Home

I made it home today. The ride was short by comparison, about 400 miles. I took RT 86 through the southern tier. This was a nice route except the road conditions were real bad in parts. The weather was good, although a little windy. My trip was just short of 8200 miles plus a little over 300 on the DRZ 400 dirt bike. I was on the road a little over 31 days. I will post, like last time, more photos and video as I review and process them. The trip to Alaska I was in the rain 15 of 39 days. Some of those days, an all day soaking rain. This trip I might have an hour to an hour and a half total of light to sprinkle rain. Saw a lot of storms, but was able to avoid them or time them so that they were not a factor.

My appreciation goes out to Ken and Carol for their hospitality. To Sandra and Chaz, Ron, and Bob for their hospitality and friendship. To Fred and Judy who had the toughest job, walking Knucklehead (her real name is Lucy) our almost two year old golden retriever twice a day. To my wife Rene' who lets me go on these adventures. More to come.

Slider

My run from Albert Lea, MN., through Chicago to east of Cleveland in a word, suck. Sorry for the bluntness, but the trip was good for the first two hours. Then the traffic started getting very heavy, and it is difficult to make time, and put down miles. I dealt with the traffic which was heavy with some very nutty drivers to Chicago. My first video was just after getting to Chicago and the traffic was slowing down. Thought I got some of the actual traffic jam, but maybe my frustration over ruled that idea.

I spent one and a half hours in 86 degree heat going 10 feet at a time, never getting out of 1st gear in this traffic jam. I did follow another bike on the shoulder for about a 1/4 mile before the shoulder narrowed too much to proceed that way. I finally had enough and got off the highway to try and make my way through the city. Ended up going through the inner city and learning their rules of the road. I guess the object is to be first. Had a woman who twice tried to race me through an intersection after pulling beside me in the bicycle lane. The third time, she just pulled beside me then cut in front of me to cut me off like she was the queen of Chicago. She wants to be first, go ahead. I did video it, but will not post it. She then proceeded to try and pass a van the same way, and on her second try, cut him off. Then a male comes flying by me in the bicycle lane. Now I was not putzing around in the hood, I was going quick to get out of there. Which brings up this observation. Some genius traffic engineer got all the lights timed so that they turn red when you get to them. My bike was showing full bars on the temp gauge, and I could not get going long enough to cool the engine down. 25 to 30 lights and I made two, one was green the other orangish. After about another hour to and hour and a half I finally got back to I90 and the traffic was moving. I hopped on, and I thought I was now going to put down some miles.

I am on this three lane bridge doing 65 to 70 when I heard a splat and a scrapping sliding noise behind me. I am wondering what the hell is that, and I then see a black box sliding across the lanes in front of a car. My right pannier / case had fallen off. How or why it happen I do not know. Luckily the car did not hit it, and it appears it made it to the shoulder without being struck by any of the high speed traffic. The bad news is I am on a bridge with narrow lanes, and a shoulder about 18" wide. My bike is 38" wide. I park as far to the right as the concrete barrier will allow, and proceed to head back to the pannier. Just like the old days as a cop, having traffic wiz by you without the drivers giving a thought of moving over or even slowing up a bit.

I found the case to be remarkably undamaged. The hinges are worn, and there are some serious scrapes, but the integrity was intact. Those Jesse cases can really take a licking. I got the case back on, and when I got a break, took off. That bike can really go when you get on it.

My goal was to get onto the east side of Cleveland. I did not want to deal with morning traffic going into Cleveland. Problem was I had lost almost three hours with the Chicago delay, and the pannier ordeal. I was determined to reach my goal, and upon checking my smart phone for the weather decided I could get in between the storms. I started into Cleveland in the dark, and half way through it started to rain. So much for the "smart" in smart phone. The perfect way to end the day, in the rain. I made it to the east side and ended the day at 14.25 hours and 755 miles.

Video of Cleveland.

Bad Lands

The morning started out very cloudy so the photography was less then inspiring. The clouds cleared up at about 10:00 local and by then the light was high and the rocks were colorless for the most part. I guess we will call this a scouting trip, but as interesting as the area is, I don't find it very photogenic. Maybe that is just me, or maybe I haven't found the non tourist off the beaten path spots for photos. I could only pick two photos for the blog. A big horn sheep, and one of the features. The two videos tend to show the area better. I stayed until about 11:15 before getting on I90 to start east. I ran until 9:00 pm CT before stopping. I didn't get as far as I had hoped. I will try to get up early and get on the road early. I would like to get through Chicago, and Cleveland before the end of the day tomorrow.

Great visit

Thursday I ended my visit with Ken and CJ. They were such great hosts, but on top of that such great people. I left Boise for Jackson to visit my nephew Greg. The trip over was uneventful, and traffic on the Teton Pass took the fun out of it. I met Greg after work and he had his girlfriend Morgan with him. They make a great couple. We went out to dinner at a nice place, and Morgan paid despite my plea.

I left Jackson, WY a little late and did not get too far before the dark, cold, and Rene's voice in my head telling me I am not to ride at night convinced me to stop short of my goal. Today's ride was just a blast to get to Wall, SD so that I can hit the Bad Lands. I had planned to do some sunset at the park, but the clouds were too thick, and no sun to be seen. I hope the conditions are better in the am, but there is the possibility of rain. We'll see in the morning.

The ride was very windy, and I found myself being tossed around a bit.

Note on the two day dirt riding, we did about 200 miles on those two days. Plans are developing for Alaska and with that a four day ride with camping on the trails in the same area. Ken is doing that in about two weeks, and was hinting for me to stick around for it. But I do have to get home and reacquaint with my family.

Two Days in back Idaho

Spent two days dual sport riding with Ken near Warm Lake. Ken and CJ used to own a cabin there and they are still friends with those who still own cabins around the lake. This is a beautiful area and a pleasure to visit. We stayed with a friend of theirs, Sherm, who was a great host. Sherm has some help in Jennette, and Colleen who help him around the house. Sherm has a little trouble getting around, but it doesn't appear top stop him.

The riding was great, although I am still learning to handle the smaller bike, and do it on dirt, gravel and what ever comes my way. Yesterday the route was a little more primitive, and a little more tricky then today's routes. I did have a little crash today, no damages to me or the bike. I got a little out of wack on some fist sized rocks and ended up going off track up a rock wall. Had the bike back on the track and going in less then a minute. Going off the other side would have meant trying to get back up a substantial embankment.

First day video one.

First day video 2.

Today we had lunch in Yellowpine, and old mining town that has a winter population of about 25. This next video is coming back into Yellowpine after riding deep into the back woods.

A video of today's ride showing some of the route along the river.

Ken and CJ have been great hosts, and I thank them immensely. Ken has shown me some of the other side of dual sport riding. I start heading East tomorrow. I have a few choirs to complete in the morning so we will see how far I get. I would like to get to the Bad Lands for some photos.

Mt. Borah

Yesterday Ken and I drove out to Mt. Borah, about 250 miles from his home. We took his truck and loaded all the camping gear in. We arrived at the camp ground after sundown so we put on our LED head lights and set up our tents. We hit the sacks early for the big hike to the peak of Mt. Borah. It is at over 12000 ft., and the highest peak in Idaho. There were about 20 other cars and groups there to tackle the same thing, reach the peak.

I didn't sleep well, the full moon had my tent lit right up. I'm sorta like the chick and the pea (except for the chick part) who needs everything just right to get a good night sleep. At one point I check my watch convinced it is 6 or 7 and it says 6:05 which means 4:05 Idaho time. I had to get up, water a bush then try to get back to sleep, which I did. We took down camp before tackling the hike. There was a buck just eating leaves off off the bushes (not the same bush I watered) about 20 ft away. It didn't care about us, until I got out the camera. It was a little too dark for any good shots anyway. I would carry up my photo gear to the tune of 20 to 25lbs along with my Camel back full of water.

THIS HIKE WAS A KILLER. The numbers for us were we got to 10551ft and 3 miles with an elevation change of 3300ft. before we stopped and decided us two old farts need to head back. Now I mentioned there were several other groups and we out did many of them. Those who ventured further, very few of them made it to the peak. Most of them stopped at chicken ridge, aptly named because when you get there that is what you do, you chicken out. After resting at our turn around point we started back down. This one couple comes bounding past us and others. I don't know if they made it to the peak, but they sure were in great shape.

The trip back down was tougher in some respects then the trip up. The loose stones had you slipping and sliding. The knees and thighs really felt the burn, while the calf's felt it on the way up. At about 9500 ft. I notice the fingers starting to tingle, I guess a little hypoxia was setting in. Understandable with the lack of O2 at that altitude, and the physical activity. About 300 to 400 yards from the camp ground I heard a bunch of chirping, and it was coming from a large tree with numerous holes. I knew there had to be a nest, and a little checking revealed baby chicks of at the time I thought to be owls. Later the mother arrived and it was a hawk. I haven't checked any guides to see what kind of hawk yet. I tried a few shots without he tripod, but they just were not sharp. So back to the truck and back up hill to the nest. The mother, and three chicks are in the photos above. Also is a view from our peak on the hike. The photo of me shows the elusive peak in the back ground. By the way, it was getting a little cold up there, and that another 2000 feet altitude would have meant another 10 degree drop in temp. This is a video of the chicks:

Back to Ken and CJ's

The route back to Ken and CJ's was about 500 miles long, and 300 of them must have been twisities, curves and sweepers. Awesome riding, beautiful scenery, riding in canyons along rivers and crossing over mountains. The routes were RT 93 to RT 12 (awesome road) to RT 13 to RT 95 to ID 55.

The above video is RT 95 the down side of a mountain that goes and goes and goes.

On Saturday Ken and I took Rene' to the airport. She made it home OK but with a lot of delays. Ken and I are leaving this afternoon for the Mt. Borah area to camp. We will hike up to the peak tomorrow, and return to Boise tomorrow night. The next few days after that will involve dual sport riding up in Yellow Pine, Warm Lake areas on the smaller bikes. I do not believe I will have any connectivity in these areas so there may be another break in the daily blog entries.

A note, you can leave comments on this blog, and you can track me on the SPOT tracking page. There you can use the map to zoom right in to my locations.

Glacier

Rene and I got to Two Medicine Lake at about 6:20 am and that was a few minutes too late as the water had already started to ripple. I took a few shots and we looked for a vacant camp site for our home for the night. Found one. We returned to East Glacier, had breakfast and packed up to return to Two Medicine camp ground where set up our tent.

We went to Many Glacier after setting up camp. Rene and I did a ranger walk first off, and I was not able to do much photography. The ranger would yell out "DAYOO", to alert the bears of our presence. After the second time, I sang out, "Dayoo, day light come, and me want to go home". By the the forth time, others were singing the same thing. Trouble maker. After the walk we decided to take a hike in the same area. Some trails were closed because of grizzly, and some folks were talking about seeing some grizzlies up on a hill. We made it back to a waterfall before starting back. Still no sighting of any grizzlies, and I want to see and photograph some grizzlies.

We had spent much of the day over at Many Glacier, so my plan of starting up the Going to the Sun Road had to be delayed. A bunch of storms were coming into the area, and we still had to finish setting up camp. The rush was on to get back to Two Medicine. The route there, RT 89 to RT 49 are very twisty roads. Great motorcycling roads except for the roadway condition. There are spots of gravel, and abrupt level (ridges) changes. But these problems are not the whole way, basically just about a mile stretch. I thought I had video of RT 89 and 49 but I don't. Guess I'll have to go back and get some. Rene' definitely wants to go back. That trip will be a full week at Glacier, I believe it to be a prettier and much more exciting place then Yellowstone.

These videos show some of the scenery, and one of my favorite roads, the Going to the Sun Road. The Going to the Sun Road is cut into the side of the mountains, and is currently under reconstruction, so it is very slow going. Hopefully it will be done in the next year or two.

We hiked at Logan Pass to see Hidden Lake. This hike lead us through about 1/4 mile of snow. I HATE snow, coming from the Syracuse area I get to see way too much of it. About 5 months worth. The scenery from the end of the trail was as spectacular as many of the other look outs in Glacier. We did pass by mountain goats that were just hanging out on the trail, and a big horn sheep that was eating up the hill side.

From Logan Pass we tok the Going to the Sun Road down into Apgar Village for dinner at Eddies. Apgar Village is at the end of McDonald Lake, and I was hoping to get some sunset type photos, but the clouds were too thick over the lake. We skipped what wasn't going to happen to head for Whitefish where we had reservations at the Grouse Mountain Lodge.

Off to Glacier

The ride to Glacier had us going up RT 89 out of Gardiner, MT. to I 90 to RT 287 onto I 15 / RT 287 off of I 15, continuing on RT 287 up to the East Glacier area. I 90 was it's usual boring self, but it did have some nice sweepers and big hills. I 15 was fun with tighter sweepers that just kept coming. Rt 89 and most of RT 287 was typical west highway going on for long stretches of straight with parts of curvy areas.

We were racing the storms that were all around us. In Montana, the big sky state, you can see for ever and you can see where the storms are. So far this trip I have had only a brief period of moderate rain, and a couple of times of a light brief sprinkle while riding. A big change from last year when 15 of the 39 days involved rain, many of them all day soaking rains. We lucked out and barely got a sprinkle. After exploring the small town of East Glacier we hit the sack for an early rise. We were headed to Two Medicine Lake for some morning photos.

A note, at about mile marker 15 on RT 287 from I 15 Rene and I saw a black bear looking up over the guide rail at us as we approached. The bear ducked down the embankment and out of view as we passed. The unusual thing is this is prairie land, no trees in sight. We spent 6 days in bear rich National Parks, and didn't see a single bear. Here in the prairie there is a bear.

Yellowstone II

OOPs the top photo of Rene' was at Glacier. The second photos of one of the pools at Yellowstone

and the bottom is of us before we left for Yellowstone at Ken's house. The black bag on the back of the top case has our tent, hiking boots and other camping equipment. The yellow bag, which there is one on top of each pannier has our sleeping backs, mat, and heated jacket liner. In the panniers I have my camera equipment, and the other Rene's clothes, my clothes are in the top case.

We arrived in Yellowstone the evening of the 6th. We set up our tent and got settled in for the exploring we would do the next two days. This was a good first test for the new four seasons tent, 0 degree sleeping bags, and the new insulated mats. They all worked flawlessly. We had rain every night, the first night was a hail thunder storm. Little un-nevering when you are in a tent in a bunch of trees, but what are you going to do. We could not see the actual lightening, but surely saw the flashes and heard the thundering booms.

We took Rt 20 most of the way there, and the route was nice in scenery with a few sweepers and lots of elevation changes. I had been through Yellowstone three times before, but never really stopped. Our plan was to take trails and explore as much as possible. We had bear spray for the chance encounter with a bear.

Yellowstone has what they call the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which features two large waterfalls call upper and lower falls. That was the focal point of our first full day, to explore that area. One of the trails we took was called "Uncle Tom's Trail" which basically went straight down almost 500 feet, mostly steel stairs. You got tire going down, and it was a burner coming back up. We did it twice, once this day, the second time early morning the next day. One thing I have to check when reviewing my photos is that there does not appear to be the number of photos saved that I took. This is evident with my panorama photos which appear to be missing sets. I am beginning to think I was changing camera settings faster then the camera was writing to the card. If so, then I have lost a lot of photos for panorama shots. The photos above are some of what I took that I have processed. Some are HDR. Others regular photos.

I did not get any wildlife photos. Just didn't see anything other then the buffalo which I have on video. So many of the shots are of the plenty full water falls. The videos are to show some of the beautiful scenery that Yellowstone has to offer.

Spending three days in any national park really isn't enough time to explore and get to know the places to go. With only two days we hit many of the same tourist overlooks as the millions of other visitors. We may plan another return for an extended time where we may get off the beaten path to explore more. Some of the trails were closed because of the Grizzly attack a few weeks back that killed one tourist.

My pet peeve of the tourist just stopping in the middle of the road still holds true for Yellowstone. We were stopped in traffic with a bunch of buffalo, and the Parks Police were trying to get the buffalo out of the roadway so traffic could move along. What happens is these people would stop and gawk at the buffalo instead of moving along. When they stop, more buffalo take the opportunity to enter the roadway again causing a delay. I guess it is to be expected there.

The buffalo were the only real wildlife we saw except for a couple of young elk in a field, and a bunch of elk in the park at Mammoth Springs.

Mammoth Springs is the North entrance and that is the way we went out to Glacier. This entrance has the arched entry that Roosevelt had built. Pretty impressive entry. The town is called Gardiner and it is an old west style town. We stopped for lunch before heading off to Glacier.

update

Still having trouble getting reliable connection. We are at the Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish, MT. This is a nice place, but I can't get the internet connection to stay up. So I'm back to a quick note on the Xoom. Rene' and I camped last night at Two Medicine Lake inside Glacier NP. This was so I could get to the lake, about a five minute walk in the morning to take photos. I did get up at 0550 and ventured out in the 50 degree temps to get some photos. The lake wasn't as smooth as I was hoping, but the shots were not too bad. We did the Going to the Sun road, and stopped at the Logan Pass visiter center. We took a long hike that involved snow to look at Hidden Lake. The hike was long, but worth it. We head to Boise tomorrow, and Rene' flies out Saturday. I will post photos and video, plus when I get to Ken's.

A quick post, we are doing well. We have been camping and had a cabin in Yellowstone, but have been without cell or WiFi for me to update. We just got to glacier and I will try to add our Yellowstone details later.

Survived the dirt

Ken took me to Silver City, an old mining town that now has a population of 12 in the summer, and 1 in the winter. There are two open businesses. The ride to there was about half paved and half decent dirt. The road we took out was a bit more challenging. I will say we did about 70 miles of dirt. I had two drops. One was trying to get the bike, a DRZ 400 that is very tall, turned around. I ran out of leg to ground contact. The other time was going up a hill and I ran into a bunch of large (fist size) rocks, the rear tire started slipping, and eventually the rear came around. Again there came a loss of leg to ground (tall bike, semi short legs) contact. But I was able to get the bike back up, point it in the right direction and get going before Ken came back to see where I was.

The pictures above are first, the old school house. It was a museum but now is empty and being renovated. An old Ford pick-up with New Hampshire plates(?). The next two are of the old drug store that closed in the 1930s. They apparently just closed the doors, and left everything as it was. You can see that in the second photograph of the drug store. The other wall was the same as that wall. The last photo is of the Idaho Hotel. We had a good lunch there, and it is very neat in side. A bunch of old stuff and memorabilia. The two bikes in front are the ones we were riding.

There hasn't been any electricity to Silver City since 1940. They use solar panels and what ever else they can find for power. They use propane coolers in the hotel to keep the food cold. There were a few tourist there and a lot of ATVers. I learned a lot about the dirt riding, and I suspect a week of it would bring me into a confident rider or a hospital patient.

Rest Day

Tuesday was a rest day. I went with CJ and Ken, and Eric to a restaurant to meet with some friends from their group, CMA (Christian Motorcycle Association) get together. Eric is an avid dirt rider who is also a missionary in Nicaragua. He flew out to Nicaragua this morning. The group wanted to get together with him before he left. We rode there, which was only 1.5 miles there, so much in the way of riding and tracking, sorry Ron. I spent a lot of time processing photos, I down loaded an HDR program that I had purchased before, and found the Email with the key, so, I was able to do some processing of HDR. These photos are HDR processed photos.

So far today, Ken and I went for a bicycle ride along the Green River to help prepare for the planned hike to the top of Mt. Borah. This will take place after I return with Rene from Glacier NP. Mt. Borah is over 12000 ft and is an all day hike up and back. We will ride out and camp then hike it the next day. But before that, I eagerly await Rene's arrival for our adventure to Yellowstone, and Glacier NPs. Just a note, I acquired Buttis Sourous (Latin for sore ass) from riding that bike, I will appreciate my motorcycle saddle a little more now.

Tonight we are going to do a dinner ride from a local motorcycle shop. This should be a nice ride and a lot of fun too.

Tomorrow we are going for a dirt ride. I will be taking Ken's DRZ400 which is considerably lighter and more nimble then the R1200GS beast.

The group for the dinner ride was a little smaller then normal I guess. Three of the riders took a dirt road there, so they are not with us. The route was Idaho 21 and I rode this road last year. It is a great road starting with nice sweepers and when you get past Idaho City (an old gold town) the road turns to twisties. We had dinner in Idaho City which is basically a one horse town, but dinner was good. After dinner, the group took off back for Boise, and Ken and I followed up a little later. I have three videos, one the ride to, and one the ride back. The third is just showing the dusk sky while riding back.

Ride to dinner.



ID 21 run back to Ken's.



Colors in the sky at dusk.

Arches NP

I am covering two days with this post. I could not get logged into the motel WiFi for unknown reasons yesterday. My intention was to go into Moab and although I did not actually go into the town of Moab, I spent much of the day exploring the area before starting for Idaho. I took a look at Canyon Lands NP which seems to be a smaller version of the Grand Canyon. I spent only an hour or so there before starting for the Arches NP. Arches is only a few miles down the road and about 4 miles from Moab.

I considered my stop there to be more of a scouting trip. My tripod was packed too deep for me to get to, and wearing motorcycle boots limited my trail hiking distances. I happen to meet a guy who is a teacher from the Rochester area called Ed. Ed's mother who is in her 70s has an RV and he takes her during his summer break across the country. He was also interested in taking pictures so we tended to hit the same spots for photos. It was good to have some company for conversation while trecking to photographic spots. Here are some of the photos, they are part of an HDR (high dynamic range) file, which you take a series of different exposures and combine them to give a photo with a higher dynamic range. But since I do not have HDR software in this laptop, they have been photoshoped for exposure. The one on the bottom left looks like an old man's face to me. That is one of the things about Arches NP is so many of the rock formations look like something.

The nobleman is that center rock looking to the left. This is coming into the area they call the windows for the two arches there. I did not try to photograph these arches as they were crawling with tourist. I did take one of the above photos at another set of arches across from the windows. There I could use the foliage to hide the tourist.

This video is leaving the park, trying to show some of the features and of the mountains in the distance.

Another video showing the features and sights of Arches NP. This next video is in Canyon Lands and it is basically a ride through a twisty road in the park. I will note that the tires I am running hold the road real well except for those darn road snakes. Bike likes to slip on those, and on some tighter turns, they have lots of road snakes.

After spending the day at these two National Parks I noticed something hot about my face, I had let it get mildly sunburned. I checked the weather on my phone and saw a lot of storms popping up to my south, where Moab is, and a huge cell to the west running up to where I was headed. So I decided to skip Moab and try to beat out the storms. I did run into the tail end of a thunderstorm and the rain was light. The storm only threw out one bolt of lightening that I saw, and I was through it quickly. I got onto I 80 and ran parallel to a large lightening throwing storm just to my south. I tried to video tape it, but I didn't get any good lightening shots. After turning off the camera, there were three big bolts within 30 seconds. Missed them. As I was paralleling this storm I could see I was headed towards the monster, but if It's track held true to what I saw on my phone, I would be paralleling it too when I turned north on RT 191 / 6. Sure enough I was able to parallel it, and only hit a few light pockets of rain.

I'll note that it was in the mid 90s all day, but where the storms went through it got mighty cool. At one point going up into a higher elevation out of the canyon it dropped to 64. That is getting a cool on a bike after 90s. Part of this route had signs all over warning of deer migration route. They started out at "next 37 miles" and wound down as the miles did. I did not see a single deer the whole way until I reached the town's edge, and there was a doe just hanging out beside the road.

My objective of today was simply to get to Ken and CJ's home. I did the slab to the tune of about 400 miles and arrived no problem. We will be doing small things the next few days, and I don't know if there will be any day rides. Ken has other company, Eric who is a missionary in Nicaragua. Eric flies out Wednesday, and Rene' flies in Friday.