Day 9      281.9 miles
Total     4264.5  total miles
Day 10  incomplete, will be land and water miles

It turns out I will not make it to Fairbanks as the road has been taken out by mudslides and trees.  I spoke to a trucker, Dave, who said it was out and then everyone, everywhere has been talking about it. The roads that I have just traveled are washed out too and everyone is talking about those too - it has been the most rainfall ever on the books. Some told me that they had 11 feet of snow in November to kick off the season, and then about 20 feet after that. With the snow melt and rain, that's a lot of water looking for a place to go!

The roads shutting down have driven me into a corner and at Haines Junction, I had no choice but to head over the Rockies into Haines, AK. That's where I am now, in the public library, waiting for a ferry. I was going to take one to Skagway, but there is only one road out of there, one of the roads that I had been on earlier, that is now shut down. I believe it was at Teslin, or near Watson Lake - don't really remember. With Skagway out of the picture, my next choice was to take the ferry south, and that one, at 6:30 pm, will take me to Juneau.  Again, no way out of Juneau, so I need to lay over there and catch the 3:30 ferry to Prince Rupert.  The only problem with that is I could not get a reservation for my bike on it, so it is wait and see. The lady at the ferry terminal went out of her way to check all the highways and other possible ferry options. She is going to be checking all day and give me a call if a 10' space on the ferry can be confirmed.

With all the flooding, mudslides and washouts, it drove me over the Northern Rockies and into Haines. I cannot begin to describe what an awesome ride and unbelievable view that was. In the beginning, there was a giant moose trotting up the side of the rode. They have an ungainly gait, but cover a lot of ground very quickly. I'd have to say it looks very majestic, or regal, the way it moved.

There was also a bald eagle soaring around near the top of the mountain range. The road wound up the mountains for a long long time, until I was above the snow line, as well as the timber line, and it was COLD. The descent down was very quick and it was really cool to see how the environment changed so rapidly, as the altitude dropped.

I have to start thinking about getting the bike ready for the ferry, it should take about 4 or 5 hours to get to Juneau and it will be around 11 pm, or later when we start getting off.

Haines, AK  Little town similar to a New England town, nestled in the mountains

At the Summit. About 40 degrees on a beautiful day

Heading to, and over those moutains

I believe those are the Seven Sisters

Dave, a crazy northern roads trucker. If he says he can't get down that highway, I'm not even considering it

I think I could have thrown a rock in the air and hit the clouds, really. But I was so cold, my arm probably would have flown out of my sleeve and skipped over to the other side of the road.

Day 6, 7, 8

Today is Friday, the 8th I think, although my netbook says Sat 9th.  I'm sitting in a Mc'D's in White Horse, in the Yukon territory, because I'm starving and they have wifi!

I've spent the last three days riding in the pouring rain and everything is wet to the core. 4 pairs of gloves - soaked, along with camping gear etc.  Raining?  Seems like good camping weather to me, although setting up and taking down and packing the bike can be a little tricky.

The bike did go down again, due to all the rain. Every shoulder, turnout, rest area and most gas stations are dirt and gravel, rutted, potholes, etc.  Bike was parked and just sunk in, and once again, there is no way I can pick it back up with completely unloading everything in the rain. To boot, since it was on it's side, gas was pouring out of the overflow tube and losing gas around here is no joke. If you don't carry a spare can, quite often you find the next (open) station with very little gas left. Luckily a guy stopped and helped. He told me he had 6-7 gallons in his trailer and just flag him down if I ran out.

I hit Dawson Creek the other day, Mile Marker 0 of the Alaska Highway. Had a guy named Terry take a picture of me and the bike in front of the sign, who happened to be from El Cajun (sp?) CA.  I asked him if he had heard of Bob Greer Electric, but had not. So Bobby, if you ever get a call from a guy named Terry for some work, ask him if he's been to Dawson Creek.

Yesterday was a long day, I think I did about 575 miles and it took pretty near 14 hours. The Alaskan highway goes through the Northern Rockies and climbs and drops and twists and turns and has awesom views, when I could see them. I had hail, wind, rain, whiteout fog, rock slides, etc. Spent part of the ride standing up on my flooboards, face shield up, going about 15 - 20 miles an hour. I probably had 10 - 15 feet of visibility. By mid afternoon yesterday, the rain let up and though it is still drizzly and overcast, the ceiling raised to what looks like about 1,000 feet.

When I say I've been riding in the rain for 3 days, that's just me. I think these folks have been living in the rain for about 2 weeks!  It has taken its toll on the roads.  There are numerous potholes, road repairs and even washouts. I was around Lake Mugo, pulled over for a break and a trucker pulled in who had come from the North. He asked, are you staying here tonight?  I thought it was an odd question from a stranger. I guess I looked at him kind of funny and he said that they were getting ready to close the road down in about 30 minutes, because a river had over flowed the road just up around the corner.

I took off to check it out and sure enough, the river was indeed taking the road for a short cut. It was about a foot deep, maybe 50 feet wide, muddy and moving fast. I had no idea what was below the surface of the water- was road washed out, big rocks? And it was dumping into a big river right on the other side of the road! The flagger said they will be closing the road, if they can't divert the water, then the road could be closed for 2-3 days. Yeah, no, I couldn't afford that. Its not like you just take another route, you are pretty much limited to whichever of the couple roads north that you happen to be on.

He had a small camper go through and I followed it. I'm not sure that helped any because if the camper lost it and I was right behind it, I wouldn't be able to go forward, backward, turn around or anything. I may as well lay the bike on its side and start hitch hiking home! I made it through okay and also through the next one as well. The second on ended up closing the road and when I stopped for gas about a hundred miles up the road, there were signs everywhere that said the road was closed and the rooms were full.

I made it to Watson Lake and was going to call it a day as it was late afternoon and I was pretty tired. No good camping options that I saw and the "cheap hotel" was $119 plus. Whitehorse was only about 4.5 hours up the road, and when I asked a kid what time it got dark around here, he told me it doesn't.

I made it to within about 20 miles of Whitehorse and found a Yukon Provincial campground. No water or electricity, but decent bathroom and $12 a night. I pulled in, made camp and did a few things. I noticed it was pretty quite there, so I checked the time and it was 11:20. Looked like 3 in the afternoon. I hit the rack and woke up about 4:30 am and it was either still light, or light again.

I've seen a bunch of bears, horses, buffalo, deer, etc., but no moose yet.

There are about 4 other adventure riders sitting in here, McD's for the wifi.  The guy to my left is from Toronto and has been all through Alaska and is heading home. He said he has dumped his bike 7 times. Once he was at a gas station and the kick stand went down, he started getting off and the bike went down. He said there were two young girls laughing at him, he told then that's how he does it and walked away into the store.

Guy to me left has been on his phone for an hour setting up a gold mining operation, people charging phones and checking mail. Another couple guys talking about the highway being shut down and everyone flocking to Watson Lake for a room, but they are filled up.

Alaskan Highway starting point

visibility pretty good here at about 75-100 feet. Shrinks right down when  you are moving

once on each side so far

Watson Lake sign post forest. There are thousands of signs

This is where I washed my pan last night, in my front yard

campground view last night

One of the many steel grate road suface bridges. There is a degree of pucker factor on a bike when these are wet and and you come up on them at about 60 mph unexpected.

I think I'll head to Tok, AK, then Fairbanks tomorrow. May do the Top of the World highway into Dawson after that .... not sure because I think it may be 100 miles of dirt and gravel. Depends on the weather and road reports.

Day 5, Monday

535.6 miles today
2543.9 miles total

Crossed into Canada in Portal North Dakota this morning. It was a one lane checkpoint and I was the only vehicle.

Passport please. Have you ever been arrested? Have any pepper spray or firearms, tobacco or alcohol? Where do you live? Where are you going? How long will you be in Canada?

I remember reading somewhere that short direct answers are best, with no chit-chat, so I gave short direct answers and a good deal of them were correct.

Saskatchewan is a HUGE FLAT land.  The hiways go on forever in a straight line. Speed limits are metric so I don't know what they are - 80 - 110 kph. I just went about 85 mph and called it good. With the bike loaded, full tank of gas and me on it, it weighs in at right around 1,000lbs, so it cruises real nice, but is hard to pick up which I would find out later in the day.

I made a stop in Saskatoon, which is a fairly large city, for an oil change.  All the people I met were very nice and tried to steer me in the right direction.  A on a Harley at the gas station had me follow him and took me to an RV service place. They do bikes but didn't have Victory filters. Same with the Honda shop that the folks at a UPS store took me to.   The guy at the Honda shop gave me directions to a Victory dealer - take the Circle highway towards Regina (which was 150 miles in the direction I just came from), go under an overpass and over an under pass and you can almost see the dealer from the road. Oh, okay, sounds simple enough, do you have and address?  No, but I think it is on the outskirts of Saskatoon and on Floral road (which did not come up on the GPS).

I did find it eventually, with the directions of some guys at an auto parts store,who themselves were not sure. I believe Floral road may be a new road and the dealership fairly new?  Anyhow, I eventually found it, got there around 4:45 and the folks took me right in and got to work on it. They are all great people there and I had fun talking with them while I waited. So, if you ever head threw Saskatchewan, and need service, you should definitely stop here. A big thanks to Heather and Mark and Corey, as well as John and Sharon!!!

Guertin Equipment

It was a long, hot day, a lot of miles and running around, and I was beat.  I think I rode for a couple more hours and then finally pulled off to look for a campground.  I found a place but it looked to only be RV's. As I was leaving, I saw an older man and his wife working in the front yard, so I stopped to ask them if they know of a place. His name was Keith Weston and he had a lot of great stories. They seemed to come around and overlap each other and then shoot off in another direction. He told me about the 2 aneurysms  that he had, and that they affected his memory and couldn't drive any more.  Then he remembered that he and his wife were part caretakers of a coop campground. Just drop $10 in the slot for a site, $15 if you want electricity (he had to check with the wife to make sure she knew how much it was).  Great, how do I find it?  Well, he says, go down to the west side of town and find the highway heading north. Take that until you hit some bumpy parts that make your dentures fall out and go west. It will be on your right, has a sign out front.

Keith Weston

I did all that, there was a sign, but you had to get off the road to see it. I knew I was close so took a few rights looking for it. I ended up on a newly made dirt service road and that's where I laid the bike down. Not  on purpose of course, I was going about 20 - 25 mph when the front tire dug into some soft dirt.  If there hadn't been a trucker on the road to help me pick the bike up, I would still be there.

I found the place, made a little fire and had spam, dinty moore and cereal bars for a very late dinner. Of course, being exhausted and still shaken up a little from dumping the bike, I put the corner of the business end of the hatchet into my thigh for good measure. Thankfully it was the other leg!

bike down, gear on, so just an abrassion

thankfully I still had heavy denim riding pants on

just entering Saskatchewan

Day 4, Sunday

524 miles today
2064.4 total

I got on the road pretty early today and the traffic was very light. This was the last day of interstates and have finally made my way to some pretty awesome 2 lane roads. Working my way into North Dakota and the speed limit is 70+ mph, of course that puts me at 84 mph, and I'm still getting about 40 mpg's.

The roads are very long and the landscape and sky are vast. It makes for awesome travelling, but I found out that the gas stations are starting to thin way out. I found out when my low fuel warning light came on!  I cruised for about 10 miles confidently because I was sure I would find a station and I was right, although it was pretty suspicious looking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwknxCfcSDg&list=UUyuWHThrwHSucCAX0Gc4SbA&index=1&feature=plcp


Nobody home and there was a padlock on the pump.  I think it is for farm equipment and you have to call in advance to get someone come down and open up.

I had been getting about 40 miles a gallon and just drove 15 miles with the light on. I was guessing it was a one gallon reserve, but really wasn't sure.  And as I said, there were vast amounts of flat land and far reaching skies, and I could see for what seemed like 30 miles in every direction, but saw nothing except empty land.

There was a sign up the road that listed 2 towns, one was 22 miles in the direction I was headed, and another 20 miles in the wrong direction. I chose the longer trip in the right direction and shoved off.  Well, 20 miles later I came across a gas station ... nice ... it was closed ... f-bomb. There was a shop next door with a nice, older, local couple and I asked them if there were any other stations around.  The woman defers to the guy, and he thinks for a minute and says there are 2 stations, one is two blocks down the road, and the other is 3 blocks.  I took a peek down the road and didn't see anything, so I knew he was talking about North Dakota blocks.  No choice, off I went.  I did eventually find it and it was open!!!!  I filled up my 5.5 gallon taken - it took 5.416 gallons. I did a little quick math - gallon is 128 ounces, I had about 8/100's of a gallon left, which is just about a shot glass full of gas!

Before that, I met Mark Mowbray, who was retired and is now the Executive Director of the Yellowstone Trail Association and is travelling all over the US on his own dime. He sleeps in his SUV for 3 nights, then a hotel for a night. Sounded like he is keeping busy and making a nice contribution in his retirement!  He told me that the first ever cross country route was built to get from Seattle Washington to Yosemite, and then Plymouth Mass to Yellowstone. He said it predated Rt 66 and also numbered hiways.  I guess that makes Yellowstone top dog in the Parks universe.

Got my first decent meal in many days at a cool retro style dinner.

Kroll's Diner

Stopped just short of the Canadian border because it was getting late, but then noticed it was 9:30 PM and the sun was still 3 fists above the horizon!

I'm typing this on day 6, I have some catching up to do. It's1:30 EST, not sure what time it is here.

Random pictures:

Add caption

A plug for Mark - yellowstonetrail.org  I have not had time to look at the site yet myself.

2nd gasless station

resting

Day 3, Saturday

Day 3, Friday
391.8 miles

The weather is beautiful today and I was pretty tired all day so made a lot of stops.  I wasn't able to find a camp ground for quite a while but did eventually find something.  The place I stopped had a bunch of tent sites, problem was, they were all flooded out.  I was able to get a spot but had to kick the geese and their parade of baby out and then clean the mine field of goose poo.  I didn't have time to stop at a store so it was beef jerky and trail mix and water for dinner.

After I had set up and got settled in, a guy came strolling over.  The place is a mix of what Doug called hard shells (campers), tents (I think I was the only one) and a mobile home park.  Doug owned a place there and was one of the full time residences.  We chatted about my bike and my trip, and then he said he had a bike - how about a come over for a beer and see it.

Doug

Tucked away in his garage, he had a sweet purple and black, fully dressed, 1996? Harley Electra Glide. Awesome.  And that beer was probably the best I've had in quite a while.  I asked what was up with all the water flooding the place and Doug said it was from the Mississippi river.  Huh?  He said, yeah, it's right over there behind those bushes, and pointed about 150' down at the end of the road.
We went over to check it out and I took a couple pictures, but they don't begin to show awesome the river is. It doesn't flow fast - about 6 miles an hour, but it is a massive amount of water and flows with a lot of authority.  I knew that if I dove out into it, I would not be back on shore again for a least a mile, if in fact I could get back.  All I could think about when I saw it was Tom, Jim and Huck, building and sailing their raft down the river. Doug said that he once took a 6 hour canoe trip down the river - I am definitely down for that some day, but I'm thinking a log raft instead.

Mississippi River

Full moon over the Mississippi

Early the next morning, Doug came over to wish me luck and gave me a few round, hard plastic wall patches for the kick stand on my bike. I was parked in the grass and was using a split piece of firewood to keep it from sinking in!

Doug, hope to see you here when you get that computer figured out!

Day 2, Friday

462.2 miles

Today started in a light, steady drizzle. I checked the weather radar at a rest area and thought it would head East while I was heading West, and I'd be out of it in a hour or so. I couldn't  have been more wrong! It rained until the early afternoon, and for about 45 minutes it poured.  There was a lot of I had all my rain gear on and was dry, but had to stop under an overpass when my visibility dropped to nothing due to the rain and the water kicked up by all the cars and trucks doing 75 mph. Between that, my face shield and wind screen, my visibility was so bad I thought I was going to hit a guard rail pulling in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89PoAkFxN9g

The rain did finally stop and my plan to beat the Chicago traffic failed miserably!  I thought I got there early enough to beat the traffic, but I guess there is always traffic and it took me 2 or more hours to get through. I had all my rain gear on, plus a few layers and nowhere to pull over with causing a major traffic jam in order to take it off. 

Found a camp ground and called it a day.

FYI, I'm typing this on Sunday, day 4. I'm about an hour south of the Canadian border in North Dakota and the sky is blue, the clouds are white and the sun is yellow .... at 9:30 PM.

Day One, Thursday

626.7 miles
44.6 mi/gal
61.00 mph

First day in the books!  A lot of interstate driving today with mixed results. I was able to cruise almost the entire length of Pennsylvania at about 80 mph which made up for all the rest stops I took! I ended up just over the state line in Ohio. The bike handled excellent when it was moving although when its all loaded up, it is tough handling with any grace around the parking lot.

There was a lot of highway construction going on, and more 18 wheelers than I ever hope to see again. I mean hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. Its funny (kind of) when I'm headed up a steeper type grade and there is an endless line of trucks in the right hand lane, until we hit the grade. Once they see the hill, about 20% of the trucks think they're faster than the others and pull out into the passing lane, but end up going the same speed as their buddies and just causing a gigantic road block. Once we hit the down hill, most of them pull back in line in the right hand lane and that's our chance to pass!

Although it is far from my optimum choice of travel, I think I will stick with the interstate again today to try to make decent time. I am pretty sure it will be a much lower mileage day today as I'm fiddlin with imposing a 5 pm travel curfew on myself. I ended up pulling off the road at 9 pm, and by that time it was too late to mess around with finding a campground, so ended up in a hotel.

It's 6 am of day 2 and I just peaked out the door ... raining. Hmmm .... should be an interesting day!