Friday, June 25, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
"You're going where on a 400?"
Harper's brother decided you can't get to Alaska without a real-deal-motorcycle-gang, and with the printing of some wicked-cool vinyl flags the Scumbuckets were born. For us, scumbucket-ry seemed to mean rolling out of our campsite at around noon and hanging out in town to find replacement sprockets while eying the tires that were turning square and starter motors that didn't quite sound right. Got to get some coffee, too. In short, a fantastic trip complete with everything I would expect! Luke, Harper and Mike have continued north and I'm back to Seattle. From the looks of the GPS, they're making good speed to Anchorage now.
Luke, Mike and I rode Hwy 20 East though Washington, then 2 though Idaho and Montana to get to East Glacier. The riding on 20 was fantastic. Cold and rainy at times, but probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. The first night we camped at a free campground just east of Colville, WA. There was no one else there and plenty of stacked, pre-split firewood. This never happens.
The second day was equally incredible, and after getting though Glacier National Park we took a beautifully curvy rode though the foothills as the sun was setting. "Wow, Sunset! Shit, gravel!, Clouds! Curves! Deer! Mountains!". Five additional miles of dirt road and cattle herding got us to the campsite where Harper was waiting for us, fresh off the road from Minneapolis. I've got to be honest, I wasn't sure the meet-up-at-a-remote-campground thing was going to work, but it did.
After getting out of Glacier we headed into Canada, where a day of (windy) riding got us to a campground a ways south of Radium Hot Springs. The next morning we picked up a new rear sprocket for Mike and made plans to stop just short the Canadian Glacier National park, but ended up riding though it, syphoning fuel from one bike to another and laughing about how those solid green triangles on the map aren't actually campgrounds. Some old-fashioned campground bike work ensued. Note the super-fancy bike stand.
At this point I split off and headed back south, taking the ferry across a glacial lake and rode through Nakusp and Castlegar. Lots of nice riding and little valley towns in that area, though I was being chased by thunder and hail storms. I ended the day camping on the Columbia river in Washington.
Luke, Mike and I rode Hwy 20 East though Washington, then 2 though Idaho and Montana to get to East Glacier. The riding on 20 was fantastic. Cold and rainy at times, but probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. The first night we camped at a free campground just east of Colville, WA. There was no one else there and plenty of stacked, pre-split firewood. This never happens.
The second day was equally incredible, and after getting though Glacier National Park we took a beautifully curvy rode though the foothills as the sun was setting. "Wow, Sunset! Shit, gravel!, Clouds! Curves! Deer! Mountains!". Five additional miles of dirt road and cattle herding got us to the campsite where Harper was waiting for us, fresh off the road from Minneapolis. I've got to be honest, I wasn't sure the meet-up-at-a-remote-campground thing was going to work, but it did.
After getting out of Glacier we headed into Canada, where a day of (windy) riding got us to a campground a ways south of Radium Hot Springs. The next morning we picked up a new rear sprocket for Mike and made plans to stop just short the Canadian Glacier National park, but ended up riding though it, syphoning fuel from one bike to another and laughing about how those solid green triangles on the map aren't actually campgrounds. Some old-fashioned campground bike work ensued. Note the super-fancy bike stand.
At this point I split off and headed back south, taking the ferry across a glacial lake and rode through Nakusp and Castlegar. Lots of nice riding and little valley towns in that area, though I was being chased by thunder and hail storms. I ended the day camping on the Columbia river in Washington.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
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