Arctic Circle via Motorcycle
ArcticMotoDay One (Tuesday, August 3, 2010)
*The format and photo arrangement seems a little janky on blog entries I'm making to tell the story. I'm working on it*
My alarm went off at 4:30am. I jumped up. The wife said "Don't you want to hit the snooze??". Nope. I'm ready. It was my intent to be on the road at 5am, but after checking email and tying up some last minute loose things, it was actually about 5:20am. Still not a bad start. Several people knew that I was planning to go beyond 1000 miles this day, but I actually had a little secret that I only told a few. It was my true intent to make it all the way to a campground in Sturgis, about 1260 miles. I didn't tell my family because I didn't want them to worry. I told my Dad. That was a mistake. He worried. Regardless, that was my goal. It wasn't something that I HAD to do, and I was prepared to stop whenever I felt like stopping. It didn't really matter if I went 1260 miles, or a 1000, or even 600. I had decided just to go as far as I was comfortable going, and call it a day.
100 miles down the road, I was tired, my butt was already hurting, and the Sun had not yet come up. I was asking myself "What the heck am I doing?". But every mile that went by, the easier it became, and every minute that went by, the better I felt. Yeah sure, it was my intent to do 1260 miles today (only because that would essentially put me a day ahead of schedule, right from the get go), but more important to me was to keep the day interesting and see some stuff. Anyone who has crossed through the States to the West, knows that there is a whole lotta nuttin. My first tourist stop, Antique Archaeology, just across the Mississippi in Iowa.
The History Channel has a TV series called "American Pickers". This is the place. I had done a little research prior and discovered that it was only a few miles out of my way. It took me a little while riding around the area to find it, as I didn't know EXACTLY where it was. As it turns out though, it was pretty easy. It's not on a main street or even the street as the listed business address, but an adjoining alley.
Unfortunately, they were closed. Or maybe it was fortunate, because that limited the amount of time I spent here. I rode down the street, stopped for lunch, considered waiting around another hour for them to open, but then just decided to continue on. It wasn't that important to me, and I was mainly just wanting to see the place and snap a photo. Even though I didn't stick around, the time I spent looking for this place, taking photos, and stopping for lunch, was over an hour. Time flies.Back on the road... I'm now West of the Mississippi, time to make some time. I began seeing gas stations that offered a choice in the fuel. Ethanol or 'Real" gasoline. I know it probably sounds silly to most, but many of you know my dislike for E10 and can understand my excitement in finding real gasoline. The Trophy runs better and can go much further. I'll snub the Ethanol any chance I get.
Somewhere around 600 miles into my day, I stop to make a cargo adjustment. My duffel bag had shifted a couple inches to one side, and although still secure, it was simply bugging the crap outta me seeing more sticking out behind one elbow than the other. I guess I'm a little OCD (duh). Hehe.... At this exit was the "World's Largest Truck Stop". I had not planned to stop here, but it was worth pulling over for the photo.
I did some off-highway zig-zagging diagonally through Iowa, saw some rural areas, took a photo here and there, but otherwise fairly non-eventful.I crossed into Minnesota.
I crossed into South Dakota.
Somewhere in SD, I crossed the 1000-mile mark. I had accomplished this in about 15-1/2 hours, of which 2-1/2 hours were spent on fuel stops, breaks, and tourist activities (my Antique Archaeology stop). I'm pleased. My travels so far had been far far easier than I anticipated.
I was feeling good. REAL good. I was absolutely confident that I could make the 1260 miles. In fact, I was a little disappointed that I needed to stop at 1260 miles and actually dabbled with thoughts of pushing beyond that. The timing just wasn't there though, as I was meeting up with a friend in Sturgis.
But then, off in the distance, I see this....
This ended up being my first real mistake. Rather than pull over immediately and put on my rain gear, I decided to make a run for the next exit 10-miles ahead. If I get wet, no biggie. I'm wearing mesh gear and it dries out quick. I was also thinking that maybe, just maybe... I wouldn't even stop and simply punch through the storm. BIG mistake. It probably dropped 20ºF within seconds, and I got absolutely slammed by a very hard rain and brutal winds. I didn't stop. It was too late, damage done. I pushed on those next few miles to the next exit, in misery. I stopped at a gas station, topped off, and it continued to pour. At the gas station was a small diner. I walked it to get out of the storm and discovered that it was actually a Dairy Queen. I bought a meal and tried to dry out a little. I'm sure the workers were not too pleased with me dripping all over everything. I hung out at the DQ for a while, but the AC was cranked and not really a good place to warm up. I was cold, and it was just getting worse. Soon after, the worst of the clouds passed over. It continued to rain though, albeit a much lighter rain. I wanted to get moving again.
I was eye-balling the Inn across the street as an easy way out, but it was a nice place, looked really expensive, and had obviously filled up quick with travelers bailing off the highway.
I pushed on. The calm after the storm was beautiful, but the damage was done. I had just received my first ass-kicking by Mother Nature.
I wanted to continue on, and I tried for a ways, but I was cold and spent. I knew from previous research, that there was a cheap $40 hotel up ahead. It was part of my bail-out plan, had I gone the 1000+ miles but couldn't go any further. Now I'm looking at it not as a place to recover from the miles, but to recover from my ass-kicking. It's about 50-miles further.
I was aiming for "Hutch's Hotel" in Presho SD. It had received some bad reviews online, noted as a stinky hotel used mostly by local hunters and their wet dogs. It was cheap though, and the only thing around. I didn't really have a choice. By the time I had reached Presho, it was dark. I missed my exit. Not much in Presho, and it is not lit up well. A second Presho exit was only a 1/2-mile down the highway though, and I jumped off and back tracked a short ways. I came to an establishment called "Hutch's Bar/Cafe" or something like that. There were a bunch of plastered Harley guys out front, staggering around, and one getting busy with his gal in the parking lot. I asked one of the fellows if there were any rooms around, he says "Yer... go ashhk the bertennerrr in dar.". I walk inside, ask the bartender about rooms, and he points me next door. There is a walking path from the bar to the motel and he tells me that I can take that, but I decide to hop back on the bike and ride it next door. I walk into the front office, which smells like stale smoke and looks more like a storage room for old worn out furniture. No one around, and the sign says $55/night, self-checkin. I'm confused. I wait around for a while, trying to figure out the whole self-checkin procedure, and after a few minutes a tired and weathered individual walks in from the back room and asks if he can help. I think it is Hutch, but I'm not sure. I ask about the $40 rooms, and he says "Its been 'bout 4 or 5 years now since we had $45 rooms. You're lucky. We go up to $135 come Friday.". He's right. $55 for a room this close to Sturgis is probably a deal, and certainly the best that I can do under the circumstances, even for a "Cheap Hotel". I take it. I pull my bike around to the side entrance. As I'm removing the essentials that I need for the evening (my tank bag, primary GPS, overnight bag, etc), four other Harley guys ride up. They stagger about, trying to dismount, and trying to find their room. They're vulgar and abusive to each other. I can't understand half of what they are saying. At that point, I try to expedite the process of getting my gear into my room. In fact, I made a couple more trips removing anything and everything not physically bolted to my bike. I get everything into my room and find a very basic room, with three beds. The walls are block, it has a small basic TV wired to a switch next to one of the beds, and there are plenty of hooks and hangers for hunting clothes, and a place for dirty boots as you enter through the door. There is a slight odor in the air, but honestly it's not too bad. It is obviously set up for a small group of hunters, but as it turns out, works well for a weary motorcyclist with lots of wet gear. The beds and the bathroom are clean, and I'm quite happy. In fact, as I look around and see that the room is actually setup to sleep six comfortably, $55 doesn't sound like a bad deal. A room for six seems like a bit of a waste for one. I snapped off a couple photos of the room, but I don't know where they have gone at the moment. No biggie, it's really not that interesting and not needed to tell the story.
My final mileage for the day, 1062 miles. An EASY 1000 miles, and a brutal 62.
I've had a LOT of people ask me about applying for my IBA certification, but honestly, I'm just not that concerned with it. It is not documented. I never tried to document it. I knew heading out that morning that I was not doing the things necessary to document it. I don't need someone else to tell me I did it. I know that I did. That's all the matters. I'm not knocking others for spending the $30 or whatever it is to get your certification, but to me it's just not that important and not something that I feel compelled to do.
Day Zero (Monday, August 2, 2010)
I have packed ALL day. Packed, unpacked, packed again. I think that's probably normal for a big trip. I was feeling the pressure, because I thought I was ready, but still had lots of stuff to do. I decided that you can never been completely ready, and you just have to do the best you can. The bike was heavy. Possibly too heavy. So, I kept going back an eliminating things. Against the advice of a few long-distance friends, I removed a LOT of my tools. Things that I felt could be represented by other tools elsewhere. They say that its not the underwear you pack but the the tools that you bring with you that will get you home. They're right, but tools weight a LOT and underwear doesn't (and besides, I only had about a weeks worth of underwear anyway). I know that I am skipping a lot of stuff concerning the preparation for this trip and there may be some of you who want to know more, but trust me when I tell you that those stories would likely take far longer to type out than the trip itself. Maybe I'll come back to those stories some other time.Ok, so the Trophy is packed and ready to go. The tires have ZERO miles on them. It is 8:30pm and I have not ridden it with this load yet. I also want to put a few miles on it with my radiator filter in place, just to see if it will be content with the reduced airflow, or if it will immediately overheat. It is not my intent to leave that filter there the whole trip, but I want to know now. Not 5000 miles North.
I hop on. Man, it's heavy. Hit the starter button, and it cranks over real slooow. It's weak. Not enough to get it to start. Then I realize that it's been maybe three weeks or so since I've started it last. With vacation and other things, I've simply not ridden it. It has been parked in my garage, where I've been packing, swapping out wheels, organizing gear, testing electronics (two GPS units, camera battery chargers, 12V tire pump, and other electronics), keys on, keys off, etc etc. It wasn't dead, but just didn't have enough juice to get it going. I hop off and start removing my duffel bag in order to get to the battery under the seat. My wife pops her head out the door and says something to me. I don't recall her exact words, but it was something about being an idiot for taking that thing or something like that. I remove the seat, and toss a trickle charger on the battery. 30 minutes later, it starts. It is now past 9pm and starting to get dark. I still need a quick test run. So off I went. 64,435 on the odometer. I went for a 15-mile ride. 64,450 is my official start mileage.
More to come....
I will post a bunch of photos over the next few hours or couple days. It may take me a few days to compose all my stories. I didn't take very good notes, so hopefully I can figure out what I did day to day. ;) Stay tuned.
5,345 miles.
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Zombie Boot
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Strange Things
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Wisconsin
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Ben Sparks
Today, Ben caught up with me at a Rest Area. I was partially unpacked, looked for my lightweight 'spare' rain jacket. I had also stopped to tinker with my GPS. The only thing that I accomplished was catching the GPS power adapter on fire. I'm not kidding.
Ben asked if there was anything he could help me with or anything I needed. There wasn't much that could be done. So as I packed everything back up, we swapped travel stories. I explained my plan, but how things actually panned out. He smiled and said "I've gotta show you something" and handed me his smartphone. There was a photo of him in front of the Arctic Circle sign. He had been there a couple weeks before. He had left on his travels early July. He told me how bad the roads were (something I've heard several times now from people along the way).
We swapped contact info and continued on our seperate ways.
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Home stretch, but still not easy.
As I rolled into Fargo late last night trying to get out of the storm, I began experiencing clutch troubles. The lever is popping and hanging up as if I've got a clutch cable grabbing. Except... I have a hydraulic clutch. I don't know what the deal it. The problem was still there this morning. 1055 miles to go.
Before I left Fargo, my GPS died. I don't know why. I stopped at the first Rest Area and tried to fix it. No success.
Just now pulled into my first fuel stop of the day. I had planned to put my rain gear on because its cold and sprinkling. To my total disbelief, I discover that my cargo net has come undone, and my raingear is no more. Both pants and jacket have blown away.
I'm totally bummed.
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Back in the land of corn.
North Dakota.
Doh!
I was then swarmed by four nice guys with uniforms and guns. Seriously, they were really nice. ...and chatty. I unlocked everything and they sat me in a cool AC'd room with no windows. One popped his head in and asked me about a rubber hose I was carrying and what's it purpose. I didn't know what he was talking about and could see them getting nervous. Then I said, "oh, that's attached to my air pump. You know- to blow up my air mattress.".
So a few minutes went by and they called me back out to the bike. One guard was still real chatty, and asked me again where I was from (for about the tenth time). He then asked if I was a Browns or Steelers fan. I said, "Niether. I'm not really much of a football fan, sir!". So we chatted a little more and I mentioned that being a Pittsburgh fan might get you beat up and said "actually, being a Browns fan might too! In Cincinnati, we have the....". He cut me off, nodded his head, said "the Bengals", and grinned as if to really say "That's the answer I was looking for!".
I was then free to go. ;)
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SK Bugs
Summary for Wednesday
With the tough decision the avoid the harsh conditions to the far North, I could not come this far withouty seeing more. So I left Edson before daybreak and went West. The bank signs were saying 8C. I don't know what that is in F, but its kinda cold. As I made my way further West, it continued to get colder. About an hour into it, I decided to stop for a coffee to warm up and tossed my electric vest on. That proved to be a necessity. I also slipped out of my 3-season gloves and dug out my ski gloves.
I rode down thru Jasper on the Icefields Parkway. It was cold. Real cold. Who wudda thunk it?? I spent HOURS in the parks taking lots of photos (which I will share later). I spent half my day going only a third of my total distance for the day. I can't complain. It was a highlite.
Calgary was slow. Once past Calgary, I hauled ass across the rest of Alberta and into SK. Somewhere in SE Albert, it rained on me. It wasn't bad, and I was still wearing my rain gear. I think I even said "is that all you got?". It got hot shortly after and I switched back into my mesh gear. A half hour later, it rained on me again. After about 17 hours in the saddle and nearly 900 miles, I sputtered (literally) into the first gas station in Regina SK.
Here in Regina, I had a VERY NICE room waiting for me at the Holiday Inn Suites, thanks to Scott Payne. Scott is a good friend that I've known for less than a year. He cashed in some Priority Club points and arranged the stay. Rolling in late and having absolutely no worries checking in was a huge help, and greatly appreciated. I wasn't gonna call him out on it, but he deserves the credit. People like Scott continue to help me out and it has made a tough trip much more managable.
I'm moving slow this morning. Have tried to stick with Eastern Time for this whole trip, but find that now as I'm heading back East, my body seems to be on Moutain Time (or maybe its still making the shift to Alaskan Time). I'm heading toward the border this morning. Crossing into ND. That's another new State for me. My next stop is Gurnee IL (North Chicago). It was my intent to do that leg in one shot, but I'm gonna hafta break it up.
Don't know where I'll be tonight. I might camp if I find myself in a warm area and I'm feeling up to it. Hopefully there will be a few interesting things to see today.
Will try to post a few updates along the way.
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SK
Glacier
Banff
BC
Check Mate
I have found myself in a bad situation for travel concerning the weather over several days ahead of me. I have spent multiple hours this morning trying to develop a plan, looking at realistic daily mileages, weather predictions for each area that I am passing through, and have explored all of these routes and destinations using different travel times (either rushing along, or dragging my feet to intercept the best conditions). I can "Fix" some days of travel further down the road by leaving later, but I pay the price up front with multiple days of misery. If I leave NOW, I can avoid those miserable days just ahead of me, but then pay a heavy debt further down the road with still yet multiple days of misery. I will be dealing with cold, wet, and miserable days regardless of what I do, with daily highs only comfortable for short periods of time, daily lows which I will be experiencing on early mornings and later hours of the days of my travel near 40°F, and at higher elevations crossing through the mountains, particularly those areas in the Southern portion of the Yukon, I'm facing temperatures near or below freezing. I've tried, desperately, to come up with a plan that works. I simply cannot win this one.
To make matters worse, I'm sick. I've been sick for two days. Waking up this morning, I found that I was in worse shape than I have been for the whole trip. I think dealing with 6 days of ass-kickings dished out by Mother Nature has finally caught up with me. I could conceivably continue on, but trying to cross through these cold, wet, and windy areas, will only make matters worse. There will be times that I need to camp. While I can manage a night in the cold, I realistically cannot tolerate it for multiple days. It's just not going to happen.
So with that said, I have to make the difficult decision to turn around and head home. It is troubling to come so far without making it to my destination. I can't be too upset about it though, because the simple truth of the matter is that it doesn't make sense to continue the pursuit. At least not right now. It would be costly and miserable, and just not worth it.
So the NEW PLAN is to depart to the West tomorrow morning, ride through Jasper and Banff National Parks, most likely in the rain. Hopefully I can get a few more decent photos, and hopefully I won't have to deal with too much slow-moving tourist traffic. I will then continue East, aiming for an area East of Calgary. From there, I have a realistic two-day journey home, taking me through an additional providence and two additional states. I'm guessing I'll be home sometime Friday the 13th. Great.
I've uploaded about 130 photos or so of the first 3000 miles of my journey (still have a long way to go). You can see them on Facebook by clicking here.
A little bit of everything. Yellowstone, Hell's Half Acre, Antique Archaeology, Crazy Horse, Mother Nature kicking my ass, and lots more. Check'em out.
Home Away From Home
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FAQ: Chain Issue Resolution
I had made a Blog/FB update somewhere along the way concerning my chain issues but often times being in communications dead zones, they occasionally get lost. Lots of people have been asking, so here it is....
I had originally planned to make it to Sturgis in one shot, about 1280 miles if I recall. I had kinda kept my intent quiet, because some people think trying to make that many miles is crazy, and I just didn't want people to worry. Tornado-like weather I experienced that eve pretty well beat me up and stopped me where I was. So I managed to find a semi-cheap motel to recoup and dry out. I only managed 1061 miles.
Got up the next morning looking to get back on track. I was zipping along I-90heading West toward Sturgis (Wednesday morning), running slightly above the 95mph posted speed limit. As I came up on an exit that had fuel (something that does not come along nearly as often out here in the big states), I looked down at my odometer and decided I better stop just to be safe. I came off the Interstate fairly hot, my tires were sticky, and I was slinging rocks and debri up from the road. About halfway down the exit ramp, I must have picked up something big. I heard this ear-piercing screeching and my rear tire began intermittently locking up. My initial thoughts were that I had just had a rear wheel bearing go out, but then it started doing some clunking too. That's when I thought that maybe I was having tranny problems and maybe I was caught between two gears. I upshifted which seemed to make the rear a little less upset, then came to a grinding hault at the bottom of the ramp. I could smell rubber burning, quickly looked to see that I still had air in the rear tire, put it in first, and road the 100ft or so across the gravel parking lot to the gas station. That 100ft or so was was without any hangups, meaning whatever had got kicked up and jammed me up, was now gone.
After a quick inspection, I discovered that the left sidewall of my tire was chewed up and my chain was excessively loose. I sat there for a few, trying to absorb what just happened and decide what to do. I went ahead and filled it up (why I filled up a potentially dead bike, I dunno), then rode it over to a concrete slab out of the way. There I worked on it, cleaned up the mess, tightened the chain, and had a closer inspection of the tire. Although the tire took a lot of abuse, the Shinko has an extra thick extrusion (not sure what else to call it) of rubber on the sidewalls. I think thats what saved it. The chain however was looking fairing beat up. Polished nearly clean on the inside (tire side) and most of the rivets ground down. I was concerned and my adjustment put it pretty far out with not much more adjustment left to spare.
I hopped on, continued West on I-90 and stopped about 2-miles down the road to have another paranoid look. Back on the highway for about another 40 miles and pulled off at the next exit with services. There I had a closer look and discovered that the chain was fairly loose, again. I adjusted it using the last of my rotation in the concentric adjuster. It was at that point that I was confident this chain wasn't gonna make it. I ALMOST turned around and headed home, but decided to buy a chain somewhere along the way or have my contacts in Edson AB buy a chain for me, and I would install it there. That was still a long way to go through and I was going to have to limp on for 1500+ miles with a damaged and continually loosening chain.
I pushed on toward Sturgis. As I came into Rapid City, I saw several japanese dealerships. I pulled into one, bought a chain, and even had them install it (rivit type). They didn't cut me any breaks on the prices, but i was just satisfied paying retail rather than double-retail (I'm almost to Sturgis afterall).
Sturgis is a whole other story, but other than meeting up with a friend from Delaware, it was a waste and set me back another day. I should have skipped Sturgis and met him elsewhere. I'll complain more about Sturgis later.
Alberta
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Start of Day-6
Getting a slower-than-expected start this morning (again). Woke up to what now appears to be a chest cold, I'm doing a little bit of weezing, and my nose is running like a faucet.
The weather here in Lincoln is just now getting into the 50's, and I've been dragging my feet a little allowing it to warm up a few degrees. I'm starting out in my rain gear and heavier clothes. Hopefully I'll be able switch back to my mesh gear later.
Communications might be scarce today.
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ArcticMoto Comments
Just wanted to let everyone know about some issues that I'm having with the ArcticMoto Blog.
1- I'm not notified of new comments. I have to manually go looking for them, which is difficult to do with a Blackberry.
2- I'm unable to respond to comments or add comments myself. Not sure why, but I'm not ignoring you, I swear. ;) I will get to them when I can.
3- Duplicate blog entries. I update the blog via email. Often (more times that not) my Internet access is minimal or non-existent. If it doesn't think the message is delivered, it keeps trying. Sometomes multiples come thru.
4- Missing Updates. Sometimes important updates (such as the resolution to my chain problems) never make it. It is hard for me to tell what makes it and what doesn't from the road. I'll try to tie up all these loose ends later.
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Lincoln, Montana
I worked my way out thru the West, into West Yellowstone Montana, and then continued a short ways further West to clip Idaho.
As I was heading North on US20 out of Idaho and back into Montana, up ahead I could see a massive storm system coming up and over the mountains from the West. To the east was another storm that had stalled going over the mountains. They were about to smack into each other with me in the middle. So I tried to "Shoot the gap", twisted the throttle, and aimed for the small portion of sky in front of me the was still blue. I thought I was gonna make it, but before I was in the clear, Mother Nature thru me a curve ball and I was pounded by pea-size hail. Man, that sucked. I'm getting used to it though. Mother Nature has enjoyed messing with me every day that I've been on the road.
Soon after, I made the decision to head straight to Edson AB rather that Banff Nat'l Park. So there I was zipping along Hwy 200 today in Montana, which is one spectacular canyon carving road. Then I hit reserve. Since I'm not on a major Interstate, I asked my GPS where the closest gas station is. 70 MILES AHEAD. Oh crap. I'm not gonna make it. Even with my extra gallon packed in my saddlebags, I have doubts if I can go much further than 60 miles. I drop my speed down to a painful 50mph to conserve fuel. 30 miles later, I come across the little town of Lincoln. It has about a dozen little casinos, and one gas station. That's good enough for me. Shew. That's where I ended up calling it quits for the day. Got a nice little room at one of the local motels. Road down to the local grocery store, bought a couple microwave burritos and a beer, and breakfast for tomorrow.
Tomorrow's plan is to head across the border (178 miles) then continue you on into Edson AB (about 670 miles total) for an oil change and a much needed pitstop. I'm skipping Banff Nat'l Park, but might hit that on the way back thru. Just depends on how things are going.
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