Day 18... Sicamous/Mara Lake

Sorry for the lack of updates for the past few days. We had a little trouble with a buffalo. He decided that he wanted to join our little convoy. Unfortunately, buffalo's top speed is about 40 mph, and we were going about 65. Not having the driver training required by most Departments of Motor Vehicles, his merging skills were NOT up to par. Chaos ensued and in the end the Buffalo decided that our convoy wasn't worth the trouble. Of course we lay scattered across the highway at that point. Several hours, three tow trucks, two ambulances, one helicopter and a massive traffic jam later, the mess was cleaned up.

Just kidding! (had you going, didn't I?)

Today, we learned how spoiled we were in the Yukon and northern BC. Gone are the days of cool weather, and open roads. Today as we left Jasper National Park (through the Icefields and Glaciers!) we hit tons of traffic and lots of heat! 95F as we came out of the mountains. The traffic wasn't helped by the fact that this is a Holiday weekend (British Columbia day, apparently).

Fortunately, our destination greeted us with shade, refreshments and our lovely hosts Jay and Kathy Hunter. Evan and I even got to take a dip in the lake before our killer dinner of Pulled BBQ Pork, slaw and fresh grilled corn! Yum! -MGates

Day 17... Jasper National Park

The run from Charlie Lake to Jasper National Park was a bit straight and long, but we made it. We managed to dodge a couple huge Thunderheads and stayed dry all day. We dropped down into the valley that is Jasper National Park. Wow. Epic scenery. Basically, the park is the valley between two mountain ranges that look like they were pushed up from below and have crumbled to leave sharp, jagged edged knives thousands of feet in the air. Other parts are pushed and twisted like Taffy on a puller. Words can't really describe, so you'll have to check the Flickr site to see the pictures.

We had dinner at the Jasper Brewing Co. resturant in Downtown Jasper. The beer was very good, and the presentation of the food was excellent. I recommend their Pilsner (Summit Hill) and their Red Ale (Liftline Cream Ale). Their 6060 Stout was a valliant effort, but the roasted flavors went a bit too far and reached the burned stage for my taste. That Pils though, was one of the best I've ever had.

Something that we all noticed independently on our trip through the Great North that is reflected in their national parks is the different mentality of the folks here in regards to taking care of things around them. When you go to a National Park in the USA, there are rope barriers and rules and boundries everywhere. Almost to the point where you feel like you're looking at everything through a window. There are constant reminders to NOT TOUCH anything. And yet, you still see the blatant abuse of the natural resources and beauty that the parks are trying to share with us. Here in Canada, there are no such boundries. There are no signs saying not to, and yet, people don't. They have an inherent love, respect and appreciation for the natural beauty of the world and as a country, strive to preserve it for the enjoyment of all. Yes, I do see people going out into the wild in ways that wouldn't be allowed in the USA, but they do it with care, and a light step. Also, there is NO LITTER here. Seriously, no trash on the highways or streets. It's amazing. Go Canada! -MGates

Day 16... Charlie Lake

The run to Charlie Lake from Liard hotsprings was as good as every other day in the wonderful country of Canada. Only things that stand out of major note was Muncho Lake. There was the Northern Rockies Lodge there. Nothing else for 125 miles in either direction. Gas was $1.80/Liter. That's about $6.81 a gallon. Then, we got a dollar off coupon for breakfast in the resturant. So we went inside and sat down for a nice breakfast, have a look at the menu and nearly fall out of our chairs. Two pancakes, $15. Two Eggs, Two bacon, some hashbrowns, $15. Two slices of Toast $7. Toast! $7!! Ouch! After breakfast, we hobbled out with wounded wallets and carried on our way to Charlie Lake...

Charlie Lake itself wasn't overly spectacular after Liard, but was typical of the Canadian National Park system. The town, however had something we hadn't seen for nearly a week. A McDonalds AND GSM cellphone services. Civilization! The town is actually pretty much a Farm town. John said it was like Deja Vu to the time he spent in Kansas. Nice place to stop over on our way through to Jasper National Park... -MGates

Day 15... Liard Hot Springs

We left the wonderful hospitality of the Brisley's in the Yukon and started our return leg south (and east, just for fun). We headed out on the 1 east and ran through the beautiful countryside of rolling hills and carpets of trees, with great weather.

We did have a buffalo encounter. There were a couple on the side of the road right in front of the Liard Hot Springs campground entrance that got spooked as we approached. Walter decided it would be fun to run with thim, so he chased them for a few hundred yards while we waited for him at the entrance. No one was hurt, no amubulances, tow trucks or anything. There were no buffalo harmed in the making of this Blog.

The hot springs were awesome. There was a lovely borded walk across some marshes and into the forest to the pools. There were two pools, seperated by a man made waterfall. The first pool was the biggest and was the water entrance pool. Where the water enters the pool, it's 53 Degrees Centigrade. That's 124 Fahrenheit! It cools as it flows down the pool and into the second and is about 34 C or 94 F, that's where most people hang out. I did see one guy venture up into the hot zone. I could only make it about halfway. Felt sooooooo good though to bake out the miles. On to the next update.... -MGates

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory... Day 14...

No worries people, I am all good and sound... Icing the ankle last night helped a lot, it still hurts a little but no swelling no brusing what so ever... I am still a little heartbroken about the poor dog and the little girl who seemed to be the owner... She was crying so hard, it was impossible not to get affected...

Today we took another daytrip to Whitehorse, Yukon's capital. It is the biggest town in Yukon Territory with a population of almost 25000 people. We took a trip and self-guieded tour on "Klondike", a paddle boat that worked on the Yukon River during the Gold Rush years. They restored it neal nicely and made a museum out of it. After this pleauseable experience we had a lovely lunch at Robin and Robert Clark's Estate. Robin is Gayle's sister and she is another wonderful "Yukonian". Our thanks and appreciations go to them from bottom of our hearts.

Tonight is our last night in Tagish. With the first light tomorrow morning, we will hit the road for the returning journey. Keep following us, we will have more and more stories for you... EA...

Day 13... Skagway, Alaska

While we didn't stay in Alaska, we took a day trip to Skagway over the White Pass. It's a road that runs near the Chilkoot Pass that the Yukon Gold Rushers used to seek their fortune. That picture we've all seen of the string of people going up the snowy stairway... that's Chilkoot. An amazing change of scenery going over White Pass. From the rolling carpets of pine forest to craggy, volcanic rock and stunted trees among thousands of ponds and little lakes. Stunning stuff. Down the pass into Skagway and the little waypoint town. Seems like now it's mostly a trap for the Cruise ship tourists, but there's a great museum there about the gold rush and a cool little bar/saloon called the Red Onion. Oh yeah, they've also got a Starbucks and a Radio Shack. Since it was a day trip, running without luggage through the pass was pretty fun, though even up there the landscape lends itself to being more straight than curvy. We did have a bit of an off on the way home however. There were a couple folks walking their dog along the side of the highway, and the dog didn't like the bikes one bit! In an honorable attempt to protect his owner from the big mean motorcycles, the dog ran into the street to fend us off. Unfortunately, the dog was not on a leash and ran into Evan's path. He managed to stay up through the impact, and only sprained his ankle a little, but the poor dog didn't make it. If you're a dog lover, pour one out for our lost friend. And keep your dogs on leash near roads!!!

After making it home and icing the ankle, we had a fantastic dinner of fresh Salmon, and roasted vegetables out on the patio. Abosolutely delicious! Thanks again to our fabulous hosts for another great meal!

Tomorrow, we check out the town of Whitehorse! -MGates

Day 12, Tagish, Yukon Territory...

It is like another planet in here.... It is 10:18 pm right now and the sun is still in my eye... Very strange feeling... After a very wet ride yesterday, our luck turned around and we had a real nice, 300 plus miles ride today. We hauled arrrrssse again with Michael but we paid the price... Michael ran out of gas 2 miles before the gas stop... The road was down hill, with some bike laying down trick we were able to get to the gas station without pushing the bike...

Our hosts today are Gayle and Paul Brisley... They are the loveliest couple you can find anywhere... After settling in our 5 star, brand new fifth wheel trailer and some pre-dinner beers, 5 or 10 I can't remember exactly, we had a wonderful dinner followed by a killer apple and berries cobbler... We are in heaven. Made our plans for tomorrow for Alaska, and exchange some lovely stories... Time for the sleep while the sun still up... Here is some pictures from today, maybe yesterday... Whatever, some pictures, enjoy... EA... Oooops!... Looks like we are having some picture uploading problems... Looks like you are gonna be enjoying only one today... Watson Lake delicasy, Cheez Whiz over toast... You can see the enjoyment on Michael's face... See you all tomorrow...

Day 10 and 11... Bell II ~630 Miles

Sorry posting this one a day late. Bell II had no connectivity available. Funny how that works out in the boonies. Good ride through the pine forest with mountain backdrop to Bell II. Fantastic views, and I even got to see a coyote and a little black bear! Got some pics, but I'll upload them at our next stop in Whitehorse. The Bell II lodge is a basecamp resort for Heli-Skiing. Top notch, full service 5 star style. So we camped in the mosquitos instead. Had a great soak in the jacuzzi to melt some miles away and a fantastic dinner in the little resturant. They say a full service trip is $8000-10000 for a 6 day all inclusive package. Five days of 8 hour heli drops as fast as you can go and all room and board. I think I know what i want for Christmas...

Started raining in the night at Bell II, so we packed camp wet and hit the road after a quick breakfast in the Lodge Cafe. The rain was light, but constant pretty much all day. The road was wet but open and the air cold and brisk. We pushed the pace as fast as we thought was safe to get in out of the cold as quick as possible, and made it to Watson Lake by 3:30. Couldn't find the campsite we were supposed to stay in, but we didn't really look all that hard anyway. After being in the cold wet all day, the idea of setting up camp in the rain wasn't very appealing. So, we used Evan's birthday (Happy birthday!) as an excuse to get a motel room instead. Had a nice dinner at Kathy's eatery. They even had Buffalo burgers and Poutain! Hopefully the weather will clear for tomorrow's run to Whitehorse! -MGates

PS: There's a place here in Watson lake with posts and people who come and visit put up signs of all kinds. There's thousands of them. We found one from Poway...

Day 9.... Prince Rupert Ferry!

Greetings everyone! After waking up at a lovely 4am to catch the Prince Rupert Ferry this morning, we loaded up, cinched the bikes down and spent the day riding up the channels in style! The accomodations on the Ferry were quite nice with spacious chairs, lots of windows, a little gift shop, two eating areas (one resturant style and one cafeteria style). There were a few Humpback whale sightings, tons of Eagles and other shore life throughout the trip. Oh, and a couple trees here and there to boot. It was a long but enjoyable journey, and most of us caught up on some sleep. We talked to a lot of the other travelers, many on bikes and made some new friends. Also had a good talk with the guy I bought my Yellow GS from, John. Great guy with some more tips and insights for a younger rider like myself. He also lent me his spare tank bag for the rest of the trip! Thanks! Tomorrow, Bell II...

Day 8... Port Hardy! ~350 miles

Today's run was up the east coast of the Vancouver Island. Great weather and beautiful scenery were on the menu for today. Got a surpise from the Chef with an extra serving of Harbour Seal and a couple dabs of Eagle sightings to boot from the little ferry we took to bypass the traffic of Victoria. Little traffic all the way up through the low rolling hills of pine forest, beach, rivers and lakes. Arrived in Port Hardy around 3:30pm and checked into C & N Backpackers hostel. Nice clean rooms, bathrooms and showers at a great price! Had dinner at Sports! with a couple pints. Great way to end the day nice and early to get ready for that 5:30 check-in with the Prince Rupert Ferry. Tomorrow is all day on the ferry cruising up the coast. -Mgates

More Pictures!

I've been posting my pictures from the trip on my Flickr page here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/endersmind/sets/72157624365356399/

check it out and feel free to make comments!

-MGates

Day 7... Canada!

Another great day on the road! Tonight we are in Sidney, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, CANADA on Cole's Bay. It was a short day for road miles, but an incredible day for scenery. We left Poulsbo after a full breakfast with Dave Smith, a wonderful host and interesting man with a lot of energy. As we ride farther north we see more gorgeous, huge evergreen trees and more varieties of wild flowers. The highlight today was wild Shasta daisies, brilliant wild fuchsia foxglove, and wild white, pink, fuchsia sweet peas. While visiting with other bikers waiting to board the MV Coho of Black Ball Ferry, they gave us some hints on roads we are traveling. A real treat of hot rods and stock cars were also loading from the ferry as we entered Canada. Another treat was a tour of downtown Victoria with hanging baskets of flowers, white horses with carriages, government buildings and Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub. After settling in with our hosts, most of the boys had a dip in the bay before we had dinner at Mary’s Bleue Moon Café in Sidney, which is a wonderful and friendly place. We were served delicious hot wings, ribs, steak and mushroom pie, with our hosts and town guides, Carrie , Henry and lovely family. This little café is across from the airport with many aeronautical memorabilia photos and models and is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. -CNemec

Day 6.... More Rally and on the road again...

Sorry people, we had been ignoring the blog updates for a last couple of days... But we have a good excuse. We were at the BMW Rallly. Michael already talked about the Rally a little on his previous post. With more than 6100 International participants, the Rally was a huge success. As Michael mentioned, we gave up some of our sleep time and got up real early on Saturday morning and signed up for test ride. I got a K1300S, Michael got an S1000RR and Walter got an R1200 GSA... The new bikes were awesome, had lots of fun... In the afternoon there was GSA Anti-concourse... Walter got the 3rd place with his 1990 R100 GS, we are proud of him. Ofcourse there was some more of the yummy beer drinking... We left the Rally real early on Sunday morning, had a beautiful breakfast at the House of Pancakes and after 320 miles we arrived to Poulsbo, Washington. We are staying with John's old friend and colliuge Dave Smith. Dave used to work for Mitchell International in San Diego. He is very kind to open his doors to us, we thank him dearly. Here is some more Rally pictures.... EA.

Day 3... Redmond and the National Rally! ~160 Miles

We finally made it to the Rally! Good easy day, only about 160 miles. Stopped in the booming town of Bonaza to check out Walter's land. It's still there. Hung out at the country store for a little bit and talked to a few friendly locals. Had a great run around the east side of Crater Lake and stopped to take a few photos. Evan tried to start a snowball fight with Walter, but the mosquitos won (they were guarding the snow packs). Made it to the fairgrounds in Redmond around 4ish, and got registered and setup camp by 5! Found the bier garten and mmmmmm.... that's some good beer! Tomorrow, we'll try to sign up for some Factory Demo bike rides, walk the vendors, and generally make a nusicance of ourselves. Oh, and give our butts a rest. Odd Hightlight of the day: Sign in the window of the bar in Bonanza advertising a Potluck and prize drawing, with Guns for Raffle prizes! Yep, they're giving away Guns, at a Bar. Guess we're not in Cali anymore... -MGates

Day 2... Klamath Falls ~350 Miles

Day 2 down, and the butts are hurting a bit earlier in the day than yesterday. Still sore from the first day, and not toughened up yet. Maybe by day 4 we'll stop talking about our butts... Woke up to the cool forrest sounds (no bear attacks through the night.. whew!), and packed camp to hit the road as soon as possible. A beautiful run through the winding pine roads go us to South Lake Tahoe for a killer breakfast at Heidi's where we discovered that Cheryl's bike decided to loose it's front fork seals. Thankfully, we had wifi at the resturant and found Serria BMW Motorcycles in Sparks, NV. They had parts in stock so we made a quick detour. And by quick, I mean two hours while they dropped everything they were doing to help us get back on the road quickly! Thanks Serria BMW! Then onward through the Nevada Desert and into the high hills of eastern Nor-Cal on the 139 and into Oregon. The road was mostly boring, but the scenery was great. Highlight of the day: Warm hospitality at John's cousin's house. Thanks Joanne and Mike! -MGates

Day 1... 500+ miles

Sore butt... Not bad actually, especially taking a dip in to the 104 degree natural springs pool, most of the tiredness... If that's a word?... We are in Markleeville, CA... In the heart of the Sierras, population 200... Very nice little town, everybody closes everything and go to sleep by 8:00 pm... The sun is still up, helloooo... Rest of the post will be done by Mr Michael Gates... I'll talk to you tomorrow.... EA...

Good start to the trip. Easy day overall... made it out of the desert finally! Got into some trees, got to scrub the sides of my tires a bit just before we made it to camp. The Hot-springs were nice, but I'm looking forward to some more twisty roads... Odd highlight of the day: Somewhere before Kramer Junction, saw a sign advertising Land for Sale. 30' later, a sign marking a Cemetary. Who sells a Cemetary?! -MG

Less than 24 hours....

It is so close, I can almost smell it... It is finally here, we are leaving tomorrow morning at 5:30 am. I apolagize for not updating the blog over the weekend but I have an excuse... I was drunk... Thanks to Mr Allan Long and Ms Melissa Stalnaker. We were at their "Say goodbye to sweet single days" party... I was hurting on Sunday... Anyways I have one picture of one of my fellow riders so far... Please meet Mr Michael Gates... Don't worry about his red eyes, he is only part time vampire... He operates BMW yellow cab on his spare time...

First picture posting as a test...

Let's see if it is gonna work... I feel a little better today, no more fever but still sore throat, runny nose etc... Eureka... Looks like picture uploading is a breeze too. This is my bike, 2010 F800GS with lots of hop-up parts... Sargent seat, Hepco & Becker panniers, Touratech luggage rack, BMW center stand, crash bars, engine guard etc, etc, etc... I will be posting the other riders' rides as well, keep checking in... EA.

Murphy's Law

5 days to the departure and I am sick as a dog... I guess it is better than being sick on the road... I am doing everything to get better at once... Hopefully I will be OK by the departure date... Did more shopping yesterday, got more stuff for the road... Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait....

Decisions, decisions....

We are one more day closer to the departure... 6 days left... Since my buddy Hakan who was gonna join us but because of his US visa complications he won't be able to; the bike I bought for him is now avaliable for the trip as well... Now I am trying to decide which bike should I take to Alaska trip... I think I am gonna take the beemer, since we are going to stop by at the BMW Annual Rally...

Welcome....

Friends,

I'd like to welcome everyone who wants to share our joy and follow our adventure with us... 7 days from today, we will be on the road to beautiful Alaska... 24 days of riding fun... Excitement kicked in already... Preparations still continue while the date comes closer... Everybody is almost ready... I will be posting some pretrip pictures maybe tomorrow... Once again, welcome and happy posting...

Evan