Day 4 - Southeast Idaho

Day 4 was a much nicer day for riding. Not much rain, very little wind and comfortable temperatures. I enjoyed it! My route for this leg of the trip started in Kalispell, MT and wound through the Flathead Valley. Many of my stops for the day were located in small Montana towns off the beaten path. I know Montana is a large state, but you don't get a sense of how big it is until you are thinking about where the next gas stop will be. After a stop for breakfast at a small restaurant in Bigfork, MT, I was gassed and ready to ride.

My GPS unit has a neat feature that lets you select "curvy" roads. I used it for this leg and it didn't disappoint. A winding route through the Lewis and Clark National forrest took me to Helena, MT and beyond. From Helena I used an interstate for the first real time this trip to make my way down to Butte. I have tried to avoid interstate riding, but this leg had an actual destination (Eric's house) and I didn't want to be too late. More back roads into West Yellowstone, MT were fantastic!

I had been through the area around West Yellowstone before and decided to use the same route into the town. My route took me throughout the area known as Earthquake Lake. This lake was formed when an earthquake brought a bunch of the landslide down and formed an earthen dam. Pretty cool area. The highlight of the day happened on my way through this area when an RV I was following stopped suddenly. Anyone familiar with national park travels will know what that means - wildlife! I was not disappointed as a group of about 6 bighorn sheep sauntered by about 10 feet from me on the side of the road. No pictures (I was riding after all), unfortunately.

West Yellowstone is a very different town before the tourist season ramps up. It was kind of desolate and hadn't quite freshened up from what must have been a rough winter. I am sure they will get it put together. I had to stop at the park sign for an obligatory picture.

After leaving town, it was mostly smooth sailing into Rigby, ID for the night. I had to pull over and wait out a few storms. I have decided that if I see lightning, I am done! I still managed to pull in to Eric and Jodi's before 8.

All-in-all, a good ride. I am staying with them for the day so no riding on Wednesday. I am off Thursday on my way to Ely, NV. No interstates, of course.

Picture perfect day along Swam Lake south of Kalispell.

One of the courthouse bonus pictures from Boulder, MT.

Unbelievable beauty from the high plains to the west of Yellowstone.

Looking upstream towards the earthen dam that holds back Earthquake Lake.

Obligatory national park picture :)

Day 3 - Kalispell, MT

Day 3 is in the books. It started in Lethbridge, AB and ended after a full day in Kalispell, MT. No more border crossings for this guy (for now).

After learning my lesson about when border crossing stations open, I planned my departure to arrive at the crossing on the border of Glacier National Park right on time at 8 am. Unfortunately, that particular gate didn't open until 9 am! I guess I could have researched it on the web, but I was tired the night before. And I thought 8 am would be perfect. I got there right on time. I spent my free hour walking around a bit and then trying to find a place that was secluded from the persistent wind. Wind would be the theme of the day.

After mastering yet another border crossing, I was headed south into Montana. It was a pretty nice morning with clouds but no rain. But the wind. Oh, man, the wind. It was blowing 20-30 mph ALL DAY. You feel it in a car, but you really feel it on a bike. It is tiring and annoying. And when it does rain, it helps blow water past clothing that would normally protect you quite well. And I learned a new lesson today:

- Rain hurts at 70 mph. Hail hurts worse.

I was traveling to some dams around Great Falls and a line of storms approached. Having already seen the outcome of that kind of weather when we took a family vacation in South Dakota a few years ago, I decided to cut my dam hunting a bit short and seek shelter. Just as I pulled in to a covered gas station the heavens opened. It lasted about 30 minutes and I was off again.

The ride through Waterston Lakes and Glacier was awesome! I must go back when it is a bit warmer. In fact, the entire day of riding was pretty nice in terms of scenery. I included a few pictures below.

I have to say I am very happy with my hotels so far. Tonight's stay is at the Kalispell Grand Hotel in downtown. Walking distance to several good restaurants (and beer), nice room, neat ambience. Booking.com has done well for me so far.

Well, I am off to Rigby, ID tomorrow morning to see long-time friends Eric and Jodi. I will take Wednesday off from riding to visit with them - I can tell you my butt is looking forward to the break. And then it is off to Nevada and the loneliest highway.

I had plenty of time to compose my pictures since I had the wrong opening time (again!). This is on the Canada side in Waterston.

Obligatory national park sign.

And again, but this one is for 'Murica.

The penguin claims Cut Bank is the coldest spot in the nation. What about Alaska? Oh, you mean the nation of 48? OK, Penguin.

Ryan Dam near Great Falls, MT.

My hotel for the night - the Kalispell Grand Hotel.

Day 2 - Lethbridge, Alberta

Day 2 started off very nicely. The rain stopped overnight and I was able to walk around a little while I waited for the only breakfast place in town to open. I successfully positioned all of my wet clothing near the heater and it was ready to go. I was the only person at the restaurant that early in the morning until a group of motorcycle riders came in to eat. We were able to chat some and I found out that they were out riding off-road trails and lived in Calgary. After talking to them a while, I learned the first important fact of the day:

- The Canadian police can confiscate your bike if they catch you exceeding the posted speed limit by more than 40 km/h! I don't generally speed, but it is not hard to hit 40 over if you are passing a slowpoke. Good to know.

Breakfast was good (blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs), and conversation with the owner was also good. With my belly filled up, off I went.

I decided to backtrack a few miles and cross the border into Washington to pick up a quick bonus picture. That is when I learned the second important lesson of the day:

- Many of the small border checkpoints do not open until 8 am. If you arrive at 7:30 am, expect to wait for 30 minutes. At least it wasn't raining!

I had very good success with border crossings today until my final return into Canada. I guess I somehow flagged their system, or possibly it was just a random inspection, but the last crossing stopped just short of a cavity search. They even had me remove my seats to check for contraband. Now I admit, after a full day of riding, my wild hair and smushed up face makes me look suspicious, and I wouldn't have been surprised to have the US agents do an inspection. But the Canucks? Really?

Highlights of this day of riding included Libby Dam in western Montana, the ride north into Canada and over the Crowsnest Pass, and a brief stop at what the Canadians claim is the world's biggest truck. I can't argue their claim, but my truck is pretty big, too :)

On my way back into Canada, I learned important lesson number 3 for the day:

- My tank has about a gallon left when the fuel light thingy comes on. That is about 45-ish miles. The nearest gas was close enough, thank goodness.

Finally, in the middle of nowhere outside Lethbridge, I encountered what I think the Canadians could fairly claim was the longest train in the world. I got to the crossing in time to see the locomotives go past, and then waited for almost 20 minutes to see the last car go by. And it was moving at a pretty decent clip, too.

After all that excitement, I arrived in Lethbridge uneventfully a little after 9, even after losing an hour due to a time-zone change that I had forgotten about. It was a very good day! Tomorrow I head south back into Montana and loop around Glacier National Park into Kalispell, MT.

Stats:

577 Miles Today, 1026 Miles Total

I was first in line. Because everyone else probably knew it didn't open until 8 am.

Looking out over the reservoir formed by Libby Dam in Montana.

I have arrived in Alberta, Canada.

The world's biggest truck.

Not so big compared to my FJR, though.

Train crossings in the middle of nowhere are like a red light for me. No matter where I am, I am never disappointed.

Big Ride - Day 1

Day 1. I left home early to catch a ferry over to Whidbey Island as part of my plan to not ride on an interstate today. Success! Hardly anyone on the ferry, either. The ride north to the border was moist - just a steady heavy mist.

The border crossing at Sumas was empty. I was the only person headed into Canada and it took about a minute. The Canucks are way more accommodating than we are. I have never had to do anything more than answer a few obvious questions when headed into Canada. Crossing back into the US usually entails removing my helmet and explaining why I would possibly want to come home. The line to cross into the US was a couple of blocks long.

Weather improved for my ride across the first part of British Columbia. A lot of those miles were spent riding through E. C. Manning Provincial Park. Imagine one of our  national parks with a four lane highway through the middle of it and you have it about right. Unfortunately, scenery was in short supply because the clouds were persistent. So even though I stayed dry for a while, I didn't really see much.

Driving in Canada is pretty much the same as driving in the US. Speed limits are a lot lower - max speed on a 4 lane highway was 100 km/h (about 62 mph), and it wasn't unusual to have a limit of 80 km/h. It took a little while for me to realize my GPS unit had already translated km/h into mph and posted a suitable limit for me. Yay! The other interesting thing is they seem to be very conservative in how they post corners speed recommendations.

The second half of the ride was wet enough to choke a frog. I have good gear, but no amount of gear will stop complete immersion for any length of time. A drysuit would have been a better option. Everything survived except my gloves - those were absolutely drenched! I have two extra pairs but it seemed pointless to swap out that close to the end of my ride. It took 10-15 minutes for my hands to dry out when I stopped for dinner.

All-in-all, an OK day of riding. I tallied 449 miles. I had planned to do more, but the rain made me tired a little quicker and so I cut out a few stops to get to my room a little quicker. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little less wet, and it is a little longer day of riding, too. I am off to Lethbridge, Alberta tomorrow.

E. C. Manning Provincial Park

One of my bonus stops today. It had just started to rain and my gloves were still mostly dry.

My last bonus stop of the day. My gloves are completely saturated and very hard to get on and off. Must be time for pizza and beer.

Almost Ready!

I leave on my ten-day motorcycle trip this Saturday. I think I have taken care of all the things that are going to trip me up - I have my passport and a Canada insurance card. I am really looking forward to this trip and hope to update this blog each day with highlights from the day's riding. The motorcycle gods are not being totally nice to me in terms of weather, but it should be OK. It has been sunny and warm here all week, but the weather changes to typical spring-time Pacific Northwest weather on, you guessed it, Saturday! As long as it isn't snowing I am going.

I have set up a trip on Spotwalla. For those of you not familiar with this free service, it captures GPS data from your compatible device (a Spot device in this case) and keeps a map up to date with your current location. I normally use the device to make sure Jeannette knows I am OK, but thought it might be interesting to be able to see where my trip takes me. The link below will take you to a real-time map of my location (transmitted every ten minutes). Save the link or click it each time - shouldn't matter. It won't start populating my map until my trip begins Saturday morning, though.

Link to my Spotwalla page.


I was really hoping my trip would be mostly like this...

But I will be pretty happy if I don't spend too much time waiting like this...

Planning A Long Motorcycle Trip

What to pack, where to go, how long to ride each day? All questions faced when planning an extended ride like the one I have planned in May. Part whimsy, part retirement present to myself - this trip will cover about 3,500 miles over 10 days with stops in southeast Idaho to visit longtime friends and Reno for a banquet for one of the rallies I am completing this year.

When I decided to go on this ride I knew it would be a challenge to narrow down where I wanted to go. I have ridden all over Washington and Oregon in search of dams, airports and random checkpoints for my rally adventures. I would say there is little of those two states I haven't seen, in fact. Surrounding states are more of a motorcycle mystery to me. I have ridden briefly in Idaho, Montana, Northern California (note the capitalization like it is an independent state), and a snippet of British Columbia. I wanted two things out of this ride - to visit friends in southeast Idaho and to ride through southern Canada. Those constraints pretty much dictated the rest of my ride plan. I am very excited!

I am a planner. I am the guy who knows how far he will drive and where he will stop every night. I have taken the less planned route and tried the camping routine before. I enjoyed it but was riding with friends on that trip. Not sure the camping part would be as much fun without the friends. The trick for me is to limit the planned distance each day to allow for frequent stops for hydration, snacking and random photo stops. While I have found that I can ride over 750 miles in a single day, about 400 miles a day is a much better long ride strategy for me.

I used Booking.com to set up my hotel stays. I decided to try to stay in smaller mom-and-pop style places where possible. Yelp has also been a good resource to look at the possibilities. Since I am new to Booking.com, I have tried it out a few times on some shorter over night trips with good success. Some of my friends mentioned nightmare scenarios with this website, but I haven't had any problems so far. I have one more overnight ride planned in April and will test the site one more time. Fingers crossed, especially in Canada!

Here's a screenshot of a loosely planned route I have mapped out. Each letter represents my planned stop for the night. I am especially excited about two days spent in southern Canada. That section of road is supposed to be some of the most beautiful riding. I am also very excited about another trip through Glacier National Park. A full day in Idaho will be spent catching up with long-time friends, Eric and Jodi. Minden, NV is the location of the banquet I am attending. The trip across Nevada will be on America's loneliest highway - US-50. The last two days will be spent returning home in the interior of California, Oregon and Washington.

I tried to minimize time spent on interstates as much as possible.

My planned route during the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend.

I suppose my biggest concern is weather. I know that snow can fall along most of my route anytime into early June - in fact, I have personally seen snow on July 4th in Idaho Falls. I will be watching the weather very carefully as my trip approaches. Rain is OK - snow and ice are not.

I have included some pictures of rides and stuff I have done so far this year. I bought a new bike (a '14 Yamaha FJR 1300) last November and have been riding the heck out of it! I have signed up for three rally events so far this year.

• Big Money Rally: a points based rally where you ride to a location described in a handout and take a picture of your bike with a placard at that location. Nationwide event that runs from January 1st to Memorial Day weekend. This is the banquet I am attending.
• Oregon Airport Tour: picture event where you ride to any of 10 small airports described in a handout and take pictures of your bike at the airport.
• Wing Washington: picture based event where you ride to locations described in a handout and take pictures of your bike at that location.

Although my personal favorite (Dam Tour) was discontinued a few years ago, there are a few die-hard Dam Tour riders who continue the tradition by picking some dams and riding out to them. I participate as much as I can.

I will post updates as my trip approaches, and will try to update while on the road, too.

This isn't motorcycle related - just an obligatory picture of the area behind my house.

Stopped for a picture on a beautiful day along Oregon's coast.

Pine Hollow dam in northern Oregon.

This is one of the airports I am planning to visit - Hood River, OR. The goal is to get out and ride!

Example of one of the Big Money Rally bonus locations. This theme was library. Had to have the bike, the placard and the library signage in the shot.

Another of my airport trips - Florence, OR.

One of my stops for a stretch and picture taking. This is looking down on the US-97 bridge over the Columbia River.

Another example of a Big Money Rally bonus location. This one was described as a "Castle House" and the picture had to be taken from the correct perspective, too.

Motorcycle Pursuits

My New Ride!

Why would I trade in my beautiful BMW R1200RT for a new FJR? Many reasons. I admit to lusting after this bike since I read a review of the electronic suspension variant earlier this year. I elected to buy the model without electronic suspension, mainly because I rarely changed anything meaningful on my BMW. I am hoping the Yamaha will cost less to maintain, and that it will cost less if something does go wrong. The only real complaint I had with my BWM was the cost of maintenance.

Some other things I already like about the FJR:

- The gas tank is metal. Why is that important? Because my magnetic tank bag will work on it. The BMW had a plastic tank and a funky attachment system. The BMW tank bag was several hundred dollars, thus i never got one.
- The FJR has a few more horsepower - like about 40 more! That really isn't too important to me since I never really felt like I used everything the BMW had. But now I can brag? And the bike does have two settings - touring and sport - so I can take it easy in the touring mode and it is a much more manageable power delivery.
- I can't lie - I love the way the black rims look with the dark red color.

I signed up for the Big Money Rally again this year. This rally starts January 1st, runs through Memorial Day, and involves taking pictures of landmarks throughout the US with your bike in the picture. I did the rally last year and attained finisher status. With my upcoming retirement and plans to take leave for the last couple of months in the Navy, I should have plenty of riding opportunities. I plan to write a little about my trips this year.