Final Thoughts

First, I want to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers during this trip. Things went very well and I'm sure this had something to do with it.

Second, I'm glad people enjoyed following along with my daily adventures by reading this blog. I had never done anything like this before and I wasn't sure how well it would work. The feedback I have received is that everyone enjoyed it. The photos, maps of my journey, and comments were appreciated by many. Thanks for reading along. I'm glad I could share this experience with you.

I must say this was a wonderful trip and experience; I have no regrets - only memories (and 400+ photos). I got to see many places that I have never seen before and I really believe there is no better way to see nature and beauty than on a motorcycle where you can take it all in. Unfortunately, the trip had to end a little early and there were still a few places I wanted to see. I don't want the little deer incident to be the defining moment of the trip; there are many other highlights, memories, and experiences that are more important to me.

Here are some of statistics of the trip:

• Total Mileage: 10,226 - daily average of 465 miles per day.
• Days Riding: 21
• Lowest mileage day: 183 (day I hit the deer)
• Highest mileage day: 716 (last day getting home)
  
• I spent about $1,000 on gas and averaged 43 miles per gallon - this was my largest single type of expense
• Lodging: I spent 3 nights with relatives, 4 nights in hotels, and 13 nights tenting. A total cost of $550
• States I drove in (9): Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, and North Dakota
  
• Canadian Providences I drove in (2): Alberta and British Columbia
  
• National Parks Visited (9): Rocky Mountain, Arches, Natural Bridges (National Monument) Bryce Canyon, Zion, Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Banff/Canadian Rockies. Most were covered by the $80 annual pass I purchased. I guess I got my money worth from that!
• Best road to ride: Beartooth Pass (Wyoming/Montana)
• Best canyon carving: anything west and north of Denver - can't beat it!
  
• Most boring ride: From Calgary through Montana on the trip home
• Steepest incline/decline: Black Canyon of the Gunnison (16% grade)
  
• Best views while riding: Hwy 550 around Ouray, Silverton, and Durango Colorado
• Most spectacular views: Bryce Canyon
• Best Mountains: Canadian Rockies from Banff to Jasper. Followed closely by the Grand Tetons.

Day 21 - June 20

I'm home!!!

I made the 700+ mile trek from Montana, across North Dakota, and home today. I got home around 7:00 p.m. I have to admit my butt was getting a little tired and sore on the way home today. Not a whole lot to see or do but drive, and drive, and drive.

I 'm tired now and need to get some rest. I will post a summary and final thoughts later.

Day 20 - July 19

Not much to report today. I drove from Calgary to Wolf Point Montana (553 miles). The ride today was pretty boring compared to what I'm used to seeing on this trip. Oh well, it is the fastest way home and at this point, that is what is best.

It took 45 minutes to get through customs at the border. I guess a lot of people want out of Canada!

The bike has been doing well.

If all goes well, I should be home tomorrow night! Then I get to start working on next steps with insurance and repairs. Yippi!!!!

Day 19 - July 18

I called the Honda dealer this morning at 9:30 and my radiator from Vancouver had arrived so I went there right away. Their Honda tech was on vacation so they had someone else do the repair. The old radiator and fan assembly were removed and the new radiator (without fan) was installed. Since there is no mounting places at this point, the hoses and a few zip ties are holding the new radiator in place. They added some new coolant and the bike was ready to ride by about noon.

The bike performed well today - I had no problems with over heating. I was pretty confident that as long as I kept moving, the bike would have enough air flow by the radiator that over heating would not be a problem. So far so good. Even with much of the plastic missing on the left side of the fairing, the bike handled very well today.

Several things slowed my progress today. First, was the weather. It was OK when I left the dealer but after about 1 hour of riding it began to rain off and on so I put on my rain gear. The off/on rain continued for another hour and then it was "on". After riding in the rain for some time I took a break at a gas station for about 20 minutes. The rain then let up and I was on the road again. The next 2 things that slowed me down were accidents. Between the 2 accidents, I was parked on the highway for about 2 hours. The first involved a semi and 2 cars. I heard reports that the second involved a motorcyclist that was killed. The two accidents were only a few miles apart from each other.

I made it as far as Calgary today. I'm staying in a motel tonight and plan to see how far I can get tomorrow.

Day 18 - July 17

Today I was supposed to continue my journey south and east towards Idaho, unfortunately there was a little problem this morning. Remember earlier in the trip when I had two days in a row where I had road kill of birds? Well, today it was a deer - yes you read that right.

I left this morning as planned and was going on a nice country road (the one between 97 and 5 in my trip map for the day). All at once a deer came out of the ditch and was beside me. He (small fork buck) collided with the left side of my bike. With help from God, many years experience, and some good luck, I was able to keep the bike up right and not crash it. It all happened very fast but I never felt in danger of tipping over. The deer never moved after the crash, I had to move it to the side of the road so it didn't cause another accident.

I'm fine, I only got few scratches on my leg - not sure what caused them. The bike is another story. I could tell the radiator was loosing a small amount of coolant and that the fan behind the radiator was damaged - these were my biggest concerns. It looks like all the plastic on the front fairing and around the gas tank will need to be replaced along with the left side controls and parts of the fairing.

Since the bike was still drivable and I could see a small town about 1/4 mile ahead, after moving the deer and moving some of my plastic off the road, I drive the bike to town and went into a small market. I told them what happened and asked who I should call (remember I'm still in Canada). They were not sure. There are a couple of organizations that deal with the insurance in Canada that the lady behind the counter mentioned but I wasn't sure that would be of much use. I suggested calling 911 and she said that would make sense. I called 911 but since I was OK they were not concerned and referred me to the insurance groups again. Not much help.

Next I called Cathy to let her know what was going on and she contacted our insurance agent in the states to let them know about the accident and find out what I needed to do. Since the bike was still drivable , I decided to drive it to the largest town near by (Kamloops B.C.) that has a Honda dealer. When I was ready to drive to the Honda dealer, 3 bikers (I will call them my angels : Jim, Joe, and Hank - 3 brothers) came along. I told them what happened and they just happen to be riding to the same town as I was going to. The three of them were out riding together on their vacation. They said if I waited until they drank their coffee, I could ride with them and they could help if I had any trouble - thus my angels. The good news is the ride to the dealer went without any problems - the bike stayed cool the whole time despite losing a little fluid. I thought they were going to ride with me all the way to the dealer, but when we got close and they knew I would be fine they waved and took off so I never got any contact information for my angels. Fortunately at one of the stops we made on the ride, I did get to thank them for allowing me to ride along with. Having them along with me on the drive took a lot of worries off my mind.

The dealer looked at the bike and we determined if the radiator is replaced, the bike should be able to to be driven back home where I can better deal with the insurance and repairs. They placed a rush order for a radiator from Vancouver - they should have it by 9:30 on Friday morning. The hope is they can replace the radiator and I can then drive the bike back home as is.

Now I just need to map out the fastest and most direct way home. I will be cutting this ride short to get home. I don't want to push my luck by driving the bike any more than I have too. It has been a great ride and I was able to get to the places I wanted to see the most. The rest would have just been icing on the cake!

I will try to keep you posted on the progress of repairs and my return trip. I will also post my final thoughts on the entire trip when I return.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers during my ride.

Day 17 - July 16

There isn't much to report today. Most of the day was spend back tracking from Hyder Alaska - this was segments 2 and 3 that I described yesterday. Usually I don't like to take the same road twice but I had to make and exception in this case. So I went from Hyder back to Prince George and then headed south.

I'm spending the night at a camp ground in William Lake.

Day 16 – July 15

Greetings to you all from Hyder Alaska!!! I made it!!! The weather was great (other than about 10 miles of a drizzles shortly after I left this morning), the roads where all in good shape, and the ride was beautiful. What more can I ask for?

Today’s ride needs to be divided into 3 parts.

The first part was from my motel from last night to Prince George. This ride was very peaceful – the 2^nd most peaceful ride I remember (more on the 1^st most peaceful ride later). When I started out I saw many deer and one elk. Along the way I also saw a cow moose and her young calf. They were running along the road about 20 yards in the ditch. When I caught up to them, they darted into the woods. They didn’t want to stick around for photos I guess. This stretch of road was just an easy joy to sit back and watch go by.

The second section of the ride was from Prince George west on Hwy 16 (Yellowhead Highway). This road reminded me more of northern Minnesota (even some of the building sites look similar if you know what I mean!) except this road provided many mountain views off in the distance. There were cattle and horses grazing in the pasture, people making hay etc. Towns were scattered along the way with all the necessities for the locals.

The 3^rd section, north from Hwy 16 on Highways 37 and 37A, have to be the number 1 most peaceful ride I ever remember. It is like they laid the smooth stripe of asphalt in the middle of the wilderness. It provided slight twists and turns and some ups and downs but all I could do was sit back, breath deep, and take it all in so that maybe in the future I can recall these (many) moments of driving though this area. Pictures can’t capture what I saw or felt, but it was amazing. Along this route I also happened to catch a glimpse of a black bear. As I always needed to keep my eyes peeled for wildlife, at one moment I looked to my left and saw the bear running through a small opening. Again he also was not about to stay around for photos!

I’m spending the night in a tent at Hyder. When I got to the site, another black bear was spotted (my second!) They told me to put any food I had in the laundry building for safe keeping over night. While I was at my tent site, 3 guys came over that were very interested in my motorcycle. They recently purchased one (Red 2004) that someone that was doing some Iron Butt run crashed and totaled. Purchase price: 8 cases of beer! They had many questions. It sounds like the bike had every possible option added to it (I suppose to help in the Iron Butt Race). I’m not sure how far these guys will get with putting it back together, but they will have fun trying.

Tomorrow I start heading south again, back towards Prince George (along some of the same roads as today!) and then towards Washington state.

Day 15 – July 14

The ride today was amazing. Everyone said the Canadian Rockies were beautiful and I finally got to see them for my self. I left my campsite this morning and headed towards Banff. Banff is just where it starts – it gets better from there. From Banff, I took the back road up to Moraine Lake and then to Lake Louise. The color of the water in both of these lakes is amazing. It is turquoise in color unlike anything I have seen. After the lakes it was on up the Ice Ridge Parkway towards Jasper. Every corner you come around, there is another amazing sight. The Canadian Rockies may not be as tall as the Rockies in Colorado but they sure are beautiful. To me, the Canadian Rockies are different than the Colorado Rockies because of the following: 1) The rock they are made out of appear to be more solid, almost like a granite, 2) most of the mountains in Canada are more shear in drop off, 3) the Canadian Rockies have less trees on them due to the type of rock and the shear drop offs, and 4) they just keep going, and going, and going.

Going up the Ice Ridge Parkway you get to see several glaciers. There is one that you get to walk up to (some people even walked on it though there are danger signs every where). You can see the river forming as the glacier continues to recede. They had markings showing where the end of the glacier was going back in time. Where the parking lot is now is where the tip of the glacier was back in the 1930s. Now you have to walk at least a ½ mile up a steep hill to see the glacier.

The entire way up the Ice Ridge Parkway, you are surrounded by mountains on both sides of the road and for much of the time, you are driving beside the river that has formed from the glaciers and the snow melt from the mountains.

It looks like tomorrow I’m going to make the run to Hyder Alaska. I have checked the weather reports and road conditions and it looks like everything is a go. I hope and pray everything goes well. The route is 611 miles from where I’m staying tonight (Tete Jaune British Columbia). From there (Wednesday), I plan to start driving south to do some riding in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho before I start my trek back east towards home.

Day 14 – July 13 (with pictures)

Two weeks have already flown by and there is still so much I want to see!!! I have now logged over 6,400 miles. I bet some of you are thinking “he is crazy” while others are you are thinking “wish I could be with him”!

I started this wonderful Sunday morning with a drive around Flathead Lake. The lake is over 40 miles long and is surrounded by mountains on either side. From there I headed up to Glacier National Park and to the “Highway To The Sun” as it is called. This road goes up and over the mountain and is named Logan’s pass. The pass is not as high (6,644 ft) as many of the others I have already ridden but it does provide some wonderful views of the surrounding mountains. Even at this elevation, there was still plenty of snow remaining. In several places, you could see the streams flowing down the mountain as the snow melt continued. In some places, they had to build bridges in the road to allow the water to run under the road and continue down the mountain. From some of the views as you approach the top of the pass, you can look down and see the river at the bottom and also the road as it winds it way up the mountain side. Unfortunately, some of the road is under construction and is restricted to 1 way traffic. They set up traffic lights to control the flow through this area. It caused quit a back-up but there is only so much they can do when rebuilding a road on the side of the mountain. I also got to see both Mountain Goats and Big Horn Sheep while going through the park.

After Glacier, I continued north with Banff being my next major destination. I made it through Customs into Canada with no problem (passport was ready to go) and continued on. I’m spending the night in a campsite along a river south of Banff and Calgary near Long View. I will continue on to Banff in the morning.

Day 13 - July 12 (Updated)

Sorry for the lack of photos on the most recent posts but the internet access and/or the blogspot website have been very slow. I spent a couple of hours last night and another hour this morning just getting what I have now posted. I will try to add more photos later. I will update the titles on the days when I have added the photos.

The KOA I stayed at last night had pancakes available for breakfast this morning. On my way to get some, I saw a garbage can tipped over and garbage spread all over, in figured maybe a dog got into it. At breakfast, I discovered there had been a black bear in camp that was going through the garbage looking for food. It sounds like this is not uncommon as the camp is along a river and the bears go up and down it looking for food. I never heard anything - I was sound a sleep.

Today I had to make a decision about my next travel direction. Do I head west into Idaho and ride there and then go north towards Banff or do I head north in Montana towards Glacier National Park and then to Banff and leave Idaho until later. Decisions, decisions.

I decided to head north towards Glacier National Park and then from there head north towards Banff since that is one of my key destinations. My plan is to then do some of the riding in Idaho and Oregon after my riding in Canada.

So for my ride today I connected several different roads to get me towards Glacier. Several of the roads were very nice and provided some nice scenery as you can see from the photos. My hope was to make it through Glacier National Park but I was feeling pretty tired today so I didn't make it as far as planned and decided to get a hotel room (in Kalispell Montana) to get some rest and get caught up on some things such as updating my blogs. This is the first time I have stayed in a hotel on this trip. Glacier National Park will have to wait until tomorrow.

Day 12 – July 11 (with pictures)

Today I spent the majority of the day driving in Yellowstone National Park. I covered most of it on the two man loops. One loop is 90+ miles and the other loop is 70+ miles. When I went to watch Old Faithful, there was another geyser (named Bee Hive) that only goes off once per day that was getting ready to blow so I got to see it blow off some steam. It actually shoots higher in the air than Old Faithful does. Old Faithful was right on schedule with its blast of hot water as well. Both of them were pretty impressive. From what I saw of Yellowstone the east side has the most scenery. Much of the other area is just heavy forest. In the forest areas, you could see how the various parts are recovering from past fires. In some areas, the new trees are 5 – 7 feet tall and the new forest is well underway. In another area that I believe burned more recently, the green grass has returned, but no new tree growth is yet visible.

The next item for the day was to ride Bear Tooth Highway which is Highway 212 going east out of Yellowstone to Red Lodge Montana; which is where I’m spending the night in a KOA. This road is described by many as the most scenic roads as it winds up and over the Saw Tooth Mountains. This road is also known for its many sharp hair pin curves – a biker’s paradise! The road lived up to its billing. The road was both a constant challenge to ride and also provided beautiful views. When I reached the summit this afternoon around 5:30, the temperature was 46 degrees. Much of the snow on the mountains has melted but I did manage to find a few larger snow banks and got a few pictures by them.

For my campsite tonight at the KOA, I have my own special little bridge over a stream to get to my campsite. I feel special. I hope the babbling brook isn’t to noisy!

Day 11 – July 10 (with pictures)

Yesterday afternoon I decided it was time to think about finding someone to replace the tires on the bike. I didn’t expect them to make the entire trip because they were not new but they also were to good to take off before I left. I started to call some dealers to find out who could replace my tires in a timely manner (either today or Friday). The first two I called were not able to. The third one was the charm! They are located in Sheridan so I knew it would be a little drive but there were some roads in that area that I wanted to ride anyway so I might as well combine the two items. It wasn’t until I put the info into my GPS that I realized it was going to take me a little longer than I thought because there is no good direct way there; either you take the long way or you go through Yellowstone park which means the slow way. So, I decided to get up early and take the longer way. It was still a little dark when I left my camp site and a bit chilly – temperature on the bike read 37 degrees. I knew I would have to be very careful watching for critters so early in the morning and it don’t take long to see many elk and deer out and about. I took it pretty easy getting out of the park and until daylight appeared.

The mountains around Sheridan are called the Big Horn Mountains. I took one way through on the way to the dealer and another way on the way back out. When I arrived at the dealer, they were nice enough to have someone take me to Perkins to have breakfast/lunch since I didn’t have anything to eat yet and it would be a while until the bike was completed. When I was done with my meal, I called them up and they came back and got me and took me back to their store so I could wait in their “waiting” room. When the new tires were on and the oil changed, it was time to head back to my tent site in the Tetons.

On the way back, I took the route through a small corner of Yellowstone so I could see at least a little bit of it today. I quickly discovered that Yellowstone is much larger than I thought. Some of the sites are 50 miles away from where I entered the park. Due to the size, I didn’t spend much time taking pictures there today because I wanted to get back to my tent in the Tetons before dark – I just made it!

The plan for tomorrow is to go through Yellowstone National Park and also ride Bear Tooth Canyon which should be blast – it is one of the curviest roads I may find during this tip – I can’t wait! Good thing I got a new set of round tires instead of those Minnesota tires that have a flat spot in the middle from not enough fun corners to ride!

Day 10 – July 9 (with pictures)

Today I left from Vernal Utah and first went by the Flaming Gorge Recreational Area. This is a very large reservoir. From here I went to Jackson Wyoming which is near the Teton Mountain range. The Tetons are not a very large range of mountains but they sure are beautiful! I was luck enough to find a campsite in the Tetons National Park. I have the camp site reserved for 2 days because I also can easily go to Yellowstone from here. In the evening I went into Jackson to do a little shopping – not much luck! On the way back to my camp site, I came across a heard of elk attempting to migrate across the road. First the lead male went across the road, while his heard of female and less dominate bucks waited on the other side of the road. Eventually 2 of his heard followed while the traffic waited. At that point I moved on to my camp site to get some rest.