8/2 Niagara Falls ON to Boston MA, Albany NY or Tupper Lake NY

We were up early and made our way to Attica NY to meet Eric's friend Tim Fisher who had been bicycling from the west coast since late June. See Tim's blog at http://fishericross.blogspot.com . It's a great blog. Tim's observations and adventures and his accomplishment is incredible. Lou and I are going to peddle across in 2010! It was great to meet Tim and hear his stories over breakfast first hand. We stayed together until mid-afternoon when we separated at Exit 34 (Utica) on the Thruway. Eric and Lou, it was all I expected and more. It could only have been better if brothers Dave and Al were with us. I love you guys. Hope to Tupper and my lovely wife Sadie by 6:00 pm. 6653 miles for me from Alaska to home. I hope you've enjoyed my posts. Your comments are appreciated. If you have any questions about going cross-country on a motorcycle we can certainly advise you on what to do, what not to do, what to bring and what to leave behind. The most important thing is to allow enough time and don't become an intinerary zombie. The ride is at least if not more important than the destinations. At some point I will put a powerpoint together that illustrates these blog entries. Finally, I want to thank my wife for the understanding and freedom to let me embark on this adventure. She OK'd the sale of the old bike, purchase of the new bike, and 21 days away from home while she dealt with all the domestic situations. Sadie, you are the best!

8/1 Mackinaw City MI to Niagara Falls ON

Another 500 mile day that was quite wearing. The road conditions were not uniformly good and the traffic was incredibly dense especially in the lower half of Michigan and all the way through Ontario to Niagara Falls. We tried to stay along Lake Huron's western shore as much as possible, but did finally jump on the interstate to get to Port Huron and across Ontario quickly. Niagara Falls is a place that is a must stop just to see the falls. Their color, sound, and scale force you to focus only on them. I can get hypnotized watching the water fall much like staring into a campfire on a cool night. But the rest of the downtown, although clean, had little to offer as were were not into carnival rides, criminal and monster wax and World Wrestling Federation museums or chain restarurants. We shared a great meal and a bottle of red at Mama Mia's and went back to the motel for our last night together on the road. This was the only motel along the entire route that charged us for parking spots. I understand this is beginning to become the norm and they should be ashamed of themselves.

7/31 Neebing ON to Mackinaw City MI

Our good weather held and over the north shore of Lake Superior it even cooled off a bit especially when the wind came off the water. 500 miles this day that went very quickly as the roads were in good shape, traffic was light, the vistas were incredible and the bikes ran smoothly in 6th gear. We stopped for lunch in Marathon at about half way and took some time to walk down to the lake shore. We are rockhounds and that cobble shore was a mine of incredibly colored, smooth stones including several different basalts and agate. We crossed over at Sault Ste. Marie and settled in at Mackinaw City. We had Guiness in an Irish pub with dinner.

7/30 Bemidji MN to Neebing ON

These next posts to the end of the trip will be shorter than most of the previous posts. The days were longer, I took fewer notes, and we were moving through more familiar territory. So, you get just the highlights so we can remember where we were. Bemidji into Duluth in the morning. We stopped at the HD dealership and dropped our oil in the parking lot (into drip pans of course!) and did the 5000 mile service. We gathered a crowd with the three Alaskan bikes. After the service we went down town Aerostich. This is a company that makes and markets high-tech riding apparel and gear. Unfortunately, their catalog is much more user friendly than their retail outlet which is really just an afterthought corner in there manufacturing and warehousing space. After lunch we moved north along Lake Superior and stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park viewing incredible stone work by the CCC, and Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. The latter is a famous and picturesque lighthouse that Eric has on his list of places to visit. He'll provide more detail. We ended up in Neebing just over the border in Ontario late that night after having perhaps our only and closest call with a deer at dusk in Minnesota.

7/29 Williston ND to Bemidji MT

First thing in the morning while it was still relatively cool we detoured south to clip the corner of the north unit of the heodore Roosevelt National Park and the Little Missouri National Grassland. A very surprising place. Heading south out of Williston the land has a little roll to it, but is mostly very flat. We pulled over a slight rise and before us was TR NP. It was a set of arroyos deeply incised in the flat plan surrounding it. It was incredible but kind of alien also. Initially the land started out as a flat plain and then the Little Missouri River and its tributaries eroded the canyon and all the little side canyons. We didn't have time to ride through but the ranger told us that bison roamed throughout the canyon. This is definitely a place to come back to. And no one was there. We met the very friendliest people in North Dakota. At a gas station a woman came over to us after filling her tank and wanted to know where we were from, where we were going. She told us she and her husband had been Yamaha dealers for years and now were wheat and cattle farmers in western ND. Almost unbidden she launched into a description of all the sites and little villages we should stop and visit in ND. What a booster for her state! "Well you know" she said, "most people think North Dakota is just empty flat nothing. But I'm here to tell you if you take the time it's a beautiful place and the people are very friendly. We like you to come and visit." She was a great lady and we wished her well as we got back on the road and ground out mile after hot mile. We crossed the North Red River into Minnesota and really began to feel that we were getting close to home. Many of the tree species were the same and there were many lakes and ponds with good sized rivers. Our last stop of this long day before we moteled it was Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River. We dipped our boots in the outflow of the lake and took pictures and then headed north to Bemidji. A long day, but a good one.

7/28 Cut Bank MT to Williston ND (Part 2)

Often we would hear someone tell us after beginning to discuss the stifling heat, that it must be OK for us because we were getting the wind. We all had full fairing bikes so little wind actually got to us. The wind that did was composed of hot air so it was like being blow-dried all over. Now the mornings were not very cool and the day got even hotter. The temperature differential between morning and afternoon was very reduced. Lou and Eric had Nalgene bottles with insulated booties that they filled with ice at the motel each morning. We stopped repeatedly to refresh with water and Gatorade. I took to tying a bandanna around my neck and pouring water into it to keep it saturated as we rode. The wind would evaporate the water and cool me a bit. Others on the road must have thought it strange to see me pour water from a bottle into my neck rather than my mouth. In truth there wasn't much respite; you just had to tough it out and make sure your pee stayed clear. It was interesting to see the natural vegetation and agricultural differences as we moved from west to east. Just outside of Glacier NP on its eastern boundary the land was arid. Very few trees of any size and mostly widely separated scrub growth. No irrigation or irrigation only in very small patches. Heading east then in Montana we began to see a bit more green as we ran into wheat and rough hay fields. The streams had large shrubs and cottonwood and box-elder in their flood plains. Rivers were rills crossed by short bridges with mud bottoms and sluggishly churning along the flat land. We began to pick up sunflower fields and corn and larger irrigated patches the further east we went. The land was still almost devoid of trees except those planted around houses as windbreaks. I suspect they may have been carefully watered to get them started. Finally, nearing Minnesota we began to run through real woods and larger fields of corn, wheat and sunflowers, and the whole suite of mid-western tree species appeared. Over the thousand miles from Cut Bank to Bemidji this green gradient was spread across the landscape to let us know we were heading toward abundant water.

7/28 Cut Bank MT to Williston ND (Part 1)

This day brought us across the entire eastern two thirds of Montana and into North Dakota, around 500 miles. We began to do higher mileage days to catch up on our itinerary. Often you will hear people say eastern Montana and North Dakota are flat, monotonous lands devoid of interest. They are correct to a certain extent. They are relatively flat, but they are not monotonous nor are they ugly or of little interest. It's not the land that has the problem; it's the viewer. In my opinion, these types of landscapes that have little relief and change only subtly over many miles have to be viewed with patience, quietness, and slow movement. They have a beguiling, subtle beauty that you have to work at to appreciate, but for which your effort will be paid in full. Some cultures that are faced with seemingly uniform environmetnal conditions become so attuned to slight differences in those conditions that they can describe them and give them unique names. Hence, the people of the arctic reportedly have 50 names for snow of different condition. Montanans and North Dakotans must then have a large lexicon for the subtle color shifts of yellow, tan, white, green, and dark, shadow, bright, dull, flat light palleted across the smoothed, rolling landscape. These are vistas that may not be as mystic, mythic or vertigenous as the mountains, but do more to hypnotize, mesmerize and spellbind.

The temperature was incredibly hot on this portion of the trip. More on that in my next post.

7/27 Pincher Creek AB to Cut Bank MT

In the morning we had an excellent breakfast with perhaps the best coffee of the trip at a little diner in Pincher Creek that was one of the pilot's morning hangouts they had scoped out during their 2 months on the job. These little local jems become very important to find when you are constrained to stay in one place for long duration. Then we went to the airport and toured the planes. Again, Lou and Eric can provide more detail on the hardware. These guys were extremely competent pilots and knew their craft and their jobs inside and out. They fitted us with Conair (their company) hats before we left. OK, so we got a later than planned start toward Waterton/Glacier, but it was worth meeting these guys and making Canadian friends. If this trip were just about riding a motorcycle from point A to point B it would not have been nearly as much fun or worth doing. We looked forward to our next chance meeting with other travellers or natives as we moved cross country sharing our story and learning about other folks. To tell the truth if I new more about blogging when I started this trip or even during the trip I would have reached out even more and taken better notes. But then there would be even more words for you to wade through. We headed south on Route 6 and entered Waterton Lakes NP. This is a gorgeous park that is adjacent and similar to Glacier National Park. Together they are called Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. If you look at Google Earth you can see there is a cut line in the vegetation separating the two parks at the border. The terrain and vegetation is much the same as Glacier NP. We stopped at the Prince of Wales hotel to check out the view and take some pictures. We were lucky not to stay there from the tone of most of the reviews this motel gets on the Trip Advisor website. It too (along with the Fairmont at Lake Louise) is an old hotel that was on the grand railroad tour. According to the accounts it has seen better days. We met a couple from Alabama who decided not to stay because the rooms had no air conditioning or TV (sounds good to me!). It seems that the Canadian parks have these semi-formal old hotels set amidst stunning natural wonders. In the national parks in the states like Yellowstone and Glacier the big old hotels are just as impressive but much more rustic with bark and round wood construction. While at Waterton we drove up into the mountains to see Cameron Lake. Both Cameron and Upper Waterton Lake cross the international boundary and there are trail heads with a customs station at the southern end of UWL that you can pass through to hike into Glacier NP. We took Chief Mountain International Highway and crossed into the US. We gassed and ice creamed in Babb and entered Glacier NP at St. Mary. The east-west road through Glacier is called Going to the Sun highway and either way you traverse it, depending on the time of day, you go to the sun. It is one of the most spectacular roads I've ever ridden. It was carved into and through almost vertical cliff faces by Civilian Conservation Corps workers back in the 30's. These young men worked for $1 per day and had to send $25 home each month. They were provided room and board and, judging by the expert stone and wood work, instruction by trained artisans. The vegetation differences from one end of the Park to the other are quite remarkable. On the east side, it is extremely dry. Trees of any size are scattered and few, and generally clustered along streams. As you drive westward around Logan Pass whatever tree sized vegetation disappears to be replaced by stunted trees (krumholz), grasses and wildflowers. Logan Pass is just west of the Continental Divide. The scattered and droughty vegetation east of the CD is due to the rain shadow effect of the mountains. The stunted trees in the pass are due to shallow soil depth, poor water retention and extreme cold conditions. As you continue into the valley of Lake MacDonald and the Flathead River you drop in elevation and pick up deeper soils with much more moisture. You begin to find larger trees and many of them. Western hemlock, western red cedar, western white pine, western larch, lodgepole and ponderosa pine, Engelman spruce, subalpine fir as well as huge balsam poplar and cottonwood densely clothe the landscape. Lake MacDonald Lodge is a fabulous structure made entirely of bark-on western red cedar round wood. The main support posts holding up the roof are approximately 3 feet in diameter cedar 3 stories tall with very little taper. This is old growth timber. It is truly a lodge built on a grand scale. Throughout the Park at all our stops we made conversation with the young staff people none of whom were from Montana. Kansas, Florida, Washington, and Ukraine were some of the place names on their name tags. Also, wherever we went, in the Park or out, people would come up to us and ask us where we were going, where we had been, etc. When they found out about our adventure they were universally awed, amazed, curious and envious. There is probably no place else in the world where we could buy bikes and travel the distance we have without a tremendous amount of paperwork and identification documents. Even cruising into and out of Canada was a snap. It's a big country. We took Route 2 around the southerly end of Glacier NP and headed east reversing our day long westward trend. The west gate of Glacier was the furthest west we travelled in the lower 48. We made it to Cut Bank MT where we found one of the least expensive and nicest motels on the trip. The Glacier Inn had great rooms, new facilities and was very clean. Mr. Dinesh Patel was the owner operator and he did a great job. We were headed home.

7/26 Lake Louiise AB to Pincher Creek AB

This was the day when the temperature started out the coldest and ended up the hottest. When we started from the campground it was in the high 40's and by mid-day the ambient temperature thermometers on the bikes were reading 96 to 100 degrees F. So, even "in the wind" it was hot because the wind was hot. In addition, because our bikes were faired we got even less draft on us. Many times during the summer you will see riders with sleeveless shirts, shorts, etc., on their motorcycles. We don't do that. Very seldom will you see the Spada boys riding without full protective gear. It wasn't until we got into real all day heat in Montana that we broke down and rode with only long sleeve shirts, but we never neglected our helmets no matter how hot. Under these conditions it's critical to keep hydrated because you lose moisture so easily and quickly. We downed water alternating with Gatorade at each gas stop. Today's pace was leisurely although we covered over 300 miles. We searched out back roads, enjoyed the mountain and lake scenery south of Banff and stopped for cold drinks and food regularly. Only one bad stretch of road had us cursing. A biker in Whitehorse told us he had just driven Route 3 from north of Cranbrook BC to Cowley AB and said it was great road and we could access the north gate of Waterton Lakes National Park. It was great road for the most part except for a 6 kilometer stretch just east of Fernie BC. At that point we came upon a "construction ahead" sign. It turned out the construction was a re-surfacing job with stone chips and tar both of which were applied very thickly. What a mess! Tar and stone all over the bikes. The wheels kicked up stone and tar coating the underside of the fenders and sticking bits of tarry stone all over the fairings, frames and motors. I road next to Lou for a while and his wheels looked like the old fashioned "pinwheel" fireworks shooting off sparks only they shot off sprays of tar covered stone. Cars whizzzed by oblivious to us and what they were doing to us and their own vehicles sending stone showers everywhere. It sounded like a machine gun or a constant rain of pebbles on a tin roof as the stones hit the inside of our fenders . Very unnerving as the loose stone also caused wobbly riding. We were very happy to get out of the construction zone. We all agreed this was the worst stretch of road we hit on the entire trip. Undoubtedly, we will be cleaning tar and stone off these bikes for a long time. We finally pulled into Pincher Creek around 6 p.m. It had been a long hot day. Of course, Lou met up with a couple of pilots in the lobby of the motel. We met them for dinner and drinks. These guys work on contract with the Alberta government to fly tanker planes to suppress fires. They begin their season around May 21 and extend for the next four months on call 24/7 in case of forest fire. The crew consists of two pilots to fly the tanker, one pilot to fly the bird dog and two flight engineers to work on the planes. They indicated that although the fire danger was at its highest levels there had been no major fires in Alberta yet this fire season. Consequently, they trained and sat and mostly sat. Very boring. The bird dog pilot scouts the best route to the fire and sets up the run. He then circles around and lines up the tanker for the run. The bird dog follows the tanker on the run guiding them to the drop and lingering to photograph the actual drop. All drops are recorded and graded. The pilots must make accurate drops or face the possibilty of not getting their contract extended the following year. I'll let Lou and Eric provide more details on the type of planes they flew. We had a great time at and after dinner talking with them about their planes and their work. One of the pilots named Shane, turned out to be a geek and really had a lot in common wth Eric so they had a very high tech chat. I finally heard what Eric does for work; he designs and builds computer chips. Ask him about it. Anyhow, they invited us out to their airfield in the morning to tour the planes and their facilities.

7/25 Hinton AB to Lake Louise

I was too tired last night to continue my post for 7/24 about Hinton so this first part will describe this bustling town. Hinton is a "transition" town. Many motels/hotels, restaurants, gas stations, etc., but seemingly little in the way of permanent residential areas. Wind blown and dusty, it provides a staging area for tourists at the east gate of Jasper National Park and for construction crews on the way to the oil fields.We lodged at the Twin Pine Motel whose two mythical pines had long vanished under black top. Those pines (most likely lodgepole) were replaced by Engelman spruce and trembling aspen in the narrow strips of remnant grass between lots. I got the feeling from this place and the rest of the town that landscaping was not a high priority. The rooms were old and worn, the hostess, although pretty, efficient and pleasant enough, had an air of tiredness; she had undoubtedly dealt with every jerk to come in off the gas and oil fields with a pocketful of money, muddy boots and no restraints. She directed Eric and me to a room that was already occupied unbeknownst to her. We finally got that straigtened out (never did figure out who that guy was) and headed to the Wal-Mart (ugh!) and the Canadian Tire to pick up motorcycle cleaning items to finally get the road grime and bugs off the bikes. We worked as a well oiled team in the car wash to soap, wash, rinse and dry our rides. Not as good a job as brothers Al or Dave would have done, but respectable for 4000 miles from home. By this time it was getting late and we relied on the restaruant at the motel for sustenance. Two mistakes there. First, it seems that many restaurants/bars/pubs and motels in Canada have a lax policy of smoking/non-smoking area separation and look upon an open doorway as enough of a break. The night desk clerk was a slippery looking dude who leaned in the doorway of the restaurant smoking while keeping an eye on the front door. Second, we ordered the spaghetti and meatballs special. Previous motorcycle trips have taught us that you can't get good food from a restaurant housed in a double-wide trailer. This trip taught us that you can't get an Italian speciality from a Canadian pub. Our fault. The meatballs were those little frozen specimens that are as big as cherry tomatoes (there were plenty of them) and the spaghetti began to melt into formless overcooked mush under the pressure of the weight of the tomato sauce spread on top as we watched. We cleaned our plates and went to bed. I forgot to turn in our key (they only had one since all the others had been stolen) in the morning. Morning 7/25 - The road into Jasper village unfolded a marvel of geology at each bend. We saw huge snow covered peaks devoid of vegetation at their apex, marred by talus slopes and land slides and treeless swaths from snow avalanches, and rivers that ran grey with rock flour created by the colossal weight and pressure of glacier against bedstone. Opaque turquoise ponds dotted the flats while on occasion streams of the same color flowed into the grey waters and formed distinct parallel patterns of blue and gray until the larger volume of the grey water subsumed the blue. Jasper village is a mountain resort town with a semi-faux alpine theme (not all the buildings matched the theme and those that did looked kind of fake) much like Lake Placid used to although it looks much busier than LP. There is an active passenger rail line that runs through town. Tour bus after tour bus disgorged predominantly Japanese, South Korean and German tourists to rake over the free attraction brochure racks, the better, I assume, to pack as many attractions into the schedule before the mandatory move to the next venue and the return home. They queue up at the information desks and keep the clerks busy. Others seek more self-help information from the racks hording maps which they can attempt to follow and lead themselves to the destination. These are the veteran bicyclists in spandex, up-curved hard soled bicycling shoes whose clips clack on the floor, and sleek sunglasses, and hikers and climbers in baggy supplex shorts and shirts, web belts with nylon buckles and Teva sandals for off-trail work. Both groups are tanned, trim and fit with an air of knowing where to go, how to get there, and what to do once there. Past Jasper we took route 1A south which parallels the main Route 1. It is much less travelled and offers incredible views. Just before it meets up with 1 it crosses the Athabasca River at Athabasca Falls. This is a relatively small falls but very violent as this meltwater river sloshes back and forth through a narrow rock gap with great force. Parks Canada did a great job with interpretation (as usual) and set up a trail system that gave great photo ops. We made several other stops on the Icefield Parkway (as Route 1 is also known) to view hanging glaciers, rugged/ragged peaks over 11000 feet, and rivers and ponds in the U-shaped vallies, but the next major highlight was the Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia Ice Field. I had visited this glacier with Mike Kudish and Ted Mack in 1981 and was interested to see the changes that had occured since then. Parks Canada again did a great interpretation job and placed year markers along the trail to the toe of the ablating glacier to show where the ice had once been. I remarked to Eric that my memory might be faulty but I didn't remember walking as far as we had to get to the toe. Sure enough we came upon the year marker for 1982 where I thought the old toe had been; it was many yards farther downslope than the existing toe. I would estimate .2 miles. Our sunglasses were not enough protection from the bright sunlight as we climbed up onto the glacier and walked about a half mile up onto the melting ice. The surface was crisscrossed by pale blue rills of melting water and pocked with potholes filled with rock flower beads that looked colloidal. The "beads" were easily crushed between the fingers and left a sticky paste that was so fine you could feel no grit. This is what was in the rivers coloring them grey and making them opaque. Further down the Icefields Parkway we stopped and hiked into the Peyto Lake overlook. Awestruck by the view, we botanized a bit and then headed on to Lake Louise where we got gas and set up camp at Protection Mountain campground. Finally, we visited Lake Louise. The change was shocking. Although theh Lake remained seemingly unchanged, turquoise, translucent and cold, the hanging glaciers above the Plain of Six Glaciers that feed it were greatly diminished. It will be interesting to compare the photos I took in 1981 with those I took today. Also, unlike Parks Canada, no mention was made of climate change on the interpretive kiosks or what effect it might have on Lake Louise once the feeding glaciers were gone. The Fairmont at Lake Louise was on the grand railroad tour in the late 1800's and was a grand hotel. We walked into the lobby and were amazed at the bustle and architecture. We were specks. Dinner was in an excellent restaurant down the hill called the Deer Inn. Contrary to Lou's expectations, black bear did not attack us in our tents that night. I'm going to try and get some of my old 35 mm slides digitized and produce a 1981/2007 comparison of the Athabasca Glacier and Lake Louise and the Plain of Six Glaciers. Dan

7/24 Fort St. John, B.C. to Hinton, AB

This was our longest day. Approximately 571 miles. We did it to "catch up" to the schedule. Although we pretty much stopped when and where we wanted to and visited whatever interested us on the way, we did have an itinerary with days blocked out into 250 to 350 mile segments with a village as a destination each day. In this way we knew that if we lingered we would have to make up X miles later on to get back to NY on time.

From FSJ down to Hinton we ran into a ferocious headwind. There was tremendous dust and the gusts of wind pushed us all over the road.We hit only a few drops of rain all day that we quickly ran through. It was so hot and dry we were almost wishing for rain to cool us off. The fire danger in BC and AB is very high.

At Dawson Creek we hit mile one on the AlCan. We stopped to take pictures and get gas then blew on down to Grande Prairie. This is where the wind really picked up as we entered the edges of the Alberta prairie. Grande Prairie is a flat, windswept town that is undergoing a tremendous economic boom from gas, oil sand, and coal extraction. It felt like everything was moving quickly, the wind, the traffic, the construction. The buildings seem to be going up quick, cheap and obsolescent and made me feel that it all would be torn down in 20 years. We headed south into the headwind toward Grande Cache. We should have gotten gas. Still unfamiliar with the kilometer/mile conversion we mistook 134 miles for 134 kilometers. If we weren't bucking the headwind we would have been OK. As it was Eric ran out of gas about 4 miles from Grande Cache. Lou and I headed into town to look for a gas can. The station we stopped at didn't have one, but a fellow came over to make small talk as usually happened when we stopped anywhere. As it turned out his pickup had a blown motor at his camp about 1 mile south of where Eirc was stranded and he and his wife were in town to pick up groceries on their ATV's. He told us to go back ot his camp and use his gas. This was so typically generous of just about everybody we met on the road. I was all set to head out when the guy mentioned he used to be a Polaris dealer. Oh Boy! That did it. He and Lou got into reminiscing about long ago obsolete but still mythical Polaris snow machines. I finally had to remind Lou of his duty to his son stranded out on the highway probably being stalked by a grizzly bear as he was trading tall tales with the ex-Polaris dealer. We headed out. On the way we met Eric returning. U-turn and back to the station where Eric explained that 4 vehicles had stopped offering rides but no gas until the last fellow in a pick up truck opened his tailgate to reveal 4 or 5 cans of gas. Eric took a gallon (after the guy offered to fill it up) and headed on in to town. What great people we met on the road!

I'll describe Hinton in my next post.

7/23 Watson Lake to Fort St. John

This was one of the nicest parts of the trip. The roads were in very good shape, the scenery was incredible and we saw amazing wildlife. The AlCan runs in and out of Yukon Territory and British then dips due south through Muncho Lake Provincial Park, Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park and Stone Mountain Provincial Park. Muncho Lake PP is a place that we had never heard of but that we agreed was one of the most spectacular and beautiful places on the entire ride. Like most of the AlCan in these reaches between more populated Alaska and the southern ends of BC and Alberta, there was very little traffic. The AlCan runs down through the middle of Muncho Lake PP which is a deep north/south trending glaciated valley. Very steep and tall mountains on both sides with the emerald green waters of the lake nestled in the bottom. Liard River Hot Springs is in the middle of ML PP and is where we stopped to have breakfast. The Liard River Hot Springs Lodge was a very clean inn and was a great place to eat. Our waitress was a young woman who had taken the bus up the AlCan at the beginning of summer from Peterborough, Ontario looking for work. She found it here and decided to stay through the summer until the fall when she would return to college in Peterborough. She was a very bright woman who quipped with us about regularity when we all ordered Red River Porridge. She was definitely an out of the ordinary waitress as she wore hiking boots in the dining room. She claimed they provided great support for her having to be on her feet all day. Made good sense and she really looked the part in the rugged, wild surroundings. We didn't have time to try the hot springs. It was on this stretch that we saw Stone sheep (our second species of sheep) and our first bison both in large herds, small male groups and lone bulls. I have an admittedly romantic view of the old west and I also lament the passing of organisms that were once plentiful but now are much reduced or extirpated because of human actions. The three things that I lament the most in this category are the passenger pigeon, the American chestnut and the bison. I will never see the sky darkened by the passing of millions of passenger pigeons, nor will I see the American chestnut take its dominant place in the eastern forest., and I will most likely never see millions of bison migrating north or south on the Great Plains. The pigeon is totally gone. On occasion you can see a tree-sized chestnut. But here in northern British Columbia we saw 50 bison of both sexes and mixed ages grazing on the side of the road, roaming in and out of the woods. I pulled onto the shoulder and did not turn the bike off. I understand how people can be so enamoured of a wild animal, especially some romantic megafauna like bison that they lose all common sense and want to walk up to the animal and click pictures or touch it. I actually had to tell myself, OK don't get too close, don't turn off the bike, which way are you going to go if they start to move toward you. But, I did stop and I did click some amazing shots, and I did get to see two juvenile bulls play at butting heads, and very young calfs playing chase, and old bulls walking in a straight line as others parted before them. And I saw them disappear like ghosts into the forest. Further down the road we saw other herds, and lone bulls and bull groups of two or three. These are stunning creatures that you really can't appreciate fully until you get close and see how BIG they really are. Although these animals stayed on the shoulder grazing they left plenty of evidence that they freely roamed all over the highway at will. The Stone sheep also didn't seem to care much about traffic and often held up long lines as they stood in the road. The AlCan took a right angle turn to the east and went through Stone Mountain PP, also a stunning landscape. We ended our day in Fort St. John which is a rather good sized city with modern facilities. We were beginning to leave the truly isolated wild behind.

7/22 Whitehorse to Watson Lake

The day started overcast and cold then the clouds broke and warmed up to very hot. We stopped at Fort Nelson quickly to check the visitor's center and decide whether to continue. The Center and the town was very clean and the staff was very helpful. Late in the afternoon we made it to Watson Lake. WL is the home of the "Signpost Forest" started in 1942 by a soldier during the construction of the AlCan. Now whoever passes through (except us) tacks some piece of memorabilia Ilicense plates, name boards, street and village signs, etc." to posts sunk in the ground by the village for that purpose. There are now over 65,000 signs on hundreds of vertical posts occupying one quadrant of the main intersection in town. The Visitor's Center is also located here. The VC was very clean and the staff extraordinarily helpful and we thought we had hit a real gem of a town. However, although clean, the recommeded motel was clapped out. The carpet was puckered and threadbare and cigarette burnt. All the electrical appliances in the room were plugged into a rats nest of adapters and wires connected to one outlet. The curtain covering the window over the tub in the bathroom was a ragged piece of translucent plastic sheet held up by pieces of wire that looked like paper clips. OK maybe I'm too picky. Amazingly, the WiFi was the fastest connection we encountered on the trip. We decided to do laundry and went to the local gas station/convenience store/deli/ laundromat. This was an experience. The place looked as if it was newly built. The paint was fresh on the walls and it had bright fluorescent lighting. The guy behind the counter had the greatest mullet I've ever seen. "Joe Dirt" did not sport as magnificent a pile of hair as this guy did. And he had a mustache that, if you could have removed it from his upper lip, would have made an outstanding floor brush. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like he wanted to be there as he was quite surly when we asked him simple questions like, "Where is the laundromat?" and "May I have change to spend in your laundromat?". Ah well some people have no sense of humor. The deli girl who we did get change from had cracks and open sores on her hands with which she handled food and money without gloves. This was not a place that we wanted to order a sandwich from. As soon as we made it to the machines a very nice lady came up to us and gave us "boys" the lowdown on which machines were the best in the place and what their idiosyncracies were. Very valuable information. The restaurant left a bit to be desired. Again, worn out carpet that looked as if it would never be clean again, silverware that we had to wash ourselves, non-descript battered and fried cuisine and the intimate atmosphere one can only get from ambient fluourescent lighting. Watson Lake is definitely a place to stop and perhaps to stay, but it is a town with a mix of dusty, rundown facilities and new, modern facilities and mostly ultra-hospitable folks. On to Fort St. John tomorrow.

7/21 Haines Jct to Whitehorse to Skagway and Back

Breakfast at the Raven was a traditional (we were told) German breakfast with various cheeses, yogurt, fruit, and meats as well as some incredible pastries. The weather was cool enough to warrant our use of the electric vests. Whitehorse is a fairly large town dating back to gold rush days and had many accomodations. We booked a room at the Edgewater since it was labeled as being "Motorcycle Friendly". They even had the basement of the motel reserved for motorcycle parking. Once in and mostly unpacked we took off for Skagway. It was overcast and misting for the entire ride into and out of Skagway over roads cut into cliff faces, steep up and down grades, gravel patches and emerald lakes. Though overcast the light and the mists served to fluoresce the greens of the trees and the yellows of the lichens that covered the rocks of the barrens above Skagway. Once in town we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the bay, the glaciers hanging above the village and the number of ravens. We walked through town and did not succumb to the temptation of the hundred jewelry shops lining the streets. We saw the narrow gauge White Pass and Yukon railway and the wharfs where the cruise ships tie up. While there we saw a fur seal swimming in the bay. If you get there check out the National Park Service Gold Rush Museum and the Visitor Center. Very helpful and knowledgeable folks about the Klondike Gold Rush. We headed back to Whitehorse in raingear and electric vests for warmth, but broke out of the rain as we reached the motel. Pasta at a very good Italian restaurant set us up for the evening. Tomorrow to Watson Lake.

7/20 Tok, AK to Haines Junction, YT

We encountered the worst road conditions of the trip between Tok and Haines Junction. There were long sections of loose gravel where the DOT was trying to get rid of frost heaves. Slowing down for the conditions wasn't all that bad though because the scenery was spectacular. We were still seeing the easterly portion of Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska and the easterly portion of Kluane National Park and Reserve in Yukon Territory. The Al-Can runs through vast peatlands in this stretch. We stopped for lunch in Beaver Creek on Kluane Lake. Kluane Lake is a very beautiful, large waterbody in YT and is a halfway point or waystation on the Al-Can between larger villages. It began to rain later in the afternoon as we pulled into Haines Junction. We stayed at an incredibly clean motel called the Raven run by some German folks. We got surprisingly good chinese food at a nondescript restaurant in town. Initially, our itinerary had us ending our day in Whitehorse, but the miles and the rain was getting to us so we made the stop at Haines Jct. On reflection we then decided to go to Haines the next day and take the ferry to Skagway, then drive up to Whitehorse and perhaps beyond for the next evening. The ferry company rep told us that the ferry was not running on the following day. Of course she did not also tell us that there were other ferry companies that were. In our ignorance we decided to ride to Whitehorse the following day get a motel, then beat feet to Skagway for the afternoon and finally riding back to Whitehorse in the evening.

Still 7/19 Fairbanks to Tok

By now you should have guessed that I am posting these from home. Life on the road doing the mileage that we were each day is not conducive to keeping a regular blog, so these additional details are coming to you from my home pc. At the North Pole we met up with two riders from Pennsylvania. Very friendly guys; one on a Road Glide like mine, the other on an early model soft tail. The soft tail rider was a farmer who had fabricated aluminum trays to be attached to his rear footboards. The trays were specifically sized and shaped to carry two 2.5 gallon gas cans. Running out of Fairbanks to Tok we saw our first and only sandhill crane. Graduallywe left Fairbanks behind and began to get into much wilder sections of road. To our right was the back (northerly) side of Wrangell-St.Elias and although many miles away the huge mountains stood out as if we could reach out and touch them. The air was clear and the sun bright. Visibility was incredibly far and in the distance we could see storm clouds and rain falling. Conferring on the intercoms we decided to drive bit further before putting on rainsuits. Our mistake! Suddenly we began to get wet even though in bright sun. We pulled u-turns and blew back north out of the rain and suited up. Turning again to the south we entered the storm. Still in incredibly bright light, huge rain drops begin to fall as if in slow motion. We could see the impact on the bikes and almost hear the splash. With the light reflecting off the oncoming rain drops and the farground smooth dark blue-gray, it seemed that we were riding into a school of tiny silver-sided fish that flashed ahead of us and swirled away on wind currents. And then we were in heavy water. Running in rain is always a necessary evil for a motorcyclist; it happens, you have to keep moving forward to get to your destination, you have no choice. A good rainsuit, a good attitude and good tires are the most important tools when dealing with rain. We made it to Tok and found that the motels were full. We were referred to a B&B called the "Off The Road B&B" and it turned out to be one of many delightful surprises on the trip. It had a one mile dirt road that was flat thankfully. The proprietor was an artist named Helga Wagenleiter. Although she had a cabin we opted to stay in the bedroom in her house. The buildings were all designed and constructed by Helgo over the last 20 years. This was a place that we did not expect to find in the backwoods of Alaska. There was a rustic elegance about the place, and, I think speaking for Eric and Lou, we felt a certain peace as if we were truly isolated from the entire outside world. Of course, we kind of were. But what I mean is that Helga welcomed us as if we were long lost brothers and some of that reticence that those of us who aren't used to living with others such as in a B&B situation, melted away and we were made to feel very comfortable. The down quilts on the beds were also quite luxurious. Helga is a photographer and stained glass artist. Her house was full of little details such as stained glass and mirror pieces around the bathroom sink that were unique. Breakfast is "of your choice or my surprise". We chose "my surprise" and Helga made a "Dutch Baby", flour, eggs and milk baked in a cast iron dutch oven, with homemade blueberry preserves and bacon. Wow! But beyond the place and food, Helga was a treasure. She is a native of Germany, fluent in several languages, world travelled, Alaskan homesteaded, a business woman and an artist who clearly has thought through Many of the issues of our day and addresses them all with compassion, intelligence and practicality. Check out her website: http://offtheroadhouse.com/helga.html. I think we could have stayed a few more days but headed out to Canada.

7/19 Healy to Fairbanks to Tok

By the end of these journals you will be sick of my weather descriptions. Sunny, hot, dry. That's it. We had only a few short experiences with rain on the entire trip, and nothing in Alberta or the lower 48. Aftern negotiating the driveway from hell for the last time we headed for Fairbanks and what we hoped would be a quick visit to the HD dealer to get our plates. I'm not sure if I noted this before but we had a slight mix up at Anchorage HD. They were unable to provide our plates by Monday and promised to express them to Fairbanks HD for our pickup on Thursday. Well, when we got to Fairbanks HD, UPS had not delivered yet so we visited the Alaska Pipeline interpretive site on the north side of town. It was a good photo op and provided answers to questions we had about the design and construction of the pipeline. They also had two "pigs" on display that are used to clean the pipeline and check for wear and damage. We got back to the dealer and UPS had delivered the plates. As you will see in photos they are consecutively numbered 9631, 9632 and 9633. We slapped them on, bid farewell and rode down the road to the North Pole. Of course we had to stop and ask Santa if he would kindly send a note to the little ones at home. I had a brief discussion with their staff about the true home of Santa at the North Pole near Wilmington. My impression of Fairbanks was a depressing as Anchorage. I know, I really didn't see all of each of these cities, and didn't talk to many of the people (and those I did were uniformly pleasant). I'm thinking it may be the light that made me feel this way. There is no yellowness or softness to the sunlight. It is very bright, white and doesn't turn off in the summer. Of course, it might also have been because I was sick as a dog and had a fever when we ran through town. Lou and I both caught something early on that made us hacking fools. Sneezing and coughing in a full-face helmet is absolutely no fun, especially with a microphone that you have to have up against your lips to talk into for the rest of the trip.

7/18 In Denali National Park

We arose early in clear sunlight, navigated the driveway from hell, had breakfast at Rosie's and arrived at the Park to caatch our shuttle bus. We had a driver named Heidi who I would guess was a woman in her fifties. She was a schoolbus driver in Anchorage during the school year and loved the Park and driving so much that she got this job during the summer. She indicated that although shuttle bus drivers didn't have to provide commentary, she had spent a lot of time learning about the animals and plants of the Park and liked to talk, so we were going to get extra for our dollar, whether we liked it or not. She was very good. She had a very good working knowledge of wildlife biology, animal and plant ID and geology. Also, she had driven the road so many times she knew the good vantage spots and where we might see wildlife. She really produced since we saw a wolf and a caribou walk past the bus as we were parked on the side of the road. We saw 5 grizzly bears quite a ways off, but still clearly visible with binoculars, and we saw many Dall sheep as wel as snowshoe hare and ground squirrels. We rode in to Fish Creek and them disembarked. As the bus pulled away we walked off into the bush and spent an hour and a half roaming the hillsides, sneaking up on caribou (not very well), eating lunch and relaxing It's very difficult to put into words the huge scale of the place, the quietness and the sense of wildness that I felt here. Eric, Lou and I talked about this and agreed that although a road runs through the Park and planes take tourists on flights over it, this is a truly wild place where whoever walks off into the bush to camp or hike, takes that walk with the understanding that there are forces out there that may prevent you from returning.

7/17 Talkeetna to Healy

I already described our flight over Mt. McKinley this day in my last post. After picking up our gear and checking out we had a relatively uneventful ride toward Denali NP. It turned cloudy and cool and began to rain enough to stop and put on rain gear. Strip mall type development is beginning to occur around the entry to the Park. We decided to move on to our accomodations. We ate at Rosie's Diner and then proceeded to Ridgetop Cabins. Eric already mentioned this place, but he didn't really give the driveway in the detail it deserves. This driveway was steep, paved with cobbles, gravel and loose soil and had blind ascending switchbacks. The bike radios came in real handy as brother Lou called out the line to take. It really was every man for himself though as we used the hogs like dirtbikes many hundreds of pounds lighter. We all made it up, and then made it down, up and down again over the next two days. Very intense. The cabin was very nice, clean and nestled in to a trembling aspen grove. I had been noticing that the trembling aspens had gray foliage. You could pick out the groves on the hillside because of this peculiarity. At the cabin I was able to examine the leaves closely to determine why they had the color. It turns out that throughout Alaska the trembling aspens have a leaf miner that eats the chlorophylous tissue out from between the upper and lower leaf surfaces. This gives the individual leaves a greyish cast as you are really only looking at the cuticle on the upper and lower surface. Typically, grey birch has a leaf miner but that turns the leaves brown. It seemed that this insect pest was uniformly spread throughout the aspen in Alaska.

Additional Notes From the Trip

Hi All. I haven't posted to the blog since July. Fortunately Eric has been updating you on our progress. My excuse is that we spent so much time on the road that by the time we pulled in to a motel at night, cleaned up and got dinner, it was too late and I was too tired to begin typing. Again, thanks to Eric for keeping you at least minimally updated. As he notes in his last post he will fill in more detail. I intend on doing the same thing so keep checking back for more updates.

The last time I posted I was sitting on the deck of a cabin we had rented for the evening on the banks of an overflow channel of the Talkeetna River in Talkeetna. The semi-fiasco with the license plates at the dealership in Anchorage was behind us and the plan was that the sales manager would overnight them to his buddy at the Fairbanks HD dealership where we would pick them up on Thursday, July 19. Lou called all over this morning (July 16) to see if we could charter a flight around Mt. McKinley. He was successful and the flight was incredible. We flew in bright sun approaching the mountain. The terrain below was quite flat and very wet. Ponds and peatlands pocked the landscape. The dense vegetation of the flats and river floodplains quickly gave way to the bare rock in Denali NP. We began to gain elevation and as we did so it began to rain. The dull gray/blue color of the clouds was beautiful and Jock, our pilot, steered us back into bright sun. We were high enough to see several glaciers occupying different vallies. This was a perspective that any glacial geologist would give a right arm for. Circques and arretes, tarns and morraines and ice embedded with rock; Jock twisted and turned the plane and gave us great views. Seeing this raw landscape either in the grip of the ice or very recently released provided insights on how our northeastern landscape has evolved since the glaciers left. Jock landed us on Pica Glacier very close to base camp, where climbing parties stage for the attempts on McKinley. The surface of t he glacier was very soft and the snow/ice was granular. It was apparent that there was much freeze/thaw/freeze going on. We were warned not to walke too far from the "landing strip" because of hidden crevasses. Several other planes had landed and it was quite surreal to be surrounded by huge silent rock and ice mountains, but have brightly colored planes flying in and out. We flew back to Talkeetna where the first of many coincidences occurred. During converstation Jock indicated his partner in the plane was from Saranac Lake. His partner is Mike Richter. I knew the name but had never met the guy.

I had tried to connect with Hilmar and Kurt Gruendling in Anchorage with no luck. At least we talked. He too was heading up to Talkeetna but our dates just didn't overlap. Another coincidence! It's been since 1991 that we had been in ALaska together and now after all that time, we appear in Anchorage in the same week.

More posting later.

Home again

After a stop for the night in Niagara falls, I made it home late last night. Great trip! I will update this with some details of the trip and product review of some of our gear.

A round Lake Superrior

We are back in the US in Michigan and finally on Eastern Day Light time. The trip around Lake Superior was cool. When the wind blows off of the 40 degree water, the temperature drops at least 25 degrees. The Mackinaw Bridge over the split from lake Michigan and Lake Heron is longest we have been on this trip. We are going to try and make Buffalo tomorrow which will put me back in Boston late Thursday night.

North Dakota

We made it across North Dakota today into Minnesota. The west of the state is dry with rolling grass lands that support primarily wheat. As one proceeds east out of the shadow of the rocky mountains, the lands become flat with more water supporting corn and sunflowers. As one crosses the border into Minnesota, the forest of deciduous trees return. We finally called it a day after 542 miles at the in Bemidji, MN.

On the Lewis and Clarke Trail

We followed the Missouri River today along route 2 today and ended up in Williston, ND. This town is probably the biggest we have been in since Whitehorse, YT. It was very hot (102) and dry today, not much fun on an air cooled motorcycle. There is not much to seen in this part of the country except small towns, crops, and live stock. The transition from the Rocky Mountains is quite dramatic. We traveled 442 miles today. It would have taken Lewis and Clarke about 2 weeks to travel that far and they didn't have an air conditioned room and restaurant to look forward to. We are going to see get off rt 2 and travel rt 38 and 200 west.

Back in the USA

We are back from the big white north eh. We had a great time in Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta Canadian provinces. Jasper, Banff, and Waterson national parks were spectacular, but we are glad to be back where cell phones work and loonies are not something you pay a bill with. We are going to Milont, North Dakota tomorrow and Duluth the day after. I will post some more pictures soon.

Jasper or Bust

It has been a long day, but we did make up for some lost time. We traveled 575 miles from Watson Lake, YT to Fort St John, BC through some amazing country. Muncho Lake and Stone Mountain Provincial Parks are some of the best roads and vistas we have traveled through. Along the way we saw numerous packs of Bison, Caribou, and Sheep.



The crossing from Alaska back to British Columbia was a hoot. The officer asked me where I was from and I replied, "Boston". He then asked why I had an Alaska plate on my motorcycle. The look I got from him when I explained the trip was priceless.

We traveled quite a bit south today. It is the first time it has been "dark" in 10 days. The midnight sun is all it is cracked up to be and I will miss it.

We are going to travel to Jasper NP and hopefully camp for the first time this trip so I will not update this tomorrow night. I will leave you with a one for the road.

Down the Alcan

The road after Haines Junction is much better than the previous sections. The speed limit is now 100 KPH and making time is easier. We did make it to Skagway, AK on Saturday. However, the ferrys do not run on Saturday so we didn't make it to Haines. Even though it rained on and off on the way down the drive was spectacular! Skagway was one of the ports created to get to the gold in the Klondike (1898). It is now a village controlled by the Alaska cruising industry. I can't believe how big these operations are. The people must have suffered hauling 2000lbs of gear, the government requirement, over this pass. the trail is now a Canadian and American national park. It is still possible to hike the old trail. However, with my current track record of picking hikes it might take a bit to convince Tony and Stick to try this one with me.

We are going to try and make up for some lost time and try for Dawson City (600 miles) tomorrow. So, I will only upload a few pictures. The first picture is for Lidia. The second is a very cool rainbow we saw while Lou and Dan changed into rain get. I must say, the Aerostich suit is very good in that respect. I don't miss changing into rubber!I hope to update tomorrow from Dawson City.

Finally a good internet conection!

A good internet connection has been hard to find in a convenient location in Alaska. Most small towns are connected. However, with the midnight sun we have been riding until around 11:30 at night. So, it has been difficult to get time to update things. The sun has amazing powers. It seems that even with only a few hours of sleep, if the sun is shining brightly you seem ready to go! Too bad that didn't work in college.

After a week of good weather the rain came this afternoon. So, we decided to knock off early and get a hotel room in Haines Junction, YT. So, let me recap some of the things that have happened.
We started on Monday in Anchorage and headed toward Denali NP. After a beautiful afternoon, we first saw the mountain in Willow on route 3. What a sight! Dawson, the owner of a True Value which this picture was taken, told us it was the first he had seen the mountain in a few weeks.


People that climb Mt McKinley typically start in a very small town on the Susitna River south of the park called Talkeetna. In earlier days, supplies would be brought by barge or rail road to this port and flown to base camp on one of the glacier. This town was on my short list to visit. The down town area has a few shops and the historic Fairview hotel.


Legendary bush pilot Cliff Hudson started Hudson Aviation in the 1950's. We were fortunate enough to book a flight around Mt McKinley and land on the pica glacier. Hudson Aviation had bought back a group of 8 climbers from Mt McKinley the morning before our flight. They were sorting equipment in the hanger when we arrived. They had spent 21 days on the mountain with 18 days of snow. Avalanche conditions we too severe for a summit attempt. From the snow coming off of the top we could see why.
After a memorable flight, we headed to Elk Ridge Cablins via rt 3. The "ridge" in the title should have been a clue as to where the cabins were located. The 1.2 mile dirt rode to the cabin had numerous switch backs and gained about 1000 ft of elevation. John Spillane was right, we should have gotten BWM GS's instead of the Harley's. After getting to the top, the cabins had great view. The only fear we had was going down! Unfortunately, we don't have a good picture of the road because no one wanted to stop and take it.
The bus ride though Denali NP was long, but good. We saw many animals including bears, caribou, tarapin, moose, and a wolf.






The next morning we went down the goat trail and headed off to Fairbanks to pickup our Alaska license plates. Due to some technical difficulties we were not able to pick them up in Anchorage. After a side trip to see the Alaska oil pipe line we finally got the plates.We briefly flirted withing making a run to the Arctic Circle, but decided not to go. Doug, the sales manager, told us that they had lost 10 bikes on the haul road this season already and we wanted no part of the carnage.

We headed off on route 2 south towards Tok after a brief stop at the North Pole to see Santa and send some post cards. We stayed at the "Off the road" bed and breakfast in Tok, AK. It was owned by a wonderful German woman named Helga. It too had a 1 mile dirt road for a drive way, but this one was flat.

The Alcan highway starts in Delta Junction, AK. Most of the highway is paved, but the section from Tok to Haines Junction is by far the worst. Between the gravel, frost heaves, and RVs, it can be tricky going. The section around Destruction Bay was particularly bad, but incredibly beautiful. We finally ended the day in Haines Junction, YT in the Raven hotel.

We have changed planes slightly. We are going to make a run to the cost on rt 3 into Haines and take the ferry to Skagway. This should put us in Whitehorse, YT tomorrow night.

Team Spada Hits Alaska

Team Spada is well under way with their Alaska adventure. They have been busy this week motoring around from Anchorage to Denali, Fairbanks, and Tok. Today they embarked on an adventure that should land them by night fall in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory - approximately 400 mile ride from Tok. The crew have been fortunate with good weather, good company, and fantastic bikes for the epic journey. Rumor has it that they had a beautiful viewing of Mount McKinley (first day in weeks that the top was visible), went for an airplane tour of the Denali area that landed them on a glacier for some additional close up action (can't you just imagine Lou and Eric fighting over the airplane controls!), stopped by the Alaska Pipeline to see some really big pipes, and a quick visit to "the North Pole".

Stay tuned for more details direct from Eric and Dan when they get back into a location with data coverage.

~ Team Spada Assistant - Annemarie

The Trip to Homer

Let me step back a bit and begin when Eric and I arrived in Anchorage. He came in first and made his way to the Spenard International Hostel. Then I arrived at around 10:30 p.m. AT. Not a bad place. We bunked with four other guys. Sheets were clean as was the bathroom. Met some great bicyclists in the morning at breakfast. One fellow was a retiree from Boeing having lived in Wash St. for over 30 years. He was originally from Fayetteville/Manlius. His father had a Ph.D. from SU and his son graduated from ESF in the late 90's. There was this biking team of 3 on a tour around AK. One of them was from Banff and it was good to chat about second home development and what it has done to his small village.

Saturday, July 14, morning Eric and I went to the House of Harley to do the paper work for the bikes. We were blown away with their beauty and we literally drooled over anticipating taking them out on our trip. The dealership was very accomodating. We went through a very poor orientation regarding the operation of the bikes, picked out some t-shirts, listened to biker war stories from the Sales Manager, Bob, and took off mid afternoon. By that time the sprinkling rain had given way to dull overcast. We made our way to Lou's buddy, Jon Tone's shop. Jon sells Hunter equpment and Mohawk and Rotary lifts like Total Tool and let us use his car, his shop and all his tools to get our new rides ready for the trip. We installed integrated brake/signal ligths, luggage racks, and a protective vinyl coating to the paint. Lou pulled in at mid-afternoon and after going out for a quick bite we continued working on the bikes until 1:00a.m. Sunday morning. Unfinished we gave up and decided to start again at 8 in the morning. We finished up and got on the road to Homer around 10 a.m.

Sunday morning was overcast in Anchorage was overcast and we started out with rainsuits. Two miles out of town riding along Turnagain Arm the sun broke out and we run in very good weather ever since. The road was well paved although there were acouple of sections of constructing. The bikes pulled like tractors and were very comfortable. We ran along the Kenai River. It's water is a milky, opaque turquoise blue and flows into Kenai Lake that also has the same color and opacity. The road runs right along the river and lake and was startling to see patches and glimpses of the pale blue down below us through the deep green of the forest vegetation. I felt right at home with the broad-leaved trees dominated by balsam poplar. There is paper birch and white spruce. The odor of the poplar was incredible as we road through mile after mile of its groves. The road gained elevation from sea level and went through some amazing twistys at the bottom of slopes so steep that we were amazed that vegetation could cloth them. There was much evidence of avalanches and landslides, with whole swaths of forest vegetation replaced by low growing sucessional species. We saw a cow moose at roadside and magpies and ravens.

We decided to stay in Soldotna so our ride back to Anch. on Monday wouldn't be so long as we had to be back to the dealer by 10 for the 1000 mile service. We got a motel in Soldotna and headed out for Homer. What a ride. About halfway be tween Soldatna and Homer we ran into dense fog blowing in from the coast on our right. Picture bright sun blasting through dense fog so that when you're in the fog it's not dark but incredibly light. It's what you might think heaven would look like. We broke out of the fog just before Homer and we stopped at a roadside viewing station overlooking the bay. ALthough it was clear above where we were the water was totally obscured by the fog. Across the bay were jagged, very high moutains with hanging glaciers in the valleys. We went down into Homer and drove out on the Spit where we watched folks fish for flounder and had dinner. We saw another moose on the way back to Soldotna. We really have to start controlling our urge to stay up as long as it is light out. I'm typing this outside on the porch of our cabin in Talkeetna by the ambient light at midnight. Very dangerous if you want to ride safely. I'm going in now. I'll try to catch up on today's activities tomorrow.

Dan

We stayed at a Travel Lodge in Anchorage last night. Fairly seedy, although the sheets were extremely clean and starched. No curlies. Anchorage is flat except for the McMansions beginning to climb up and dot the hillsides surrounding the city. It looks like the terrain is quite steep because although clothed with dense coniferous vegetation, the houses stand out starkly on the hillsides. Of course if you can look past the gray, humdrum, anonymity of suburban Anchorage that looks like any other suburban area of the U.S. but with more billboards with fish and bear on them, you see the incredible mountain peaks arcing to the east. Stark contrast is the name as the weather switches momentarily from bright, crisp sun to gray overcast and back. We head toward Homer in a few minutes. Talk to you soon.

Dan

Off to Homer

We are a little behind schedule, but all and all we are in good shape. After putting on the vinyl protector on all 3 bikes we are fully packed. As usual, we are sending back a box of stuff we don't need or more correctly won't fit on the bikes. Of course, we needed to make some minor modification of the bikes. I wish Harley Davidson could make these bike correctly! The weather is not the best. I will test out the Aerostich suit this morning.
We don't have any data coverage in Alaska so I am not sure when the next update will be.

In Anchorage

We picked up all three bikes today. They have much more power than our old ones. It has been a long day. Pictures tomorrow.

At Denver

Tony dropped me off at Logan Airport for my flight to Anchorage via Denver. The big question is: "Did he stop at Mike's on the way back to Dover"?







Wandering around waiting for my flight I came across Mile High Harley Davidson kiosks and bought my first dealer pin for the trip. I can't believe how good a job Timmy is doing blogging from his Q. Motorola should do a commercial based on his trip.

The sinking feeling

The girls are driving me to work. My good friend Tony is going to drop me off at the airport this afternoon. I am finding that is difficult to explain to a 3 year old what I am doing. I told her it is a long trip. She responded "Can you bring me back a moon rock?". I will have to find one on the way.

I'm On the Blog

Thanks Eric for setting this up. No photos now and quite rushed as we leave Tupper Lake in 10 minutes to catch the flight out of Albany. Hopefully more tonight from Anchorage. Stay tuned.

T'was the night before Chritsmas

Finalizing plans always takes longer than you think. I repacked tonight and removed a bunch of clothes. This should make fitting everything on the bike easier. The proposed route is to the left. However, these trips never go as planned. I like it that way!

I am packed!

All of the gear is packed into two bags. I will have to check these on the flight. The black bag fit well in the tour pack of my '96 Electraglide. I hope it fits in the new one! Annemarie purchased the gray duffel bag at Marshall's. This will be donated to someone in Alaska. The sleeping bag, riding jacket and boots take up a lot of bulk in the gray bag. I will carry the helmet and radios on the flight. We will be using Autocomm bike-to-bike communications with Kenwood FRS radios. These worked exceptionally well on the last trip.

Stupid map tricks

Well, I finally figured out how to add maps to this blog. I am using a service called mapdaze. It is wrapper around the Google Maps API. If I had a little more time, it would be easier to write to API directly using JavaScript. Now, to tackle mapping GPS tracks. I have found a program called GPSbabble that will convert GPX format to KML. KML is used by Google Earth as the native format. More on this later

Tools of the Trade

This is my first post. I had a few discussions with my friend Timmy on the best was to post a trip report on my way from Anchorage, Alaska back home to Groton, Ma. He is on is way on a real bike from Seattle to Cairo, NY. Check out his blog at http://fishericross.blogspot.com Unfortunately, I found no easy way to mash-up with Google maps. So, I will post comments here with links to Google maps. This is the second time I have motorcycled across country. This first time was in 2003. My dad and I went from Santa Cruz, CA to Groton, MA in 2003 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Harley Davidson. When we did this last time, we were riding 10 year old motocycles. This time we are riding brand new iron. One would think that we wouldn't need to bring tools. Better safe than sorry.