Friday 7/25 - the wrap up!

Well it seems the party is over and all five riders are scattered to the wind. 

 

Obviously the really sad story of the trip is Mark’s situation.  I was finally able to speak with him this AM as he and Liz were setting in a doctor’s office and we all really feel for him as it could have been any one of us.  The “Black Clay” can take any rider out at a moment’s notice!  It seems he has a fractured T6 vertebra with some processes (the little tabs on your spine) broken or cracked as well and of course his wrist is in pretty bad shape also.  All that said – it was great to finally have a few minutes to speak to him this AM.  We had left messages for him a number of times – but of course we had no cell service in Canada and could only use Skype when and where we had an occasional internet connection (which we have not had for 3 days now).  Please everyone keep your good thoughts and prayers going for Mark and Liz.  As an FYI – his first question to me was (did anyone bring my helmet home?) – not sure if he was planning on riding this afternoon or what – but I had to explain to him that sadly – I think his helmet is in worse shape than he is but it was not able to get airlifted out!

 

Greg headed south mid day yesterday and not sure what his riding plans entail from here – Greg, I wish you good travels and keep and dirty side up (I would say shiny side, but as we all know – there is no shiny side on any of our bike right now).  Also – thanks for the note!

 

Rick and Bob stopped in Bellingham last night and will work their way south through Napa to taste some wines and likely fish a little on the way.

 

Me – I met my wife in Seattle (where she was originally planning to fly from to meet us in Juneau for the ferry trip).  Being the trooper she is – she is going to ride down the coast with me over the next week.  I suspect we might hit a poker room or two along the way.

 

In summary it was mostly a great trip (with the obvious exception of Mark’s situation) and I am glad I did it – but not sure I would do it again.  The riding was fine and I really liked that aspect – but would probably prefer a slower pace with more time in each place and not try to cover quite as much ground as we did.  I will also be more thoughtful about the ability to get medivaced out of a place if need be – prior to deciding to go there (doesn’t mean I won’t go – I will just think about it a minute or two longer thanks to Mark’s lessons).

 

To those of you following along who are planning similar trips in the future – a couple of words of advice:

 

1)       Choose your riding partners carefully – your life could depend on it!

2)      Keep your group as small as possible

3)      Carry a satellite phone at all times when in remote areas

4)      Get the “Follow me Spot” service – it was great and called 911 immediately

5)      Take lots of bug spray to Canada/Alaska

6)      Plan on the potential for long rainy (and cold) days – even in the summer

7)      Carry a spare tire or at least inner tubes for front and rear tires because cuts don’t patch well

8)      The Canadians (and Alaskans) are great people and will help you out a lot – but don’t count on them – be as self sufficient as you can.

 

Finally i really want to thank all the people that helped us get Mark out safely – Stan (proprietor at the Eagle Plains Lodge), his significant other (The Doctor) Joan – the couple from New Zealand that stuck with us for hours until the ambulance arrived, the Geologist/EMT that was so helpful in diagnosing Mark and making him comfortable prior to the Doctor arriving and many, many others.

 

I am hoping to get Mark to drop an entry here as he can as well – but that is it for now.

Steve

Friday 7/25 - update from last two days

Sorry for not updating the last two days – but internet connections were non existent and our riding days were LONG.  I am not sure where I left off last – but I think it was in Stewart, BC and Hyder,AK.  A very quirky little set of towns that are not to be missed – so if you are anywhere near them – make the 40 mile drive in to them – the scenery is breathtaking and towns are very unusual. Go to the Hyder bar (there is only one) and get hyderized!  We did not do it – but talked to others that did.

 

From Stewart we rode 525 miles to Quinsell, BC where we our last 10 miles were on a dirt road to Bob’s class mate from Orthodontics school.  His name was Keith Corbett and when we pulled into their BEATIFUL home in the woods at about 6:30 – they had a crackling fire going out front and immediately tossed on a big pile of Moose Steaks, Elk Burgers and Elk Sausage for dinner and it was EXCELLENT!  Moose is like beef, but this almost a slight sweet flavoring to it.  I really enjoyed it and the Elk burgers.  Then Keith’s wife – Peggy, brought out an excellent strawberry Rhubarb pie for desert.  What a treat.  Corbett’s thanks so much for your hospitality – it was great.

 

After a great dinner – I had a flat tire (second time of the day) and Bob, Rick and I set about taking it off the rim to patch it as it was more of a cut and plugs were not working.  While we did that – Keith took Greg to his dental office and fixed his front tooth that had been slowly falling out for about a week.  Keith did a great job and we could no longer kid Greg about his Mortimer Snerd look he had going.

 

After we got my tire patched (in two places), we hit the sack about midnight and were up at 6:30 the next AM to make our charge down the Frasier river canyon and back to the good old US.  However, the stars were not in alignment and our great patch job on my tire let go (rapidly) before we ever got out of town.  We tried 2-3 tire stores and none would touch it – however, one shop owner was GREAT and handed us the keys to his truck and told us we could use it to drive the flat tire around town in search of a solution.  Ultimately we found a cycle shop that had one 17” tire – it was not the right size – other than being 17” – but it seemed our only option – but alas – his people that knew how to mount it were on vacation.  AAAAHHHHHH!  We bought it anyway and then drove to a few more places to find someone to mount it.

 

We were finally back on the road at about 11:00 – but 10 miles down the road – my brand new tire was losing air. There was only one place it could be coming from and that was the valve stem (unless I had the misfortune of hitting another screw or nail) – well, fortunately it was the valve stem and few quick twists of the wrench locked it down and all was good.

 

We rode roughly 550 miles down the very warm (nearly 100 degree) Frasier River canyon and then on to US.

 

See next email for wrap up!

 

Steve

update on mark

Now back at home, will require wrist surgery and presently wearing a back brace for a fractured spine (T6.) Heading to a back specialist tommorow just to be sure of things. I feel like a turtle wearing a cast. Steve - hold down the check/ok button on the spot for 5 seconds. Both lights need to be flashing. Have fun guys! -mark

Tuesday July 22 - 8 PM

Today’s ride was from Watson Lake down the Cassiar Highway (430 miles) where we branched off 40 miles to the West Coast to Stewart, BC and Hyder.  These are two very small towns on the coast and in the middle of nowhere.  I am guessing the population of the two towns combined is probably about 100 people.  The other very unique aspect of these two towns is that Stewart is in BC and Hyder is in Alaska – but Hyder is the end of the road and there is no way to get in or out beyond there – yet the Canadians have a border checkpoint when you go to Hyder and come back into Canada.  Nearly everyone that takes the BEAUTIFUL drive down to these two towns goes into Hyder because that is where “Fish Creek” is.  This is a place where they have a platform over the river where you can hand out and watch the bears feed on Salmon swimming upstream.  It seems it is the very early start of that season, so we only saw one Grizzly and he was actually eating grass and brush on the side of the creek, not Salmon.

 

The ride down the Cassiar today was great!  Road conditions were mainly good (despite some of the horror stories we had heard) and the sun shined most of the day as well – but it was in the lower 50’s this AM, so a little cool to start.

 

As you may have noticed, the Spot locater is still not working – It looks like it is on this end – but when I pulled up the web site – nothing is showing up – sorry about that. 

 

Mark – if you are reading this we hope all is going well.  We have tried calling a few times, but your phone goes straight to voicemail, so I suspect it is like most hospitals where they don’t allow you on the phone.  I am sure we will hook up with you in the next day or two when you get home.

 

Tomorrow is a big ride day of over 600 miles as we are trying to get to Bob and Sawyers former class mates home for the night.  We were going to roll out at 6 AM – but like fools, we did not gas up when got into town at 6:00 and the station closed on us and since the next fuel is 150 miles away – I guess we are now stuck until 7:30 AM when they open.

 

Steve

Monday - July 21 - 8 PM

First – a couple of quick orders of business 1)  It seems the follow me spot is still not working as it should and in checking their web site tonight, it seems the deal is that once someone hits the 911 function (which Mark did), the device is no longer capable of doing the 10 minute tracking unless it is reset and Mark is the guy with the user name and password and we can't reach him yet.  I think we can send manual pings from time to time and will try to do so when we stop for gas, etc.  2) Marks status – I spoke to Mark's wife this AM and his is still in the Alaska hospital and they are working on a brace for his back to allow him to travel.  Hopefully tomorrow.  He will need surgery on his hand as he apparently broke a LOT of bones in it.

 

Now back to the trip report - Skagway was really neat and an interesting small gold town with a LOT of history.  We hit their little museum and got a peak at some of the gold mining history which was amazing.  We think it is tough riding through their windy, relatively cold conditions – but the movies showed the really nasty winter conditions the miners faced during the gold rush and it put it all in perspective.

 

Our ride out of Skagway was equally pretty this AM and our temps today ranged from 42 degrees to 65 degrees, but we had very little rain today and even some sunshine.  We rode only 325 miles today and are now in Watson Lake getting ready to head South to Stewart Alaska tomorrow.  This is an area where you can watch the Grizzlies catch salmon as they are swimming up stream.

 

That is it for now.

 

Steve

Sunday - 7/20 Update

Hello everyone, sorry I was not able to post this last night as planned, but I had not internet connection.    We were in Skagway, AK and I suspected we would have strong connections in AK and none in Canada and it has actually been the opposite.

 

As I put in a very brief post I sent from my cell phone last night – I am sorry the "Spot" service was not tracking us as planned.  Mark is our tech guru and while he was laying on the trailside he was telling me how to use it – but I guess I was more rattled than he was and I did not pay very good attention it seems.  I think I have it now and hopefully you will be able to follow us Monday.

 

Sunday we rode from the Dempster intersection about 30 miles west to Dawson City just to check it out.  It was a quaint, old world gold mining town that looked pretty neat but also had a lot of Tourist Trap about it as well.  From Dawson, we rode back past the Dempster intersection and on through Whitehorse and down to Skagway, AK – which was a 485 mile ride on the day.  Our weather sucked most of the day as we rode in rain for hours with temps in the low 50's.  For the last 2 hours, the rain broke – but going to into Skagway we had about a 1.5 hour ride where the temps dipped into the high 30's – so were COLD!

 

The road to Skagway is one of the prettiest I have ever been on in North America.  Very dramatic snow capped peaks amid a high altitude environment not unlike the high sierras with fabulous lakes and waterfalls everywhere.  See photo.  On the way in to Skagway – Rick was in the lead and he had a bear run across the road just a few yards in front of him.  It appeared to be a young bear, but not sure what kind.  It was certainly scared (Rick has that way with things) and scurried under the guard rail, almost getting stuck in the process.  Unfortunately it happened too fast for a picture.

 

Anyhow – tomorrow it is back to Whitehorse and then moving Southeast to Watson Lake for the start of the Cassiar highway ride the next AM.  In Marks absence, I am going to ride with Rick, Bob and Greg through Canada to Seattle and then hook up with Vicki and her sister for a day or two and then Vicki is going to ride down the coast and back home with me over the following week.

7/19 - brief update

No web access, so sending brief update from cell phone.

Sorry gps tracker was not working as planned, as you may have guessed.
Mark is our tech guru and in his absence I am trying to learn it and
should have it going tomorrow

Willalso provide detailed update on mark tomorrow night as well - but
he is doing ok.

Steve Ganz

Sent from my pda

Saturday - July 19th - 11:30 PM

Well – where to start on today????  It was a long one.

 

First let me say that everyone is OK – relatively speaking.  We did have an injury accident in the group today – Mark hit one of the infamous “Black Clay” sections and he went down pretty hard.   He had an obviously broken left wrist and some back pain – but was totally conscious and able to move his arms and legs OK (despite us telling him to lie still).  We used the SPOT beacon and the SAT phone to call for help – but given our very remote location – they said it could take up to 6 hours to get a vehicle to him.  After some additional calls, we ultimately found the Dawson town doctor was actually at the lodge we had just left and that was 27 miles back down the nasty dirt road we were riding out on.  The doctor had just ridden her KLR 650 in from Dawson last night (on this same nasty road) to visit her boyfriend (who is the lodge owner).

 

The Doctor arrived in an ambulance from the lodge in about an hour and half and then we all loaded him into the ambulance and they were going to take him back to the Lodge for an air transport to a hospital somewhere (we did not know where at the time).

 

The lodge owner and the doctor told us we should continue down the road to pavement as another front was rapidly coming in and the road would be getting worse rapidly.  It was against my gut to leave Mark – but it was the right thing to do as we had a very long – tough ride ahead of us.  Shortly after Mark departing for the lodge – we started down the trail.  We had 225 miles of tough dirt road awaiting us.  To make matters worse, shortly after we started the ride the weather front hit and it started raining fairly heavily and the temps dropped from the 60’s to the low 40’s.  Our visibility dropped very low with a combination of rain, fog and helmet face masks that fogged really badly in these conditions as well.

 

At about 4:30 we saw a helicopter flying toward the direction of the Lodge and assumed it was going to be Mark’s ride, then at about 7:00 we saw it fly over again on its way to Dawson Creek. 

 

We finally reached pavement at about 9;30 PM – so we rode for roughly 6-7 hours straight through some nasty stuff.  We went very slow on most of it as no one wanted to join Mark at this point.

 

When we finally got to the Klondike Lodge at the end of the Dempster Road (the dirt trail that has been our adversary for the last 4 days) – we called Liz to check  on Mark and found that had been transported to Fairbanks and was being checked out.  No official report at this time – but he has been talking to Liz on the phone and keeping her in the loop.  He apparently told her he was pissed at the situation – so we are glad to hear is coherent enough to be pissed and take that as a good sign.  Our predictions on his condition is that he certainly has a broken wrist and likely a couple of badly bruised or broken ribs- but we will hopefully know more in the AM.

 

The rest of group is going to try to get a good night’s sleep and discuss our options and plans in the AM with hopefully slightly clearer heads.

 

Stay tuned as we get more info and keep Mark and Liz in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Steve

Friday 7/18 - 8 PM

Hello all,

 

Sorry for not providing an update last night – but were a little indisposed at the time.

 

There is a long story that goes along with this – but suffice to say that we witnessed the ferocity of an Arctic Circle weather change first hand – and had to suffer consequences.

 

We left the Eagle Plains Hotel for our 250 mile dirt ride to Inuvik at about 8:30 AM and the skies were sunny and the temps were in the 70 degree range.  Our first stop was the Arctic Circle sign that was about 21 easy miles away and we took some great photos there amid SWARMS of mosquitoes.  From there we road another 100 miles to our first ferry stop which was pretty neat as well.  From there we had about 40 miles to the next ferry and in this section we had 2 flats.  One flat was in the town of Fort McPherson and the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police captain – Steve Black – was nice enough to invite us into his HQ garage and help us plug and fill the tire and give us a tour of their local branch – thanks again Steve!

 

After a couple of flats we caught the second ferry and motored on to Inuvik – we ended up riding about 30 miles where you had to stay in a very narrow groove or risk going into a tank slapper in heavy gravel and dropping the bike.  We all slapped around a little – but in the end got to Inuvik at about 3:00 without a single drop of a bike.  It had starting raining heavily at about 2:00 but we were undeterred and continued to our goal – as you will see soon – bad move on our part!

 

After tanking up our bikes and our bellies – we started heading back and things were going pretty well – despite heavy rain, howling winds and dropping temperatures.  After getting about 100 miles into our return trip – just when we thought the worst was behind us – we hit the dreaded "Black Clay"!  We had heard people make reference to this from time to time – but words really can't describe it.  When dry, it is like asphalt with great traction, etc., when wet – it is just like riding on grease smeared over a sheet of glass.

 

When we hit our first patch of "Black Clay" 4 of our 5 bikes hit the ground within a minute.  Nothing dangerous or serious of course – all at very slow speed on greasy mud.  You could be at a total stop and sitting on the bike and your feet would slide right out from under you and you are all laying on the ground.

 

Anyhow – at 10:30 last night we decided we really could not go forward safely and we were evaluating our options regarding riding on, camping, etc.  and the top option at the time was for 3 of the 5 of us to take turns sleeping the open cab of a contractors water truck that was unlocked on the side of the road.  As we were evaluating this option, our savior stopped.  His name was Trevor and he was one of the people working on the road and he told us going on from here was not an option as the road only got worse.  Furthermore, Trevor informed us that he had seen 3 Grizzly Bears in the area just that day and he said one was the biggest he had seen in years and it walked right in front of his truck and was not scared of people at all.  Trevor offered to put us up for the night in his work camp barracks and it had beds for 20 people and he was the only one there.  Since the temps were at about 39 degrees this AM – not being out in the rain and cold all night was certainly a BIG PLUS – Thanks again Trevor!  Trevor is going to visit us in SoCal later this year and we are all taking him golfing.

 

This AM it was still raining and very cold and since Trevor was not able to work on the road as planned, we were able to rent him and a company truck and trailer to haul us 150 miles  back to our hotel at Eagle Plains.  Keep in mind that we are still 250 miles of dirt road to get out to pavement, but that road is a little better – and we are in comfort now waiting for things to clear up.

 

To add to our enjoyment – there are a number of other motorcyclists who were going or coming on this road are all handing out here as well and we are all swapping our war stories.

 

I have attached a couple of pics showing us at the Arcrtic Circle, one of our bikes in the "Black Clay" and the accommodations Trevor provided which was a palace to us last night.

 

Bottom line to all of you riders – DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RIDE TO INUVIK, PRUDHOE BAY OR THE TOP OF THE WORLD HIGHWAY IN WET WEATHER!

 

On the bright side – we achieved our goal – and have the toughest part of the ride behind us.  Everything else we are tackling is pavement (after we tackle the 250 miles to get out of here when the weather clears) and the sun will hopefully show up again for us.

Wed

Well, nothing will make your heart skip a beat more than going down a wet gravel road with a semi truck coming at you at 120 km/hr!   The next photo shows what it looks like up near the arctic circle, over 650 miles of nothing but nature, words really can't describe the feeling one gets.  Incredible to say the least.   After 230 miles on a dirt road, we stopped 20 miles from the Arctic Circle.  Will hit it tommorow, then on the way to Inuvik!   -mark

Wednesday 7/16 at 11:30 PM

Well we started out at 8:30 AM planning on a shorter 400 mile day to Dawson Creek with the plan to then launch our expedition to Inuvik early tomorrow AM since it is supposed to be up to 16 hours one way – but when we got to the turn to Inuvik – the weather was perfect at 75 degrees and sunny, so we took the turn and motored on to Eagle Plains which is about ½ way.  We ended up doing about 600 miles of which 300 was dirt road (over a period of about 14 hours) – and what a dirt road!  No signs of life for hundreds of miles.  Just beautiful mountain ranges, wild flowers and streams.

 

We had some minor tragedies today in that Sawyer dropped his bike – but at a complete standstill – and I dropped my camera on the dirt road while I was cruising along at 40 mph trying to take pictures of the other riders.  Mark found the camera still intact so we picked it up and took off – it was only later that I found out the battery and memory card full of pictures had apparently flown out when it hit the pavement.  That was a bit of a pisser.  We know roughly where it was at and will try looking for it on our way back – but finding it will be a long shot at best.

 

The plan tomorrow is to ride to Inuvik which is about another 200 plus miles tomorrow.  We will then spend part of the day there – dip our toes in the Arctic Ocean and then head back to our hotel room at Eagle Plains for the night again.

 

Check out some of the photos (not from my camera of course).

 

Steve

Tuesday - July 15th - 421 miles

Our camping accommodations were about as good as they could be.  We camped in the campground pavilion and had a level concrete floor and a roof over our head so we only put up our screen tents (to keep mosquitoes off) without the rain cover since we didn’t need the roof. 

 

Last night we went to bed at about 10:30 and it is still totally light out.  I got to use my pink blinders and they worked great.  At 4:15 AM I woke up and lifted the blinders and it was totally light out then as well.  I am guessing it did get dark at some point, but not sure when.

 

For the next two days we are taking shorter – 400 mile days to save up some energy and butt wear & tear for the Inuvik expedition.  I feel we are Sir Edmund Hillary’s team planning an expedition to Pole.  Tonight we are in Whitehorse, Yukon and tomorrow will be in Dawson Creek – the launch point to Inuvik where we will assess the weather and talk to some people coming back off the road.  In bad weather I guess it can be a real pain on 2 wheels.  In good weather it is about a 480 mile (12 – 16 hour) ride on dirt/gravel road.  Our plan is to ride up on Thursday and back on Friday.  We may try to leave some of our clothing, etc. at our hotel in Dawson so that we are a little lighter, but still need to take all tools, camping gear, food, etc. just in case.

 

Today’s ride was pretty boring actually.  Temps were 52 – 65 and we rode in rain about 35% of the time.  The one animal highlight is some Bison (photo attached).

 

Connections to the internet are tougher to come by – so I will keep sending as long as we can.

 

Vicki – really missing you!  Xoxo

 

Steve

Monday - 7/14 - 528 miles

Today was a little more challenging of a ride.  We started at 7 AM in pouring rain and it rained off and on most of the day.

 

During the day was saw live moose, dead moose, caribou, grizzly bear with 2 cubs, dead porcupine.

 

Our riding temperatures varied from 49 degrees to about 67.  The 49 was a little cold considering it was pouring rain at the time – be we survived.

 

Sawyer’s bike had a problem starting after we were stopped at a bridge construction project and it took a while to get him started again.  During that time the mosquitoes were so thick that you could not take off your helmet and there would be hundreds of them on your face shield.  We got Sawyers bike fired back up and were rolling again.

 

We stopped in the town of Fort Nelson and had Subway for lunch – it was great after we had been eating like pigs for 4 days.

 

Our plan for today was to ride to Watson Lake which was 650 miles, but we planned to stop at the Liard Hot Springs to soak our butts a little and we liked it so much (and they gave us a premier campsite in their pavilion for free) that we decided to stay and soak our butts a little longer.  The hot springs ranged in temperature from 118 degrees at the entry end to about 107 degrees at the cooler end.  The Hot Springs challenge was to get to the entry end and set a rock on the shore and get back before cooking.  Sawyer and I were able to do it – the others chose not to try (they are the smart ones).

 

At the hot springs we talked to a lot of other riders that gave us great input on our upcoming rides to Inuvik, top of the world highway, etc..  It seems the road to Inuvik is largely good, but there are some VERY SLICK SECTIONS that can run a couple of miles in length.  He went in a car and slid all over when hitting them.  In addition, we were told that the Top of the World highway is about 4 inches thick with mud for a couple of hundred miles.  It is a VERY TOUGH road if there has been rain – we are looking forward to it.

 

Steve

Sunday 7/13 at 10:30 PM

We had what was probably our best of riding so far.  We started at Lake Louise at 8 AM and ended in Chetwynd – 568 Miles later at about 8 PM.

 

Our first 2-3 hours from Lake Louise to Jasper (for breakfast) was some of the most scenic country I have ever been in (see attached couple of shots), but it was fairly touristy in that there was a lot of traffic on the roads and you had to watch your speed.

 

After leaving Jasper – it was all new to me as Jasper is the farthest North I have ever been.  From Jasper to Chetwynd was Fabulous in that you were in very rural areas and could pretty much ride at any pace you wanted (so of course we went a little faster).  Be sure to check out the photo of the urinal from the Jasper diner we ate at – pretty interesting!

 

Our riding temperatures varied from 55 – 65 degrees and it went from sunny blue skies to cloudy and downpouring rain a few times – but even that was great.

 

I saw a black bear, a few deer and an elk along the road today as well.

 

We talked to some locals (in various places today) about Inuvik and we really want to try to get there if we can.  In two days we will be at the cut off point to the 460 mile dirt road to Inuvik and if the weather is good  - I think we will give it shot!

 

Time to get some sleep as will hit the road by 8 AM tomorrow for about 600 miles and we plan to stop at a natural hot spring to soak our arses for a little bit as well.

 

Thanks for following along.

Steve

 

PS – the web site is getting 250 – 300 hits per day.  It seems we have a lot of followers.

July 13th

We traveled 550 miles of the most beautiful country one could imagine, pristine lakes, glaciers, streams, dense forests and incredible winding roads. We averaged around 125 km/h, which is a little above the Canadian speed limit of 100 km/h, but those roads we calling for more! Everyone we met in Canada has been friendly and helpful. What a great trip so far! -mark

July 12th pics

Here are the pics!

July 12 - 8PM

We had a shorter day today - only 400 miles from Moscow, ID to Lake Louise. We covered some beautiful territory today mainly through the Canadian Rockies. Sawyer and I split from the rest to get my camera battery charged in Cranberry. i told Bob, Rick and Mark to head to Lake Louise and go to the chalet and have a beer and wait for us. When we got their - they had us checked into a 3 Bedroom Suite as Bob thought I meant we were to stay there. Oh- Well, who can complain about a top notch suite when I thought we were going to camp?



Check out the photo that shows our clothesline in the suite (Rick is hanging up laundry).



We had a great dinner at the hotel steak house and are now heading to bed. It is 11 PM local time and still light outside.



There are a couple of great shots attached.

Hmm, we can't upload for some reason, sorry will try to post pics at our next stop

Steve

A LONG - but great riding day

It is 11 PM and we are finally getting ready to hit the hay.

 

We took off from Fallon, NV at 7 AM and had a few gas stops and 2 quick food stops and rode about 650 miles to Moscow, ID – where we are spending the night.  The temperatures were pretty nice today being mostly in the 70 – 85 degree range – however, toward the end or our ride (at about 9 PM), the temps were in the upper $50’s.  The ride was BEAUTIFUL – especially the Salmon River Canyon on the way to Lewiston Idaho.

 

We were informed that for whatever reason our GPS did not update as it was supposed to today.  Sorry about that – near as we can tell, it may shut down when it is in one place for more than 5 hours to save battery and we did not know that and did not restart it this AM.  We won’t make that mistake again.  I heard a number of you called to check on us and wrote us notes – thank you so much for your thoughts and desire to help.

 

Starting tomorrow AM we will be in Canada and I am not sure what type of computer and/or phone access we will have, so updating the  blog may be a little less timely as a result – but the GPS tracker should still keep us updating on the map hopefully.

 

Our ride was great – but one person (from central CA – who shall remain nameless) got a speeding ticket today for doing 77 in a 65.  It was only a $75 ticket – so not too bad.  We ate a late Italian dinner at 10 PM and are heading to bed.  Hitting road at 7 AM tomorrow heading to Canada.

 

Look for next update and thanks for following along.

 

Steve

7/10 - 10:30 PM

A LONG DAY!

 

After finally getting out of Brown BMW at 2 PM – we finally got in a little over 500 miles and rode to Fallon, NV arriving there about 10:30.  Our revised schedule put us going through Kramer Junction in the heat of the day and it was HOT with temps hitting 115 degrees – we were melting.  Even riding into Fallon at 10:30 PM the temps were in the mid 90’s.  We are sure looking forward to the cooler temps of Canada and points North.

 

When we arrived in Fallon – we met our 5^th rider.  The only luck thing of the day is that we ended up at the same stoplight in town at the same time after we rode over 500 miles and he rode over 300 miles.  We had both just rolled into town.

 

Time for some sleep after hitting the local DQ and drinking about a gallon of water.

11 AM on July 10th

Our day of departure and here we set in Brown BMW in Pomona!

After riding 30 miles this AM - Mark's 2005 GS (which I (Steve) sold him) took a dive on us. It died on the 15 North just south of the 60 Freeway at 7:00 AM.

We called AAA and they had us picked up by 7:45 and on our way to Brown BMW. I called Brown at 8 AM when they opened and their team was waiting for our arrival and they got right on the bike. Ultimately they determined that the electronic control module for the fuel pump was defective (corroded) and had to replaced - but alas - they didn't have one in stock.

Sooo. . . . Bob Brown (Dealership owner) hopped on a police bike and rode to Seaver BMW in Orange to get our part for us. We are anxiously awaiting it's return and hopefully getting us back on the road ASAP!

Brown's has been very helpful in a bad situation and we appreciate it!

The only good thing about this mechanical is that this happened here as opposed to 2-3 hours later when we would have been in Lone Pine or God forbid - in the Arctic Circle 2 weeks from now!

Thanks Bob Brown and Brown's BMW.

Steve

Thursday 7/10 at 5:00 AM

IT’s GO TIME!!!

 

 

July 9th - 12 hours to launch

Well – we almost got off to a rough start!

 

Sawyer called me at 9 PM yesterday 7/8 – to tell me that BMW had a recall this week on 07 and 08 GS’s (which represents 3 of our 5 bikes).  This recall was for the ignition system and apparently they were having problems with them going out, and if they did – the bike would be TOTALLY dead.  This was happening to roughly 10% of the bikes which meant we had a 30% chance of a problem given that we had 3 possibly affected bikes.

 

Rick and I got ours in and spent the afternoon at Brown BMW (playing online poker) while they were nice enough to quickly get them in and out for us.  Sawyer was not so lucky as his dealer could not get his bike in prior to the trip – but did provide him with the part and basic instruction should he have an issue on the road – let’s hope not.

 

Tomorrow AM it is GO TIME!

 

Steve

 

PreRide Dinner!

Well the 4 SoCal Riders and wives all got together for a GREAT dinner and
Mark and Liz's house a week before our trip just to shoot the breeze and
coordinate some final details. Our hosts fed us some of the best steaks and
a great shrimp dish just to fatten us up before the trip.