Dan & Dale's Alaska-Or-Bust Trip! (Minus Tom)

Sabbaticals rock and here's the gory details. Read along if you want to be a groupie!

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Dale
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Day 1 - This is going to be an adventure

Postby Dale » Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:47 pm

August 2, Saturday: Tom said, “I have to pull over here and go inside for a minute; I’ll be right back.” Before long Dan joined me and I told him Tom had to go inside so they can check something out. It was 6:15 pm, we were all in Canada, had already eaten our dinner... day one was turning out great.

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After about a half hour both Dan and I started to wonder what Tom was doing in there. We both joke a bit about the fact that Tom is probably enjoying getting the “rubber glove treatment”. Some border guards come by and asked us what we are waiting for. We point to Tom’s bike and say we are waiting for our friend to come out so we can go. It’s been an hour…. what could they be doing in there?

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Finally, at about 7:25 here comes Tom with two border guards, I lift my camera to take a picture of Tom and it looks like I am about to shoot Bambi. I can’t do it; Tom’s expression says everything we needed to know. Looking back I should have taken the picture because I can not describe how upset Tom looked. He was devastated, totally blind sided after planning this trip for over a year. Tom would not be joining Danno and I on our trip to Alaska. We agreed to try and touch base in a day or two. Perhaps Tom could work things out and catch the ferry to Haines. He got on his bike and was turned south into the line to enter the United States.

Dan and I decided to stick to the plan and head toward West Vancouver, find someplace to stay, and hit the Sea to Sky Highway north in the morning. We climbed on our bikes and headed north. As we drove through downtown Vancouver on a warm summer evening things were really festive. There were people walking everywhere, taxi’s traffic horns, it felt like we were riding through New York City. By 8:30 we had made our way out of the city and west on Highway 1 to the junction with Highway 99. That is where we saw a big sign that said Highway 99 was closed. (We didn’t know it at the time but a huge landslide had taken the road out.) Now what? Let the adventure begin.

We’ll just head back a few miles to West Vancouver and get a room. We checked three hotels in West Vancouver and they were all booked. At the fourth hotel we asked what was going on. It’s BC Day, everyone is in town to see the fireworks. What? It turns out that BC Day is a Provincial Holiday and kind of like the forth of July if you live in British Columbia. It’s a Holiday weekend, we’re screwed.

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A few telephone calls… everything is booked. We are told our best chance is to head back to Richmond near the airport. We should be able to find a room there. We back track through town stopping at multiple hotels along the way but everybody is booked. Finally at 11pm we find a room in Richmond for $230. Ouch! Good thing we ate dinner in Bellingham. We check into our room, head across the street to the Foggy Dew for a few beers and then call it a night.

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399 miles and 16 hours after leaving home day one is behind us. This is going to be an adventure.
Last edited by Dale on Sat Aug 30, 2008 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

E-Ticket
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Postby E-Ticket » Sat Aug 30, 2008 1:36 pm

Way cool...!

Now we get the pics and stories behind the "..we rode far today and are totally bushed..."

Keep 'em, coming guys! E-Ticket
"AYHIN"

Mine: '12 KTM 350 EXC-F ("Wee Beasty"); '99 Honda VFR 800i Interceptor
(AMA Member)
Wife: '22 Kawasaki KLX 140R F; '04 Honda CBR600 F4i (AMA Member)

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Dale
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Day 2 - Rock and Roll

Postby Dale » Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:41 pm

August 3, Sunday: Since Highway 99 was closed Dan and I decided that we would take a back route north past Harrison Lake. After eating a big breakfast we went to the grocery store to do a little shopping since we planned to camp for the next several nights.

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It was beautiful day for a ride in the country

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Dan Hatcher Photo

Before long we were heading north on a gravel road toward Harrison Lake.

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Dan Hatcher Photo

The farther north we went the rougher the road got. On one of the rocky uphill sections I picked the wrong line and knew I was in trouble as my front wheel was heading directly for a steep vertical ledge. I stood on the pegs and rolled on the throttle a bit to keep my momentum. Since my bike was loaded to the hilt the front end went nearly vertical as my front wheel cleared the ledge. When my back tire hit it pitched me over onto my left side. Fortunately Dan was right behind me and helped me get my bike back up on its wheels. Thanks again Dan.

Around 6 o’clock we found a nice spur road with a stream and plenty of fire wood to call our camp for the night. After pitching our tents we went down to the creek to get some water. As I was coming back with the jug full of water I jumped on a large rock on the bank and it rolled out from under me. Since I was holding the jug I came down hard on my right hip. Ouch!

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Dan and I both tried our first ever Mountain House Freeze Dried meal for dinner. Dang, those things are great considering how easy they are to fix. We had a couple of beers, relaxed by the fire and listened to some music before calling it a night.

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Dan Hatcher Photo

We only managed to cover 123 miles but overall it was a great day.

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Dale
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Day 3 - Is a charm

Postby Dale » Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:52 pm

August 4, Monday: Today’s ride started off by taking us north along the Lilooet River and then past past Lilooet Lake. Dan and I both noticed some huge stud piles along the road near the lake. When we asked a flagger about them at a construction stop he said they were from the wild mustangs in the area. Just past the lake we intersected with the north end of highway 99 and headed northeast over Cayoosh Pass. Eventually we dropped down to the town of Lilooet. It was so hot in the lowlands; it reminded me of riding from the Cascades into central Oregon. We continued east to the junction with highway 97 and then turned north towards Williams Lake. We stopped for the night at Lac la Hache Provincial park about 30 miles south of Williams Lake.

Dan noticed the guy camped next to us put a guitar in his tent and couldn’t contain himself. He went to make friends with this guy and I went to bed. The next morning Dan told me the guy wouldn’t let him play his guitar and he wouldn’t play it for Dan either. You’ll need to get the rest of the details about their discussion from Dan.

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Today we covered just under 300 miles.

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Thanks to Dan Hatcher who took all of the great pictures below:

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E-Ticket
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Postby E-Ticket » Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:17 pm

Nice one-handed, "in-flight" pictures, Danno! <g> - rb
"AYHIN"

Mine: '12 KTM 350 EXC-F ("Wee Beasty"); '99 Honda VFR 800i Interceptor
(AMA Member)
Wife: '22 Kawasaki KLX 140R F; '04 Honda CBR600 F4i (AMA Member)

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Dale
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Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:37 pm

Day 4 - The mud bath

Postby Dale » Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:29 pm

August 5, Tuesday: It was another beautiful sunny day. Dan and I got a pretty good start and made it to Williams Lake around 10 am. From here our plan was to take the advice of our friend Bryan Townsend and head west a bit and then follow a gravel road along the Fraser River up to Quesnel. Then we would take the Blackwater road northwest and completely bypass Prince George cutting out about 200 miles of highway. This turned out to be a great way to go; thanks for the tip Bry. These gravel roads are in great shape and it was often no problem to run 70 mph. Along the way we saw a heard of bighorn sheep and a lot of neat back country that we would have missed if we took the highway.

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Dan Hatcher Photo
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Dan Hatcher Photo

About midway between Quesnel and Vanderhoof we came to an intersection and the GPS showed that we should go to the right even though the main road clearly stayed to the left. Hey this is an adventure so what the heck we’ll go right. Not far up the road we came to a mud hole that covered the road. It didn’t look very deep so I just stayed on my line and went straight through it. It was pretty gooey on the bottom but I got through just fine. As we continued for about a mile it was clear the GPS track was getting farther and farther away from the route and the road was getting narrower. We decided to go back to the junction and follow the main road thinking that we took a wrong turn. When we got back to the mud hole instead of just driving through it again I decided I would hug the left bank instead. Good plan until my side case hit the bushes and my front tire dropped off the bank into the mud. Over I went right into the middle of the only mud hole for 100 miles. Now I’m standing in about 10 inches of muddy water with my bike on its side. I quickly tried to pick up the bike but there was no way. About 30 seconds later Dan showed up and I said “go ahead take a picture first” as I knew I would need his help. However, since Dan had his headphones in he didn’t hear me; instead he parked his bike and ran over to help me. The only way for us to lift the bike was for Dan to wade into the mud. That is exactly what he did. Thank you Dan, you are a good friend and saved me again. If I would have been alone I would have had to completely unload the bike and then hope that I could get enough traction with my legs to walk the bike up right.

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When we got to Vanderhoof we enjoyed a burger and root beer float for diner at the A&W. Then we picked up some rootless beer and headed for Fraser Lake to camp for the night. We even made it in time to go for a swim and get some of the mud off.

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Dan Hatcher Photo

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