(February 16, 2015) My friend Mitch and I covered a lot of territory in a short time last Jun and July. I'm still absorbing it. I do regret not taking more pictures. Given that I had a phone and iPad in addition to a 35mm camera, it is hard to explain why I didn't capture more of the trip in color digital images.
My goal is to make the best of what I do have. Click on the image at right to access a slideshow for my ride to the US northwest and Canadian southwest, including Alberta and British Columbia. I've linked to a PDF-formatted version to avoid the image corruption that was occuring when I went to a .ppsx or .pptx format.
In addition to these slides, which include maps based on lines I traced on Google Maps, I'm including (below) a summary of the mileage for each day and a day-by-day summary for the first 13 of 14 days. (The last day was simply crossing North Carolina to get home in Cary from my daughter's home in Hendersonville.)
Summary of Itinerary
We rode more than 7,000 miles over 13 days, when you exclude the final day. For the final day, we crossed North Carolina to our homes in Cary on different days. Mitch road back on Friday (July 11) and I rode back on Saturday (July 12).
That's an average of 538 miles per day over an almost two-week period. More importantly, the median mileage was 547. There were more days by 7 to 6 when we rode at least 547 miles than we did less. Also important to note, there were two days when we rode more than 700 miles and three additional days when we rode at least 642 miles. In case you haven't gotten my drift: we pushed too hard.
Let's look at it another way. If you remove the final day, the average time in the saddle was 9.2 hours and the median time was 9.6 hours. There were six days when when saddle time exceeded 10 hours.
Here's what I've learned: limit your planned riding to eight hours in the saddle. That means you're probably not going to get any further than 500 miles in a day. Plan your ride that way. Then, if you need push a little on any given day, it will be the exception rather than the rule.
Daily Log (posted to Facebook)
Each evening on the ride, I posted a daily summary to Facebook. Here are copies of those posts.
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 1: Cary, NC to Terre Haute, IN (Saturday, June 28, 2014)
Mitch and I pushed a little extra today and rode almost 700 miles, reaching Terre Haute, Indiana. Here we are enjoying a fine room at the local Motel 6.
Tomorrow we plan to ride across Illinois and Iowa to Albert Lea, Minnesota with several important stops along the way. On Monday, we will ride to our first key destination: Badlands National Park in South Dakota, there to watch an awesome sunset of a very strange-looking landscape. ;-)
Peace. -Mike
Day 1 Route
I-40 west to US 52 north to I-74 west to I-77 north to Charleston, WV to I-64 west to US 35 north to the Dayton, OH area to I-70 west to Indianapolis to Terre Haute. (This was a minor error in planning by Mitch as we should have stayed switched from I70 to I-74 and Indianapolis and stayed in Convington, IN or Danville, IL.
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 2: Terre Haute, Indiana to Albert Lea, Minnesota (Sunday, June 29, 2014)
Mitch and I pushed a little more today and rode about 560 miles, reaching Albert Lea, Minnesota. The highlight of the day was a visit to the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa. We just happened to meet some local fellows on their Harleys along US61 near Long Grove, Iowa. I did what Mitch has taught me and struck up a conversation with them at the pumps. I mentioned where we were headed and they invited us to join them as they were going to Anamosa too. They led us along back roads through such places as Wyoming, Iowa (confusing, eh? We'll be in Wyoming later this week...the state that is), Toronto, and Lost Nation. I felt like we had gone into a time warp: some of these little towns look much like they probably did a hundred years ago.
And this evening, we are once again enjoying a fine room at the local Motel 6. At first, we tried a low-budget place across the street, but it failed to meet even our low standards. Yes, it was that bad. :-)
There are four US states with their name beginning with the letter "I". Today, we rode through three of them: Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, in that order. Only the Mississippi separates Illinois from Iowa. Later on this week, we will stay in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. We could have named this ride the "Four I-states Tour". (Yes, I'm a geography nerd.)
Tomorrow we plan to ride across southern Minnesota into South Dakota, with a stop in the eponymous Mitchell, South Dakota for a photo. We also plan to stop at the Klock Werks (http://www.kustombaggers.com) custom motorcycle store in Mitchell. Then we're off to a night tent camping in the Badlands National Park.
Peace. -Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 3: Albert Lea, Minnesota to Badlands National Park, South Dakota (Monday, June 30, 2014)
Unfortunately, I stacked my bags higher than my shoulders, and though secure, they caught a lot of wind like a sail. The wind really tossed me around quite a bit.
Setting up our tents here in the park was a real joy, given the blustery conditions. Hey, at least it's not raining...yet. Let's hope for a comfy sleeping pad and bag tonight. Then I will be a happy camper, indeed.
Tomorrow, we finish riding through the park and end our day at the Tetons near Jackson, Wyoming. Peace.
-Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 4: Badlands National Park (South Dakota) to Teton National Park (Wyoming) (Tuesday, July 1, 2014)
The wind howled all night long and made sleeping a challenge; but we went to bed early and got enough rest to rise with the sun. We were on the road out of the Badlands at 0700. It was cloudy and cool (in the 50s) and began to rain as we rode along a desolate South Dakota route 44 to Rapid City.
The weather cleared slowly as we rode into Wyoming on US 18. By the time we got onto I-25, it was clear skies and in the low 70s. Mitch and I got split up briefly on I-25 but used our mobile phones to meet at exit 150. I thought of it as a great test for our communication system.
Mitch brilliantly chose to enter the Tetons area by way of US 26. From Dubois to Jackson Hole, the views were fantastic. We stopped at the Togwatee Pass at 9,658 feet elevation for photos. We also stopped along the road right by the Tetons themselves to take photos of Bison that were grazing right along the road. And, of course, we took some photos of the majestic mountains themselves.
It's not all good news, however. We did hit some bumps along the way, literally. In Jackson Hole, we were instructed by the manager of the Hostel at Jackson Hole to use a road that was in very bad condition and I broke a weld on the rear of my bike. It's not critical and the ride will continue, but it is a nuisance. To add insult to injury, the Hostel manager failed to reserve a room for us. Rather, he reserved a *bed* for Mitch in a room with three other guests. No reservation for me. Rather than getting a great deal on a room, we paid $120 (with taxes) for a room to ourselves, though still a hostel room with four twin beds. As Mitch noted, Motel 6 was looking really good to us this evening.
I almost ran out of gas in what looked like the middle of nowhere. Signs along US 26 in Wyoming would list towns ahead with their respective distances but then no such towns appeared along the road. I was down to 0.3 gallons when I rolled into Shoshoni. It kind of just appeared out of the desert. I was very much relieved.
We put in another 600+ miles over 12 hours. It was a bit grueling. Tomorrow will be another tough one as we attempt to visit (1) Lake Jenny, (2) Old Faithful, and (3) ride the Beartooth Pass (US 212 between Cooke City and Red Lodge, MT), and then get to Ennis, MT before dark. We're staying overnight there at the home of Mitch's friend John.
It's been a bit of a blur so far. Good thing we're taking pictures. :-) Peace.
-Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 5: Jackson Hole (Wyoming) to Bozeman, Montana (Wednesday, July 2, 2014)
Well, it's only Day 5 but it feels like Mitch and I have been riding for twice that long. We had another 11.5 hour day today. We started with a ride from the base of the Tetons into Jackson, Wyoming and then north to Jenny Lake, which sits at the eastern base of the Tetons. We made several stops for photos and then headed north to Yellowstone.
We made an expedited tour through Yellowstone National Park stopping only about a dozen times, once for lunch at Grant Village. We followed the eastern side of the loop that forms the core travel route for the park, riding the western shore of the West Thumb part of Yellowstone Lake and Yellowstone Lake itself. We also passed the Sulphur Caldron and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I was pleased to see many herds of bison all over the park where we rode.
The highlight of our day was Beartooth Pass, which is US 212 from Cooke City, Montana to Red Lodge, Montana. Most of the pass itself is in Wyoming. It is no exaggeration to say it was awesome. It was scary at times and breathtaking in its views. We found ourselves looking way down at dozens of snow-covered mountaintops. There were snow banks along the road higher than our heads. It had just snowed there a couple of days ago. We were so far above the tree line that it looked like left planet earth and had arrived on Mars. All that was there were rocks.
It was weird that in the morning we were looking up at the snow-covered Tetons and by late afternoon looking down at their mountainous companions.
From Red Lodge we rode Montana route 78 to I-90 west to Bozeman where we met Mitch's friend John for dinner. John then guided us to his house in Bozeman where are staying for the night. Tomorrow we're off to St. Mary's, Montana and Glacier National Park.
Peace. -Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 6: Bozeman, Montana to St. Mary, Montana (Glacier National Park) (Thursday, July 3, 2014)
We spent the night at John Goodman's home in Bozeman. I got a good night's sleep, which was very important as my cold has returned. I need all of the rest I can get.
Mitch and I spent all morning at Yellowstone Harley Davidson in Belgrade, Montana. I had to have the service team there weld a broken bracket on my rear fender. Alex, the service department manager also inspected my oil leak and concluded it's from the inner primary or transmission and that I should be OK regarding that problem for the rest of the ride. I also had him look at my voltage gauge and he agreed that it wasn't my battery, but rather the stator that was the problem. Again, he concluded that as long as the needle returns to 14V and I don't have any problems starting the bike, I can make it home as is.
Mitch and I left Yellowstone Harley Davidson at 12:50 and rode I-90 to US 287 through Helena, the capital of Montana. We continued on US 287 to us 89 to St. Mary, which is just outside Glacier National Park. We're tent camping at the KOA here.
We saw lots of animals on the way here, including horses that were on the wrong side of the fence. Also, as we are on the Black Foot Indian Reservation, there is open range and cattle are free to walk onto the roadways. We saw a bunch of cattle and horses along US 89 here on the reservation. We also had a dear run across the road in front of us, etc., etc. The usual stuff.
It was hot here today, in the 90s. We were roasting. No hurricanes to worry about though. :-) It's cooled off here now that we're near Glacier. We should sleep well, if people can refrain from blowing off fireworks late into the night.
We met lots of interesting people today, such as two guys on very expensive Harleys at the dealership this morning from Salem, OR. We also me Fritz from Austin, Texas here at the KOA. Fritz has ridden to Prudhoe Bay and back 12 times. He's on his way back home from his latest ride there. He has the strangest setup on his little Honda: he built a large box that he mounted over the passenger seat and luggage rack. No saddle bags, because as he said, they collect a lot of mud.
It won't get dark here until about 10:00 p.m. because we're so far north. That's different for me. Tomorrow we're off to Banff in Alberta by way way of the "Going to the Sun Road" in Glacier National Park. We'll have breakfast in Whitefish. A hotel room awaits us in Banff. I'm looking forward to it.
Peace. -Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 7: St. Mary, Montana (Glacier National Park) to Banff, Alberta (Friday, July 4, 2014)
We had another long and fascinating day on the road. It occurred to me today that the theme of this ride should be "large mountains" with a sub-theme of "critters in the road."
Today we road on the "Going to the Sun Road" in Glacier National Park and were awed by the scope of these mountains and how much snow is still up there melting, even in July. It was a chilly 47°F on that road. Seems like we've been alternating between hot and cold.
We then had a late breakfast at a great little restaurant in Spearfish, Montana. Classic fare that we both enjoyed, enough to last us until dinner. We rode US 93 to the Canadian border then on BC (British Columbia) 93 to Canada 1 to Banff for a quick ride through and then further on to Canmore, Alberta where we have a nice hotel room for two nights.
All day we've been surrounded by huge mountains in long chains. While we were impressed by the Tetons when we saw them earlier in the week, here we see the equivalent of dozens of Tetons. Amazing.
We saw all kinds of animals on or near the road from Montana through BC to Alberta. Up here, you definitely want to avoid riding at night!
My bike had a strange electrical problem just south of Banff. All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, all of my instruments shut down, e.g., the tachometer and speedometer went to zero as did the others, if I recall correctly. The speedometer and tach failing is what really got my attention.
The check engine light also came on. I pulled over (on BC route 93) and immediately pulled each fuse out one at a time and inspected them. I happened to drop one and Mitch wiped it off. Anyway, after I put everything back together--having no obvious problem with the fuses--I fired up the bike and it was functioning normally.
I've been texting with Kevin Albritton, my Harley mechanic, and he has a theory on what might be causing the problem. Because I do not have the needed tools with me, I will either have to buy them tomorrow, find a shop that will do the work for me, or do nothing and hope the problem does not recur.
Because of my latest bike problems, I may skip the ride to Jasper National Park tomorrow with Mitch. Peace.
-Mike
P.S. It's 9:42 p.m. here and still quite light out. That's how far north we are.
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 8: Banff/Canmore, Alberta to Jasper National Park (Mitch) and Calgary (Mike) (Saturday, July 5, 2014)
Mitch and I took different paths today, just for the first two thirds of the day.
I took my bike to Kane's Harley Davidson in Calgary. The service manager checked it out and he and the owner, Mick Kane (?), agreed the battery and stator are fine. The problem yesterday was a bad fuse connection. I sat in the dealer's garage and applied dilectric grease to every fuses' contacts, as he recommended.
Mick also let me use his facility to wash my bike. Boy, what an improvement! I actually had to wash it twice, three times in some places, it was so coated with road dirt, paint (from newly painted lines on the road in Montana), bugs, etc.
Mitch experienced Wild Kingdom on the Icefields Parkway, which runs from Banff to Jasper. Among other critters, Mitch saw a very large bear along the road, possibly a grizzly. He also saw six or more glaciers in Columbia Field, and he enjoyed a great cup of coffee at Paws II in Jasper.
Mitch and I then met at Lake Louise around 5:00 p.m. and road together to Banff for dinner. The place was packed, wall-to-wall people. We were very lucky to get a great little spot on the second floor of an outdoor bar. We could watch people walk by. I even had an intoxicated Canadian fellow sidled close to me and began waving to young women on the second floor patio at a restaurant across the street. He then began to expound on the important elements of life. Fortunately, his philosophy is narrow in scope and he departed after only about five minutes.
We walked to a gift shop that offered a small selection of Cuban cigars, all far more expensive than Mitch and I could afford and we left empty-handed. No big deal, we've come back to our hotel in Canmore and are enjoying flavorful but affordable stogies.
Tomorrow, we take a long, very scenic route along Canada 1 to BC 97 to the Canada-US border at Osoyoos, BC. We then will continue on to US 97 and work our way to a Motel 6 in Spokane, Washington.
Peace. -Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 9: Banff/Canmore, Alberta to Spokane, Washington (Sunday, July 6, 2014)
Today was the hardest day of riding yet. We started out on a mountainous and beautiful Trans-Canada Highway from Canmore, Alberta to Sicamous, British Columbia. But then we turned onto BC 97A.
It wasn't the mileage itself that made the day so hard, it was the slow pace of traffic on BC 97A and BC 97. As Mitch pointed out, he'd never seen so many RVs. Among other obstacles, we had to deal with a landslide along BC 97 near Kelowna that closed the southbound side of the highway and a major traffic accident on US 97 in Washington that forced us to take a detour that included a dirt road.
Also making the day tougher on my psyche, the oil leak is much worse and my speedometer and tachometer cut out again on US 97 just after that detour. I continued riding in spite of their apparent coma and an illuminated check engine light because everything else seemed to be working fine. After I stopped for gas in Beaver Trap, Washington (along a scenic WA 20), the turn signals flashed on and off a few times and then the speedometer and tachometer came back to life as normal.
I will be so happy to get this bike back into my garage or Jockeys Cycle's shop for a good beating, er, I mean repair work.
Anyway, the slogan on the BC license plates is "Beautiful British Columbia"*, and it sure is. Mitch and I enjoyed riding through the Canada Glacier National Park. So, on this trip we've visited both the US's Glacier National Park and Canada's. It's remarkable how much snow remains unmelted.
It was quite chilly this morning as we rode north and west on Canada 1 (Trans-Canada Highway) through BC. But then, as most anyone could have predicted, it warmed greatly as we headed south. By the time we neared Kelowna, we needed to strip off a couple of layers. Whereas it was in the 50s in the park, it was in the 80s in Kelowna.
We've made it to Spokane, Washington and are enjoying another evening at a Motel 6 just off I-90. Today we crossed into the Pacific time zone and it's almost 1:00 a.m. on the east coast as I'm writing this. It should be no mystery that I am very tired.
Tomorrow we ride to Ogden, Utah to spend the night at my brother Tom's house. It'll be 680 miles but 99% of that will be on interstates: I-90 & I-15. Peace.
-Mike
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*As one of the local vendors told us, the unofficial slogan is "BC: Bring Cash."
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A note about last night: we met a fellow named Jess from Edmonton whose parents own a cottage in Holly Ridge, NC near Surf City. Jesse has even been to the infamous "Trailer Bar."
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 10: Spokane, Washington to Ogden, Utah (Uhl household in West Haven) (Monday, July 7, 2014)
Mitch and I put in a second hard day in a row, riding from Spokane, Washington to West Haven (Ogden), Utah. We took the fastest route (I-90 to I-15), but it was still 685 miles, and there's no way to make that easy. At least the weather was great. That big Montana Sky looked especially big today.
I started the day working on my bike. For once, I actually got up before Mitch because I was obsessing about what to do with my bike's problems.
While Mitch rode out for coffee and a quiet time, I rode over to the nearby O'Reilly Auto Parts store. I there purchased a set of Allen wrenches and some motor oil. It turns out that even though I brought a set of Allen wrenches, the very important 3/8" was missing. That's the one I need for the transmission dip stick. (It's also the size you need to remove the air filter cover.) The transmission lubricant level looked low; the stick came out dry. So I added 1/3 quart. I also added 1/3 quart to the Primary case. The engine oil looked fine.
This bike is killing me...today, I had to use duct tape on my windshield. The left screw fell out somewhere on the highway--even though I checked and tightened all of the screws this morning. Now there's an ugly piece of gray duct tape holding the windshield to the fairing. And then there's the oil leak. Mitch pointed out to me that I am losing a substantial quantity of oil blowing back out through the air intake. In fact, so much oil is coming out that way and streaming down the side of my engine case to the ground, it seems to be a much bigger source of the puddles that appear under my bike than from the engine leak itself.
Riding through Idaho and Montana in the morning was beautiful. I thought that these would make great places to vacation if I had an RV or home out here. As we progressed south on I-15, the mountains became features we could see around us rather than challenges we rode over.
Fun moments of inspiration occurred when we rode through the Montana towns of Opportunity and Wisdom, and passed by Paradise.
The biggest disappointment today was arriving just five minutes too late to get a dealer pin at Grand Tetons Harley Davidson in Idaho Falls, Idaho. But, we took pictures and I'll purchase the pin mail order.
No more hard days, as long as the weather remains decent. We will ride until we've put it in 9-10 hours each day and then we'll get a hotel room for the night. We're both pretty wiped out now and need to slow the pace down a little. We now have ridden 5,240 miles on this adventure and I rolled over 99,000 miles on the odometer around noon today.
Peace. -Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 12: Sidney, Nebraska to Columbia, Missouri (Wednesday, July 9, 2014)
Mitch and I just got back from dinner at Booches on South 9th Street in downtown Columbia. They serve only one food item: hamburgers, and they're great. Two burgers and a cold beer...it just doesn't get any better than this. Thank you Cutter (Jeff Northcutt) for the tip on Booches.
We rode more than 680 miles today, making it one of the higher mileage days of the ride so far, but the not the hardest. The weather was great and traffic was light the entire route. A key factor in our ease of travel was a tip we got from a couple near Nebraska City. The husband overheard us mention Columbia and asked if were going there. When we told him yes, he said he lived there and was headed home. When I mentioned my concern about Kansas City rush hour traffic, he told us about a route that bypassed Kansas City: US 36 (east) out of St. Joseph, MO to Macon, MO where you then take US 63 south into Columbia. It was great: fast and little traffic.
We passed the 6,000 mile mark for our trip today and I rolled over 100,000 miles on my Harley near North Platte, Nebraska. Mitch says we will hit right around 7,000 miles for the entire trip by the time was arrive home in Cary. My engine is running great--thank you Jockeys Cycle--but the rest of the bike seems determined to shake itself apart. I'm looking forward to getting into my garage and take apart for cleaning, inspection, and maintenance. Mitch's Gold Wing has also suffered a little, as one might expect after 6,000 miles of continuous riding.
We stopped at one Harley Davidson dealership today, in Grand Island, Nebraska. We stopped there because when we were last there in 2006, they were closed. On our way back to the interstate I had a strange experience. We were on a four-lane divided highway and I was in the left lane going about 60 mph. A couple of miles down the road I could see a vehicle. It looked strange because it was in my lane and it looked like it was coming at me, rather than away from me. I moved to the right lane. Sure enough, an older lady had apparently gotten confused and was driving the wrong way. I signaled to her and then Mitch did, but Mitch says she seemed to think we were just being friendly and waving to her.
We've made our last two days of riding a little easier because of our extra effort today. We expect to be "home" on Friday. For me, I will stay over in Hendersonville with Sam, Meghan, and Christian until Sunday, and then return to Cary.
Peace. -Mike
Canadian Rockies Ride - Day 13: Columbia, Missouri to Hendersonville, NC (Thursday, July 10, 2014)
OK, I admit, we're certifiably nuts: we rode 742 miles today. Mitch reports that we also rolled over 7,000 miles for the trip as a whole. My tush and shoulders feel it all.
But here we are, back in North Carolina. Mitch plans to ride back to Cary tomorrow and I will ride back on Saturday. Technically, we're not finished with the ride until we actually return to Cary, but this will be my last ride post to Facebook.
What characterized today was stressful riding through several cities: St. Louis, Nashville, and Knoxville. I almost got pinned between to vehicles in St. Louis as one was trying to merge from the right while a small pickup truck was moving to the right into my lane. That was a test of my brakes and nerves.
We hit Nashville at rush hour. Oh, joy. That made my tense shoulders even tenser. Mitch agreed that our experience in Nashville just about caused him to call it a night there and get a hotel room. I was surprised by how big and busy Knoxville, Tennessee is! What's going on there?
Mitch planned our route today. We took I-70 (east) to St. Louis where we picked up I-64 (east), then across Illinois to I-57 (south) to I-24 (east) to I-40 (east).
We saw a lot, learned a lot, and took many pictures. I will write a series of blog posts on my web site over the next couple of month:
mikeuhl.com/blog
Please read my posts and make comments. I'd appreciate it. Peace.
-Mike
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Some summary statistics:
Total miles: >7,200
Average miles per day: 554 miles/day
States (18) and provinces (2) traveled through:
1. Alberta
2. British Columbia
United States
3. Idaho
4. Illinois
5. Indiana
6. Iowa
7. Kentucky
8. Minnesota
9. Missouri
10. Montana
11. Nebraska
12. North Carolina 13. Ohio
14. South Dakota 15. Tennessee 16. Utah
17. Virginia
18. Washington 19. West Virginia 20. Wyoming
National Parks visited:
Canada
Banff National Park
Glacier National Park
Jasper National Park
United States
Badlands National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee/North Carolina) Tetons National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Major Rivers Crossed:
Columbia, Mississippi, Missouri, Platte, Snake, Yellowstone
As always, comments are welcome.
May we have a short winter.
-The Long Rider