Well, its been
a little over a month and 12,000 + miles. I
have to
apologize for being so delinquent in my e-mailing
duties. There are so many
wonderful places and so little daylight. Now
that I have had my laptop
shipped out to me, I am able to compose e-mails
at my campsite in the dark.
For those of you that have written, I want to
thank you, I truly cherish
hearing from you and once I get a day in front
of a computer, I promise to
respond.
First, I want to thank everyone for all the
support, encouragement, advice
and help in preparing for my trip. There are
a few of you that deserve
honorable mention in the help area; I think
you know who you are. (Sounds
like I am accepting an Oscar) I also want to
thank all of you that came to
my "goodbye dinner;" it seems that there are
a lot people that wanted to
make sure that I left town.
To date the trip has been tremendous; I truly
feel like I am living a dream.
It goes without saying that I' have seen many
beautiful places, what I am
most pleasantly surprised about are the people
that I've been meeting along
the way. They have all been friendly, helpful
and very generous. I've
had strangers go out of their way to facilitate
my trip.
Besides riding and sight seeing, I've also had
a chance to visit a few old
friends that I haven't seen in a while. I've
also been picking up some gear
along the way; have been endlessly packing and
repacking to try to find the
optimal packing set-up. I have also been testing
some of my equipment and
have had to repair and/or replaced a few things
on my bike.
Some Highlights: Reaching the Artic Circle at
sunset. Riding on dirt
trails out to the Megan and Mt. Currie hot springs
near Whistler, BC.
Seeing Killer Wales and Humpbacks on a boat
in the Johnston Strait of the
coast of Vancouver Island. Dawson City in the
Yukon. Drinking moonshine
and learning about the interesting local horticultural
practices in
Humboldt. Watching the sunset over the Pacific
from my campsite. Sailing
in SF Bay. Fun roads and beautiful scenery for
most of the way.
Some Lowlights: After reaching the Artic Circle,
riding in the cold, dark
and snowy tundra to Coldfoot, AK where I had
to pay $ 135 to sleep in a
trailer/motel at a truck stop.
Having to spend four hours disassembling, straightening
out (with some
rocks), and reassembling my bend saddlebag frame
on some dirt trails, near
Whistler. Going down and having to figure out
how to pick-up my motorcycle
on some steep, rocky, mountain trails near Whistler.
Riding on I-5 and
freeways in general.
The Route: I know that some of you couldn't
care less while others really
want this info. From NJ up the Garden State
to 87N into Toronto. 404N(?)
out of Toronto, to 69N to 17W across the north
shore of Lake Huron into Sue
St. Marie where I crossed the border into Michigan.
I crossed the northern
Mich. Peninsula on 28W into Duluth, and then
I took Rt. 2W across Minnesota,
N. D. and Montana with some detours on back
roads. In Montana I left Rt.
2 and I headed up Rt. 49 to 89 on the east side
of Glacier Nat'l Park. I
crossed the Park and took rt 93 up into Canada
and Kootnay, Banff and Jasper
Nat'l Parks. In Canada Rt. 93 is called the
Icefields Parkway. In Jasper I
picked up Rt. 16W (the Yellow Head Hwy) . I
took 16W to 37N (the Steward
Cassiar Hwy which is partially paved and partially
gravel/dirt). I pick-up
the Cassiar about 100 east of Prince Rupert,
B.C.
I detoured to
Hyder, AK
on 37A. Returned to the Cassiar and took it
north to Rt. 1 (the Alaska Hwy)
. I took the Alaska Hwy to a little past Whitehorse
in the Yukon where I
picked up Rt. 2N (the Klondike Hwy) into Dawson
City.
From Dawson City
I
went over the Top of the World Hwy (Rt 9) to
the Taylor Hwy (Rt 5 a dirt
road) to Tetlin Jct. Near Tok where I rejoined
the Alaska Hwy (which turns
into from Rt. 1 into Rt. 2 past Haines Junction)
into Fairbanks. From
Fairbanks I headed up the Dalton Hwy (Rt 11
a dirt road) past the Artic
Circle into Coldfoot. From Coldfoot I started
my trip south. Headed back
down the Dalton to the George Parks Hwy (rt
3) towards Anchorage. From
Anchorage I took the Glenn Hwy to the Tok Cut
Off (Rt 1) into Tok, then I
headed southeast on the Alaska Hwy to Haines
Jct., where I picked-up the
Haines Hwy (Rt. 3,4 & 7) into Haines, AK.
In Haines I embarked
on the
Alaska Marine Hwy Ferry which takes down the
Inside Passage (the archipelago
of islands that run along the SW coast of AK
and the NW coast of B.C.) to
Prince Rupert, B.C. From B.C., I took the B.C.
ferry to Port Hardy which is
on the North end of Vancouver Island. I rode
south on rt 19 along the
eastern coast of Vancouver Island and crossed
over to the west coast on Rt
4 to Pacific Nat'l Park And Tofino. I backtracked
over Rt. 4 to Rt 19 into
Victoria. From Victoria I took the Ferry to
Vancouver. From Vancouver I
headed up the Sea to Sky Hwy (Rt 99) to Whistler
and then Pemberton. From
Pemberton I headed up a dirt road to the Megan
Hot Springs and back to
Whistler. Next day I headed back to Pemberton
(on Rt. 99), then to Mt.
Currie and Duffy Lake. Near Duffy Lake I took
a 110 mile dirt road that
took me to more hot springs and through the
Lillooet River over some
mountains to the Harrison Lake area and spit
me out in Harrison Mills about
60 miles east of Vancouver. From there I took
7W to 11S and 9S into
Washington State. Then I meandered on some back
roads into Bellingham,
where I picked-up Rt 5S to Seattle. From Seattle
I continued on 5 to
Portland, OR. From Portland I headed east on
rt 30 to rt 84 along the
Columbia River Valley to Hood River. In Hood
River I took Rt 35 South to
26S into Bend. From Bend I headed down Rt. 97S
to I-5S into Redding, CA (to
have my seat made at Russell in Shasta)
. From Reeding
I headed back up I-5
to 97 back into Oregon, and took Rt 62 into
Crater Lake Nat'l Park.From
Crater Lake I took 138W to Roseburg and 42W
to 42S into Bandon. From Bandon
I headed south on 101 along the Oregon Coast
into Redwoods Nat'l Park in CA.
I continued on 101S until just north of Fortuna
where I detoured west on 211
along the Lost Coast through Ferndale, Petrolia,
and Honeydew. I rejoined
101N at Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
Went north on
101 to Alton (like Jeff
& Jess) to 36E to 3E to 299E into Redding, CA.
Went back into Shasta to
Russell to have my seat adjusted. Then I picked
up 44E into Lassen Volcanic
Nat'l Park to 89S to 36W into Red Bluff. I "bombed
it" down I-5 into Davis.
From Davis I headed west on 80 to 680S to 101S
to 156S into Monterey.
From Monterey I
headed down Rt. 1 (PCH) to Goleta where I picked
up 101S
into LA. In LA I picked-up 405S to 5S to I-8E
across southern CA and AZ into
Las Cruces, NM.
I did sleep and I did take some detours through
various state/nat'l parks
and tourist attractions - I'll spare you the
details. This is probably more
information then many of you care to know.
If any of you do not wish to be on this list,
please let me know and I will
remove you. If there is anything that you want
to know that I did not
address in this e-mail, let me know and I'll
let you know.
So far, So good.
