I returned last week from a 15 day, 6200 mile trip from Phoenix, AZ to Hyder, AK. I rode with a guy on a 2004 BMW K1200rs and I was on my 2000 VFR. I have nearly six hundred pics, so I will just include a few.
We road from Phoenix to Mt. Zion National Park in Utah, then cut across (west) to Highway 93. We stayed on 93 all the way to Jasper, Alberta with the exception of a detour on the Salmon River Scenic Highway in Idaho.
We stayed in Glacier National Park on day 3, comforted by our friends-bears and forest fires.
Day 4 found us at Lake Louise and on the Icefield Parkway, which has to be perhaps the most majestic 100 miles one can ride on a bike. The curves aren't special but the views are beyond description. More fire for company.
Day 5 we camped in central B.C. at Burns Lake. B.C. is big and has a lot of trees. Seriously, a lot of trees.
Day 6 was Alaska, a place of big mountains, waterfalls, rainforest, bears, and expensive beers. All told we saw about a dozen bears between Glacier and returning to the States. The only Grizzly was in Alaska.
Day 7 had us in Prince Rupert, B.C. discovering that drinking instead of checking ferry times can lead to a 300 mile backtrack.
Day 8, pissed about Day 7, we rode from Smithers, B.C. to Southern Seattle. 860 miles on a 2 lane roads, 1 hour detour on country roads at dark, 18 hours on bike, not cool.
Day 9 Seattle and rest
Day 10 B.S. ticket by Washington's finest, lying P.O. and the Olympic Penninsula. Ended on the Oregon Coast. Foggy. Sea Lions.
Day 11 Crater Lake. Bluest water I've ever seen. Excellent area for motorcycling.
Day 12 Did my best Rossi/Hayden impersonation on the Pacific Coast 1.
Day 13 Favorite Brewery to visit- Anderson Valley in Boonville, CA. Another great motorcycle area (1.5 hrs Northwest of San Francisco).
Day 14 150 miles of rush hour traffic ending in San Berdino.
Day 15 back in Phx and wonderful searing heat which apparently is really comfortable because it is a dry heat. BTW, ovens use dry heat to bake things.
I'm not a big fan of long descriptions or spell check. I'd rather just answer questions if anyone has any. BTW- mods are throttlemeister, 15T front sprocket, givi hard bags.
[image: IPB Image] Bikes at Mt. Zion, UT Only pic I had of bikes at Mt. Zion National Park
[image: IPB Image] Glacier Park, MT Glacier. Haze caused by forest fires.
[image: IPB Image] Lake Louise, Alberta Lake + mountains = pretty
[image: IPB Image] Icefield Parkway Literally 100 miles of glaciers, mountains, and lakes. Amazing.
[image: IPB Image] Icefield Parkway II Between Banff and Jasper, Alberta.
[image: IPB Image] Misty Fjords On the road to Hyder, Alaska.
[image: IPB Image] Hyder, Alaska It's a picture, so it must be real.
[image: IPB Image] Grizzly Bear Fish Creek US forest service observation walkway.
[image: IPB Image] Rainbow in Alaska The bizarre coincidence of seeing rainbows on my motorcycle trips continues...
[image: IPB Image] Glacier This is on the way back from Hyder, about 4 miles out of town. Pic doesn't indicate how massive and wide this sucker is.
[image: IPB Image] Crater Lake Impressive bit of land.
It was the last time either of us would be able to take a long trip for awhile, so we figured out the most extreme place we could reach within time constraints.
That looks like an awesome trip, I am so jealous. Thanks for sharing the beautiful pics! I havent been up to Alaska in two years and its killing me. I love it up there.
jeremy556, Aug 29 2006, 09:34 AM I like your descriptions. Down two in front, was that a little buzzy on a long trip like this?
Down one in front. The 5th Gens run 1 tooth sprocket higher in the front than 6th Gen. I'm using a 6th Gen stock sprocket; I thought that it was 15T but maybe it is 16T. I prefer it to stock and didn't notice any greater loss in mph than about 1-2 miles per gallon.
Down one in front. The 5th Gens run 1 tooth sprocket higher in the front than 6th Gen. I'm using a 6th Gen stock sprocket; I thought that it was 15T but maybe it is 16T. I prefer it to stock and didn't notice any greater loss in mph than about 1-2 miles per gallon.
Ah, OK. Stock for 6th gen is 16t, 5th gen is 17t. I run a 15t on my 6th gen and much prefer the down gearing this way.
God I miss that area. Lake Louise, Banff, jasper, a climber and skiers heaven. I must go back...problem is I might not come home. Kind of like when we were in the Andes in Chile. Awesome mountains, great skiing and what a way of life.
Welocme back to the Valley of the Blast Furnace. I've got some of those same pics. In fact I've got the same pic of the same glacier on Icefields Parkway. I did a 7 day trip through Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho and Montana last month. Beautiful country and very friendly people. [image: Click for full size]
supraman66, Aug 29 2006, 04:04 PM That my friend looks like an awesome trip. How did the bike perform? Thats a lot of miles. Did you need new tires?
Awesome pics!!!
Put on a new set of Avon 45/46s right before the trip. Tires did great. No need to replace them yet. The bike overheated twice, once crawling up the Road to the Sun in Glacier Park in heavy traffic and in rush hour on the I-10 in LA even with lane splitting. I had the coolant system back flushed before the trip so I don't know if it is a curable problem. One of the bright bulbs burned out about 300 miles from home.
The trip was indeed awesome.
DangerMonkey, Aug 29 2006, 10:44 PM Welocme back to the Valley of the Blast Furnace. I've got some of those same pics. In fact I've got the same pic of the same glacier on Icefields Parkway. I did a 7 day trip through Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho and Montana last month. Beautiful country and very friendly people.
Your pic looks like the day was a little clearer. I hope you took the Salmon Scenic hwy in Idaho. I'm slowly building up desire to hit hwy 191 in a month or so. Any desire to go? Did you add a GS to your stable? If so, I officially hate you out of jealous spite. (edited for child-like grammatical error)
VFRVeryFunRide, Aug 29 2006, 05:25 PM Absolutely awesome man! What a ride. I wonder if I could do that trip, I have a few years on ya. Great pics as well. Congratulations!
You could do it. I recommend sometype exercise prep before such a trip to get abs, back, and shoulders in sometype of decent condition. In hindsight I would plan for a non-motorcycle day once every 4 or 5 days. Although a nonstock seat may have made it more comfortable, I'm a believer that at some point pain enters the equation regardless of gear/mods. If my ass didn't hurt so much, then the pain in my wrists/back/shoulders would seem even worse.
Ramblings..... I'm torn on recommending camping. On the one hand: It is usually about a 1/4 the cost It seems counterintuitive to travel to beautiful parts of the world and watch TV in a dive motel Jim Beam, fire building, and not showering really mesh well together. You meant more people camping out
However: Camping out causes you to take a lot more gear (tent, sleeping bag, food, etc) You don't sleep as well or as long Sometimes TV is perfect after a long day of riding. No prep time before sleep No breaking down/packing the next morning
Please tell me more about the Salmon River Scenic Highway. Where does it go or is it an out and back ride? Is that right out of Salmon? I found Salmon River Mtn Rd on Microsoft Street/Trips but not the Scenic Highway. Are they the same?
BonusVFR, Aug 30 2006, 01:13 PM Thanks for the report.
Please tell me more about the Salmon River Scenic Highway. Where does it go or is it an out and back ride? Is that right out of Salmon? I found Salmon River Mtn Rd on Microsoft Street/Trips but not the Scenic Highway. Are they the same?
Any part of your trip you would skip next time?
Thanks again.
The Salmon River highway is numerical highway 75 (and 26 in parts) in Idaho. It splits off of 93 N around the Shoshone city area and rejoins 93 just south of Challis, ID. It goes through the ski resort town of Sun Valley. There could be better roads in the area, but this one was very nice. Scenic and fun. Might want to ask someone that is local to the area to speak up, but I recall the road being immensely pleasurable. I'll try to dig a picture up. If you follow the road on yahoo maps you can see the fun parts. http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/#mvt=m&maxp...65595&mag=9
I wasn't really impressed with the Olympic Pennisula and Oregon Coast. I think we took the wrong road on the O.P. and the Oregon Coast was very crowded (on a Monday/Tuesday). However my perception was probably clouded by exhaustion and being spoiled by California coast/B.C/Alaska. Most people say the Oregon Coast is better, so maybe I was just in a bad mood. Also we skipped the Southern Oregon Coast to go to Crater Lake, which is probably the best part of the coast. I must say I would go back to Idaho and Oregon (Crater Lake area). I bet they have some of the best riding areas in the West, especially from what I saw in Oregon. I would not want to ride the boring parts of NV, ID, MT, or British Columbia anytime soon but you either have to ride it or trailer it to get to the good stuff.
awlittle, Aug 30 2006, 08:44 PM The Salmon River highway is numerical highway 75 (and 26 in parts) in Idaho. It splits off of 93 N around the Shoshone city area and rejoins 93 just south of Challis, ID. It goes through the ski resort town of Sun Valley. There could be better roads in the area, but this one was very nice. Scenic and fun.
Thanks, I am really interested in Idaho and am planning a route with a trip around ID, Glacier and a touch of Canada. Probably will take your advice on trailering to get there because MOST of the direct roads North from San Diego are poor MC routes especially if you head inland on 15 to get to ID.
Turns out, I have been on 75 once before. A great MC road and in pretty good condition as I remember. Visibility was lousy and cold that August day however. What was your luck like on weather - did you get your gear requirements right?
Here is my best shot North of Sun Valley. Galena Summit on 75 I think! You can see that I am into glorious landscapes tooooooooooo!
Weather was great on hwy 75. Peaked at about 90 degrees, if memory serves. I used a Cortech GX air jacket, and tourmaster rain pants when necessary. The GX was great for for temps b/t 50 to 90. I used the liner plus a vest in colder temps and opened all the vents in hot. At times I wanted my mesh jacket, but for the price of 60 bucks from newenough.com the jacket has been a great deal.
If I could do it over again, I would spring for a 3 season jacket that breaks all the way down to mesh. Also the frank thomas gloves I have suck, I used plain leather gloves for most of the trip. The franks don't fit over my jacket and somehow make my hands sweat but offer no cold weather/wet weather protection.
As far as other gear, I bought a used wingrack and 3 givibags (46 and 2 21 liter) 2 days before leaving. They were invaluable and since the bike is my only vehicle I don't know how I lived without them. I did manage to break the key in the lock about 600 miles from home. However, I was just finished with an extended brewery tour (5 hours) so I don't think Givi can really be blamed-only after sobering up was I able to come to such a rational conclusion, if you had spoke to me a few minutes afterwards I would have thrown down my soggy Frank Thomas glove and demanded a duel in the general direction of any employee, shareholder, or defender of Givi.
I also have used a nelson rigg tank bag for nearly a year and really have gotten a ton of use out of it. It holds a suprising amount, is great for stuff needed quickly, and can be laid on while busting out miles.
I also used an Ipod shuffle w/ stock headphones. Garmin Etrex GPS using ram 5 inch arm mounted to gas tank mount bolt. Also I used a pair of bicycle shorts occasionally which added to comfort a good bit while riding.
BTW-is that a key fob for the GL? Please tell me it is...i don't know why but that makes me laugh. At times I really wanted a Goldwing.
Other random recommendations: Buy a tinted visor-better than wearing sun glasses and on long trips it is nice to always have a cleaner spare. Get helmet speakers or high quality earbuds if you listen to music.
BTW-is that a key fob for the GL? Please tell me it is...i don't know why but that makes me laugh. At times I really wanted a Goldwing. Other random recommendations: Buy a tinted visor-better than wearing sun glasses and on long trips it is nice to always have a cleaner spare. Get helmet speakers or high quality earbuds if you listen to music.
Yes Sonny it is beer.gif . You can do all kinds of thing with that damm fob - like opening/locking the trunk without the key!!!! And occasionally I accidently set off the flashing lights so I can find my bike.
Really it is a great bike and I pretty much split riding between the Wing and my VFR. Did my May trip to the Sierras on my VFR but took the Wing to Laguna Seca! Go figure! When I ride with my wife - there can only be ONE. She will never get on the VFR again!
And another thing - Crater Lake is one of the few places out West where the photos actually capture the real beauty! Can you Spell BLUE! Took this ride with my fob and SO from the Rogue River area in OR.
awlittle, Aug 30 2006, 09:43 PM Weather was great on hwy 75. Peaked at about 90 degrees, if memory serves. I used a Cortech GX air jacket, and tourmaster rain pants when necessary. The GX was great for for temps b/t 50 to 90. I used the liner plus a vest in colder temps and opened all the vents in hot.
I really got cold on my Sierra trip (it was only about 50 but I froze anyway) and am thinking of getting an electric vest. My fleece vest is nice but I need more. Aerostich makes one with gore windstop (whatever) which would save packing space. Seems like our VFR electrical system can handle that ok - right?
awlittle, Aug 30 2006, 08:42 AMI'm slowly building up desire to hit hwy 191 in a month or so. Any desire to go? Did you add a GS to your stable? If so, I officially hate you out of jealous spite.
We're doing 191 as a two-day trip Oct 7-8 and spending the night in Eager. If you'd like to join us, let me know and I'll PM you the details. Yea, I added a GS to the stable.
BonusVFR, Aug 30 2006, 03:19 PM I really got cold on my Sierra trip (it was only about 50 but I froze anyway) and am thinking of getting an electric vest. ... Seems like our VFR electrical system can handle that ok - right?
I've run Gerbings heated jacket liner, heated glove liners and heated socks on the VFR with the Gerbings controller wired directly to the battery. At cruising speed there's plenty of current to drive all of them. I'm never cold on my bike.
BonusVFR, Aug 30 2006, 03:19 PM I really got cold on my Sierra trip (it was only about 50 but I froze anyway) and am thinking of getting an electric vest. My fleece vest is nice but I need more. Aerostich makes one with gore windstop (whatever) which would save packing space. Seems like our VFR electrical system can handle that ok - right?
I've got no experience with electric vests/grips/etc, so i'll bow out on this one. I have wished several times, very,very,very hard that I did have all of them.
Thanks for the write-up and pics. One of the reasons I upgraded from a CBR600 to the VFR is to do trips like this. Unfortunately my friends are more of the day-tripper types, so no good touring rides yet. I have a frind who mentions the Al-Can hiway every once and again, but I know I'll never get him to commit. We did do a 6 dayer up the PCH, Redwood forest then on to Crater Lake, but I'd like to do something longer.
Out of curiousity - what was a typical day like? How many miles, how long, what kind of breaks, etc? Stuff like that. Did you camp it the whole way, or mix in some motels?
Right now I'm trying to talk my friends into a Yellowstone trip next summer, so any tips for longer rides appreciated.
Out of curiousity - what was a typical day like? How many miles, how long, what kind of breaks, etc? Stuff like that. Did you camp it the whole way, or mix in some motels?
Right now I'm trying to talk my friends into a Yellowstone trip next summer, so any tips for longer rides appreciated.
We averaged 442 miles per day with a 24 hour break in Seattle. We typically would ride until lunch and then had instant mashed potatos or beans at night, although we had at least two days of treating ourselves to a big, greasy breakfast.
We camped a little more than 1/2 the time, had a place in Seattle to stay, and the rest of the time was motel.
The 1st few days we took breaks only to gas up. As time and miles wore on we would stop about every 150 miles.
If you want to do a long trip and have time constraints, I would say take no more than 3 people and be sure they have the gas range and endurance to pull it off. The more people the more breaks and longer time each break takes. I also recommend only setting general plans of where to end up on any given day, sh*t happens and forcing a destination goal can lead to trouble; I inevidentably violate this rule but swear every time that next time I won't.
442 miles per day is a lot. If you have the time, I would plan less than 300 per day if possible and front load your mileage so that you longest days are the 1st few days.
Good on 'ya, Mate! I have been wanting to do the Alaska Highway, but the long (20 mile or so) stretches of gravel give me pause. Maybe I'll borrow a friend's Tiger or a 1150 GS.
maddog, Sep 1 2006, 06:11 PM Nice report and pics. Quite an adventure on a VFR.
I've wanted to head up to Alaska on my yellow one too. Don't want to do it alone, though.
How were the road conditions heading towards Alaska? Lots of gravel?
I have ridden in Canada, mostly in B.C., but did visit the icefields. Sweet.
Keep in mind that I rode to the southern most part of Alaska accessable by road, so I wasn't on the road that heads to the main portion of Alaska. The roads to Hyder were fine. A few sections of less than perfect road, but certainly nothing to detour anyone on any type of bike. Once in Hyder the road is dirt/gravel (which Canadians love to point out) but it is very packed down and you only have to drive a 1/8 mile to see the whole town. The road to fish creek is gravel which wasn't fun but was doable. I didn't drive the additional 20 miles to bear glacier so i don't know if the road gets worse.
