This morning at Lethbridge, Alberta, we left under partly sunny skies with absolutely perfect temperatures in the 50s. For your information, if you ever plan a trip to Alaska, coming thru Lethbridge is a must. There is a huge railroad trestle across a yawning chasm which is an engineering marvel. The Days Inn there has a first class waterslide park indoors.
Entering Montana, we cruised down Interstate 15 with temperatures climbing up into the mid 70s. Robb and I made a stop at a store to replace some light bulbs on our bikes. By the way, gas prices in Alaska were as high as seven dollars per gallon and Canada was approximately five and a half dollars. In Montana, it was $4.19. My Gold Wing with 104,000 miles on and performing perfectly, is giving me 43 MPG even with a trailer.
Here is a photo of Robb truly enjoyed majestic Montana with its valleys, prairies and mountains.
We (David, Robb and I) arrived at Butte, Montana enjoying this short day's drive, covering only 350 miles. It was simply awesome ... going over mountain passes, the Continential Divide, valleys showing views of rock formations, trees, the Missouri River, and other neat geological formations. Cool thing ... I-15 is named after Maureen and Mike -- no kidding!
We plan to leave at 6 a.m. so as to arrive in time for the SKI-HI mini-run. Tomorrow we have a pleasant 360 miles thru Montana, Idaho and Utah.
Motorcycle Mini-Run in the Logan, Utah, Area Join in the fun!
The Logan Motorcycle Mini Run is part of the 7th Annual Alaska Motorcycle Charity Run, a 10,000 mile, 25-day trip from St. Augustine, Florida, to Fairbanks, Alaska, and back. Join us on Thursday, July, 24, 2008, for the Logan Motorcycle Mini Run which will start in Logan, then travel to Bear Lake, Emigration Canyon, Preston, and back to Logan.
Here are the details:Begins with registration at the Merlin Olson Park North Pavilion in Logan, Utah, at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, July 24, 2008. Instructions/map for the local ride will be given out along with a bandana for each rider. The mini-run will begin at Merlin Olson part at 3:00 p.m. and finish at 6:00 p.m. at Merlin Olson Park with food and music. Bikers on the Alaska run will be there to share their tales of the trip thus far. Some of them may join for a portion of the mini-run. Bike leader, Mike Tuccelli, deaf himself and cochlear implant user, will make a short presentation to families of young children about living with hearing loss.
The Registration Form is available in PDF format. Just complete the form and send it to the SKI-HI Institute, 6500 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-6500, or bring it with you to Merlin Olson Park on the day of the ride.
Been on the road without e-mail access, sorry for the delay in the update.
Well, last time we spoke I was in about to spend Saturday evening in Williams Lake BC, Canada. The next morning I headed out hoping to cross the US border and hit Seattle (or thereabouts) by nightfall. I left Williams Lake and headed south down Highway 97, which was a very motorcycle friendly and beautiful road. I was going to head all the way down 97 and run into Highway one at Hope BC, Canada. About 175 miles into the trip I was at the Hells Gate tramway, which is an interesting stop, as I tried to continue south traffic came to an abrupt stop, which isn't a good sign on a mountain pass road.
After a few minutes of waiting I discovered there had been an accident in one of the tunnels (a fatality) and it was going to be several hours before the tunnel reopened for passage. About an hour later we got news that it was going to be midnight before the tunnel was reopened (it was about 4pm at this time). One of the local bikers told me of a way around the incident that would put me into hope. I ended up backtracking about 80 miles and taking Highway 8 over to Meridian then hooking up to Highway 5 to Highway 3 to Highway 1 and finally into Hope BC about 9pm that evening.
While I didn't make it to Seattle, Highway 8 to Meridian was a fantastic 70 mile bike ride. It was a long winding road that followed river/streams for almost the entire run, it was one of my favorite runs of the trip. Another biker told me of a very nice windy road that paralleled Highway 5 for about 40 miles that was much more fun than the Interstate. While I didn't make as far as I'd hoped that day, and added about 200 miles to the trip going around the accident, it was 4 great hours of riding (PS - the sun was out and warm the entire afternoon, which was a huge plus).
Spent the night in Hope then started out with the goal of crossing the border, finding Interstate 5 and heading as far as possible towards my parents house in Costa Mesa California. Over the next few days I crossed through Washington, Oregon, and northern California, making it to Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 23, at 3pm.
That is pretty much my final contribution to the update. I'm going to spend a few days visiting my parents then fly to Florida leaving the bike here in hopes of using it to pre run the Baja 1000 course in October 2009.
The bike (Honda XR650L) ran flawlessly throughout the trip, however it was a little hard on the posterior and the gas mileage was very disappointing (with the headwind I sometimes got as little as 27mpg, the highest mpg was in the high 30's). Only additional costs were the new chain and tires I swapped out in Fairbanks, and I changed the oil twice. I ended up with total miles around 9000. I probably wouldn't do a trip like this on the same type of bike again, I'd use one more suited to pavement.
Hope the ride tomorrow in Logan Utah goes well, good luck on the remainder of the trip and give everyone my best wishes for a safe ride.
Thanks for everything, it was certainly an adventure!
