July 2006 Entries

The trip is done.  It's been 40 days and 10894 miles since I left my house back on June 17th and it feels strange to be home again...back to the piles of unopened mail and countless unread emails.  Back to the pile of yardwork waste that I had left in the driveway when I took off.  Back to the cat, who was oh-so-happy to see me and now won't leave my room.  Back home.  Thank you very much to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, emails, comments, open homes, etc.  I plan on writing a post later on today about my last few days in Arizona and here in California, as well as a seperate wrap-up post to collect my thoughts and memories before they leak out of my head.  It's good to be home.

I'm sitting in my (last-of-the-trip) hotel room here in Page, AZ, looking at pictures from the last few days and listening to the news in the background.  I haven't followed things quite as closely as I normally do over the last month and a half and it's interesting to catch up on things...there's much to catch up on.  And, much has happened in the last few days here, but I'm mostly going to let the pictures tell the story so that I can get out of here.  I'm heading to the Grand Canyon today and I'd like to leave myself as much time there as possible.

I left West Yellowstone on the 22nd, drove back through the park and down into the Grand Tetons.  I think the most impressive thing about the Grand Tetons is how they stand out in stark contrast to everything else around them.  They're part of a range, but they tower over the other mountains and certainly over the vast plains below them.  The lakes at their base are clear and blue and I'm told that on a calm day (which the 22nd wasn't) they perfectly reflect the peaks above them.  I drove out of the park, through the rest of Wyoming, into Idaho and finally down into Utah.  The temperature rose as I traveled south, reaching 97 in Jackson, WY, and 101 in Afton, WY...not fun when you're on a bike.  It's not too bad when you're moving, but sitting at stoplights (like I had to in Jackson) makes for a hot bike and a hot body...a different kindof hot than I normally have, that is.  Parts of this drive went through canyons but most of it was through open prairie and the contrast was very interesting.  The little towns that spring up out of nowhere often have much more character than their "Population 100" sign would indicate...and they'd better if they're going to make me slow down to 35mph whilst transiting through their character-laden streets.

I spent a few great days with my Aunt and Uncle and Grandma and Grandpa in Spanish Fork, UT, enjoying the chance to be with family and to relax a bit.  It was hot the whole time (106 in Provo) but I didn't mind all that much.  It would have been a different story had I been camping.  I left yesterday morning and began the drive down I-15 towards southern Utah.  Again, the temperature rose as I drove south and I found myself stopping for water and shade much earlier than I would stop for food or gas.  One of the highlites of the entire trip came on yesterday's travels as I got to spend some time in Zion National Park.  This was yet another place that I've been to on this voyage where I immediately knew that I would need to make a return trip in order to adequately appreciate it in its entirety.  Beautiful.  Much of it is comprised of old, solidified sand dunes looking something like hardened cake batter which has been just been poured into a bowl.

I drove out of the park through its mile-long tunnel and off through the colorful deserts on my way to Arizona.  Thunderstorms with giant rain clouds and bright lightning strikes were everywhere but somehow I seemed to avoid them on this leg of the trip.  I got rained on several times earlier in the day and while I would have been frustrated by the rain about a week ago, I welcomed it in the midst of the 106 degree weather.  I guess it's all a matter of perspective.  Much like how driving the 35 minutes to my parent's house used to seem like a "long" drive before I took off on this trip and spent 10-12 hours a day on the road.  Speaking of being on the road, I need to get out of here.  I hope you enjoy the pictures...they don't quite do reality justice, but it was fun to try.  Two more days...

(Oh, also...you may see some random "spam" comments left on my posts.  I try to delete them as soon as I see them, but please ignore them if you catch them before I do.  They're generally pretty bad...nothing I'd like my mom to have to read.  I'm guessing it's from an automated system, but if it's from a person and that person is reading this, then I can confidently tell you that none of us are interested in your naughty wares which you peddle.  Go peddle elsewheres.  Thank you.)

 

I'm in West Yellowstone, MT, getting ready to head south...on the homestretch of this little voyage.  These last few days have been some of the best of the trip and it's hard to pack up and get back on the road.  The next few will be really good as well, though, so I certainly can't complain.  Anyways, let me tell you how I got here and then try, and I do mean try, to describe my day in Yellowstone yesterday.

I got my bike back from the shop in Edmonton at around 3:30 and jumped on the road towards Calgary.  By the way, if you ride a bike and are in Edmonton, stop at Alberta Cycle Motorsports.  They were incredible, going far beyond what they needed to do for a tire installation/service.  They washed my bike and made it look nearly new...free of charge.  Mike, the owner, powerwashed a ton of mud out of the radiator and personally scrubbed down the bike.  I had forgotten that the windshield was actually transparent back when I had left San Diego.  I road from Edmonton to Calgary as fast as I (legally) could, ate dinner, gassed up, and got back on the road.  By the way, Calgary isn't the best place for Mexican food.  Hmmm...imagine that.  The sun started going down and before I knew it, it was dark and I actually had to use my lights.  The sunset over the farms was beautiful and I enjoyed watching the migratory birds flying south.  I couldn't help thinking that I was on my own little southern migration, although I wasn't flying...yet.  The sky dimmed and the bugs came out...in force.  Turning on my high beams was a frightening experience as it would suddenly illuminate the multitude of creatures rushing towards their doom on the front of my bike, helmet, boots, pants, jacket, etc.  It was so bad that I had to pull over and spend nearly ten minutes cleaning up...not as a convenience but more out of necessity.  I crossed the border pretty late and was greeted by the Montana welcome sign and the welcome 75mph sign.  That's when I began flying.  I pulled into Great Falls, MT, at about 2am and got a few hours of much needed sleep.

The next morning I woke up, checked out of my hotel, and hit the road towards Helena, MT.  The ride was very nice, and different from the rest of the trip...fields, mountains, plateaus, and sun...lots of it.  It was in the 90's which made me laugh...a week and a half before I had been riding in freezing conditions and now I was sweating in the unhindered sun of the Big Sky Country.  I road to West Yellowstone, through the Gallatin Canyon, and arrived in the late afternoon.  Since then, I have been spoiled rotten.  My friends here live in a gigantic house.  It's not extravagant, but it's beautiful and has an incredible view of Hebgen Lake to the south and Yellowstone National Park to the East.  It's a house that none of us would ever be able to afford had it been built in California  My bed is incredible, the food they've given me has been exceptional, and it's been so nice to spend the time with them..just a very welcoming family.  They took me to breakfast yesterday and then out to Quake Lake, which was formed by a massive earthquake some fifty years ago.  The quake caused an incredible landslide that dammed the river below creating a lake where forest used to be.  It's strange to see the trees sticking out of the water, but the whole area is beautiful.  Breakfast was great, although the restaurant didn't allow a mix of bacon and sausage...it was one or the other.  I almost felt ashamed for asking.

Yellowstone is a massive, beautiful, and naturally impressive part of this country and if you've never been here then you need to plan a trip soon.  Old Faithful is great but is such a small part of the park.  The geysers, rivers, waterfalls, canyons, elk, deer, bison, meadows, mountains, lakes, and forests can't be captured in pictures (although I took 202 of them before my battery died), nor can they adequately be described in words...and I only saw a small portion of the park yesterday  You just need to come here, and plan on spending at least 2 or 3 days, minimum.  We were lucky enough to visit on a day when Beehive Geyser blew and that was extremely impressive...powerful and loud.  The colors in the water, trees, rocks, and grass were more than my little camera could take in, and the herds of bison and elk are much more massive than can be appreciated in two dimensions.  Come to this park!  I'm about to plan a return trip myself.

Ok, I need to get on the road, but hopefully I'll get a chance to post later today from Utah.  Video of some of my drive to Yellowstone is below, as well as a few pictures.  More on Flickr...but less than can show you what I've seen here.  My words don't do the park or this family justice.  The trip continues to be great...this country fascinates me.

 

First off, the www.on10.net interview is up (just went live today) and you can check it out here!  It was really fun to meet Tina and talk through the project and my trip.  Hope you all like it.

I'm in Edmonton right now...Wasn't really planning on stopping in Edmonton, but on my way from Grand Prairie yesterday I stopped and took a quick gander at my rear tire and saw some metal wires starting to poke through.  Not the safest for long trips (or any trips for that matter), so I decided to make a quick stop here to get that taken care of as well as a routine service before I push on towards Yellowstone.  So, that tire lasted me all of 17 days and 6300 miles...ouch.  I imagine Alaska's gravel roads can't have helped all that much.

I'm sitting in the dealership right now using their computer so I can't do anything too fancy, and honestly, there hasn't been all that much to write about in the last few days (that's why I'm using a picture from the previous day).  Alberta is a fine enough place, but after seeing what I've seen further north it's hard to get excited about the hay bails and long, straight highways.  There's an actual nighttime here, though, and that's a plus.  Also, the mosquitoes have left me alone and that's another huge bonus.  I can't begin to describe how many mosquitoes I have smashed on the front of my bike.  Lovely.  There are gigantic hordes of them in Alaska, especially further north, and they swarm to the heat of the bike as soon as you stop.  Two interesting/funny things from yesterday: I saw a reindeer farm.  After being so happy to see a couple on my drive, stopping and taking pictures, and acting like a total tourist, I then see a whole field of them right on the highway...nice.  Second, Alberta posts these funny signs that show an outline of someone holding binoculars and the statement "Watchable Wildlife" printed above.  I don't know why but that made me chuckle.  I wonder which ones are more watchable...the caribou or the reindeer?  Maybe they have competitions.  Anyways...

I should be in the States tonight and then visiting friends and family in Yellowstone and then Utah.  This is Brian, signing off from the land of "eh's" and "aboots".  Beautiful country...nice folks.  Come to Canada if you never have before.  More later.

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I'm sitting in a laundromat at a campground in Toad River, BC.  It's in the middle of nowhere but somehow they have an internet station, which just so happens to be in their laundromat, and I'm going to plug their interweb cable into Motocompy and give it a whirl.  No Wifi, no cell phone...I find a way!

So in eleven days I will be home, so the title of this post could come from that...but it doesn't.  I road from Whitehorse, YT, to Toad River, BC, today and had not a single drop of rain...not one!  That hasn't happened for eleven days.  Eleven days!  It was so nice to see and feel the sun.  I had clouds for good portions of the ride, but the clouds didn't rain on my parade...um, sorry for that.  What did rain on my parade slightly was some good ol' fashioned Whitehorse thievery.  I walked out to my bike this morning and found it coverless.  They didn't take anything else...my tent, sleeping bag, camelback...not even the bag for the cover.  Just the cover.  Stinky.

The ride from Whitehorse to Fireside was pretty uninteresting.  I think I'm a bit jaded and desensitized to beauty at this point.  I've seen so much in the last month, and driving down roads that I had already been on during this trip just wasn't too exciting.  But, no rain and no mud/gravel/potholes...I was happy.  I did cross over "Brook's Brook" and "George's Gorge"...thought those were a bit funny.  I also drove through Watson Lake, which is a town of some smart folks.  They figured out that if you don't have any natural tourist attraction, you should just make one, especially if it's one that you don't have to maintain.  They have what's called a "Sign Post Forest" and it's a place where people from around the globe have stopped to tack up their own, unique signs.  Fascinating.

I stopped for gas and a bite to eat in Fireside, BC, and started back out on the road.  These last 110 miles have been some amazing ones.  I'm back in the mountains, which I really dig, and the wildlife I saw today was much more than the rest of the trip combined.  Bears, buffalo, wild horses (who's gonna ride them?), moose (one just ran through the campsite next to mine), deer (or dear...whichever you prefer), and even a roadkill porcupine.  I road by Muncho Lake, which aside from having a great name, is one of the largest natural lakes in North America and sits right at the beginning of The Rockies, which span 1,850 miles through Canada and the U.S. down into New Mexico.  Maybe I'll see the bottom of them some time later on in this trip.

Ok, one quick funny story before I call it quits.  As I was arriving here in Toad River, I saw a camping area and decided to pull off into it.  I applied the brakes, whilst entering the gravel drive...you see what's coming.  Both tires locked up and started skidding and I was heading towards a short drop-off into a grassy area below.  The bike started to tip and I was sure it was going over.  I came down the short slope, up a bank, and somehow came to a stop in the grass...no harm done.  I couldn't believe I hadn't dumped the bike.  Crazy.  Picture of my 9.8 landing below.  (The German judge docked me for the bugs on the windshield).  Speaking of bugs on the windshield...none of my bike video came out too clear through the mess of mosquito guts, so only video from my camera...of my awesome riding skillz.  GPS here...here...and HERE!!!! More pictures on Flickr. Out.

   

 

It's about 9:20am on the 16th and I should be on the road.  I'm in Whitehorse, Yukon, and apparently Whitehorsian alarm clocks function differently than others I've used in the past.  I set it for 7 so that I could wake up and do some laundry before I left (believe me, I really needed to do laundry) and now it looks like I won't be out of here until about 11.  Maybe that's alright, though, because the sleep felt great.

I've ridden through my fair share of rain, and consequently mud, the last few days.  I've also seen some amazing things and met some great people.  I started the 14th near Wrangell-St. Elias and, after having an amazing breakfast sandwich made by the cabin host, Patty, I went back to my cabin to get my things ready to go.  As I was shutting down motocompy to take him to the bike, I unplugged the mouse and touched the screen and...nothing.  Checked a few things and...nothing.  Called my brother, Jon, and talked through the problem and...nothing.  So, Motocompy is now a bit crippled.  I have the mouse plugged in at all times and in order to perform most functions I need to pull over and click around a bit.  Oh well, maybe that's for the best.  After wrestling with that for a bit I jumped on the bike and headed towards the park.

Wrangell is, according to some Alaskans, the most beautiful section of Alaska.  It is, according to me, much less busy and touristy than Denali and that's a plus.  Sadly, I will never be able to really comment on its relative beauty as I only made it about a mile into the park.  I road over the Copper River, got a little ways in and found myself riding in soft mounds of dirt.  Hard gravel is OK...soft dirt isn't.  I decided to turn around and leave and got stuck in the process.  I couldn't get off the bike or it would have tipped over (I didn't have enough room to put the side stand down) so I had to wait for some other folks to come and help give me a push.  Riding next to Wrangell was amazing though and I got some great views of the snow-capped mountains which dominate that landscape.  The not so fun part of this ride was the construction.  I think I ended up waiting for about an hour at various sites.  On a scale of "1" to "Awesome", I give Alaska's roads a "Rather Poor".  I made it through and found myself in Tok, AK.  (Someone told me that Tok got it's name from the Army Corps of Engineers during WWII.  It used to be called Tokyo Junction...they didn't like that so much so they took the "oyo" off.).  I had dinner with a couple of other bikers in Tok, Jim and Jan.  They're up from Colorado, touring around Alaska.  Good dinner, great conversation.

I haven't wanted to cover the same roads on my way back as on the way up, so I turned north towards Chicken, AK, and Dawson, YT.  Plus, my girlfriend was named after a teacher who moved to Chicken in the twenties to teach the local children, so I was somewhat obligated to go there.  The ride up was strange but beautiful.  Forest fires had devastated much of that area and the vast areas of burnt forests made for an interesting view.  Oh, and the fires are still going.  I road through an area that was burning.  No fire crews, no traffic adjustments, just signs that said "Slow Down" and "Limited Visibility".

I pulled into Chicken late that night and what an experience that ended up being.  I parked in front of the row of three shops they had and found a group of guys standing outside of the saloon.  I found out quickly that they were all bikers who had ended up there on the same night and were standing around talking and drinking some beer.  I had a great time talking with them all, sharing stories and finding out who they were and where they were from.  Chicken is strange...no other way to put it.  The public restrooms have a sign above the door that reads "Chicken Poop", and the Saloon has a tradition of collecting articles of women's nickers, placing them in a small canon packed with black powder, blowing them up and then pinning the remains to the ceiling inside.  Video below to prove it.  Strange.

I woke up early, took a quick tour of the area, which included a view of the old schoolhouse and the "massive" post office.  My mission in Chicken complete (and then some), I headed east on the dirt/gravel "Top of the World Highway".  Rain quickly turned the road to mud and I found it slow going for the first hour or so.  This section of road took me across the border (where someone backed into me...nothing serious), and lends some amazing views of mountains, canyons, forests, and...gravel roads.  I made it through, though, and found myself at the banks of the Yukon, waiting for the ferry to take me into Dawson.   The ferry was a fun experience and I probably would have spent a bit of time in Dawson had it not been raining.  It was raining, however, and I pushed on for Whitehorse, some 330 miles to the south.  It rained pretty hard on the trip down, until I made it to Carmacks where the sun took over and I was a very happy man, riding on well-paved roads in the sun.

I pulled into Whitehorse last night, had some dinner, thought about working on my post, and decided to go to bed instead.  My load of laundry should be done soon, so I should get moving.  I'll try to post something later today, but no promises...I'm in Canada, eh.  My cell phone costs a bit.  Lots more pictures of Flickr. GPS upload is again being amazingly slow, so none this time.  Hopefully more later on. 

I've seen so many amazingly beautiful things in the last few weeks that I think I'm becoming desensitized.  Oh, there's another lake with mist coming off of it.  Oh, there's another river with powerful rapids.  Oh, there's another snow-capped mountain range.  But today, I saw a new one for this trip, a glacier.  I wasn't really expecting to see it, and that was the cool part.  A watched pot never boils and an expected glacier never...um...moves.

I had planned on waking up early (yeah right) and heading east on the Denali Highway, a mostly-gravel road that travels east-west and links up AK-3 and AK-4.  It's supposed to be in a good condition and my dad had read that it's supposed to show you what Alaska used to look like.  I was looking forward to the trip, that is, until I woke up and heard rain outside my window.  Dirt/gravel roads + rain = mud...yeah, you remember. I decided to at least drive up a little ways and see how bad it was, but after fishtailing twice I said, "No thank you" and turned around.  There was another route to where I wanted to go, and I'd ridden on about as much mud as I could stand for one trip. Yeah, I know, I'm a big sissy...

As I took the road south towards Anchorage, I went in and out of rain, and almost caught a view of Mt. McKinley off in the distance.  For being the tallest peak in North America, and having the greatest rise from base to peak in the world, it sure is an elusive bugger. I drove through Wasilla and turned east onto AK-1, the Glenn Highway.  I didn't really know what to expect from this section as I hadn't really planned on coming this way, but I was blown away, (almost literally).  The views were spectacular, starting with Hatcher Pass and ending with views of Wrangell-St. Elias in the distance.  The highlite of this run was the Matanuska Glacier.  Glaciers are incredible things and no matter how many times you've seen one in person, you still can't help but wonder at it's immense size, power and history.  They shape, carve and otherwise alter the landscape like slow motion wood carving.  (The glacier near Kluane Lake in the Yukon actually altered the flow of it, turning its inlet into an outlet.)  I've been on and near glaciers in the past but am still struck by the sight of them.  The not so fun part of this journey was the rain.  I caught some pretty good downpours, one of which set in as I was waiting in line at a construction site. 

After I passed the glacier I entered a wide open stretch where the winds were so strong I had to lean into them to maintain a straight line.  Normally on bikes you lean only when you want to turn...here it was like I was in one, constant, straight turn.  As I neared Glennallen at the end of AK-1, I came across two not so pleasant things.  First, I saw a large, black wall of rain up ahead...(great, that should be fun), and second, I passed a scene where a moose had just been hit.  Nothing gory...just sad.  They get confused when the get on the road and don't know what to do with cars.  With thunder and lighting up ahead, I began a race to Glennallen in the hopes that I would make it there before the rain set in heavy.  I lost.  I finally found a gas station to wait out the worst of it and ended up sticking around the town for a dinner.  I met, and ended up having a great conversation with a couple from Salt Lake City.  There names were Wayne and Ellen and they were gracious enough to invite me over to their table after we had all eaten.  We had the common bond of a nice, but slow and forgetful waitress.  (I've met so many great people on this trip...Wayne and Ellen, Jerry and Mary Ellen on the Dalton Highway, Scott and Andy, Adam, Rick at the B&B in Cantwell (I hope I remembered his name right...I'm terrible with names), David and his Dad down in Fairbanks, the guy at the Coldfoot visitor's center (see, I can't remember his name), and so many more.  If any of you are reading this, thanks for making my trip so much fun, and may your own adventures be good and safe.)

So, now I'm at a little, one-room cabin near Wrangell-St. Elias, typing this out and hoping that the park will be rain free in the morning.  I'm going to post this in a second and then maybe write another one in the morning, addressing some of the questions I've received here but haven't answered.  Also, I was thinking it would be fun to have a little "Ask the Biker" deal where you can ask questions about what making a trip on a bike is like, i.e. "what do you do when you have to sneeze?" or "does your butt ever go numb?" or "how are you so ruggedly good looking?"...things like that.  So, ask away, and I'll try to respond promptly.  Video of the Glacier below, as well as pictures from the drive.  Oh, and I added the video to yesterday's post...and, I think I'll be in Canada tomorrow night so I'm not sure how often the posts will be coming at that point.  Thanks again for reading and sharing my trip with me.  I can't answer all your comments but I do read them, and laugh at most, except for the ones that aren't funny.  Those ones cause me to cry. 

  

"Aieeeeeee!  Motocompy es muerto!"  That was my thought as I pushed the power button and received a SYSTEM DISK ERROR.  I've had problems with the computer before, but system disk stuff usually means death.  The story ends up well, but let me first tell you how I came to this point.  Two words: Dalton Highway.  The Dalton Highway, also known as Alaska State Route 11, is a road that leads from just north of Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, takes you through some of the most beautiful terrain you'll ever see, and will never feel the soft touch of my motorcycle's tires again.  I can't remember three more challenging and rewarding days than the three that took me up and back on the Dalton Highway.  I'll shall now try to summarize those days and the events that transpired therein.

I left Eielson AFB on the morning of the 9th and drove northwest up AK-2 to the point where it meets up with the Dalton Highway, some 80 miles north of Fairbanks.  The whole time I was wondering what I was going to be met with.  I had heard and read so much about this road that it had almost reach mythical proportions for me.  I finally got there and the gravel greeted me cheerily as if to say, "Don't worry, you've ridden on gravel before, this won't be a problem for you...(sinister laugh under breath)".  Indeed, I had ridden on gravel before and I felt fairly confident in my abilities to navigate said road surface.  The Dalton Highway broke me, and my bike, and my computer, and nearly my spirit.  I can't count how many times I was certain I was going to crash/drop the bike/get a flat, etc.  I pulled into Coldfoot, AK, that afternoon desiring only two things: time away from my bike and a beer.  I found both.    The next day was even more difficult and beautiful.  I already told you all about the flat tire, but I didn't tell you about the rain or the mud, or the crazy potholes, or the dramatic temperature drop to below freezing as I road across the barren tundra leading up to the coast.   The ride was certainly difficult but was also beautiful and even fun, at times.  I would be frustrated and tired, concentrating on the road and nothing else, when suddenly I was met with something that didn't seem to fit in with my exasperation: a rainbow, fireweed (which is a purple flower that comes up in areas where there's been a fire), a powerful river like the Yukon, or an amazing mountain in the distance.   It was as though God was giving me signs to help me break through my current frustration and appreciate everything around me. I crossed the Arctic Circle on the 9th and pass through the Brooks Range on the 10th.  Atigun Pass divides the vast coastal tundra plains and the inland boreal forest, and is both beautiful and eerie in its color and shape.

Hmmm...Ok, I'm starting to get long winded with this.  Let me try to speed things up a bit.  Sooooo, I road to Coldfoot on the first day.  Highlites from this ride: Yukon River, Arctic Circle (there was a sign posted here about a wolf nearby that had attacked a woman...I found out later that the same wolf had tried to run down a guy on a motorcycle), and fireweed.  The next day I woke up early, after trying to sleep through the lack of darkness, the presence of rain, and the intermittent yelping from the Mush Team Huskies in the woods nearby.  Fifty miles north of Coldfoot is where I got my flat, but just after that is when I got to Atigun Pass and then started descending towards the coast.  The crazy thing about this road is that there will be brief spots of decent asphalt or hard packed/sealed gravel...just enough to lull you into thinking that the worst is behind you and then, wham! potholes a'plenty.  On more than one occasion I would hit potholes large enough to nearly shake the handlebars out of my hands.  Highlites of the second day: Atigun Pass, beautiful blue skies with lush green tundra beneath (it reminded me of the Windows XP default desktop picture with the clouds and rolling hills...just way cooler and not so digital).  I stayed at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel there in Deadhorse...a first rate establishment, sortof.  Deadhorse exists only to support the oilfields up there and there are no actual residents, just temporary workers.  I stayed where they stay.  The Arctic Ocean was cold, (imagine that?) but it was fun to get in and join the Arctic Polar Bear club.

I met another couple of bikers that day, Andy and Scott, from Ontario, Canada.  They were on sport bikes, also not very suited for the dirt/gravel/mud road, and we decided to all ride back together the next day and to ride all the way back to Fairbanks, skipping the overnight in Coldfoot.  We were all ready to be done with the Dalton.  Scott and Andy were great guys and were just starting an Iron Butt challenge to drive from Deadhorse, AK, to Key West, FL.  We began our ride the next day at about 10:45 and quickly put a good amount of miles behind us.  Then the rain set in.  A few equations here: If "Rain + dirt and gravel = mud" and "mud + motorcycle without dirt bike tires = instability" then "brian + mud = unhappily unstable".  Check me on that...my algebraic rules might be a bit off, but you get the point.  Scott and I nearly went down on a number of occasions.  I was right behind him and every time I saw his back tire fishtail I would brace myself because I knew I was next.  Apart from the mud, the roads were in much better condition than they were the day before.  The road crews are constantly wetting and grading the roads (fun if you get behind the wetting truck...see above equations) and things were much smoother for our trip back.  We pulled back into Fairbanks at about 4am and promptly went to sleep.  The 24-hour sunlight helps for making long rides like that but it seemed to hit us all at once.  The day wasn't all easy, though.  Scott's bike kept overheating because his radiator was packed with mud.  Andy got a flat.  Motocompy got beaten to a pulp and stopped working.  I had to take him completely apart at Coldfoot and when I did I found numerous loose or missing screws, and a disconnected hard drive.  I pulled out the keyboard later on and found two of the keys had been shaken off.  All in all, the damage done by Dalton to myself or the other folks on bikes that I came into contact with on my trip up amounted to: 2 flat tires, a cracked crank case, and some cracked handle bars (from when one guy went down.  He was OK, just got caught in some mud).   That's all in a three day period... We woke up after our long ride, ate breakfast and took our bikes to a car wash to pressure wash all the mud off of the radiators, exhaust systems, lights...everything.  That took a fair amount of time but when we were done we said our goodbyes and parted ways, Andy and Scott were heading for Whitehorse in Canada and I pointed my newly cleaned bike towards Denali.  It was a good ride down there (I mean, heck, the entire road was paved) and the park was beautiful,  I couldn't actually see Mt. McKinley from the 75 mile viewpoint because of the weather, but I did see some beautiful landscape and a moose.  I spent the night in Cantwell Junction and am heading out onto the Denali highway shortly...yet another gravel road, but this one should be a bit shorter and better maintained.

Ok, so I could write or talk about this experience for much longer, but my guess is that it's much more interesting to me since it's so fresh and vivid in my mind's eye and that my lame description isn't going to quite do it justice.  Anyways, here's some pictures from those few days (more on my Flickr page) as well as a video from our passage of Atigun.  Most of my other videos would make you sick from all the shaking and bouncing around.  Plus, there was usually mud, dust or rain stuck to my windshield...or the camera was shaken off of its mount.  Not the best conditions for movie production.  One more video from the Arctic coast.  Notice the weird layer of clouds that comes down to just above the horizon.

GPS track of me exiting the Brooks Range and heading into Deadhorse, AK is here.

I wish I could stay up late and write for a long time, but it's already later than I should be up and I have a long ride tomorrow.  Long and short of it is this:  I got to Coldfoot yesterday evening after a long, sometimes harrowing ride through anything and everthing (mud was my favorite), camped there, got up this morning and road (again, through anything and everything) to Deadhorse, AK.  I got a flat tire about 50 miles north of Coldfoot which was no fun.  I had the stuff to patch it, though, and was back on the road in about 20 minutes or so.  Got up here around 4ish and took a tour of the oil fields which ended up at the northern coast, where I took a quick swim.  Air temp was 31 with windchill and the water was about 34.  Refreshing.  Anyways, I have so many pictures and photos to share from the last two days but sadly, it must wait.  Today was a good one and it represents the the culmination of  many months of planning and thinking.  I'm glad you all could share it with me.  I'll post more on it later, but for now you can check out some pictures that I put on Flickr.  More later.

I started my ride on the 7th in Haines Junction, YT, which is about 200 miles from the US/CAN border.  After the rain the afternoon before, I was hoping the overcast skies wouldn't pummel me all day.  Although myself and the bike are dressed for the occasion, it's nice to not have to deal with it.  Only had a few sprinkles in the morning even though the skies looked ominous, and I had a nice drive through the Kluane Park and around Kluane Lake, yet another massive, beautiful body of water.  I'm sure on a sunnier day I would have been inclined to stop for longer, but I enjoyed the view from the bike, stopped for a couple pictures and moved on.  There was a bit of construction by the lake (the video below shows me driving by a dump truck whose tires were taller than me) but immediately following the drive around the lake is where the road got rather interesting.  The road was a series of potholes and dips, the kind that require you to stand up on the pegs in order to take some of the stress off of the bike's shocks, and I soon found my legs growing tired from all the standing and sitting.  Throw into that mix a fun assortment of gravel coatings, and I was very ready to get to the US border in hopes that the road would be better there (which thankfully it was).  I went through one section which was loose gravel and mud and I was fairly certain that was going to be the place where I put the bike down...somehow I made it through, though.  I ate at a little diner in Beaver Creek, enjoyed the assortment of stuffed heads and eyes looking at me, and then continued to the border. 

The scenery soon took on a much different look with wide green valleys filled with numerous small lakes and waterways.  I enjoyed this section, and enjoyed being back in the US and having phone service as soon as I hit the first small town.  I got gas in Delta Junction and then continued on towards Fairbanks...and towards the towering grey skies off to the west.  A few sprinkles here, a few there, and then wham!...I drove straight into the side of a cloud.  It was literally on the ground and the rain inside of that thing was rain like I had never ridden through (nor possibly even driven through in my car).  I usually try to keep my speed up through the rain so as to use the wind to clear the water off my face mask.  I decided it was time to abandon that strategy when I could no longer see the road.  It was all water...water on the road, water in my face, water in the sky....all water.  I held on, covered up motocompy as best I could and prayed that my bike wouldn't hydroplane.  It didn't and I made it through to the other side where, to my surprise, were some of the bluest skies I'd seen on the trip thus far.  Weird.  I stopped and looked back at the cloud and thanked God that I hadn't left parts of the bike or myself back there.  The rest of the ride was a nice one and the landscape became more populated and tame as I neared the city.  Some of the longest, straightest roads I've ever seen (also in the video, sped up 4x).  As the title of the post suggests, it was along this stretch where a dragonfly flew square into the center of my visor.  It made me wonder how the guys with open faced helmets do it...I asked my girlfriend the same thing and she informed that it's because they're real men.  Hmmmm...interesting.  I spent the night at an Air Force Base Lodge near the town of North Pole, AK, and enjoyed the nice hotel room feel at camping prices.  Thanks Air Force.  You really put the "all that you can be" into "Be all that you can be".  I road into Fairbanks yesterday morning and had breakfast at Deb's (which included reindeer sausage) while my bike had its 12,000 mile maintenance done.  It had a great diner feel to it and I enjoyed talking to the waitresses and having a nice cup of diner coffee.  The bike got done early and I spent the rest of the day seeing the "sights" in Fairbanks.  It's an interesting place that seems to find its present identity in its past.  I went to Pioneer Park first and learnt me a bit of Alaskan History.  I then headed downtown to get some information on the city.  The most help I got wasn't at the Visitor's Center, however.  It was at the Ebony and Ivory Convenience store.  I really enjoyed talking with the owner and his son.  At their recommendation I headed out to the University of Alaska Museum, and man was it worth it.  It's an incredible museum, both inside and outside.  The architecture is beautiful and the paintings, photos, artifacts, fossils, and people inside were even better.  Very highly recommended.  I finished out the day with a dinner at the Elf's Den in North Pole and a night of typing this while my laundry dries.  Today I head north for the final push to Deadhorse.  It should be an interesting ride...now it's not only a gravel road that I have to deal with, but it's a gravel road which has sharp rocks mixed in.  Fun.  Why do people climb mountains?...Yeah, same sort of deal.

Pictures from the day in Fairbanks.  GPS upload is being slow...I'll try to post it later on.  Oh, and a few things I keep forgetting to write about.  One, I saw a fox and a couple of owls in the last few days.  Second, I saw a sign in the Yukon that said, "You are now leaving the 911 service area."  Hmmmm...

So much has happened since I last wrote...it's pretty difficult to know where to begin or what to write about without droning on and on and boring you all to tears.  Since the morning of the third, I've ridden about 1800 miles through Washington, British Columbia and now the Yukon.  I'll try to sum up the last three days in a not-so-painfully long synopsis.  The drive up from Seattle began with familiar territory.  My Mom and Dad and brother Kevin and I had taken a road trip a couple years back that took us through the southern and eastern parts of BC.  Things changed rather quickly as I made headway North, however, and soon I was finding myself in large canyons with rushing rivers and huge rock slides on either side.  It was hot, too.  Somewhere in the mid 90's someone told me later on.  No fun.  I did Subway for lunch and dinner that day.  Quality.  I'm looking to take over for Jerrod in their new ad campaign.  I camped near Clinton, BC that night...nothing too spectacular, just a place to set up shop.  I celebrated July 4th by waking up and driving to Smithers.  Honestly, at this point, I can't remember a whole lot from that drive.  I'm sure it was beautiful, but the days are kindof running together at this point.  The ones that really stand out in my mind are the 5th and 6th.  The 5th was a long one, almost 600 miles, and was crazy all the way around.  It started in Smithers where I began the day with my now familiar routine which tends to be a bit different depending on whether I'm camping or staying somewhere.  Hotel:  Try to get up by 7:30, take a shower, finish whatever I'm doing with Motocompy for the trip and put away all the cords/wires that I don't need, pack everything else up, load up the bike, get all my gear on, get on the road.  Campground: Wake up whenever I wake up, which usually is when the sun comes up or the birds start up with their noise, (by the way, it was nice and bright at 5:30 this morning, but I'll get to that later on), skip the shower (I get that the night before to save time and because I really need it after riding all day), wrestle with my tent and sleeping bag and all of my stuff (and all the mosquitoes), somehow get everything to fit onto the bike and try to leave at a reasonable time.  I got on the road by about 9 and headed west towards the 37.  Highway 37 is a strange road, ranging in quality from newly paved to unpaved loose gravel, and everything in between.  The most abundant version was a type of pavement with filled potholes and no lane markers.  I spent most of the day on the 37 and ran the emotional gamut.  Probably the funniest part of the day was when another motorcycle passed me and was about 200 yards up the road.  A moose came up onto the road, saw him there, got scared to death and tried to turn around.  In the process he kindof slipped and tripped over his own legs and it wasn't until I got up there that he had regained his composure and had headed back into the trees.  I got it on video, but it's pretty difficult to see at such low resolution (it happens right around the 30 second mark). 

I finished up the day by entering the Yukon (which felt like driving onto the moon because there had been a fire nearby and the smokey haze and crazy, rocky terrain made things feel, well, moonlike.)  I spent the night at a campsite at the junction of the 1 and the 37.  Morning came early, like I said before, and I had to cover my face with a t-shirt to get a couple more hours of sleep.  (By the way, it's 12:15am and it's still light outside as I write this here in Haines Junction.)  Today's roadway was much more even and predictable, the weather, however, was not.  Grey, dark skies, thunder, lightning, downpours, wind gusts....all made for some interesting riding.  I road by more gigantic, beautiful lakes than I can remember.  The Yukon River was beautiful as were the mountains that greeted me from behind Haines Junction.  I head for Alaska on the 7th and will probably encounter more showers on the way.  By the way, Motocompy faired rather well in his rain clothes.  The screen isn't very usable, but it still plays music and tells me where to go.  Pictures below, and yes, that is a freezer bag covering up the touchscreen.  Classy.  Ok, my eyes are hurting so I think I'm going to stop typing and finish up the photos and video in the morning...er, later this morning.  I hope this post finds everyone well.  Thanks for taking this trip with me.  Your prayers, thoughts, emails, comments are great...keep them up.  Goodnight to you all. (Videos and pictures below as well as on my Flickr site which you can get to by clicking on any of these pictures here.  GPS from yesterday here and here.)

It's after midnight and the last two days have been longs ones.  859 miles long, to be exact.  Anyways, I rolled in to Smithers, BC today after riding for over 12 hours and almost 500 miles and after a short look for campsites I gave in and got a room.  The one campsite I found was actually pretty nice, but as soon as I found out that it didn't have a shower, I nixed it and moved on.  Anyways, I really need sleep so I'll slap a few pictures on here and then I'll write more later on.  So here they are: an action shot, bugs, and some fun signs. 

I saw signs warning me of deer, elk, moose, and longhorn sheep...I saw none of them. I did see a little black bear running through a field and a momma duck with her three ducklings waiting patiently at the side of the road for it to be clear so she could cross.  The bear didn't eat me, nor did it make an attempt at eating me...so my first bear encounter of the trip went well.  The duck was a bit more aggressive.  I don't want to talk about it.  Oh, and that Microsoft interview thing was cool.  It will be online in about two weeks and I'll make sure you all get the word.  More on that later on.  Must....sleep...

I'm writing this from a parking lot...exciting, I know.  Anyways, I'm doing a quick interview deal with some folks at www.on10.net and they asked if I would do some realtime blogging.  It's pretty cool to think that other folks are interested in this and it's fun (strange) to be on camera.  So, I'll write some more later on today, but here's a quick one to let you all know where I am at and what I'm doing.  After I'm done here it's off to Canada and places north.  More later on...

Yesterday was one of the more frustrating days of the trip thus far. Frustrating, because things didn't quite go as planned. It was a good day, though, and looking back on it I feel silly for being frustrated...I got to see and do some amazing things today. I woke up early and drove down to the ferry landing in Port Angeles, getting there right at 7 to ensure my place on the 8:20 to Victoria. We crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca and I was off the boat at about 10:15. I had three things planned for Victoria: see the Empress Hotel, go to Buchart Gardens and drive up the 1 to Nanaimo to catch the 3:15 ferry to Vancouver. I went one for three...I missed the 3:15 ferry. Why was I late? Because I didn't trust the GPS lady's voice, telling me to turn around and take a different route. I thought the way I was going would work just as well, but it didn't and it took me 25 miles to correct that mistake. Sadly, I didn't get to Nanaimo until 3:25. Stink. The ride up was nice, though, and it was fun to drive next to routes that I had navigated the ship through several years back. Buchart Gardens was impressive and beautiful, full of plants, trees and flowers from around the world. It used to be an old limestone quarry but was transformed by Mrs. Buchart into an colorful, peaceful (except for all of us loud tourists) landscape. Overheard quote of the day: a boy saying to his mother, "Will the garden have variety?" 

Anyways, I took the ferry back to Vancouver (video below of a bunch of us exiting the ferry), dealt with city traffic, and made my way back down to Oak Harbor, WA, to stay with some friends of my brother's.  What?  Back to Washington?  Yeah, I'm meeting someone in the Seattle area today and then heading back up into Canada for the long part of the trip.  Which brings me to this sad truth...I probably won't be quite as regular in keeping my blog up to date as I go through Canada.  Cingular charges me big dollah to use the service of other lands and uploading pictures and video would cost me a bundle...and I'm unemployed.  So, if I can make it to some WIFI areas then you'll get some updates, otherwise you'll have to wait until I make it to Alaska.  Or maybe I can get sponsored by Yamaha and get a sweet satellite hookup.  Anyways, till next time...

I woke up today knowing that I was going to get new tires on my bike and that was about it.  I wasn't sure if I was going to head over to Victoria or down towards Seattle.  Again, the wisdom of my girlfriend prevailed and I made plans to enjoy the area that I was already staying in, Port Angeles.  I picked up the bike and decided to break in my new tires on the roads of Olympic National Park.  I started the drive up there and that's when things just got strange.  I rounded one corner and saw this:

An older couple from Israel had gotten distracted and simply driven off the side of the road.  They had both climbed out the driver's door and were fine.  I tried to suggest that maybe it was the dirt on the road...someone else commented that it was a sunny day and maybe that had caused it, but the guy just kindof shrugged and said "Ah, it was probably just my fault" to which his wife rolled her eyes and pointed out that there was no dirt on the road.  I continued up to the top and did a bit of hiking around.  On the way up one of the trails I met with this fellow:

So do you think they pay the wildlife to make appearances?  I mean, I was taking pictures of a mountain goat...standing mere feet away from him/her.  My guess is that it sees people fairly frequently and that it couldn't care less what I was doing or how closely I was standing to it.  My suspicions were later confirmed by this view of a dear hanging out in a lovely meadow with many of it's human friends, and also this neat sign of a deer jumping up on a person, apparently looking for food.  (By the way, I overheard the kid on the right ask his dad if the picture was of a kangaroo.  Awesome.)

I later met up with a guy named Bill who told me about a cool dirt road nearby.  I headed down that way (video below) and met back up with him on his way back up the road.  I continued on to the bottom where I saw a sign that (I thought) said "PJ Lake 0.3 miles".  I headed out on my "quick" trek and found myself walking down steep switchbacks into a valley far below.  Turns out that I had misread the sign and 0.3 was actually 0.9.  I'm convinced that most of that .9 miles both ways was spent in the vertical direction.  The lake was beautiful...clearest I've ever seen, and the views on the way to it were incredible...but the hike back up the side of that mountain nearly killed me.  I really need to start working out when I get home.  Ok, so this short post has quickly turned into a long post.  There's the video below as well as some more pictures from the Park, the dirt road, and the hike (with some more pictures on Flickr).  GPS file from the dirt road back to Port Angeles is here.  I'm out of here tomorrow.  It's time to move on...

 

I'm sitting here watching Evel Knievel's story on the History Channel in my hotel room in Port Angeles.  Don't worry, Mom, I'm not getting any ideas.  Not a whole lot to write tonight because it wasn't really all that exciting as far as this trip as been.  I left Nehalem Bay State Park this morning around 10 and drove up to Astoria.  Astoria's well known for many things I'm sure, but for someone of my generation, the only thing that matters is that Astoria is where Goonies was filmed.  I have to be honest here...I've never seen Goonies all the way through, but what I have seen I've liked and I aim to watch it all later on.  Anyways, here's a picture of the house below with me making my best "Baby Ruth?" face.  The house is actually pretty nice and looks out over the Columbia River.  The Columbia is a very historical river as you history buffs may recall...it's where Lewis and Clark first invented chocolate and discovered the Rubik's Cube in 1492.  I took the motorcycle over the Columbia and have video to prove it...below.  Some highlights from the rest of the day include driving by wood mills where they were processing cedar.  The smell made the drive much easier.  Also, all along the Washington coast there were these purple and white flowers.  I don't know what they're called, but they sure looked swell.  See for yourself...again, below.  Anyways, now I'm in Port Angeles, WA, where I have set up shop in a lovely (read "bargain") motel.  I've unloaded the bike and will take it in for new tires tomorrow.  And now for the visceral delights.  Extra pictures are of Cannon Beach (another Goonies filming site) as well as one from the Washington Coast and one of the bike without all of my junk on it.