I have been sending emails from my phone the last few days and have not updated my blog. It has been busy making time to get up north and into the good stuff. So let me catch up on a few thoughts.
As planned I departed very early Friday morning (4:30 am) and rode all day to cover a little more than 600 miles to Amarillo. It was 107 degrees for a while in the afternoon but cooled off to 103 when I arrived for the evening, so I opted for a Motel 6.
The next day I motored west on I-40 to get to Albuquerque, NM. My God that west Texas and New Mexico is a lot of desolate and boring country! It wasn't quite as hot (upper 90's) but I got a 30 mph headwind for much of the way. The wind was so strong that going uphill the Vstrom couldn't maintain 80 mph at full throttle. I have a taller windshield than stock, plus saddlebags and bags mounted on top of them, so my profile is much larger.
Rode north from Albuquerque to Farmington. Interesting country - very hot and dry desert country, but it climbed up to 7000 feet so it cooled down to the 80's.
When I got to Farmington the only campsite in my GPS was in Shiprock, 30 miles to the west, so I rode over there. When I got there the RV park was closed, and had been closed for years. I decided to camp right there outside the gate on the dirt road.
Then a guy wandered by who lived on a little ranch with horses next to the RV park. We talked and he was friendly and interested in my trip. He was the son of the owner of the ranch and was a Navajo Indian. In fact, he told me I was in the middle of a large Navajo reservation (apparently most of northwestern NM is a Navajo reservation!).
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| Eating a freeze dried dinner just outside the closer RV park |
Then a guy wandered by who lived on a little ranch with horses next to the RV park. We talked and he was friendly and interested in my trip. He was the son of the owner of the ranch and was a Navajo Indian. In fact, he told me I was in the middle of a large Navajo reservation (apparently most of northwestern NM is a Navajo reservation!).
So he suggested that I sleep in the old judges stand overlooking the arena. It was warm and I didn't feel like putting my tent up, so I checked it out and just rolled out my sleeping bag on the floor. Worked really well except about midnight there was a terrific windstorm that blew through. Very strong gusting winds that lasted for an hour or more then completely went away. No clouds in the sky - almost a full moon - but a blasting wind.
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| My sleeping quarters for the evening, plus a camping friend the next morning |
The next day I rode north thru Cortez and into Utah. Temps were comfortable and about mid-morning actually got chilly (50's) again due to the altitude. Arrived in Moab which is a very cool town but it was in high tourist season and just crazy with RVs, tourists, foreigners, bicyclists, kayakers, etc. Had to get out of there quick.
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| View from my cockpit |
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| View of the pilot! |
Then rode up to I-70 and west to the Green River Valley and north up highway 6 (I think). Long boring ride but some interesting terrain.
Then I got up to Price UT and had to ride over the mountain pass. As I climbed I got up into the clouds and rain. Got pretty chilly and I didn't want to stop to plug in my Gerbing electric heated jacket and gloves so just rode cold for a while. When I got down the west side and joined I-15 it cleared for a while. Then as I got into Provo it started getting dark and stormy and then rained for the next 2 hours. This was a repeat experience of when I rode thru Salt Lake City 3 years ago - hard rain and didn't see any of the mountains or the lake.
So I made it up to Pocatello, ID that night and stayed in a local motel to dry my boots out.
The next day (day 4, Monday) I continued up I-15 to Butte, MT then up to hwy 83 to Kalispell. It was a gorgeous ride across the Snake River Plains watching the snowcapped mountains from a hundred miles away slowly getting closer and closer. Then got into the mountains and the beautiful scenery. I remember again why they call Montana "big sky country."
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| My first view of snow-capped mountains. It was exciting but would be a very common scene for the next 3 weeks! |
Hwy 83 was a 2 lane road but 70 mph speed thru the pine forest. On my map it is shown as a scenic ride and it really was. Lots of little lakes with fishing and hunting lodges everywhere. Very "Montana" looking - ruggedly beautiful. Can't imagine this place in the winter though.
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| Camp at an RV park in Whitefish, MT (north of Kalispell) |
So now I am caught up. I will depart here (Whitefish, MT) and ride about 75 miles to the border crossing at Roosville on hwy 93. From there continue north on 93 to Radium Hot Springs then north to hwy 2 up to Jasper. Not sure how far I will make it since I am getting a late start here this morning.
Here is a route map of my first 4 days getting up here to Montana. It has been about 2200 miles.
Here is a link to a photo album I started:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jerrym100/MyTripToAlaska?feat=directlink
So that's all for now, time to mount up and ride into Canada!
Jerry
