Motorcycle Touring

659.5 miles

As I was getting ready to go, I checked the tire again. Oh yea, I was going to have to change it soon. Maybe I can baby it until I get home.

In Baker, I stopped again to check the tire and saw a couple of threads. Too late and I’m in the middle of nowhere. I decided to continue on carefully and go as far as I could. I figured I may be forced to stop and hitch a ride to the next town with bike tires. I slowly continued on making the right turn in Bowman and heading south. I stopped again in Buffalo for gas and to check the tire. It seemed to be holding up pretty well. The showing thread didn’t seem to be getting wider or longer so it was wearing better than I’d hoped. A couple stopped by on their old Harley and we chatted for a few minutes about the weather and the state of my tire.

It was about 70 miles to Belle Fourche, where a tire might be had and just a little farther to Spearfish just in case. Since the tire seemed to be holding up pretty well, I made a decision at the 168 fork and made a left intending on going into Sturgis instead of checking two towns that may not be able to accomodate me and forcing me on to Sturgis anyway. The guy on the Harley said that Sturgis was gearing up for the upcoming bike event and many vendors were in town. I might have a better chance there. So carefully I headed on down the road.

I made it to Sturgis and hunted up a phone book. I found the location of a dealer, got the address, checked the map in front of the phone book and headed on out. At the Sturgis BMW/Suzuki/… dealer, I pulled in and asked if they had a tire available. In fact they had 5 tires, all Metzler Sportecs. I’d intended on putting on Roadtecs when I got home, especially since these were more for twisties and not much good for distance riding but I was caught by the short hairs and they reamed me out pretty good. $300 total for the tire and change. Again, don’t get me wrong. I was hurting. I might have made it home on the tire, but I really doubt it.

I spent an hour or so grabbing lunch and hanging around waiting on the bike to get finished. A couple had come in behind me on their BMW RT also needing a rear tire. I was ahead of them and there was another tire to be done at 2pm so they were in for a wait, unfortunately.

Turns out they have 5 or so bikes and three of them are stashed around the country. They’d fly in to a city where a bike was stashed and ride for a couple of weeks to the next big town, stash the bike and fly home. The RT had been ridden from LA to Phoenix and parked, then they flew back to Phoenix and rode up to Denver and parked it. This time they’d picked up the bike in Denver and was heading to Chicago. Sounded like an interesting idea.

We talked bikes and discussed the GS’ that were on the showroom floor.

Once my bike was done, I loaded it back up, waved at the couple and headed on south again. The ride on 14 down to 85 was better this time than last time since I was on a sportbike and could enjoy the sweet curves. I headed over O’Neil Pass and into Wyoming. As I got to the edge of the plateau, I could see Wyoming spread wide in front of me. I was again a hot day with no prospect of it getting any cooler. I’d also intended on making it home tonight so there was no stopping.

I was stopping more and more often to change the batteries in the GPS. I was going to have to mount an accessories plug to the fairing for this and to charge the other gear while camping. The more I dicked around with batteries, the better the idea sounded.

While droning down the road, I pulled out the camera and got a nice picture of my “heads down display” 🙂

Then a pretty cool shadow pic.

As I got to Lusk, my chain was making quite a bit of nose. The BMW dealer had also adjusted the chain out to the farthest setting so I knew it was hosed yet again. My fault for not bringing my tools or lube to take care of the chain. I will know better next time.

In Cheyenne I stopped for gas and a soda. The lady behind the counter and I talked for a few minutes then she commented that there was freeway construction on 25 south of 80 to the Colorado border. I thanked her and stayed on 85 through town. 85 through Cheyenne was shorter than I’d expected and certainly more interesting than taking the freeway. As I approached the underpass for 80, a guy in a white pickup changed into the right lane and slowed down just a bit so I could come along side. He was telling his young daughter about the bike and she was sitting up as far as she could in order to see. As I moved off, I waved to them both and I could see her small hands waving above the dashboard.

I crossed the border into Colorado and spotted the familiar welcome sign. I stopped, looped around and got a Welcome Home picture.

I kept on heading south on 85. I was going to make a right and head over to 25 south, but someone apparently didn’t want me to make that turn. I passed by corn fields, a processing plant spewing flame from one of its stacks and then made it to Greeley. I used the bypass and made a right on 34 heading over to 25 south. Just before 25 the GPS’s battery cut out yet again and I was tired of it so I didn’t stop and didn’t worry about it. It was cool to have it and checking out the stats was interesting but it wasn’t as capable as a more expensive model and following the side roads on the maps didn’t need a fresh download of software.

I got on 25 south, dodged the insane traffic down to my exit and headed home.

576.8 miles

I got up at the normal time of a few minutes before 6, got my gear together, cleaned up and headed up Going To The Sun Road. It was much better this morning, traffic being lighter. It was easier and safer to pull off and check out the view.

Of course the construction was still going on so the road was down to one lane in a couple of places. I got to the first one and there were a couple of bikes in the line. A BMW and something else I couldn’t get a view of next to him. We moved on, around the hairpin and up the mountainside. I pulled off at a couple of places to take in the view. Rita and I’d been here a couple of years ago so it all looked familiar. About half way up, I pulled out and took a look at the famous hanging valley on Mt Oberlin.

I’ve been harassing Rita about doing some hiking and camping. This’d be a great place to go. I’d love to camp up there and check out the valley. At one of the pullouts, spotted the two bikers heading around one of the turns in front of a hanging valley and captured them along with a pic of the valley.

Just as I was getting to the last couple of turns approaching Logan Pass, I stopped to take a look at the valley and right next to the bike was a Marmot. He jumped up as I looked down and scurried down to the next rock, eyeing me warily. As he sat on the rock, he’d look out then down and then turn a hairy eyeball back to me.

I stopped at Logan Pass for a break and to grab a soda however the store was closed since they were repairing the roof. I chatted with the two guys. One was on a Honda sportbike. I wasn’t able to see the model. They were heading up to Jasper and we chatted for a few minutes about weather and general conditions. They went out to take some pictures and I grabbed a quick snack. I was watching the lot and one of the chipmonks when I turned and saw someone taking a picture. Now I passed several folks taking odd pictures of flowers and the scenery but the angle of his camera said he was shooting pretty close by. I continued around and just across the lot, a deer was browsing at the edge of the lot.

I kept myself beside and behind the bike so I wouldn’t startle him since other folks were starting to gather and get their pictures. After a few minutes of browsing, he hopped over the fence, across the road and up into the trees.

After getting out of the park, I headed south on 89. I’d spotted the Lewis And Clark National Forest and decided I wanted to check it out. The roads in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation were very quiet, very little traffic and you could easily see for long distances which made for the ability to get some speed up 🙂 I stopped in Browning for a break and the soda I didn’t get at Logan Pass then continued on the Lewis And Clark Trail down to Great Falls.

It was getting pretty hot as I rolled into town. I pulled in to a gas station to locate a bike dealer. I’d run out of oil for the bike and the level was a tad low. I found a listing for “Steve’s Suzuki”, address of 4700 9th Street. I was on 10th Ave and I’d passed 14th Street coming into town and didn’t see a 9th Street when I hit 6th Street. Scratching my head (figuratively), I crossed the river and got to 1st Street. Then 5th and then 9th Street when I made a left. The house numbers were going down so I looped around, got back on 10th Ave and made a right on 9th Street. Turns out 9th Street ends at about 2800. Hmmm, maybe it said 9th Ave. I turned back around and got to 9th Ave and made a left. The house numbers were in the triple digits and increasing until I got to about 800 at the river. Again I looped back to 10th Ave and stopped at a gas station. Filled up and asked the two clerks about the location. “Well, maybe 9th Street goes down to a field then continues on the other side.” Seems they didn’t understand how the streets were named either so I got a soda, geared up and headed out of town passing a Harley-Davidson dealer right on the main drag 🙂

I stopped on the side of the road after Belt after hitting a largish butterfly/moth and smelling the burst of fragrance of whatever it had ingested. I was changing the batteries on the GPS when I looked at the helmet.

Looks like I almost ingested a butterfly.

I made the right turn following 89 south and stopped at the overlook for Sluice Boxes State Park. It was a nice little stop and I really didn’t expect it since the rest of the ride has been pretty open. I stopped because I thought this was a bit unusual from my point of view. I was heading to the Lewis And Clark National Forest not really expecting much of a forest since I’ve always pictured eastern Montana as being fairly plains like so this was a bit of a surprise.

Next I headed down into the Lewis And Clark National Forest and boy was I surprised. The air started cooling down, a welcome relief, and there were quite a few trees. In fact, it was reminiscent of some of the areas in Colorado. Very familiar. I passed through Monarch and then went over Kings Hill Pass. On the other side at a pullout, there was a discussion of the Showdown Ski Area. Pretty cool stuff. I came around the bend and was on a nice long straightaway, rolling forest covered hills in the background.

As I was exiting the park, I spotted a sport-touring bike just finishing a U-turn. I went by them waving and looked at the mileage marker signs at the intersection. I decided that Harlowtown was a bit far away and that I needed some gas so I made the right and headed down to White Sulpher Springs. When I got there, the folks on the FJR pulled in behind me and went inside. I followed them inside and I chatted briefly with the guy. He was from Mexico and he and his wife had been to Jasper and were on their way back to Mexico. They lived smack in between Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Cool beans. We talked about Copper Canyon and he expressed concern that his rear tire would make it home. He asked me if there was a dealer in Jackson Hole where he might get a tire. I told him that I was sorry, I hadn’t been there so I really didn’t have an answer. I did say that there was sure to be a dealer somewhere on the way south.

While he was busy, his wife started out of the store and some guy asked her if her gear was hot. It was apparent that she didn’t speak any english so I headed the guy off and told him the gear could be hot, especially while walking around, but that it was protection and that as the bikes got up to highway speeds, they tended to be cool enough. We chatted for a few more minutes. He and his wife were taking their daughter up to Alaska where she was going to be teaching. I suggested they might head up through Banff and Jasper National Park and take in some sights.

While the couple was suiting up and getting ready to get on the bike, I politely asked them if I could get a picture. “Of course,” he says and they started to back away. “No no, with you guys in the picture 🙂 ” They came back over and I was able to get a picture.

He said that when I came to Mexico, I should check in with the Iron Wind Moto Club for some hospitality.

I turned back around and followed 12 east. The lands started getting flatter again but not as flat as I’d expected and certainly not as flat as the Snake River Valley in Idaho. The heat was up there but not insanely bad (everything is compared with 107 in Idaho now 🙂 I passed small towns, some only towns in name. There were convoys of trucks with oversized loads coming my way periodically. As I passed Musselshell, a 22ft wide oversized load was slowly heading my way. The truck in front was forcing the cars and trucks ahead of me to the side of the road. She simply warned me though and I slowly motored by.

For a while as I approached Forsyth, the next town closer was Vananda. I figured that since it was actually on the signpost, it was another one of the smaller village type towns. Amazingly enough, when I got to Vananda, it was totally abandoned and all the buildings were long empty and falling in. Weird.

At Forsyth I made the left to get on 94. It was late enough that I was going to stop for the evening at Miles City. I stopped for a break at a rest area and checked the back tire on the bike. It was getting thinner than I’d expected. I was hoping to make it home on it, especially since I was only a days ride away. When I checked it, it looked like there were many small cracks in the tire. Not good news. Turns out it was just little fingers of rubber coming off of the tire from the heat and road friction.

I made it to Miles City and hit a Motel 6 so I could shower and sleep in a bed. The GPS was eating batteries like mad and I was stopping every couple of hours to change the batteries where just a couple of days before a pair would last throughout the day. I zipped over to Wal*Mart and replenished my supply just in case and headed back to the motel. I went to change the battery in the Autocomm and the connector broke. This was the second connector since the first one had broken off last year and I’d replaced it with a Radio Shack one. No music for tomorrow. Ah well, I had all the electronic devices plugged in for recharging so I hit the hay for a good nights sleep.

490.6 miles

At 3:30 I woke up and it was pretty chilly. In breaking down the camp, my fingers got quite cold. Since it was cold, I threw on an extra t-shirt as well as the sweatshirt. I got everything packed up and headed out. The camp was pretty quiet and there weren’t many folks on the road at 7am.

As I left the campground and got on Icefields Parkway, there were a bunch of elk feeding on the side of the road. The roads were nice and empty for that time of the morning so I was able to snap a quick shot.

Unfortunately my thermometer said it was 40 but of course, with the wind chill it was a bit cooler. I got to the beginnings of the ice fields and had to stop for a break and tried to warm up. I hung out there for a good 15 minutes warming my hands on the bike exhaust and grabbing a snack for energy.

Several cars went by then a large group of bikes. I got suited up and headed on. The bikes had stopped at an overlook so I pulled in to take another break and get another picture.

I continued on to the Columbia Icefields and stopped at the information center at the toe of the Athabasca Glacier which is a part of the Columbia Icefields. The sign said not to go on the toe of the glacier as folks have died of hypothermia before rescuers could pull them from the crevasse.

Man, the mountains are so close yet so high! Pictures just don’t do them justice. I started getting a bit warmer but still took another break for gas and to warm up at the intersection of 11. The temps were showing below 40 so getting warm was necessary.

After the park, Route 1 was very very busy. I stopped at Dead Man’s Flat for gas then on to Calgary to get the chain tightened. For sure I must remember to put the socket and a 3/8″ wrench in the gear list for next time. Plus some lube and the plexus stuff Dantesdame was using. I got to Calgary at about 12:30 and called Rita to see if she could find a bike shop. While I was waiting on her, I asked the guy behind the counter and he just said “north” and waved his hand. Outside I snagged a mailman and asked him. He pointed me to Bowcycle and gave me directions. I headed down there but they didn’t have a 33mm socket, necessary to get the nut off of the axle. I didn’t want to hang around until his crew returned from lunch so I asked if there was a Suzuki dealer around that might be able to help. He pointed me to GWCycleWorld off of 2 and gave me directions.

When I got there I asked how long it’d take to get my chain tightened and the service manager said his guys were all busy so it might be 60 to 90 minutes. Well, no help for it and I hung around waiting for them to finish. By 2:14pm I was finally out the door and heading south. I was appreciative of his efforts but you know, as a Harley rider too, I know the Harley dealers have a policy of dropping everything to get you back on the road and I kind of miss that. It was a great feeling that I could stop in anywhere and get back on the road as soon as possible. The nice thing was that it only costs 15 bucks Canadian so it was only expensive in time. Must remember the additional tools.

Traffic on 2 was a tad heavy. I got to the border without much fuss and by hauling ass since I was a couple of hours behind schedule and it was eating into my Glacier NP visiting time. I stopped for a quick shot of Glacier National Park and Montana before approaching the border.

I rolled up to the border and the guard asked what I did, where I lived, if I was bringing anything back into the states and to look at my ID. Computers, Colorado, nope and here you go.

I continued past the border and started hunting for the St. Mary entrance to Glacier National Park. At the intersection for the park, I stopped for gas and then pulled in for a bite to eat. A buffalo burger that was more bun than burger. A handful of soggy fries that I only had a few bites of and I was off into the park. Had I been there earlier, I might have pulled off to take in the sights but I saw that half the campgrounds were full so I figured I shouldn’t dawdle. The drivers were coming towards me, looking at the sights and with the sun in their eyes. I spent most of my time keeping an eye on the drivers.

There were a couple of construction zones that reduced traffic to one way but mostly it was a fast, hairy trek to Lake McDonald. It seems other drivers had the same idea and were trying to get to the campsites before they were all gone. On the other side of the lake, I pulled in to the Apgar campground and went through the loops looking for a campsite. The first two were full (I started from loop D and went backwards since the other folks were heading to loop A). When I got to loop B, I found the last site. A little campsite that is good for a car or motorcycle. I pulled in, zipped down to the check in place and secured my site.

I figure that in the morning I can head back early and be able to take in the sights without much traffic trouble. I got my site setup, discovered that there was a large group of kids at the next site over who were a bit noisy. I headed out to the bathrooms and spotted a couple across the way at a campsite as well with a tent up. He was in his chair and she was massaging his feet. “Hey, can I be next?” 🙂 Turns out he’s planning on riding up to Prudhoe Bay. next year. He’d taken his BMW up to Alaska last year and wanted to go the whole way next time. I got cleaned up, headed back to my tent, put in my earplugs and went to sleep to sweet tinnitus.

553.2 miles

At 4:50 I woke up. I got my gear together noticing that the tent was rather damp from the dew. After getting packed up I headed out. I stopped at an IHOP for breakfast and chatted with Rita until the battery died on the cell then headed north. The morning was on the cool side, hovering around 50 degrees so I was glad to have the sweatshirt. As it started warming up to 60, I began shivering a little.

As always, when I approached the Canadian border at Sumas/Huntingdon I was a little apprehensive. He asked me if I’d been in Canada before (yes), where I was going (Jasper) and where I was from (Denver) then let me through. After going by I took it a little slow since I have to register the changed speed limits and keep an eye on the inside orange speedo reading. It took a bit to change my 70 miles = 1 hour vs 100 klicks = 1 hour rough thinking.

I stopped in Chilliwack to take a break and grab a soda from a Burger King. I chatted with an older guy who asked me about the bike. He thought the biggest problem would be with speeding tickets 🙂

The mountains in Canada heading up 1 were awe inspiring. On the side of the road the waterfalls coming right down to the freeway were quite beautiful. It’s too bad that there was so much traffic and the shoulders were so narrow. I considered pulling off to get a pic or two but I needed to be in Jasper tonight.

In cache creek while filling up, a couple pulled up on their Harley. He asked how fast I’d been on the bike and I told him 160. He said that I still had a ways to go, eh? The bike will go 300 klicks, right? It didn’t dawn on me until I was on the way that he thought I’d gone 160 KPH and not 160 MPH. Had I known I would have told him that I’d gone 255 klicks

When I got up to 5 north, I was still admiring the mountains. There were Jersey barriers everywhere (I wonder what they’re called in Canada) making it difficult to get a decent shot. The entire valley was glacially created so the peaks were high but the valleys were broad and rounded. Beautifully rounded and forested slopes up to the tree line looking like a green wash.

Something weird though. As I got closer to 16, the bridges seemed to be coated in kerosene. There were long tire trails exiting bridges and I kept to the tracks to try and avoid splashing too much up on the bike.

Finally at Avola the traffic cleared up enough and there were pullouts where I could stop and get a pic or two. There were still Jersey barriers though. I was heading by a great view when I realized there were no Jersey barriers so I turned around and got a nice pic.

Later I was able to do it again when traffic was on the light side.

At Valemount I met a couple of guys on bikes; one an SV and the other an open framed bike. We chatted briefly as we cleaned our helmets. They were heading up to Jasper too.

At the 16 intersection I made the right towards Jasper and as I came around the corner I spied Mt Robson at 3954 meters. That was awe inspiring. There was a rest area just on the other side of the pass but no good view so I looped through and then stopped on the shoulder with others to get a picture. I must say, the picture does not do it justice. The size of the mountain and it’s imposing presence is just not able to be captured. It’s much closer and higher than it appears in the pic. The peaks were scraping the lower layer of clouds clean and throwing a spray of snow and ice behind it like an upside down boat.

On my way in I followed a river up to Moose Lake. The river and lake were a milky green in color. Some quick checking and I wasn’t able to find out what caused the color.

While heading in, I was passed by a guy on a Harley. He’d head by and then get stuck behind a car or RV until I caught up and passed him. A bit later he’d pass me again then the same thing’d start all over again. Finally he stopped at the info board outside of Jasper. About this time the two guys I’d met back in Valemount passed by and I got behind them at the light. After the light changed, the guy on the SV wheelied into town.

I had intended on camping at Jasper but first I wanted to check out the motels figuring that if it were cheap enough, I might just get a room instead. We normally do two days camping then a day in a room. When I got there though I fould out it was much like a ski town, like Vale, and that rooms were likely to be far out of my range. So I hopped on the bike and headed down to the first camp site at Whistlers. There was a bit of a line waiting to get in and someone was out with a sheet of paper and chatting with the folks in cars. I figure he was checking on the intentions since the car in front of me turned around and headed back out. When he got to me I found that they reserve spaces for motorcycles since our needs are much smaller than a camping car or someone with an RV or trailer. I got my spot, headed over and set up camp. After dinner I took my food over to the lockers and locked it up. No need for any visiting bears in the night 🙂

The frigging mosquitoes were gigantic. One got the back of my neck and the other got me through my pants and bicycle pants I was wearing underneath. Rita’d given me some oil to use (she doesn’t like chemicals) which worked real well. I watched one mosquito hover around my hand until she landed on the sleeve of my sweatshirt and tried to drill for blood there. A swat ended that exploration. Since Rita hadn’t heard from me, I took my cell phone and charger over to the bathroom and plugged it in. I sat outside reading a magazine until I had a couple of bars then gave her a quick call to let her know I’d arrived in Jasper and was ok. The noise in the campground was up a little but a couple of earplugs took care of that and I hit the sack.

405.1 miles

At about 5:53 I woke up and started to break camp. The other guy also was up a few minutes later. Baxter was running his nose on the outside of my tent. As I got things cleaned up and started bringing my stuff to the bike and tying it in place, Baxter got in side and woke BluePoof up by licking her face. Sorry about that BluePoof 🙂 I was ready to go by 6:45 or so, so we headed over to get breakfast.

Mr. Ed was there waiting. Turns out no one told the manager that there was a larger group heading over for breakfast and we were asking for separate checks. I heard him calling other servers from home to take care of the extra guests and we were put into the conference room. It looked all set up for a meal so I figure there was another group coming for lunch. I’d ordered a short stack and a side of sausage. When it came it was gigantic. I was only able to eat about half before stopping. The Austrians, DD and BP arrived at 7:30 along with Peter, who’d said he wasn’t going to come.

After some genial chatting with the others in the group, we started getting ready to go so I paid my bill and suited up. Michael asked me about the Aerostich and thought it was great that I could wear regular clothes under the gear and still be protected rather than wearing the leather pants they had.

After getting out to the lot and saying my goodbyes, I asked Peter about a Wal*Mart so I could get batteries and a sweatshirt since it was a bit chilly. I headed out, waving at ForceOne who was coming out of the hotel, stopped in at Wal*Mart and got my goods then headed off north. I was considering Crater Lake but I also had a bit of a schedule and figured that I might not make it home in time if I headed south so I decided on a northbound ride.

I was a tad agressive on the way up 97, passing when I could. I got behind a long line of cars, bikes, and RV’s. I passed the last car then a white car to get behind the bikes. At one of the places where the lane goes to two lanes for passing, the guy in the white car came up on the right and was a little ahead when he decided he wanted to get in front of me. Nope, I’d just passed him so I wasn’t letting him back in. I’d hung back a tad so I wasn’t a part of the group of bikes so I closed up just a bit. When I looked over, he was red faced and screaming “asshole”. Of course his windows were up so no noise was coming out. I gave him the one fingered salute and he pulled in behind me, high beams on. Not long afterwards I was able to get by the rest of the group and the RV and hot footed it up the road.

I followed the same route back to Hood River stopping a couple of times for pics or to pee.

At the toll I gave her a ten and got back $9.50 in change. Hmm, I thought the toll was 75 cents. I did get back a 50 cent piece though so maybe it was her mistake.

I made a left on 14 then a right up 141. The road was pretty nice if a little heavily travelled. I was able to pass when necessary and with no problems. I was planning on taking 23 north to 12 and enjoying one of the back roads. I could see on the map that it was a dirt road for a couple of miles.

At the split for 90 the road turned to dirt. The sign said 17 miles of narrow road but there was little traffic. I hit the bushes for another break and headed on down the road.

Surprisingly there was more traffic than I’d expected. I got to 12, made the left and followed the same route I did on Friday to get past Seattle.

Once in a while I’d get a car full of 20 somethings that’d pull up next to me on the freeway and look over the ‘busa 🙂 It’s nice to be noticed.

After Seattle I pulled in to a gas station and called Rita. It was late enough that I didn’t expect to make it as far as I wanted (past Vancouver) so I had to cut out one of the rides I’d planned following 99 up to 1. I was thinking of hitting the Van Zandt State Forest but Rita found Bay View State Park so I headed over there. The ranger said to find a spot and let them know which one I wanted. As I went through the park, I found that all the sites had “Reserved” on the little posts. I went back to ask if there was an available one and she said that they just hadn’t turned the signs back around yet and that any without a little receipt was available. I snagged number 42 and got set up.

A guy on a Goldwing had the spot next to mine and we chatted briefly.

I was going to hit the showers but it turns out that they were coin operated and I’d used the last of my coins at the last gas station so I was out of luck. Rita and I chatted for half an hour, discussing routes and the costs for riding in Canada (cell phones were 60 cents a minute). I got ready for bed and hit the sack.