North to Alaska Blog

[gypsy_100]

Most Minnesotans tend to be on the conservative side. Except when talking about the fish they caught or the deer they bagged.

Lake Woebegone -- where all the children are above average.

[PrairieSpyder]

Back in the

I took the path of least resistance and rode mostly 4-lane, limited access roads. The Trans-Canada 1 to Calgary, then south to I-15. Except for negotiating some confusing exits in Calgary and Lethbridge, it was cake. Across the high plains of southern Alberta and northern Montana. Worst part was a constant strong cross-wind.

Feeling better today, but still tired.

[brerrabbit]

Dwayne,
The Animal Planet Channel recently had a series called, "The Last Alaskans". It was the story of several folks who lived up above the Arctic Circle in an extremely remote location...
Did you see any of it? I wondered if this was another Reality Show that just lacked...reality!

I watched that series. I came to the conclusion long time ago that reality TV is not a documentary.

=bob=

I am also liking the pictures very much. Thanks everyone.

[SpyderAnn01]

I take my hat (helmet) off to all of you who went on this trip. I sit at home imagining myself doing it on my Spyder then go out for a 4 hour ride & am b*ggered for the rest of the day.

However, I did just complete a 7 day tour of NY & PA so I'm not a total wimp.

Loved the pics, Fluffy. Been to all the places you guys went to but on 4 wheels. After we had been on the Cassiar hwy you could not see any of the paint color on the SUV & it took ages in a Watson Lake car wash to clean it up. Heaven knows what everyone's outer garments looked like after a day on a dirt/mud road in the rain.

You ALL deserve a medal!

It was hard to find do it yourself car washes and they were not the kind we are used to here in the lower 48. We found one in Tok, AK which we all desperately needed after negotiating the unpaved road from Destruction Bay to Beaver Creek. You accessed the car wash by driving across a huge unpaved lot, there was a small concrete pad (which was covered in mud) with a high pressure hose and a foamy brush. I was able to knock off the big chunks of dirt but my Spyder was pretty much of a mess by the time I got back to the hotel less than a mile away. We didn't find another until we were back in WA.

[PW2013STL]

Kathy and I made it to Worldmark in Clanmore,VC (Thanks Karyl for setting this room up!) .

There was a 2 hour road closure in Jasper National Park due to a motorcycle crash. We were stopped about 1/2 mile from the crash site. I was told that the biker was pulling out when hit by a car pulling into the lookout. They air vac'ed him out by helicopter and I hope he is ok. Driving past I got a quick look at the bike and the only thing I could see that was damaged was the front fender was peeled back towards the forks. The traffic had to have been backed up over 5 miles in both directions. Before the helicopter arrived a cop drove down the road asking the names of all the motorcyclists, I assumed they were looking for someone who knew the injured rider as she moved on once I told her my name.

Other than that it was a very nice ride today and we will be in the USA tomorrow staying just outside of Glacier National Park so we can travel through there in the morning. After that its hit the interstate so we can be home by Sunday.

[SpyderAnn01]

Les, things are real hot in Glacier! http://www.weather.com/safety/wildfi...2_nontwcplayer

[PW2013STL]

Les, things are real hot in Glacier! http://www.weather.com/safety/wildfi...2_nontwcplayer

Ann,

Thanks for the heads up as our reservation is in St. Mary. Looks like I better call an see if the motel is still there

Les

[SpyderAnn01]

Ann,

Thanks for the heads up as our reservation is in St. Mary. Looks like I better call an see if the motel is still there

Les

Les, Robin and Tommy were supposed to go there today. Here is what she posted on Facebook
Well, we were supposed to ride thru Glacier NP today but sadly it's on fire. Here are some pictures as we were heading towards Glacier from the Canadian Border. The smell of smoke was strong and our eyes burned and watered a bit. We were able to ride down the east side on 89 then cut thru on 49 to meet up on 2 thru the very south end of the park. They weren't letting people into the park info center because they were using it as an emergency preparedness station. We did get a nice ride despite the very sad circumstances. We rode around Flathead Lake in Montana and visited a cherry orchard. Who knew Montana had orchards??? The lake is the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi....it was gorgeous. Tomorrow we head to Yellowstone and they are under a flash flood watch....go figure. The only clothes I needed to bring on our North to Alaska trip seems to be my rain gear

[Fluffy]

We crossed from Canada into Montana in hopes of riding through Glacier NP but due to fires that was not to be. See Ann Meyer's post above of my Facebook post. Here are some pictures

[PrairieSpyder]

I had a beautiful ryde yesterday - until it started pouring rain. US89 from Great Falls, MT to White Sulphur Springs goes through a pretty gulch (sometimes canyon) with twisties not too hard until you get to the lower part. I refueled at White Sulphur Springs and continued on US89/12 to just north of Wilsall and took US86 on down to Bozeman. That stretch looked nice, too, through the raindrops on my visor. Twisties aren't so fun in the rain and dusk.

[gypsy_100]

I had a beautiful ryde yesterday - until it started pouring rain. US89 from Great Falls, MT to White Sulphur Springs goes through a pretty gulch (sometimes canyon) with twisties not too hard until you get to the lower part. I refueled at White Sulphur Springs and continued on US89/12 to just north of Wilsall and took US86 on down to Bozeman. That stretch looked nice, too, through the raindrops on my visor. Twisties aren't so fun in the rain and dusk.

Love Bozeman. Hope you ate at the Garage on the main street downtown. An old, old gas station converted to a restaurant (would you believe it) where you sit outside and enjoy the best burgers ever.

[PW2013STL]

Kathy and I are currently in a McDonald's in Cut Back Montana having a bite to eat. We had stayed in St Mary's yesterday and there was no WiFi at the hotel. We did see a little of the park on both sides of the fire.

Now it's burn the miles to get home by tomorrow night.

Les

[oldgoat]

I had a beautiful ryde yesterday - until it started pouring rain. US89 from Great Falls, MT to White Sulphur Springs goes through a pretty gulch (sometimes canyon) with twisties not too hard until you get to the lower part. I refueled at White Sulphur Springs and continued on US89/12 to just north of Wilsall and took US86 on down to Bozeman. That stretch looked nice, too, through the raindrops on my visor. Twisties aren't so fun in the rain and dusk.

It will soon be time to update your signature map!

[Bob Denman]

You'll be adding so much ink to North America, that you'll need to hit a different Continent for next year's Tour...

[Fred-WA]

Took my trailer in to have the bearings repacked and ended up getting new ones. The Yukon did a job on them. The bearings were gouged and pitted. Suggest that everyone on the NTA trip have them checked. Also had my trailer latch re-welded and ordered a new flag that was purloined in Skagway. Next adventure - SpyderFest next year

[PW2013STL]

Kathy and I are now in Dickinson, ND for the night. Was a dull ride unless you like wheat fields. Took highway 2 most of the way then jumped on interstate 94 just before the ND border.
Less then 600 miles to home

Les

[SpyderAnn01]

Kathy and I are now in Dickinson, ND for the night. Was a dull ride unless you like wheat fields. Took highway 2 most of the way then jumped on interstate 94 just before the ND border.
Less then 600 miles to home

Les

You can knock that out before supper! Ride safe. Patti ran into Tom and Robin in a traffic jam in Yellowstone!

[PrairieSpyder]

Guess who I met in a traffic jam in Yellowstone?


Tom & Robin Humphrey. They were with their son, JP.



It was really nice to extent some NtA fellowship during lunch, and to meet their son. He's an impressive young man. So so after lunch I went to Cody a different way and didn't ryde the Chief Joseph Hwy after all.

Here re are a couple things I saw in Yellowstone:



This is bison caused another jam as he crossed a bridge in E. Yellowstone. When I got close enough to get a pic, I could see he was limping, like his left hind leg was hurt.



Tomorrow I'll spend mostly in Cody then head on home.

[SpyderAnn01]

The bison was probably faking the limp so idiot tourists would get close to him and he could scare the carp out of them when he decided to run.

[murphybrown]

North to Alaska is just about to become a chapter in my memories book. We left Roger and Linda in Dawson Creek...Dave, Joni and I keep on rolling. Target after Dawson Creek was Prince George, but when we pulled into the Travelodge all said hey SUNSHINE (yep we had sunshine all the way..shocked our sensibilities!!) what say we roll on if we can cxl this reservation. Nice front desk clerk checked with manager and they graciously said yep 2 p.m. a little late but willing...had reached a motel in McBride that had room, but when I tried to reconnect to confirm the NO SERVICE ...but we said let's roll the dice...worst case is sleeping alongside road. Beautiful travels through awesome farm country. Arrived at McBride and saw that finding a bed would not be an issue..got our room and headed to drive thru McBride...definitely a town that is trying to attract more tourism. Ate a great dinner at the PUB Grizzly (dang noisy those workers and ladies were about 2 beers down...but the food was tasty).
Next a.m. we head to Jasper for breakfast...OMG unless you luv crowds and a major tourist trap avoid the town of Jasper...9:30 a.m. and mass people already on the move...public parking (nothing else handy) and we found a Tim Horton's for a 'gourmet breakfast....NOT but their coffee was good. Said enough of this..good idea to get topped off...we were headed to next town as gas stations had literally lines onto street as we passed...Dave saw opening and zipped/zapped into station and we quickly got fueled. Yep pays to be much more maneuverable than an RV...
So off we head...wow the scenery is breathtaking and goes on and on and on. AND, yep techie me did not get my RE charged correctly the night before and NO PICS other than when we stopped and I could use my phone.
There are two areas that I have put on my return to list: From Watson Lake to Fort Nelson BC (it was raining hard the day we went through with very low ceiling/visibility..but even then you could see it was amazing sights) and the Jasper area (sans the town!!).
We are staying at Canmore (12 miles south of Banff) for 3 nights (Dave needs to change out his baby butt smooth rear tire), then Dave & Joni will start working their way home to New York and I will head home...could be a one day ride...but I will take 2. Was going to return via Glacier NP/Highway to sun...but fire in that area and road closure has changed the direction I will travel.
I will have a final post to NTA Blog when I reach home..summarizing my journey. I sure would like all who traveled with the NTA group to do the same. The great, the good, the not so good and the down right ugly.

[PrairieSpyder]

I stayed at a great hotel in Canmore right by the Walmart.

As to a "post-mortem" on NtA-2015, I was thinking the same thing. I've been gathering thoughts, but find my basket is small! I'll start writing them down.

[ARtraveler]

I am so looking forward to what you folks think now that you have completed a true bucket list trip.

What started as a statement by Murphybrown over a year ago, grew into a large number of people jumping on the bandwagon. The number whittled down to the intrepid number of participants, and the planning and packing began.

A great group of people with a common goal in mind...and its looking like everything was pretty much a success. Rain, mud, and minor breakdown glitches don't count for much when the whole trip is considered.

The whole group is to be commended for their stick to it mind set and making things work--regardless of some of the inconveniences. The whole bunch of you are to be congratulated and special kudos to Karyl for making it happen.

We (Linda & Dwayne) feel blessed to have been a part and for the opportunity to meet such great people from all over the country. Linda still says this is the best summer she has had since being in Alaska--and that covers almost twenty years. I second the motion. It was a great experience for us to meet you all.

[ARtraveler]

If William Shatner (Captain Kirk) were here, he might say:

Alaska: The Last Frontier. This was the voyage of the North to Alaska travelers. Their one-month mission: to explore strange new country, to seek out new friends and new towns, to boldly go where only the brave have gone before.

[PW2013STL]

Well Kathy and I are home safe and sound even though a car driver with Kansas plates tried to run us off the road as we entered Minnesota. Kathy was driving and as she was passing in the left lane with our front tire even with his passenger door he came over. Kathy had to take the left shoulder and slam on the brakes to avoid the collision. I do believe that he knew that we were there, but did not care.

Arrived home at 6:30 with a pizza and movie in hand to wind down. Kathy took the dirty duds down to the Landry room in the basement while I carried stuff in.
She came up and kissed me and said welcome home our basement is flooded.
Turns out that last week there were some heavy storms and power was out.

No problem as I have a battery backup sump pump along side my main sump pump. As luck would have it both stopped working.

So our nice finished basement now has water from corner to corner and I had to make a fast run to Home Depot for a new sump pump. Kathy made the call to our insurance company and I called a company to have them come out and clean up and remove all the carpet. There rep will be out tomorrow to look it over

Surprises are not always good ones!

Tomorrow will be busy as I also need to service and clean the Spyder.

Les

[SpyderAnn01]

Oh that really sucks Les. So much for a day of rest before you head back to work.

We came home to water running across our driveway and our dog sitter said it had been that way for a few days. Our neighbor said, no, it had been that way the entire time we were gone. Got my water bill today it was $170, normal is $30. I guess he didn't think it was odd enough to pick up the phone and call us! The same neighbor sent me text messages to tell me the dog sitter was out till 2:30 am one night but neglected to tell me that I was watering the entire neighborhood.