Day Ten to Fairview

I woke up today at the Mosquito Camp Site freezing. The temperature in the Banff Mountain Valley drops like a rock as soon as the sun goes behind the mountains. The shadows are like ice. The tent was on a gravel pad. All night, I tossed around from the temperature hurting my head. So at 6:00 am I was as rested as I was going to get. Not only did the cold make it a hard night, but I kept waking up to the sound of what I thought was a bear outside. In the morning I figured out that I was actually snoring so loud that I was actually waking myself up! It's one thing to have someone tell you that you snore loudly. It's quite another to realize that you snore so loud that in the middle of the night you actually fooled yourself into thinking there was a bear somewhere around you. I spent the morning laughing at the thought of how silly I was and that I actually had probably scared the bears away with my snoring.

I packed up my stuff and started to head out. I was alarmed to notice that the warning lights were blinking again. I turned the bike off and restarted it and the lights kept blinking. The thoughts of having to end the trip entered my mind. So I checked the oil and decided that its pretty hard to judge the level. So I added a pint and figured that I would give it a better look when I wasn't 100 miles from nowhere and on level ground. On my bike, the oil is checked by looking in a glass window in the side of the engine. Don’t get me wrong I love my bike and it truly is better than all other bikes (yes I am mainly referring to Evan’s Harley) but it is really hard to balance the bike straight up and down and look in a little window on the bottom of the engine. Fear of being pinned under my own bike is always foremost in my mind while I am doing it. Yes, if it happens I am sure a guy on a Harley would find me - oh the humiliation. So I put the cap on a drove out to the road. The light was still blinking so I said a little prayer to the God of BMW's or any god that would listen. Then I started laughing about just how crazy this all is and figured I’d just do it. As I cracked the throttle and added even more distance to Calgary I realized just how damn cold it really was. Needless to say by the time I was going 65 I wasn’t laughing at more. So I turned on the seat and hand warmers. The bike was so cold that the temperature gage was sitting on the bottom even after running for 30 minutes down the road. After staring at the gages for 45 minutes I decided to pull off and snap a picture of mountains. I figured I would just jump off and snap the shot. So I just left the bike running. I returned to bike to discover that it had warmed up and the light had go off. Thank you God. I just have a cold-blooded bike. No problems the rest of the day. It must be a fluid level sensor issue. Once that issue was put to bed I was able to enjoy the view.

The road runs right down the middle of two mountain ranges. I know I have been saying it too much already, but it was beautiful. I followed route 93 all the way to the entrance to Jasper Park. I wished I could go explore it but I am starting to feel the pressure to hit the Alaskan Hwy. It is time to make some time. So I turned west and headed for Dawson Creek. The next town of Hilton was 3 hours and the terrain was starting to flatten out after about a hour. When I got to Hilton is gassed up and headed north for about 100 miles to Grand Cash. It was 12:30 and I decided to top off the tank and get a sandwich at Subway. The town was very friendly. A guy talked to me in the parking lot for 10 minutes about my trip. Once inside Subway another guy named Ted struck up a conversation while I peeled off my extra clothing. Those motorcycle pants were awesome in the morning but it was heating up and I was beginning to really sweat.

Ted was riding an old 450 Honda , so we talked the usual stuff. He was in town to help out with some work on local jeep trails. Once on the road I followed along behind him. It was about 160 to Grand Prairie so after about an hour he pulled off to stretch his legs. I needed to stretch also so I pulled over. I snapped a picture of these guys unloading part of a crane used for coal mining. This thing was huge.
Ted and I continued talking about the area and he invited me to crash in a spare room. I thought it over and decided a bed sounded pretty good after the cold bed of rocks the night before. The town was actually about sixty miles outside of Grand Prairie. So it really added to the drive. I said something about it to him at the next stop and he said the Peace River Road ran right up to the Alaskan Hwy. We were just moving up from the start point of Dawson Creek. We got to his home and I was exhausted and wondering what I had gotten myself into. Checked it out and invited him to get a bite to eat. I grabbed a quick shower and we drove up town to get Chinese. This was a welcome change from jerky and dried fruit. That was about it, Well its 11:30 and I have to get some sleep.

Day Nine to Banff

Today is the ninth day of my trip. It's really hard to believe that I have been on the road for over a week now. I hit a turning point in the trip this morning. Evan and I are ending our trip together. We are in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This morning he was up and attem at 6:00 am. I was also up, but by no means awake. I spent the night before blogging and doing laundry. I figured Calgary was going to be one of the last big towns I would be in for awhile, so I’d better make the most of provisions of the hotel. While doing laundry, I was able to Skype with my parents. Our chat was good and didn’t end till 2:30. So needless to say, I was not bright eyed in the morning. So with a “Thanks for letting me come a long” and a “yeah see you later”, I was back to sleep for an hour. Evan was off to Wisconsin for 2 weeks of summer camp.

I was packed and in the lobby and by 9:30 which is the exact moment in time that the free breakfast ended. Thinking about how much my wife cherishes a free morning breakfast, I smiled when informed of this fact by the maid. My odd reaction must have been unexpected because she quickly said, “Just a minute, come with me.“ The next thing I know I was led into a secret buffet feeding frenzy. The hotel employees get to have breakfast after 9:30. So I was a real V.I.P.. Remember, always be nice to the little people, and you’ll never get too hungry or get locked out of your office. After breakfast, I thought about checking out the Calgary Stampede. This is the super bowl of Rodeos. I know very little about Rodeos and felt the need to get the second leg of my trip started. So I decided to head on. Calgary is a really big city, so it would take me a while to get out of town.

I finished loading the bike and dialed my GPS in for Jasper. Jasper is roughly a 300-mile trip. I buzzed out of town and discovered that that only road was Route 1. This road is a four-lane road which was nice, but totally boring. After 100 miles I pulled over at a Banff rest area to stretch my legs. I ended up on a three-hour hike to an Alpine meadow. It was a great hike! The only problem was I didn’t realize how long and tough the trail was. I started the hike with the idea of a 15 to 20 minute walk, a few nature photos and back on the road. I grabbed my camera and tripod and decided to keep all of my riding clothes on except for my jacket. Turns out, this was a really bad idea. This put me on the trail wearing three pairs of pants and shirts. The outer pair of pants are motorcycle pants that breathe about as well as Saran wrap. Fifteen minutes on the trail and I was really warming up and ready to get back to the road. Just about that time an old friend Scott Fisher called me to find out if I was still a live. I talked to Scott long enough to cool down and catch my breath. As my chat with Scott ended, a Canadian family came up the trail and started talking with me. The fear of looking like an American wussy forced me to tag along. This is peer pressure at it finest. After about an hour, I was on the verge of heat stroke. I told the family that I needed a break and to go on without me. I took off two layers and cooled off in about 10 minutes. It was too damn late to turn around so I fashioned a sling out of my shirt and shoved all my extra clothes in it. I caught up with the family and was able to shoot the summit.

The walk back down to the bike seemed just as long. When I finally got to the bike, I was exhausted. I jumped on the bike and after 40 miles I knew I was done. All of the activity and lack of sleep had caught up with me. It was 4:00 pm as I pulled over at the closest campground. This camp was totally full. I got back on the road and turned on to Route 93 heading to Jasper. Luckily, after 20 miles I found Mosquito Camp Ground. This is an great self-serve campground with a beautiful mountain range surrounding it and a clear stream running through it. What a welcome end to a great day. I set up camp, had a bite to eat and called it an early night.

Day Eight to Calgary

We slept in until 8:00. The we got packed and on the road by 9:30. Just when we were getting on the bikes, it start to mist. I am pretty sure I am going to spend a lot of time in my raincoat before this trip is over. I'm ok with that. I am really learning what it takes to do touring on a bike. You can read as many books as you want, but until you spend a few days at the bars you really don't know if you'll enjoy touring. It isn't easy, but it is a lot of fun. A car does provide a lot of comfort but it's at a cost, your sense of the environment are 100% on a bike. The smell of the forest, the sting of the rain, the sound of the road and wind. Motorcycling is a very rich experience. True, it is very dangerous, and that is also part if the experience. Thrill seekers have to engage in risk, its a package deal. They say "its is better to of loved and lost "... Yeah, my wife thinks is crazy, too.

So any way back to the trip. I just pulled away from the hotel and I noticed that two of my warning lights were blinking, so I putted off. I was starting to wonder how this was going to play out. I look closely and it was the check engine light. I have tons of experience with this issue. Every car I have owned had this light on for over a 100,000 miles. I once even put tape over it.:-) It is usually an oxygen sensor that can make the engine run extra rich and gives you bad mileage. The standard approach of ignoring, it seemed, well, in this situation, crazy. So I turned the bike off and restarted it. Thank God the warning lights went off. I figure it could have been the altitude or a little water in the gas. Everything is wet up here. I couldn't see Evan anywhere so I drove up to the first gas station and fueled up. Evan pulled up and thought we should eat at the diner. So he parked his bike and went in. While I was standing there gassing the bike and guy came over and asked if I was really going to Alaska. I said yes and he told me he had a BMW and had just went up last year. It was a great ride and the roads were great. He recommended a RT 97 that runs up from Prince George. He said it had a few more twists in it. After breakfast we headed up the road about 15 miles and entered Glacier National Park. I went through Logon's pass. I wished we could have explored more, but I am going to be back with the kids for sure!

As we worked our way to Logon's pass I noticed the road was in rough shape in a few spots. I also noticed that the trees along the road were plowed down. I discovered that avalanches last year had really trashed several locations in the park. As we drove deeper into the park, the road started going up. Dozens of waterfalls lined the roadway. One area of the road is call the Weeping Wall and has a huge waterfall.


Beautiful mountain spires disappeared into the clouds and so did we. The road ran us right into 10 ft visibility clouds/fog. The clouds were pretty cool but then the road construction areas start popping up. The avalanches and waterfalls had done a number on the higher road ,forcing traffic down to one lane. The one lane was also pretty spongy. We push on the up to the top and stopped at the visitors center.


I shot some photos, of course. Evan discovered that they weren't selling coffee and wondered why the hell not. This definitely was a low point of the vacation for him. I stumbled off to a glacier, leaving Evan ranting at a park ranger about the accommodations. I wandered around in the fog and found an young girl park ranger with a soggy poster board. She explained that when the park was first opened, it had 500 glaciers. Now it only has 25. In 10 years, they will all be gone. Just about that time it started raining. I thanked her for the presentation and wandered around looking for Evan. I made my way out to the bikes and found what looked like a deer hunter sitting on Evans bike. I stared for a second and realized that Evan had donned his Harley rain suit. I started laughing, so he called me retarded. I pointed out the fact that he looked like fat crossing guard and we both laughed. Harley has started using that fluorescent orange on their clothing line to draw attention to the riders. It sure does, but it sure takes away the bad boy component of the image. Sorry no pictures. Just like the one armed man at the 4th, I just couldn't go there.

Day Seven to West Glacier

This morning starting at 7:00. Yeah, big night of sleep - a whole 4.5 hours. My buddy Evan is a morning person and when confronted with the idea of sleeping in, his smiling remarks was "Nope, it's just the way I am wired man". So with only 4 hours of sleep and the thought of an extra long day of driving coming into focus, Evan pointed out that I was kind of a butthole in the morning. My retort was "Yep, its just the way I am wired man". We both had a laugh. Evan is easy to laugh with any quip or some word play. Me, I'm a night owl and bit of a smart ass at heart. So after Evan drank three cups of coffee he was buzzing around the campsite like his ass was on fire. I was still moving slow, but managed to get my bags packed. By the time the tent was down and packed up I was beginning to wake up.

Camping at Bozeman was a great idea but it meant that it would be a full day of driving get to Glacier. The usual discussion of taking the interstate was brought up. To which I was able to nix with a simple "nope". Once on the road we hit a road construction detour that pushed on to I-90 for 10 miles. After the detour we were back on the 2 lanes and it was a nice smooth easy drive. We stopped around Salmon Lake at around 12:00 to fuel up and decided to push on to the next town to get some lunch. The next town was Seeley, and they were gearing up for a four of July parade. Evan and I rolled in and our timing reminded me of the parade scene from Easy Rider. Since Evan is in the military, we decided that he must be Captain America. Which meant that I must be Wyatt. We both laughed and agreed that those roles seemed fitting but we needed different bikes. The restaurant that we chose was on the very end of town. What we didn't realize was that the parade started on the same side street. We discovered after lunch that the parade line up had pinned us in the parking lot. So we found a shady shot and watched the town's parade. It was pretty cool. Evan and I thought the coolest part of the parade was this kid on a mini bike in a monkey suit. It was just so funny-looking and random that we couldn't help laughing. We decided that our trip would be a lot more memorable if we had a monkey suit and took turns wearing it on our trip. I know it is weird, but if you can imagine how crazy it would look to see a guy in a monkey suit driving down the Alaskan Hwy on a Harley or a BMW, I think you'd laugh a little too.

Once the parade was over we continued up 83 to a town call Hungry Horse. It started raining and Glacier was only about 15 miles up the road so we stopped and got a Hotel. Rooms were $112 and the manager was this crabby old lady. We parked our bikes and struck up a conversation with a couple sitting out in front of the room next to ours. They were a family of three from Canada that had rode their Harley's down through Glacier to see the fireworks. I didn't catch their name, but they were a really nice couple with a really cute little boy. I thought it was funny that Canadians would come to a 4th of July celebration but he told me "Hell everybody likes fireworks". I guess he did have a point. The funny thing was I didn't really understand what he was saying until later. You see, the town of Hungry Horse didn't have professional/commercial firework display. What they had was a 4th of July free-for-all. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. The idea was really simple, everybody in the whole town came to main street and shot off their fireworks. I know it sounds totally red neck, but it kind og made sense.



Everybody was kind of sharing their firework as a collective event. The fire and police departments were also there to keep an eye on everybody. Boy, they needed to do that. It look like a war zone. Most people were just having fun with bottle rockets and fire crackers, however, several groups have decided to act out the civil war or something by shooting at anything. In addition to the mini wars, there were a lot of rockets exploding at ground level or falling over and blowing off balls of fire into the crowd. There was a photo that I wanted to take of an old guy with a fake arm helping a 4 year old light a rocket, but I just couldn't do it. You have to respect some things. Evan and I decided Hungry Horse was a town where family, beer and explosives make the holiday. That is one 4th I will never forget!

Day Six to Bozeman

We left Dubois around 8:30 and were in Grand Teton East Gate at about 9:00. It was a nice drive up to the gate. The park is huge so it took us awhile to explore the park. We stopped at a Jackson Lake and shot a few pictures. The size and angle of the mountains were very impressive. We stopped to get a drink and I shot a few photos. I even got a picture of both of us posing with the Tetons in the background. We headed west to try and make our way through both the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone in one day. I know that's pretty lame attempt at exploring the area, but we didn't figure we could find a campground in Yellowstone and we needed to be exiting the West gate before dark. We stopped a couple of times to shoot photos and at Old Faithful. Evan had already been to Yellowstone so he was uninterested in Old Faithful. "I've already done all that." He said. So Evan took a nap while I ran around the park. It was really cool. I guess I've always been curious and this was the kid in me wanting to see it for real. I must say, I found myself wishing I could share it with the girls. They are nine and still find most new things in life exciting. As a parent that is one of my favorite things about my kids. Granted, there is a long list of things but Old Faithful seems to be so foreign and interesting I just could help but miss my girls. I shot a ton of photos of the grounds. After Old Faithful spouted off, I walked back to the bikes and discovered Evan sleeping on one of the park's flatbed trailers. Sunning himself like an old bear. We jumped on the bikes and headed out.

The original plan was to go to Canyon Ferry Lake, however, it was so late that we decided to go to Bozeman. It was about 100 miles closer. I must admit I really didn't want to change the plans but we had only been able to drive 45 MPH all day. This slower pace meant that we would have to drive 3 more hours to pitch camp. Bozeman was half the distance, and I hate setting up camp in the dark. An early day would be a nice change. We left Yellowstone through the West gate which put us on route to 191. This road is awesome. It twisted along a stream for 60 miles. The stream has ton of people fly fishing at the south end and white water rafters at the north end. The K.O.A was really nice.
They had a tiny water park, pool, hot rub and cooking area.

We set up the tent and I hit the showers. I really wanted to get in the hot tub but I knew that my blog needed to be posted. The writing isn't hard - its getting all the photos downloaded and going through them all that takes all the time. It was 2:30 am by the time I got all the info and photo uploaded. I am going to try to stay on top of the it a little better from now on.

Day Five to Dubois WY

We headed out of Steve and Stephanie’s at about 9:00 am after some fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We were headed to Dubois, WY. We took the two-lane road 287 up to Laramie. Evan needed to stop at the Harley store and get some oil. I stuck my head in the Harley boutique and decided that I couldn't even afford to use the restroom in this place. The showroom was carpeted. I’m not talking Astroturf I mean indoor thick stuff, like in a bedroom. It was like being at Good's furniture or something. That’s just wrong. I thought any minute someone’s going to ask to rub my neck. So I escaped by telling Evan I was having an allergic reaction to the chrome and if I didn’t leave I was going to have a panic attack. He acted annoyed as he pay $12.00 for a quarter of oil. I didn’t blame him. Next-door was a Polaris dealer so I stepped in to see what they had. I discovered an 800cc quad track. This thing was too cool. I can’t imagine how much fun that would be to drive in a snowstorm. The lack of carpet and slow jazz made me feel more at ease. After this discovery I decided to take a ride around town to see if there was anything interesting to look at. The west seems to have lot of old retro signs for hotels, cafés and liquor stores. I don’t think I mentioned that the weather this day was really windy. I found a sign that couldn’t handle the wind and needed a helping hand. I thought the team worker was inspiring and symbolic. I know it's weird to take pictures of stuff like, this but to me it's like blue-collar-found-art.













You know - Elvis on velvet or a big polyester blanket with a tiger or unicorn on it. Ok, enough about that.

So we headed out of Laramie on I-80 to Rawlins. That was a 100-mile ride from hell. Have I mentioned my distain for interstates? Yeah, they are great way to get somewhere fast, but there is a void of all stimulus. Ranting, yes I know but this was so crazy. I was trying to get this 100 mile chunk of the trip over by doing about 90 while driving into a 30 mile a hour wind. The road hooks around and put the wind against the side of the bike. I was forced to lean over hard just to keep going straight. Just outside of Rawlins I swear the bike was tilting over 30 degrees. We stopped and ate at Rawlins and were told by a waitress that the wind really wasn’t too bad compared to some days. As we headed out of town I see a cop dragging a queen sized mattress off the road. Apparently someone was moving and did not realize that the mattress blew out of the truck. Boy, am I glad I didn’t get hit by that!

Glad to be off the interstate and back on the two lanes. The flat prairies gave way to large rolling hills. This helped with the strong winds. We were making pretty good time, when off in the distant southwest we saw storm clouds. Just about that time a group of four bikes rolled up on us from behind. In spite of the rolling hills you could really see a long way. They were passing everything in sight. We pick up speed and followed along. Even at this faster speed we were going to get hit by the storm. Then I noticed that the black clouds was also a lighting storm. All of a sudden it got cool really fast. There was nowhere to hide, just empty road. So we broke away from the four other bikers and figured we had to try to out run the storm. Thank God there were no cops. We laid into the throttle and managed just get a few sprinkles. I was glad to have a full-face helmet. Those little drops of water feel like needles at 60 and ice picks at 90 plus. The four bikes we left behind were not wearing helmets at all. Their foreheads must have been bleeding from the hard rain they got caught in. After the storm, we had to stop and refuel. The head wind and high speeds had cut our mileage at least in half. Being chased by the storm got us into Dubois at about 5:30.
We got the tent set up, started a load of laundry and jumped into the heated pool. I got a shower and jumped on the bikes to go shoot some HDR landscape photos. The sun was going down and the red clay and rock were casting perfect contrasting shadows. Morning and dusk are the best time to shoot. I drove about 10 miles out and found a great eroded bluff along a stream. I really enjoy traveling and getting excited about capturing my surroundings. What a nerd, I know. My wife even pointed out that only a real nerd would blog his vacation. So true! Well everybody has to be something and my this is my digital cross to bare. After the sun had set, I rode back into town and found Evan spinning stories to the manager of the campground. I swear, Even can make friend faster that anyone I have ever met. Not only is he good at telling stories, he really enjoys meeting people and has a gift for getting them to open up. The laundry was all finished so we walked into town to get a beer. After 5 minutes at the bar Evan met a guy and his wife who was from corporate lawyer from Ponitac Il. Amazing to me how fast most people just like Evan!

Day four - Red Feature Lake/ Estes

I am really sorry that I have not been able to post on the blog, but getting Internet access has been hit and miss. Mostly miss. Even getting cell service is pretty tough out here. In spite of all the craziness, day three today totally made up for it. I got up early and got a chance to visit with Steve and his wife Stephanie. Both are really great people. Steve is a total outdoorsmen. He loves hunting and rock collecting. Both of these interests decorate their home. Mount deer and really cool polished stones and all over their home. Stephanie was really nice lady that was easy to talk and a wonderful host. Evan finally got up about 7:30 and I gave him a hard time for sleeping in. I don’t think he knew what to say. Evan is the morning rooster usually. So we had breakfast and got on the road at about 8:00. The morning was perfect. It was a little cool but with a light jacket it felt good. We stop at Livermore and fueled up. Steve took off south up behind Fort Collins to get to Estes Park. On the hill above Fort Collins is a huge lake called Horse Tooth Lake. Yeah, lovely name isn’t it. Horse Tooth Lake is the drink water reservoir for the town of Fort Collins. Great trek to start the day. The sun is up and we are all three buzzing along the lake's edge with a view of the whole town of Fort Collins. We continued snaking around the country for about an hour until we reached a small town near the gates of the Estes State Park. According to Steve the movie “The Shining” was shot here. The building the movie was filmed in is a hotel now that is rumored to have ghosts. Evan and I weren’t interested in buying the t-shirt so we skipped that tourist trap and just headed for the park. Estes Park is really nice. It's single main road winds you up to the top of several snow and elk covered mountains. It was very cool in both ways. Scenery was nice and the vistas from the mountaintop were best viewed after putting on a second jacket.

Traffic wasn’t bad, however the roads were being repaved so we did have to stop three times for a flaggers to motion us through. The beetles are also hitting Estes Park really hard. We stopped at the peak of the highest mountain in the park, checked out the view and visited. Next we drove through the park and looped back around to Walden. Driving in the mountains is an exhausting rush of swishing curves. So at 3:00 we stopped at Granby to eat. Just about the time we got our food a rainstorm started. The storm lasted about a half an hour. From Granby we took 125 back toward Walden. The high plains outside of Walden were pretty but the food I ate really made me tired on the long stretches. I remember a trick my dad mentioned to help stay awake while driving was to chew gum. It really does work. Once in Walden we fueled up and headed out for the last 70 miles to Steve's home. It took us about an hour and a half to end the trip. A gentle rain started again as we came out the canyons. The last ten miles were a dirt road shortcut. It was a little exciting but totally safe. Dodging potholes on a bike is always fun. Once home we visited and looked at the day's photos on the computer. What can I say, a great 300 mile day in the Rocky Mountains.