June 10, 2016 North to Alaska Day 4

Last night Cindy and I made an executive decision, no cooking in the rain.  But as it turned out, there wasn't any rain last night. We had breakfast in camp and then got on the road about 8 am.  This morning our history lesson was in Old Hazelton.

 Our first stop to check out the rapids.

 We stopped at the old stern wheeler at Hazelton Landing. This was one of the stops for the fur trade that we learned about at Fort St James.

  There were Totem Poles and old steam machines to look at. It was a nice break.

Then we returned to Hwy 16 and continued to the intersection of Highway 37 where we turned north heading on the Cassiar Highway.

On Highway 37, before the junction to Stewart BC/Hyder AK, we saw our first black bears!!  The first one had climbed up a tree by the road.  The next two were eating on one side of the road, then crossed over and munched for a while on the other side.  The last was again along the side of the road just hanging out. We also saw 2 eagles siting on snags out in the river.

At Highway 37A we headed west to the twin towns of Stewart BC and Hyder Alaska, separted only the the Canada/US border.

The ride down the highway was full of wonderful views.

Grouping up in Hyder at the park. Then it was off to lunch.  While at lunch we decided to spend the night in Hyder.  It would give us time to go see the Salmon Glacier and maybe catch a bear at the viewing area.

 The glacier was amazing.  All that ice, and it's been here for ever!

 Dave at the glacier

Many interesting rides at the glacier.  These folks were from Germany

 The view of the road back to camp

Wayne and me headed down the road

 Looking for bears, but no luck

 A stop at Portland Bay

Wow, What a view!

Again we tarped up camp to avoid the rain. 

Critter Count:  4 black bears

                       2 eagles

247 miles 

June 9, 2016 -- North to Alaska Day 3

First, a disclaimer!!  The internet in Canada is very, very slow.  I will not be posting again until we get back into the states!

After having breakfast at the restaurant at the motel, we took a side trip to historic Fort St James. Established in 1806 as the Stuart Lake Outpost, it formed an important part of the North West Company's expansion west of the Rockies. It was renamed Forth St. James in 1821 when the N W Co joined with the Hudson's Bay Co.  As a place of trade, the post was alive and active until 1952. Now it is a living museum for Parks Canada.

The first building we saw was the General Warehouse and Fur Store. This housed the trade goods for the fort and surrounding outposts. Furs were stored in this building where they were baled for their journey to Victoria.

The warehouse was used to store incoming supplies from back east and the states as well as the inventory of furs waiting to be shipped out.  It took a year for the furs to arrive in Europe. 

 Although many types of animals were trapped, the beaver was by far the focus of the trappers.  5 million beaver pelts came out of this area. Pelts were tanned and cured, then bundled into huge bundles and then wrapped in burlap.  They were then labeled and tagged and loaded on the sternwheeler in the lake. From there their journey took them across lakes, over portages and down rivers on the way to the ocean going ships.  Beaver was the standard of currency at the time. Prices in the General Store were in "Made Beaver" or cured beaver hide.

In the Men's House, which was a residence for company employees, pack train hands, boat crews and visitors we found this recliner!   Cindy took a quick rest!

Indoor plumbing, of a sort!! 

We also toured the Trade Store and the Murray House. At the Murray House, they are currently keeping some animals, including these cute little goats.  They loved Dave's leg. They had 2 big bunnies, and some chickens, which they still race daily!

 Chickens waiting to race above, and the race track below. At the end of the race is freedom, as the chickens are then left free in this space.

Then it was back to Highway 16 heading west.  The good news is that in all the construction we had, there was not any grooved pavement.  After the 15 miles worth of it yesterday, it was quite the relief.  We stopped in Smithers for grocieries before heading to the Glacier View RV Park. We didn't have to deal with rain while riding, but the clouds were with us, so we all tarped our sites, just in case!

The reason it's called Glacier View RV Park

Critter Count:  6 deer, 2 eagles

231 miles

June 6-8, 2016 North to Alaska Day 1 & 2

 The night before our scheduled departure, Ken and Jackie hosted the group for a farewell dinner.  It gave us a chance to firm up the route for day 1. Changes were made, and we were all excited to leave in the morning.

 We met at Ken and Jackie's for a 8 am departure, and we were only 5 minutes late. Not bad, getting 7 people mounted and ready to leave.  Ken led the way on back roads going north on the east side of Lake Stevens, taking us on Jordan Rd, a great  curvy back road that I've never been on. From there we went to Arlington and joined SR 9.  We followed this through fields and woods, along the lakes and finally arrived in Sumas, at the boarder crossing.

 After an uneventful crossing we went into Abbottsford for lunch and a much needed opportunity to change our Yankee money for that colorful funny money they use up here.

 From there we took Canada 1 west through Vancouver until we joined BC 99. This is a beautiful route north to Whistler.  Along the way we stopped to see Shannon Falls. Spectacular!

 We try to stop every 1.5-2 hours to stretch  our legs and hopefully take some pictures. This was the last stop of the day, until we made camp.

 We found the small BC Rec site campground.  We took 3 of the 5 sites! We shared this one with Ken.

 Bob and Cindy's new tent, the Taj Mahal. I think we would all fit!

 This was the loudest creek I have ever camped next to. But it was a great camp for the group.

 In the morning we got up on the road by 7:45. We continued on BC 99 until it T'd into the Caribou Highway (BC 97). We headed north, stopping to Williams Lake for lunch.

Earlier this morning we got a few rain drops, but now once we turned left in Prince George it poured on us almost the full way to Vanderhoof.  Here we played the "no setting up tents in the rain" card and got a room for the night. With 286 miles on day 1 and 397 on day 2 it has been a couple of long riding days for this group that usually goes about 200 a day.  Next major stop is Hyder AK/Stewart BC. Not sure if it will be one day or two... check back and find out!

May 13-15, 2016 LoggerCross in Orofino

While we were in Idaho City our friend's son Kris came to ride with the "old" guys. He is currently living in Orofino Idaho. Orofino is a modest sized timber town located east of Lewiston on Highway 12 along the Clearwater River. It is also the location of an amazing off-road racing event, the Orofino LoggerXross. If you know about EnduroCross then the track will look vaguely familiar. This is a logging town, so the gnarly track is littered with logs, rocks, logs, old gigantic tires and more logs.

Wayne has always wanted to check it out, and we needed a good overnight trip to try out the set up on the new bikes, so off we went.

First stop was to show off the new gear and set up to JD and Raydonia

And then we were off...

From Idaho City we headed north on SR 21 to Lowman, where we took a left and headed to Banks which is on SR 55 along the Payette River. Here we headed north to our lunch stop in McCall. We had lunch at Growler's Pizza Grill. It was cool enough in McCall that I had a chance to try my heated glove and jacket liners.  Wow! That's all I can say...Wow!

From McCall we continued north and jumped onto US 95. This took us up the new White Bird grade.  White Bird is one of the access points for the Hell's Canyon Recreation area. It is also the location of the first battle of The Nez Perce War. While researching this War I found that the opening battle was a resounding defeat for the US Army. They lost 34 men, with only 3 wounded Indians, no dead. This war would end with Chief Joseph surrendering in Montana and giving his famous speech which ends with "I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now now stands I will fight no more forever."

One of the things we learned on this trip is that we need to take more frequent short stops. If you don't, your tush will remind you very loudly. 

From White Bird we continued north to Grangeville, where we took SR 13 east to where we would join US 12 in Kooskia. This is the South Fork of the Clearwater River and SR 14, near Lightening Creek. We turned left (northwest) on US 12 to finish the last 40 miles along the Clearwater River for a beautiful ride down the river canyon. It was a 280 mile day, and the only change I would have made would have been to make more 5 minute stops to stretch our legs...

We found the Clearwater Crossing RV Park in town and set up camp. Then it was time to find dinner and go check out the event. We were a little confused with the time zone change, along with me mis-remembering the start time, so we missed enough of the racing that we decided to call it a night as the sun was going down.

Sculptures of Weetxuuwiis and Chief Twisted Hair at Lewis & Clark Crossing are located just below the Orofino Bridge at the RV Park. This was a place where Lewis and Clark crossed the Clearwater River. I doubt they could do it now, the dams have created a much larger river!!!

Saturday started with a walk around town. It's a cute little place, stretching north along the Orofino Creek and the Grangemont Road. The weather began to change while we were walking about.  Rain was looking more likely, so we decided to head back and see about moving our tent.

Management was kind enough to let us move under the picnic cabana. 

This is the riders doing their track walk. There were a few of the pro's we recognize from Enduro Cross, such as Ty Tremaine, Kyle Redmond, Cory Graffunder, Max Gerston and Cooper Abbott. We were saddened to hear later that Cooper's Dad Destry was diagnosis with Luekemia 2 days after the race. We knew he wasn't feeling well, as he had planned to race, but was unable to do so.

The course was really tough, although the Pro's made it look easy the locals who had their own heat race made it look impossible!  They were endo-ing and crashing on most of the logs!  All in the name of entertainment, and a $300 purse for them.  The pro's purse was a bit more, $10,000.

Our favorite was little Lexi Winn. She finished first in a mixed heat of 65 cc bikes (beginner and open class) and then was second in the 85 cc beginners class. She was on her 65 cc bike and beat 4 of the 5 boys on their 85's.  You go girl!!!

It sprinkled on and off all night but wasn't really an issue.  In the morning we were up and on the road before the rain really hit.  And hit it did.  What a great test of our waterproof (or not) gear.  My Forma Adventure boots and my H2O Bilt pants and "Don't Hit Me" jacket worked great. I was dry, except for my hands, and that was my fault for not changing to my waterproof gloves sooner.  We found that we need to add RainX to the tank bags. If I hadn't used my left hand as a face-shield wiper, it would have stayed dryer longer. Wayne's stuff didn't work near as well.  He did have dry hands, but his Gaerne Adventure boot leaked and so did his one piece Aerostich suit. We'll have to add overshoes for him and he'll have to put on his rain gear if it rains hard. And it did rain hard on us. But the heated gear worked again and I was dry so....

This time we did stop more frequently, mainly to get warm drinks or clean off face shields, but still it showed how much more comfortable we could be.  All in all it was a great test ride of the gear and the new racks and luggage that Wayne has added.  

I have to say a big THANK YOU to my friend Lyon for building my tail rack!!!

May 6, 2016 -- Idaho City Rides

We have come to Idaho City for our favorite time of year, Spring riding. Unfortunately we will have to leave early this year, but that shouldn't stop us from having a great time while we are here!

The first ride was a street ride with Wayne. So we got the new bikes ready. My new ride "Singer" is above.

 Wayne preparing his GS

 We set out from Idaho City on Highway 21, over the 2 passes and down to Lowman, where we headed west to Crouch for lunch.
After a great lunch at Wild Bill's, we went through Banks and headed south through Horseshoe Bend to Boise. From there we looped around to Highway 21 and back up to Idaho City.


The next day we decided to hit the dirt. JD Took us for a wonderful ride in the mountains east of Idaho City.

 We went up and over Rabbit Summit and down to the North Fork of the Boise River. Here is Wayne checking out my Suzuki.  I haven't taken her out since I got "Singer".
 We followed JD over the Barber Flat Bridge, up and over the hill to the Middle Fork. We were surprised at the fact that the road has already been cleared enough to get through!
 Once we went down the Middle Fork, we crossed the river at Long Gulch. The hills are covered with yellow flowers

 There goes Wayne!

 One of our favorite lunch stops. Hamburgers and good friends!

 Rosie is the official greeter!

 We took Black's Creek Road back, and crossed the South Fork of the Boise River.

 Go Wayne Go!!

This was our last look at the river until we got back on Highway 21 headed back up to Boise. What a wonderful day of riding with JD and Wayne!  Thanks guys!