Last Few Days in the USA

With the last days of our trip we had a variety of things to arrange. The bikes need stripping and prepped for shipping, motels for the duration and move our flights forward to suit. Whilst we were here we thought we would try out Baseball.

Wolf Sanctuary in Pensylvania

Today we visited the Wolf Sancturay in Pensylvania, this is a fanomanal place. The sanctuary houses about 40 wolves. They have a mixture of Timberland, Black, Arctic wolf and cross breeds with Huskies. For as little a 12 bucks you see a wolf pack, how cool is that? all the money goes to the support of the sanctuary, the tour takes about an hour and is worth every penny. The guides are fun and knowledgeable giving an insight into the breeds and psychology of these amazing animals. If you get a chance "go!" you can find their details on the net.

Centralia or Silent Hill

Years ago a game called Silent Hill emerged about a town that was deserted due to an underground coal fire, the town also hosted a range of ghost and gohuls that appeared following a siren. In the last few years a film once again tested your nerves about the same place: Silent Hill. Since we were in Pennsylvania we had to visit the town that inspired these genres.
In 1960's the towns garbage dump accidently ignited the coal seem that ran the length of the area. Over the following fifty years the town was evacuated.

Today less than twenty people still live there. The roads and streets are there, overgrown and abandoned. The ground is cracked and smoke and coal fumes exude.

A church on the hill overlooks, surprisingly in good condition ( a little like the film
). Following the old route 61, you can see the extent of the fires, the road is fractured as if ripped apart by an earth quake. As tit is a mining area you can here the odd siren off in the s
distance, but no ghost or monsters come forth at least not in the day light. Was it scary? no but creepy.At night it may be a little different.

Buffalo to Warren

After crossing the border back into America we passed through Buffalo, its a city like any other city and to be honest we got out of there as quick as possible. We found a motel and straight away it was obviously cheaper here, about a thrd cheaper than Canada.
The next day we headed south and on route we stopped to change my tires as the back one looked like a slick.
the further from the city we got the nicer it became. Small towns with friendly people, old style houses and bridges.

We both needed haircuts so gues where? WALMART, that wasnt the finished product.
The roads were great, tight winding roads through hlls and forests with rivers chasing our left flanks..

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls reputation is difficult to live up to, approaching from the Canadian side gives the feel like you are in Blackpool, seedy souvenirs shops and gentlemen's clubs. The Falls themselves are stunning, its a shame its not in its natural environment. We went on the "behind the Falls adventure" hundreds of tourists wearing their issued plastic poncho's; We abstained to fit in with our biker image lol...
The falls are magnificent and the experience is still incredible. With thousands of gallons going over the falls every second, it truly is a natural wonder.
After the Falls we crossed the bridge and entered back onto American soil.
The sun came out as if to welcome us back, truthfully the American part of this trip has been the most entertaining, the people and their hospitality are second to none.

Where we are! Where we are going!

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Tobomory

We jumped the ferry from South Barmouth to a little tourist trap called Torbormory. The ferry ride was great, it was Taz's first motorcycle-ferry and she really enjoyed the idea of riding on and fastening her bike down. Its strange when you do it in a car you forget that the car is there, but on a bike you have to rope it down and stow it against the movement of the ship. Constantly aware that you steed is there, swaying with the boat.

As we got off the ferry and rode over the landing port we were greeted with a bustling little sea port style town. Every one in shorts, tanned skin and surf lifestyle looks. We found accommodation for our first night and made one of the biggest mistakes of the trip $140 for the crappiest room in Canada. An over powering smell of Milldue/damp and nothing worked: the toilets or TV. The next morning we bolted for better residence and found some lovely cabins in the woods for half the price, result!
Along the waterfront is an array of shops and restaurants. Even a dive shop! Not missing an opportunity I booked on a dive in the afternoon to explore two ship wrecks. Taz not wanting to dive came along for the ride and helped out on the dive boat. The diving is great, clear and fairly warm. The wrecks are all wood and the spines of the hull imitate the bones of a giant dinosaur nestled in the silt telling stories of the past. Taz unfortunately got a little too much sun and will suffer that night for it.We realised that we have been dressed head to toe in a our biking gear and had not really been exposed to sola rays for the last three months.
We had always wanted to sail around the world and being here only fueled the idea as yachts came in to moor, we stood drooling over the fantastic vessels. Playing the " MINE" game. Some of these boats may never see the salty sea as the lakes here are so vast; you could explore them for years.
Tomorrow we head for Niagara Falls and on to New York...

Delays and changes

The next morning we had to wait for the dealers to fix the bike. By the time they had finished it was nearly mid day, by all accounts we had some loose spokes that may have caused the punctures.. It is nice to know what the cause was, my first attempt to change a tire in the field. even though it wasn't successful it confirmed to me it possible and I learnt a lot from the attempts.

After driving around the little town for a few KMs to ensure we didn't get another flat in the middle of the bush.It was after 1pm by the time we hit the road properly.

We headed on route to rendezvous with Joe and Flora, riding through heavy rain again it was still nice to be on the road with no issues. The terrain became more interesting lots of little lakes and winding roads kept us engaged.
That evening we calculated our time left for the trip and the possibility of catching up with our friends. After much discussion we came to an executive decision to; not do the Trans- Labrador Trail with Joe and Flora. Time was against us, and it meant doing big'ish distances and full on adventure style riding just when we are at our most tired. After three months on the road its important to match your challenge levels to your energy levels. So we made the call to the guys to make our apologies, Joe and Flora are on tight filming schedules and they understood our Holiday schedule didn't really match. Joe and Flora we shall meet up again I'm sure, Good Luck, remember Great Britain needs a motorcycle film too.

We head south now through Ontario with the goals to take it easy see, the Niagara Falls and possibly do some fishing ( one of the things we said we do).

After a few days hiding out from torrential thunderstorms and our addiction for films suppressed we now head out on some ferries into the great lakes of Ontario.Island hopping.
More pictures to come...

Big miles, flat tires, repairs and stranded.

We spent that night in Winnipeg. A few hors of filming with Joe and Flora, had s exploringj the city, old churches and bridges. Over the last two days we covered nearly 1000 miles, its felt longer though, maybe because we have been on the road for nearly three months. That night we stopped in Kapuskassing, Taz's tire needed replacing with the spare we were carrying and as it was late we set out to do it ourselves.

We had never changed the motorcycle tire ourselves even though we had changed thousands of mountain bike tires, how hard could be?

Well we had the tire off and the bead broken with the side stand of the 1200. A local guy with some knowledge came out to help. in next to no time we had the new tire on and we took it to the garage to use the inflator, we pushed the bead back on no problem, bu there was a leak, we could hear it. doh.
We fixed the slight pinch we had made during putting on the tire, probably with the tire iron. After three attempts we did it. the tire stayed up and we went to bed happy.

oh no ! the tire went flat over night.We pumped it up and limped to a garage to see if we can get a professional to solve our issues. After some messing we talked a Yamaha dealer in to fixing it, success. We unfortunately had to let Joe and Flora leave without us, due to there filming commitments. The plan to catch them up later that day.
Plans of mice and men: After being fixed by Yamaha we got twenty Km down the road and it went flat again! pumped up; flat again. We limped into the nearest town, once again the professionals repaired it, even before we left it had deflated. They said it was just air left between the tube and the tire???? enough to flatten it? So we took the tire off again and still no sign of a leak.. WHATS GOING ON? After refitting the tire again we headed off into the void between these towns. Within ten Km the tire was flat, the rains came. Flat tires, rain and no help. The tire wouldn't stay up long enough to get 100 yards. We left the bike and rode two up into the local town to try and get a new inner tube. No chance. Eventually we stumbled upon a Susuki dealer and they offered to collect the bike as they were going that way to pick up a lawn mower. After getting Taz settled into a motel. I headed off in a truck to retrieve the broken down BMW with a Susuki dealer, ironic.. Once back in the town with the stricken bike and left in the capable hands of the dealer. Taz and I settled down to a Chinese meal, After 14 hours and on 38 miles covered we were shattered.
We communicated our delays to Joe and Flora and arranged a further rendezvous. After the long mileage and the brake downs today this was starting to feel like hard work.
Sleep, oh to dream!
With luck the tire will be fixed in the morning.....

Across the Great Planes

We headed to Winnipeg and bumped into our friends Joe and Flora.
We plan to travel with these guys to do the Trans-Labrador Trail, its a little like the Dalton Highway, dirt trail but with lots of lakes to negotiate.
500 miles today and nearly the same tomorrow to get us across Ontario, to see some Polar Bears cool!!
Crossing In Ontario the terrain changed and we got away from the straight flat roads of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Before us lies hills and very big lakes and windy roads.. Unfortunately the speed limit is slow so it took along time to get here.... oh well..

Cold Lake

On our route east we stopped at a a little town called Cold Lake, as the name suggests there is a lake there, a pretty big one. We needed to get back to holidayers instead of just riders, so we did half a day sunbathing on the beech- with the compulsory ice cream, until the heavens opened.
After the rain fall and Taz and I re-en acting the singing in the rain scene, we bumped into a couple of bikers, over pizza and beers we swapped stories and had a great eveneing, thanks to Tod, Brian and Cat ( sorry the picture didn't come through).
The ninth was Taz birthday so I had booked a horse trek for her present, five hours in another saddle, ouch. Taz did fantastic even with the hyper active horse. On the trek we saw two bears, one in the tree just ahead. Horses were so cool. Pannir Stables I think they were called were fantastic and they took their time to teach us how to saddle and ride the horses properly. Thanks to Dale and his team. Next trip could well be on horse back!! But don't tell Taz heheheheheheh...

Today we shoot for Winnipeg to meet up with Joe and Flora.We may have another Adventure planned through Nova Scotia and Labrador.......

Retracing our Yukon Steps

After a few days rest at the University in Fairbanks we hit the road. Fairbanks to Tok: rain most of the way. The next day we jumped back on the Alaskan Highway and crossed the border back into Canada. This part of the Highway we have not seen because of the detour we took on the Klondike up to Dawson City. The road was pretty bad with lots of road works and frost heaves but the views were spectacular. That night we made it to Whitehorse just as the heavens opened again. The forecast for the following few days was heavy rain, so we stayed put and had a movie-fest, four films in two days. Sweet!

After our film overdose we hit the road again and pushed on to Watson Lake, again all famila because we came through this way. This morning we hit the road early ish.. A 300 odd mile push to Fort Nelson and once again the rains cometh...
As we were riding today we got to see four black bears and then there was the Buffalo and the wolf! We say wolf because everyone on the road stopped to watch this lone wolf charge at the herd of Buffalo. The Buffalo were not intimidated and managed to chase the wolf off.... straight to us! thats when the camera came out, check out our little video

Tomorrow we should be at Dawson Creek and here is were we start exploring again.
Its been strange retracing our steps, even though we have six weeks left our thoughts turned to home, with that feeling of going back. Im sure we will slip back into exploration mode as soon as we get on unfamiliar terrain. Mount Rushmore and The Bad Lands in South Dakota or Saskatchewan ?????

Dalton Return.

We left the Caribou Inn around 10 am to avoid the sea ice fog, there was still a heavy fog around the bay, with temperatures around freezing. A little tired and nervous about the return trip we slowly inched our way out of the safety of the Camp ( camp is a term they use for a temporary settlement, even though they have been there for years and there are nearly 7000 people there at any given time. We knew there was deep mud and then deep gravel to contend with as we had passed there only 12 hours before. The mud/ calcium had dried somewhat and was not a problem and the stones were the same but our new found confidence and skills fueled us and we drove quicker and more confidently. Our MOJO was so strong we even started to look for deeper stones so we could drift the back of the bikes more. We must of been a strange sight two motorcyclist stood up on their pegs screaming with delight shooting up the haul road. In what felt like no time we were through the Atigun Pass and arrived in Cold Foot. We met some other bikers Mike Twist and David Owe, who had been right behind us all the way, had a bight to eat and then got a room for the night. The following morning we ambled around like off road gods. Our Kung Fu was strong! Back on the Haul Road we sped to the Yukon River Bridge were we stopped briefly for lunch and then continued to push on. We felt like heros, we were nearly at the end, safe in the knowledge we had done the worst parts......... Then the rain came, I mean landed. It rained so hard we couldn't even see. The track we were on became a moving river of mud. The last section had been dug over to be worked on which made our passage even harder. In my head I laughed at the fact the the Dalton wanted us to know it had let us through, graced us with its good nature, because if it had rained like this the whole way it would of been a thousand times harder... Eventually we landed on tarmac, lightening struck the near by hills and we made the best speed we could in a torrential down pour. Arriving in FairBanks both Taz and I were full of joy and very wet. We had completed the challenge and had enjoyed it. Thank you Dalton for being so nice to us we know it could of been worse. We called in at Dan and Shawn's place to tell them our stories with time to dry out clean the bikes and get a room back at the Uni.

Dalton: Day 2. Coldfoot to Prudhoe

Our night at Coldfoot was surreal, the Motel is in a truckers yard surrounded by what seems to be a scrap yard, broken down cars and bits of metal surround the dust filled yard. During the night we awoke to howling, I presume by dogs but we couldn't tell, maybe wolf's, in the morning we could try and find out. Our broken sleep left us groggy and slow to rise, no issue because it doesn't get dark this time of year this far North. As we loaded the bikes that morning a lone Husky strolled and stopped ten feet away and looked on, were you the one keeping us awake? he seemed to be heading somewhere and he turned and strolled off into the distance. We looked at each other and took the hint, lets get moving. This part of the Dalton was supposed to be the hardest with the infamous Atigun Pass, a warning of deep gravel and mud just outside Prudhoe. Nervously we left Coldfoot and started the trail. The going was good and our success from the previous day fueled us and we stormed on. We hit the Atigun Pass and with little difficulty we made it through. The roads were very dry, dust plumes in the distance indicated the on coming trucks like an approaching army in a film. We were brimming with confidence. Pretty soon after the pass we started hitting the deep gravel; some the size of golf balls, the bikes snaked and fish tailed and we aimed for the smother sections formed by trucks flattening a little of the gravel, as the trucks passed we had to get to the sides, that meant crossing a ridge of gravel, lean back and power through... Standing for an hour or two we worked hard. Until we hit the mud! It was caused by the construction workers spraying a formula that helps the road to adhere. Unfortunately they hadn't compressed it yet, we had found what all those other riders had been talking about. The bikes felt out of control, slushy mud like ice threatened to spill us. The urge to slow had to be beaten; speed was the key. We powered on. knees clenched to the seat, hands loose. Snake and slide. After ten miles we made it through and rode triumphantly in to Deadhorse. Caked in mud and with less than a cupful of fuel in Taz's bike. A quick tour to the Arctic Ocean. Shower and then bed because tomorrow we have to do it all again to get back to Fairbanks one road in one road out.. Good night.

Ice Trucker Road, The Dalton......Day 1

Fairbanks to Coldfoot.
A short hop; 70 miles out of Fairbaks you join the Elliot Highway and follow that until the end when you jump on the Dalton. Now for the last two days we had been talking to riders who had returned from this ride, we could see the weary riders return all muddy, with tales of deep gravell, mud like ice, storms and running out of fuel. More than one said they would never do it again. Taz listened with earnest, making a calculation if she really wanted to do this. We have another 5000 mile or so to get home, did we need to do this? It was my idea and felt I confident about Taz's skills. Her confidence was something she battled with about making this whole trip. I had no doubts about her ability. We agreed that if either of us said "no" we would turn around immediately, no discussions. This made us more committed. The first part, we were warned could be pretty rough, they deliberately left this part of the road bad to discourage the tourists. After the first 20 miles of sandy dirt there was tarmac! albeit broken and only short stretches of it but it gave a reprieve of the sliding- snaking of the bikes in the dirt. Taz and I both grew with confidence as we edged further to the Arctic Circle at 120 miles marker.
We managed some impressive speed and our skills grew.

WE WERE DOING IT!

After the Arctic Circle we had another 65 odd miles of Dirt and steep hills to contend with. Some of our biggest concerns was the trucks, you may have seen Ice Truckers, these trucks that take this road are carrying Oil Drilling supplies to Prudhoe Bay and they are not small trucks! They can travel very quick and if the road is dry they can hide the road and even other trucks in their dust wake. As this is summer we had no snow on the roads but it still hides in the gullies and streams along the roadside. On either side of the track there is a verge of deep gravel and then a drop, so pulling in to it dodge a truck, is somewhat dodgy. Your front wheel skids everywhere and the best way to stop is to accelerate, not really what you want to do when dodging a 60 odd ton truck... timing is everything, narrow bridges and bends had to be timed well. It was challenging but we loved it. 260 mile dirt track!
Coldfoot an old mining community is now a truckers haven, the rooms here are so expensive the type of money you expect to pay at the Hilton, but with out the luxury. I guess that what it cost to run a motel in the Arctic Circle.
Tomorrow Atigun Pass and Deadhorse...