we are taking an eleven hour bus ride into the park, all the way to Wonder Lake, which should be lots of fun.
A note on Moose: The ranger said that the moose would come into/around the camp sites to have their babies because the bears won't go near them because of the human smell. Go figure. The park currently has two moose with babies roaming the camp sites.
Monday 6-11-07
Ok so today we set out to take our 11 hour bus ride to see Denali. This morning Grandpa had his coffee, was happy, and was ready for the ride.
Here is a picture of the bus we took.
On the ride we saw mountains, mountains, and more mountains. The huge Denali mountain is hiding behind the clouds in the last mountain range you saw, it's so big it creates its own weather!
We also saw lots of wildlife.
Dall Sheep (I called them goats earlier, oops), here is a bunch of them.
More moose.
The state bird. Ten points to who ever can find its name and pronounce and spell it correctly! I hear it tastes just like chicken, just ask the people in Chicken Alaska. Another ten points to anyone who can discover why it's called Chicken Alaska!
Some ravens, Mr. Poe would be so happy. This is five babies in one nest.
Some caribou.
We also saw lost of grizzlies! We saw momma and babies grizzlies, two year olds by themselves. In all we saw twelve different bears!!
We also saw the wild Road Eagle, and the wild RC.
With all this wild life we were happy to be in the bus!
Here are some pictures to give you an idea just how big the moose and caribou really are. (yes the wild RC had already killed and et these big boys!)
Finally here is a picture of Wonder Lake itself. There were TONS of mosquitoes at Wonder Lake, I mean TONS. Again ten points to anyone who can find out why it's called Wonder Lake. :)
At the end of the day we were tired but more then happy with the bus ride! We were not, however, happy to know that our friend the moose was back around our camp site. She eventually moved off to another part of the park, and we went to sleep.
Tuesday 6-12-07
Today was another Road Captain day of rest and reflection on the ride in the Denali National Park. Most of the day it was raining, imagine that, and cold. We took it upon ourselves to make a camp fire, camp coffee, fart a lot, and generally be real men.
About the camp fire: Ok I made the camp fire. Knowing this, and me, you're probably wondering if I managed to burn myself. ... Well ...yes, yes I did. Just a little one, nothing bad, but I did. At this point I would like to thank my Mother for making us take Aloe Vera lotion along, it worked great on the burn! Way to go Mom!!!
About RC's laundry: I was on laundry duty today, go figure. I had the pleasure of washing all our clothing including RC's EVIL socks. Mother complains about them all the time, now I know why! He has these special micro-fiber socks, and they stick to everything in the laundry just like Velcro. Washing these socks is about the most annoying thing in the world!
Wednesday 6-13-07
Ok today we headed out to Anchorage to get new tires on our bikes and a new headset for RC; he broke his. This morning there was no rain, but it was COLD! If I had a brass monkey I would have put a coat on the poor little thing. Anyway it warmed up eventually, and we made it to Anchorage without any problems. The Honda shop had our tires but no head set. At this point it occurs to me I haven't shared all the items we've broken during the ride, thankfully none of them have been the bikes.
Items we've broken and replaced thus far:
1. RC's rain gear tops and bottoms
2. Road Eagles Rain gear tops and bottoms
3. Road Eagles head set
4. RC's head set (soon to be replaced)
5. Our butts (non-replaceable, but sore!)
A note on the Alaskan Highway: I should have put this one down earlier! Anyway, the Alaskan Highway, through the Yukon, is surreal (very weird). To say there is nothing there is an understatement. The places they call towns are nothing but old way stations which consist of a gas station a hotel or two and a mechanic, if you're lucky (populations of 20 to 30 people). Also all the decor is from the 1950s, and looks very well used. RC's comment: "the Yukon is where all the lost garage sale junk goes, most of the time the salt and pepper shakers don't even match!" (Oh the humanity of it all!) The one thing the Yukon has is lots of mosquitoes, lots and lots of them!! Let me put it in perspective. Every time we stopped for gas we would be swarmed by about a dozen mosquitoes each as soon as we stopped the bikes. This is not a joke either, we stopped and bam..... instant mosquitoes. We were swatting mosquitoes all over the place and thanking the demigod that invented Deet (I don't know the man, but I love him!) The weird thing is that the mosquitoes don't seem to bother the locals. Our theory is that the people of the Yukon have genetically engineered the mosquitoes to bite only tourists. The mosquitoes and the quality of the road, which I wrote on earlier, makes one wonder why the Alaskan Highway is so alluring to bikers? Are we just masochists? In the end I guess the Alaskan Highway and roads like it are the street bikers Mount Everest. :)
Thursday 6-14-07
Ok, I haven't written in a while and I have a lot to get down. I'll add stuff as I remember it, so check back for additions! :)
Ok so we are in a holding pattern for a few days waiting for Grandpa's headset to come in. Today we are heading to Portage Glacier to camp. Along the way we saw this "NO TARGET SHOOTING" sign. Obviously Alaska has it's share of rednecks to!
PS: Today something horrible also happened! RC's bike broke, specifically his cruse control! ... Oh, the humanity!!! I have to admit that at this point I'm so happy I could almost pee that my bike has not broken yet! Anyway RC spent part of the day ripping his bike apart to try and fix it, to no avail! After a while we went to Girdwood to get supplies. We were just getting ready to head back to the camp site when, RC had a stroke of brilliance and figured out his problem. ... What was it you ask? A burnt fuse, some weird electronic gizmo? No, and no. He turned the cruise control button back on! Important note: If the cruise control button is not on, the cruise control will not work!
Important note: Grandpa lost his medicine today, we will have to get some more Monday.
Friday 6-15-07
Today we took the boat ride to see Portage Glacier. We got lots of pictures!
Portage Glacier itself Grandpa at the glacier, looking rather cool! A close-up of the glacier. Our captain for the voyage; he does look the part!
Here is some ice. That we went through by the way!
An iceberg, yah it looks small, but keep in mine 90% of the iceberg is underwater!
We also went into Anchorage today to get some supplies and a camp radio. I ate this thing! Nothing exciting to report here, but Grandpa and I both agree that Anchorage traffic sucks!
Saturday 6-16-07
We are still camping at Williwaw Campground! That's 8 straight days of camping so far ... I think this is a record!! Today was another light day, we rode down to Seward, which was a very nice ride. Here is RC on the road to Seward. I got this very nice picture of a mountain reflected in the water along the way. Really not much to the town but a nice ride there and back! :)
Sunday 6-17-07
Ok last night it was VERY windy and cold. We had to put extra ties on the tent to keep it upright! This morning it was cloudy cold and spitting a light rain. RC was very unhappy with this, and he also knew that I'm sort of a sissy and needed a hotel, so we decided to get a hotel in Girdwood. After we got everything moved we took a short ride to Whittier.
A note on Whittier: Currently the only way to get to Whittier is through a tunnel. This is a one lane tunnel, and I do mean ONE lane. It also had a train track in the middle of it. Cars and trains go both ways! So you know we had to give it a try! :) The tunnels was a little hairy but fun. Of course they have people on either side directing traffic. There's not much to Whittier at all. It's a very small town which used to be a military base. Here is a picture of the old military building. We just rode to Whittier to ride the tunnel, for the fun of it!! Here is a picture of the port at Whittier.
Today I took it upon myself to wash our bike which really needed it, especially RC's bike!
Monday 6-18-07
The day in brief: We went to Anchorage, and after much waiting around we got Grandpa's medicine and his headset which he is installing at this time. We camped at a sight just north of Eureka, at Slide Mountain.
Highlights of the day:
Grandma and cabbage: Ok, today I feel like Grandma does when she eats cabbage, gas is just rolling out of me! The only reason that Grandpa hasn't kicked me out of the cabin is that I paid for it!
The kindness of strangers: Today two very nice things also happened. While trying to figure everything out to get Grandpa's medicine we called Apotek. They said "hey, we've been waiting for you to call, someone called us and they have you're medicine." We were in shock! The nice man's name was Robert Corsat from Florida. He met us at, Hatcher Pass road past Palmer Alaska and returned what was left of Grandpa's medicine. The bag had fell on the road so some of it was banged up and one prescription was missing, but it was very nice of Robert to return the medicine. Another nice thing also happened. Grandpa left his lights on and killed his battery. This of course was not nice, but a very nice man at the camp ground had an extra battery and jumper cables, and was nice enough to give us a jump.
Tuesday 6-19-07
Today we went to Valdez then back to Glennallen to camp. Here are the sights along the way!
On the road to Valdez. Yah it was a little cold at this point.
This canyon rocked, the picture does not do it justice!
A water fall.
Along the way we saw these. ... Hmm what could they be? They are definitely not lamp posts! Our best guess is that they are markers for the snow plows ... it snows a lot here!
An oil tanker!
Along the way we spotted this. I don't know this was from an accident or a intentional push, but it doesn't look like anyone is in a hurry to get it out of there! This sort of thing seems common in Alaska and the Yukon. If it's junk and it's sitting there not hurting anything, ... just leave it there!
We ended up camping in Glennallen, and we were lucky to get the camp site. We got in late, there was no hope of the hotel, and we got the LAST camp site in Glennallen. And I do mean the last. I bought the site and she walked out and put up the "no vacancy" sign!
Wednesday 6-20-07
Ok we woke up this morning and Grandpa's blow up sleeping pad was toast. Grandpa threw the pad in the trash; this signifies the end of camping for the trip. (Let us hope that the hotel gods smile on us for the remainder of the trip. :)
Ok today was just a traveling day, no pictures (sorry!), we went from Glennallen to Burwash Landing. We again road about half way through the infamous Destruction Bay part of the Alaskan Hwy and stayed at the Burwash Lodge.
A note on Burwash Lodge: Ok this was a very weird lodge, very weird. Our first impression is that we were the only non-locals there. Everyone seemed to know each other. Furthermore, as far as we could determine the attendant of the gas station up the hill lived at the lodge, and all the other employees! We felt like we were in the twilight zone! It took 1 hr to get a burger and fries, and all the decor was very old. Not weird enough for you? Think we are a bunch of sissy city boys? Ok ... how about a lodge dog that's free to roam around the lodge inside and out. Not weird enough? Ok, throw in a lodge cat that just roams around the lodge. The cat almost followed me into the room this morning! Just to give you an idea of the condition of the lodge, I needed to fill my camelback (water bag) but I refused to do it with the lodge's water. I'd say the condition of the lodge was a little below rustic.
We did meet two very nice English guys that were riding bicycles from Alaska to Argentina. We wish them well, ... and a lot of luck!
Thursday 6-21-07
Ok today was a pure riding day, hardly any pictures at all. We finished off the last of the bad road along Destruction Bay, made it all the way back to Teslin, and are currently staying in the Yukon Motel I wrote about earlier. (Look at that sentence run on ... weee!! Run sentence run!!!)
There are two high points for today. We found Barrett's name along the side of the road, and ...
Kevin being stupid: Ok I admit it I was being stupid! Here is the story. I was following this 18 wheeler. There was a camper stopped on the side of the road with a black blob by it. Could have been a person, a dog, whatever, I couldn't tell. Anyway, the 18 wheeler was covering most of it from my view, and I hadn't put two and two together yet (I hadn't had a lot of coffee that morning). Anyway, the 18 wheeler passes the black blob, and .... Bing! It's a bear, ... a black bear ... the kind that likes to eat people! YIPE!!! (this was not a full grown bear, it was probably a two year old. Grandpa felt sorry for it, he said it was obviously confused, scared, and lost.) At this point I'd say I was about 50 to 70 feet from the bear going hwy speed. My brain started working very quickly ... "what should I do? yipe! yipe!" Here are the options I came up with
1. Stop, let the bear pass, and chance getting munched (a bear is a bear after all!)
2. Drive by fast, chance hitting the bear, and have a REALLY bad wreck.
3. Slow down to about 20-30mph pass the bear then give it hell to get away from the bear. (the old, "dog chasing bike" move)
Keep in mind I had only a few seconds to come up with all this. Any way I picked option 3. Considering the situation I think it was the best option. But I got closer to a bear then I ever wanted to be! When I passed it I was so close I could have reached out and slapped it across the face!!! Obviously I didn't get any pictures of the bear. If you want pictures of that bear, you'll have to track him down and take them yourself!
Friday 6-22-07
Ok, so today we took off for Hyder down the Cassiar Hwy, it should have been a really pretty road. ... But it wasn't! First we hit a dirt/gravel road. Then a light rain started ... then it started to rain pretty good. So now we are riding on muddy roads, yay! Want more? OK! How about big pot holes on top of this. Big bike rattling pot holes (I mean BIG pot holes, I'll write more about this tomorrow).
RC's road statement: "Muddy, slimy, cruddy, slick roads, ... every adjective you can think of!"
In short the road really sucked. When we got into Dease Lake we felt like real men for not dropping the bikes. .... But we we're so wrong!
Meet Mr. Lucky: Ok here is the story. We were in the hotel for about 2 hours and I bumped into the man I will call "Lucky". He was Grandpa's age, and boy did he have a story! He had hit a deer going Hwy speed on his goldwing, about a week ago. He said he slid for about 50 to 70 feet, and didn't break any bones! He then proceeded to duck tape his bike and keep on riding. He did admit that he was stiff for a couple of days. ... We are not real men, Lucky is a real man!!
Saturday 6-23-07
Ok so we woke up today and ... guess what! ... Oh, come on, guess. ... Yup it was raining. Anyone who didn't guess rain should stop reading the blog right now!!! So we waited for about an hour, then gave up and took off in the rain. After a while we of course hit road construction. Road construction, yawn. We know mud, blah, blah, blah ... write about something new Kevin!!! ... Ok here is something new, gravel, about 3 to 5 inches of gravel ... yay fun!!! Then they had a wash out and a detour cut out of the side of the mountain, covered in gravel, wet gravel by the way. This is where RC almost lost it!
Throughout all this we didn't take to many pictures. Here is a representative picture of the Cassiar Hwy. I'm sure it would have been pretty if it wasn't raining.
Eventually the roads got better ... in fact they were great till we hit Hyder. Hyder is about as close as you can get to a ghost down, and it has no paved roads at all, here is what Main Street looks like.
If you ever get a change to land in Hyder say hi to Caroline Stewart at Boundary Gallery & Gifts, she might play you a tune if you're nice! She was nice enough to help me fix my saddle bag, she glued it and I duck taped it. Recall that I said the roads were bad? I wasn't kidding! One of the pot holes was BIG!!! Here is the picture of the repairs in progress.
The world famous Sea Alaska Inn is where we stayed.
Here is a picture of me styling at the Canada/Alaska border in Hyder.
Sunday 6-24-07
Ok, today it was nice riding and nice roads all day long. ... We seriously think we are in the twilight zone! We went all the way to Prince George. Tomorrow we are going to try to find a Honda dealer to get a front tire put on my bike.
Monday 6-25-07
Ok, we woke up this morning took off, went about 20 miles and ... well, it's nasty ... erm ... I got sick. I was driving along not felling well, and I thought, "you know I think I might have to throw up" ... but being tuff I rode on ... then my body said "oh no, ... no, I don't think so. You have to pay up big boy!" At this point I quickly stopped the bike on the shoulder of the highway, and RC's hollering in my ear "why we stopping! why we stopping!" At which point I quickly open my flip face helmet and puke (insert gross barfing noise here!). I have two comments to about this:
1) Hurray for the flip face helmet! (barfing IN one's helmet you be exceedingly nasty.)
2) I have no idea what the puking was about. I felt wimpy the rest of the day, but that was the only puking incident. I must have ate some bad food.
After this we found the dealer, and of course he had nothing for us. We then rode all the way to Kamloops. We hope they will have a tire for us tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 6-26-07
Ok, nice weather today and a good ride. This morning I had a HUGE deer, and FULL GROWN black bear run in front of me. They were both 80 to 70 feet in front of my bike so I wasn't in any danger, but it sure woke me up. Better than a cup of coffee!
The Tire Saga Continues: ... We woke up today and of course the dealer in Kamloops didn't have a tire, so we took off for the states. ... We figure that we'll find a town with a dealer on the way. After about 2 hours of driving we landed in Kelowna, and popped into the Honda dealer there, crossing our fingers all the way. So I walked up to the parts counter, and asked this pretty little blonde if she had a tire for my bike; expecting the worst. She knew what she was doing though! She jumped on her computer and bam, she found three different tires in stock (she really new her job!). We where shocked, a Honda dealer in Canada, that had tires in stock, wow! We where in and out in less than an hour, and they even washed my bike. If you need some work done on your Honda in Canada go to the dealer in Kelowna if at all possible, it's a good sized shop with good service. (my only complaint was the Canada tax; to the tune of $40, ouch!)
We put a few more miles on the bike and we are hoteling it in Okanogan.
Wednesday 6-27-07
Ok today was pure riding, we took the advice of a local from Washington and went down 97, ignoring the GPS, then we got onto I-90 and burned through Washington. We hit Spokane during the middle of the day missing rush hour (thank god!), and made it to St. Regis Montana where we camped for the night. ... giggle ... you thought we camped. HAHAHA!! You're so gullible! We stayed in a hotel of course.
Thursday 6-28-07
Ok absolutely nothing of interest to say today. We rode I-90 all day, it was hot for about half the day, and we made it all the way to Billings Montana.
Oh, wait a minute one interesting thing did happen today. RC decided to take the lead! Of course we all know the reasons for this. I was in the lead through most of Canada and all of Alaska because: (a) RC couldn't use his cruise control anyway, with the curvy roads, (b) he wanted a guinea-pig to find the potholes for him, and (c) it made the Road Eagle feel important. Now that the roads are straight and flat again all that is out the window and RC is large and in charge again!
Friday 6-29-07
Nothing interesting happened, on the ride today; just lots of Hwy riding. We stopped at Grandpa's cousin's house, Trish in Glenrock and stayed the night. What is family for? ;)
Saturday 6-30-07
Ok again just Hwy riding in hot weather, yuck! We stopped at Paxton Nebraska for the night. If you're ever in South West Nebraska stop at Paxton and have dinner at Big Ole's Steakhouse. Good food and lot's of shot and stuffed animals (I mean LOTS elephants, giraffes, polar bears, etc.). A very interesting place all around, provided your not a vegetarian.
Sunday 7-1-07
Ok we finally made it home to Kansas today, YAY!! We walked in the door hugged Grandma and she said "you guys are ugly and you stink!!!" ... We we're in shock. What kind of a greeting is that?!?! Even a cold "hello" would have been preferable. I mean come on, do we look ugly to you guys? ... I didn't think so! The defense rests!
If you've gotten this far (and your not family, and sort of required to read this, haha) I'd like to say thanks for reading this, I hope you enjoyed!
Our final mileage was 9732. Ride on!!!
Note from Grandpa = Road Captain = RC = Ken:
For non-family members reading this, this was our second attempt to make it to Alaska. Last year we left with me on my 2005 Ultra and Kevin on his 1986 FXR. The FXR started making a horrible grinding sound in Ft. Nelson, BC. We had it worked on but to no avail. Kevin was disgusted and rode south as far as it would go. He said when it stops it stays. It made it to Great Falls, Mt. Left it, rented a car, drove home, got new bikes and here we are. :-)
Before we left I knew that I should be able to ride at least 500 miles a day for at least a few days in a row. So.....I would take off in the morning and take a ride to Colby and have a coke and ride back home. The next day I would ride to somewhere in Nebraska, have lunch and ride back home. OK, not to bad, piece of cake, I'm ready. .........Well, the roads in Kansas are straight and once you hit the Alcan it's leaning into the curves. That and the rain, gravel & frost heaves beat me up. Shouldn't have happened but it did. I need to work on that. What a trip. Man, what a trip.
This was a dream trip of a lifetime for me and just the beginning for Kevin. It was an experience, a challenge and an event that will never be forgotten. If you ever get the chance to make this trip. ......JUST DO IT.........
