401
404
Davis Dr.
400
Mojo World HQ
400
11
141
69
17B
Great Northern Rd. Soo.
833 Km's later and we just finished a real good steak at the Algoma Water Tower Inn, in Sault Ste. Marie. The largest and most dangerous critter we encountered was of the two legged variety that are often blinded by windshields. What can I say, even with some blind drivers Ontario slab is rather droll, however Hwy 141 has some fun turns. The most important lesson learned was never doubt the indignant Garmin Lady. She is one smart cookie.
Bikes are working great, the Honda Varedaro is proving to be a real work horse with a very comfortable saddle. It's headlights are truly obnoxious which to my way of thinking is a good thing. We have been watching the fuel consumption difference and the last fill, which was made at the same time showed that the Honda covered the same ground for $1.14 less than the GS. It's also gathering quite a crowd at Timmies... I feel left out. Darn.
The GS is working well except that I have some fiddling to do with the seating, the Pelican cases take up a fair amount of room and tomorrow I'll try them standing up to see if I can get some 'stretch room'.
The next hike is a short 650 K run to T. Bay where I hope to have some photo time, because that is one beautiful leg.
Wish you were here as this is shaping up to be one fine run.
July 2
Wawa, ON
Rain, 12C, fog to boot. Found a Timmies, all is good. T.Bay for tonight, we're dogging it because of the weather. Lotsa bikes, the Honda draws a crowd where ever we stop. I'm feeling lonely now.
July 3
Thunder Bay, ON
In T. Bay. Not much of a ride, but considering rain, rain, did I mention we had some rain? Fog, 12C temps, a moose shopping for some green veggies by the road and it all just adds up to a go slow day. Not even good enough to take a picture as visibility was about just past your helmet visor. The amount of bikes on the road was just astounding, folks from New Brunswick heading for Alaska, or from Vermont also heading up to Prudhoe. What is it about Alaska? Tomorrow is supposed to see the nasty front move through and we're expecting some great weather. Will post some pics. John's Honda draws a crowd. Personally I feel a little left out although one lady said I had a neat bike. I tipped her well.
July 4
Winnipeg, MB
Currently in the Peg. Had a great ride today, not big numbers, 680Km, but we tooled around Kenora a bit and met up with two riders Trevor and Chris (Christina) Leinweber from Alberta. They are both riding their own out to Nfld. They recognized our Mojo tees and we started yakking. I gave them the office address and told them to stop in as she would be a great one for real women - real bikes.
Everything is working great minus a glitch in the Honda's Zumo base that doesn't want to power up the unit, we're alternating units between John's and mine to keep them both charged and operating.
Best weather yet, and I was able to get some shots.
July 5
Swift Current, SK
I had a look at the Mojo site and it looks GREAT! Sorry about the brightness of my coat, I know it really messes up a photograph. I've been looking for the 'dim' button but can't seem to find it.
We headed out this morning from the Peg with Swift Current being our proposed destination but after an hour on the TC#1 (yawn) slab Mother Nature started to play games. The morning temperature was a pleasant 14C but then it shot directly up to 33C accompanied by a west wind strong enough to rip the chrome off a trailer hitch. In Sask. the posted speed limit is 110, which judging by traffic really meant 130. Most of the highway is four lane divided, but where construction skinnys it down to two lanes things get real interesting when it comes to big winds and big trucks. Picture a tractor trailer 'B' train (hauling two 53' trailers) passing you in the opposite direction with a combined closing speed of about 260 Km/ph ... Ker-Bam! A huge air fist tries to knock you off the road. The BMW's computer was indicating that with the monster head wind it was consuming a whopping 7.1L / 100 Km's at 130 Kmph. The Varadero was lapping up fuel just about the same as the GS.
After 660 K's of hot sandblasting we wussed out and called it a day. Pulling into Regina we saw that Holiday Inn just happened to have built a new hotel right beside a cold beer store. That's what I call a true Canadian convenience. Once we checked in and tucked the bikes under the Hotel canopy we drained a couple of ice cold beer in about six seconds. John got a brain freeze and foam came out his nose.
With every long haul there comes a time where things start to fit or really need attention. Luggage storage, weight distribution, seat ergonomics, all that stuff can make or break a trip. I needed to adjust the BMW's seat height, its tilt and relocate some of the Pelican cases that hold all our photography and computer equipment so I had some more wiggle room, John was having the same issues but the Honda's seat is in a fixed position so it was a 'like it or lump it' situation, fortunately the Honda's seat works well and once the luggage was right our world was a good place.
You may have noticed a picture of Obi Wan (my handle bar buddy) with the gooey remnant's of a nasty bug under his arm. Folks, I'm sorry to announce that today the wind or maybe another bug blew his head clean off. Poor guy, he probably didn't see it coming. If you happen have a spare Ewen McGregor head laying around I need one.
Tomorrow It's Calgary, we need to get some routine service done on the Honda and find a Nolan helmet dealer that can sort out why our helmet Bluetooth communications don't want to work. Personally I think John jinxed the Nolan 'E-boxes' because he knows I have a tendency to sing in my helmet. Go figure.
July 6
Canmore, AB
Okay I know I'm going to take some heat over this but, man the Prairies aren't what I'd call a motorcyclists' dream, unless you fancy long, straight, windy and boring. On the plus side the road conditions have improved since my last time across in 06'. Currently in Canmore Alberta, that's right, ALBERTA. I'm not going make the 'let's call it B.C.' mistake again. I had to apologize to just way too many people over that geological blunder.
We ran up just about 900 K's yesterday and when the wind started to drop off it was actually fun, set the throttle and lay back. We've been meeting the same two wheeled groups all along the way, on one flat stretch we came up on a group of six riders and I set up moving shots doing the left handed Nikon thing. I thought I was so smart, except my Motorrad gloves have these tiny rubberized pads on the fingertips and I must have missed the shutter button. Darn. Double darn! They all had great smiles and thumbs up. I hope we'll meet up today and I'll do it again. Dumb journalist, can't even work a camera...
We met up with John's daughter, Juanita, granddaughters Amanda and Nytasha along with Nytasha's 'property' Ron. Had some good eats at Smuggler's Inn off the McCleod Trail. We were served by our host Daniel Lou that doesn't write anything down, regardless of the table size and get's it all right. He say's that writing orders takes too long and it's just easier to remember it. Oy, for a memory like that. If you're through that way stop in and see if you can get him to screwup an order. My monies on Daniel.
So now the fun really starts. The Rockies. The Prairies makes me feel kind of insignificant, like a speck on a big canvass, but the Rockies, now they make me feel plain humble. I made a navigational boo-boo and forgot to take into account that the Calgary Stampede started this weekend, which means that rooms right down to Lethbridge are long gone, so we took the northern option so I'll need some quality Garmin time to get us off that damned #1.
The GS and Varadero are both running beautifully. John must like the Honda 'cause he hasn't let me ride it yet. John's Varadero now sports a big sticker on the handlebars which reads: "PUT SIDE STAND DOWN BEFORE GETTING OFF BIKE." It's okay, I caught it just when it was at the oh-oh point, I'll have some fun with that one today.
We are both having some difficulty with slowing down. May sound stupid but we've been programmed that within a two vacation there's 'X' amount of K's to cover. Go here - go there. This time we're taking a month to actually explore and that is a tough thing to visualize that we can actually stop, look, see and try to do this magnificent trip some justice. We're working on it, we'll probably fall in love with the idea and end up being motorcycle bums with no schedule or, hmmm, income. I'll need to ponder that.
That's it, talk later. We have some very large hills to explore.
July 7
Castlegar, BC
Now this is livin'. I might just turn into a motorcycle bum for the heck of it 'cause this ride is just way too much fun. I didn't post yesterday because the fun part got in the way of the 'sit and write' part. We took off from the Timmies in Canmore, which was loaded with about 50/50 cages and bikes, thus we yakked with 50% of the people and one old fella who just had to tell us about some recent motorcycle crashes, no details - correct or incorrect were spared. Right around story #3 I countered with some recent bathtub slip and fall statistics that had all sorts of nasty results, most of which I made up. He gave up on me and went off to grind on some other poor two wheeled type.
From there we hit the Jasper National Park, threw $19.50 in the pot and started a run through paradise. The Bow Valley route got our two thumbs up and it twisted us through some scenic ooh's and awe's that are truly magnificent. It winds down through Banff and Radium where if finally spit us out onto 95-93 and south to #3, the Crowsnest Highway. Radium hot springs was a bit of a surprise to me, I had a mental picture of this natural hot spring type deal, complete with Hilda and Heidi from Norway, but it's really just two large swimming pools that have lifeguards, everybody looked like they were enjoying the special water which is supposed to have medicinal properties. We looked at it and both thought that the next bazilion twisties that lay ahead to held more medicinal qualities than flopping around under the watchful eye of a lifeguard. We weren't disappointed, even with the massive road clearance on the GS and Varadero we were still able to touch boot leather to the road on a few of the turns.
At the bottom of 95-93 a hard right puts you onto the Crowsnest Highway where we bought a bottle of Ontario wine in Yahk, which is something you just don't do everyday and started the run up the Salmo Pass, yahoo, 1785 metres above sea level. Since we had spent most of the day goofing around we decided that Castlegar would be our home for the night. A Quality Inn looked good so we parked the bikes right out front of our hotel room door, opened some Ontario wine and scraped the bugs off our oil coolers. Perfect day.
Tonight we're in Hope looking forward to the run to Tawassen and the ferry to Vancouver Island. Some time with family and friends and then we head for the north. Oh ya, this is good.
July 10
Nanaimo, BC
Today was an official 'service the bikes day' and thanks to some fine help from the folks at Action Honda on the Esquimalt Rd. and Island BMW on the Peatt Road in Langford, who both were booking two weeks in advance, we were able to get everything done in one day. Fresh lubes, filters, a good look over and some fine company made our day hanging out in bike shops a pleasant one. The Honda Varadero needed a slight chain adjustment, the regular maintenance routine and the GS needed fresh lubes and a good visual inspection. Interesting enough was the price difference between Honda and BMW service costs: 8 cents more for the BMW.
We also had the pleasure of an afternoon gab session with Paul Mondor (www.paulmondor.com) who is the fellow that rode from Mile 0 to Newfoundland last winter on a BMW GS650 equipped with a hack. Paul is one of these guys that speaks from the heart and when he recalls his icy trip the conversation becomes a roller coaster of emotions, complete with life enhancing moments and life threatening situations, mental and physical barriers are broken minute by minute. He's the kind of guy that you could just sit and listen to all day. He tells me that a book about his epic, record breaking adventure will soon be on the shelves and I can't wait to get my hands on it. If he writes like he speaks it will be a book that you can't put down. Paul gave us some tips on our trip routing that is often overlooked but completely awe inspiring. Given the fact that we spent most of the day gabbing with Paul Mondor, Durell Wiley of Island BMW, Mike and Dan at Action Honda (Dan was able to fix our Garmin troubles in about two seconds) we found ourselves a tad behind schedule. Wait a minute, we have no schedule. If there was a problem we had a simple fix: run to Nanaimo, find a decent hotel, a good dinner, a reasonably nice vintage and hang out on the Island for the night. Life is just way too tough.
Tomorrow Environment Canada is calling for 22C with bright sun, but things are looking a tad chilly as we work our way north to Inuvik, highs: 12C, lows: 5C, with rain. Should be interesting. All I can hope for is that the meteorologist had a dyslexic brain fart whilst writing those numbers down and it is actually 21C. Ya right.
I'm falling in love with Vancouver Island all over again. This whole Island was made specifically for motorcyclists and it will be sad to board the ferry for the mainland. One consolation is that I have Paul Mondor's routing written down and since it's coming from a guy that starts a coast to coast motorcycle trip in January I'll bet it will be pretty cool.
July 11
Prince George, BC
Hi Folks. I'm writing this in word format because Lotus Notes seems to have a mind of its own and things I write seem to disappear, so I don't know what I've sent, or what photos you may have. At least this way I can attach it to either Lotus or Hotmail and something will get to you. I have full cell signal up here, as a matter of fact I don't think I've been anywhere yet that doesn't so it looks like Bell has it over Rogers in the north. John is on with Rogers and he's been out of touch in anything but the major cities. I guess you can't believe all the advertising... Anyhoo...
We called it a day in Lillooet off the Sea to Sky Highway #99. It seems that we were just full of sites, vistas, heart-stopping switchbacks and drop offs that would make you dizzy. Really there are no words to describe the whole sensation, it's one of those places that you need to see, touch, smell and absorb for yourself. We were overlooking looking the Seton (I'm sure they misspelled it) B.C. Hydro Reservoir and this gent came up to John and said: "How do you describe this?" John stood back and said, of all things..."Supercalifragilisticexpelidocious." The guy laughed saying, "yup that about sums it up." It a good thing this guy came from the Mary Poppins era. We did find something interesting about the #99 signage. Whoever came up with the recommended speed signs was obviously a sport biker. Anything over 30 KPH was up for debate, but when it said 20KPH it really was a dare...Go ahead see if you can stuff those fully loaded bikes through that baby quicker than 20...I dare ya.
Lillooet is one of those little mountain towns that just makes you feel like staying. It's no major centre but it has a great feel to it. It also has a really good Greek restaurant. The fellow that checked us in at the Motel 0 was staying the summer with the owners and was from Belleville Ontario. Go figure. It seems like everyone we meet is from Barrie or Bracebridge or Mississauga. Maybe there's something special about the west coast? Everyone we talked to said that there was no way on earth they would go back to wherever it was they came from. I get it too, this place is really getting to me in a 'let's move here' kind of way. As a matter of fact I think I'm going to send Lesley G. (Motorgirl) a 'jealousy' letter. She gets to play on the Sea to Sky any time she takes a fancy to. That's just plain unfair.
From Lillooet we finished off #99 and rolled up to the #97 junction sign. Slab. Yuck. We took a picture of the junction sign, wiped a tear away and headed north to Prince George. Best Western held out the welcome mat and we decided that this would be a decent place to hang out for a couple of days, get some camping stuff that we had put off buying, clean up some notes and get ready for the north. We had been going straight for eleven days and since we're old farts we were in need of a little down time.
As we were unloading the bikes RCMP officers in pairs, or singles were walking through the breezeway of the hotel on a regular basis. We thought that we had either picked a tough but extremely well patrolled area or something else was up. It just so happens that the RCMP detachment is on one side of the hotel and a Timmies is on the other. Cool, 24/7 patrol! This was a good thing and most of the officers passed the time of day with tips for our travels in the north as most of them had been where we were going. Good stuff guys, thanks!
Both the Honda and the GS are working like good things and I finally got the fuel economy edge on John with the GS when we started pushing it through #99. When he was really working the gears on the Honda he used $1.76 more fuel than the GS. So there. John was dashed as he has consistently been a couple of bucks cheaper when we fill. I also think there's some skulduggery going on here to as he fills my bike to the point of dribbling over everything and seems to stop filling just at the lip of his tank... Big brothers, some times ya just can't trust em.
As I write this more bikes are pulling into the hotel, one guy from California on a Katana, another on a brand new Victory (Vision Touring Premium) that's big enough to have its own time zone and three Suzuki Boulevards. We get a chuckle out of reading licence plates to see who's the furthest from home, so far we have the edge but I expect Masaki from Japan to come rolling trough any time and it will be tough to compete with a plate from there.
This has been the longest time either John or I have had to dedicate to a ride and believe it or not it's been tough to manage that time. It's amazing that being constantly programmed to go-go-go, that simply picking your own schedule and not letting any schedule rule your day can be such a difficult deal to wrap your head around. We're figuring it out now, look at the map, jump on the Environment Canada weather site and plan a route. Gosh that's a tough one...
Tomorrow we strike out for the north. I can hardly wait to see what we see.
July 14
Watson Lake, YT
I have signal. I think I going to route most direct back. Have some fab shots. Saw three black and one brown bear on 37 - not a nice route.
July 12
-
July 17
Prince George, BC
Watson Lake, YT
Whitehorse, YT
The Dempster
Whitehorse, YT
Hi all. We have signal and am not mouldering as bear scat in the north! YAY! Now I can blab. Although the bear scat thing was close. I left off in Prince George and as we moved north we just started to revert back to simpler times, the 'net' was sketchy at best. From Prince George we wandered up north-west on #97 to north on #37 (Gold Rush Trail). We were told that it was a must see, but it was a disappointment to both of us, probably because of cold temps, rain and downright dangerous road construction practices (we almost washed the front ends out three times in knee deep pea gravel). The scenery was - yawn, at least until we took the 37A cut-off to Stewart, things got interesting there with blue ice overhanging glaciers, bears (6) and a great little hotel called the Prince Edward that serve great Halibut.
The next morning was a retrace of 37A out to 37 and up to Watson Lake with their famous sign-post forest. We stayed the night at the Air Force Lodge which is nothing more than a super clean barrack style lodge. We held our second impromptu motorcycle rally there as riders from the Chetwynd Pine River H.O.G. group piled in for the night. Good conversation with all the guys and gals. Wherever you are now I hope you're all safe and have grins as big as they were at Watson.
We were starting to get a bit anxious because the real north was looming. The Dempster lay ahead and that was our goal. From Watson we carried on through #1 to Whitehorse (hello to the ghost of Robert Service!) and then launched our way up #2 (Klondike Hwy). The highway is a typical chips and dust on tar style and there was lots of construction. There was a marked difference from #37 as the construction was safe and well organized.
The scenery was starting to change, gone were the majestic mountains and was replaced with fabulous rolling hills that seemed to go on forever. #2 finally junctures with #5... the Dempster. Right at that junction sits the Klondike River Lodge. We didn't know it at the time but we were to get pretty familiar with Dan Blake, Audrey LeGoffe, Richard Schwab and Dawn Cole who fed and watered us with Yukon Gold and opened their shop to whatever we needed. If you decide to take that route stop in and stay awhile, it's well worth the time to enjoy laid back folk who look after each other in a way that seems to have been forgotten a long time ago.
The Dempster: The North is what it is. Nothing more, nothing less. Resourcefulness is the key. This is a place that you love or hate and both of us who are both 'cold' wimps love it. Go figure. After a breakfast that could hold you over for three days we took off up the Dempster. Spare fuel, spare parts, tire repair kits; we thought we were prepared. We launched into surroundings that are so different that you think you've gone to a new planet. Impossible hills, not little ones that skyrocket like crazy humps that just didn't know where else to go. The ground is perma-frost so what trees grow all grow on different angles. Kind of weird to look at. The road-bed is also something different, no, off the bell curve is a better description. When someone says: "did you go up?" and you say yes, the second question will be "what colour is the road?" Recent rain means the road bed will be as slick as grease and the road will be black as tar. Grey means it's dry and good to go. Today it was grey. We thought yay, good to go! So like a couple of complete newbie's we blasted up the Dempster. The first 5 clicks are chips and dust on tar and you can't help feel that what you've heard is all hokum. Ahem... Nope it changes pretty quickly and actually the stories we heard were really quite optimistic. We started to dodge pot holes, which we expected, we hit some soft sections, and then we hit a 'blast through area' where we were able to run at 80 - 100 +Kph. Hint: Don't do that on the Dempster. Right at Km 250 I was lining up a great panoramic shot when John came putting up beside me... "Methinks I have a flat." I looked at his rear tire and couldn't help but agree. Okay, nothing to this, out with the patch kit, compressor and we'll be good as new in a jiff. Hmm... this looks like pretty big hole. One plug in. Nope. Leaks like a sieve. Second plug in, yup holds air. We pump up the tire big time, pour a coffee and wait a bit. I start looking at what we had just run over. Yikes! Look at these road bed rocks! They looked like blasted shale! Crap. I look over the Meltzer's on the BMW and everything looked good but the Bridgestone's on the Honda looked like they had been worked over with a switchblade. Crap. Double crap. Decision time. Eagle Plains about an hour north, but we didn't have a clue what Eagle Plains had or could do to patch up this sliced tire. The Dempster doesn't have a whole lot of traffic, we had been at it for almost an hour and nothing had come by, you could have a nap in the middle of the road. Km 250 and we had another 400 to go. We can do it. Wait. This is dumb; we could shred the whole thing in a heartbeat given the razor blade road surface.
I hate decisions like this. On one hand we could shoot for Eagle Plains and there could be 10,000 tires our size in stock or there could be zip. From what we had seen so far 'zip' would be accurate. Km 250. There's the marker post, I even took a picture of the damn thing.
Personally I'm big on safety. There was no way that I was going to push John into taking a chance that we didn't really need to take. If the tire deflated at the wrong spot he could loose the bike and I didn't even want to think about that. By the way, the Dempster posts a big sign at the bottom, just to make you feel good, that there are no medical facilities. So there. After some hemming and hawing we decide to err on the side of safety and head back. I said some really bad words and John looked just plain sacked.
I followed John watching the rear tire and about 1.5 clicks from where we made the first repair Ma Grizzly and two Griz cubs were shopping for some goodies at the side of the road bed. I saw something beige flash off the road and John was pointing like a mad man. When I came past here was Ma Griz ten feet away, standing straight up, neck all puffed out, looking much the same as when Ty Domi drops his gloves. She was ready to get it on and I looked to be the 'getee'. First thought: wow, grab a picture, second thought: am I nuts!? Bikers, crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Screw that. Massive GS torque and I was past he like a shot. Holy crap that's a big bear!
Back down the Dempster about 20 K's I see a guy bicycling up the highway. This was too good and I really shouldn't have done it, but I pulled over and told him that there was a big Griz and two cubs up ahead. Poor guy was probably crapping his pants for the next twenty clicks. Shortly after that John's rear tire lets go again and we're back in the tire repair biz. Now we're getting good at unloading all the junk off the BMW, we would get even better at it because it took six repairs to get down to Whitehorse where Whitehorse Honda held the shop open and changed it on the spot. Great guys! Thanks! I made arrangements for new skins on the BMW for 08:30 the next morning.
Whitehorse: Tires, laundry, food, bottle of wine was in order. Bocelli's pizza was just around the corner from the hotel. We scoffed down one of the best pizzas made, signed the wall of fame and hit the sack. Oh yeah, this was a good, no great day.
Unfortunately we did not make Inuvik and to really rub salt in the wound we pooched out at Km 250. If it had been another 2000 metres - Km 252 we would have officially been inside the Arctic Circle. Damn. Double Damn. To Mayor Lindsay and all the good folk of Inuvik: We tried. Honest. I really hope that your anniversary celebrations were great. I guess that's why they call it "Adventure Riding".
July 17
Whitehorse, YT
Still no reliable internet, and the motel we're at has a line up for high speed, no wonder it was cheap. Currently in Whitehorse. The Honda limped in after 6 tire repairs (whew). Now has a brand new skin on. I get new ones tomorrow morning at Whitehorse Honda, great guys. Our route up was: 99 to 97 (prince george) to 16 to 37 to #1 to 2 to Flat Creek, then to #5 (Dempster). From whitehorse we plan to take 1 to 97 to ValleyView, then the Northern Water and Woods Route #2 to Hondo, then 55 (Prince Albert), 106 to Cranberry Portage, south on 10 to 1 into the Peg and then slab it from there. Yahoo.
The photos are great. This is one of the most memorable trips I've ever been on, the people we meet, wow, incredible. I do not want to do the Dempster again. Yet. That is the nastiest bit of Road... Evil. I even brought some of the road bed rocks back with me. Razor blades in the shape of rocks. The kicker is that so many guys were blasting up the Dempster with no, zero, nada for spares. Co2 canisters...maybe. Hope they enjoy the muskeg, cause they'll be there for a while. Eagle Plains did 25 tire repairs the day we snuffed the Honda's Bridgestone. That's about 50% of the travel...
Found a neat-o way to seat a tire on a rim with no tube... Set the tire on the rim, spray some either in the gap between the rim and the tire then throw a match at it. Poof! Tire is now seated on the rim. The truck tire guy tells us that we may want to 'speriment abit for M/C tires', he only uses a few ounces to seat a truck tire... Gotta try that someday. You can throw the match, I'll photo from afar.
July 18
Watson Lake, YT
Fort Nelson, BC
Now back in Watson lake, yup, made the sign-post forest shot. New skins on the bikes at Whitehorse Honda, got all the guys together for a shot. It took 6 tire repairs to get the Honda to Whitehorse. The day we went down there were 25 tire failures being repaired in the vacinity of Km250 and Eagle Plains. That is one wild road bed. Coming down to Whitehorse one fellow lost a Dakar in the construction - broke a wrist and did some nasty damage, we were behind a pilot car through knee deep pea gravel and I couldn't stop to grab a shot, I dare not even let go of the bars... 37 was a dangerous bore, tons of fresh pea gravel, scenery that was -yawn. Saw a bunch of bears though. 99 is spectacular, just blow you away, so was all 500K's of the Dempster. To bad the road bed was made out of razor blades. Looks like we are continuing with the northern route across - we've had tons of rain, temps are 6 - 14 ouch. Hope it warms up soon. The only time we see the sun is at night. I'll try to get photos off as soon as I can even a few good shots. Love the people up here.
We depart Whitehorse and head south west on #1, through Watson Lake where we pick up #97 at Contact Creek. From there is a bit of slab and we call it a day a Muncho Lake where we find the Northern Rockies Lodge. Oh yeah. If you have the notion to head north to 'do it all' - fly in fishing, fly in remote cabins or just stay in this beautiful massive log building that simply needs to be experienced in whole, then that's the place. Don Pollock owns this place and guess what... he's a biker; ergo the lodge is very biker friendly. Want to ride up, then fly to a remote cabin and catch some world class fish? No need to worry about your bike. Don will save you a spot in the locked up aircraft hanger. Now that's livin'.
People had mentioned that #97 south of Muncho was a bit of slab. Obviously these people have never ridden it. Corners, 'limited visibility' drop offs and wildlife galore. We had no fewer than seven times to wait for Buffalo, Elk, Big Horn Sheep and Caribou to do what ever they wanted to do and we were more than happy to be patient.
Tonight were in Fort Nelson, simply because they have real good signal and I might even be successful at getting a picture or two off. Tomorrow we're heading for the northern Alberta side of things. Route? Who the heck knows...
July 21
Grande Cache, AB
Hey Glenn. Ma Nature won out. There was a huge front tearing up the northern route, hail and other crap so it's the south route for us. Late start today and heading through Jasper. I'm really not looking forward to the pressure of Ontario, we've both turned into hippies out here. The Honda is really a winner. It just does what it's told to do and does it well. John has some simple air flow probs with the fly screen, kind of neat, it will hold about a cup of water right smack in the middle of the screen and then when it gets heavy enough it plops it over the screen, on to the tank bag and eventually soaks the poor ol' guys crotch! John's starting to walk like he's got monkey butt. Other than air flow protection - no heated grips and center stand we are tickled with how well it works. Honda has a real winner. The GS just does just what GS's do. I'll look at a custom saddle after this wee jaunt. Met many people, should see some new subs come rolling in from this trip.
July 22
Moose Jaw, SK
We grabbed the ma nature brass ring. Coming into M.J. the weather was gettin' a bit wacky, went from 24 to 33 - skies started throwing some lighting around and thanks to my infallible Lady Garmin who pointed out a Comfort Inn, we got under cover just as the shit hit the fan. Twisters to the south and north, damaging winds and rain. We sat back tinked a couple of wine glasses together and watched the show. I swear this ride is all about spares, timing and luck.
July 23
Portage La Prairie, MB
We are experiencing Ma Nature's evil side. Jeeze this is wild south east winds at 60-80K horizontal rain. Not too much fun. The Honda almost blew over in the parking lot. I think we have a new record 23 days out, 3 days with no rain and they were on the Dempster and Yukon... We both smell bad. Talk later. Rain's letting up.
