Introduction:
Every year Ron
Ayres holds a motorcycle event in Hyder, Alaska, commemorating
him being the first rider to visit the lower 48 states plus
Alaska in ten days, which has now become the Iron
Butt Association 48 plus (48 states plus Alaska in ten
days). While we didn't have the vacation time to attempt
that (at least this year), we did decide last fall to go
up to Hyder for the event, and to cheer on the three riders
from Minnesota who were attempting the ride. In addition,
we planned to try and get our IBA Saddlesore 2000 certification
on the way back. Involved in the trip was the usual crew
of myself, Ron and Carrie Hanson, Kerry Person, Paul Ptak,
and Paul Sundet.
Day
one: Tuesday
I
took off work on Tuesday because I had the vacation to use
up, and I wanted to get a few things done before the ride.
I ended up planning up until the very last minute, most
of which involved how to hook up a water jug to the side
of my bike to free up tank bag space where I usually keep
my camelback (can never have enough space!). I managed to
figure that out about 3:45 with an estimated departure time
of 4 pm. Ron and Carrie and myself left Brooklyn Park at
4 and had a nice easy ride to Jamestown, ND where we met
up with Kerry, Paul and Paul. Nothing too eventful.
Day
two: Wednesday
We got up early on Wednesday, and Mr. Ptak had left us about
an hour before. Seems he had some business to take care
of on the road - something about a hat J. We took off for
what was to be our longest, and most boring, day of the
trip up. Going thru the badlands in western ND is really
cool, and I'd assumed Northern Montana would be the same
way. It's not - it's really very flat and boring. We were
supposed to meet up with Paul in Wolf Point, MT, but when
we got there, there was no sign of him. I was the only one
with cell phone service there (and for most of the trip,
as I just switched providers for that reason), and we tried
to call him with no luck, so we went on.
For
most of the trip, we were getting about 300 miles per tank
running the fuel cells, but with the cool temps, and the
straight on headwinds, both Sundet and I were in danger
of running out around 250, and we had to stop for gas about
50 miles early, in a very small town whose name I can't
remember. There was only one working gas pump, and the local
bar and gas station were the same place. I imagine that
we looked pretty strange to the locals walking into the
bar in all our riding gear. We all filled up on the same
bill to save time (I don't know if they even knew what pay
at the pump is in this town), but it worked out well - almost
exactly $20 each.
About
this time I noticed that my CB was acting strange (not unusual
- I've never been able to transmit well at highway speed).
I couldn't transmit at all now, but I could still hear the
others. Though I could hear them, the knobs were so loose,
they kept vibrating out of position, so I had to tape them
in place. I was NOT happy, as this is a $350 piece of equipment
meant to be mounted on a bike, and it was only a year old.
I later plugged into Sundet's and it worked fine, so it
wasn't my headset. Arrgh - maybe I should just buy a freaking
'Wing instead of cobbling gadgets on my bike…
At that
point we were able to get a message from Paul, that he'd
meet us near the border. Problem was, he didn't say which
side of the border. We looked for him the whole way up,
and then we crossed into Alberta still with no sign of him.
It was just about the easiest border crossing ever - I don't
even think they looked at our papers. Finally Ron picked
up Paul on the CB, and he was just south of the border so
we met up on the side of the road and headed into Calgary.
We were pretty tired as it was nearly a 1000 mile day, but
not too tired to go get something to eat at a nearby Irish
pub, where we saw soldiers in skirts (okay, they were kilts,
but still it seemed odd), and where the waitress said "eh"
a lot.
Day
three: Thursday
Thursday
was to be our "flower sniffing" day. Only 600 miles, and
this was where all the scenery was. We rode into the mountains
thru Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise. Lots of pictures were
taken this day, as we stopped quite often to sightsee. We
looked like the Men in Black (or a bunch of janitors) all
dressed alike with our Gerbing heated jackets on, walking
around the lake. I'm sure that looked strange. Some nice
travelers got a great photo of all of us and the bikes near
an overlook as well.
The
mountains in the Canadian Rockies are the most amazing I've
ever seen. They even make Colorado look boring. We had great
roads too, and the weather was 75F (I don't do Celsius well…)
and sunny the whole way through the mountains. It could
not have been a more perfect day.
We rolled
into Prince George, BC that night to find a hotel. Now I
won't normally rip on a city in a ride report, because a
friend (who happened to be on this ride) once told me that
it could be offensive to someone who lives there and might
be reading this, and he was right. Fair enough, but I'll
just say that Prince George is the only town I've stayed
in on the bike where the hotel desk clerk recommended we
all take everything off our bikes in case of theft and to
park as close to the door as possible. Enough said. We had
a decent dinner and sampled the local beer in town, as well
as got to see the locals dressed to the nines for an event
at the local Civic Centre (mainly because we got lost trying
to find the restaurant). I don't think we ever found out
what the event was. I figured it was a hockey game, or maybe
curling, seeing as we were in Canada, but maybe not…
Day
four: Friday - North to Alaska!
We left Prince George early and headed for Alaska. This
was pretty much a straight ride-thru day as we wanted to
get to Hyder at a decent time. We were pushing fuel range,
especially with Paul not running a cell, but we were also
getting incredible mileage - I'd guess we could have gone
close to 400 miles with the fuel cells. The ride was fairly
uneventful (but included a scary unpaved bridge covered
in gravel - my aversion to gravel is well-known). There
isn't much between PG and Hyder-Stewart, though we did go
through towns named Burns Lake and Smithers. (eeexxcellent).
Once
you turn off the main road and head toward Hyder and Stewart,
the scenery picks up again. That's actually an understatement
- it's amazing. Like riding through a rainforest, with waterfalls
spouting from the cliffs, only with snowcapped mountains,
and a bright blue glacier! It was unlike anything I'd seen.
Once
we rolled into Stewart (the main town on the Canada side
of the border from Hyder), who should we see but Rick Corwine
- one of the MN riders who completed the 48-plus. Turns
out he was waiting for us to roll in! We checked into the
Ripley
Creek Inn and got cleaned up. It was a really nice place
too. While walking around town, we we ran into another esteemed
MN rider, Greg Anderson, who was toting a bottle of Washington
state's finest wine to celebrate their 49 state ride.
We decided
not to ride over to Hyder for the first night's dinner.
After three days of riding, we decided to sample the local
beer (Alaska Amber - really good stuff!) instead. Fortunately,
the Sealaska Inn in Hyder (the only hotel in Hyder and the
headquarters of Hyderseek) provided a shuttle between the
two towns (about two miles or so). We got on the "short
bus" and headed to Alaska.
The
dinner was a lot of fun, and it's always cool to see how
people set up their bikes for LD riding. We think our bikes
are well-farkled, but until you see 2-3 GPS units and satellite
tracking on multiple bikes…you haven't seen anything. My
favorite bike though, was a 1980's vintage Suzuki GS850
owned by a guy from Alberta. It's his LD ride, and owning
a 1980 GS1100, I have all the respect in the world for someone
who can ride one in a rally!
One
of the traditions at the Sealaska is getting "Hyderized."
I wasn't sure what that meant, but after a fill of Alaska
Amber, I was up for it (someone had to do it). What it is,
is a flaming shot of Everclear! Somehow, I thought this
was a good idea (it wasn't). I did get an official card
to prove I did it. I also got a terrible headache the next
day in return. Oh well, how often are you in Hyder, Alaska!
We left
on the short bus around midnight (it was still twilight),
and headed back over after clearing Canadian customs (there
are no US customs - you can't go anywhere else from Hyder).
Day
five: Saturday - Hanging around Town:
We
got up around 10 or so and headed for breakfast. Both Ron
and I had seen better days. Breakfast helped, but not much.
I did some shopping while the rest of the crew did laundry,
and then we went for our ceremonial ride across the border
to Hyder. We took our pictures by the sign, and then went
to the Seafood Express for lunch.
The
Seafood Express is a converted school bus where they cook
fresh fish. You sit outside on the old bus seats, and they
cook the food inside. The food is excellent. We had lunch
with a bunch of riders, and walked around town a little
(what there is of the town). We followed that up with a
ride down the pier with Rick, Greg, and Jim Simonet, the
other local rider who made the 49 state ride. I was apprehensive
of riding down there (about a half mile gravel road and
then a wooden pier), but it was one of the many highlights
of the trip. The pier goes out into the harbor, which leads
80 miles to the ocean. It was a great sunny day, and we
all got pictures out on the pier - very cool. We took some
more photos at the border, including some of the entire
group of MN riders, and some typical shots of each of us
straddling the border, and then it was back to Stewart to
clean up for dinner.
We took
the short bus back to Hyder for dinner, with a lot less
partying, since we had to ride the next day. Dinner was
similar, and then they had the big group picture as well
as the drawings for door prizes. The grand prize was a motorcycle
tour in Brazil. We didn't win that, but Kerry won a custom
motorcycle seat! After that it was back to Stewart to get
ready for the long ride home.
Day
six: Sunday - The Saddlesore 2000 begins!
Ron, Carrie, Kerry and I had planned an IBA Saddlesore 2000
(2000 miles in 48 hours) for the ride home, so we got up
early. The Pauls were our witnesses, and with a starting
time of 7 am (6:46 actually for me) and a receipt from the
local café, we were on our way. Paul and Paul then headed
north for the Yukon (tempting, but I wanted a day to recover
at home at the end).
The
first half of the day was fairly uneventful, as we passed
through the same towns we went through before. We turned
directly south however, at Prince George, hoping to make
Spokane, WA that night. A lot of people criticize IBA rides,
saying that all you do is burn interstate highways, and
you don't get to see anything cool. They weren't on this
ride with us!
We thought
central BC would be pine trees and deer, but when we got
south of our fuel stop at Williams Lake, it turned into
beautiful high desert, with rolling hills and twisting rivers.
The GPS took us down a twisty two-lane road through Indian
lands, and over a mountain pass (where my wind deflector
was sheared off by a piece of flying metal debris). We came
out of the pass by a huge lake, where the temperatures were
about 30 degrees warmer than over the pass. We realized
that there was no way to realistically make Spokane by a
decent hour, and there was nowhere to stay on the US side
of the border, so we stopped for the night in Osoyoos, BC,
a few miles from the border, at an Econolodge. We went about
900 miles that day.
Day
seven: Monday - A difficult situation…
We didn't sleep much that night, knowing that we had a long
ride ahead to Bismarck - our end point, and we were short
of our goal for the night before. We left about 5 am, and
headed for the border. After the easiest border crossing
ever (even easier than when we entered Canada), we headed
into Washington. We routed through some beautiful woods,
and then we rode over the Grand Coulee Dam - what a sight!
Too bad we were on the clock and couldn't stop!
We hit
Spokane about mid morning, and from there we knew we'd have
interstate the rest of the way home. But just over the border
into Idaho, we ran into a big problem. (no, we weren't attacked
by giant potatoes or Napoleon Dynamite…) Carrie pulled off
to the side of the Interstate - her bike died. We all pulled
over to discuss the problem. It appeared to be a fuel pump
issue. Jim Simonet, who had been riding with us (but wasn't
documenting a SS2k - after all, he'd just done the 48 plus!)
had a hitch on his ST1100, and a tow strap. We were able
to tow the bike a mile to a gas station, and we assessed
the situation.
I called
Lisa at home, and she was able to find a BMW dealer a mile
away in Post Falls. The problem was, it was Memorial Day,
and nothing was open. Ron called Tom Roe back in Minneapolis
at Betty's
Bikes and Buns, and Tom, knowing everything about BMW's,
was able to assess the problem. It was either a bad fuel
pump, or just a disconnected hose. Either way, they'd have
to pull the tank off the bike. (see why bikes like mine
with carburetors are better!). We figured at this point
our SS2000 wasn't going to happen. Ron and Jim wrenched
on the bike, and sure enough, it was just a loose hose,
fixed by a small clamp! It set us back about two hours,
but we decided to attempt the SS2000 anyway - what did we
have to lose?
The
next stretch, was one of the prettiest of the trip, through
Coeur D'alene , Idaho. Beautiful lakes, and high speed twisty
freeways through the mountains. Unfortunately, this was
my low point for energy after sitting around in the sun
for two hours, and I sort of hung in the back of the pack
through this stretch. We stopped quickly in Montana so Jim
could pick up a Grand Tour stop, and headed for our next
fuel stop in Butte.
Butte
was a fairly long stop for us. Kerry and Carrie needed to
take a nap, and we needed to gear up, knowing that we'd
be hitting some bad weather on the other side of the mountain
pass towards Billings. It looked like our weather luck had
run out, as NOAA and the XM weather channel were predicting
thunderstorms and rain all the way to Bismarck - not good,
especially when my tires were getting worn. We
headed into the mountains, and despite the warnings for
high winds (another thing I hate…) the weather wasn't too
bad, but it did begin to rain steadily in Billings, where
we stopped to gas up again.
We had
to make a decision on what to do. Riding straight through
to Bismarck would have been tough. It would have meant a
lot of night riding through the deer-infested Badlands,
in the rain with a lot of fatigue. At the same time, stopping
in Billings would mean abandoning the SS2000, and giving
us a really long ride home the next day. We decided to ride
through to Miles City, MT, about 270 miles short of our
goal. It was dark and rainy, and not much fun at all. We
pulled into Miles City about 11 pm.
Day
eight: Tuesday: The final stretch, and home!
We
had 270 miles to go, and we had to make it to Bismarck by
8:46 Central time. We'd already set all our clocks to Central
time to make sure we didn't make a mistake, since the time
zone change is about 60 miles west of Bismarck.
We slept
for about three hours and hit the road again. It was still
raining and dark when we left, and we saw a number of deer
on the roads. We stopped quickly in Beach, ND for fuel,
and pushed on through the badlands to Bismarck, arriving
at 8:12 Central. We made it with a half-hour to spare! To
celebrate, we had breakfast at Perkins - real food at last!
After that - it was time to head for home.
We stopped
in Jamestown, and Ron, Carrie and Kerry got a hotel room
to get a few more hours sleep, and I decided to ride straight
home. I had to stop in Fergus Falls for gas, as the headwinds
were really cutting my gas mileage, and also because there
was a brand new Burger Time off the freeway (it's no Sonic,
but it's still really good!) A quick stop at a rest stop
in Avon, and I was home at 4:30 - exactly one week to the
half-hour from when we left. Ron and Carrie came home around
8, and we had our traditional end-of-ride beers in the garage.
Lisa got home late from work, and she joined us, after which
I slept for 12 hours - I needed it after riding for three
days on such little sleep! In all though, it was an amazing
trip, with incredible sights, and beautiful weather. If
you like to travel by bike, and you get the chance to go
to Hyderseek, don't think twice - just GO - you won't regret
it!
