Home (Nathan)

And I thought 500 miles was a big day. I rode 860 miles -- 1,384 kilometres -- yesterday. After nearly two weeks away, I wanted to see my wife, and figured if I rode hard enough, I could pull it off. It was a big day, though. Thirteen and a half hours of riding, including a few short breaks to keep me from falling asleep at the handlebar. The last half was anxiety-ridden, given that my bike has developed a third problem (1: it drinks oil; 2: it eats tires, and had bad ball bearings, which necessitated an emergency replacement en route). Now three: it produces an awful banging sound when accelerating at low speeds, which is replaced by a worrisome knocking at higher speeds. I'm sure it should not have been ridden in this condition, but I wanted to get home, and gritted my teeth.

Oh, and I found rain, too. It took quite literally 4,800 miles of riding, but I found rain. Luckily for me, it was a very light drizzle, and it lasted less than an hour. I didn't so much as get wet. Hats off to Brett for riding through the downpour, though.

Grand total for mileage ridden on the trip: 5,095 miles, or 8,200 kilometres. Add to that the 1,600 kms in the van, and I covered over 6,000 miles, or nearly 10,000 kilometres, in 13 days. I've done big road trips before, but this is a new record for me.

I will be submitting a travel article on this trip to the Globe and Mail, where I am a reporter. Here, however, is a rough preview of the ending, which I cobbled together after my arrival last night:

"So why do this? I found myself asking that question on the last day of the trip. I was nearing the end of a 1,400-kilometre day of riding, a seemingly endless march from Oregon home to Calgary. My shoulders were aching. My backside had passed pain into numb. My motorcycle, which I had bought with much excitement just weeks before the trip, had become an albatross. Still hours from home, and the oil reservoir was half-empty, thanks to the bike's unfortunate thirst. Worse, it had developed a horrible banging sound, and appeared to be ready to leave me stranded on the side of the road at any time.

 

It was, in short, a recipe for misery.

 

But then I looked around. I had crossed into Alberta, and the sun was setting, leaving the clouds and the Rockies, which lined the western horizon, doused in a dusty purple. The day's last light danced across the dun-coloured foothills. Cattle grazed. A fox dug for something in a ditch. The road stretched out before me, long and straight. I was alone, and could feel the chill of a crosswind blowing over a lake still partly frozen. It was familiar scenery, but seeing it from a motorcycle gave it a new intimacy. I couldn't quite suppress a thought: it would be nice if this didn't have to end."

Vancouver

Thankfully once I got on the road it started to rain. Rain makes for
excellent motorcycling--slippery rodes, reduced visibility, and makes the
rider colder faster.

After pulling over to put all my gear on I discovered the problem... My
boots let in too much air. An excellent feature during most of our trip
when it was hot but not excellent as the water got in along with the air
chilling my feet.

Solution--a vapor barrier. Foot goes next to plastic bag which is covered
over w/ a sock. No moisture or cold air on the foot.

I'm happy to report that SPITFUK and I are home! I finally made it only to
be locked out... I didn't bring my key nor did I tell my wife when I would
be home. An oversight on my part, but I have a good book and a nice
courtyard to sit in...

Nathan is traveling - he got 300 miles under his belt before 10 AM. We
split ways this AM..

Nathan doesn't have a map of how to get from Portland to Calgary...
Reason--he doesn't need one.

I called him SPIDEY (after Spiderman) on this trip because of his amazing
ability to find a hotel, campground or anything else we were looking for...

I'm sure his sense of direction is guiding him onto the best roads for his
trek back.

Make sure to keep Spidey in your thoughts and prayers til he arrives home
tommorrow...

You may ask - would you do it again?

Yes, actually I am planning a trip called KIDS IN THE RIDE. Where I
motorbike to Alaska and kids and wife come along in SUV... Who knows what
the future brings... Although I think my bum needs a few days rest.

Thanks for all the support and for sharing our journey.

30 miles from Portland (Brett)

We had a stop that took some time for repairs... I'll let Nathan discuss
this.

Last PM we got to within 30 miles of Portland and arranged for a hotel
around 9 PM. On the road total for over 12 hours..

Amazing scenes--Redwoods, Oregon coast, small farms... 524 miles driven.

We had late night snack and Nathan just left for his 870+ mile push to get
home (2 days).

I have 360 miles to go... Time to get on the road. In case you don't
know., we are both road weary...

Can't wait to see wife and kids!

Earthquake! (Nathan)

We had the perfect campsite. Covered in grass. Quiet. Metres from a cliff
overlooking the ocean. Amazing.
The signs said "unstable cliff" but that seemed overly cautious.

Until this morning. Just after 530, I was lying in my sleeping bag when my
head started shaking. Couldn't quite figure it out - until I realized it
must be an earthquake. Just a minor one, except for that cliff. What if it
gave way? Should I hop out?

No damage done, though. It was pretty cool to feel though.

Dream day (Nathan)

If you asked a guy with a motorcycle to describe the perfect day, you'd end
up with a description of what we did for 12 hours yesterday.

We started at Big Sur, one of the most beautiful stretches of the
California coast line, and rode north to San Francisco. Crossed the Golden
Gate bridge, then entered the wild roads that head north from there.
Picture a DNA helix laid flat across a steep mountain range and you get a
sense for what the road looked like. Actually, keep that picture in mind,
because it happens to describe pretty much our entire day. From the Golden
Gate we headed east for a brief detour to Santa Rosa, where my bike needed
an emergency chain repair that took about 5 minutes, cost me a case of
Corona, and made it clear that if I would learn the first thing about
elementary motorcycle repair, I wouldn't have emergencies like this one.

Either way, from Santa Rosa it was north up a massive hill climb to highway
20, which heads back to the coast over 36 miles. I'm not sure if anyone has
counted, but it would not surprise me if there are 500 corners in that
stretch, many of them scary sharp. The ones posted 25 mph - 40 kph - were
the nice easy ones, if that means anything to anyone. Many of them were
total screamers, the kind you enter madly downshifting until the bike is
revving high and your speed is bleeding off. Often, it's not enough, but
you never realize it until it's too late. So you rag on the brakes for a
brief panicked moment, then lean hard, hoping your bike doesn't tip over
far enough that things start scraping. And, since most of the corners are
blind, you also hope that there's no one in your lane on the other side,
and that it's free of rocks or gravel - which, when you're turning hard -
are the equivalent of ice on the road. Then, assuming it's all gone well,
you hit the end of the curve with a quick snort of the throttle, smile, and
lean into the next one.

I kid you not: I'm pretty sure we repeated that scene a thousand times
today, if not more. It was an unbelievable day.

Then tonight, tents on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. It sounds
like a peaceful Iraq out there with the surf crashing in.

I had a thought today: how exactly am I going to adjust back to life in the
office?

A new VanderKlippe on two wheels! (Nathan)

I got big news today: my dad, who has talked about motorcycling for years,
got his licence and, at last word, was looking at a bike to buy.

Congratulations, dad!

And once you're comfortable riding, ship it out west. I've got some roads
I'd love to show you.

Farewell to the tope (Nathan)

Two things I discovered in Mexico:

1) Mexican stop signs. Enough fodder for a few jokes right there. More like
yield signs, unless they happen to stand in front of dudes with guns, which
they often do at highway mulitary checkpoints (most of which we were,
happily, waved through). I happen to like the Mexican stop sign, though. No
one ever ran one - that we saw - when other traffic was around. But why
stop for no one? I think it's an efficient system.

2) Mexican speedbumps. These, unlike the stop signs, are deadly serious,
and not at all optional. The country is littered with them, likely because
they provide the only effective method of speed control. But they like to
lie in wait for the unsuspecting. With very few exceptions, they are
well-marked. But they still have a habit of sneaking up on you. And if
you're not careful, they are big enough to make you bottom out (which I
did, several times) or fling you from your seat (which I did not,
thankfully). Either way, they are enough of an annoyance that they made me
want to get out of Mexico, which we did two nights ago, lane-splitting our
way (slowly and safely, of course), to the front of the line.

Entering the U.S. I was actually thrilled to enter a relatively tope-free
land - tope being the Spanish name for speedbump (it probably also means
"extraordinary nuisance").

The excitement lasted about 45 minutes, right until the moment we turned
onto the street where friends of ours have a house we crashed at. And
there, alas were more topes. When it comes to speedbumps, there is no
escape.