The Arctic:
Cold,
Desolate,
Hostile.
WOHOO! I'M GOIN!
Well this page will be updated whenever I can, Whenever I'm close to humanity.
First off let me here is my ride:
An aprilia CapoNord (North Cape) 1000 cc motorcycle with modifications to carry a supplies, fuel and extra protection to withstand rocks, dirt and gravel for the thousands of miles ahead.
Day 1 Completed:
Ended up in Oregon after a comedy of errors kept little things getting in the way.. Have you ever packed for a month of camping and motorcycle riding ? It's a bitch...and the more you carry, the heavier things get, but the better your prepared
audio log day one Log0601
Me and my Father In law Michael
Well day one is completed and the Heat was the bitch.. about 6 hours of the ride was in 92+ temps with highs about 104 degrees. One of the most ironic moments was riding looking at mount Shasta covered in snow large and looming, looking almost close enough to touch, yet roasting at 96 degree's. Once the higher altitude hit things got better, so in a hotel room we crash, ready to get nuts tomorrow and head toward Canada. I won't expect miracles like this stolen bandwidth my wireless snagged in the hotel room.. thank you whoever you with your open linksys wireless router!
Only one major problem occurred, michael's jacket on the back of the bike went flying off the back of the bike and was gone... sad but a replacement was found..
Day 2
What a wonderfully day, lots of miles and lots of time on the bikes.. we got in at 10pm and the sun was just setting this north... we make it 70 miles south of the border, north of Seattle, we crash exhausted..
Day 3
CANADA!
We scan around Vancouver for a Motorcycle shop for a new jacket for Michael, not a normal jacket, a motorcycle jacket like mine, Nylon, water proof, warm, able to take some of the chill out of the Arctic without weighing a lot. So we road around the Vancouver, I really grew fond of the people. These are some of the nicest people I've ever met! Warm and generous, just plain old great people. I took pics of my first Canadian,
"You SURE you have no guns?!?!???"
at the border checking me for guns etc etc. No problem there. The second Canadian i talked to was at a burger king, a cute little girl that had every ounce of the Canadian accent, attitude and personality that I really have come to love, and was hilarious when i had no Canadian currency she held aloft a US 20 dollar bill with a flourish brandishing the greenback to show her other employees to validate its authenticity. I wonder if she gets the 6 dollar exchange or if it goes toe mcdonalds, its okay thou, she was a sweetheart and I didn't mind tipping her, I hope I did. We are now In Hope canada, only 110 miles away from Vancouver, the day was a wash being cooked under the hot sun searching for a jacket. that okay, we found a great room in a quaint place that was filled with people enjoying the Rockies surrounding us. As we got into the area, Seeing the waterfalls, one of them spilling next to the highway made it strike home, I needed to see this place, I'm loving this.
Day 4 : Prince George
400 more miles, Road through a river gorge on Highway 1 then 97.. Was incredible, waterfalls down rocks and views that were breath taking, following the Frasier River... Prince George is a pleasant city, we had a great steak at Earls and noticed the fat american complex aint around here.... EYE CANDY! (College town)
Day 5 Highway 16 to 37 CASIER HIGHWAY!
The Casier highway is an amazing road, one ide been planning on. The road is a technical road, with only about half of it paved.. and we are hundreds of miles from civilization. Here is where the horror began. the Capo started running poorly. of course in probably the most remote place it could, we are talking NOWHERE here, on a road that was rarely traveled, NOT THE PLACE for the Capo to have issues! We get to a place to camp and its raining, not a time to do unpaved roads on a bike that was running poorly. So we set up camp in the rain, I break out the Sat Phone I'm renting and call my wife. She hurriedly calls Jonah, who runs Speed shop Santa cruz. (831 462 MOTO) Jonah and I confer on probably causes and issues, what we come down too is that its either spark plugs (ugh) or water in the gas. (ehhh) So the next day i fill the gas tank with my Aux Gas Cans and hope that this would answer the gas issue, swirling the water around in the tank and making the bike run better.. and TADA it does.. so water it is, an issue, but one that wont leave me stranded in a place I've seen Black bear roaming about hundreds and hundreds of miles from any help. (even the locals I've asked haven't been that far down that remote highway)
Tranquility and Terror all in one camp site.
Day 6 Cassiar Highway
I LOVE THIS ROAD!!!!!
Okay i saw Moose, Black bear, Arctic fox, Beaver, red fox (I'm coming to see join ya Enid!) and some of the horses roaming around that are owned by the indians in the area, some wonderful people that don't like their pics taken so i don't. The road was gravel and dirt, lots o dirt, I prefer the dirt, the gravel is more like marbles. The Capo was running poorly on the bottom end as it chocked on water in the tank, making it really hard to ride off road. Let me right now say that this road was my favorite road. I just loved it. 
Unpaved, Rugged and Magestic, the Cassiar highway.
We saw horses along the road roaming free... I asked an Indian an he replied "
Ohh yes, their ours." IE not his as much as they belong to his people, they call them when they want em. Otherwise they just roam around. This little fella was hanging with his family playing in the tall grass.
Day 7 Watson lake - Haines Junction on the ALCAN
Okay let me state this. the Alcan AINT all paved. we did about 30 miles out of 450 on gravel, not bad, but nasty crap on a bike, but on the paved part ya just book along watching the mountains, keeping an eye out for Caribou.. Didn't see any but man allot of Caribou crap on the road. The Mountains just get bigger. and we are heading toward Alaska, only a few hundred miles away.
Day 8- Haines Junction to FAIRBANKS ALASKA!
Holey shit did we ride today! 557 miles in one day in hours and hours of rain. The weather just started raining 1 hour into the ride and basically rained the entire way. But we persevered. The problem is the ALCAN aint all paved, and the gravel/dirt sections became nasty mud.. the ALCAN on the Canada side is really in poor shape, allot of unpaved and crappy spots.. both sides, canada and alaska have frost heaves, poor Michael and his trophy's suspension bottomed out on these, and he had to slow down for them and the gravel/pothole parts to keep his wheels straight. The Capo on the other hand has a giant suspension and just had FUN on the frost heaves...It was a BLAST! Its like a roller coaster, real fun, The bike was meant for these roads, the shittier the better... and the Shitties is yet to come. We made it all the way to Fairbanks, the only road north of here is 1. The one I came for. We got a room and are going to stay for 2 nights recovering from 8 full days of riding non stop, then tackle the ultimate, the Dalton haul road. Weather is supposed to be horrible the entire time, so if its really bad we will only go half way up to Coldfoot, or camp along the way... either way we will be in the ARCTIC and that's what we came for...
Day 9 - Rest in Fairbanks
Day 10 - Fairbanks to the Arctic and beyond!
Well today was a crazy day. Deadhorse was full up for the night, filled with tourists all on giant tour busses that trek up and down the dalton with heavy tires on. We decide that instead of staying we will ride north of coldfoot, 3/4 up the dalton and ride back in one day, if all else fails we can camp somewhere. We get an early start, hit the road and ride up to the Dalton.
The Dalton highway has just recently been recently opened to the public, the lady that runs the motel we are staying at commented that she wished they had never opened the haul road, people break their limbs on the road, it eats tires like it was going out of style. The tourist board recommends you bring 2 spare tires for your car. Well we did the bad boy up proud, went north of coldfoot camp, hundreds of miles of Arctic riding and back in one day! We basically put 2 days of motorcycle riding into one, assuming we could just ride all day and night - there is no night here right now remember? The road itself is actually in my opinion not as bad as the Classiar highway, its dirt and gravel yea, but not as heavily rutted and uneven as the Cassiar, One of the people at the Arctic center asked me which one was worse because I understand there are aloft of people comparing these two. In my opinion the Dalton is 90% bad road while the Cassiar on the other hand is 80% well paved while the other 20% is EXTREMELY SHITTY areas. Although we did the Cassiar in the rain part of the time that made things a little worse, the Dalton would be miserable in the rain also, just not so uneven and craptastic. We ate a meal in the coldfoot, a truck stop that really is more of a ramshackle RV on stilts that is rather bleak on the outside, but what do you expect of a place that designed to survive the arctic? On the way back we realized a kink in our plan or return - one of the crucial gas stops closes and could strand us... My bike is more suited for the Dalton so I take off going far to fast and stretching my abilities for going fast in the dirt on a giant bike like the Capo, but I ride fast as hell, toping over 110 mph on the small 85 mile paved part of the dalton and going 70-80 on the dirt. You whana talk exhilarating? IT WAS SO DAMN FUN! Ahem. I got to the gas stop with 5 minutes to spare and held the pumps the extra 20 minutes for Michael to get there. My adrenalin was pumping so hard I was pacing around trying to relax a bit. Michael got gas and away we went. I took off, with Michael going along at the safest pace a street bike should do on a road like that. I make it to the end of the Dalton where the pavement begins and hang around a while, you have to move every few minutes before the giant cloud of mosquitoes and black flies engulf you. I wait ten minutes - twenty minutes - uh oh - almost a half hour and I think GREAT, I've killed Erin's dad. I turn around and start riding a couple miles back up the the Dalton when I see him trundling along. PHEW.
We road all through the night and I found out something new - The sun might not set, but you get a cool thing. Hours and HOURS of sunset! The landscape was bathed in purple and reds for the entire way to the motel. We climbed off our bikes and basically passed out.
What the Dalton looks like.
Me and the sign. Can you say north?
What the arctic scrub looks like when there is some..its a little weird and alien to me. Most of the tiny trees are realy older then they look: the growing season is verry short, so what looks like a tiny young shrub might actualy be over a hundred. Even when they die its a hard wood, so they stay standing.
Insert caption here.
The pipeline. It's so neat. The poles holding up the pipe have cooling fins on them to keep the permafrost frozen during the summer to keep the ground hard and the pipe from sinking.
Meet my first Moose pic, she is a cow. I will call her Minnie. We saw allot of Mooses... Moosie? Moosowie? Meese? But its always hard to take pics of animals when your on a Motorcycle that scares em away. Luckily Minnie was down hill so we cut our engines and coasted closer... Minnie bolted when she saw a Van ignore us and blast past.
Wonder where Mickey is?
Moosen?
okay- I'de name it differently, But what the hey! at least he's honest about his limitations.
DENALI!
2 days of camping in the magnificent park under the shadow of the largest mountain in the USA.
Got lots of wildlife pics.. here be some examples:
(more to come)
A Dahl sheep was killed in the park by a pack of wolves (said the ranger), later this Grizzly came across the carcass.
Another wolf showed up and harassed the Griz for hours,trying to get a bit o sheep for himself, this battle of wills was still going on 4 hours later.. got lots of pics, thank heavens for telephoto lenses - it was almost a mile away with an 800 mm lens (with digital multiplier). Last year in the park they observed two males fighting, the victor sat for days and ate the looser.
Dahl sheep are all over the park, usualy on high hillsides where predators fear to tread.
Hoary Marmots are adorable. Hoary ? sorry no spell check here so maybe later B)
Lots o Caribou pics too... After no food for a while I was tempted to join a Griz and eat one of these. Steak sauce anyone?
A Curious 3 year old, the equivelant of a teenager, just leaving mom. The Grizzly in Denali get only to a meager 800 pounds, the Grizzly in Kodiak or where the salmon run get a LOT larger, to a whopping 1800 pounds.
Day 14 - Denali to the Kenai Peninsula
From top to bottom of the state, we are in the majestic Kenai peninsula. Mountains pouring into the sea, its stunning.
HEY NORWAY WE GOT OUR OWN FJORDS!
Ice ice baby.
A different Moose on the Kenai Peninsula. This time I got some good shots.
Mooslix?
Day 15 ride from Seward to outside of Tok
Well we got a long day in, almost made it to Tok, but instead we found a place in an inexpensive bed and breakfast called Christachina Bed and Breakfast. I've never slept in a place where the wolves howl at night. I actually love the sound, strangely enough. On the wall is a 9 foot tall Grizzly pelt, The owner shot him in the back yard, It's got too be interesting to live in a place where 1000 pound bears are around.
Great place after riding as long as we did, and it was starting to rain, not many people want to ride for 10 hours and set up camp in the rain. Tomorrow we ride to Haines Junction on the way to Haines, then ferry over to Scagway to wait for our ferry.
Today was the first day of riding home. I've already put 5000 miles on the Capo, and its time to put return miles on it.
Haines Junction (back in the Klondike) Day 17
Both me and the bike are filthy after so many miles of dirt, gravel, bugs, rain and hail. Man its fun.
We are spending a few nights here, where the rooms are cheaper.. Before riding down to the ferry in Haines and Skagway.
Days 18-19
Haines
Haines is a beutifull sleepy seaside fishing village, We bought our tickets to ferry over the skagway, but we are spending 2 days here first, then Skagway. Some really great fish here, lots o halibut. We rode to an area that has a glacier nestled between some mountain tops and got pics of waterfalls off the snowmelt from the glacier. Man do they have horse flies here, Ide rather deal with mouskitos then horse flies. One nailed me good and reminded me just how much i hated the fuckers. Lots of pics of the coastline to come! On the 21st we get on board the 3 day long ferry ride to Bellingham, the end of our trek, then 2 days of riding and home.
Skagway and Haines...
My impressions of Haines is basicaly the greatfull dead meets Northern exposure.. I later found out that Northern exposure was based on haines, accept it was to expensive to shoot it all the way out there, logistics of moving stuff etc, so they filmed it in washington instead. It's a great little fishing village that also profits from tourism, I realy liked it... Great people in a quirky little town. Skagway on the other hand is Disney meets alaska... the town is basicaly owned by the cruise lines, its tons of shops with overpriced food and drink and ammenaties for what you got. The hotel room we ended up with was one of the worst we had ever seen, and cost some of the most, luckily only one night there.
The Alaska Marine Highway system.
Owned by the State DOT, this aint no cruise line. The First ferry was poorly run with a loader that tried stuffing in a place where we couldnt tie down our bikes. This was from Haines to Skagway. From Skagway we got on the Columbia, the biggest ferry in the fleet, and the loadmaster was on the ball, imediatly setting us a good place for us to tie down our bikes and secure them properly. It's a big ferry, about 2/3rds the size of the cruise ships. Compared to a cruise ship the food is cafeteria style, the boat is noisier and the bunks are a bit short for big ol' me. But overall its been great, watching the whales swim by and the eagles overhead and spectacular scenery everywhere. This and no monkey butt. This is fun. We are schedualed to arrive in Bellingham at 7am on Friday, leaving me all day friday to ride as far south as I can for a leasurly ride on saturday home.
Bellingham to home in 1 day
Well I got in at 7am ship time, 8 am our time (step off the ship and your an hour different) Said goodbye to my fatherinlaw and hit the road home. The ride home was okay, but I was dreading central California, its friggen hot. So my plan was ride as far as I could and then get my ass up the next day and ride a short 4 hour ride to home. Well as I got to Mount shasta, I figured ide get some dinner and decide how far ide ride. Ten hours of riding done and I was cool, altho I'd had only 4 hours of sleep ( the boats engines were loud as the captain kept the ship on time) I rode along and it was dark, Night was here, I regreted it, after spending about 3 weeks in a place where it never got dark, I missed the land of the midnight sun. ) The temp was 92 in the dark, this spurred me on to ride farther, not wanting to ride though insane heat the next day. So rode along I did. At one point i pulled off the road to find gas by an evil sign that was Chevron next right. Sure enough it was 16 miles off the road and CLOSED. Luckily i had the extra cans full of gas so I put em in my tank and kept riding. Basicaly I rode all the way home, with side trip for gas that actualy tipped me over the 1000 mile mark in one day, (1012 to be exact) I arrived home to a happy wife at 2 am.