Jamul To Alaska 08-08

Blame it on www.advrider.com for getting me started with the motorcycle adventure bug, but more than anything, blame Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor who rode around the world on their BMW's a few years ago and filmed a documentary about their trip titled "The Long Way Round". After watching their DVD several times, I told myself this is what I wanted to do - ride around the world on a bike. I started researching the different bikes available that could handle everything the world throws at you and decided on a KTM 990 Adventure. They are made in Austria and their moto is "Built To Race". Anybody familiar with off-road motorcycles and racing will recognize the brand. KTM has had tremendous success in off road racing including the Dakar Rally. And since my 03 KTM 525 has been a great and reliable bike, the 990 Adventure seemed like an excellent choice.

I had my new bike - now what? Anybody who knows me will tell you... Modify the bike. So after 23 miles on the odometer, I proceed to take apart the bike and rebuild it. Here's a link to the Modifications and Farkles page:

Now my bike and I are ready for the world :)

My first planned trip was going to be Baja and Mexico. But I received a call from my friend, and riding buddy Vince, who said that his brother was riding from his house in Sandpoint ID to the top of Alaska and wanted to know if I'd like to join them. Let me think about it (I thought for about 2 seconds) and said Hell Yes!! I'm in. So I go home and tell Tammy (my wife) that I'm leaving for 3 weeks in August to ride to Alaska with Vince & Dennis - Whooo hooo!!! She didn't seem quite as excited as I was, but she said it sounded like fun and told me to have a great trip. Is Tammy a keeper or what?

So we're all set to drive in Vince's truck with our two bikes to Dennis's house in Sandpoint and then ride to Deadhorse AK and back. Then I get a call from Vince about 3 weeks before we're scheduled to leave on 7-25 - He is pulling out and can't make the trip as he is too busy at work. WHAT???? YOU CAN'T MAKE THE TRIP???? WTF???? I was pissed and really wanted to ride to AK. So I called Dennis and told him "I'm still riding if you are..." We decided just the two of us would do the trip. Now - I have never met Dennis and only talked to him for about 1/2 hour on the phone - I guess this is why they call it an adventure.

The next day (I'm not kidding) I get an invitation to my 30 year High School Reunion in Yreka CA on 8-2. I'm thinking since I have to ride north to ID anyways, I should ride thru Yreka and go to the reunion. I get on the phone and talk to Dennis to see if he can change the start date of our trip to 8-4. He said yes, and I RSVP'd to the reunion. Now I'm leaving on friday 8-1, riding to Yreka, hooking up with my old buddies, and meeting Dennis on Sunday 8-3, and leaving for Deadhorse on 8-4. Wow - this trip just keeps getting better and better.... THEN - about a week before I leave, I find out that Charlie & Ewan (see above) are having a one night only showing of their latest trip titled "Long Way Down" (they travel from England to the southern tip of Africa) at the local theatre at 7:30 pm Thursday 7-31. That's the night before I leave on my trip. How cool is this??? The guys who got me interested in riding the world are showing their newest adventure the night before I leave on my first adventure. I quickly reserve tickets and contact some friends - Me, Tammy, Chelsea (my oldest daughter), and a few friends are all going to dinner and then the movie - then I leave at 4:30 am the next morning.

Here is the route I will follow - it is highlighted in yellow.

After hours and hours of internet research, building my bike, and packing (I probably should have bought some stock in REI), I'm all ready to go. We have a great dinner, the movie was even greater, and I didn't get much sleep, but was on the bike at 4:30 am to try and beat the Los Angeles traffic. Tammy did not want to get up that early to take a pic of me leaving, but here is what the bike looked like when I started:

My Three Jesse hard bags were packed with all the bike tools, misc spare parts, spare tire tubes in case of any flats, repair manuals, tent, sleeping bag, chair, lantern, food, mosquito nets and repellant, rain gear, GPS, knife, battery charger, tennis shoes & flaps, extra straps, etc. In the tankbag, I had all my documents and money including my passport, power bars, maps, spare visor for the helmet, sunglasses, cell phone, log book, and my camera. I also had one bag filled with all my clothing, books, and toiletries strapped to the passenger pillion. This way, If I Was staying in a hotel, I only had to remove the clothing bag and tank bag. If I was camping, everything else would be easy to access.

I was wearing my new Olympia riding suit and Water proof boots. The riding suit has a 3 piece jacket (outer wear for protection, inner water and wind proof jacket lining, and an inner quilted jacket for warmth), and two piece pants (outer wear for protection and inner water and wind proof lining). When it's hot, I would wear the outer layer only, opening the vents as needed. When it rained, I would add the water and wind proof liners, and when it got really cold (and it did!!!) I would add my thermal skiing underwear and the quilted jacket. I had two sets of gloves, one for cold and one for warm weather. AND - I had my newest, coolest, electronic gadget - the Garmin ZUMO GPS. Not only is it a GPS, but you can load SD cards with MP3 songs, and hook up XM radio - which I did. AND - it's all hooked up to my helmet with new Blue Tooth wireless headphones. Now I can keep up on the Stock Market and world news on the road, as well as listen to music and plot my routes. New technology is great! Here is the Zumo with the Bluetooth Dongle velcrowed to the left side and the round XM antanae on top.

It's Friday morning and I finally get out of bed at 4am after a restless night, get dressed, give Tammy a kiss, fire up the 990, put on my helmet and gloves. Get on the bike, put her in first gear, pop the clutch, do a mini burnout, and I'm off - Whooooooo Hoooooooo. Jamul CA to Deadhorse AK - here I come!!! Then I flip down my face shield and notice that I can't see anything. Like an Idiot, I forgot that at 4:30 am it is still dark, and my face shield has a dark tint - doooh!! Now that I'm finally riding, I don't want to stop and unpack my clear shield and change it. So I just have to deal with keeping my shield in the up position until it gets light. About the time I'm reaching Los Angeles, it's getting light enough where I can lower my shield, and luckily I left early enough, as traffic is still moving - another Whoooo Hoooo.

For those not familiar, Jamul is about 15 miles east of Sad Diego. It's mostly 4 lane freeways and city all the way through LA then a two lane freeway north over the Grape Vine pass, and through the Central Valley, then the mountains north of Redding, and into Yreka. The Grape Vine pass is about 4500 feet tall, and sometimes gets snow in the winter time. The Central Valley of CA is flat with mountains riming the west and east sides. The flat areas are all farmed where they grow a lot of fruits, vegtables, and nuts for miles and miles. You pass truckloads of tomatoes and onions going to the processing plants, and see hundreds of workers packing boxes full of all sorts of fruit and vegetables. It can get very hot during the summer in the Central Valley, but I got lucky and hit a day that was sunny and only in the upper 70's - Beautiful way to start my trip. I didn't take any pictures the first day, as I have been on this road many times, and I am not used to taking pic's during my rides. Usually Tammy or one of my other friends I ride with take all the pics. However, I did get better about taking pics as the trip went along. So stay tuned, there will be less writing and more pics coming...

My bike is running great - I've been able to do about 80mph most of the way and making good time, until I stop for gas about 100 miles south of Sacramento. For some stupid reason, I unzip the top cover on my tankbag where I keep a map and my cell phone. After getting gas and a bathroom break, I get back on I5 heading north and about 30 minutes later, I look down and see that my cell phone is missing!!! That's right, it fell out somewhere between the gas station and 30 miles north. I'm pissed and turn round and go back to see if it fell out at the gas station. I go in to see if someone turned it in - no luck. I retrace my steps to see if it fell out somewhere close to the station - no luck. Then I ride on the edge of I5 doing about 20mph for a while to see If I might get lucky and find the phone - no luck. I had a black Razor phone. There was so many pieces of black rubber on the side of the road - it would have been impossible to see my phone. Now if I had a pink phone like Tammy.... So now I'm back up to speed heading north on I5 to an AT&T Cell phone store in Sacramento so I can buy a new phone. Luckily I have Dennis's and my Yreka friends phone numbers written down in my log book. But this little episode costs me about 1 1/2 hours of my time and some $$$ for a new phone. Hopefully, this will be the worst thing that happens during the trip. The rest of the day is uneventfull and I arive in Yreka at 5:30pm, 13 hours and 795 miles from Jamul.

I could have stayed with my friends, but since they live outside of town, I decided to stay at the Miners Inn right downtown within walking distance of the Reunion. This way, I could have a few drinks and not worry about riding. After checking in and taking a shower I met two of my good friends, Ray and Jim, for a Mexican dinner with margueritas. We hung out for a few hours then went to one of the bars in downtown Yreka. At the bar, we met 6 other friends who were in town for the Reunion. We had a great time closing the bar down at 2am!! I haven't stayed up this late in years. I was able to sleep in a little Saturday morning - I had one hell of a hangover. Jim picked me up about 11:30 am for the Reunion Picnic. We picked up some more beer and sandwiches for lunch. It was a lot of fun seeing more of my old friends at the park. Here's a photo of me on the left, then John, Jess, and my good friend Jim on the right.

After hanging out at the park most of the afternoon, we got ready for the Reunion at the Elks Lodge that evening. There were about 60 people total at the Elks including spouces and others. We ate dinner, had an open bar, and a DJ for music. I had a great time visiting with a lot of old friends throughout the evening. I ended up back at the hotel about midnight. Luckily I was smarter this night and didn't have as much to drink, as I needed to be on the road the next morning by 6:30am. Here is a group photo taken inside the Elks Lodge - what a good looking group:). I'm standing in the back row on the right side between my friends John and Lori.

It's Sunday morning 8-3, and now that the Reunion is over, it feels like my trip to Alaska has finally started. I packed the bike, ate the free breakfast at the hotel - hard boiled eggs, toast, fruit, juice and coffee - then hit the road at 6:30am. The morning started off with a chill in the air, but it felt good. I love the crisp morning air and the smell of pine trees. A few miles north of Yreka, I stopped to take pics of the sunrise and Mount Shasta - wow - what a beautiful start to the day.