June 11th, 12th 13th & Home!!

Friday Morning I rode to Medford Oregon to get a new rear tire and while the BMW dealer was putting on the tire Debbie Johnson - a friend that I worked with at Sun City met with me and we had lunch and caught up on old times.  After that I rode to Weed, CA and got a room for the night.  The town makes quite a deal over their name as there are several souviners that say "Get High on Weed"  On the way to Weed I pulled off of I-5 and took a picture of Mnt Shasta then the next day I took another picture from a different angle.  It rises to over 14,000 feet and is really beautiful.  I didn't see it on the way North because of the rain.  the other pictures are of a lake in the Lassen Forest that had yellow flowers growing out of the watter and was prettier than the picture shows and a shot of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range as I was getting closer to home.

On Saturday I rode to Fallon, NV - a little town about 50 miles East of Reno where Anne's Aunt Laney lives.  After going out for Mexican food I hit the Bed early so I could get a good start home Sunday morning.  I finally made it home around 3:30 to nice, warm, dry weather.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, you can double click on the pictures and make them bigger.

According to my GPS I rode 7,188 miles and  my bike was moving for a total of 121 hours and 37 minutes.  It rained/drizzeled for 1,800 of those miles - I will try to forget that part of the trip.  I saw so much beauty on this trip that it was hard to capture it for the blog,  mile after mile of wilderness and raw nature.  It was worth the rain.  Thanks for going along with me - Vern

June 10th

Today was not pretty, it started out partly sunny and quickly turned to off and on rain followed by wind toward the end of the day.  Not much else to report.

June 9th - Ride down Vancouver Island

Today we rode from Port Hardy at the Northern end of the island to the Southern end.  It rained off and on the entire 300 miles so what would have been a beautiful ride - wasn't.  Brad needed to go to Vancouver so we seperated about 50 miles before Victoria where the sun actually appeared.  It really is a beautiful city.  The ferry that took me to Port Angeles, OR was a bit of a clunker compared to the earlier ferry.  The little boat is a water taxi. The pictures are of the harbor area of Victoria.  I finally got to a motel around 10:00PM.

JUNE 8TH - FERRY RIDE

Today was a long day, starting at 4:00AM and getting to bed around 11:30PM.  We had a very pretty day with lots of sun as you can see by the pictures.  There were several lighthouses along the way and some are pretty neat like the one in the attached picture - I doubt that they get into town very often.  You can see that this was a very large ferry with busses and lots of cars.  It is designed for 600 passengers but I would guess that it wasn't even 1/4 full.  It was only one year old and was very first class. Brad got a picture of the tail of a Whale but I didn't have my camera when we went saw it. The map is a bit messed up, possibly because I turned the tracker on and off several times during the ferry ride.

June 7th

Today was laundry day and get Brads kickstand fixed day - it had a crack in it from stress that finally let go so he had it welded.  Other than that not too much happening.  We have to be to the Ferry by 5:30 AM for a 7:30 sailing time so it will be an early evening.  The pictures I have attached show that the bugs and mud love my bike.  We are forever cleaning the face shields on our helmets, headlights not so much.  We are both looking forward to the Ferry ride to Victoria Island - it should be beautiful.

June 6th

Today we rode a little over 600 miles and were on the road over 12 hours.  At 7:00 AM (Sunday Morning) the road crews were already on the road doing construction - mostly watering the gravel they put on the road to add to the excitement.  It was a beautiful day but about an hour into the day the temoerature was 34 degrees - that is COLD!  By noon we were at our half way point  so we stopped to eat and ran into a young couple from Germany that had already been on the road for 3 years.  They were planning to travel for 2 more years before going back to a "normal" life.  They said they work every once in awhile to get money and they camp so it doesn't cost them much.  They are riding a 1973 BMW R60 which has over 100,000 miles on it and has 36 horse power.  I have attached a picture.  The bike is older than they are - that takes guts.  The Smirnoff bottle has a lead additive in it because the bike wasn't built for unleaded fuel.  I don't have any idea how it keeps from falling as they are riding down the road.

We made it to Prince Rupert about 6:30 PM and after getting a room we headed to the Ferry Terminal to see if we could get our tickets for the Tuesday Ferry to Port Hardy, Victoria Island - We could and did.

June 5th - Watson Lake

We rode fewer than 300 miles today and stayed at a motel in Watson Lake, Yukon that is owned by a man from Germany.  Nice guy and very proud of his place, we had to take our shoes off at the door and promise to be quiet after 10:30 PM - no problem for us old guys.  We went to the "grocery store" and bought some food as we were tired of the extremely high prices in the restuarants and took it back to the room.  There were several other guys with bikes staying at the same place.

Earlier in the day we met 2 guys in their late 20s from New Zealand that were traveling extensively and raising money for a charity.  It is fun talking to the people you meet on the road.  A father and son from Minnesota were doing a bike trip to Alaska also and they were changing tires when we pulled in. Brad got a great picture of the bear along the road and I couldn't help but get a picture in front of the mounty building.  As you can see from the picture it was another chilly day - thank goodness for heated jacket liners and heated grips.

Heading Home - June 4th

We left Fairbanks today in a mist of rain/drizzle that lasted around 300 miles then the next 300 miles to Whitehorse, Yukon was just damp cold - another day in paradise.  Because the weather was so bad there aren't any pictures so I am just posting the map.  Long day.

The Arctic Circle - June 3rd

We had planned on going all the way on the Dalton Road to Prudhoe Bay but the weather didn't look predictable enough to try it so we decided to ride the road up to the Arctic Circle instead.  It is 200 miles North of Fairbanks as opposed to Prudhoe Bay which is 500 miles North.  It was such a beautiful day by the time we got to the Artic Circle we wished that we had brought everything we needed to do the entire trip. Had we gone I am pretty sure we would have regretted the decision as overnight a rain front blew in - rain isn't a giant problen except the great hard packed dirt road that we rode is actually coated with Sodium Cloride to keep the dust down -- when wet it turns to liquid ball bearings.  You can see in the one picture the amount of dust the semi's stir up when we would meet them.  The river in the picture is theYukon and the bridge over theYukon is a 7% grade - I believe.  We were along the pipeline most of the way.  You can see in one of the pictures how the vegitation is thinning out the farther North we go.  It was a good day.

A Day in Fairbanks

We didn't ride today so we just goofed off in Fairbanks.  We did a little shopping and it is fun to see what you can buy in a place where the temperature can drop to minus 40 or more. I bought a thermometer that goes from -60 to +120 - I will probally have the only one in the Vegas area -- why, I am not sure.

I got my new SPOT Tracker set up so when you click to follow me you will actually be tracking me instead of Joe limping toward his home.  The map simply shows where Iwas when my old tracker dropped off of my bike and where I was when I fired up my new tracker.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow we are going to go up to the Artic Circle, having abandoned plans for Prudhoe Bay due to the strong possibility of rain which makes the road so slick it is like riding on marbles.

Short Day

Today we only rode 200 miles and we are at my Aunts place in Fairbanks.  There is a forest fire close to where we spent last night and we rode through some very smokey areas today.  The one picture of Brad in front of me doesn't do justice to the amount of smoke in the air.  Another picture is of the pipeline over a river and another is of the marker at the end of the Alaska Highway.  My Aunt took us to see some Caribou and Muskox on a mini-tour of Fairbanks.  Tomorrow we are going to try to get a handle on the weather North of here to see if we actually go to Prudhoe Bay. 

Getting closer to Prudhoe Bay

Today Brad and I rode 586 miles - buy the way - Joe and his sickly bike made it to Prince Rupert yesterday and should almost be arriving at Port Hardy, Victoria Island right about now -- 10:45 Canada time.  We had a few hundred miles of bad road in the Yukon Territory; lots of frost heaves. 

The bridge is by the berg of Teslin, Yukon Territory and was a lot prettier in person.  The paddle Wheel was in WhiteHorse, the capital of the territory - about 22,000 people with only 35,000 people in all all of the Yukon.  These folks don't have a lot of money or many ways to make money.  Good people though. Everything is expensive here plus there is a 12% sales tax. 

More to come.