Alaska, me too?

the Ferret said:
I certainly admire your wanderlust Frank. At this point in my life, I am more into reading about others adventures, than paricipating in them myself.

Best of luck on the trip, and may it be full of joy and adventure. Keep us posted on how things are going.

Have fun, ride safe.
Click to expand...

I’ll share with the rest what I shared with you.
I am not there yet but I can see it coming. And you are my roll model for graceful aging.



Talk about a lazy start. Maybe I’ll just do Hyder at this rate but I am having a good time.

Day one. Wife gets back in town. Hmmm. It would be nice to spend the night with her before I go.

Day one, take two. Sleep in. And clean the chicken coops before I go. I do all the hard to reach areas, she can do the floors.
And then an easy 295 miles to South Bend.
I caught a nice picture when it was time to take off the sun glasses.
IMG_5115.jpeg

Day two, today. Loving the moderate temperatures and very little rain. 410 miles to Des Moines area. Clive Iowa.
I have a membership with LifeTime fitness so I do some rowing and recumbent exercycle riding, shower and steam. Life is good.
Picture of rowing machine with requisite inclusion of motorcycle in picture.

IMG_5120.jpeg

Then a mile walk to Outback Steakhouse and another back to the hotel.

Is this a vacation or a motorcycle ride? Usually I need a vacation after my long rides


Any thoughts on which way for this leg of the trip?

IMG_5121.png
 
Awesome...
Go through Missoula and then on the road, go north to Hwy 20 and then west to the coast. Much better scenery.
Oh ya...there is a biker flop house in Seven Bays WA.........
T
 
Oh yeah, another day one delay.
Looking for the Nikwax.
Thanks to @SMSW
He had just enough to spray the areas that needed most.
I think I figured out where mine ended up after the new shop was built. I’ll split that bottle with you and drop off fresh eggs.
 
sirbike said:
Oh yeah, another day one delay.
Looking for the Nikwax.
Click to expand...
The calendar is your enemy ... I'd be looking at it then start looking for my electrics to go under the rainwear. :thumb:

Like the lady said as she unlocked the gas pump at Chicken: "you boys had better quit dilly dallying; that border closes 9 PM, 5 September" (it was mid July) :rofl1:

Tom


53107190158_1faae8c30c_c.jpg


53107175438_eb66a169ab_c.jpg
 
Last edited:
IMG_5124.png
I rode 60 miles in sunny 90degree heat looking at this.
I was teased as the road turned towards and away from it.
A “thin” vail of rain was coming from the far side of this erie turbulent dark grey cloud. The skies were clear behind the vail.
The sheets of rain spread out closer to the ground. Kind of like a cocktail glass upside down.
That’s a serious downdraft with horizontal winds at the bottom. No funnel clouds though.
Then the road turned towards a grey wall a mile away.
I went into the wall. It was the most intense wind in my life. 1/2-3/4” hail in a left quartering head wind I’d estimate at 80mph about the time I get down to 60mph.
I have never stopped for rain but that hail was starting to hurt And I didn’t want to mess with it getting bigger. I kinda had to keep going about 20 mph as a means of keeping the bike upright against the crosswind but the hail was starting to be an issue on the ground. I got my feet down sliding across the hail until I just felt pavement, stopped then fought to keep the bike up. Somewhere in the mayhem I got the kickstand down so I could just bear weight down to the left into the wind and ran the windshield down to help.
My stich was unzipped. It bellowed up with wind driving ice and water into the suit. A minute ago it was a peaceful 85 degrees having cooled a bit near this thing, now it was 57 degrees.
I had almost made it through so I only had to wait a minute until this thing was just a torrential downpour, got going and was out in the clear weather a half mile later.
It was so refreshing after riding a few hours 90-93 heat.
Don’t try this at home or anywhere.

Speaking of the calendar I rode 625 miles to Cheyenne. Feeling like I can get that daily mileage up.

Tomorrow should be 510 miles to Idaho Falls to visit my cousin.
Probably some picture worthy scenery on the way.
 
I rode along the Snake River on US26 at dusk.
So good morning. Time to go upstairs and visit with my cousin.



edit: posted a day late
 
Last edited:
sirbike said:
I’ll share with the rest what I shared with you.
I am not there yet but I can see it coming. And you are my roll model for graceful aging.



Talk about a lazy start. Maybe I’ll just do Hyder at this rate but I am having a good time.

Day one. Wife gets back in town. Hmmm. It would be nice to spend the night with her before I go.

Day one, take two. Sleep in. And clean the chicken coops before I go. I do all the hard to reach areas, she can do the floors.
And then an easy 295 miles to South Bend.
I caught a nice picture when it was time to take off the sun glasses.
IMG_5115.jpeg

Day two, today. Loving the moderate temperatures and very little rain. 410 miles to Des Moines area. Clive Iowa.
I have a membership with LifeTime fitness so I do some rowing and recumbent exercycle riding, shower and steam. Life is good.
Picture of rowing machine with requisite inclusion of motorcycle in picture.

IMG_5120.jpeg

Then a mile walk to Outback Steakhouse and another back to the hotel.

Is this a vacation or a motorcycle ride? Usually I need a vacation after my long rides


Any thoughts on which way for this leg of the trip?

IMG_5121.png
Click to expand...
Sheesh..... A ride of 12 hours and 22 minutes gets me from Germany to Spain!
 
Going back to the 175 mile day.
Saturday.
I stayed over Friday night at my cousin’s house. We both got there late crashed for the night. So, Saturday in Idaho Falls she takes me to a lovely Japanese garden.
IMG_5152.jpegIMG_5149.jpeg

It becomes clear that I am not leaving by noon or 2:00 to make it to @ToddC ‘s in a relaxed fashion and have time for what I suspect could be an enjoyable visit.
A few more hours with cousin over a nice meal and running and errand was great. The evening ride up I-15 with so little traffic was cool.
 
Waking up near Butte was perfect.
I rode Montana route 1 through Anaconda and Philipsburg for some two lane scenery.

IMG_5164.jpegIMG_5167.jpegIMG_5165.jpegIMG_5168.jpeg


Getting back on I-90 I’d have plenty time for a detour off the slab to ride along Lake Coeur d’Alene.
I pull into the gas station and I see this guy Chris camped out already.
Me, his dog, and his rig.
IMG_5170.jpegIMG_5169.jpeg

A good hour was spent there talking with travelers. There was a guy there riding a bicycle pulling a trailer with a solar charging station.
That was fun. There will be more water features to ride along down the road. Time to get to Todd’s for 7:00 o’clock dinner.
The gps didn’t work so well guiding me through his neighborhood but people wave keep going that way.
370 miles.
A wonderful view, food, and conversation were enjoyed.
Thank you Todd and Kari.
Thank you Maggie for the wake up call.
IMG_5173.jpeg
 
Monday day 7. Seven Bays to Kamloops. 342 miles.
I was looking at the scenery heading out from Seven Bays,
IMG_5175.jpeg

and got to thinking about you @Erdoc48 , somewhere between the type of ride that I am doing and what you may not being doing might be a ride that takes you say 500 miles from home. Something about getting into a different landscape with trees that look different, smells that are different can be so satisfying. All within reach of a few hundred miles.
As far as being alone regarding help, stay on regularly used secondary roads. There are plenty of people driving by. Pretty much the only worrisome roads should be barely traveled dirt roads or those really twisty very narrow one and a half lane roads with tight blind corners and no guard rails. No need to go there. The most likely but still not likely worst thing to happen is a breakdown. Call a tow truck. Hope you finds these words encouraging.

I love the smell of Canada. By the way there is an area in West Virginia above 4000 feet that has similar flora and fauna due to the temperature range at that altitude.
I also go to Canada where the air is cooler except for today.
90 degrees when I crossed the border. Went up to 102. Went over a 4180’ pass at 88 degrees then down to 1700’ and it was 100.
Lots of stops to cool off. I enjoy them as much as riding.
The first hour at 100-102 seemed potentially scary but I was so well hydrated and sweating that the next couple hours wasn’t bad.

IMG_5177.jpeg

And fire over the mountain

IMG_5182.jpeg

Is it a waste of rubber if it’s art?

IMG_5178.jpeg

Kamloops forecast for tomorrow, 107.
Frank’s forecast, long gone before that happens.
 
The next few days were lower mileage days. A while of 95+ degree riding the first day.
It’s like California semi desert here
While eating sashimi at a very Japanese restaurant I get a text we are going to vacation in Tokyo, yeah!
Arrived in Quesnel 258 miles.
Next day tops out at 81 degrees and looks more like the Canada I know.
Arrived in New Hazelton, 349 miles.
Yesterday I had planned to ride to tag Hyder and finish the day in Dease Lake. But I saw a sign for Thai massage at a yoga center.
Ended up at a beautiful place with great people, had great body maintenance session and outdoor lunch there.
I reassess. Maybe multiple 600 mile days aren’t my thing anymore. At least not this trip. The number one goal of this trip is to ride the Cassiar Highway. I am happy to feel satisfied.
So I change the reservation in Dease Lake to the next day. Roll up the Cassiar, head over to Hyder to tag Alaska on 37A which is a magnificent scenery road in a deep valley that runs down close to sea level and stay in Stewart for the night. 209 mile day. Alaska? Yes.
IMG_5188.jpegIMG_5189.jpeg71392061686__7AFE7D93-B918-4F62-A9C5-439299312616.jpegIMG_5213.jpegIMG_5215.jpegIMG_5222.jpegIMG_5224.jpegIMG_5228.jpeg
 
Beautiful pics and scenery. What a joy it must be to be riding up there on these days

as to what's on the plate? Nothing I would eat lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom