Finish Line Friday! August 26th We Made It

We did it!  Calgary Alberta to Silver City New Mexico.  5,600km and 26 crossings of the Continental Divide.

Tomorrow is our day to load the bikes.  We meet the team at 4pm in El Paso, load up, dinner, then we're off to airport for 5:30am.  We'll add pics later.  We did 800km of backroads and gravel today.  12 hours of riding, pretty awesome we started out this morning in the Pagosa Hot Springs - in lieu of having breakfast.  A great start to a big day.

MnM

Divide Ride, August 25, 2011

We had a relaxing morning in Crested Butte which probably has the prettiest looking mountains we've ever seen.  Riding along the local roads you'd swear you're looking at a painting behind the buildings.  The colours and textures look more like a painting in the dining room rather than real mountains.  Greens, reds, and earth tones contrast in impressive ways.

We booked our flight home this morning.  The milk run from El Paso - Phoenix - Minneapolis - Toronto will land us about 7pm Sunday night of the 28th.

We ran through heavy winds and some rain today with the twisty roads making it very exciting because as we swung easterly we headed towards dark clouds and obvious rain which you can see clearly pouring down a mountain side.  As the road swung south, west, north, west, south, east and south again it was a lot of fun thinking "hey it's sunny", "ut oh, that doesn't look good" and so on.  With every twist in the road came a change in the immediate outlook.  Kinda like life I suppose.

We drove into Pagossa Springs at the south end of Colorado thinking we'd just blow through and keep on making time into New Mexico, however, one look at the "springs" on the river and we pulled a U turn and within 20 minutes we were floating around in one of the 27 little hot springs pools that cascade into one another then empty into the San Juan river.  Spectacular.  As we watched the sunset we eyed a table up on a patio across the river at a fantastic little Mexican restaurant.  Turned out to be great and reminded us of Ajijic Mexico.

As far as the riding goes - we're officially done with the gravel and now we gotta book it to El Paso  - 500 miles to go tomorrow - but worth the rest time we've had.  

MnM

August 24th Update

Ok, we just had a hot tub, we're in the the best steakhouse around (but they dont know about the Braised Bull) and we just finished a great bottle of Zinfandel California wine (yes we both really approved of it).  Ok, how did we get here.  Well we had a heck of a day.  Hard to believe in fact that it was just one day long.  We were up at 6am and had a quick somewhat nutritional breakfast then popped out onto I-70 for 2 interchanges, then carved our way up to 12,000 feet on a wild "pass road".  Not surprisingly we had to pause for a gaggle of deer to clear the way.  Once we reached the top, Michele HAD to pull over as her brakes were cooked!!!!  What? Uphill, shouldn't stopped for the stupid deer, shoulda just ran 'em over like any good hearted American (that's American pronounced with a cigar in yur mouth and a big belly flapp'n around Town - u know wat I meen?).  Anyway, we had Michele's rear end apart pretty quick and doddle'd 'er up real nice so she's got brakes again.  Hey, German engineering is Crap!  Enough said.  I'm a damn Canadian Engineer and I'm professionally aloud to express my Professional Opinion - and 'ur gett'n it.

From there we had breaky in Brekenridge and it was fanstastiic.  Then it rained, then we ran into the World Bike Racing which was cool.  Then we decided to take a "short cut" over the "Weston Peaks Pass Road" which took us from 8,000 feet to 12,000+ feet which was awesome.  Did I mention this was on Knarly gravely roads that turned into basically a freak'n river bed then after that it got really knarly.  Wow was it fun.  Michele especially loved it on her perfectly engineered German machine.  Meanwhile, I just plodded along on my crappy Jap-crap (running flawlessly Kawasaki).

Oh, did we mentioned that we ran through "South Park" Colorado?  It was awesome.  Very impressive historic mining town.  They even ad a big picture of "Kenny".

On TV in the bar right now is the bike race that ran through Crested Butte today.  Oh, ya, wild scene down here.  Oh, and did I mention we're staying at the former Club  Med of Crested Butte.  Very nice.

PS.  Hi Carl and Rikki from the US National Cycling Team!!!!!    Wow.  Thanks for the steak recommendations!!!!!!!!  and thanks for the drive!!!!!

Mike and Michele

Were having a great time

Ok we have been camping and without service so this is just a quick update:

1 We are having a great time
2 The brakes are fixed on the BMW
3 We are meeting a lot of interesting people
4 We are managing to eat fairly healthy even in the USA
5 We have more pictures that we know what to do with...bought a hard drive to back them up
6 We going to be in Durango, Colorado tonight
7 The roads are great - we have been off the trails and only on roads for a while

Divide Ride, August 21, 2011

August 21, 2011

Tonight we sit on our Best Western (Rawlings Wyoming) room porch with our bikes backed up to the door.  The sun is just setting, the beer is great, and our dinner should be here any minute.  We just showered and cleaned up and had a “bruise count”  (Michele = 8, Mike = 8 – ya we’re tied for quantity but Mike takes the win tonight with surface area!).

Highlights of today?  Lots.  Wyoming is one of the most impressive places we’ve seen yet as we are getting a first hand perspective of the vastness of the desert plains.  We basically road a full day today, hours and hours, without seeing pavement.  We road gravel roads and 2 track trails that are primarily used by the ranchers to herd up their cows.  The oil-gas industry uses some of these roads as well for access to areas like the “Buffalo Basin” oil wells – an impressive site with no humans anywhere near the working well heads.

Imagine driving or riding down a gravel road through grass scrublands for…. Oh say for 2 hours.  Then imagine running into some ranchers just sitting by their truck having a sandwich.  You stop, just because you do, people are rare in these here parts.  They yell out “looks like the long way down”.  Now you know they’re bikers since they just referred to a bike flick.  They invite you over for a water and whatever else you need.   A couple minutes later a real live cowboy shows up on a CRF 450 motocross bike.  You chat up a storm about anything and everything sitting in the middle of a road in the middle of a desert in the middle of Wyoming in the middle of North America.  After 20 minutes they broach the reality topic of just how far you have to go… you’re still 70 miles from pavement.  The cowboy offers to show you a short cut and you’re off, riding through uncharted territory to you but this is his backyard.

Well what a ride we had today, and a very special thanks to our ex US Navy dentist and rancher extraordinaire Wesley David who like any gentlemen rancher gave Michele his CRF 450 to ride through the knarly and rugged off road stuff as he toured us through some of the most amazing country we’ve ever experienced.  Remember, this is not a view from a car window from a paved road, this is living and breathing the true remoteness of ranching in Wyoming.

With 7” of precipitation per year this is true desert, and with the pressures of government agencies forcing the ranchers to move their cattle if the grass is less than 7” tall it must be a challenge to round up a thousand cattle and truck them to another area.   Kinda fun sound’n though eh!

Another adventure, another day, and a bunch more pictures and stories.

Over and out for tonight.

Michele and Mike

Divide Ride, Video Blog Entry, Aug 20th

Divide Ride Blog Entry for August 20th
We're too tired to write anything - the video will explain most of it.
We'll catch up soon.
Michele and Mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYaGUPqB4M

Oh Give me a Home Where th .....

Friday  - 450km

Wow a great breakfast at the Elk Lake Lodge with all of our new friends…..after goodbyes we were back on the road.  More of that great backroad gravel we enjoyed so much yesterday. 

We ran into a guy on a KTM at the side of the road and did a few miles with him…the road was really dusty and felt like it was made of ball bearings…so it was tough going. We did see a cow and calf moose today, and they ran along the road with us for a while.

We had lunch in Jackson Hole…tooooooo many yuppies…..get us back to the wilderness!

Road some great paved roads a well today but there is more traffic and construction…Mike found a great back road around some construction and we ended up at a Turpin Meadow Campground and got a room in a cabin…we arrived just in time for a cookout…chicken, ribs and potatoes and pasta salad…finish it off with ice cream cake…yikes stuffed!

Mike got some great pictures of the sunset…..wow it’s beautiful.

August 18th, Divide Ride, 4 days in the trail

Here's a quick update as it's 11:45pm and we're very tired.

Today's highlights:
Mike looses his main detailed map, Michele gets map in the face at 80mph on I-15, we do lots of pavement in the morning and the road racers would love it, lunch at a ghost real ghost town called Banack where there were lots of hangings and most buildings are still in place as they were 100 year ago, we ran 150km of mountain highlands gravel roads without passing one driveway, saw lots of Antelope (yes, were the deer and the antelope range), ended up in Elk Lake Lodge - a wonderful spot in the middle of seemingly nowhere.  Lots of great people here, dinner, beers, bonfire and a real cowboy to sing us sad and depressing western songs... we love it.  What a spectacular day!  494km! Wow.

 We had a great stay and hot breakfast at the Super 8 in Helena, and packed up the bikes among 6 other bikers packing up and heading the a BMW rally somewhere near by.  They were all busy polishing and wiping down their bikes while one look at ours tells you it’s a lost cause…..the bugs and dust is getting pretty thick.

We did a bit of highway first thing in the morning to by pass a few areas we were told was going to be really rough going and instead got on the dirt to ride some of the best dirt roads yet.

We stopped in to check out a Ghost Town….this was not a relocated town but a town where people actually lived in until the 70’s.  It was a great old town and a few of the characters working there gave us access to a few of the locked buildings and told us some of the stories…….This was the first court house in Montana, the first place to have an actual gallows (This was still standing, 2 vertical poles with a horizontal hanging pole between them), but probably not the first place to have an outlaw as the Sheriff.   Oh by the way…he was hung on the gallows he had built after being convicted of murder (this was his 4^th kill).

With the sun shining from high in the sky and the temperature in the high 20’s we left the Ghost Town to it’s ghosts and took off eh….

We rode these great gravel roads through a spectatular valley of low scrub vegetation and thousands of cows…..I was thinking just how many domestic animals live in the USA….when a pack of antelope ran out in front of me moving fast.  Mike was quick with the camera and managed to get some footage of them we think.

End of the day…now just after 6:00 and we see a sign of a guest ranch with fine dining….wow ok let’s go there!  This is where I have my goof move while turning around I get my front tire in talcum powder dirt and drop the bike….no speed to this crash and that’s probably why I fell over.  As the bikes are so heavy it takes the 2 of us to right the bike.   Ok no problem, nothing broken or bruised.

Half an hour later we are pulling into the ranch and i get distracted and drop in the driveway....Mike is up parking the bike so he doesn't see or hear me yet..... i get help from a couple just pulling out to watch the sun set and Mike who runs over.  A great way to make my entrance and we laugh about this all night..which one of you fell over? started a few conversations that night.

We had dinner and drinks with the couple who helped pick up the bike then went over to the campfire to listen to the cowboy sing....it must be something about the setting and the hat that makes every song sad....

Video footage of today, Aug 17, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDYi3TtKDEc

Wednesday August 17, Fun in Sun in Big Sky Country - Montana

Wednesday Aug 17th,  260km

Today’s Highlights.             

Early morning camp breakdown, a forest fire, awesome forest roads, a knarly mountain pass, an old fire tower at 8,000 ft, bright sunny day, ghost towns, hours of therapeutic riding…

Ok so the mileage was not great….we did 50km by 9:00 but the next 50 took us until 11am.  We had a great ride in the morning, stopping at Montana’s for lunch at noon, yes, Montana’s in Montana.  But it was a proprietary restaurant and was fantastic.  After lunch we were back on the trail but the GPS kept leading us down the wrong trail and we did a lot of back tracking.  No big deal but we did not make a lot of head way south.  We did take our first divide pass ride and it went fairly smoothly…the uphill was a bit of a challenge but the downhill was easy,...just what we wanted with no back brake.

Tonight we are in a Super 8…great rates with CAA…. and rags to wipe down the bikes.  Dinner at the pub next door, and finally the beer Mike has been talking about all day.  We were thoroughly entertained by the pictures and videos of the day.  Very tired as it was another long day.  Looking forward to more ghost towns and camping in the backcountry.

MnM Over and Out for Wednesday August 17, 2011.

Eureka to Seely's Lake Montana

Tuesday 367km – Eureka! Montana

Today’s Highlights.

Unbelievable forest / mountain roads, Mike sees a bear and crashes, Michele sees a Deer and has a mechanical failure, awesome people, trails and camping.

Up at 6am to start loading the bikes….I thought we were the early risers, but we were not the first ones up,  I stuck my head out the window to check on the bikes and these guys who just completed the ride were packed up and ready to go.  Quite cool this morning so there was a lot of moisture to wipe off the bikes.  Breakfast was fruit and cereal in a pre-packaged bowl that I have never seen in Canada but they worked great.

We took Tobacco Road south out of Eureka to a great piece of asphalt to ride before we turned off onto a one lane freshly paved road camp access.  Beautiful.  The mist was burning off the asphalt, and grasses at the side of the road and everything were lush green and twinkling in the early morning sun.  The temperature dropped to 1.5 C as we rose up in elevation…wow we were both cold.

We got onto the divide trail, which was packed gravel, and due to the moisture…no dust!  We stopped for a hot drink and a snack at a great bakery in the middle of no where we thought at first but it turned out to be a destination for locals and tourists alike and the place was soon swarming with a ton a friendly people (Polebridge).  As I opened the old fashioned door to enter the bakery I was hit with a wave of warmth and the most amazing smells of home baking….I got in there and just stood with my mouth open until the guy at the counter asked me if I was ok.  One coffee, one tea and 2 huge buns later we sat out front and talked with a fellow biker and others.

Back to the trail where the moisture was almost all burned off and the dust was just starting to kick up.  Mike spotted bear number 2 around now….   Mike was so excited to film the bear that he crashed his bike trying to turn around too quickly.  Funny thing was, after 100 mile of gravel he turned around on the one lone patch of asphalt we saw (over a bridge) and sure enough……  PLOP!  That’s the sound of a Kawasaki hitting the pavement – Mike figures it’s all ok because he got some cool on board footage and some good pictures … of the bike on it’s side not the bear – the bear escaped down the river laughing all the way.

We also spotted a juvenile deer standing in the middle of the road and stopped to watch him and take a rest....as we went to take off my bike started but would not move…I tried the same thing a few times and realized that my brakes were on…I got off the bike and noticed that the brake light was on (later I would learn that this was just the really bright running light) so I determined that it was something with the brakes…and I quickly noticed it was the back brake as I could see liquid dripping….now spurting onto my hot disk brake and SMOKING badly…….I got a bottle of grapefruit juice and dumped about half the bottle on the fluid, hoping to cool it down but now I was thinking…crack the disk.  Mike came back after filming the deer looked it over and said…..you don’t need the back brake anyway…which I don’t on the BMW….it’s always been crap.  Mike determined that the brake line pulled itself out of the crimp mount on the caliper…not easily fixable as the other end connects to the ABS.  Once out to civilization we made a bunch of calls and determined that there were 7 of these parts available to BMW USA and they were all in Germany 1.5weeks to order….BMW Canada couldn’t even manage to figure out what an F650GS was….Ok no problem I can ride without a back brake we only have 3500km of trail left to go!  I figure that’s my goof up for the entire trip

Lunch was in a great “South Park” Town…full of yuppies in outdoor gear and tons of moms and kids…lots of money here as we looked in the windows of the tiny mountain town…Prada, Sierra Designs and lots of turquoise for sale (Whitefish Montana).

Right now we are camping in a state park…did you know its 5 bucks a vehicle and 25 bucks per site….wow our hotel last night was 65!  Next time we camp we will not be in a state park.  The site is great…sorry WAS great…we pitched our tent in a beautiful vacant site…too good to be true Mike thought as he rode back into town for a few groceries.  He was right….the warden was soon over and we determined that we were not “the Sousas party of 6”…… I waited for mike to get back and we both poured ourselves a glass of wine…a large glass of wine and moved across the street to the crappy little site on the other side.  Got a great fire going (and for those of you who have seen our “Little bon fires” at home you’ll know we’re both pyros) we roasted corn on the cob and ate nachos.

One thing we learned about camping is that campers want to talk….they want to know where you are from and where you are going and of course talk about their own bikes and what they have done.  Up to the washroom for teeth and over to the food locker to lock away “anything a bear might like”.  Goodnight…we’re warm and snuggly in the tent….but it’s going to be a cold tonight…… ;)

Crossing into the USA

Monday 395k…wow still thinking of that great dinner last night at the Moores!

Ok today is going to be the first day on the official route and Mike and I were both up at 6:00 getting repacked and ready to go.  Breakfast was a protein shake and toast (pretty good eh Rob and JJ) then we said out goodbyes and it’s off to the other side of Calgary to meet Dave and say so long to the Howards until next year.   Calgary hospitality - thank you!

Dave was our escort today and he took us on some great twisty and scenic paved roads out of Calgary and heading west with the Rockies dominating the horizon.  We hooked up with the forest trunk road again and ran the gravel south to Hwy 3.  We had a quick and powerful reminder about logging trucks.  The lesson was .. Wow!  They how ominous - they're fast, huge, load, unstable looking and produce a dust cloud that looks like a horizontal mushroom cloud hitting you at a closing speed of .... well we're not sure cause you ain't looking at your gauges.   A quick lunch at the Coleman Subway and we parted ways with Dave, he headed east into the sunshine and we headed west into the wind and rain (of course).  We smoked west through Fernie, hung a left and aimed for America!

Being the chickens that we are…we put on the rain gear but we never really got more than a few sprinkles.  We almost didn’t get across the border as Mike did not see the flashing RED light (or ignored it) and proceeded to drive up to the booth before he was supposed to…..I could hear the guard asking him if he was color blind…when I rode up the guy was laughing and asked me if I saw what Mike did…I said “Oh yeah he’s a goof…he always doing things like that”…..Of course I didn’t have to wait very long for goof action number 2….We are coming up to a construction resurfacing project and the truck with flashers pulls out in front of us….Mike then proceeds to follow this truck to the front of the line of cars instead of taking his place at the back….I followed of course…

Goof action Number 3….while following the truck with the flashing light we get to a point where the truck turns around and another truck takes us further up the road….for a second Mike is thinking of following the truck back the way we just came….

Goof action Number 4….While following the new “Follow me” truck, we come up on stopped car (a local waiting for the escort).  The follow me lady waves at Mike to stay on the right and fall in behind the new car…Mike passes …so he is still winning the construction race…..this time I did not follow… (Mike - being a civil engineer has its privileges)

Now we are safe and sound at our hotel room…the bikes are parked outside, the gear is unloaded, we have eaten our wonderful tenderloin sandwiches, and are drinking red wine from plastic water glasses.  Mike is down a few rooms talking to the bikers that have just finished the Divide Ride….or talking to the bikers who are starting the ride tomorrow…there are about 15 bikes at this hotel…..and a lot of them are off road bikes.  As the night is wearing on the Divide Ride stories are coming out as the hotel turns into a quasi motorcycle show!  See you on the Trail.  MnM

Last Day with Aaron and Kelly (Sunday)

Sunday 240 km……Up early this morning to work on the blog….Kelly sleeping in the big double bed beside me.  Mike showed up around 7:30 to clean up and pack up the bikes.  Breakfast in the linked trailers…….fruit, cereal and toast. 

Out onto the Forest Trunk Road for a day of dust and spectacular views….including a deer taking a drink at a bend in the river…there are cliffs behind her and she’s in a  kind of a canyon….postcard perfect!

The dust was scary in places when a car would pass us going the other way…and the dust would hang in the air for minutes…just long enough to start wondering if you were either going to be rear ended or driven into head on…it turned out there was nothing but dust to worry about…and I got everywhere!  I had to start wiping my visor with my glove every 20 minutes…so much for my shiny new helmet!

We had a late lunch in Cochrane and just happened to stumble into a vintage motorcycle ‘show and shine’ in the A&W parking lot.  A lot of really great looking vintage bikes…hot sunny day, cool bikes and rootbeeer…does it get any better….oh yeah…upgrade the rootbeer to a float….mmmmmm

This is the point where we said goodbye to Aaron…he went back home to Edmonton and we headed on to Calgary, to see Bill and Sharon, Leslie and Chris.  What fun, what a welcome home, what a great time and what food! Now you’re in trouble…we’ll be back.

Got sleepy with a big mug of tea, and a fire on the back porch fireplace.  Goodnight.

Day 1 - Riding with Aaron and Kelly

Our first day of riding…almost 300k…..not much but our destination was approximately 2 hours north west of Calgary at the Mountain Air Lodge.  Here we have a room booked in a rustic ‘outpost’ on the forest trunk road.  I call it an outpost as the rooms are in a long log structure, the restaurant/store is constructed by linking 3 transport truck bodies side by side and the gas is pumped directly out of a large tank into the awaiting pick-up and four wheelers.  We have stayed here in the past and the rooms have been spotless, the food limited but great and the gas …well it’s gas…..

Since we have Kelly and Aaron with us, the one room is not enough for the four of us…sooooo we have a compromise….the girls get the room and the boys get to camp…..Kelly is out niece from Toronto, visiting her Aunt in Calgary and Aaron is a riding buddy from the Mexico trip.  Now Kelly rides with us in Ontario but it's usually on the back of our Harley, so this is quite a change for her.  Aaron has his own BMW 800 with the new addition of side bags.

The camp site is on a bow in a beautiful mountain fed river…the water is the color of  the Caribbean…but man is it a lot colder.  Now don’t feel sorry for the boys, they just popped a bag of popcorn to take with them…. and since we are all a bit tired they’ll be sleeping like babies in no time.

Once we got checked in we took a road we have never taken before to a camping area where everyone brings their horses.  It’s pretty cool as there are horses and riders all over the place….and these are the real cowboy horses not  like the beauties of Ontario.

The end of the road wasn’t that far and we had a great ride down a smooth but dusty gravel road in between 2 mountain ranges.  At the end of the road there was the camping area on one side and a waterfalls on the other.  We did the hike up to the waterfalls but that was tougher going than any of us expected…we all feel out of shape…I think it’s the thinner air.  Haha

We had dinner in the room watching the day’s videos then it was off to repack and get ready for the night for the boys and Facebooking for the girls….we did manage to get a connection even out here.  Yeah Kelly!!!

Were in Calgary!

Ok we flew out of Toronto at 5:00 last night...no bags to check...just a pair of boots, my new helmet and our computer between the two of us.

We arrived in Calgary 7:00 local time, grabbed a taxi and were off the the Deerfoot Mall to meet up with a motorhome pulling a trailer full of bikes.

The bikes got dusty on the drive out here (gravel roads in Saskatchewan)...ha their adventure bikes...they love it, but ok.  There was a patch of oil under my bike, but it was just excess oil dropping out of the bike..Whew!  bikes out...loaded up, gear on and were off to Dave and Jolene's.

Found the house with the help of the GPS and spent a great night with them and the kids (Cole and Mckenna) talking bikes and looking at pictures.  Thanks for the great bed and the wonderful breakfast.

Were off to meet niece Kelly in Calgary and and Aron (Our Mexico riding buddy) and head north for a few days of riding.