The following is my diary as I wrote it on the Great Divide Ride - with some minor corrections for place names etc.

If you’re looking for more info about the Great Divide Ride check out the following:
http://www.bigdogadventures.com/CD.htm
http://gpskevin.googlepages.com/greatdivideride
http://www.twotaildog.com/Motorcycling_ ... _Intro.htm
http://www.hackneys.com/travel/CDR/cdr.htm
and the route maps provided by the adventure cycling association:
http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/greatdivide.cfm
There are tons of other pages too, these are just some of the ones we used to plan our ride.


Day 1 – August 1, 2007: Calgary AB - Fernie BC



We met just after 4:00 pm at the Shell near COP. Went thru Bragg Creek and down 762. Took some back roads SW of Millarville, one of which happened to be the one where we took the pic that adorns our Yahoo GDR trip planning site (appropriately).



Windy most of the way from Black Diamond to Coleman. Had supper in Coleman at the "Rum Runner" - an excellent burger!



The KLR hit reserve at 298 km, Al's did the same at 305. If we can get gas at Boulder WY, we should just barely be OK for that stretch with the types of mileage we got today. First (unofficial) divide crossing took place at the BC/AB border in the Crowsnest pass.



Had a few beers with Andy's nephews Chris and Shawn (sp?) Nice guys. They're putting us up tonight, and I got the spare bedroom (thx to Andy and Al letting me have it).

Leaving for Roosville tomorrow after breakfast. Hope the bike works OK and there are no problems crossing the border. I sure miss Lesley already, and it's only day 1!

Daily km: 318
Total km: 318
Daily $: 26.66
Total $: 26.66
Divide Crossings: 1 (Unofficial)



Day 2: Fernie, BC to Holland Lake, MT



We started off from Fernie at ~9:00 this morning after breakfast at Smitty's. Andy tipped his bike over while attaching one of his Ortlieb bags to the side. Al had a slow leak in his rear tire, so he ran over to an auto parts shop to replace his valve core. After that we were on our way.

The air was crisp and cool, and the ride to the border was pleasant. No problems from US Customs, even though Andy failed to follow their directions and got yelled at! : )



Next thing we knew we were riding the Continental Divide ride! What a blast after all the waiting and planning.

It was short lived, however, as Al had the first flat of the trip at the Ksanka Inn in Eureka MT.



This did, however, give us the chance to meet Tom, an older gentleman from South Carolina who arrived on a KLR. He had been on a trip to Inuvik, and told stories of the mud and tire-shredding roads of the north.



Barely into the trip we were already meeting interesting people, and we may have been the interesting people to one guy and his kid, who talked to us while we were fixing Al's tire.

After 2 hours and a bit of work we were back on the road. Headed down Tobacco road to Grave Creek Road. Grave Creek road was spectacular, and when we turned on to the North Fork road it was even better.



Narrow, twisty, 2-rut gravel that we took at about 50 km/h. We met our first cyclists that were doing the GDR, and then met some more later. By this time it was getting really hot.



Stopped in Polebridge for their infamous sticky buns. They were just as good as advertised! I had a jalapeno cheddar bun and an artichoke, spinach and parmesan, and for dessert a nice sweet roll. Awesome.





Too bad I left my little Suunto thermometer/compass on the picnic table there. Oh well, at least it wasn't my wallet or something like that.

The dust got really bad and we had to space ourselves out quite a bit. The section to Whitefish was fun, though. Once we got into Whitefish we ended up on some paved backroads (no dust) that seemed endless, but took us to Columbia Falls.

We stopped in Columbia Falls so Al could grab some stuff at the drug store, and then got gas. We headed south through the section of zig-zag backroads, and then out of civilization again into the wilderness.



We had some navigational issues at a few points between Ferndale and Condon. First, the dust made us want to space out, but we found ourselves getting out of radio range of each other. This would not have been a problem, but none of us had the same navigational data in our GPS units, so we needed to stick together to make sure we all went the same way. Things got a little tense at some points, but we worked it out and made it to Condon at ~7:30 PM or so.



After an awesome burger, we asked the "attack waitress" (ask Al T. about it) if there was camping nearby. She and another couple in the restaurant said to try Holland Lake, so here we are. We set up camp and Andy and Al went for a dip in the lake.



Daily km: 447
Total km: 765
Daily $: 39 Cdn + 29 US
Total $: 66 Cdn + 29 US
Divide Crossings: 0



Day 3: Holland Lake, MT to Helena, MT



We started off with a cup of Al's coffee...mmmmm good. We were packed and ready to go by 8:25, and left Holland Lake. The air was crisp and was the perfect temperature for a morning ride.

After riding around the Owl Creek loop we hit hwy 83 for a few miles. We turned off on FR4370 and stumbled onto some of the best dual-sport roads in existence! The ride down near Richmond Peak was spectacular, both in views and riding roads. Some of the best I've ever done.





We hit Seeley Lake at 10:30 and stopped Pop's Family Restaurant for breakfast, with coffee that tasted like pot - according to Al "I never inhale" Tokarchik.

After putting diesel in my bike by mistake (don't ask) cost me a 5 gallon jerrycan and about $9.00 worth of diesel, which was accepted by a nice lady and a kid on a Bobcat we were off.



Took a detour up to Morrell Lookout, which was worth the ride! Wow what a view!





Then on to Ovando following the Ovando fire dept down a dusty road part of the way. It was turning into another hot day.







Just before Ovando we entered a much more open plain, so the speeds along Dry Gulch road were much higher. Then we hit Huckleberry pass road, which offered a great view of the plain we'd just ridden through.



The road through Huckleberry pass was awesome, narrow and twisty.

After going through Lincoln we got on some even more awesome roads.





Did our first official divide crossing near Stemple Pass, and climbed the hill on top to boot.



Then more great roads to the second crossing, and some really rough trails to get to the third crossing at Priest Pass, where we again rode up the local hill.









At Priest Pass I had a card failure in my camera, and lost all my pics. Hopefully a data retrieval service can get them for me when I get home. The KLR was also starting to cough and sputter under full throttle. I hoped it just had to do with working some diesel through the system.

Got a hotel room in Helena for the night, and had a (so far) good meal at Brewhouse, talking about bikes and watching motocross high-jump on TV.

Daily km: 323
Total km: 1088
Daily $: 102
Total $: 66 Cdn + 131 US
Divide Crossings: 3



Day 4: Helena, MT to I-15 west of Grant, MT



We headed out of our excellent motel room in Helena…



…and caught breakfast at a little pastry place on Hwy 12 south. Then we headed to get gas at the Holiday gas station.

As we went to leave town, Al noticed his signal lights weren't working sometimes when he flicked the switch. Things got a bit heated for a few minutes as Andy argued that Al could continue without signals and Al said he didn't want to ride unsafe, but then we got down to looking for the problem.

When we couldn't locate the source of the signal problems, Al decided to stay in Helena to get it fixed while Andy and I went on to the GDR. Al and Andy would stay in touch by leaving messages on each other's cell phones and then checking them every so often. The plan was for Al to hook back up with us in Wise River later that day, but the cell phone messages could change that if need be.

Andy and I went on to Lava Mountain. After some nice gravel (that had been recently rained on to keep the dust down)…



the road turned into a trail and then into a rougher, steeper trail.





Finally it got to be a struggle to ride, and there were a few points in time when I figured I might not be able to go on.



But after a few locals on quads we stopped and talked to said we'd be on better roads soon we made it through to Basin.

In Basin Andy checked his messages and heard that the problem was just a bad blinker relay that was screwing up the system. Al was to be on the road sometime around noon and head to Wise River via Interstate.

After Basin we got onto an ex-rail bed that was a dream to ride. Got to go through the infamous "Tunnel Number 9",



and thanks to the smooth ride we were in Butte in 40 minutes, after a quick stop for a photo at divide crossing #4 on I-15.



From there it was onto Roosevelt Drive, another winding road and another divide crossing. Coming out the west side of Roosevelt Drive (called something else by then) there was a breathtaking view down the grassy slopes into the valley 1500 feet below, with I-15 running along the bottom.



From there Andy and I went to check out Fleecer Ridge. The roads in were good most of the way, but deteriorated into rough tracks just before the steep part. We rode down as far as we dared, walked down a bit further, and decided not to chance it.



We headed back and did the Fleecer bypass, arriving in Wise River at ~3:45 PM.



At Wise River we gassed up and I changed my air filter. Then we waited for Al. He showed up just before 5:00 and tanked up. He said that he'd just walked his bike down Fleecer Ridge (he insists it was the hardest thing he'd ever done), and he was excited because he had been able to use his GPS to navigate part of the route. I guess he just missed us in Butte, he'd heard us on the radios but hadn't been able to get through to us. He had picked up the GDR Route after Butte, though, and had essentially been following us.

A nice lady in Wise River had given us her roll of paper towel so we could wipe off our oily hands (after changing air filters and oiling chains) and she had told us we would like the road ahead. She must have been a prophet because that road was sent from heaven! It was newly paved, had no traffic, and more curves than a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition! Crotch-Rocket heaven, but fun for KLRs too. We had a blast taking all the 20 mph corners at 60 kph and the 30 mph corners at 90 kph! While we'd been waiting for Al, I changed my air filter, and the KLR was running like a dream again. The old filter was completely plugged with the dust from the first two days in the US.

We completely missed Elkhorn and Polaris and ended up trying to get to Grant for supper. We saw the Canvas Café, but it wasn't open.



A lady in a truck there told us to head to I-15 and look for a red-roofed building by the Clark Canyon Reservoir. She said it was a good restaurant. She was right, the burger was delicious. Andy and I each had our first Moose Drool as well. Quite good for a darker ale.

After supper we decided to call it a day. Al had noticed a little campground by the downstream side of the dam at the Clark Canyon Reservoir, so we pulled in there and set up.



Daily km: 375
Total km: 1463
Daily $: $53
Total $: $66 Cdn + $184 US
Divide Crossings: 2

_________________
Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Day 5: I-15 west of Grant, MT to Squirrel Creek Elk Ranch, ID



What a day! We got an early start, leaving our campground at about 7:45 AM.



The ride to Lima was crisp and cold - Al was using his heated grips! After heading east on 324 to recapture the Divide Trail there was wide open high speed gravel for the next 30 miles or so.



Then the road got to be a backroad trail near the south end of the section, where we started to curve east.



The initial sections were relatively wide open,



but as we continued east the road entered a range of mountains.



The road was great, and there had been a bit of rain the previous day and evening, which kept the dust down. As we curved northeast, we started to see some interesting mountains, with caves and holes in them.





After several miles of this there was a few miles of wide open running to the frontage road on I-15



and then 11 more miles to Lima and a hot breakfast.



We had a terrific breakfast at Jan's Café, where the waitress was very friendly and seemed to get along well! I had a denver omelette and some awesome hashbrowns. Then after gas at the Exxon we headed east into the Montana wilderness. The road out of Lima was excellent dual-sport road, undulating with lots of twists and turns.





We stopped in Lakeview, which was a tiny town made of log buildings that actually looked like something out of the old west.



There was a nature refuge there, and we stopped and chatted with a woman who worked there.



She let us fill our water containers and use the washroom, and explained to us what she was doing. She was going to mark out a new trail, and she had a bunch of little red flags and a couple of dogs with her. There was another couple that pulled up, and we chatted with them a bit too. He wanted to know how fast I'd been going earlier when they'd turned in behind me on the gravel road while I was replacing my GPS batteries and I pulled away from them like they weren't moving. (The answer is about 120 kph).

After Lakeview we headed to the MT-ID border at Red Rock pass, which was our 6th crossing of the Divide. We paused for the usual photo and headed on to Sawtell peak.



After hunting around for the road that lead up to the peak we finally found it and climbed the mountain. The road had gentle curves at first, but got twistier and tighter as we neared the top.



At the top my GPS registered 9909 feet of elevation. The air was pretty thin, and the view was breathtaking!





We headed back down and filled up with gas at the highway, and then headed through Big Springs to some forest roads on the GDR bypass route. The roads were good, but soft and gravelly.



We passed a guy in a Toyota pickup that was driving switchbacks like a madman - he was skidding around a switchback on a mountainside when he went by me. Later I saw a corner where his skid tracks went on the wrong side of the road! Lucky one of us didn't meet him there, or it would have been bad!

After a while the road turned to pavement...and stayed twisty! We blasted down the next several miles to Warm River, where we stopped for a break.

After the break we headed south to try to get to Squirrel Creek Elk Ranch, where we hoped to get supper and stay overnight.



We ran into a thundershower just before the ranch, and I was pretty wet by the time we got there. Fortunately the manager, Nick (or Rick), was a great guy, and they had a place for us. After a good steak, a few beers, and a visit with a somewhat inebriated lady from L.A. we could relax for the evening.





Everyone got along well today and enjoyed the riding. I guess we're learning how to ride and navigate a planned route together, and we seem to have a system of radio communications, waiting at intersections, and letting the other guys by while taking photos that works for us. Al's ability to take on some navigation also helped, I think. He’s just about got his GPS figured out…

Now we're in Idaho, soon to be in Wyoming. What a trip so far! This truly is an awesome experience!

Daily km: 408
Total km: 1871
Daily $: 110
Total $: $66 Cdn + $294 US
Divide Crossings: 1



Day 6: Squirrel Creek Elk Ranch, I'D to Boulder, WY



Cold and damp - that's how the morning started. Lots of dew on the seat! At least it was sunny, but it was not to stay that way.



Breakfast was sausage and eggs, hashbrowns and toast. It was tasty. We were on the road by 8:00, and it was chilly. The pavement ran out in a couple of miles and we were on a nice gravel road through the trees. The backs of the Grand Tetons showed themselves within another mile or so.



By the time we'd hit the border the sky had completely clouded over and it looked like rain. Fortunately the rain held off and we had a great but cold ride to the Flagg Ranch.



The gravel road had deteriorated down to a rocky dirt road with lots of potholes not long after the border, and it was a great ride!



We turned south onto the highway and headed into Coulter Bay Village for gas. The views of the Grand Tetons along the way were nothing short of spectacular! We stopped more than once to take photos, but I know the photos will never do justice to the actual view. Along this stretch the weather became sunny again.



(A little advertising…)


After gassing up at a VERY busy gas station, we were off. It wasn't too many more miles until we were off on some little side road again. We tried to find the entrance to the Two-Oceans Creek trail, but couldn't find anything we were allowed to ride, so we just continued on.



At one point (where we turned right onto another side road just before regaining the highway again) the road got quite bad - clay mud and very slippery. Andy dumped his bike, but we soldiered on until the road got better.



After another stretch of highway and another side road, we were back on the main highway again for Togwohtee Pass, our 7th official Divide crossing. Togwohtee Pass is over 9600 feet, making this the 2nd highest point of our trip thus far after the 9909 feet of Sawtell Peak yesterday.

(Here’s some spectacular scenery. These next 2 photos were taken from the same point – the first looks southeast and the second looks north.)





We had decided to take the alternate route the ACA provided toward Union Pass, but found that Forestry Road 532.was closed, so we ended up taking the main route. Union Pass Road was a good gravel road at first, but got worse (better for dual-sporting) as we progressed.

It was not far up the Union Pass Road that Al radioed from the back of the pack and said he had a flat. Second one of the trip, but since we were sure we could get to Pinedale easily that day we weren't too worried. We went back and helped Al fix the tire, and then continued on less than an hour later.



The sky was looking like rain again, and we were riding right into it, so Andy and I put on our rain gear, while Al, already watertight, headed up to Union Pass.

Several miles later we stopped in the rain for a picture at Union Pass, our 8th Divide crossing. This one was ONLY 9210 feet. After the pic we continued on through the very high country. It was a high plateau, where ther'd be a mile of forest followed by a few miles of wide open space followed by a mile of forest again etc.. This went on a long way, and was beautiful to ride through. The gravel road twisted and rolled the whole way.



After a while we started descending for real (we'd been descending slightly since the pass), although the descent was still relatively gentle.



Awesome road here, passing a park ranger in his truck. Hope he wasn’t too upset at our speed!

Once we hit the pavement the last 50 km or so to Pinedale were fairly mundane, except for the jagged mountains in the distance to our left, and the number of huge houses we passed. There are some gorgeous mansions with some gorgeous views in the middle of nowhere Wyoming.

We got to Pinedale and tanked up. Al had a broken visor, so we hit a couple of ATV shops and a Napa hoping to find what he needed. We didn't, but Andy got some oil for his air filter.

We found a little pizza place and sat outside on the picnic table. They didn't have anywhere inside to eat - I think most of their business was delivery. The pizza was very good. I had a BBQ Hawaiian, which had BBQ sauce instead of pizza sauce and had ham, pinapple, and red onion. Excellent.





After supper we headed down the highway to Boulder (Wyoming, not Colorado). We topped up our tanks so we'd have as much gas as possible for the vast emptiness we have to cross tomorrow. I figured out that if I got the same mileage on this tank as I did on the last one, I should make it to Rawlins with a bit of gas to spare.

We found a nice little campground just south of Boulder, with nice bathrooms, showers, and laundry. Price was $9 - for the three of us, and we got full use of the facilities.



We're camped next to a family from North Carolina, who are extremely friendly and seem very nice. The guy had a Harley on a trailer, and was headed to Sturgis.



We've sure seen a lot of Harley's on this trip! Got to talk to Lesley a bit too. I just used the cellphone. I wish she could experience this trip too. Maybe someday.

Bike seems to be running OK, but I do notice the reduction in power at altitudes over about 7000 feet. Tent is nice, small but it gets the job done and packs up tiny. My GPS is working really well, and all my routes are working out great, but the rubber part that covers the buttons on the GPS is coming off on the top. I hope it stays waterproof.

(Wyoming Sunset)


Daily km: 349
Total km: 2220
Daily $:48
Total $: $66 Cdn + $342 US
Divide Crossings: 2



Day 7: Boulder WY to Steamboat Springs CO



We were packed and ready to go at 8:00, and headed the 3/4 mile back north to Boulder to go into the "No Gas" zone. We needed to get almost 350 km on our tanks to make Rawlins, and I was a little apprehensive about it.

I took it easy on the throttle to try to conserve gas. The 65 mph pavement gave way to 65 mph gravel, and the road was definitely curvy enough to be fun.



It remained high speed gravel right to highway 28, near South Pass City. Great fun for a V-Strom or Versys.



We drove through South Pass City, a tiny little village nestled in a neat little valley.



It really looked like something out of the old west - except for the Coke machine prominently displayed right on the main drag through town. Just outside the town to the Northeast there was an abandoned gold mine (the Carissa Mine), and we stopped and took pics of it.



Then it was on 3 miles to Atlantic City for breakfast.





After a terrific omelette in the "Miner's Grubsteak" restaurant and store I mailed a postcard to Lesley. The card seemed appropriate, because it had Indian Symbols on it, and she’s always been fascinated with Indian culture.

Atlantic City was another little tiny village nestled in a narrow valley. It too looked very western, just as much so as South Pass City. I would have liked to have spent more time there, but we had miles to make.

We blasted out of town and into a neat little climb out of the valley. Once up on the plain the roads got rough but fast. We made good time to Rawlins, but man it was a long way!







On the way across the Great Divide Basin, we saw some horses. We guessed they might be wild, but we weren't sure. I managed to snap a few pics of them as they ran alongside my bike.



On the last stretch of highway before Rawlins we stopped for a divide photo. Afterward, Al wanted to get into town to find a bike shop to try to fix his visor, which had broken earlier. He took off, but Andy's bike wouldn't start. I stayed to help Andy with his bike, but he told me to go into town and come back in 20 minutes if he hadn't shown up. The crux of it was, the three of us got split up.

On the way into Rawlins I had thunderstorms on both sides of me. I just had time to get my rain jacket on (not the pants, though) before the downpour hit. The crosswind was ferocious, and it was hard to even ride the bike. I was a bit wet when I got into town, where I found a gas station where I could keep dry and wait for Al and Andy.

They never showed. Then I heard Al trying to call me on the radio, but the signal was too weak and the message was broken up so bad I couldn't understand him. Finally after several tries, I managed to get the GPS coordinates of his location, and followed my GPS all the way across town to where he and Andy were. There was relief, and some tension as we tried to figure out what we could have done differently to avoid getting separated, but we worked it out.

After getting gas we headed to the Yamaha dealer to try to fix Al's helmet problem. The dealer couldn't provide a satisfactory solution, so we took off and headed down the road.



Hwy 71 south of Rawlins was good, and after several miles gave way to a nice winding gravel road. It would have been a really fast road, but the howling headwind and the fact we were at around 8000 ft of elevation meant the KLR had no power and I was struggling to do 100 kph.



After a while we got into the trees, which reduced the wind load substantially. Then we entered the infamous "Aspen Alley" which is a place where the road goes through a narrow lane through a thick group of Aspen trees. Neat spot!

(More advertising for AdventureMotoTech.com – Ortlieb Bags – they work awesome!)


After that, it was onto Hwy 70 and into Colorado.

The road into Colorado was great, with twists and turns and nice valley views. It started out as gravel but turned into nice dirt. It had had enough rain recently to keep the dust down a bit, but it skirted a massive thunderstorm perfectly for us.



After a while we turned off on a side road (FR 42) that got fairly steep and rocky, though not as bad as Lava Mountain wayyyyy back in Montana.





This road (trail, really) was a lot of fun to ride! We popped out the other end at CR 62, took that to CR 129, and hit Steamboat Springs at around 8:30 PM.

After getting a hotel room, Andy and I went for supper at a nearby steakhouse, while Al got a notebook and some food at Safeway and ate in the room. I don't think he was being anti-social, he just wanted to catch up on trip memoirs.



Daily km: 568
Total km: 2788
Daily $: 89 (after I pay Al the $31 I owe for the room)
Total $: $66 Cdn + $431 US
Divide Crossings: 6 (2 were into & out of the basin)

_________________
Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Day 8: Steamboat Springs, CO to Salida, CO



We got an OK breakfast at Creekside (restaurant), picked up a few things at Walmart, went to the local bike shop for a tire for Andy and a helmet for Al, did some basic bike maintenance, and then got packed up. Hit the road at ~ 11:30 AM. Thank goodness...too much traffic in Steamboat!

The ride south of Steamboat had a bit of traffic for the first while, but developed into a really nice little road/trail.



After we crossed highway 134 there was the first stream crossing, which was the one in all the pictures online. We crossed without incident, although the rocky bottom and murky water made it tougher than it looked.





The trail after that was nice too, a narrow ATV track that wound up the mountain. Coming over the top was a spectacular view of the Colorado River Valley below.





After descending the ATV trail right down to the river (there was a road and bridge) it was high speed gravel all the way to Kremmling.

At Kremmling we topped up with gas and had a burger (except Al, who had a power bar). Then it was off to Silverthorne. The road was great, and we made good time. High speed gravel without a lot of gravel. I recall being surprised how wide open Colorado could be, and how high! We were over 9000 ft for a good part of this ride.



Silverthorne, and it's nearby cities of Frisco and Breckenridge were tourist traps, as expected. They were like Banff only more so! They were at over 9000 feet of elevation, and from there we climbed. We passed through 10000 feet and switched to Denver control We passed an old water tower for the narrow-gauge railroad, which apparently used to run through the pass.



Incredibly the road continued upward, and crested at about 11500 feet at Boreas Pass. There was an old boxcar up there, and we stopped for a Divide photo (15th Crossing). I will always remember the awesome bare peaks nearby, cresting at over 13000 feet, and the thin, cold air in the pass!





On the way down, we took a side tour to check out a campground about 2 miles off the main route. The campground was still over 10000 feet, and we thought it was pretty nice. Since it was nowhere near full we decided to head down to Como for supper first and then set up camp later. On the way back to the main road I had a large rock break out of the road and roll over under my front wheel, and down I went. It hurt quite a bit, but nothing serious. The bike was OK too, thank goodness.

After a bit the pain had gone down to the point I could ride. We headed down to Como, and the restaurant wasn't open. So we continued on to the little town of Hartsel, a great high speed backroad ride.





Al got a coffee in Hartsel and even though it was already 7:00 PM, we decided to head on to Salida.

The ride to Salida was spectacular. The sun was setting, and the road varied from high speed gravel to badly rutted and dried dirt, to twisty narrow gravel mountain pass.









The majority of it was over 9000 feet, but we dropped about 2000 feet in the last several miles into Salida. As we dropped, the crisp cool high altitude air turned into very warm air. When we got to the bottom (~7500 feet) it started to feel and smell a bit like Mexico. The terrain has also started to convert from alpine forest and meadow to the New Mexico style desert scrub. We appear to have crossed the line where the English town names start and the Spanish begin (Hartsel to Salida), and the next few towns are La Garita and Del Norte.

Now we're having supper at a bowling alley, the only thing open near our hotel, and that's using the term "near" loosely. But it is interesting to hear a bowling alley/bar in Colorado playing Nickelback's "This side of a Bullet" Come 3000 km to hear a band that originated less than 200 km from Calgary! Our hotel is the one GPS Kevin stayed at, and is great so far. Only $118 for a room with a suite and 3 beds total. Nice.

Daily km: 423
Total km: 3211
Daily $: 107
Total $: $66 + $538
Divide Crossings: 1



Day 9: Salida, CO to Platoro, CO



We started out the day with a continental breakfast (appropriate). Andy had phoned the local forest service office and found out that Marshall Pass was still closed 3 miles west of the summit, so we had to take an alternate route. We did take the GDR route to Poncha Springs, then intended to slab it down Hwy 50 to Sargents where we could pick up the route again.



I was disappointed, as Marshall Pass was the first major section of the GDR that we were going to miss. However, as we approached Monarch Pass on Hwy 50 Al and Andy noticed a sign saying "Old Monarch Pass". We decided that it would be better than slabbing it, so we headed up. It turned out to be great, and we had our 16th Divide crossing at 11375 feet at the Old Monarch Pass.





The road down was awesome and twisty, and we found a really nice backroad route right to Doyleville where we picked up the GDR again.





Heading south from Doyleville I got separated from Andy and Al thanks to some bad Garmin road data. But the roads were twisty high speed gravel, and we made good time despite the navigational differences.

We headed through Cochetopa Pass on the Divide, which was over 10000 feet, and back down to Hwy 114, and then south on CR41G.



41G turned out to be a great twisty route through Carnero Pass (not on the Divide) to La Garita, which we did pretty fast.



The first part of the route from La Garita to Del Norte was wide, fast gravel,



but the first 6 of the last 10 km were a nasty little first gear trail that was relatively flat but rocky and rutted. (FUN!)





We stopped for a break in Del Norte, filled up with gas, and had something to eat - gas station food - deep fried burritos and tamales. I managed to get a quick call in to Lesley.



Al went hunting for a sporting goods store, since his GPS was having power problems and he wanted to try to fix them. He couldn't find one though. It was 3:00 PM, and we decided we could easily make Platoro, a mere 75 km away by road, 20 of which was paved.

We headed out of Del Norte and immediately began a gentle climb. After the pavement ended the climb became steeper. The road was freshly graded, which made it extremely hard to ride on. We got to a four way intersection and I realized we had climbed over 3000 feet since Del Norte. At the same time, Al realized that his KLR was making a burbling sound, so he shut if off. He then realized the water in the rad boiling because the cooling fan wasn't working.



Out came the tools as we prepared to do a repair at over 10000 feet. It turned out (after almost an hour of work) that it was just the fuse for the fan, along with a loose ground wire for that circuit. We put everything back together, repacked the bike, and we were on our way.



We rode up and up on a twisty gravel road that was loose enough to be hard to ride (although the grader hadn't come up this far). We finally crested Indiana Pass, the highest point on the true GDR route, and my GPS said 11962. We found a trail leading up to the right of the road,



and we took it through several stones, sheep, and switchbacks to the top of the mountain. The view was stunning! My GPS registered 12647 feet! That air was pretty thin!

(Note: The road you see far below in this pic is at almost 12000 feet!)


After lots of photos we headed back down through the herd of sheep



and continued down the road, which wound its way this way and that at around 11600 feet. After several miles we descended down to just over 11000 feet and came upon the ghost town of Summitville, and the old mine. The GDR books say the mine has polluted all the nearby water, and it was easy to see that it had.



From there the road wound its way back and forth, finally leading us down to Platoro, an interesting-looking little town made out of log cabins. There was a restaurant there that was supposed to make the "Lana Burger" which we had heard from other GDR riders was the "best burger in the US". They no longer had the Lana Burger on the menu, but I had the "Bertha Burger" instead. It was delicious. I am having quite the "Burger Tour" this trip. Some people do sticky buns, some do pie, I do burgers.



After supper we headed up the hill about a mile or so to a small campground. My site is at 10030 feet according to the GPS. It's not bad now (10 PM) but it feels like it could get pretty cold tonight. Hope there aren't any bears! Al saw some fairly fresh bear scat at his campsite (he thinks it was bear scat, anyway). We hung the stuff they might like (toiletries and power bars) in the outhouse, so hopefully they won't smell it - or if they do they'll leave us alone and go to the outhouse. I've got my watch monitoring barometric pressure and temperature in my tent, so we'll see what the weather does. Nice weather the last couple of days - hope it keeps up.

Daily km: 332
Total km: 3543
Daily $: 40
Total $: $66 Cdn + $578 US
Divide Crossings: 2



Day 10: Platoro, CO to Cuba, NM



We packed up in the AM



and met up at the Skyline Lodge again in Platoro (where we had eaten supper last night). Our server was Jesse, again, and he is quite the character! He talks with a great southern drawl, like everyone else down here, and has a great sense of humor. At one point Al referred to him as a "scholar and a gentleman" and he drawled "Now go easy on that gentleman stuff, but I'll take the scholar though". The Skyline has great food at great prices!

We headed out from Platoro on a fast but relatively high-traffic road. After ~25 miles we hit the highway, which provided a twisty paved ride to our turnoff just north of the New Mexico border. The road was quite rough, but we stopped right away to look at the narrow gauge rail line. It was interesting seeing a rail line that "small". After a few pictures it was on into New Mexico.





Once across the border the trail got tougher,





and there was one particularly steep rocky climb that was just barely easy enough to be fun. We were rewarded with views of the surrounding valleys. After a while the road got better,



and we made pretty good time down to Hwy 64.

After a few miles on Hwy 64 we turned south again and headed down through Vallecitos. The terrain was beginning to look like Mexico a bit, and Vallecitos was the first town we saw that reminded me of a Mexican town. There was trash lying around and the houses looked poor and were made of concrete, and there were some old cars. The soil was sandy and there were lots of shrubs and trees.

After Vallecitos, we headed down a nice little road (route 44)



to El Rito, which was another very Mexican-looking town. Just a little way before El Rito, we ran into a guy on an XT225 who was apparently researching some old troop movements in the area in 1879 or 1779 or something.



(More neat backroad…)




Then, after El Rito it was onto the asphalt to Abiquiu - but not so fast, just 8 km from Abiquiu, about 1 km from the intersection of Hwys 554 and 84, I noticed I had a flat.





Well, Al was thrilled that he wasn't the only one to get flats on this trip, but I was none too pleased. Anyway thanks to all the experience gained through Al's MANY (2) flat tires, we had it fixed and were rolling again in 38 minutes!

We got gas in Abiquiu, and had a snack, and then headed into the mountains toward Cuba. The road followed a wash for the first while, then climbed out and up into the mountains.





From Abiquiu we'd been able to see what looked like heavy rain in the mountains, and we hoped the route was passable and that we wouldn't get rained on.

After a bit the road got really rough. There were erosion ruts running across it and some slickrock exposed through parts of the sandy surface.





The slickrock was really rough! Also, there were these humps in the road that were obviously man-made. I guessed these were put there so rain runoff would be diverted off the road at various intervals (typically around 300 meters) and not erode the road as badly.

As we turned from southward to more westward, the road became faster, though it was still twisty. As we neared Cuba, we started to see campers parked in the trees on either side of the road, reminding me of the area around the Old Man River by the Trunk road back home. Al had a close call with some oncoming traffic while going around a curve, but avoided the collision, thankfully. Then we got onto about 5 miles of AWESOME twisty pavement before getting to Cuba.



We checked into the Frontier Motel, where we got a decent room for $20 apiece - although Andy had to sleep on a hida-bed.



Al did some laundry and Andy and I had supper at El Brunos - pretty good enchilada and excellent quesadilla! I got to talk to Lesley for all of 8 minutes, thanks to an error by the calling card company that cost me 10 minutes off my card.

We want to leave early tomorrow, and hope to get to Grants before thunderstorms hit in the afternoon. But everything south and west of here looked pretty dark tonight. I hope the roads are passable tomorrow AM.

Daily km: 355
Total km: 3898
Daily $: 79
Total $: $66 Cdn + $657 US
Divide Crossings: 0

_________________
Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Day 11: Cuba, NM



Woke up at 3:00 AM feeling my guts burbling. Went to the bathroom and finally managed to get back to sleep an hour later. Woke up just before 6:00 and threw up in the bathroom hard. Al started feeling ill at 6:00 as well, and has thrown up since.

So we're staying in Cuba today. I couldn't ride anyway - too nauseous. If Al hadn't gotten sick they might have gone on ahead of me, as Andy is really concerned about getting in Skyline Drive in Utah before he has to head home. He has to be home by Thursday the 24th, as his daughter is leaving for McGill on the 25th.

Andy did a bunch of bike maintenance for me and Al, and did my laundry too (along with his). Wonder if he knows how much I appreciate it right now, as I can’t even move without feeling like I’m going to barf. There was a helluva thunderstorm in the afternoon, and it was a torrential downpour for a little while.



Andy got his tire changed and went for a little ride at ~ 5:00 PM to check out how muddy things were on our route after that storm. He returned saying the roads were in good shape, and had dried out quickly.



He also said that he thought he might be getting a touch of what Al and I had. We all hoped not.

Al and I stayed in bed most of the day and tried not to puke. We watched 3 Harrison Ford movies on Spike (Witness, Clear and Present Danger, and Patriot Games). Everyone turned in early.



Woke up at about 10:00 PM to the sound of Andy vomiting in the bathroom. Wonder if we'll be able to leave tomorrow, even. This is getting bad.

Daily km: 0
Total km: 3898
Daily $: 0
Total $: $66 Cdn + $657 US
Divide Crossings: 0



Day 12: Cuba, NM to Quemado, NM



In the morning, Andy said that while he still felt pretty crappy, he was OK to go. I couldn't believe it - he was about 18 hours behind me and there was no way I could have gone 18 hours earlier. I think he was just that desperate to stay on schedule.

We got a bit later start and headed south on 550, which to my surprise was a 4 lane highway. After several miles we turned right onto a good gravel road,



then after a few more miles we turned left onto a not-so-good gravel road.



It was a bit of a challenge to ride when I felt like I'd been punched in the gut, and it kept deteriorating. At a couple of points the road had large holes washed in it, big enough to drop your front tire right into and maybe 2 to 3 feet deep. As I drove by one of these, I noticed that I was actually driving over an arch formed by runoff that connected the hole on my left with the ditch on my right. It was a bit nerve-wracking, especially since the road was very sandy, so you didn't really know if the arch would support the bike or not. Both of the arches I rode over did support me, luckily.

Aside from the arches, there were lots of runoff ruts across the road,



and we crossed lots of arroyos. The arroyos often looked like mini canyons, where you did a switchback down the wall and drove across the sandy, washed out bottom. They were generally about 6 to 20 feet deep, and were really neat. I took several pictures from the bottoms of them.





After a while we ran into 5 guys on KLRs going the opposite direction. They'd come from Grants and were headed to Cuba.



We warned them about the boil-water advisory in Cuba, and visited a little. They were from Oklahoma City, and were riding the Divide up to Rawlins or so. I hope they go on to Atlantic City, I'm sure they'd like it.

Shortly after that Al stopped us and said he had decided to just slab it home. He said that he just didn't feel safe, and thought it better to get out of the ride now. I told him I thought he was making a mistake, but Andy and I let him go. I think the illness in Cuba just pushed him over the edge, but I also think he'll regret quitting this trip, especially that close to the end. I wanted to talk him out of it, but I was still too sick and just didn't have the energy.

So Andy and I left him on a sandy road in New Mexico and went our separate way. We were only a few km from San Mateo and the pavement, and he had his GPS, plus he said he could get out from there, so we went on. I wish he had remembered the last bad day when I talked him out of bailing from the ride, and how much he had enjoyed the following day.

Not much later, the terrain became mountainous again, and suddenly we'd gone from desert roads to typical mountain roads. It rained on us a bit, but not enough to put on the rain gear. After many miles of extremely twisty gravel we hit the pavement and rolled on into Grants.

I had been looking forward to seeing Grants, since it's the location of one of the satellite campuses for NMSU (long story), but we weren't well enough to enjoy it. We stopped at a small but quite good café on Santa Fe Avenue (the main drag), where I just managed to get through my small lunch and Andy managed to choke down about half of his. Then after gassing up we made for Pie Town.

The Zuni Canyon Road out of Grants was a spectacular ride. It was quite a bit easier than the desert or the twisty mountain roads we'd done in the morning, and ran along the bottom of a canyon (Zuni Canyon, I guess).



The canyon walls were colourful and showed off a lot of geology, which I'm sure Lesley would have enjoyed.



After several miles the canyon sort of petered out, and we were on a plain.

After a short stint on Hwy 53 we turned South again. On this stretch the road was pretty good initially, and we were headed into El Malpais National Monument. El Malpais is a lava flow, a lot like Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, but is supposed to be much larger. It also looks a lot older, as most of the lava rocks have been covered with desert dust and sagebrush. It looked a lot like the other parts of New Mexico we had seen, except that you would see some Craters of the Moon-like parts here and there, and there were lava rocks on and along the road.





As we continued on the road got worse. It was OK for the most part, but there were awful ruts in spots and several large puddles in the road.



The mud formed when these roads get wet is so slippery that when we encountered a large puddle we would detour around it through the pasture on either side. Fortunately in most cases people in vehicles had already created these detours, so we'd just follow their tracks.

Finally we popped out at the highway and headed East to the final road into Pietown. Turning off the highway to the right, we were optimistic that the last stretch of the day would be good, as the road was well-maintained high-speed gravel. We stopped for photos at a couple of old buildings along the way,



as well as our 20th Divide crossing,



and shortly thereafter we were on Pietown.

Pietown was poor - to put it mildly. We've seen lots of poor-looking places in New Mexico, but Pietown looked completely impoverished. Most of the houses were either trailers or these little wooden shacks that didn't seem fit for housing, and there was junk and old cars everywhere.

We found the Pie-O-Neer café on the highway, but the sign said they were closed. We were a bit disappointed, since this is an oft talked about site with Divide riders. As we were taking pictures of the place from the front, a lady poked her head out the door and said "Are you guys riding the Divide?" When we said yes she invited us in, saying that Dividers were always welcome there. Well, we were almost floored, and thanked her profusely as we went in.



I cannot for the life of me remember her name, but the guy inside was Stan, and I think the cute girl was named Amber. I'll have to ask Andy tomorrow to make sure. They were all extremely friendly, and the lady offered us a bowl of soup and a piece of pie. We happily accepted, and I had some of the best homemade soup and chocolate cream pie (they even had my favorite) I've ever tasted - almost as good as my mom's! We were a little leery of the water they gave us, and explained what had happened in Cuba. Stan mentioned that Cuba has a reputation for being not-so-friendly to "Anglo" folks. Hmmmm.....

While we ate the lady gave us some background on Pietown, saying that many of the little towns in that area got started by people who were fleeing the dustbowl for California in the depression. When their cars would break down, that's where they would live. It did explain the impoverished nature of the town quite well. She also told us about the VLA, which is the group of 27 massive antennae that NASA uses for space research.



Apparently some of these drive around on railway track-type things, and they can put them close together or far apart depending on what they're trying to do. She told us how to get to one near Pietown, and we went and looked at it after we left. Pretty neat to see one of the array dishes up close.

After that it was a blast up the highway to Quemado, where we could get a hotel room and gas.



The lady at the hotel echoed the Pietown sentiments toward Cuba. Now I'm finally feeling mostly better, just tired. Andy had no trouble falling asleep with the TV on. Tomorrow I'll have my first really full meal since El Bruno's on August 10th, and we'll head to Silver City.

Daily km: 376
Total km: 4274
Daily $: $98
Total $: $66 Cdn + $755 US
Divide Crossings: 3



Day 13: Quemado, NM to Silver City, NM



The day started out sunny, as a typical New Mexico summer day - not a cloud in the sky. We left our modest little hotel room and went to the adjacent restaurant for breakfast. Our waitress at the restaurant was the same lady I'd gotten the hotel room from the evening before, so I guess she was running both places.

Andy finished his whole breakfast, but my gut still didn't feel quite good enough to get all of mine down. Then it was across the highway for gas



and we were on the road. We slabbed it back to Pietown and headed south.

The first bit out of Pietown was fast gravel, and we made good time.





The road had shallow ruts hardened into it, but they didn't pose much of a problem for us, even at speed. We detoured up toward the La Mangas Lookout to get a view, but after a bit of exploring found the last part of the road closed.

(We settled for this view from 9210 ft)


So we headed back down and continued on the route.

The terrain varied from mountain forest to wide-open desert.





We jogged a bit west on highway 12 (maybe a few hundred meters) and headed south on a good gravel road.



After a few km we met our first oncoming vehicles of the day: a quad followed by a truck. Andy passed them uneventfully, but as I passed the truck a very large donkey came out of nowhere to my right at a full gallop, crossed the road between me and the truck, and continued on! The truck missed the donkey by a few feet, and had he hit the beast I'm sure it's carcass would have hit me. It was too shocking and strange to be scary though. Found myself shaking my head in amazement, and wondered where the donkey had come from – it was wide-open desert for miles! I was also amazed that a donkey could run that fast! It must have been going as fast as a fast horse!

We blasted down high-speed gravel for a long ways. Parts of this section reminded me of the Cypress Hills area – open grassland with dirt roads running through it.





There were stops for the Divide, all of which were in relatively unspectacular spots. I say unspectacular not because there wasn't great scenery, but because if we hadn't marked the points on our GPS's we would have never known we were crossing the divide at those locations. Only one was signed "Continental Divide" and all of them were nothing more than gentle rises of the terrain. But there were 7 crossings today, and for the last one we actually rode down the Divide for a few miles, as the road followed it exactly.

A while after the 6th crossing, the road got rougher and rockier.





We ended up in mountain terrain again, lightly forested with tons of switchbacks that had to be negotiated in 1st gear thanks to all the loose rock and gravel on the road.



There were tons of switchbacks, up a mountain, then down into a valley, then up another mountain, etc.. We drove through this for what seemed like an eternity. The views were great, but it took a lot of effort and concentration to make sure you didn't blow a gravelly switchback and go sailing off into space.

Just when I thought I'd had enough of switchbacks for today, the road got a bit straighter. But it was in a valley, and there were several dry (or almost dry) stream crossings.



These were rough and rocky and required caution as well. After about a dozen of those, it was back to switchbacks again. Finally we were out of those and headed into Mimbres on the asphalt, passing some nice houses on the way through the valley.

Mimbres was a one-horse town with a gas station and such,



but we figured we'd have enough gas to get to Silver City anyway so we headed up Georgetown Road.



I had figured this road would be fairly wide open, but it was lots of switchbacks like we'd had a ways back in the mountains. It didn’t have as many rocks or as much gravel, so it was a bit better to ride. It wasn't too far, though, and we hit Hwy 180.

And wow! The huge copper mine was right in front of us!



When I say "right in front" I mean the fence for the edge of the mine bordered the highway. We headed up the road to the official observation point and got a good look and some pics. Met a guy on a Harley from Lordsburg…



who took our picture for us in front of the mine.



The trucks looked tiny way down below, until I saw a semi following one and realized how small the semi looked (wayyyyy smaller). I tried to take a photo - I hope it turns out.

(This is the shot. The trucks are just to the right of the center of the photo. You can hardly tell the 18 wheeler is an 18 wheeler, and even the big mine truck looks small!)


A few miles from Santa Clara I noticed my tire was flat.



We found another nail! I am beginning to think that nails should be banned in New Mexico until the people learn how to keep them off the roads! Anyway, the tire was still holding a bit of air, so after filling it up we managed to limp the bike to a service station about 3 miles east of Silver City.



Once at the gas station, I phoned around to try to find a new tube. The first guy had the wrong size, the second didn't answer (found out later they're closed Mondays) and the third had the wrong type of valve stem (side instead of center). Fortunately there was a tire shop across the highway, and I managed to get them to patch the tubes.



The guy's name was Manny, by his nametag, and he and I had a bit of a chat. The shop was a bit run down, but Manny seemed to do a good job patching my 2 tubes, and even found an extra hole in the original one.

The first of the tubes we put on the bike went flat again before we'd even left the service station, so we put the second tube in and it seemed to hold. Not sure if the first tube was Manny's fault for not finding all the holes, or our fault for pinching the tube. The patch looked good though. I need at least 1 (preferably 2) new tubes before heading out into the wilderness, so Andy and I are going to try the closed bike shop tomorrow morning. They don't open till 10:30 AM, so we're sleeping in till 7:00!

So we ended up at the Drifter Motel on Hwy 180, and had supper across the street at some steakhouse.



It was pretty good, but not spectacular. I still couldn't finish my whole meal, and felt a bit nauseous as I neared the end.

Tomorrow, it's off to Antelope Wells...

Daily km: 336
Total km: 4610
Daily $: 61
Total $: $66 Cdn + $816 US
Divide Crossings: 7

_________________
Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Day 14: Silver City, NM to ANTELOPE WELLS to Sierra Vista, AZ



We got up later than usual, since we needed a tube and the bike shop didn't open till 10:30 AM. Had breakfast at the Drifter Motel's restaurant. I had Pigs in a Blanket (pancakes rolled around sausages).

My bike tire had leaked overnight and was pretty much right flat again. I pushed it over to the Exxon, filled the tire with air and the bike with gas, and we headed for the motorcycle shop with only 204 km left to ride on the GDR according to my GPS.





After waiting around a long while, (we were still early) the shop finally opened, but they didn't have a tube that would fit. Andy ran over to the first shop I had called the previous day and got the tube that they had. It was a size too small, but better than nothing. We installed it in front of the other shop and headed out.

The first bit was good highway, and the GPS wound down to 175 km with no effort and little time. Then we turned off onto Separ Road, which was nice fast gravel interspersed with sandy washes.





We had to be careful, as the road would change from nice hard-pack to deep sand almost instantly, making it difficult to control the bike. We split off Separ Road and the roads deteriorated a bit, but the riding was actually lots of fun. Fast, and you had to stay on your toes. We rejoined the Separ Road for the last bit into Separ.

Separ was just a little trinket store off I-10. We got drinks and I bought Lesley a couple of pairs of earrings as a gift. Hope she likes them. There was a VW Beetle with “But it’s dry heat” painted on the side. It was hot, but not that hot (maybe ~30 to 35 C).



We drove on the gravel frontage road over to Hwy 146. I was doing about 70 mph on the frontage road - which was the same speed as the interstate traffic right next to me. I'm sure they were a bit surprised to see me going that fast on that much rougher road.

We turned south on 146 and headed into Hachita. In this stretch we had our last Divide crossing of the official trip. It was just a slight rise in the earth, and you couldn't really tell the Divide was there at all.



Hachita was very poor, and all the businesses looked abandoned. There was a neat church at the south end of town, though.







Then we were counting miles.



The mountains in front of us for the first while were spectacular,



and we split them about 25 km south of Hachita. Just after that we looked to our right and there was a military humvee with a machine gun on it parked near a tarp that was set up as shade for some military men. We found out later they were the National Guard, helping with border patrol. At the sign that read "Mile 1" I waited for Andy and we rode the last mile side-by-side.



And then we were there. We'd done it! 4780 km on my GPS and we were at Antelope Wells! I thought of all the roads we'd ridden to get there, and I wished Al had been there too. He'd ridden most of those roads with us.



We talked briefly with a cyclist in a group who had arrived at the border just before we did. They'd started at Banff and taken 68 days to bicycle the route. I can't imagine how hard that would be - it was hard enough on a motorbike. He also said they'd thought the best part of the route was the Canadian section. Wow, that says a lot about Canada after all we've seen.

The US Customs guy was really nice. He let us take pictures on the actual border,



and told us he'd been posted in Alaska before, so he'd seen parts of Canada including Alberta. We talked about the ride with him. It was obvious that he was used to this sort of thing – people showing up at the border after riding the Great Divide. He also mentioned our planned backroads route to Douglas was closed, leaving only 1 route to Douglas that was short enough that we wouldn't run out of fuel - and that was Mexico #2.



We crossed into Mexico without the Customs guys even checking our I.D. They just wanted to see our bike registrations and make sure the serial numbers matched those on the bikes. Then we were off into Mexico!

The first 6 miles was fairly rough but fairly fast dirt road.



Then we hit Hwy 2 and turned west.



The pavement was fairly rough, and there were several twisty sections that climbed up and wound through small mountain ranges, interspersed with straight sections several miles long. We crossed the Divide again, and the view to the West at that point was incredible!



The riding we did in Mexico was stellar, and Andy goes as far as to say it was a major highlight of the trip.

We rolled into Agua Prieta and headed North for the border.



At the Douglas border crossing the guards were again very nice, and BS'ed with us while we waited for one to process our passports, which took an unusually long time. They said they needed to create a profile on all new crossers at that spot, largely due to lots of drug and people smuggling at that particular location. Then as quickly as our Mexican adventure had begun it was over. We'd been through 2 Mexican states, Chihuahua and Sonora, and had been in Mexico for about 3 wonderful hours.

We got gas in Douglas and headed for Bisbee. Andy found a neat off-pavement "long cut" to Bisbee and we ended up riding right along the border for several miles.



When we got to Bisbee we were both surprised - the town looked like something out of Europe, but it was located right next to this huge copper mine.



We had supper at "The Grill" as recommended by the Douglas Customs agents. It was a pretty good bleu cheese burger, but my stomach is still just a bit off and I couldn't finish it. After that we slabbed it to Sierra Vista and got a room at the Hotel 6. Tomorrow, a new tire and hopefully Winslow...

Daily km: 408
Total km: 5018
Daily $: 143
Total $: $66 Cdn + $959 US
Divide Crossings: 2 Official and 1 Unofficial (in Mexico)



Day 15: Sierra Vista, AZ to Young, AZ



By the time we got up this morning it was about 22 degrees, so we figured it was going to be a hot one. We got packed up, found a little place with a $4.50 breakfast, and headed to Cochise Honda for my tire.



At breakfast I got a text message Al had sent the night before saying he had reached home safely.

Unlike our experience in Silver City, this dealer experience was much more pleasant. Within 15 minutes of opening they had my bike on the stand. They also reminded me about my brake pads, which they then replaced for no extra labour cost. Top-notch service.

We headed out of Sierra Vista to the northeast and slabbed it to Tombstone. I got to see the spot that Wyatt Earp and the boys had the big gunfight out behind the OK Corral.



After that it was off to Benson where we caught a backroad toward Mammoth.

The road to Mammoth ran through desert terrain along the San Pedro River, and was good gravel segmented every 1/4 to 1/2 mile by sandy and gravelly washes (arroyos). It was treacherous because it lulled you into going fast and then switched to a soft sand surface, making the bike hard to control. It was like that all the way to Mammoth - fun but stressful.







We gassed up and cooled off in an air-conditioned convenience store in Mammoth. The temperature outside was probably about 95 by that point. But once we hit the slab heading for Globe, we learned about heat. The air flowing past felt like it was from a blast furnace, and whenever I opened my visor my face felt hotter rather than cooler! It was a great ride up to the "detour" turnoff on Dripping Spring Road, but it was hot. The KLR even ran over 1/2 up the temperature scale.

Dripping Spring Road proved to be great. Pretty fast gravel twisting through a beautiful desert.



After about 15 miles we came to a locked fence. To the right, we found a barbed wire gate with a sign that said "Please Close Gate", so we took it. It led to a quad trail in an arroyo. We were having a blast! The trial led up the arroyo, and then led up onto a ridge. We rode along the ridge for a bit and then saw a steep climb at the end leading back to the main road.

I headed up the ridge,



and near the top accidentally slid into a rocky rut. I was just cresting the top of the steep part when I lost it and the bike fell over on a cactus. I stepped off and wasn't hurt, but the bike was in a difficult position. Andy came up…



and helped me pick it up and after a struggle we managed to work it out of there.

We took a break on the road, which was also running along a ridge, and then continued on. The road stayed on top of the ridge, and continued to climb up and up. Finally, after some spectacular views back down the ridge,



the road turned into a more typical mountain road, with an upslope on one side and a drop on the other. We continued to climb to about 6500 feet, where we crested the ridge and abruptly entered a rain forest - yes, you read right!



The road down was still switchbacks, but now we were in a mountain forest instead of the desert we'd been in only a few tens of meters earlier. It was cooler, and the ground and trees were moist from a very recent rain. After we had descended a few 1000 feet the terrain changed back into desert and we headed into Globe.

(Saw this guy on the road and stopped for a pic. Have to say I’d never seen a wild tarantula before!)


We stopped in Globe for gas and food (Wendy's), and headed north up 188. Turned off on 288 and headed toward Young. A lot more of 288 was paved than the maps had said, and we had a great ride on extremely twisty paved mountain road. The road changed to gravel, and was twisty but wide. We made good time to Young, where we decided to stop since we were tired and it was getting dark. Stopped at the Pleasant Valley Inn, which is nice but has a few bugs and no AC. Also was $76, so it was one of the most expensive places we've stayed so far. But it'll do.



Daily km: 398
Total km: 5416
Daily $: 239
Total $: $66 Cad + $1198 US



Day 16: Young, AZ to Towaoc, CO



What a day! Started off early trying to get to Winslow for breakfast. The first 50 km was fast twisty gravel through mountain forest. Lots of fun! At Forest Lakes we were a little confused, but the roads we chose (while not the ones we planned) worked out. The road North of Forest Lakes was rough and rutted with lots of potholes, but we picked our way through it and came out on hwy 99. Blasted the last 45 km to Winslow on straight blacktop.





We drove up and down the old Route 66 in Winslow looking for a breakfast place. As we did, we accidentally found the "Standin' on the corner" corner.



After a few pics of the corner and a Ducati we headed to the Falcon, a restaurant recommended by a guy working on the street near "the corner". The Falcon looked like it had seen better days, back when Route 66 was the main route through town in the days before I-40. But the food and service were good, and I even got Lesley a T-shirt.

After breakfast we got gas and headed out of town by taking Route 66 to hwy 87. We headed northeast on 87 for a while, and then turned off on 60 toward Dilkon. I found a little dirt road detour around Dilkon, with an interesting little mud/sand crossing. Headed east on slab to Indian Wells and hit a nice little sand road to Greasewood Springs.



We stopped at the little store in Greasewood Springs for some water.



We had wanted to take 28 east, but a local mentioned to us that it was pretty muddy, so we decided to head up to Cornfields and go east on that road toward Ganado. It turned out to be a nice ride to Ganado.

We thought we were hooped for a few minutes in Ganado when the road was gated and labeled private, but we found another way onto the road we wanted and headed toward Nazlini. Just before Nazlini we turned East and headed up an extremely rutted dirt road. Once we hit road 7 things improved a bit. Finally we worked our way out to the Canyon de Chelly, which was impressive.



After a few photos we cruised into Chinle.

After a break and some gas in Chinle, we headed up 64 to Tsaile, and then turned toward Lukachukai. At Lukachukai we turned right and headed up through Buffalo Pass.



It was an excellent ride! The road was paved, and the speed limit was 10 mph thanks to the extremely tight turns. We did about 40 to the top, which was a hoot! The way down the backside was a bit straighter but still fun. The top was 8560 feet, and we gained and lost about 3000 feet in the 10 miles or so through the pass.

The slab ended spectacularly several miles past Red Rock.



Suddenly we were on a slickrock/sand road that would have been a struggle in a jeep. It was incredibly fun on the bikes.





After a hoot of a trail that crossed from Arizona into New Mexico we ended up in Beklabito on hwy 64, after which we headed to Four Corners, where I "crouched" in 4 states at once!





It was hot, still over 30 even though there were thundershowers on 3 sides of us and it was already after 6:00 PM.

Once the acrobatics were over we headed to a Colorado casino at Towaoc for the evening. There was a brutal wind from the surrounding storms, and we wanted to find shelter fast. The food at Towaoc wasn't very good, but the room was nice and was actually cheaper than last night.



Daily km: 588
Total km: 6004
Daily $: 100
Total $: $66 Cdn + $1298 US

_________________
Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Day 17: Towaoc, CO to Moab, UT



Whoa, that was an adventure. The day started off early with a crappy gas station sausage and egg sandwich, since the casino restaurant didn't open until 8:00.



We headed west to the town, dodged a couple of pitbulls on a jog south, then headed west again on a massively wide gravel road.

After a bunch of really fast (120 kph) kilometers, the road got narrower and twistier. When we crossed the Utah border, it got a bit rough and rocky. But after a few more miles it spit us out at hwy 41.

We headed northwest up 41 to Aneth. After that it was paved backroads to the much larger town of Blanding, where we got gas and had a real breakfast.



As we were getting gas, a local mentioned that we had a long route ahead of us. He also said that we should stay out of any low spots or dry creeks if there was a storm anywhere around, even 20 miles away. He said that the dry creeks could suddenly have a 20 foot wall of water crashing down them, and told us 5 European Tourists had been killed in a dry creek in Northern Arizona not long ago. We thanked him for the advice.

From Blanding we headed out on the road west to the Beef Basin trail. This part of Utah was spectacular, winding in and out of canyons, and providing an incredible view every few hundred meters. We wound our way through the trail, accidentally taking a 6 km wrong turn before either of us noticed we weren't going toward the highway. But the ride was a lot of fun!







We reached hwy 211 and headed Northwest to the Needles Outpost.



Tracy, the lady who was operating the place, was very kind to us (though a little eccentric). She told us she figured the weather was good today, and we wouldn't have a problem with the Lockhart Basin. She said Moab was 74 miles or 1.5 hours by slab and 60 miles or 5 hours by the Lockhart Basin Trail. It was 3:30 when we left the Needles Outpost, and we figured we'd be getting to Moab just before sunset.



The trail started off a lot like the last one - FUN. Near the beginning we lost the road briefly. A guy and girl were there hiking around and the guy pointed up this big sandy hill. Andy believed him and headed up the tough hill. About halfway up he got behind a big rock, and got stuck, and fell trying to get his bike out. He hurt his knee a bit, but still got out of there. We found the actual road, which was much easier, and headed up.



The trail was fun and the canyons were unlike anything I'd ever seen.







After a while we hit a tough spot that looked something like the step-ups at the North Fork Pass. Andy made it up but scared himself in the process. Then he helped me walk the KLR through it much more slowly. (Photo does not even come close to doing this justice!)



After a quick water break we were on our way again, enjoying the incredible scenery.

A while later there was another tough spot.



We worked the bikes through it and continued on.



Then there was another tough spot, and another. Pretty soon the difficult spots were coming fast, and it was getting difficult to work the bikes through each new problem.

Two other things were transpiring to make our route difficult. One was that the road kept disappearing in front of us. At some points there was simply slickrock, which didn't show any traces of the trail. We'd have to cross the section and try to find out where the trail appeared again. The second was the thundershowers, which seemed to be light at first but kept getting worse as the afternoon wore on.

We finally got to a very rough section, and the skies opened up on us. The rocks got wet and the dirt turned to mud, and I was worried. Our GPSs said we were off-route, so Andy went back to check for another way. He couldn't find any, so he came back and we decided to try to get down into the Gorge.

After a fair bit of work we shoehorned our bikes down the gorge.



I was a bit concerned about rushing water, as the gorge we were in was obviously a major erosion channel. Andy said we needed to work down toward the river, and I agreed, as the GPSs indicated the road followed the river (the Colorado River, incidentally). We picked our way down the gorge, getting through several tough spots, but the tough spots kept coming. Just when I was wondering if we'd ever get out of there we made it out of the rocky stuff to a more level dirt road.

We started making better time, but we had a long way to go. There was lightning all around, and one strike about a half-mile away hit the ground on the open field we were in. We kept getting into these dips, where I was afraid of flash flooding, and then getting out back onto the plain, where we were afraid of lightning strikes.

The rain was coming down pretty good as we started up Hurrah Pass. There was a lot of water running down the road, and things were slick. We were climbing this winding trail up the side of a mountain, and had to be careful not to slide off in the dark! It was pretty tense. Finally we crested the pass and started down the back side. The rain stopped, and things started looking up. After another 10 minutes we were down on the desert floor.

The road at this point got a lot wider and faster. We were thinking we were home free, but then we encountered a major stream running across the road.



It was angry and fast and we decided we couldn't cross it. We waited about 30 minutes, setting off Andy's fireworks to pass the time. The water receded a fair bit, and we decided we could cross just as another storm started moving in. We crossed and headed into Moab, finally getting to town at about 10:00 PM.

Daily km: 421
Total km: 6425
Daily $: 110
Total $: $66 Cdn + $1408 US



Day 18: Moab, UT to Salina, UT



Today I got to talk to Lesley in the morning for almost a whole hour. Hate to see the cell bill on that one, but she was glad I'd called so it was worth it.

We packed up and I had a late (10:30) breakfast at a little place along hwy 191 in town. Two egg bagels - not as good as Weeds but not too shabby.



Then we headed over to Arrowhead Motorsports and met Fred, who was shy at first but opened up after a few minutes.



Arrowhead was just a little business he runs out of a shop on his yard! Even though I wasn't going to buy new tires I was impressed that he was the first place I'd seen with my Kenda K270s in stock! His service was excellent back when I ordered my parts, and after meeting him and seeing his place I will definitely do business with him in the future.



After that we got gas and went back up to Hurrah Pass, since it had been dark the last time we went through it. The spot where the road had been flooded the night before was just damp now.



It was a really nice ride in the daylight, but we were amazed how tough it was and that we'd done it in the dark and rain the previous evening. The views from the pass itself were breathtaking, and it was worth the ride up. The Colorado River wound its way along the canyon floor below, where we'd been the night before when we weren't sure we were going to make Moab. The cliffs were stunning in the distance, and the shapes and colours were truly a sight to behold.





We headed back down, snapping photos along the way,









and went North from Moab along Hwy 191. About 10 miles out of town the terrain changed and we were in a much plainer desert, with lots of wind. We made I-70 and headed West toward Green River. Stopped to don the rain gear as there was a nasty thunderstorm to our west, and rolled into Green River just as it started to pour and the wind gusts were trying to push us off the road! The wind was bad enough that we decided to stop for lunch and let the squall pass.



By the time we were half done our food the storm had passed, so right after lunch we were on the road again. Got gas and headed West on I-70. The speed limit was 75 mph so we made good time, though the KLR was running near its limit. The terrain varied from desert to badlands to canyons like near Moab to alpine terrain. In no time we were in Salina.



We got a room at the Ranch Motel for a reasonable price and got cleaned up. When we went for supper a couple of older guys with quads on a trailer asked if we'd ridden all the way from Alberta and seemed surprised when we told them we'd already been to Mexico and were coming back. After a bit of a visit we were off to Mom's Café, where I had an excellent club sandwich, and then Pulp Fiction before bed. Apparently there was a lightning delay at Taylor Field, so I won't know how the game ended for a while.

Daily km: 324
Total km: 6749
Daily $: 95
Total $: $66 Cdn + $1503 US




Day 19: Salina, UT to Evanston, WY



Got a fairly early start today. Hit Mom's café for a pretty good breakfast at 7:00 and were out of Salina by 8:30. Headed northeast on gravel to Willow Creek road, then East to Skyline Drive. The air was warm and still, and Andy's dust hung along the road for a long time after he'd passed. Even though we knew we were climbing as we got close to Skyline Drive, the views kind of snuck up on us. Suddenly there were peaks everywhere!



We meandered North up Skyline Drive, snapping pictures along the way. It was beautiful, but there was a fair bit of traffic. We passed quite a few trucks and tons of ATVs with bow hunters on them. At one point I came around a corner and there were 2 ATVs coming toward me side by side. I had nowhere to go, and hammered on the brakes. There was no way I was going to stop, so I tried to aim between them so I wouldn't hit either one dead on. At the last second they split and went by me on either side. Andy told me later that they were laughing after they passed me, and that they gave him the finger.

We continued on, and the road climbed up over 10000 feet.



Quite often the road ran along a ridge, and there were amazing views on both sides.



It was cold up there, so we stopped and added a layer for warmth. Lots of quad traffic, and several trucks. It was Sunday, I guess, but a conservation officer I spoke with said it was also bow deer season, so lots of guys were up bow hunting. The same officer mentioned that Skyline Drive is part of the Great Western Trail, which people are trying to complete to go all the way from Canada to Mexico. Another ride someday?



(This is the town of Ephraim as seen from Skyline Drive. Ephraim is at ~5000 feet, and Skyline Drive is over 10000 ft! The view looks like it would from a plane!)




After about 160 km we descended fron Skyline Drive



and hit Hwy 35. The wind had picked up by this time, and the sky was hazy with dust. We stopped a few km West, gassed up, and had lunch at a little café on the highway. It was hot down here, and we had to remove the layer we'd put on earlier. After that we headed north on a twisty paved backroad. Several km later the road became gravel. We had trouble finding our turn, but after a bit we came up with the right road and had a nice little twisty dirt backroad ride over to the Strawberry Reservoir. (No photos from this part – I wish I had some now…)

From there it was slab to Heber City, where we stopped for a break. When we got back on the road, we headed Northeast through Francis and Kamas and got on Hwy 150 toward Evanston Wyoming. It was quite windy, but Hwy 150 was nice pavement. It wasn't as twisty as it appeared on the map, but it had a few spots where there were 30 mph curves that went through about 240 degrees of turn. It went up well over 10000 feet again, but we weren't up there too long so we didn't bother stopping to add a layer. There were 12000 foot peaks nearby that reminded me of Kananaskis.

We crossed into Wyoming 55 miles out of Kamas, and after another 23 miles we pulled into Evanston. Got a not-so-cheap motel room at the Economy Inn, and set up to relax for the evening.



Daily km: 466
Total km: 7215
Daily $: 86
Total $: $66 Cdn + $1589 US

_________________
Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

Day 20: Evanston, WY to Lima, MT



Wow, what a day! 525 km of high speed stuff today. Started out in Evanston with breakfast at the Bear Town Restaurant. Headed North out of town on 89. We had to stop about 10 km out of town to put on warmer gear, as it was quite cool out. I didn't gear down the rest of the day - it was the first day where the mesh jacket by itself wasn't warm enough for the afternoon.

There were a lot of houses and yards along the highway, and the hills were quite barren. We crossed back into Utah, as the highway headed Northwest. We went around this big lake (Bear Lake) in Northeastern Utah that was obviously a resort lake, and crossed into Idaho before we got to the North end of the lake. After a bunch of km we were in Montpellier, where we stopped for coffee at the Aho Coffee Shop.



After coffee we headed to Soda Springs, 50 km up hwy 30. We gassed up in Soda Springs and decided to take a backroad we found on the Recreational Map heading toward Idaho Springs.



After several miles the asphalt gave way to smooth gravel. The road was only lightly gravelled, so we could roll along at over 100 kph. There were many gentle curves and lots of small hills - it almost felt like a roller coaster after a while!







We had to be wary of surprise corners and cattle on the road in some dips, otherwise we probably could have ridden it even faster than we did. After about 80 km the pavement returned, and with a few more corners we were in Ririe.

At Ririe we stopped for a pop and a chocolate bar,



and then we headed over to Hwy 20 via Hwy 48. We ran up Hwy 20 at high speed through Rexburg to St. Anthony, where we topped up with gas. Here we could see the backs of the Grand Tetons again for the first time in two weeks.



From St. Anthony we headed West, then North toward Kilgore. Just a bit after the turn North we saw the St. Anthony Sand Dunes, an area with huge dunes popular with the ATV crowd.



The road to Kilgore was awesome narrow pavement that dipped and wound its way across 60 km of Idaho desert. We took most of it at 120, but again could have done it faster if we hadn't had to look out for stray cattle or surprise corners over hills.





At Kilgore we stopped at the local store, which reminded me of Kometscher's (in Carlton, Sask.), and asked a couple of locals if any of the backroads ran straight north through to Montana.



They said there was nothing between Red Rock Pass and I-15 that went through, so we took the West Camas Creek Road 40 km over to I-15. The West Camas Creek Road was good gravel, but some of the slowest we had today due mostly to the layer of gravel on the road. It was OK, but we really had to watch the speed in the curves to prevent the front end from washing out.





We hit I-15 and slabbed it to Lima, MT, stopping along the way for a quick pic of my odometer at 15000 km



and a quick pic of the divide crossing at Monida Pass.



We hit Lima and got a cabin from Jan's Café,





and a 6 pack of Moose Drool from the local Exxon. Went to Jan's for supper and had the Lima Burger - a burger with mushrooms and sour cream. Was good, but not as good as I'd expected. Now we're watching Goodfellas on TV.

Daily km: 525
Total km: 7740
Daily $: 101
Total $: $66 Cdn + $1690 US
Divide Crossings: 1 (unofficial, at Monida Pass on I-15)


Day 21: Lima, MT to Helena, MT



After breakfast at Jan's and gas at the Exxon, we headed up the frontage road to Dell and then Southwest down the Sheep Creek Road. It was really chilly, and even though I was wearing my fleece and rain jacket I was pretty cold. The ride down Sheep Creek Road was as great going back as it had been a few weeks ago coming down.





We waved to a cyclist camped out at the point where the road curved from West to North.

It was pretty fast, and in no time we were in Grant. The Canvas Café was still there and still closed, so we headed up to hwy 278 and across to the Wise River - Polaris Road. From there it was about 40 miles of twisty pavement to Wise River. This road is a ton of fun, and for 40 miles I could briefly see the allure of sportbikes. The KLR was a lot of fun to ride here too, though.

We hit Wise River at about 11:00 AM, and stopped to get a coffee and warm up.



The high part of the road had been very cold, maybe down to 5 C even, if I had to make a guess. The Wise River Bar guy was interesting, and told us about the cyclists he'd met who were riding or racing the Divide. We asked about Fleecer Ridge, and he said he figured our bikes would wheelie over if we tried to go up. After a couple of cups of coffee and a good visit we left.

We got gas and headed out of town. We turned up the Jerry Creek Road to head up to Fleecer Ridge, as we wanted to get a good look at it from the bottom. The road up toward the Ridge was nice, and got more and more trail-like…



…until we got to the bottom of the hill.



It was pretty steep, but I seriously considered trying to go up it before we turned back. Checking the GPS later showed it was about 1000 feet increase in elevation over about a 1600 foot horizontal distance, or an average of 62.5% grade!

We headed back to Hwy 43 and went over to I-15. We did the route to Butte in reverse,



heading back up the big hill from I-15 and over the Divide for the 33rd time at the location of the 5th crossing on the GDR.



We had lunch at the Subway in Butte, and went over to the Harley/Kawasaki dealer to see if they had a new tire for Andy, which they didn't.

We left Butte on I-15 and went through our last Divide crossing of the trip (sniff).



We saw a large statue near some antennae on a mountain overlooking Butte



and tried to ride up to it, but a guy in a truck on the road said it was private and we weren't allowed to go up there, so we headed back to the route. We went through Tunnel Number 9 again,





and took the abandoned railway to Basin.



After that it was I-15 to Helena.

We got a room (house) at the Lamplighter, the same place we'd stayed on the way South, and went to the Brewhouse, which was the same place we ate on the way South too. Andy changed his rear tire for the second time on the trip, putting on a Cheng Shin in place of the smooth Maxxis.



Had some very good fajitas and a couple of beers. Tomorrow we hope to be back in Canada again, but we'll see how things go on the road.

Daily km: 444
Total km: 8184
Daily $: 102
Total $: $66 Cdn + $1792 US
Divide Crossings: 2 (Unofficial)


Day 22: Helena, MT to Calgary, AB



We headed back to the little pastry place for breakfast (great quiche), tanked up at the Holiday gas station, and headed out of town to the northwest down Country Club Avenue past Fort Harrison Army Airfield. Then we got onto Birdseye road and headed toward Silver City.



Near Silver City (MT, not NM) we saw another Montana Rail Link train, with SD90s 4300 and 4307 on the back end. Coincidentally, these same 2 locomotives had been in the 8 locos on the back end of the MRL train we'd seen near Priest Pass on the way South.

From Silver City we continued to follow Birdseye Road, which turned out to be a much nicer ride than we'd anticipated.



My backroad route near I-15 didn't pan out thanks to the all-evil "No Trespassing" sign, so we headed over to I-15 and up the frontage road 9 miles to Wolf Creek.

From Wolf Creek we got onto State Road 434, which was a nice paved ride. It turned into gravel around the point where it changed to SR 435,



and turned back to pavement before we got to Augusta. We stopped in Augusta for a coffee break,



and continued on up SR 287 to Choteau.

In Choteau we stopped to gas up just in case we didn't pass any more gas stations for a while, and then we headed up 89 to Dupuyer, taking a nice backroad detour on the way. Just north of Dupuyer we caught the Heart Butte Road westward, a wide gravel road that we could make really good time on.



After several miles we took a left on the Heart Butte Cutoff Road. Signs said the Cutoff was closed, but we thought we'd take a chance since it looked like a nice road.

We were right, it was an awesome ride. A few miles into it there was a very large burn area, though. There had obviously been a substantial fire in the area recently.



We passed through without incident and took Hwy 2 to East Glacier, where we stopped for a snack.



As it turned out the Heart Butte Cutoff was the last off-pavement of the trip (sniff).

From there it was a beautiful scenic ride up 49 back to 89,





and then slab to 17 and Northwest to the Port of Chief Mountain. Canadian Customs was easy on us, and 3 weeks to the day after we had crossed into the US at Roosville we were back in Canada.



We rode up to Pincher Creek, where we stopped and had a late lunch at the Red Roof Café.



From Pincher it was up to Hwy 3 and across to 2, then up into Calgary. It was really windy, which made it a bit of a tough ride. We passed these semis carrying the pieces of a large truck box for the oilsands, and the windblast was so turbulent between the trucks and the gusting winds that it was tough to control the bike through it. We got back to Calgary around 6:30 PM, and, after pausing outside Weeds café for a photo, sadly our grand adventure was at an end.



What a trip, and what great companions to ride with! I enjoyed the experience thoroughly, and will look upon it as a few weeks of my life where I really lived one of my dreams.

Daily km: 692
Total km: 8876
Daily $: $60 US + $20 Cdn
Total $: $86 Cdn + $1852 US (and worth twice that!)

_________________
Chris

2017 Versys X
1991 Suzuki TS200R

sweet... I read this report when you first posted it up on the old site.

Now that, is an Epic Ride!

_________________
2015 KTM 500 EXC
2008 KTM 990 Adventure S

Epic ride and Epic Write-up!!

_________________
Stay Safe and Get Dirty!

Great ride, that's the kind of ride I like to do a least one week every year! Amazing how far you can go with little $$ on a bike if you camp most of the way.

_________________
So many roads so little time but... AGATT

2019 F850GSA
2018 Multistrada 950
2016 WR250R