Last post for this wander

I went out Thursday morning the 24th of July

to the Alviso Marina in north San Jose and rolled the bike backwards down the boat ramp until the rear tire touched the water. Salt water at Ferry Beach, Scarborough, ME to salt water Alviso Marina. Coast to coast. 4,697 miles including the shakedown cruise in fifteen travel days.

Days over 500 miles - 1
Days over 400 < 500 - 4
Days over 300 < 400 - 2

Things to remember:
High 300 miles is good for a travel day where you can arrive in time to set up, explore and relax. The days over 450 really didn't allow for anything else but travelling.
It stays lighter much later the farther north you go. The farthest north I got was Kenora, ON and there were less than nine hours of darkness. You can get in late and still have lots of time.
Don't plan on being on the road before 8:30. Even with my best intentions, I never got on the road before 8:30. I always stopped to talk with someone or found some additional preparation that needed to be made before I could go.
Whenever in doubt, put on the rain gear! The weather can move very fast.
A night spent in a primitive campsite is worth two spent in a motel.

Places to avoid:
The Canadian prairie. The people are fine but it's a very long way between points of interest.
Thunder Bay, ON to Kenora, ON - long road with little of interest
North shore of Lake Huron, ON - long road with little of interest

Places to return:
Adirondacks - would definitely return to Saranac Lake area
Algonquin Provincial Park, Whitney, ON - Wonderful wilderness
Kenora, ON - Lake of the Woods - rent a boat?
Lake Superior -  it's apparently common to go all the way around the lake. The north and east shore were great.
Glacier National Park (US side) & Waterton Lakes National Park (Canadian side) the glaciers were less interesting than the terrain as a whole. Stick to the east side, the west side is too commercial.
Central Oregon - didn't get to Crater Lake and that whole area, a long haul to get there, but it looked like it would be worth exploriing.

Things to take along:
Some additional water capacity. Primitive campsites don't necessarily have potable water. Something collapsible perhaps?
Padding for the backpack straps that fit the tank bag. It's a good solution, but after a few hours the shoulders get too sore too soon.
Take books on tablet. Easy to read in a tent after dark without disturbing anyone.
Might think about more padding to sleep on, although after the second night, that ground didn't seem that hard

Talking with people:
Three questions:

• Where's the best pie? 
• If over 25, "Why should someone move to <name of town where you are>?" 
• If under 25, "What does the future hold?"

No matter who or where I asked, the answer to the "Why should someone move to <name of town where you are>?" question was almost always, "Because of the people who are here." The community feeling of small towns is still there, although the entire northern tier is becoming more sparsely settled by the month.

Thanks for following along, this is the last post for this wander. But there will be more wandering in the future.

People on the road - July 10 to July 21

July 10 - Whitney, ON to Sault Ste. Marie ON

The owner of the Ambassador Motel who made sure to give me a spot that had the bike right outside the room and not visible from the road. "Haven't had anything taken in nineteen years, but why take a chance."

July 11 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Marathon, ON

There was a high school student staffing the information booth in Wawa (home of the largest Canada Goose Sculpture) . When I asked my usual question of "What does your future hold?" She was a little nonplussed. She was about to start grade 12 and handled really started thinking about it yet. "Maybe a doctor or a lawyer. Something where I could help people."

July 12 - Marathon, ON to Ignace, ON

Definitely the pipeline guys (although I appreciated the guys in the laundromat who gave me some detergent). They were out from eastern Ontario and they were just waiting. They'd been out to do some work on the pipeline, and now had to wait for some other work to be done. They went to check in at 7:00 AM and once they signed in they were done for the day. 8 hours for doing nothing. And they HATED it. They had done all the fishing they wanted to do. They were tired of the mosquitoes. They just wanted to get to work. In the meantime, they were in a large fifth wheel trailer that one of them towed behind a highly customized tractor (as in tractor-trailer). We talked a lot about motorcycles and motorcycle trips. They shared their rye (would you rather have a double or a triple).

July 13 & 14 Ignace, ON to Kenora, ON

Staying with Bruce and Helen Williams. They have both had to deal with some physical challenges that they handle with great aplomb. The view from their living room across Longbow Lake was spectacular.

I got the full tour of Kenora including seeing Husky the Muskie. Bruce has a substantial collection of single malt Scotch whiskey. We did a horizontal of Glenmorangie and I definitely preferred the version done from the sherry casks. Bruce had manystories of his life in and around western Ontario and I'll have to get back for more of them one day.

July 15 Kenora, ON to Estevan, SK

This was the day I crossed an entire time zone and was in three provinces and one state. The star of the day was a retired farmer in Battineau, ND. He'd worked his whole life. "I was too busy working to ever have a hobby or anything. My son runs the farm now and I help out sometimes. But I really don't know what to do with myself. I had a Cessna Cardinal (airplane) for a while, but then I had a little heart attack and the FAA won't give me a medical anymore. We go down south in the winter in the RV, but really, I don't know what to do with my time any more."

July 16 Estevan, SK to Taber, AT

Tempted by the young people who helped with the pie search at the Alberta information booth, but it's got to be the young Sikh guy at the motel. "You know why there are so many Indians in the hotel/motel business? It's easy money. Of course, the only reason I'm here is my sister. She's in Connecticut and the rest of the family is back in Mumbai. Life is a lot easier in Mumbai. I didn't have to work as hard. I didn't even have to put on my own socks. I had a maid. But my sister was in the US already and my parents wanted there to be someone else in North America. It's a lot easier to get a Canadian visa so I came here to work for my uncle until I can afford to get my own place. I'll go back to Mumbai to get married in a year or two. My parents will have matched me up, but it's not like the old days. We'll go out a couple of times and if it doesn't feel right, I don't have to marry her."

July 17 Taber, AT to St. Mary, MT

The Cobblestone Manor in Cardston, AT had a truly unique apple pie. I was there at 10:45 AM so no one else was in the dining room. The female half of the ownership couple sort of marveled at her success. "The Globe & Mail sent out anonymous reviewers. We had no idea until they wrote us up. We've had someone try to bribe our kitchen help to get the recipe, but they won't tell. And they don't know some of the ingredients anyway."

July 18 St. Mary, MT

The adjacent campsite was occupied by two young women from Denver. One of them had attended Central School in Stirling, NJ (as I had) and we figured out that her mom was probably three years behind me at Central. They had both chosen, at least in part out of religious conviction, to have lives of service. One did clinical social work with at risk youth who had been released from a psychiatric facility while they other organized tutoring/mentoring relationships for at risk youth (after having been a property manage in Fresno). "You just have to get out into nature. You can't just stay in town and work." "The best part of Fresno was you were only two hours from the floor of Yosemite. But finally I just couldn't take Fresno any more."

July 19 St. Mary, MT to Superior, MT

John & Patty Woodland made me very welcome to their incredible location on a bluff above a bank of the Clark Fork. John and I hadn't seen each other since about 1975, but we had more in common than I think either of us expected. Patty had had to cope with enormous physical challenges. Part of her way of coping was keeping goats and chickens. You can get her goat's milk soap in her Etsy shop.

July 20 Superior, MT to Four Lakes, WA

John and I went for a hike on the State Line trail. As we reflected on where life had taken us, we were more similar than not in being more comfortable keeping the favor bank in our favor, not asking for much, and soldiering on with whatever came. John had become a student of Buddhism. His meditations and retreats had led him to a commitment to work actively to change the course of climate change. What matters was taking the thought and making it action. "Once I'd sorted out the fire department, they asked me to take on the hospital." It will be better when he's done.

July 21 Four Lakes, WA to Crescent, OR

There was a married couple in the motel parking lot as I was getting ready to leave. "We sold the mechanic business and the house and bought a truck. We're going to do this for a few years and then move back to Rome, NY. I had a DUI when I was a dumb kid so I can't drive a truck in Canada. Right now we're waiting for some repairs. I paid for a DOT inspection check nine days ago, and then I hit a Class 1 inspection and failed nine ways. The guy was OK, he only gave me a ticket for one, and he let me deliver my load. I'm going to go back to the guys who did the pre-inspection and get them to pay for the ticket though."

Next time I'll try and add these as I go, but it's a lot easier doing this on a full keyboard than it is on a phone!

Lost and Found and Acquired

Items lost while on trip:

• Eyeglasses at KOA in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
• Jack knife in Kenora, Ontario
• Chase Visa card in Manitoba somewhere
• Flashlight in Cut Bank Creek campground, Glacier National Park

Items found while on trip:

• Eyeglasses at KOA in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It had been a 400 plus mile day and I thought about camping that night. I'm not much on KOA, but it was close by. I went out to examine a site, thought it would be OK, went back to the bike, put on my helmet and realized I couldn't find my glasses. Went back to the site and searched the ground. Nothing. Went back to the KOA office. Nothing. Stopped some folks on the trail to the site - they hadn't seen anything. Went back and searched the ground around the site. Nothing. Then looked on the picnic table and there they were. I decided I was too tired to camp that night and went back to a motel.
• Jack knife in dryer while doing laundry in Estevan, Saskatchewan the following night
• Chase Visa card found in thigh pocket of chaps same day as lost. I'd taken it out to buy gasoline at a station I had to go into. Since I left my jacket on the bike, I'd put the card away in the chaps instead of the usual spot in the jacket.
• Flashlight in Glacier National Park. I had moved from one site to another and just put the flashlight in with the laundry rather than where it belonged.

Item never mislaid - my wallet and passport. Given my proclivity for mislaying my purse, I didn't bring my purse on the trip. Instead I put wallet and passport in a pouch that was either fastened to the tank bag or fastened to my belt. Didn't mislay it even once!

Items acquired on trip:

• Throttle wrist rest at Motorcycle Clinic, Sault Ste. Marie. Not as good as a throttle lock for crossing the prairie, but very handy for taking some of the load off the wrist when conditions varied
• Plastic cleaner for faceshields, etc. at Motorcycle Clinic in Sault Ste. Marie Don't know why I hadn't thought of that already. I could not have made it across the prairie without something to remove the bugs. They threw in some rags.
• Throttle latch at Terry's Yamaha in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. This was a lifesaver across the rest of the prairie. Definitely cut down on the ibuprofen consumption.
• Lambskin fleece for seat in Mountain View, AT
• Towel. Ford Prefect was right. You've got to have a towel. I didn't get one until I got to Glacier National Park.

Home again, but not the end.

Back home again on Tuesday the 22nd of July. 4,780 miles from when the shakedown cruise began on June 26, with most of the mileage (4,330) coming since I left Chester, VT on July 8. But there's one more stop to make, dipping a wheel in salt water on this edge of the continent.

Once that's done I'll post a summary. Today's photo is one of the many places I'd line to get back to, Mount Shasta.

Next to last. 4,219 miles down 480 +/- to go

Continuing the people stories. (Besides eastern Washington and eastern Oregon aren't all that interesting.)

On the north of Lake Huron day it was the folks who, when unemployed, decided to open a restaurant. Their trout was astonishing, and the thing was, the wife who cooked it in an astonishingly light beer batter, had never eaten it. "I don't like fish," she said.

On the east and first half of north shore of Lake Superior day, it was the dad with 2 daughters playing on the beach. He was divorced and was driving his children from Alberta to Toronto for the first time for a summer vacation. The girls were so obviously enjoying themselves and dad was trying to work out his role. "It's an experiment. So far I think it's OK.

The young woman working the information booth in Wawa. She was quite certain she had what it took to be either a doctor or a lawyer. The contrast between her and the following guy was striking.

North of Superior, Thunder Bay and on to western Ontario. There was a young guy working at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. When I asked what his future held, he was going to "Finish grade 12. Go to Alberta and get trained as a pipe fitter and make a lot of money. Then come back and buy a fishing camp."

There were the two guys who gave me some detergent in the laundromat. I could barely understand their accent, but their generosity was immediate.

More to come.

Homestretch and Reasons Why

I just crossed over into Oregon only one state away from home. In a van, I've done Tacoma to San Jose straight through, but I don't think that's going to happen.

Umatilla Oregon Welcome Center folks seem preoccupied and not very welcoming, so I'll write about something more important. Why this bike? Why this trip? Why now?

Why this bike? It's not a classic like the Norton. It's hard to get parts for. It's old. But, it represents a time in my life that was very different from the 25 years since I sold the one that I had that was just like it.

That time was more spontaneous, more outdoors, and it covered a lot more ground. I think, because this bike is the model I had before Katherin was born when my wife and I had many shared adventures, it was symbolic for me of a part of my life that hadn't received a lot of attention for quite a while.

Why this trip? Novelty and spontaneity were central. There were only three planned stops and no date commitments from July 1 to now. That hasn't been true in my life for a very long time. And there's the bucket list piece that I have now been in all 50 states and all 10 Canadian provinces. Going north of Lake Superior and getting to Glacier National Park had also been long held ambitions. That's the reason for the route. But there are also big pieces about not having obligations to anyone else and getting into the back country. I was able to do the second a little and the first a lot.

Why now? At the age of 63, I feel my future is in many ways more opaque than it was at 30 or 50. Not because I don't know where I'm going or what I'm going to do, but because I'm more aware that my time is finite. I want to see as much as I can and learn about as many people's lives as I can. But the clock is ticking. It's not going any faster than it did when I was 50, but I'm one major health issue away from being off motorcycles and/or out of the wild. The bike was there. The time was there. It was time to go.

Speaking of which, having lost an hour or two to the headlight issue (see earlier posts from today) I need to be going as well. Wonder what the pie situation is between here and Bend?

NAPA of Fitzville to the rescue

Needless to say, they did not have part numbers for an 83 Yamaha.

But, they were able to match the size with an equivalent halogen bulb. More light than I had!

Duct tape for the lenses hole until I get home.

Rolling Stone - headlight gone

Met my first Washington state trooper who let me know my headlight was out. I pulled off down the road, removed the saddlebags so I could check the fuses. No problem. Looked more closely at the headlight itself. Stone had hit it. Lenses intact with a hole and the bulb kaput.

Now how to find a replacement bulb on a Monday in Oregon. Motorcycle dealers are usually closed on Monday. Second, what to do about the lenses <sigh>.

Back in the wilderness

Spent Saturday and Sunday with John and Patty Woodland in their frame yurt on Riverbend Road in Superior, MT.

John and I are both members of the Marlboro College class of 1973. As near as we can remember, we last saw each other in 1975 before John went back to New Jersey.

Their home (including 4 cats, 5 (I think) goats and some chickens) is next to and with a spectacular view down on the Clark Fork. Patty's cooking was amazing topped off with a cherry pie with a vanilla bean crumb crust for Sunday dinner.

But the best part was the several hour hike and lunch that John and I took on the State Line trail in the Superior Ranger District of a National Forest. It runs along the crest of the Bitterroot Mountains. The wildflower profusion was astonishing. The white flower I was fascinated by on Friday is Bear Grass and it was everywhere.

The last few photos were a panoramic view from the top of a rock protrusion on the state line. It's a wild and wonderful country.

We need to get together more frequently than every 39 years.

It's the people

Sitting at site 14 at 7:05 PM after what's probably the last camping stop, it's the people who have made the trip. 

The young girl in the diner in Ticonderoga, NY whose dad was a Scot and mom an American. She was pleased to hear that because of that, she was on the winning side of every battle at the fort, until she realized that also meant (except for the French and Indian wars) she was also on the losing side.  C in Star Lake who lives in the Adirondacks, and only has a bicycle for transportation. The couple on the ferry to Wolfe Island who bought a matching pair of Victory motorcycles and began club touring in their 40s. They were on their way home from Nova Scotia.

The old Dutch woman on Wolfe Island who sat on her porch and talked with people waiting for the ferry. "I came over in 1950. It was very hard. Too hard maybe. But now I'm here and I'm settled."

The retired logger in the Timmy's in Bancroft who told me I should go to Algonquin. Best unplanned stop of the trip. The owner of the B&B in Whitney, who grew up there and ended up in Kitchener by accident, but still comes up every summer to run the B&B while her sons have built a motel next door.

And that"s just the first two days. There's a high wind alert that appears well founded as it took me some time to fold the tent and the other tents here are blowing like crazy.

Wind alert and smoke alert

Broke camp early. Up at 6:00 and repacked. Finally (after a second melt-through saddlebag episode - lost a teal polo shirt and damaged the stuff bag for the sleeping bag), I rehung and restrapped the bags. I'd forgotten that the seat compresses and the bags creep forward. Raised them a couple of inches so shouldn't be a recurrence.

Turns out the haze is smoke from forest fires. Sunup was early. The sunrise photo was at 7:40!

Here's a couple of packing shots as I was leaving the site. Note the mud all over the bike.

Cut Bank Creek Campsite 13 & 4

10:52 PM Thursday and just getting full dark. Light later up north. Still some shuffling around the site. But seems a nice quiet crowd.
7:30 AM No human sounds. Just birds and wind. Was going for an early start but just listened instead. Then moved to site 4 where I can hear the creek.
12:15 PM On the trail climbed 750 feet and 2.6 miles in an hour and a half. Right on schedule. Saw a grizzly (photo below), some mountain goats, one or two butterflies (photo below) and a couple of hoary marmots along with one ground squirrel.

Trout for dinner and off to Superior MT in the morning to see John W. Last seen in 1973.

Camping in Glacier

Arrived to find all sites were gone by 9:00 AM. At least that's what the first ranger told me. Went into the interpretive center and was told there was a "primitive" site probably available "down south."

Turned out to be 10 miles south and 5 miles in on a dirt road. I got the next to last site then headed off to go up the east side of the Going to the Sun highway. Waterfall overload.

Midpoint of the trip - if you're a water molecule. Met some big horn sheep (no photo) and some mountain goats on the way.

A few shots here and more later.

Waterfalls continue - Cameron Falls

Finally in the hills - with pie

Entered Waterton National Park. North border side of Glacier. Saskatoon berry pie at Welch's. Good stuff!

End of the Prarie!

Just west of Cardston, AT

Pie on the Prarie

Breakfast at the Cobblestone Manor in Cardston, AT. Recommended back at the Alberta Saskatchewan border. Looks like it's worth the trip.

Apple pie, warn cinnamon bun & hot coffee. What more could you ask?

End of a 503 mile day

Some tired. Some collection of bugs. Getting tired of the Prarie, but not the Prarie people. Good chats over lunch including a free piece of pie! Mid-afternoon coffee with three guys sitting in the shade and discussing crops.

Pie a real weakness of the Prarie states and provinces. Not enough fruit I guess. Flooding has definitely hurt as you can see with these ducks nesting in the fields in southern Saskatchewan.

Large Things in Small Places

World's largest pinto bean in Bow Island, Alberta

Final province check off

T. Rex Discovery Centre

Bridge to nowhere

Big things in small towns

Pretty self explanatory.

Wrist help!

Approaching Weyburn, SK (Saskatchewan's Oil City) is a billboard for Terry's Yamaha; left @ 2nd light and 5 blocks south. Pull in, they're open. Ask about throttle locks and 5 minutes later I'm in business. Hooray!

Very simple. Roll down to lock and roll throttle off as you will. Great little gizmo!

Leaving Kenora

Closing out the evening with two nice photos courtesy of Bruce Williams