About Larry
I live in Bandon on the southern Oregon coast and I've been riding for a long, long time, years, decades. We won't go there kiddies but believe me, it's been awhile. During that time I've done most of my riding on the road with occasional off-road forays, most of which were intentional. Some weren't. Until just a couple of years ago I'd never ridden a hack - that's sidecar to those who aren't familiar with the lingo. I figure riding a hack up Alaska's infamous Haul road all the way to Deadhorse should top off my torture tank for quite awhile.
About Mac
Mac hails from Robins, Iowa and has been riding bikes longer than most people have been around. He managed to torture his old BMW past the 100,000 mile mark and presently rides a Yamaha FJR. His newest ride, a 2008 Ural Patrol is waiting on the dealer's highest shelf until the flood waters recede after which they'll assemble it and turn it over to him. The fact that he's heading to Alaska for his first journey on a new rig should tell you all you need to know about him...
What the heck is it with all this rain? We started out dry with sunshine but before the end of the day encountered another monsoon. Bummer. At least my new red rain suit proved it's merit, I stayed dry and warm so I guess that's a good deal.
Mac and I have developed a riding system that seems to work well, neither one of us waits around for the other once we've started out for the day. We more or less establish where we expect to end up and if by chance we get separated we at least know where to head at the end of the day. Sometimes we ride together but more often than not we ride at our own pace and wave to the other guy as we pass one another. Usually at a rest stop taking pics, etc.
Today was no different, we both found places for pics along the Yukon river and later on I spotted a motor home from Oregon, the very same model as ours so I turned the bike around and went back to chat with them. I couldn't believe it as I pulled up, they were sporting a license plate bracket with our own dealer's name on it, Porter's RV in Coos Bay. The owner was outside for a stretch and we talked about how small the world is sometimes. He and his wife live in a tiny berg by the name of Powers which is fairly close to where we live. In fact his wife knows where our house is as they have friends who live close by.
There is plenty of road construction going on everywhere which is normal for both Canada and the US when it comes to the northern areas. I was at one long enough to take a few pics, then went on to buy gas from the most indifferent Shell gas lady I've ever met. Actually I can't claim to have met her as she was on the phone the whole time chatting it up with her friend. Totally ignored me but managed to run my Master Card through the machine and collect the gas money. No hello, thank you, good bye, nada, just take the money and keep on yakking. Damnit I hate being ignored by sales people but that seems to be fairly common in these parts. Probably due to the "captive audience" approach to marketing, take it or leave it. After that I drifted over to the adjoining restaurant where I was treated like royalty by the operators. Go figure. Mac arrived just as I was finishing up breakfast so I waited and we headed up the Yukon together.
We continued on our ride to Dawson City where we holed up in another motel, this one much nicer and operated by people who seem to care about you. It's clean and warm and dry, etc. and outside it's on or off again raining. Before landing here we took the tour of down town Dawson via the quaint dirt streets, then decided it would be best to get out of the core area as some of the folks wandering around looked more than a little scruffy. Neither of us took any pics of the old buildings as it was raining so maybe tomorrow we'll do a couple on our way out of town.
Tomorrow it's on to the Top of the World Highway and Chicken, one of my personal goals.
As Mac himself most recently declared it, it's the Yu-Freakin-Kon... We began the day at 05:30am by breaking camp and heading for Mukluk Annie's (aka Anny Frank's Pooty Hall according to Mac) While there we met a couple from Olympia, WA who thought our hacks were particularly cool which tends to make one wonder about people from Olympia.
As this was just another day in living on the road it only seemed natural that the heating controller for Mac's electric jacket went kaput. Being of sound mind he pretended that it meant nothing to him and said he could control the heat by plugging and unplugging it as needed. I witnessed this while riding behind him and nearly drove off the road laughing. Hopefully he'll find an easier solution soon.
Arriving at White Horse we checked into the tourist information office and garnered some info on where to exchange Yankee dollars into Canadian. Turned out to be enlightening as they charged $2.50 for the privilege and discounted our bucks by 5%. Helluvadeal, eh? Eh? Eh? Ha ha .... Those Canadians, ha ha...
After that it was on to Linda's favorite store Wal-Mart where we scored bungee cords and shoe-goo for Mac and a bright red 2-piece rain suit for myself. Seems my zillion dollar Rev'It costume isn't really waterproof so it was time for a new act. I gave it a ten-mile test ride and then stopped long enough to cut the hood off. Not too neat but functional as the bunched up hood was pressing my gourd forward and giving me a neck ache.
Further down the road we stopped at one of the local points of interest - a log cabin thingy way station where we took pics, then proceeded onward to the township of Carmacks (where as a point of general interest Mac claims his uncle was a car dealer) and we decided to spend the night. If memory serves me right this may have been the place where Chuck Connors starred in the film Motel Hell...
At this point I must apologize to our regular readers ( if such exist ) as we truly need to go to dinner, or have a lie-down, etc., plus we're laughing way too hard to continue.
9:00pm - Just came back from dinner at the "hotel" dining room... to quote Mac, "Worst dinner, worst price, worst service...did I forget something?" At least the pizza I had was good and I think his dinner was too but the humongous person who "waited" on us had the worst attitude we've encountered thus far. Being a particularly petty person I thanked her (him? just spotted the chest hairs) graciously and paid the bill without tipping. My revenge is tomorrow he/she will still be stuck waiting tables in this burg-from-hell and we'll be down the road having a good time. Mac was unable to exert this particular form of vengeance as he doesn't tip anyway.
More tamale...or whenever we encounter another wifi...
PS - Thanks for the picture of me Mac...
Raining again this morning, seems like we're getting our share of it but it also seems we're getting used to it. For openers one of us (the ding-dong...me) locked us out of our room so we had to wait until 7:30am to get back in and finish loading our stuff. Fortunately the gal from Florida (she and her husband have been following us) let us back into the lobby so we could drink coffee while we waited for the manager to open up. It would have been great if the restaurant had been open but evidently Monday isn't a high priority so the curse of darkness was upon them.
Finished packing we set off in the rain heading up the Cassiar's longest remaining portion of mud & gravel. Our goal was to reach Teslin Lake campground which we did. Via the usual road construction stops, one at which we ran into the Florida couple again, etc. (They promised to email pics..Where are they?) On the way we also stopped to photo a big honkin mama moose, then had brunch at Sally's. Mac is still salivating over that one and I can't say as I blame him, they serve hot fresh baked bread that's to die for.
Without much else going on Mac decided to entertain us with a cracked windsceen. (I noticed it so I loaned him my Leatherman special edition tool to fix it with) Anyhow, he drilled a couple of holes in it which as we all know will prevent the cracks from getting worse and off we went, once more on the yellow brick road to OZ. (Teslin)
BTW, Mac informed me that Joe O'Connor totally whimped out when he faced the challenge of the Teslin potato grater bridge a few years back. Just thought I'd throw that in as Joe is following this blog. :)
We arrived at the campground around 5:00pm after a 300 mile ride, more than enough for two old geezer riders. The sun was shining, there was free firewood, and just enough wind to keep the mosquitoes at bay. We set up camp and Mac demonstrated his cooking finesse by whipping up a gourmet meal of Top Ramen noodles. I settled for canned salmon on crackers with cheese-food and a reasonable number of GT's. We stayed up very late, around 11:00pm talking, mostly about how odd it was that it was still daylight at that time. I think Mac is easily entertained...
Freakin rain all day, got soaked, got cold, saw 2 bears, 1 glacier, Mac's turn signal busted plus he lost one of his summer gloves. Arrived at Northway Motor Inn at Dease Lake around 5:00pm, took time to unload & eat dinner at the local highway robber restaurant, then back to the room to dry out the "waterproof" riding outfits. Not a bad ride but sure was cold most of the time. Did you know Mac doesn't believe in tipping? What a frugal guy he is. ( Notice I didn't say cheap?) Anyway we went to Hyder Alaska first thing in the morning, took way too many pics, then onto the road north, bump, bump, bumpety bump... Stopped for lunch at Bell 2 where we discovered the busted turn signal. A guy hauling a trailer came up and asked Mac if that was a real Ural? Like someone would make a fake one? Jesus, what planet does he live on anyway? At least he gave Mac his duc tape to fix the damn thing with. Maybe it's not real duc tape, maybe it's a copy? FYI, the Cassiar Highway is mostly paved now so all the folks from Woss can take a run up here. We met most of the paving crew at the Northway and I mentioned that all of California would soon be arriving... That's it, it's pouring outside, time for a toddy. Over and out. Oops, almost forgot...life is good.
What a crappy day this turned out to be. Woke up to the patter of rain on the tent so I knew it was not going to be fun. We packed up and hit the road, stopped for breakfast at a Chinese place, then rode on. Before long we emerged from the rain and things got better; at one of the rest stops we ran into the couple from Florida who've been photographing us out on the road. They're driving the same route as us for the next day or so and said they'd email pics.
Things were going smooth enough until just before the turn off at Meziadin to Stewart when the Aprilia began acting up. This time it was a sudden shudder followed by immediate recovery. It felt like I'd hit something or the engine had stopped and then started again. This happened several times in the next few miles and when we stopped for a photo op I mentioned it to Mac as a heads-up. Just after Bear Glacier I'd pulled over for a photo and waved Mac to go ahead and I'd catch up. Wrong. Wrongo wrongo.... I started after him, rode for 100 yards and the fire went out, this time it was electrical. Finding a wide spot on the shoulder I pulled over and began the tedious process of removing all the gear. Buried down under the saddle was the main fuse block and sure enough, the 20 amp main fuse was gone. I had 2 spares and elected to sacrifice one just in case the original had simply worn out - they can be like light bulbs in that regard. After repacking the rig I set off again and this time made it for 200 yards when it went south. Back to square one, I replaced it and this time decided on a strategy to limp on the Stewart. I'd run the bike up to 25-30 mph and then shut it off and coast for 30 seconds. This seemed to be working and there were lots of hills to coast down. I made it for a few miles before fuse #3 blew. Pulling off again I installed a spare 15-amp which I hoped might get me the rest of the way. Then the Calvary arrived, Mac had already ridden to Hyder and then noticing I was MIA decided to retrace our route. He arrived just as I was ready for attempt # 3 so I explained how much fun I was having and he was going to ride behind while I limped on to Stewart. This lasted about 1/4 mile. Luckily I'd brought a tow strap along so we hauled the beast into the service station in Stewart to see if they could help. Before doing so we'd discussed what the most likely response would be when we mentioned an Italian bike with a Russian sidecar.... In this we were dead accurate, in fact we probably could have lip-synced the guy's comments. Anyway, he had fuses for sale and I bought 2 packs, then went at it to see what could be found. I got lucky and located a broken fuse holder that had allowed one of the fuses with it's metal feet to flop around touching various electrical posts on a random basis. This was an easy fix and once done the bike fired right up and after a fairly aggressive test ride through some muddy potholes it seems to be OK. Fingers crossed....
We checked into the King Edward Hotel where all the bikers stay and holed up for the night. Not right away; there was the mandatory trip to the liquor store and then dinner but you get the picture. Our collective moods were on an upswing and things are looking better. We met several guys on adventure type bikes just returning from the same ride we're going on so we got the latest info on roads, etc. Sounds like fun. Tomorrow we're going to ride back to Hyder for pics - Mac's camera battery went flat when he was there today - and after that it's back on the road. This is fun.
Up and at'em early today, we were just leaving when I spotted Mac's Milepost laying on the hood of a pickup outside our room. The night before we'd been talking to some people and one of us left it outside when it was bedtime. (surely not Mac?) Interesting thing about the Milepost when it's outside overnight and it rains... I could be wrong but I suspect the publishers engage in another industry, possibly involving those peat pots sold at garden shops everywhere. Anyway it had increased in volume by about 1000% and for next day or so spent most of it's time in front of campfires drying out. This morning it rained like the dickens continuing off and on for most of the day but we were dressed for it so on we went.
Our route took us north to Vanderhoof where we stopped for breakfast. Several people stopped by our table to ask about the bikes and our trip. This seems to happen fairly regularly wherever we stop, sidecars are always of interest to everyone.
Afterwards we rode through Burns Lake andSmithers, stopping for the night at the Moricetown's Tribal Campground. When we arrived there was a sign on the office door that said pick out a spot and someone will be around later to collect the fee. Sound familiar? We settled on a spot that included water and electric hookup, neither of which we used. A couple of hours after we'd set up camp a lady tribal member showed up with her student trainee and informed us we were in a spot for RV's, not tents. I explained why we were there and offered to move or pay the full price or leave, whichever she felt best about. This seemed to puzzle her as no one was arguing so after several minutes of rattling on about our being in an RV spot for the 100th time she elected to let us stay but we had to pay the difference. Duh? And the difference? $1.75. I forked it over and that was the end of it. We met two groups of campers next to us, a couple from Olympia, WA, and a local family from Houston, BC just down the road. The guy from Houston gave us several samples of his smoked salmon and I gave him a bag of dried apples from our Bandon trees, a somewhat lop-sided trade but it was all I had.
Mac made a great fire which we sat around consuming more alcohol than we had business and divulging all our family secrets so now we know all there is to know about everyone. Dang...
Today started out nice and sunny, too warm to wear a jacket so I stuck with my gnarly least offensive T-shirt figuring it would stay hot. Wrong. Ten miles down the road it was time to pull over and gear up. It also seemed like a good time for us to devise a plan to use in case we got separated again. Proved to be worthwhile as that's just what happened later in the day.
In the mean time we enjoyed fair weather riding at our own paces, stopping for pics or just to gawk at the nature stuff. At one point I passed Mac heading north as I rode south to take a shot of a log cabin I'd passed earlier. We waved and I caught up with him a couple of miles down the road taking his own pics. This pretty much describes the rest of our day, not much exciting happened except for two minor events. The first occurred when a black bear started across the road in front of Mac and he had to stand his bike on it's nose to avoid hitting him. Fortunately the bear changed his mind and reversed course back into the woods leaving Mac with a temporarily enlarged heart but none for the worse. Later in the day after we'd hooked up again we were traveling north at a fair clip when two identical monster semi trucks appeared in front of us, one of them in my lane and coming like a bat out of hell. I figured this was not going well and made a rapid stage right onto the shoulder accompanied with maximum 3-wheel brakes. The errant truck-driver-boy-racer dodged his rig back into the lane he was supposed to be in and blasted pass at a speed too high to appreciate the one-digit wave extended to him. Life on the road...
In between the bear and truck episodes the weather turned super nasty and we experienced extreme rain, enough to soak my gear through. Luckily it only lasted for a few miles and then it was on and off at intervals diminishing as we rode further north. Arriving at Prince George around 5:00pm we stopped at the visitor's information center where they located a motel for us. It turned out to be a neat deal as we met four other people traveling like ourselves; two guys just finishing up their bike trip to the haul road and the Top of the World highway. The other two were a recently retired couple driving from Virginia and meandering seeing the sights. Everyone had something to tell and between us we managed to waste enough time that the restaurant we were going to have dinner at closed and we ended up at the DQ across the street. Yummy.
Not many pictures today, just a couple of the restaurant where we ate a late breakfast, the cabin shot and Mac screaming out of a short right-hand twist tunnel. Wot fun.
What the heck is it with all this rain? We started out dry with sunshine but before the end of the day encountered another monsoon. Bummer. At least my new red rain suit proved it's merit, I stayed dry and warm so I guess that's a good deal. 
