Baseball in Cleveland and a visit to Niagra Falls

Cleveland. A sort of mini, wanabee Chicago on one of the great lakes but again not a bad looking place. Most of the group and I headed off to see a basaball game between the Cleveland Cheifs and the Chicago White Sox. Unfortunately by the time we all got out and in, the game was in the seventh innings of nine! No matter though, it was rubbish. Again, to be fair though if an American came to the UK to watch an equivelant cricket game with an empty stadium I doubt they'd be immpressed either. After that, beer and bed.
Out of bed then and after a quick visit to a proper old school barbers for a much needed haircut it was time to head up to Niagra falls. Only 220 miles but it rained for most of it so not a great ride. Arrived at the hotel near the falls and two big disappointments. The first being that the falls were a bit of let down, not as I'd imagined them to be, (partly made up of memories from the film 'Superman' circa 1978) but even worse was the discovery that I was only 120 miles from Toronto. Where my clubbing friends Sarah and Hani live, currently with tickets for Tiesto in a few days time (I met them at a fantastic Tiesto night in Ibiza). So close! A bike service followed by 330 miles tommorrow to Catskills and no prior planning of this recent re route by me made it not really possible. Enjoy S&H and remember...London early next year, for the Ministry!

Chicago

Before Chicago, Chamberlain and Winona were visited. All I saw of my out of town motel in Chamberlain was the pool, sauna and spa as I arrived so late! Winona though was a nice little town. I joined Tim's Tours for the evening for a few beers although sadly BJ was having to work with mechanic Werner in helping to repair his now paralysed bike. The 'camchain tensioner guide' is broken and without repair it's unridable as further riding could result in catastrophic engine failure. Happily though Stacy 1 along with Stacy 2 and Melissa helped lift our subdued feelings with their drinking song about a body part of theirs! It ended up being a great night but again, I forgot my camera!
So Chicago then. A very nice place, clean, impressive sky scrapers, great food and restaurant's (had a MONSTER steak with a side of much needed veg, in this case a head and a half of broccoli!) Day two saw the group head over to Dental's sisters fantastic penthouse apartment, all $2.5 million's worth for a mini party. Oh and the hired chef cooked up an entree of...get this, a fig sliced in half, stuffed with Gorgonzola, all wrapped up in a bacon rasher and then BBQ'd to perfection. Divine.

Mount Rushmore and the Badlands

The last of the long open landscape ridden and finally some interesting riding! To be fair, my earlier description of this place was perhaps a little OTT. I've since met some lovely people (not obese) and been to some great places. I guess this was in part due to me starting to fall into 'New York mode,' with thoughts now starting to creep in about the nearing finish line and life returning back to normal. I even began a mileage countdown on the GPS to NY. One of the problems for me has been due to the high milage days that have needed to be ridden. Being 300-400 long I've been opting to take the 'Interstate' for six or seven hours rather than have a ten or twelve hour day on slower roads. Still riding on my own, it has been a little lonely but this day in question was fun as I hooked up with Simon on his BMW 650 Dakar for the following...
Left our 'Super8' (but alas no Tab, Captain) motel and headed up the 20 miles to Mount Rushmore for a quick look and photo. Met Tim's Tours enroute with BJ in the middle of cutting his chain off. It had reached the end of its usable life, come off and damaged his wheel. Could've been very nasty had he not have been going relatively slowly uphill. Simon then turned up also alone and after an early lunch off we went...First up the rollercoaster/scalectrics track of a road called 'The Needles Highway.' This crazy road was 13 miles of shear fun, with very tight hairpin followed by steep climb, drop, tight hairpin, tunnel, hairpin, bridge and so on. Great fun, especially with my bike (now with a round front wheel) so well suited to these types of roads and roaring like a Spitfire past the slow harleys cruising along and unable to corner. So with big grins inside our crash helmets next up was 'The Badlands National Park.' Another great road with amazing views a long long way across the landscape from a canyon like, rocky and mysterious place. If anyone's interested in more about Mount Rushmore or the Badlands then Wikipedia will do a far better job of it than me!

Boredom in Billings and beyond...

I'll start to write this but I doubt there'll be much more to add as things are a little boring right now. Like many I've watched and read Ewan and Charlie's 'Long Way Round' but was surprised and disappointed in that the whole of North America seemed to make up no more than 10% of the trip on TV or book form. I can now see why. The vast open plains of Montana and now Wyoming are pretty featureless and the 350-400 mile days are a drag. Highlights on the road have been non existant. I'd always dreamt of riding the west coast to east coast of America and unless I'm on the wrong road I must have missed something. Everywhere is the same with small pointless settlements, very odd people, nasty food and beer, larger souless towns, and big ugly vehicles. I did go to the 'Battle Of Little Big Horn' monument today though, but even that was a cemetry with some plagues overlooking some fields and hills. General Custer seemed to be the main draw for some uninteresting reason. I'm not that big on American history, or maybe American history just isn't all that big? Mount Rushmoor tomorrow should be worth a photo though at least...

Jasper National Park and Radium Hot Springs

Next up then those two for what looks like the last of any nice riding roads until NY. JNP is a beautiful place no question, with mountains, glaciers, wildlife, lakes and rivers. Having ridden through thousands of miles of this over the past three weeks it did have a 'ruins' feel about it though (as in seen one seen them all). The area within the park where I stayed had a very ski resort feel about it but being out of the summer season and not in the ski season yet things were a bit quiet. Plenty of other bikes around though but Harleys. Oh dear. Generally I've found all riders of any bikes to be interested in bikes as a whole regardless of type (tourer, sports bike, trail etc) but the Harley cruiser genre seems to be very insular. They, no doubt, frown at our dirty, tall bikes with bent wheels (now fixed, thanks Werner) and have no concept of riding on anything other than perfect tarmac, in the US. While we laugh at their leather chaps, Harley Davidson t-shirt, belt buckle, jacket, jeans etc and of course their slow, heavy, chrome plated bikes that only ever see the sun. As for RHS well, again a beautiful place but as the name suggests it has some hot springs. I joined Tim's Tour for the night and visited the large outdoor 'hot spring' although I'm not convinced. It was no different to a normal, chlorine smelling swimming pool albeit shallower and outside. That's not right is it?

A 600 mile catch up to Dawson Creek...just!

After a few days of minimal gains on the rest of the group and the resulting double accommodation costs it was felt that we should pull our fingers out and reunite with the others. This was also in part to the rapidly decreasing condition of my front tyre. A new one that I'd bought earlier was with our mechanic Werner which was no good to me several hundred miles away. So 09:30 came and with it our goodbyes to Ben as he headed south while we headed east. The first half of the day was just wonderful riding through the northern Rockies. Nice. However...during a refuel in Port Nelson some 282 miles from our target of Dawson Creek the old front tyre was down to canvas and looking more than unsafe! What then followed was maybe the worst ride on the trip yet. My speed plummeted in preparation for a front end blow out which would probably have resulted in a total loss of control of the bike into either a, oncoming traffic or b, a ditch. All in the dark, in freezing conditions. BJ and I finally limped in to Dawson Creek around 22:45 having somehow got over a massive bridge that had a metal base not dissimilar to a cheese grater! Quick change and out to the 'Alaska Hotel' that was the only bar open beyond 23:00. We were advised not to go there by the hotel staff though as it was described as not safe and rough...And rough it was! Half a dozen dealers outside and twenty or so people bang on crack cocaine inside. Booted out at 02:00 and bed.

Three travel to Watson Lake via Faro

With me and BJ now way behind the rest of our group in terms of days and miles, although ultimately costing us more as our booked hotel rooms are not being used at least it gives us some freedom. Freedom to leave went we want (we've stopped aiming for departure times :-) and just to look at a map and say "what do you reckon then?" Which I think is what it's all about. So, we left Dawson City joined by Ben on his XT600 and headed to Watson Lake via Faro. Neither Faro or Watson Lake are very interesting, instead it's just been about the ride. Nothing we've seen before really just three guys riding our bikes. Ben only passed his bike test in May so big respect to him for attempting this so early and on his own. It made me realise quite how much I've learnt myself over the past few months with me being able to give him tips and examples of how to ride these loose surfaced roads either full on motorcross style or just smoother and stable. Progressively he got up to speed and the 580 mile ride was complete with smiles, laughter and fun had by all. Good times.

Riding the 'Top Of The World Highway' to Dawson City...

OK, so I was sceptical about the self appointed 'Top Of The World blah blah blah' but I have to admit that this was something special. Mostly a dirt surface and passing many old gold rush towns such as the famous 'Chicken' it was again a great ride. Along the way BJ and I deceided to try and attempt a bit of off roading up one of the peaks of the mountains we were riding. Despite getting higher up than him we both gave up as what looked easy from the road was far from it way up there! As for the road, unlike most routes like these it didn't follow a valley or go around the hills and mountains, instead it just ran all the way along and across their peaks. Stunning. We made Dawson City at the start of nightfall and checked ourself into a hotel in the very small city (more like a village) that was like something that time forgot with its western film styled buildings and streets. I'd assumed it was all for the tourists but apart from an English guy named Ben from Reading that was also travelling by motorcycle (but down to the very bottom) it was mostly locals around. Ben kindly led the way after I'd had a shot of whiskey with an old human toe in it(!?, true) to a casino come old bar. Inside some sort of blackjack tournement was on as it's illegal to gamble in Alaska apparently, so they all flocked there for a few nights a month. I managed to lose $20 in record time whilst the other two ended the night respectably up. Hey ho.

The Dalton Highway...Day 3

Day three then saw us finally pack up and leave Coldfoot at around 1pm (several hours later than planned) and more general messing about followed all the way back to our next camp site the 'Santa RV Park' in the North Pole. Er, no that wasn't a wrong turn by us, the town is actually called that!? Back to the last leg of the DH. Along with us messing around we followed the 860ish mile long oil pipe that eventually leads to Valdez port (see I was listening!) all the way to the end of the muddy highway. A great adventure was had and the feeling of achievement was great. Spent the end of the evening drinking hot chocolate with Auzzie Sam and family in the Santa RV park who were also staying there. And they thought they could hide...

The Dalton Highway...Day 2

After a well deserved sleep, me BJ and a few other nutters joined the tour bus around an oil refinery. To be fair, as oil refinery tours go it was a little interesting but the main highlight was the swimming session. BJ's thing is swimming. At any opportunity on this trip he's swum when possible in lakes, rivers and seas. This was no exception and even I didn't realise this was on until he whipped out a pair of swimming shorts once finally on the stoney beach! Once he'd finished and I'd laughed at how stupid he was I was getting down to my pants and getting in! Ooooohhh. C-O-L-D it was, so quickly I returned to shore with no towel to put on my dry clothes to make them wet. Much to the ammusement of the other tourists including Sam and Franca (and little Aiden) from Australia who were on a work exchange with a Canadian firefighter and his family.
Once back in the accommodation block, showered, fed and warm we prepared for the 250 mile ride back to the half way point of Coldfoot. So it was off down the Dalton Highway then but this time with time on our side we kept an eye out for wildlife and took loads of pictures and generally larked about. Saw the Muskox, Caribou a little arctic fox and some other stuff that I don't know and made Coldfoot. Coldfoot is basically a truckers stop with a resturant and so with the opportunity to camp within the arctic circle still on out came the tent...Before then though a quick meal and few beers and on the short walk to the tent we observed the Northern Lights which I can only describe as weird. I was a little cold in my $13 sleeping bag but I survived then night. In fact most of the morning as well, as we woke up at 10.30 am!

The Dalton Highway...Day 1

Here goes the best bit of my trip so far...
Left only the odd hour or two late from Fairbanks for the 533 mile ride into the unknown ride north. After a fuel stop and stocking up on essentials such as Werther Originals, Muffins, Chocolate, oh and water, first up was the tourist 'Arctic Circle' sign. As for me and my muppet comment in BC...it was lovely weather, sunny and warm!
Twenty minutes later and we were off again, meeting fellow riders Walter (New Jersey), Paul and Scott (UK) at various points along the way either coming or going. This was a monster ride. Not as savage as my 800 miler on the Trans Siberia Highway as on this occasion we had a tent and sleeping bags and as each corner/mountain passed each view was more spectacular than the last. Very few other vehicles were on the road, only truckers (think Ice Road Truckers, which series two was filmed there apparently) and 'hurnters' in their pick ups out 'hurnting' the local wildlife, Muskox, Caribou and Moose. All under license though and for food so we were told. The road was 50% OK tarmac, 20% loose gravel, 20% hard packed mud and 10% slippery mud. The weather changed from nice and warm/sunny to major fog, rain and once over the Atigun pass minus loads for the last 150 miles!! The last 80 miles saw me and BJ chasing the very odd sunset that I guess you only get in places like these at high speeds, totally frozen, finally into 'Deadhorse' which is as far as anyone can go with the Prudhoe Bay leg only possible by way of an organised tour by the oil refinery companies within the compound. $50 each for a room in a workers accommodation block but we drunk about half of that each in hot drinks! Knackered, still not quite warm and into bed.

Searching for adventure. Anchorage and beyond...

Yet another great 350 mile solo ride to Anchorage got me thinking about a BJ offer I'd received the night before. Behave yourself. His offer was a 1000 mile round trip up to the very top of Alaska, Prudhoe Bay. I'd half been interested in the 250 mile version to the tourist 'Arctic Circle' sign that actually isn't as far north as it should be as there's trees everywhere. After hearing stories about -4 degrees, snow, danger, a complete waste of time etc (from someone who'd been before) my mind was made up. New tyres for the trip purchased and an early(!?) 11.30am start on the first leg (350 miles) to Fairbanks followed. Despite BJ running out of fuel in Denali National Park all went to plan. Well, after I'd sold him a few litres of 'gas' from my tank at $10 a litre! ;-) We even mananged to service the bikes/change rear tyres the night before. Crappy motel, bed.