Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB

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Two Moto Kiwis 27 Jul 2012 22:38

Two Moto Kiwis Arctic To Antarctic May 2012...On
 
Two Moto Kiwis Arctic To Antarctic May 2012 On...
Heya fellow Hubber's.

After discussion with Susan and Grant and my apparent lack of skill we are copying out Ride Report here for fello Hubbers to (hopefully) enjoy.

Welcome to our trip of a life time, we are Two Moto Kiwis, our blog is Two Moto Kiwis

We are Andi & Ellen Delis from Wanaka in Central Otago New Zealand, see here. Wanaka, New Zealand

I have been owned by 37 bike over 33 years, Ellen has only been riding the last two years.

We left New Zealand May 3rd leaving behind friends and family, our jobs and most of our responsibilities to come see America from top To Bottom, we have started in Anchorage AK and we are setting up here, Barb and Victor from Alaska Leather Alaska Leather have been absolutely instrumental in seeing TMK get off the ground so our heart found thanks goes to these guys.

Our plan is to travel around in Alaska first off then go to Prudhoe Bay, catch up with fello ADVers in Dawson at the D2D gathering, head north to Inuvik, fly up to Tuktayuktuk then head south taking in the middle and west side of Canada, USA, Mexico, Central then South America down to Ushuaia ... then decide where to go from there money and time dependent.

We are riding two DR 650s, Ellen has a 2011 White one, mine is a 2012 Grey one, both new through Alaska Leather, we decided given the distance we will travel and cost to ship my bike from NZ we both will start on new machinery.

We are running Safari 30 L Tanks, screens from Screens For Bikes in Australia, Sargent seats, Bark Buster Storm, AME heated grips, Garmin 660 GPS and my bike has a YSS damping, both bike have Intiminators.

In the next post we will show the gear we have chosen, we have to wait until Ellens trousers arrive

We have some acknowledgments to make first off to the people and businesses that been been of great help and sponsored us with product, I no particular order they are

Sponsors

ARAI Helmets USA - Have sponsored us with the new XD4 Adventure helmets, Ellens in White, mine in Fluro Yellow, these things rock, I have an ARAI Chaser for my road helmet and these have met all the expectations for teh same quality fit and finish.

Klim Adventure Gear - Have sponsored my Adventure Rally Jacket and Badland Pro pants as well as the Inferno warm layer top and bottom, this is the best gear I have ever worn in my life and I am very grateful to be wearing the best gear to cover all conditions.

Kevin and Keiko from Te Anau New Zealand - Keiko designed and drew our cards and logos, seriously cool given I don't have an arty bone in my body.

Delis Tools from Kaiapoi in New Zealand - sponsored our Kincrome luggage cases.

Icebreaker Clothing from New Zealand - sponsored our Merino gruds, socks and longs johns, we love Merino clothing and Icebreaker as it tolerates smelly stinky adventure bikers without stinking like cotton does and it is very warm to layer up with.

Alaska Leather - Barb and Victor, I simply can't say enough so I won't even try. Legends they are getting two foreigners of the ground in style.

Bark Busters- sponsored our Barkbuster Storms which Ellen has already crash tested and saved our first set of levers.

Sargent Seats - sponsored our low height comfort seats, they have saved our arse from one end of the planet to the other as the factory DR seats or shockers.

Mike and Mei Dawson in New Zealand for sponsoring a good contribution to riding to to make sure we make it safe back to New Zealand

Screens for Bikes from Australia, these screens are mint taking the wind blast off our chest and taking the load off our helmets, who says you can't have a few home comforts

So the next post we will put up gear and pics, just got the lappy and camera so learning quickly how to use them so please be patient

Two Moto Kiwis 27 Jul 2012 22:49

First Days Out
 
After 10 days of intense working, chopping, grinding, soldering, drilling, bashing, scraping and knuckle bashing Chiwi and Hobbit are finally ready to race. (we are STILL married) :evil

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We learnt a lot about the bikes, everything we had prepared fitted like glove and we established that if we couldn't fix it with a big hammer it was an electrical problem. :D

We were going to take both bikes to Amy's - an ADV (adventure rider ) who rides Suzuki DR650 invited us a few other guys for a salmon feed on Saturday night (12th May), Andi took them both out on the drive way and got them started. Some how Chiwi took herself out off the stand and fell over, on the way down Chiwi blatantly attacked Hobbit and knocked Hobbit off his*perch*as well. Ellen rushed over turned both of them off. well, Andi's crash board on the side panniers took the hit and the left rear case took a beating where Chiwi bit him. Anyway, Chiwi seemed not liking the fall and wouldn't start when we picked her up!!. With the time pressure, we had to both jump on Hobbit and went to Amys.

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The dinner party (our first official engagement) was wonderful, we meet some local ADVs as well. Amy cooked up a storm for us, Jack, Paul, Rodger and Katey all gave us some good advice on riding. It was the second time people asked us if we have heated vest, they said we would need them going up to the North. We think we will try what we have now - which is three layers of Icebreaker, see how it goes.

Sunday 13th May, we left Anchorage to Homer, which is 210 miles west of Anchorage. Andi gave Chiwi a blow job (per Amy) to get it started (remember it wouldn't start after falling over the night before, must have been an air lock in the fuel tube and stopped the fuel get into the carb).

We knew it would be cold, so two layers of Icebreaker long Johns and three layers for the upper body. Only just out of city on the highway a bitterly cold wind hit us, then came down with rain. With heated grips on full, our hands still cold.

We stopped at a service station, wanted some hot food to warm us up. The hot soup was nothing like the one we imagined, clear water with a few slice of noodles and chicken strips served with crackers! Not stopping here again.

After the luke warm clear water soup, we hit the road again. It's getting colder and colder, the rain turned to snow! We had to keep wiping our visor to be able to see through it. Ellen was thinking:"what the hell is it? Is not the same as what Amy said the night before." She couldn't see through her visor, and kind of lost the sense of balance. She was almost in tears, *just as well Andi found a bypass and we can pull over.

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Fortunately, the snow turned to rain again after we came down a bit. The road was getting drier and the Sun almost came out. "It was lucky, " Ellen thought. However, she spoke too soon. The road turned wet again and this time, came down with hale! Ellen visor was fogged up inside, so she could not see through again. She tried to pull the visor up, then the hale hit her face like cutting knives. So she shut the visor, can't see the road. It was getting really dangerous now. She slowed down, kept the bike up straight, until finally passed the hale zone. "That was a ride in hell, I wasn't prepare for that."she thought.

After about 3 hour riding through wind, rain, snow and hale, it was still 95 miles away from Homer. The sky came to clear, the road was dry and it getting warmer. We were on boarder of thinking heated vest might be on the shopping list for next ride, but also understand we only need them here in Alaska, then carry them around the rest of the trip. Maybe we try 4 layers of Icebreaker on the way back.

There was no drama for the last leg of our trip, we started to see muse on the side of the road. GPS took us to Charlie's - another ADV rider. Homer welcomed us with sun shine and beautiful snow mountain and a Moose grazing in front of Charlie's front yard. The four seasons ( cold, very cold, very very cold and freezing ) we had gone through to get here - it worth it.

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Two Moto Kiwis 27 Jul 2012 23:03

So todays funnies.

Greetings Hubbers, well today (Tuesday 15th May) was very cool, beautiful day to play with greeted us through the curtains, we are lucky enough to be staying with Charlie at his home in Homer so 5 star.

We set off for a ride to Anchor Point the Western most point you can drive to, we were greeted with breathtaking views and a nice still day.

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A total thrashing with the camera and poses galore we recorded our stop at Anchor Point, from there we went up to Nickolaevsk a Russian settlement with a beautiful church.

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We headed back to Homer again to record our “been there done that and got the T shirt” in front of the Homer sign .... as ya do!!

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Back for a quick lunch then off to See Dean at Full Power then out to Voznesenka however Ellen decided it was time to lay Chiwi down for a rest .. but she did this at a busy intersection much to the interest of other traffic., kids do not try this at home!!!

I went back to rescue the stricken maiden and her lovely stead, my “kiwi made” crash boards have paid their way and the Barkbuster storms have probably saved us a hundy on levers already!

Only two minutes later .... take two, we pull up to Deans shop and bang down she goes again from car park on an angle and some bad estimating, this time Dean had the honours of righting Chiwi back to rubber side down.

After recomposing our fair maiden again and standing round in the sun having a chat we set off to Barb and Victors cabin then headed out to Voznesenka, at the end of the road is a groovy track down to the sea.

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With Charlie on his Wing and Ellen learning her skills the hard way I was the only one to go down, it was worth it and pretty easy but it woulda been a little more than Ellen’s current skill level.

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After looking around we headed back for home where Ellen redeemed herself with a great feed of tempurad Hallibut.

Two Moto Kiwis 27 Jul 2012 23:14

We survived Homer and the Homer-roids, we joined in a ride from Homer through to Hope, the rest of the team continued back to Seward to stay the night, sink some toxic lemonade and talk shit as you do.

Ellen and I already topping our milage limit for our first service continued on to Anchorage, we are booked in on Wednesday :clap, on the way in we were able to pick up our bank card and open our Smugmug account for photos and activate our SPOT.

Good news is my tank should be here on Friday so I can finally ditch the factory DR peanut tank and ride with something less to think about as far as fuel planning goes.

So these are the last of the Homer Photos, we will be in Anchorage for the week so not too many picture to come this week, this is our service and finish the bike week.

Charlie Ellen and I

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Our new car ... plenty of room for playing chasing :evil

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Mount Augustine

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Chiwi having a rest

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ARAI and Mountains

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Salty Dawg at Homer Spit

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Young Eagle

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Can't explain this one

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Gota roof bro!!!

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Two Moto Kiwis 27 Jul 2012 23:18

Charles and His Food Pantry

Andi met Charlie on the ADV forum. When we got to Anchorage, we realize he is a friend of Barb and Amy - and other ADV riders. What a surprise.

We arrived Charles' house in Homer in the brilliant sunshine, a moose was grazing in front of the front yard, with the snow mountain and ocean in the full view of the lounge, it felt just like at home in Wanaka - except the moose.

Charlie took us down to the Homer spit and showed us around. Most importantly, he told us about his passion - the city food pantry.

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With Charlie at food pantry

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The food pantry is similar to the food bank in NZ. They collect donations of food and distribute to the people who have the need. There are a few volunteers working at the food pantry. Charlie picks up food from local grocery shop most days and is also on call 24 -7. They have a system, people who registered in the system pick up their food parsel every Monday afternoon. So on Monday morning, we joined Charlie and his mates sorting out all the food.

There are donuts, muffins, cakes, tin food and also lots of fruit and veges. Although the fruit and veges are not in their best condition - that's why they are donated but they are still very good. In NZ, that would be thrown out but the people in Homer sorted them out, then give to the people in need.

While we were taking the rotting part of the veges out, a lady told me to put them in a seperate box, because "people will pick it up for animals, nothing is going to waste from here." I was wonder how does that work because the US for me is a country people suing for anything and everything. Charlie said they do have permission from govt to do so. What a great thing to do for the community. I think if our NZ could do the same, first will help lots of people, second will reduce lots of waste.

"Is there any who people abuse this system?" "Of course there is." Charlie said. The food pantry also has limited finance to support people. Charlie went and met a woman while we stayed with him, he came back not very happy. I asked how was the woman, Charlie said:"I told her not to come back to us." The woman who claimed was abused by her partner was driving a brand new rental car, but no money for fuel. Charlie went and paid for the fuel, she also wanted the receipt. Charlie said no and told her to change an affordable car as well.

Most people come to food pantry are genuinly in need of help. Charlie has been working for the food pantry for 3 years, and seeing the number of people coming to the panty is growing - this is his main concern. He believes America is in a bad shape.

Charlie also told us his romance with a Chinese lady he met on the Internet. He even sold all his belongings and moved to China to be with her. Unfortunately the hot weather there and cultural difference curtailed the romance. Charlie had to return to Alaska after a few months in China. Although he didn't make his life in China, they still remain very good friends. I even talked to the lady on Skype in Chinese - Charlie asked me to tell her in Chinese that riding motorcycle is not dangerous!

Andi spent couple of days help Charlie to fix his Honda 1979 Gold Wings so he can go riding with us on Sunday - actually the ride was on Saturday, Charlie messed up the day which he was most embarrassed.

Our stay in Homer had a shorter ending due to leaving on the Saturday rather than the Sunday but we don't mind at all as we met a few more riders and enjoyed the trip to Hope Cafe with them. We were so lucky to be able to stay with Charlie and get to know him and his passion. He made us feel at Home(r) as our own home. We can not thank him enough. All the best for Charlie, we wish you find a good company to share your love and passion.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:01

Trip To Valdez - King Mountain Camp
 
Greetings, we have been away from wifi etc for a week and half ish so have not been able to get back to here prior, hopefully the following will enlighten you to the hard work and torment we have had to go thru JUST so we can come back and tell you :D

Friday 25th May

We were originally planning to go to Prudhue Bay with Amy and Jack however with the bike 600 mile service needing to be done, my bike still not running right and no big tank there was too much hanging in the air to confirm.

So in the events that followed, my Safari tank arrived, our bikes were serviced however my bike was still not running right, after a scrap with Suzuki and some stern words from Barb into appropriate ears they “found” some time to take serious look at it to sort it out and that was Thursday night then Friday morning, I am pleased to say my bike now runs like Ellens does and finally acts (almost) like it should.

With not being able to go to Prudhoe we took off to Valdez on Friday avo to camp at King Mountain reserve, great place and great scenery, Dicon and Leslie left after work and soon caught us up at camp.

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Ellens new PINK Chair arrived so that seemed to be the camp fire fun for the evening ... weird people.:D

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Leslie had a go...

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Dicon sorta had a go...

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Then the camera had a go

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We were also generously donated 4 Goose eggs to have for breaky as a New Zealanders welcoming present by Nancy the camp host...too cool.

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Greta night really without TV .... Food, wine, fire, photos, sleep.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:32

King Mountain Camp To Valdez
 
Saturday 26th May

Saturday morning dawned gray, we packed up almost dry and continued on our way toward Valdez .... mum nature decided we all needed a shower .... boy did it rain and it dropped to 32 f or ZERO in the metric world, at that time I thought we had better take off our shorts and carry on in our riding trousers.

On the way Kiwi decided it was too fookin cold behind the screen and jumped off, dumb idea at 70 miles an hour, I turned round went back and picked him up, he was breathing but was hyperthermic, things were serious :cry

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So a stop at Glenellen for bike and human fuel, hot coffee and food ... life saver... and time for Kiwi to dry out ... see the stain he left on the seat

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We also turned off to Cooper Centre to the newly burnt down building, that was not a good thing to see and sad for the owners who ARE rebuilding.

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As we headed to Valdez the weather came and went, this time with mum nature offering views of snowy mountains and beautiful glaciers, it was still fookin cold but looking out the window made it very worth while Thompsons pass being quite spectacular.

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Upon arriving at Valdez we were greeted by heavy rain and just above freezing so the weather had improved quite a bit, we faffed around looking at a camp site at which the cost seemed more comparable to purchasing the site rather than just staying there the night so we went outa town to the Airport camp ground.

We got to the camp, it was a matter of finding a site with the LEAST amount of snow on it, we won. We set up and leslie organized snacks fit for a King so snacks, food, wine fire etc, great night.

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:33

Valdez To Kennicott
 
Sunday 27th May

Sunday morning Ellen went for a run and was confronted by a brown bear, she stood still, the bear eyed her up and down for about 20 seconds and musta decided he didn’t wonna eat Chinese for breakfast and took off into the bushes, I am grateful for that as I don’t know how to change our ride report to “One Moto Kiwi”

The day started as a gray day (surprise) and was not wet then turned to shit BIG time as we were packing up so everything got wet (again), we shot back to town to tank up and go to a shop which was closed so we left Valdez, a little disappointing we could see Valdez in all her glory because of the weather but that is the way the cookie crumbles.

The assault on Thompsons pass turned out to be an assault on us, as we climbed to the summit the rain turned to snow (again) ... this is now becoming the norm for us so we stopped to take photos, saweeet .. met another BMW rider at the summit with an unhappy wife as she did not see the funny side of the snow or freezing temperatures, just as well we were not wearing our shorts or she mighta thought we were weird.

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So what is a man to do but indulge in the locale

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So from here the weather started to turn in our favour and we found the roads drying and the cloud lifting enough to expose some of Alaskas beautiful mountain sides so we were lucky, we arrived at destination Pippin Lake where Dicon and Leslie carried on back to Anchorage and Ellen and I were heading to Kennicott Copper mine.

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We continued to Chitina for a bite of lunch and tank up then carried on to McCarthy on 60 miles of shingle roads with more potholes and corrugations than you can poke a stick at.

We arrived safe and sound and set up camp dry WOHHOH, we some dinner we went into McCarthy township ... this place is a step back in time.

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This outstanding property took our interest as it is for sale :evil

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:35

Kennicott Mine
 
Monday 28th May

Dawned a fine day, couldn’t believe it, the weather Gods had finally taken pity on us and gave us a break and the bears had not flogged our fud

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We packed up camp and rode into Kennicott Copper mine, WOW what a place and the history behind it is amazing, we took heaps of pics and sifted around, we met up with Klaus again, a German adventure biker living in Australia and touring for a month in Alaska, hard case and nice guy so that is three of us I know of now.

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After we finished at the mine we piled back onto our trusty steads and rode out, Ellen made it in and out of Kennicott without biffing her bike once, I think she will be ready for world moto x champs next week.

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We also stopped at the famous Kuskalana Bridge .. it is slightly high!

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Then .. .she left me!!! :eek1

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On stopping at the Salmon wheels on the Copper river I had to execute our first field repair, I noticed the tank was wobbling and the left hand bolt had vibrated almost out, so I RTVed the bolt and screwed it back in ... sweetas.

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We ran outa cash and only had a 5er left so it was time to find a dutchie camp which we did, well the camp turned out to be the best site we have had thus far and it was gratis. We met a dude from Anchorage on a CT 90 who was looking around so we ended up camping together and borrowing his fire as we had an epic fail on our Coleman cooker which we have to fix.

This is his trusty steed a less than 1000 mile old CT90, what a weapon, I suggested he keep it under the covers so the Russians don't see it :D

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:37

Chitina To Anchorage
 
Tuesday 29th May

We woke to a nice warm morning, Ellens good weather mojo had kicked in and life was good, we packed up and proceeded to head back to Anchorage to what was an uneventful trip with a combo of sun and a few clouds a bit windy in a few places but nothing team TMK couldn’t handle.

Liberty Falls on the way out to the main road ... vary noice

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Check it out what a day :clap :clap

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Some mirror art

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And that concludes the Anchorage to Valdez and back again trip, there will be no more reports until the next one.:huh :D

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:39

Anchorage To Chugiak I
 
Finally we can catch up on some writing, been too busy looking out the window and riding around.

We stayed with Gary and Deb for two nights after leaving Lesleys, the first idea was to go for the Friday evening ride stay then carry on Saturday but with the D2D bar b q on it was established that we were so close we may as well stay the Saturday night as well, easy as. So Friday evening and Gary, Ellen and I went for a ride to Girdwood, Deb did come and meet us later for the return leg, neat ride and great views given we had not seen it on our Homer trip due to the snow and fog.

Saturday morning was a fix it and sort it morning and the avo was a pre D2D safety meeting with all the ADVers at Legions house, n o i c e view from there I might add, we organised to get Ellen’s side stand done after Greg offered to take care of it which meant we could get on the road a day earlier.Sunday morning was leisurely pack up and go to Gregs and time to say goodbyes.

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Only one minute from leaving Gary and Debs Ellen took a turn too wide go onto the ball bearings did a tank slapper and derailed off into the veges, I saw it from my mirror, my heart slumped but all was ok luckily, a quick chat on wheel placement and we were on our way (again).

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Quiet day and only a small 40 mile ride, we had been offered lodgings and a welder on Sunday to chop Ellen’s stand down another 10 mm, Beezer was going to do it Monday morning but had his hands full fixing a KLR with head problems, Beezer thanks for the offer to help mate, we really appreciated it.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:41

Anchorage To Chugiak II
 
We stayed with Greg and Len at their home in Chugiak, very nice place and a man cave enough to turn every petrolhead green with envy.

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Greg cut another10 mm off Ellens stand and fizzed the base plate back on, (thanks dude), after that Greg took me out for private sitting on his treasured TT 500 and let me take if for a quick spin, without showing my age it took me back to the good old days of kick start and manual decompressor, for non petrolheads reading this that is Cool!!!

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Big thanks to Greg and Len for having us for the night, getting the side stand sorted and providing us with a beautiful tea with huge kabarb with half a chicken on each one.

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:44

Chugiak To Wasilla
 
Monday (4th June) we went to Wasilla to catch up with John and Brenda and Lina who we met while camping in McCarthy.

John and Brenda went to New Zealand 1982, they had great time and always think highly for Kiwis. They said if we come up their way they’d like to host us. We got to Wasilla around lunch time, had time to get a few things sorted for Chiwi and Hobbit (they are not high maintenance we hope).

We had great service in the motorbike shop in Wasilla at Team CC, these guys were great and looked after us, Alaska Cycle Center could learn a LOT from these guys, big thanks to Team CC.

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Brenda and daughter Lina both working for a road construction company and John has his own surveying business.

Monday night, Brenda cooked us smoked Cooper River Salmon with pasta, now we know why Cooper Rive red salmon are so famous. It has the rich flavour which none of other salmon we tasted have.

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On Tuesday, Brenda was taking us to Lazy Mountain for a walk. Unfortunately, just we were driving out, she got a phone call from her boss, has to turned around and back to walk. She lent us a spare car so we went for a hike.

Having had so much bad weather since we got to Anchorage, it finally cleared up and come to sunny and hot in Wasilla. We can even see the mountains now.

Brenda cooked us Moose Quesidie that night, so it added more wild food we have tried in Alaska. The next morning, we said goodbye twice to Brenda and Lina, they were both working on the road from Wasilla to Talkeetna, so they even saw us on the road this time.

We had wonderful time in Wasilla, great people, great bike service and nice weather made it as a gem of Alaska.

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:49

Wasilla To Talkeetna
 
Wednesday morning (6th June), we set off to Talkeetna to meet up with a couch surfer Gwen we met in New Zealand, we hosted her at our home in Wanaka, we also met her boyfriend Steve and went for a walk into town and bought a yummy icecream then wondered back for a relaxing avo and evening, drank wine and chatted about life for while.

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:50

Talkeetna To Fairbanks
 
Thursday (7th June) We said goodbyes to Gwen and Steve after helping fix Steves new truck and carried on towards Fairbanks, a mostly uneventful trip which saw Chiwi get tired and lay down at a Mount Denali lookout, I thought it was funny however someone that I was riding with didn’t, I did snap a pic but under protest .

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As we carried on we met a cyclist doing a road ride trip to Ushuaia and starting at the top like us, dude is a machine!!!

The rest of the trip was uneventful and the first time we took off layers due to being too hot, the only real addition to the fun factor was the 2 x KTM 990 Adventure and 1 x F800GS that went passed and waved at the Two Slojoe Kiwis.

On arriving at Fairbanks we found the Uni accommodation however prices had basically doubled so that counted out Team TMK, we met the owners of the 990s and 800, they had paid it despite being told the same pricing structure that we had been told prior, on inspection of the rooms there where words spoken and the manager to be involved..we left :lol3.

Ellen and I left them and went to Adventure Cycle Works to meet Dan, good bastid, very helpful, great chat and we picked up our SENA SMH10 headsets that he had kindly taken delivery of for us, we headed off to the camp ground only to get snookered by roadworks and Mrs Garmin getting very upset not being able to tell us where to go, by this time it was mid evening and we where both hungry, we spotted a McDees and headed straight for that only to find the two 990s and the 800 parked outside, the gathering began!!

We orderer the healthy salad option, go McDees as it was very nice, we discussed a game plan with the guys who were heading to Prudhoe the following morning, we decided to stay another day and get sorted with food and supplies before riding to the end of the world.

Klaus the German adventure biker living in Ozzie touring in Alaska for a month turned up as well, same dude from Valdez and Kennicott .. we were not sure who was stalking who!, so discussions all round.

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We interrupt this bulletin to say giddy to the JATZs, Nordie, ADVGD, eddieb, Shrek, Rosie and Clint and all the other Kiwbiker dudes, missin you fellas .. ok as you were! :wave

We ended up camping with the guys that night, it was 11.00pm by the time we all cashed it in, still daylight of course.

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The following morning we meet up with Carol a couch surfer from Fairbanks, lovely lady who took in Two Dodgy Kiwis, we left Chiwi at her house and both piled onto Hobbit then headed to the Chena Hot Springs ... HELL YEAH ... earned, they were great, big smiles relaxing and NO mozzies WOH HOH... coupla pics for you guys to show the torment we are going through just for you.

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Check out Puffs bro, pretty well built and flame do come outa his nostrils

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We returned later that avo to Carols, sorted out our food, bear horn, WD40 etc and got ready for the Dalton Highway assault.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:55

Fairbanks To Coldfoot
 
9th June, Saturday, Saying our goodbyes to Carol we left Fairbanks and headed to Coldfoot, the day was warm, then cold, then very warm at Coldfoot. An uneventful trip was had, the deep shingle from road repairs being the biggest bully to Ellen however she mastered the art of staying on board and beat the bully.

One final test was presented to Ellen upon stopping at an uphill grade off camber at some roadworks ... FAIL, she put her right foot down to find nothing ... Ellen did a Wonderwoman dive off and Chiwi crashed to the ground again thus proving what a great engineer I am ... well everything stayed together is where I am going with this, I would have to say Ellens Barkbusters have stood up very very well and saved so many sets of levers, huge thank you to Barkbuster who have sponsored our BarkBuster Storms, essential equipment proven time and again.

We arrived at Coldfoot in the heat, proceeded to the visitors centre and found out about camping, we met Peggy who was very helpful to us, we ended up staying at the Marion Creek Camp which was very nice apart from the relentless mozzies.

At Coldfoot tanking up Hobbit and Chiwi

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Peggy and Lonnie

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Jack (Alcan Rider) suggested bear spray for the bears and a 12 gauge for the mozzies, I think the 12 gauge is a little on the lite side for the size of these buggas, a sawn off shoty with buck shot might slow some down but a canon would serve you better.

Ellen’s version of camping at Marion Creek Camp: we stopped at the camping ground, it was hot and we were dirty and sweaty. Mosquitos like light weight airplanes landing on us. Andi’s two layers of Icebreak won’t have a chance. He got grumpy because he got bitten and I had to wear my rain jacket and sweating underearth. Who’s dumb idea camping? The mozzies are so bad here, only deet can fight them off. Lots of people say deet is not good for you. But in our situation, you are either die from bitten by mozzies or by bad chemical, take your pick. I put deet on my face and hand, if I die, so be it. Sorry greenies, I like the idea of being health, but in life and death situation, I choose weapon which works. Anyway, take a cruise in Alaska sounds more appealing to me right now.

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Stunning new hair do... does this mozzie net make my bum look big?

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We soon came upon the Yukon River, that is a monster and the bridge a structure to be admired, lunch and photos were in order.

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On arriving at the Arctic Circle we thought we would do what no other man has done before.

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:57

Coldfoot to Galbraith Lake
 
Deet on, mozzies nets on, guns loaded (and that was just for sleeping) we woke to a fine and warm morning, a brisk pack up and a quick getaway so we weren’t on the breakfast menu was in order, thus things flowed fairly quickly.

We stopped at several sets of road works, there is a lot of work being done to tidy the road up post winter, on approaching Attigan Pass mum nature decided yeap time for a another dip so she give us a good old fashioned heavy rain wash, this was short lived but it did make the road greasy with the Calcium Chloride they use on the road to keep the dust down....very handy in heavy rain.

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Gabraith Lake soon came upon us which was our organised camp mid point to Prudhoe Bay, we have booked in for the 3pm tour the following day to go to the Arctic Ocean thus fulfilling part one of Arctic To Antarctic, part two will be Inuvik and Tuktayktuk .. can’t write about that as it hasn’t happened yet but I think we had good weather!!!!

Upon arrival at camp we had slightly dirty bikes, it looked like we had been racing motocross with house and contents on.

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We settled in and set up dry, mum nature again decided time for a wash so we carried on and wrote our report while the temperature dropped like a stone.

There was good facilities here including bear proof food container, toilet, fire pit with wood etc so 5*

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We wondered down to the lake to get some water as we were running low, the creek was brown and flowing because of the heavy rain so we picked on the ice shelf that looked clean with no yellow spots in it :D

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This little walk itself netted some neat pics of caverns etc so pretty cool, out came the professional photographer and we spun off a few shots.

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We found a we patch of flowers that Ellen thought was quite romantic so what was a professional photographer (well me anyway) meant to do ...

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The weather crapped in again after spotting us half an evening to walk around and get water etc ... Hobbit and Chiwi sitting patiently in the rain :eek1

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That concluded the day

Nigel Marx 28 Jul 2012 05:58

As fast as you are putting these up, I'm reading them! Bloody brilliant bro!

Cheers bloke,

Nigel in NZ

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 05:59

Galbraith Lake To Prudhoe Bay
 
Well mum nature could have been nicer to us but at least our tent got a good wash, we set off for Pruhdoe Bay at 8.00 am and arrived at 12 noon for 140 miles, the road was a combo of very bad to very good, mud, bog, tar, shingle, potholes etc, lots and lots of roadworks.

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The last 50 miles we had a very strong cross wind so we got to use up use a good portion of the right hand side of the tyre, is was very hard work for me let alone Ellen, full credit to her she is a wee machine as that would have been as hard as any Kiwibiker would have endured and still smiled.

Over the passes there was thick pea soup fog and freezing conditions, both our carbs iced up on numerous occasions so temperatures we were guessing were around zero or below.

The Prudhoe Bay tour left at 3.15pm from Deadhorse and took 2 hours, it is actually about 16 miles from Deadhorse to the Ocean, cost is $49.00 US per head, spendie but worth it.

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For those of you who have not been to Prudhoe Bay it is no small operation, there are over 500 miles of roads by the oil companies purely at the bay, not including the access road in.

Big Drilling rig

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Local Fox with three legs and some KFC

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Sign at Prudhoe bay

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Myriad off pipework, literally thousands of kilometers

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Big machinery

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Even a local forest which is green all year :lol3

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Local grizzly and her cub

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Photo of an Asian tourist taking a photo ... who woulda thought?

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Some dodgy bugga with a big smile and literally on top of the world.

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It was blowing quite hard, probably 45 - 50 mph wind

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Here we are still in love

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Vast is the only way to describe it eh

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Evidence of the rock stolen from Prudhoe bay to be matched up with his Antarctic counterpart some miles away and the little (empty at this time) flask given to us by Frank and Simone to take with us to the top and bottom of America

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My promise to you Frank I will take it to the bottom of the world to get Ushuaia sticker.

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When one gets to Prudhoe and pays dearly to get there one must take advantage of the freezing conditions and chilly waters... so game on, when we lost the feeling in our feet it wasn't so bad :rofl

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Bloody poser

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Marx (Post 387413)
As fast as you are putting these up, I'm reading them! Bloody brilliant bro!

Cheers bloke,

Nigel in NZ

Heya Mate,

We didn't know it was so easy to put report on Horizons after having dinner with Susan and Grant last night. We are just copy and paste from other site, thanks Ellen for the transfer job. Keep in touch.

Cheers
Andi and Ellen

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:05

Prudhoe Bay Back To Galbraith Lake
 
We left Deadhorse and headed back to camp at Galbraith Lake 140 miles away, we had tea and a shot of energy drink prior to leaving to aid with warmth and sharpness and believe me it was needed, the wind had increased to what turned out to be about 60 mph as when we headed up the Brooks range with the then tailwind I was doing 55 mph on my speedo and the leaves were overtaking me ... we need a bigger engine bro!!

Chiwi and Hobbit having a break

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Local Caribou running away from me .. shouldn't have taken my helmet off.

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This dude kept riding beside me, although every time I saw him up beside me I gassed it and held him at bay, sneaky !!:evil, he never took the challenge to overtake which is kinda cool cos that means my situation might have been slightly different.

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Then came the takeover bid from the female biker ... time is around 9.00 pm thus the shadows, not sure if she is riding relaxed or just totally shagged after the big side wind.

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On arriving back at camp at 11.00 pm we were greeted with fine ish weather which was nice, we were both pretty shagged but very happy with having such a great day and Deadhorse and Pruhdoe Bay.

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I would have to say the Sargent seats saved our bums and are well well worth having so a huge thank you to Sargent for sponsoring the seats.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:06

Galbraith Lake To Hot Spot Cafe
 
Frost ... nup, snow!

WTF we went to bed in a nice evening, I hopped up at some am for a wizz and it was still good so some time later in the early morning mum nature treated us to a small snow storm.

Too cool .. we are getting used to these now.

The tent

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The guys ropes, they wouldn't be chick ropes cos a chick couldn't take the cold :ken :uhoh (..and that Your Honour is when the fight started :D)

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The GPS is under there

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We packed up with snow and ice on the tent and rode back out, weather was pretty crappy to start with but only a few km up the road WOH HOH ..sun!!

Still slightly cold somewhere well below freezing we stopped to take some pics, Ellens heated grips failed so that was not much fun for her.

A stop at Atigun Pass

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See :D

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Looking up Atigun Pass, just beautiful

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Frost and snow STILL on the inside of the screen after 50 miles! :vardy :vardy the screens kept the direct chill of us so we were very pleased to be able to hide behind those, a shameless plug for Screens For Bikes Australia, well done Peter these are made incredibly well and the shape is mint for protection of the Two Softey Kiwis .... now we just need an extendable retractable inflatable colourful screen for when it is hot cold dark windy fine snowing and cold :D

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Even Mr Garmin wasn't let off the hook with a wee stalactite hanging even after 50 miles of riding :eek1

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We finally arrived at the Hot Spot Cafe and ordered a monster burger each which was a welcomed warm input, we set up camp with fine warm weather and enjoyed an evening of relaxing and watching mozzies on the OTHER side of the mesh ... suffer ... they could smell us but they couldn't have us .. a very satisfying feeling :clap

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:08

Hot Spot Cafe To Fairbanks
 
Yay, we woke to a few spots off rain which soon retired and left us being able to pack up dry ... the down side to that is we were ON the breakfast menu with the mozzies, friendly bunch they are all wanting to kiss us all over! ... funny enough it is only the females that suck you dry ... seems to be an international thing not limited to mozzies :huh

We headed on out to the Yukon and filled up with the intention of heading into Manly hot springs, we went through a multitude of road works with the third world construction zone / mud pit for 5 miles being the worst only 5 minutes from the end of the James Dalton Highway.

This was the result :eek1

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See the Calcium Chloride eating into the engine cases

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End of the highway (well the beginning actually but the end for us)

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Just as we finished taking pics and Ozzie couple rocked up and stopped so we had a chat and gave them the road conditions etc, great to catch them up for a chat, I let their front tyres down a little to aid with traction as they didn't have a tyre gauge, their bikes were beautifully clean but 2 more minutes was gonna change all that :evil hope all went well guys and we will catch you along the way.

Two Slimy Kiwis

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N o i c e and clean cob!!

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After saying goodbye we headed off to Manly hot springs only to get 9 miles before pulling the pin on that, deep slimy mud that was seeing both of us struggle, it was going to end up with one or both of us doing a tank slapper and binning so simply not worth it, the Calcium Chloride is nasty but provides a great binder.

With binning the hot pools idea we headed on back to Fairbanks to Adventure Cycle Works for a clean off and new rubbers.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:10

Adventure Cycle Works
 
The end of the Dalton and basically our rear rubber, still a bit of life in them but too heavy to carry, we had Dan spoon the Heidendau K60 rear on, the machine making easy work of it.

Chiwi cocking her leg

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Action man cleaning off the Dalton

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We have a K60 front as well but will carry them until the front has died as they still have a bit of life in them yet, next day or so we spent in Fairbanks to gather thoughts, gather food, gather energy and catch our breath, not to mention writing up a monty report for family and friends to see just what we have been up to.

We are off to Denai Park tomorrow so the next write up will cover the Denali Park, Denali highway, Tok, D2D, Dempster, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk all of which we had fine weather :D

Love to family, friends and followers.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:12

Pissed Disaster Strikes
 
We stayed behind today in Fairbanks to get all our Ride Reports up to date and some FU@$#N wanker flogged our ipad 2 literally from under our nose in the University Library.

Couldn't bloody believe it eh, the thing would not have been more than 2 metres from us :kboom :kboom

We have been to the Police and filled a report, they are going to get some footage from the surveillance camera but they are not very hopeful.

Can't believe the cheek of some lowlifes, if we find them they will pay with their lives.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:19

Fairbanks To Denali
 
Well exciting times having less to pack from Fairbanks with some lite fingered shithead flogging our ipad2, never mind it is only a material item.

When we were at the Nui with the Police we spotted this, to me this a great way not to pack :eek1

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We stopped at Nenana for lunch and visit o the local museum etc, pretty cool place,

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Wifi wasn't runnin real quick so we took a quick look ... :eek1

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We arrived safe and sound at Denali National Park and set up camp at Riley Park Camp which has great facilities and a nice location.

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We took the 92.6 mile trip by bus as you are only allowed private vehicles so far, we had stunning weather on the way in right to the end then thunderstorms and lightning on the way out so the best of both worlds ... but lightening does not flash backwards here Kiwis ... it’s just the same as ours except bigger.

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Mt Denali standing at 20327 ft still played hard to get as it creates its own weather system due to its shear size, amazing that it has such an effect on surrounding areas.

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Mount Denali is hidden under there somewhere

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Wonder lake with approaching thunderstorm

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Arty stuff

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This did not stop the grizzlies, Caribou and various assortments from putting on a show tho, Two Photo Kiwis took advantage of this and we hope you enjoy these from the safety of your arm chair. (not that it was that bad for us either to be honest).

Grizzlies

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Moose with decent set of trees on top

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Kiwi Moose with large appendages

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They even had exotic Asian Moose

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They call these Sheep over here, we in New Zealand would call them a roast

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A real Caribou with big sticks

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My new girlfriend, she was absolutely beautiful

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:21

Denali Local Stuff Relax Day
 
Today June 18th was a relax day, we went to the Visitors centre and watched a vid of Denali National Park, this was o u t s t a n d i n g to say the least.

After that we went to the Dog Sled set up which was well cool, a live demo was done and everybody clapped or they were trying to smack the mozzies....not sure.

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On conclusion of that we headed in the roaring metropolis of Denail township to get some food for the trip we had planned to Savage River, I thought Ellen was very optimistic with her time schedule and it turned out that I was very right ... although she wouldn’t admit it.

This changed the game plan somewhat since we missed our bus so we walked up to a very flash Hotel, we went in and checked out the view which was pretty good.

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A large Viaduct that could be seen from up there

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Ellen was totally amazed by the Hotel so bein a romantic kinda guy I thought what the hell we have been doing it hard so I took her back for another walk passed the hotel... she is one lucky gal.

From there we walked back to the camp and got stuck into tea, nice relaxing day with a few exercise km’s under the belt to keep a reasonable level of fitness.

Padders ... this hat good enough?

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Tomorrow we set off to Denali Highway and beyond... more then, chur dudes and dudesses.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:22

Denali Highway
 
Tuesday 19th June, we left Denali National Park and turned on to the Denali Highway. This road was the only one before Parks Highway to connect Denali National Park. It closes in winter, only open in summer - which means three weeks ago.

The weather was beautiful, blue sky with sun shining. We can almost see the whole of Mt Denali in the distance.

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The road is pretty much like the one to McCarthy, the only different is - 200km of pot holes instead of 100ks. The scenery is beautiful though. We sat in the middle of the road had our lunch. Maybe we haven’t mentioned the variety of camping food you can buy in US yet , they are very tasty and full of chunky vegetables and meat. What you only need to do is to open the package, pour hot water in and it is done. They are not cheap, around $6-7 each, but for a full hot meal in the middle of nowhere, that is great value. We have been eating lots of them while we are camping especially when it is cold.

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There was two cyclists that had stopped as all the air in his tyre had gone to the top so we stopped and offered help or parts however they were all kitted and on the job.

Chiwi decided to have another rest, yet again Barkbusters earning their keep.

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This is one of a nice bridge along the way.

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It didn’t take too long for us to get to the end of the gravel road. We found a camping ground in Tangle Lake. Just as we set up our tent, a mummy moose with her two calves were grazing nearby, that was a very nice welcoming.

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:25

Tangle Lake to Dawson - D2D
 
Wednesday morning, we carried on to Tok to meet our friend Dicon and Leslie going to Dawson together. From Paxson to Delta junction was beautiful, the road was windy and smooth.

We stopped at Delta junction and fill up - both us and the bikes. The first 50k from Delta junction to Tok was unbelievably boring - it was straight (my first thought was this is gonna hurt - thinking of my bum), not a single up and down, you can’t see the end. I was hoping some road works can keep me awake, finally, there was a bit gravel, Yah, at least can keep me concentrating. That’s how you can change your perspective so quickly, unwanted gravel could be like a treat in different situations!

It didn’t take us long to find CJ who is famous for being in the Long Way Round and he had just come back from France. He is working in a RV repair shop which is a full workshop. We took the advantage to change oil for Chiwi and Hobbit. They have done 4000 miles now (which is 6400ks)

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Just as we arrived in the workshop, a thunder storm came down hard with hale and very heavy rain. Under the full cover of the workshop we were totally dry and happy.

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Dicon and Leslie found us later at CJ’s and we all went out for a big feed of burgers in a restaurant, the carpark is full of motorcyclists who are going to the same Dawson City the next day.

Huge thanks to CJ for his help with the workshop, perfect timing for us. We stayed at CJ’s home on Wednesday night, got up had eggs and salami on toast for breakfast then headed off to Dawson.

The man himself :D

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Some Alaska pipeline info for you.

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At mid point there is a place called Chicken .... yeap Chicken, it is the last town before we cross the boarder. It was very hot, might be 25 -30 degrees C. There is a fact sheet displayed on a shop door, you can have a read, I won’t repeat it here again.

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You gotta see this place to believe it

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As you all know Alaska is FULL of trees... so the local dog comes along and pisses on MY wheel .. thankfully the thunderstorm just up the road took care of that :D

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There is a funny fact, every time we ride with Dicon, it rained. Dicon and Leslie were ahead of us before we got to Chicken, they waited for us there and we went together. It was sunny and hot before Chicken too, then it all turned to shit again. We had a thunder storm again and this time, lighting too. After the boarder crossing, we said to them if they want to go ahead, we will take some photos, so we slowed down a bit.

As they went away, the Sun came out we were riding in blue sky again. The top of the world highway was partly paved, it is built on the ridge, so you can see both sides of the mountains and big open areas, beautiful road.The Canadians are not very tourist oriented so unfortunately there was no pull over area for us to take a good picture on the Top of the World. But we did see some lighting strike that caused a bush fire, couple of airplanes dumping fire retardants on it.

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As we continued towards Dawson City we entered Canada which was our first official border crossing on land .. no hitches, they asked us to take off our helmets and asked if we are carrying any alcohol or guns, cause we didn’t. Then we set off to the top of the world highway destination Dawson.

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There was only 127k from the boarder to Dawson, by 5pm we were at the river. There is no bridge on the river, so we have to use the ferry, it’s free but you have to wait. The staff are very motor bike friendly, the ask us to come forward and get on first. One tourist bus wasn’t happy, we saw him waiting for two rounds and still kept waiting..... we are finally here at D2D 2012.

Upon crossing the Yukon river, we got to Dawson City, saw lots of people we meet in Anchorage. We set up our camp, had some thing to eat, then set off to town for a look around.

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There was only 127k from the boarder to Dawson, by 5pm we were at the river. There is no bridge on the river, so we have to use the ferry, it’s free but you have to wait. The staff are very motor bike friendly, the ask us to come forward and get on first. One tourist bus wasn’t happy, we saw him waiting for two rounds and still kept waiting.

Upon crossing the Yukon river, we got to Dawson City, saw lots of people we meet in Anchorage. We set up our camp, had some thing to eat, then set off to town for a look around.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:26

D2D 2012 20th Year
 
Dawson is a old gold mine town, it has lots of old buildings, looks like Granity on the West Coast of New Zealand. The pub in town sell “sour toe” cocktail. A toe from old miner’s dead body has removed and put in a cocktail, you can drink it.

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How gross!

We sat at Midnight Sun Hotel for a drink, the waitress said we can buy a bottle of wine with off sale price, but still drink in the pub. We believed her, it turned out the off sale price was $11 and we paid $27, what a ripe off for naive Kiwis.

The rest of the evening was enjoying street shenanigans on motorcycles, skill event with slow races, slalom, blindfold ride :eek1 and eat the sausage.

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Ellen wasn't used to something so small so she failed :evil

Street games ... blindfolded

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Hobbit and Chiwi in the main street

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Here is a bunch of Dawson City town photos, to see more go to our photobucket album so we don't bore you to tears :cry :D .. .this town is a good energy town and very very cool, even tho we are only borrowing energy and we return it to earth when we die there is plenty of good karma and a nice feeling with the place, dirt roads and all :clap :clap

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We also met up with some other RTW bikers www.2tmoto.com

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:29

Dawson To Eagle Plains On The Dempster/Dumpster/Duster Highway
 
On conclusion of D2D we packed down, tanked up and headed off to Eagle Plains on the way to Inuvik, we dropped off our new front tyres to “The Dick” and left them in his workshop.

The Dempster/Dumpster/Duster ... well what can I say .....

It started off as any normal (to us) trip does, tarseal ... then shingle, 407 km of it, the road varied from beautiful Calcium Chlorided nicely bound together road i.e. 50 - 69 mph stuff down to 3rd world pakistan potholes.

N o i c e wee lunch spot

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We arrived safe and sound after a pretty uneventful trip with our only misdemeanor being Ellens little stop over a grader windrow of shingle and an exciting deluge of heavy rain and lightening beyond belief the rain was bouncing back upwards about 1 metre and carrying with it mud and clay which made a brown mist of sludge hovering in the air and the road flowing like a river.

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The campground at Eagle Plains was great, hot shower (WOH HOH), flushing toilets, Wifi (sorta) and a few other ADVers to chat to and some cyclists from Switzerland (the next level of nuttership from adventure motorcycling)

The mozzies weren’t too bad as we had padlocked our bikes down so they couldn’t take them away, the following morning dawned a nice day so we packed up house and contents and headed on our merry way after we had left our keys in the tent!!!!

It was only 5 minutes down the road and I had to stop and we tipped out the tent on the road to make sure we still had the said keys, once settled in my mind, spare keys back in the top box and original keys back in the ignition we were on our way.

This is the bridge we stopped at ... quite neat and a beautiful place to sort our shit out!!:D.

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The road deteriorated badly and quickly, we had managed to ride the Dempster on what was to turn out to be one of the biggest road works we have ever encountered, we are talking probably 250km long of riding on hard base with ball bearings with soft dust in between .. then it rained ... for F@$&s sake it turned into puffy mud and the fun factor diminished somewhat.

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We too were Chiwi and Hobbit comets with quite the tail following us .... it was just ten fold bigger with the trucks.

We later found out there were three bike wrecks on the road that day with two going back on trucks, one was straightened out enough to ride back. (Robins who I would later help)

The Arctic Circle on the Dempster

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Northern territories border

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There are two Ferry crossings with ver boggy entry ramps, this created entertainment for GS rider who came to greif and tore off the left pannier :cry

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U dead? ya mun!!

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Photo from the bridge of the Ferry

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We arrived at Rengling river at about 6.30 pm and decided to have some food as Ellen was spent and I was tired too, we then decided to set up camp and call it a day, we were in bed by about 8.30pm, we were both woken by big winds that was shuffling the tent around, we had placed some pretty big rocks on the guy ropes so we hoped up and nailed them down with pegs, the ground was like concrete hence the rocks idea.

The following morning was hot, we packed up amidst a sea of mozzies and big black flies that actually bite a chunk out of you .... hmmmm.... just to elongate our stay Ellen binned her bike (again) as we were leaving camp.

Hitting the road and assuming the terror of bad road it improved literally within a mile of camp to our surprise, outstanding reprieve from the roadworks so a reasonable pace was set, the light was weird, very gamma looking and hard to pick the soft spots, unusual light for us that do not live within the Arctic Circle.

We arrived in Inuvik and it was HOT, about 35 degrees C, we stopped at a cafe and had a cold coffee, the girls in there let us leave our gear so we could walk around town in our civy gear.

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The local supermarket store was a winner with food and drink as well as air cond, so a hot pizza and cold tea we were fed and watered. We bought some energy drinks for our long haul back to Eagle Plains as we could not camp wild for reasons of being in Grizzly Bear country and womans monthly things on the go so to avoid being on the Grizzly lunch menu it was best to head to the safety of partial civilization.

The is the Deli/bike section :huh

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Honourary Kiwis

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Inuvik back to Eagle Plains

Well on the way back we came upon an epic thunderstorm so we decided to sit it out as they normally race through pretty quickly however this one had a brother and sister and before we knew the whole family surrounded us.

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It was all around us and that is where we were heading

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The wind was so strong it blew Hobbit of his side stand ... Ellen then lost her footing with the wind and she went down too...this was caught on camera.

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We finally made it back to Eagle Plains campground at 11.00pm and set up camp ... hot shower and relax down however the energy drink was still doing its jobs so we got our moneys worth.

Next morning was cool and mostly clear however the wild fires had created quite a brown haze which did cut down the scenery somewhat and there were burnt patches for miles along the road where the fire had started after we had been through on the way in.

The trip for us was uneventful with time to take pics of the sulphur rivers with rust coloured water so out came Two Photo Kiwis and some artistic sessions.

To prove the danger we put ourselves through to get goo pics for you guys see the mozzies trying to bite the lense off the camera :eek1

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The river

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The road

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Hobbit turn 5000 miles old on the way out

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Andis Playstation ... forget the poxy Xbox!!!

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The road had changed dramatically even over the three days and for the better so our exit pace was far much smoother and quicker.

On returning to Dawson we went back to Dicks to pick up our front tyres we had left, Dick offered us space to put down our beds as we wanted to clean air filters, re-inflate tyres, clean the Calcium Chloride off the bikes and change the front sprockets out.

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We ended up staying the first night with the vision of finishing the bikes in the am then off to Whitehorse, we then heard that Robin who had binned her 1200 GS on the Dempster (note rolled the bike completely over buckling to two side cases, engine bars and wind screen mounts) was coming to Dicks workshop to straighten it out as good as they can, Ross turned up and it was game on.

Being there I offered to help so I spent 3 hrs with them and knocked the two cases into shape to make them watertight again, repaired the latches, straightened the screen and engine protection bars, it is not perfect but it is 100% better than when it came in, they too are doing the Dalton so they too still have some traveling to do.

Best to you guys and we hope you trip up there goes smoother.

Upon finishing her bike I set too and finished ours, we sat down to a tea of Ellens home made Sushi and Dicks sashimi Tuna, outstanding it was too.

Tomorrow morning Thursday 28th June we set off South.... next report will be in a few days again, stay safe, enjoy your riding if you are getting out and luv from Two Moto Kiwis.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:31

Dawson To Whitehorse
 
Now this is the latest in the shenanigans

Before parting Dawson we had to stop and the building where the council had built the ground on an angle, there was no one on the street when we started and our interest created a whole lot more interest next thing there were camera everywhere .. funny things happen.

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We set off from King Dicks on Thursday 28th June from Dawson, the road south from there was more suitable of a 1 Litre roadie than the DRs.

First stop was Dome hill as Ellen had not been there so, we were here

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There was not a lot to see or do so we hunkered down and got to twin lakes for the night so a 424 km day.

We did have some entertainment with a little rodent running out across the road the turning backing under my bike only to get a hiding now by the Heidenau, he was visiting his flat mate I think.

We also came upon a sad looking 12 hundy GS that had gone off into the veges after failing to stay straight in some road works, hope the rider was ok as no one was there.

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Arriving at Twin Lakes to bed down we were greeted by some nice people (John & Arlene) who said there are two sites left and they had paid for one of them to hold it for their mates the next day, they said we could use it which was cool so we just squared them up for that.

After tea we went over to their motorhome armed with maps and questions, they had a fire going and duly offered us a wine .... what was a coupla bikers do but accept.

After discussions and chats they offered us a Seizer?? or Bloody Marry, well over the course of the night we had another then another all of varying degrees of stiffness and heat....awesome dudes you guys made our night.

So after being impromptually feed and watered with the best we finally packed it in and went to bed about 1.30am ... still daylight tho.

In the morning Arlene brought Coffee over after had just made our own one, so thanks were given anyway, these guys truly are top people and represent Canada to the highest level.

Ellen also decided that the lake was inviting and went in for skinny dip to an island ... we think she may be the first nudy Asian bum to do it!! (sorry X rated so no photos)

After setting off we arrived at Wethorse, the temperature had dropped like a stone and mum nature shouted us a very good invigorating shower .... upon arrival at Wethorse we headed to McDees for some hot tucker and Wifi, this was great as a couch surfer host had replied and we were good to go for dry, warm, shower, no mozzies and nice people lodgings. :clap :clap:clap

So we stayed with Claire and JD and there two boys Jasper and James, later in the evening two other couch surfers Otis and Daniel arrived as well so we had quite the party with a bunch of people we didn’t know, Otis was in Cromwell for three months so knows roughly were we live, great guys great hosts and great night, thanks guys you made our stay on Whitehorse pretty groovy.

From left is Otis, JD, Daniel, Claire, me and Ellen

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Ellen making Tacos ... Y U M

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The result :D

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Also in Whitehorse, we parked outside Canadian Tires, a guy stopped and talked to us, he has a KLR 650 (he seemed nice tho :evil). We are so familiar with this now, where we are from, where we are going, where have we been, the bikes set up etc... in the end, this guy said: “Are you guys couch surfing? I live north of Whitehorse, you could stay with me ...” to late now, we already in town. We thanked him. In the evening, when we checked our email again, we got reply from couch surfing request, he said : “ I talked to you this morning outside Canadian Tires. I was in the field whole week, so only got your email now...” What is the odds of that!

From Whitehorse we headed back into town to stock up on food, a cycle shop owner has this incredible piece of artwork on his front lawn, pretty groovy and a LOT of work.

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We also went up to the Salmon ladder which lets the Salmon get up past the dam

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:33

Whitehorse To Boya Lake
 
Along the Alaska Highway we were treated to seeing 3 (real) black bears, we also spotted a

Smiling Black bear (dodgy)

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moose

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and a Bison

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They said it was gonna be wildlife rich :rofl

We came up a lake called Emerald lake, the colours were stunning

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Along the highway it was quite spooky, the remains of a forest fire left millions of tree burnt but standing, for those who saw the movie .. Day Of The Trifods, that is exactly what it looked like.

Further along the relatively tame motorway we came over one of the many metal based bridges, ...don't look down!!

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Told you not to look down!

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Cassiar Highway

The trip livened up a little after leaving the Alaska Highway when went turned right at junction 37 on to the Cassiar Highway, this road would be mint on my old KTM 990 SMR, 640 km of great road so a good hours ride!!! .... so we took the DRs and the day, Ellen said it as smooth as a baby’s bum ... not sure how she knows this!

We camped at Boya lake and meet some others riders, Shawn from Florida was travelling light and paying for it standing there shivering in front of us, he was wearing a tee shirt and rain jacket, I felt sorry for him and told him to harden the f@#k up so a good kiwi helping hand.

I have to admit that the further South we were traveling the colder it was getting, this was to be the same for the following few days, coupled with rain and no sun things were pretty chilly at times.

A brisk walk in the morning to get the circulation going and we hit the road heading for Meziadin Lake Park, it was very cold when we arrived and got colder during the evening.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:35

Meziadin Lake Park To Stewart/Hyder To Fort St James
 
On arriving at Meziadin Lake Park we set up camp, nice grassy area s it was n o i c e and soft.

Nice camp and hard case photo.

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As soon as we arrived I saw Ellens chain guard ... FAIL!

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A bit of Kiwi ingu, ingue, indunit, cunning and we had it all good to go or as good as it gets for a bush repair.

The cold from the evening turned to rain and it rained quietly all night, our intentions were to head to Hyder etc and time dependent maybe stay another night, the grumpy lady at the camp wanted $8.00 to leave our gear there for half a day so that made our decision and we just packed up, she really should be in another job rather than campground hosting.

We left Hobbit in the day use area and took Chiwi two up to Stewart, very nice ride in, no bears at Hyder as it is a little early with no salmon there yet.

We carried on to the end of the road 60km past Hyder which turned out to be a real treat, we had pretty good weather and stunning views, we accidentally went into a construction zone and got told off but we explained our story and the then told us how far we could ride on bla bla bla .. coolio!!

Two Photo Kiwis were at it again taking advantage of Canada finest, we saw a big back bear and a few overgrown otter kinda thingies that were alpine animals.

Here is a number of groovy glacier pics.

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Bear Glacier

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The little river at the base of Bear Glacier

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On our return to Hyder we merrily rode through the customs border crossing as no one had pulled us up on the way in to the US ... the dude from the Canadian side came running out saying STOP in Canadian .. which is STOP in Kiwi too! ... that was lucky 8-D

We had a laugh with him, great guy and we got stamped back into Canada without really leaving it.

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That is when the action happened, two BMW 12 hundies went past, I waived and looked in my mirrors to see NZ stickers on them, I said to Ellen that MUST be Dick Hubbard and Ken so we did a Uie and went back to the US again and chased them down it was an all american car chase through Hyder with Hubbard caps stones flying off, tyres squealing on dirt but nothing blew up tho.

We caught up to them, it woulda been a good 400 metre chase but it was over and they recognised the Two Dodgy Kiwis when we told them to pull over :D.

A great moment of hellos, handshakes and hugs as we had been corresponding over the e and were trying to meet up, as fate would have it with no internet over the last 5 days we bump into them here while trying to do an unintended runner through the Canadian border.

We all rode to the fish and chip shop for photos and chats as ya do, Ellen and I had the Hallibut and chips... YUM, Ken and Dick had already eaten so we gave them some good road info etc and sent them on their way.

The lads

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The chicks

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Look closely and see the three NZ bikes with NZ stickers in a smile .. something in that :clap

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Upon saying goodbyes we went back to the Canadian border, this time somewhat wiser so we stopped without being told to, same dude, same chat, same laughs but no stamp this time time and we were on our way.

Just along from the border was a wee digger, I think they were doing a bit of gardening :D

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One thing that took my eye was a bridge that just kinda stopped!

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Then a bridge that really had been stopped but by a grumpy mum nature

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Arriving back at Meziadin Lake camp we picked up Hobbit and proceeded to Gitanyow lake, the details of which we had been given by Otis of a secret camp site by the lake, stunning spot and nice wee fire.

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Ellen did a nudy bum skinny dip again and the rest that followed I don’t need to explain!!! 8-D

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To be bear safe I strung our food pack up in a tree, this turned out to be a very smart move as we had a coupla visitors during the night snuffling and crashing around, I have to admit to being on hi alert ready with out nautical horn etc.

There were bear prints at the base on the tree but the bag was ther and utouched being probably 4 metres high.

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The following morning we headed to Fort St James to meet couch surfer Mel, Fort St James is one groovy town, we were there only two minutes at the visitors centre which was closed because it was after hours when a kind gent by the name of Meguel stopped and asked if we needed help.

Well yes we did, no wifi to find Mels addy we did have a phone number but no phone so he kindly took us to his place and we rang Mel to get instructions.

Mel said here drive was very rough .... she was right, potholes, deep puddles, rutted, muddy and very slippery the perfect driveway to any ADVers liking ... except Ellen as she binned Chiwi.

I left Hobbit at the house and headed back up the drive to find Ellen walking with no bike ... Chiwi was another 100 metres up the drive having a sleep in a puddle, Ellen on good advice earlier had just turned off the bike and both fuel taps so her knight in Klim armour could come back and pick up the stricken vessel.

No pics as the camera was at Mels house and the task was to put Chiwis rubber side down.

After greetings etc we had a bite to eat and lit a fire outside sat around and talked shit for a while, super cool!!, I must add at this point that Mel have a very cool log cabin on the side of the lake in a location that is second to none.

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Thanks Otis for the lead, we would never have known such a beautiful place was here without the tip as we had our eyes on the Rockies, some great advice that we are taking is look outside of the square and don’t just look at the big notable areas, take a look around OFF the main drag to see some real beauty with really groovy helpful people.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:39

Fort St James - A Hidden Gem
 
We went to this town only because Otis (a couch surfer we met in Whitehorse) told us to. He stayed with Mel who has a sauna right on the lake. We must come to see her, because she is Otis favorite person in the world or to quote “An Inspiration”! So we did.

One hour before we got to Fort St James, Andi’s GPS told us to take a short cut on Dog Creek Road. Half an hour later, we found this is no longer a complete road. We have to turn around. Never trust the GSP again!

We got to town at about 8pm, only had a phone number for Mel and a phone that does not work in Canada, we were standing in front of a closed visitor center without a cellphone wondering how can we make a phone call.

A local man in a car saw us there, did a U turn and asked us if we need help. That was Miguel, who later took us to his place, we made a phone call to Mel, got the directions to her house. Miguel also kindly led us down the road to her place. What a warm welcoming introduction of Fort St James!

Fort St James located on the side to Stuart Lake, which is 67km long, is similar size to lake Wanaka where we live in New Zealand www.wanaka.co.nz . It has a few hiking trails and the ski field has the longest T bar in North America. It is an industry center for surrounding area, the main industry here is logging. There is an historical site in town, which has staff dressed as old days and show you what happened here. Because the town is located 60km from the main road, not many people come and visit here - which is a shame. The district office is trying hard to get more tourists to come in.

Mel, of course just as Otis described, nice, inspirational and lovely. She lives in a lovely log cabin beside the lake, with a beautiful garden and a vege garden too! The next day was her daughter Maya’s 3rd birthday, so we went to town and brought a wee gift for her. In the evening, Ellen made Sushi and some of Mel’s friends came along, we had a wee party for Maya and we were allowed to join in.

Sondra with Maya opening her Dora prezzy

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This needs no explaining ....no-one was gonna get that chocy bar the birthday girl!!:D

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We can't not mention the sauna right at the beach. It is a heated by a log burner, you can hop in and out of the lake if feel too hot. Some friends arrived on the boat the second night, we had another party there.

Sorry bout my builders crack ladies and gents.

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Now there are some really nice things happened here in Fort St James. The district office gave us some free vouchers, we also had free burgers in the Spirit Square. After three hours hiking up to Mount Pope, we dropped into the super market to get some food.

Top of Mount Pope

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Ellen and I with a view second to none.

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Same same ... me and the chief

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Ellen didn’t read the price properly, we thought we had enough money with us but we were a dollar short!, Andi went to get the (emergency) money only to find we have US $20.00 only, never mind, the check out lady asked her manager and got a Canadian dollar for us! 1 dollar is not a big deal, but I bet you can’t go anywhere else to get your groceries out with 1 cent short!, the following day we returned to the shop armed with Canadian money and purchased a lot more food and duly returned the $1.00 that was paid forward to us with no expectations.

From Meguel helping us to get the directions to the 1 dollar to help us get our groceries it truly shows how generous people in Fort St James are! We love this town, if one day they have an accountant and quantity surveyor shortage, we will be here in the drop of a hat.

Some groovy shots across the lake from the beach at sunset,this IS living!!

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Silhouette of Ellen and Maya

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Spot the dog

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He is famous now :D ... bloody BIG dog I might add!

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Busted .. hard arsed RTW adventure rider / cuddly touchy feely bloke, Maya decided she wanted to hold my hand on the way back along the beach, she swung around in the water and played "rabbit" jumping up and down in the water with shrieks of laughter ... really cool stuff actually.

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A local church down by the water front

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Many thanks to Fort St James and the great people from Two Grateful Kiwis, we will now take the generosity shown to us and pay it forward for someone else to enjoy and Fort St James to benefit from.:clap

ADVers and readers, if you are looking for a great wee time out and R&R place check it out Fort St. James & Region Website - www.fortstjames.com

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:40

Fort St James To Dunster
 
So ... Fort St Fames To Dunster

So leaving Fort St James was difficult given the superb treatment we had been given and the things we had done made it a special place in both our hearts.

We left down the long straights heading toward Jasper, we had been told that Dunster was a nice place to camp which is 160km short of Jasper so we tentatively aimed for this.

Mrs Garmin also sent us AWOL at Prince George so we did a few unintended back streets .... found the NAPA store when we didn’t need one. :D

Along the way we were treated to a black bear crossing the road ... it would seem he didn’t like DR650’s tho as he ran off ... or maybe we just smelled bad.

Upon arriving at Dunster we faffed around trying to find out where the camping spot was, turned out where we were at the community hall was it, power, water, dunnie, soft grass to pitch on and picnic tables ... and free!!!

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I asked at the general store and the lady there said no worries at all, we settled in and waited for the sun to go down as it was some 30 degs C plus, we decided to have tea first, salamis and green peppers with smoked mayo in a hard bread wrap fit for a king, also chamomile tea brewed from Mels garden in Fort St James.

We set up after looking around for a quiet spot, the neighbours were very quiet!

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No sooner we had tea and a local drove by turned around and came back, curiosity catching is mind with the bikes.

Richard (as he turned out to be) came and said gidday so we chatted about farming for a while and life in general, turns out he had been to New Zealand and knew quite a bit about it which was well cool, he then left, we set up camp and decided to go for a walk down to the Fraser river were there is a groovy lattice and concrete bridge which had caught my eye earlier ... Two Photo Kiwis at it again!!!

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Nice lattice work

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The flowers on the bridge abutments, beautifully done and a huge improvement on designa grey concrete

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Some local toilet sheds for when they have their music festival, the mozzies were seriously friendly here and both Ellen and I had a black cloud following us so if you were to use these it would wonna be a quick downtrou.:eek1

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We came back across the bridge to find Richard watering the pot plants at the end of the abutments, he said “I left you guys a wee gift worthy of drinking”, we said well we better go and deal to it eh.

So we went up to the camp in his Jeep, on arrival we find a bottle of Argentinian Malbec Red wine with three glasses and a genuine Greenstone Tiki from New Zealand from when he was there many years ago.

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The Tiki was a gift to Ellen, Richard asked that we return it back to New Zealand, we will and we will also take Tiki on a tour of South America first.

The bottle was levelled pretty quickly among three of us and more chats and a quick photo session was held before Richard parted for home and we settled in to bed.

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Yet again with no planning or expectations thing just work out, something that just seems to happen.

They also have a swap shed for locals for any unwanted but reusable items, Richard said see if there was anything we wanted and go for it, also if we did want something we could leave it there for someone else to use.

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Ellen wanted some jandels and well you wouldn't believe it, neat jandels with a groovy pattern and the right size, thank you to Dunster for these.

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:43

Edmonton
 
Dickie (Mark) and Elaine from our Wanaka Motorcycle Club in Wanaka New Zealand were over in Edmonton, Elaines mum and dad live there and this was Dickie and Elaine’s last part of their trip in Canada before heading home.

It was decided a couple of weeks prior that we would make the effort and travel down to Edmonton to catch up with them knowing we wouldn’t see them for another two years.

The ride from Jasper to Edmonton was not one we would do again as it was LONG and STRAIGHT so not DR650 country but for us it was the easiest way to get to see them, when we exited Edmonton we took the back roads.

Great catching up with them, plenty of lies and wine was drunk so just like home.

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We also checked out a RSV4 Tuono that Dickie was keen on. ... suits you sir.!! :clap

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So for us it was a change the oil, meet up old mates, make new mates and see the old mates leave Canada without flogging anything ... it worked.:evil

The after match function from the final family do turned into quite a session with Cam (from NZ) and his girlfriend Jodi joining in with family and friends and the drunken bums and kiwis overstayers.:D

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A final goodbye and photo (we were here) before we put on all our riot gear and rode off to our next destination ... place unknown.

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Great to catch you guys, nice little touch of home, many thanks to Collin and Elma for putting up with us and having us stay.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:46

Dunster To Jasper To Edmonton To Jasper
 
We knew we were in for a treat having seen some amazing pics, for us the stars aligned and mum nature ticked all the right boxes for what can only be described as perfect motorcycle and tourist weather with late 20’s to early 30’s everyday most without a cloud to see.

For us to have the trip down the icefields highway was simply magic and to have the perfect weather was second to none.

We arrived at the park to be greeted by Mount Robson, no cloud whatsoever which apparently is a little rear... how cool is that as we got to see it in all its glory.

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I had to do a dangerfreak run to the middle of the road as we an almost clear section for a minute so I took advantage of that.

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The road was clean and clear but there was fresh evidence of the rampage that mum nature had unleashed on the area only three weeks prior, brand new sections of tar seal replacing that which was blown away by the huge water deluge.

On arriving at Jasper it was approx 32 deg c ... hot!

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We found the restaurant where Mel from Fort St James friend worked, we had a lite lunch and coffee and left our riot gear there, I wanted a belt for my shorts and discovered the totally groovy Moose beanies so I had to have one.

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Later on in the afternoon we rode up to Pyramid Lake where Ellen had a swim and I sat down in the sun and relaxed....just hard work.

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From there we went to Meligne Lake park, we were greeted by black bears, sheep with rolly horns, Elk, Deer etc so pretty neat to see the wildlife up close, we wanted to travel in the evening as it was cooler and it turned out to be the better viewing time.

Electric Psycho sheep and Ellen creeping up quietly

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Bear just strolling along, he just kind walked past lifted his nose and said "chur bro" then carried on

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Some general pics,

Lake Meligne

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Sunset pics, about 10.00pm at night

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The park ride we finished at around 10.30pm so we went to Snaring River camp for the night, it was 11.00pm when we arrived and set up.

In the morning we discovered that we had set up in a mozzie party zone and they were extremely hungry, Ellen said lets just pack up and have breaky at the Meligne Canyon, after 30 seconds for me standing outside and getting about as many bites it was not a hard decision.

Meligne canyon is great, really neat water falls and canyon and comes highly recommended, it was very hot when we were there so again it was a treat.

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From the canyon we headed to Edmonton to catch up with Dickie and Elaine, see separate sub report for for this.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:48

May 3rd to June 20th - Alaska Sum Up And The Heart Speaks
 
This section of our RR Diary is the open heart part, not necessarily the bit everyone wants to read but we are normal people (well Ellen is) living our life on the road, you see the glamorous pictures and fine weather.

But the camera doesn't usually come out in the heavy rain or the hard winds and it never turns up while having a chat over navigational differences as the camera quite simply does not convey that emotion unless you have a professional cameraman and a hollywood set right at hand .... we don't.

So please realize there is some heart content in here, good and bad, so no photos in this one, just a big read for those who want to.

For the rest of you shallow bugga's like me who can't be assed reading and a picture is worth a thousand words you will be treated in the next installment of Two Lucky Kiwis.

How Andi Sees it

Highlights Non Motorcycle

The people, first off the people who made us very welcomed and gave as great information and help along the way, something that when you are on the road makes your day, something you don’t really appreciate until you don’t have a home.

We find ourselves comparing Wanaka were we live in New Zealand, a good and bad thing to do in some ways but people always compare what they had to what they have, we are human too ... or at least Ellen is.

Alaska all over, pretty cool on the groovy meter.

Snow, views, grandeur, wildlife.

Cost, mostly way cheaper than NZ.

Selection (except metric bolts) is huge across the board, it is not “do you have one” it is “how many colours do you have it in”

I know there are many more but simply can’t remember every one of them, acid test, would I come back to Alaska again? ... HELL YEAH!!

Lows Non Motorcycle

Ellen not riding a little more in NZ to up skill and practice on my bike at home without house and contents on board, once loaded (and we are not heavily loaded) they are more difficult to manouver.

This has created 10 fold more work for me, I expect her to drop it now and then with off camber ground and that is motorcycling but many falls could easily have been avoided and not caused trouble, my main concern is against the odds Ellen is using up her “avoiding injury” credits fairly quickly, the bike will take it and can be fixed easily, she can’t.

American excess, everyone drives a huge V8 pickup, SUV etc, even mums picking up groceries at the supermarket have a monster truck. In New Zealand a V8 is wow, here they are everywhere ... so Americans... don’t want to hear any of you fellas grizzling about the cost of fuel while looking at what you drive!! 8-)

I qualify this by saying we understand if it is a towing vehicle or commercial unit where size and power is needed but for some bread and eggs.....

Rice and Asian food ingredients, way more expensive than NZ

Our ipad, 4 weeks old and some oxygen thief flogged it from under our noses in the University Of Fairbanks Library, makes you mad but it is only a material thing that can be replaced.

Motorcycle Highlights

If you want to organize things or get sorted in Alaska on the motorcycle side then Alaska Leather are the only words you will need, see Barb and you know it will be done and done right, thanks to Barb and her team.

The roads, not as twisty as NZ, a lot better condition across the board, big distances in miles caught us out a few times, gotta remember to x 1.6 8-) but all roads have been great even at 32 degrees F with rain.

Challenging and winning with the Dalton, we had everything thrown at us which kept the level of entertainment up, it made for hard times and good so everything an adventure should be.

Bezzer and Greg for helping with Ellens side stand while we got her high settings sorted, you guys are Honorary Kiwis.

Me, going to give myself props as our luggage and bike setup has come up trumps and is working very well for us, our bikes may not be sprayed with glossy touratech stuff and look “coul” but we have narrow luggage with low windage and some groovy crash bars which have paid their way, we have room to spare for bits and pieces.

All in all very happy with the setup and tuning Ellen’s height issues as we go (now sorted as at writing this ..YAY)

Motorcycle lows

My bike which was running like shit from day one was disappointing then to top it off I made it my problem to try and fix cos I didn’t want to whinge, I should have given it straight back to the stealership day one and said sort it rather than try and sort it myself, remember these bikes were brand new.

So, if you want a meaningless argument with unhelpful people and poor service, be talked down to and to be treated like an idiot we highly recommend Alaska Cycle Centre, sorry guys but the way we were treated and the run around you gave us this is a good as I would give you, in fact you still have the warrantee speedo cable clip for Ellen’s bike that was never on the bike and you wanted to charge us for!!!, despite our calls to get it we still don’t have it, I don’t like dissing down on things but after all this time on the road you guys are still worth a mention for other riders to consider and choose when they get to Alaska and more so Anchorage ..shame on you!!!

It took Barb ringing Alaska Cycle Centre and issuing harsh words to the owner to get us sorted, it should not have to come to that, once again Alaska Leather (Barb and crew) with their positive attitude towards getting things sorted out come out shinning.

How Ellen sees it

Low Points

It was our last day in Alaska, June 19th 2012, tomorrow we will head to Dawson City
The trip is lot harder than I anticipated. I knew it was going to be tough, but don’t know how tough it going to get.

First, the weather. Although we started in late May, hoping that the weather was going to be warmish - wrong. We had snow almost every trip we went on. Not just snow, also the wind and rain. The first trip from Anchorage to Homer was hard enough for me to say: “If the rest of our adventure like this, I’m going home.”

Second, road condition. I have to say the Alaska roads are mostly nice, wide and smooth, less twisty than NZ road. They also have lots of signs to warn you: gravel, road work, dip, road damage. You won’t get too many surprises. However, the road works made the road very hard, specially for our motorcycles. They are also very long. In NZ, we have road work for a few hundred meters, here in Alaska, they have it from a few Ks, the longest one we had was nearly 40ks.

Third, my riding. I didn’t do much riding before the trip. I was scared to fall which will destroy our trip. I was hoping when I start to ride, I will pick it up quickly - wrong again. I should have done more practice, doing figure of 8 and turning, stopping and starting.

For the first few weeks of riding, my turning and stopping was terrible, I can’t turn around. It has caused a lot frustration especially on a busy road. Andi blames me for not listening, he had told me what to do when turning and stopping, I seemed not to master what he thought it’s a simple task. On top of that, my bike is still a little too high for me, I am still on tip toes when stopped, that has meant that Chiwi dropped many times on my stops.

The Denali Highway trip, almost turned Two Moto Kiwis to One Moto Kiwi.

It was our last day in Alaska, June 19th 2012, the next day we would head to Dawson City. The trip is lot harder than I participated. I knew it was going to be tough, but don’t know how tough it was going to get.

What happened was Andi saw two cyclists, one who had a flatty and they were on the side of the road, Andi stopped to ask if they need any help. I was following far behind so in theory I should be able to stop safely no problem. But I applied my rear brake a bit late, not dear to touch the front brake in fears of sliding on gravel road, then my front wheel just touched his bike wheel, I dropped the bike again.

I hated every time I dropped the bike, and Andi was taking a picture of it doesn’t make it better either. I was furious, so I shouted to him why did he stop. He helped me pick up the bike and took off. Left the two cyclists stunned. I was still angry, but have to concentrate on the road.

After about an hour later, I saw Andi pulled over on the road side. I pulled over and he started his serous talk with me. He said: “Tok, or ticket home”, you choose. If you are going home, there will be no Two Moto Kiwis and no Andi and Ellen ANYMORE.” He went on about the ipad and I nearly lost the laptop case in the morning, plus my riding has frustrated him as every time I drop my bike he has to help which increases his work x 4. He is supposed to enjoy his life time travel, but at the moment, he doesn’t. My shot at him in the public just tipped him over.

I started crying, I know I have been very bitchy in the last few days. I have behaved not the normal “Ellen”, I know that. On my side of the story I have hurt my elbow when we cleaned the garden before we left. Its been haunting me every day now. My fitness has dropped since we started the trip, not enough regular exercise which used to make me happy. I admit, it’s not Andi’s fault, and I blamed him and at worst, in public. I apologized.

But I’m not going to give it up. I have been putting up with lots of harsh conditions, inconvenience, discomfort, put myself out of comfort zone for this trip but it was my idea to get my license and do the trip together after talking with other female adventure riders.

We have met great people here and have seen lots of nice scenery. Lots of people have told us a trip like this has broken up a few couples. I will prove this is wrong as so far with our difficulties taking us to the edge and back we are stronger now. Sorry Andi, please forgive me, if I hurt you, I didn’t mean it. I promise to practice my ride and get my skills upgrade quickly.

High Points

Anchorage

Mark flew us over the glacier, Andi even flew airplane on the way back for a while.
Tom took us on his hover craft over Lake George

Homer

when we got through wind, rain, snow and hale, Homer welcomed us with brilliant sun shine and a moose wondering in the front yard and our host Charlie who was second to none.

Valdez

I saw a brown bear while jogging outside the camping ground, the good point was he ran away and I went back to campsite safely.

Fairbanks

Soak in Chena hot springs

Prudhoe Bay (Deadhorse)

Rode Dalton highway successfully
Dip toes in the Arctic Ocean
Saw caribou on the road
Grizzly bear with her cub


Impression of Alsaka

Language

Guess what, with strong South Island accent, people understand my “Chinglish” better than Andi’s NZ English. I have been translating his “ NZ English” into “proper English.” Still, there are lots of differences, here are some examples (NZ English is in front):

petrol - gas; rubbish - trash; tea - dinner or supper; herb - erb (American do not pronounce H); bum bag - fanny pack; Bloody Mozzies - Damn Skeeters.


Camping difference

Their camping ground is huge but more set up for RV - hard stony ground rather than grassy for a tent. So far we have broken five pegs and bent a few more. You pay camping fees by site not by person - makes single travel more expensive. Less facilities compareed to NZ camping, you pay $20 with no shower or kitchen. But every site will have a picnic table and fire pit. You can buy or bring your own fire wood.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:49

Gear Review
 
Gear Review

ARAI XD 4, mint, perfect for road, adv riding, keeping rain off.

The adjustable height peak making life easier, in the low sun pull in down as a sun shade, same in the rain, you can still have the front vents open in the rain with the peak down and you won’t get wet, great design.

Lift the peak up for better venting and looking at HUGE mountain tops.

The only thing I don’t like about the XD4 is having to take it off as that means we have stopped.

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KLIM gear, Keeping Large Insistent Mozzies out, this gear is outstanding, the only grizzle I have is my Adventure Rally jacket does not have great inlet venting at the front so I had the two front pockets opening on the inside and meshed so I can use them for a pocket or vent, these work incredibly well now.

Across the board extremely happy with it and believe it will more than do the distance.
Icebreaker, the best, nothing short of excellent whichever way you look at it, we have 100 % icebreaker and for hot or cold it is a winner, wear a T shirt for 5 days straight rinse and wear again without stinking, perfect adv gear for the undergrowth.

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Forma ATV boot, great boots but my right hand boot is coming apart, I wrote to Forma and nothing !!!!! not a sausage back from them so a little disappointing to be fair.

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First Gear, Ellens, Kilimanjaro jacket and TPG Escape, very good gear and very nicely cut for female riders, they are waterproof so far and Ellen love the inner pants can be warn as normal pants so dual purpose. The only complains from Ellen is the black pans getting too hot in the sun, a lighter colored ones would be just perfect.

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Barkbusters, a must, nothing more to say than they are the best, we had tortured them in New Zealand on my bikes and now Ellen has taken them to the end and back, her last spill she went down heavily, they are straight and although looking slightly second hand from being road bashed and rashed they are still fully functional and in remarkably good condition.

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Screens For Bikes, again another mint product for ADV riding, the shape and height across the board makes these very nice to sit behind.

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Having a screen is a subjective topic, when it is sunny and warm you don’t want one, when it is pissing down and blowing it needs to be twice the height and width and preferable with a roof attached.

All is all they work very well and we are stoked with them.

Garmin 660, we have had trouble with my GPS sending us down goat tracks that go no where causing us up to 1 hrs turn arounds, we have contacted Garmin and at first we given the brush off, I persisted with a stronger email and to be fair they are trying to sort it out, same GPS, same model, same firmware, same updates, same settings two vary different directions given, hopefully with the reinstalling of the new updates my will start to behave the way it should.

The Bikes, we after a big scrap (see above) with Alaska Pshyco Centre the bikes are running well, mine has a hesitation in the middle still but not enough to haul it all apart for, next service with tank off I will raise the needle a notch and think this will fill the hole.

Sargent Seats, bum saver supreme, they have softened up over the course of the travels thus have become more comfy, the shape is superb compared to the stocker shocker and after 8500 miles they are pleasure to sit on.

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Hilliberg, Keron 4 GT, nothing more to say other than get one, strong, quick to put up, great space and vestibule, my only grizzle is the pegs are poorly engineered, will email Hilliberg on this and give them some suggestions.

Coleman 508B, pooed itself three weeks into the trip, still heats ok but the lower or simmer settings have gone so it is all or none.

Yoda Star Wars Chair, kids chair and my bum fits in OK, very lite and looks cool as, compact to take on the bike, we have the power of the force with us so thatmust be a good thing.

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Ellens Pink Walmart Chair, looks nice and girlie, small and lite and cheap which is what we want, not as cool as Yoda tho.

AME Heated Grips, we are both on our second set having both sets fail within a week of each other, love the feel and good heat but think the electronics is a bit fussy, I would recommend not six settings individually programmable but one central mounted decent switch with off, med, high on them. AME, you have nice feeling grips but I can’t help but think fussy electronics will survive the test of time, heat and vibration, watch this space.

Safari 30 L Tanks, simply the best for the Long Haul, with a theoretical milage of nearly 700 km these are a must, for the most of the time you could get way with less but the one time you don’t and having to push your house and contents to a petrol station would leave me wondering why.

For us it is one fuel cell, no extras or jerry cans, we have our Motion Pro fuel tap on the side to fill our cooker, perfect.

The only grizzle is the Acerbis locking fuel caps, again both of ours failed on the Dempster by causing a vacuum lock, my bike stopped right in the middle of a huge thunderstorm so I had to undo my cap to equal the pressure, they are also a sod to line up to avoid cross threading and these have large threads!!! very unimpressed with these to be honest so it is back to the std caps.

Happy Trails Highway Pegs, best $50.00 you will spend (other than on booze), to be able to rest the legs in a new position, also opens your trouser leg for venting on the hot days.

Very happy with these to say the least.

Delis Tools LED marker lights, through Delis Tools (bro), visibility is king and many people have commented on these, they are not driving lights, just marker lights on our Barkbusters and they are visible from a long way past the DR candle.

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Kincrome Cases, (the big visible yello ones) these are great cases for strength, the full length hinge we believe is stronger than the Pelicans at two hinges, they are waterproof at this stage, all cases have had a beating so far and they are standing up well.

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Tough!!

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The Pelicans though we believe had better locking handles, not stronger but easier to use, the Kincrome Cases are sharply finished which has led to a coupla cut fingers.

Home Made Tool Tubes, Delis Engineering Wanaka Division, these have worked out great, they don’t hang below the bashplate line, they have had some pretty harsh conditions thrown at them and stood up unscathed.

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I did make the end cap waterproof and the door has butyl rubber seal for waterproofing which is waterproof enough to let the water in and hold it!!! ... not sure how that works, so each tube now has a 6 mm hole drilled in the bottom on the left so it can drain when ever on the stand.

GP Custom Bashplates, a must and well made, very happy to be running these, seem to be better built with more protection that one you buy over here.

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Wallmart 38 cent glue bottle, ditch the glue, used for daily chain lube, simply turn the top and lace the chain with a nice thin strip of oil, we are using chainsaw bar oil, nice and thick mixed with a combo of spare new engine oil from oil change leftover.

Motion Pro fuel tap, used for filling our multifuel Coleman cooker, makes it very easy to get fuel for the cooker, no spare bottles required, neat and simple, no pulling fuel lines off and on.

Ricor Intiminators, these are brilliant, we put in 5wt oil and 500mls per tube, stock spring and teh combo works very well with the intiminator reducing the dive and the 5wt oils allowing the wheel to be very supple over corrugations or washboard.

YSS rear damper, great shock, the stock shock is pretty soggy in the damping and this works a treat, I machined the collars to fit a factory spring, I have used my factory spring against some advice from other RTW travellers.

I prefer my wheels to do the dancing rather than the bike and me, Ellen at 52 kg this works out perfect for her.

We also have to remember we are not seeking 6ft jumps, rough single tracks and racing circuits so we need to hit the happy medium between weight carriage and a nice suple ride on the rough, I believe we have accomplished this.

Icebreaker, nothing else to say other than superb, the Merino Wool is an Adventure bikers buddy, we go for days at a time without a shower (uwh I know ) and the Icebreaker holds it own and simply does not smell, even after a few stinking hot days I simply dumped my shirt and gruds into the water for a quick rinse and bombs away .. good for another year JK

Also the warmth and also the ability to keep you cool on hot day we simply do not wear anything else.


Icebreaker, nothing else to say other than superb, the Merino Wool is an Adventure bikers buddy, we go for days at a time without a shower (uwh I know :evil) and the Icebreaker holds it own and simply does not smell, even after a few stinking hot days I simply dumped my shirt and gruds into the water for a quick rinse and bombs away .. good for another year :eek1 JK

Also the warmth and also the ability to keep you cool on hot day we simply do not wear anything else.

Pictured here with Naomi and Alberto from Salt Spring Island, Vancouver, even they are total converts.

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T-Mobile http://www.t-mobile.com/?cm_mmc_o=Vz...CPyzEpCjCW%2f- it would be fair to say the coverage we have had is very very good, even in Prudhoe Bay I rang home to New Zealand to tell family we have fulfilled the Arctic part of our trip and that we were in Deadhorse, the reception was very good, also on the Copper River near Chitina, I couldn't believe we were able to get out from there so T-Mobile get the huge thumbs up, thank you for a good usable product.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:51

Edmonton To Jasper
 
Ok, we have just left Edmonton ... quick eh!

The main road from Jasper to Edmonton was long and straight thus we decided to take backs roads via Leduc, Lodgepole, Cadomin and back up to the last little bit of main drag before heading to Jasper.

As we got out of town and into the rural area we were riding through small backroads in between paddocks of rape (Canola Seed), stunning colours.

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The trip was uneventful and far easier than the main drag, we stopped at Lodgepole for lunch in the shade of an oil pump station shed, not the most epically beautiful place but it was shady which made it nice.

After lunch was the mystery ride part of our trip, we called into an industrial workstation and asked if we were on the right track, turns out we were.

This turned out to be a mini Dempster, we thought it looked like a nice quiet back road but it turned out to be anything but with logging trucks and traffic galore, that with the dust and the heat we started to question our methodology but it was scenic.

The road varied from nice hard pack to riverbed soft and bouldery, Ellen managed to get to the off cambered shoulder and into the very deep and soft stuff at which point Chiwi lay down for a rest at 90 degrees to the road, Ellen was ok, Chiwi had some pretty good scuffs but once again the Bark busters came through shining as did the Kiwi hardwood crash rails which are looking decidedly second hand now.

I stopped at a small river to wait a minute for Ellen to catch up, we got talking to some people who were camping there, very friendly (and don’t bite) so we decided to stop for the night and set up, they invited us over to their camp with a fire and some drinkies, very nice evening chatting and drinking.

Ellen had gone to bed a bit earlier, I am pleased I didn’t as we were treated to Northern lights for about 5 - 6 minutes, no blues or greens in colour but the lights were on.

I rushed back to the tent and dragged Ellen outa bed, she got up in time to see the halfmoon of light recede and the fingers extend out across the ski, I have to admit to seeing that beauty put some small tears of appreciation in my eyes as we see nothing like this in New Zealand.

No photos sorry, just the memories in our mind.

The following morning we had a round of Coffee with Baileys with our groovy neighbours, that set the new benchmark of exotic camping!!, from there we packed up and left for Cadomin.

This is Cadomin general store, you think you are in the styx then a huge bus pulls up and 50 people pile out!!

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The road was improving all the time and we had a new found appreciation for tarseal again ... something we all take for granted everyday, on the way we were treated to more wild life.

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Cadomin was cool and not to far from tarseal, we went through a couple of tunnels on the road which were quite cool, the road at this point was perfect.

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From the main drag we headed back to Jasper, along the way we were greeted with stunning scenery and textbook perfect weather.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:53

Jasper To Banff
 
On arriving at Jasper we tanked up then headed toward the Icefields Highway, first stop was the secret Edge Of The World that everyone knows about, WOH HOH, breathing taking views and scenery, note to one self to stay back from the edge, one slip was certain death.

It is quite a climb to get up there which you only appreciate when you look over the edge :eek1

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Us in love but a little nervous .. not of Ellen but of the dropoff she could throw me over :D

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A beautiful waterfall graced our ears and eyes, very special place.

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With sweaty hands we took photos as close as we dared then went back to the Chiwi and Hobbit who were patiently waiting
for us, look to the background to see our elevation.

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We carried on down the highway, so much to see, so much to photograph and so much to want to stop and just look at with huge hanging basins and glacial fronts looking right at us.

Only a coupla pics as we don't want to bore you to death knowing how many pics have been put on here.

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Grandeur is the only way to explain it..... the sticker I mean :D

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We only made it as far at the Columbia Icefeilds building glacier so set up camp the night there in a tent only camp, superb place with epic views.

We ended up having a wine and cheese evening around a camp fire with our neighbours and great chats about life.

The following morning we headed back to the Icefields building, we left our riot gear there in the main office and walked across to the clacier .... outstanding.

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On our return to the building there was a lineup of bikes in the carpark ranging from Two Skunky Kiwis dirty beaten up DRs to 12 hundy Tenneres that were shinier than new, and there were some Harleys.

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One Harley had what appeared to be a coffin for luggage, we went to get a photo but missed them by a minute.

Heading on down toward Banff we were treated to views second to none and hot weather, we were only doing 60 km/hr looking out the window and stopping for photos, very memorable day indeed.

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Lake Louise, slightly beautiful and very touristy

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Huge Hotel, the people there were very nice in concierge and looked after our riot gear while we treated ourself to a coffee and snack and wee stroll around the lake, 5 star it was and very warm .... not bad I have to say :clap

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In Banff we were to catch up with Grif and Lisa from Gippers Travels Gippers Travels

We had modeled quite a bit of our setup on their bike and Grif had been wealth of information in helping us get packed and sorted so to meet them was a treat for us.

It was a meet and catch up, factory fork lowering, fixed my leaking sump plug, clean air filters, sprocket change try and sort my GPS which was still telling lies.

Left is Lisa, back is Grif and well you probably can tell Ellen and I apart.

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Having had RTW riders/travellers use our facilities and tools at home and the huge thanks and appreciation we were given I can see their point now we are on the road and are seriously appreciative of doing what in essence are simple things in your own workshop and surroundings.

The mighty fork lowering job on Ellens bike ..

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It actually looks like we know what we are doing!!

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Steady does it

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Massive thanks to Grif and Lisa for having us, showing us around Banff, giving maps and up to date info on South America so stuff you just can’t buy off the shelf, we stayed in Banff 4 nights, relaxed and took the mountain bikes out for some exercise.

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Part of our MTB travel took us past this lake which our local Lads from Wanaka will appreciate, to me when I first saw it I read it as Mini Wanker .. not quite right of course but hey!

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Ellen and I at the waterfall which with the high water was in full force

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On completion of all the above, having showers, toilet, getting washing up to date and now riding the report as we are a little behind we finally set off west towards Vancouver.

Grif and Lisa, thanks guys and it was truly a pleasure meeting you both, we will cross paths again and we look forward to it.

Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:55

Banff To Kaslo
 
Leaving from Griff and Lisas and back into reality we had a nice ride with good weather, we started on the back road 1A before rejoining the rat race over to Revelstoke.

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It was our plan to stop at a waterfall called Takakkaw for lunch however the the park warden wanted $19.80 so it is twice the price of a car for two of us, we only wanted to go in for lunch and at $19.80 I would expect a steak or burger and drink (and extras) :evil etc thus we canned that idea and carried on to a beautiful pull out with a river and small creek.

Earlier on a van with an old BSA on a trailer overtook us, they also were there having a comfort and snack stop so we got chatting as you do.

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They were heading to Vintage motorcycle rally (my eyes lit up) in Kaslo just over the hill from where we were staying, how cool is that I am thinking planning ahead with deviant ideas on cungering up an epic plan to see all the oldies.

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We said our goodbyes and grabbed our lunch bag, both picnic tables were taken so we went to one of the tables and asked the people if they minded if we used the other end to which they welcomed us, quick chat and all interest in the Kiwis .... something about our dodgy accent :D

The lady had made a huge bowl of Thai noodles, they said they had far too much and gave us some for lunch so a totally unexpected bonus, it was so nice and even Ellen head chef extraordinaire was very happy and full of praises, thank you to the two (nice) strange people who fed us well.

After riding out of the pullout fed and watered like Kings and Queens we rode on to Revelstoke, a quick tank stop was had, we then left to our next destination just over the hill from Kaslo.

Us on the ferry over the lake, nice scenery in the background

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Mrs.Garmin had somewhat of a mixup and we fell short of the target until common sense kicked in and human intervention found our camp.

Game on, beautiful location, groovy setting and a perfect hideaway.

Interesting shed clad with everything on it

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Dutchman and Chinese self portait with authentic frame and all ... saved a few bucks bro!

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Outside shower with 2.1256 walls :eek1

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I met up with Ken from Nakusp who has a 77 Honda, 860 Ducati 450 Scrambler and 61 Trumpy plus a whole bunch of Japanese bits and pieces, he is in the final stages of setting up a shop with access to all sorts of oldies, he is also a very talented restorer having seen his work first hand.

Kens bikes,

860 Ducati

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450 Scrambler

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61 Triumph

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So shiny ... me waving at me

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He is setting up for common size tyres with a tyre machine too so make it known a local petrolhead motorcyclist in Nakusp is creating better facilities for riders, well done Ken and best for the venture.

Ken and I rode over to Kaslo to the Vintage motorcycle display, fantastic road that I would love to have had my ex KTM 990 SMR on, superb!

On arriving in Kaslo it was stinking hot and perfect weather and the main street full of old lusties from yesteryear, I was like a kid in a candy shop, I had not seen so many Indians gathered in one spot, there where Harleys, Triumphs, Nortons, BMW’s etc.

So below is a collection of photos, can’t name each year and model tho, for any non petrolhead types this bit won't interest you, for the petrolhead types go grab some tissues and e n j o y :evil.

Vincent, check it out Cag!!!

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An east/west Indian with shaft drive, quite possibly one of the most beautiful bikes I have seen IMO, never seen one before

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A Harley Knuckle

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Indian with side car

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And Indian showered with Indian stuff :D

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Check out the grenade

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Pull start :lol3

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Highway pegs

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Three D Murals

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Another Indian

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BMW R90 with sidecar

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More Indians

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Bobber Indian with white walls, very nicely done

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The Mighty One in amongst to old lusties :rofl

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Finally me, sitting on the Ducati 450, could easily take this home, absolutely love it, it would be the only Ducati that I would ever own again, it felt like a scoota next to the DR

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Two Moto Kiwis 28 Jul 2012 06:57

Two Chinese Woman Ride DR650’s ... The Road Is Two Dangerous
 
Two Chinese Woman Ride DR650’s ... The Road Is Two Dangerous ... The meeting of two of the same minds.

You would’t believe it, just after I claimed to be the first Chinese Woman riding from Prudhoe Bay to Ushuaia, Ken and Carol Duval told us they meet another Chinese woman riding in in Bolivia last year! I started to wonder who is she?

Anyway, we think we might be able to find out at some stage. While in Edmonton, we got an email from Griff, he was the guy rode DR650 last year with his wife Lisa to Argentina, Andi had some correspondence from him on our bikes setting up. They had just come back from England, now back home to Banff, they’d like to catch up with us. We are only couple of days away. Great timing!

After going through the worlds most beautiful icefield road, we got to Banff. It reminds me about Queenstown, New Zealand, busy and commercial.

Griff and Lisa met us, they said you have to meet Micheal and Jing, they were travelling together in Argentina last year for a while, both rode DR 650 too and Jing is the Chinese girl I was looking for and they are only 20min away in Canmore, what a small world!

Saturday 14th July in the afternoon, we went to Micheal and Jing’s home for BBQ. He didn’t know I was from China, so it was a little surprise for him too. Jing was working that day, didn’t get home until nearly 10 pm. She and I have so much in common, we are both from North China, both short, both learned to ride for the trip, most importantly, we both hate to stop! Instantly we become best friends.

Mike gave us headlight protector plastic for our headlights and marker lights, something that will be great further down the track, as no monetary exchange was allowed we traded a nice bottle of Red wine, thank you to Mike and Jing.

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We also talked about our D Days, all of us had the same experience. It goes like this: “where are you going?” “I’m going to the airport to send you home.” Jing also told me she finally mastered the art of travel on gravel road, the secret is to ride a little bit faster, then the bike will be more stable. I was also scared to go too fast on the shingle, Andi has been telling many times to go a little bit faster to use the advantage of the gyroscopic effect of the wheels, but I just can’t do it. Now from a fellow rider who has the same level of riding as me, I will give it a go next time.

Michael also told us they had a big sorting out day in the trip, every one was crying, but finally, he realised he was doing his dream trip with people he loves, he would rather not continue if their relationship was going to be destroyed. We also promoted Andi as our team leader, now he has all the responsibility to keep all team members happy ;-)

All four of us.

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The two intrepide travellers

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In the end, Micheal gave me a big hug and said: “ I know what you have been through, what is hard to us (men), it would be four times harder for you ( being a woman with no experience). But the trip will make you so strong, going through this, you can go through everything in you life. I’m so proud of you.”

It was so great to meet Griff, Lisa, Micheal and Jing, they gave us not just general information of the direction we are going but also moral support from fellow travellers’ point of view. Huge thanks for you guys, we know there is a long way to go and we will face more difficulties while we hit the South, but with the support from you guys and others, we will make it happen.

Two Moto Kiwis 2 Aug 2012 18:13

Nakusp To Peachlands
 
It was just on lunchtime when we left Nakusp, we were slightly late as I took the rubbish to a bin down the road being tidy Kiwis, Ellen carried on to the Ferry as it was going to be touch and go with catching it given we missed the earlier one.

On the way out from Burton a sign caught my eye, the lake was very very high with the huge rains BC had and the sign .. .well .. it really confirmed that.

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We did catch the ferry, on our arrival at the loading terminal we only parked for a minute before loading begun so we cut that one fairly fine.... we call it optimal.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, the nice meandering roads through valley and hills making for a really neat day in the saddle although the traffic and lights from Vernon to Peachlands was a bit of torment with the heat coming off the road.

Two Moto Kiwis 2 Aug 2012 18:14

Peachlands
 
Peachlands, well, what a cool place, we had contacted fello ADVer Mike Ryder to catch up and stay a night, on our arrival it was 36 degrees C .. getting warmish!

We were very warmly welcomed by Mikes good lady Odette and son Elan (sp)

The biker gear was ditched and we quickly turned into civilians, Mike took us down to the lake for a wee cool off, Ellen took full advantage of this and had a swim, me I am a softy and the water would need to be steaming for me to get in so I just sat on the jetty in the sun and had a think about life for a while.

There were beautiful birds around too which made it really nice

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Tea (dinner) was put on the table and we were treated to steak and a G&T, awesome, Mike and Odette then went to a party so Ellen and I caught up on some net stuff.

The following morning was a ride report catch up (much like now) and a beautiful day was served up, our hostess seemed to have caught a virus from the bottle (known as bottleflue) and was slightly second hand, must have been something she ate.

Mike was already on the go however and we had a breaky fit for a King.

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Ellen offered to make Sushi as our hosts asked if we wanted to stay another night, the decision was made and Sushi it was along with a shopping trip to get the correct ingredients.

I had talked about doing my hair cut, turned our Odette is a hairdresser, she cut my hair professionally, it was so nice to have someone else do that for a change rather than me with my beard trimmer thinkyduffa.

Another good evening was had with our hosts really enjoying the Sushi and Sushimi, very nice indeed.

They have a bird called Mango for obvious reasons, we got on well and had quite an in-depth chat.

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Two Moto Kiwis 2 Aug 2012 18:16

Peachlands To Whistler To Vancouver
 
The following morning we kicked ourself out to get on the road from Peachlands, Mike was given permission from she who must be obeyed to come for a ride with us and make sure we left the district without flogging anything.

Mike treated us to backroads and beautiful views that we would never have seen without the local knowledge so this really iced our already nice cake.

The shingle road turned wet .. mainly because it was raining (funny that) so that demanded a bit more attention.

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Mike rode with us to the Spencers Bridge, this was his turn around point to head home, we then continued on to Lilooet and had a really neat ride, along the lakes it was getting cold to the point our mirrors were fogging over, it was only 6 - 7 degrees C .. we even had our heated grips on.

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This was one part of the road which was almost one lane ... almost exciting

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We arrived in Whistler early evening and set up camp, our neighbour Jeremy who was on a BMW 658 was a great fello to talk with, we exchanged info and gave him The Milepost on PDF rather than the huge book (note fire lighter) that he was carrying.

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At camp the trees were tall!!

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The morning dawned overcast so a comfy temperature with riot gear on, Ellen and I decided that since we only had 142 km to get to Vancouver it was as easy day so we would head in Whistler and spend part of the day taking in the place.

That is when our day fell apart, we arrived in the main street and Chiwi was pissing oil out everywhere, she left a puddle on the road and the car park.

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Swear words beginning with F were echoed not so quietly under my breath along with WTF are we going to do now? Tools out and investigate the issue for a start.

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I removed the countershaft sprocket cover, then the sprocket to reveal the seal has completely popped out of the case, couldn’t believe it but there it was so I removed the seal, cleaned it and checked for damage, it looked a little unusual on the outside.

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It wasn’t two minutes when a local came by and regonized Chiwi had a guts ache with all the chunder on the ground. He told us where we may be able to get a new seal and some oil, the oil was right but no seal within a bulls roar, I picked up some oil for which I was charged enough to buy an oil well but we needed it.

A plea for help from local ADVers

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Chiwi was WELL undersealed!!

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It was then up to Dr.Delis DR650 street mechanic extraordinaire to fix Chiwis problem, I lubed the seal up and got the alloy dolly out to refit the seal to get us to Vancouver, on pushing the seal onto the shaft then into the case it just dropped through the hole with no real effort, this really worried me as I thought well it will just fall back out.

So good was the job I did it got Chiwi safely to Vancouver, the North Shore Suzuki were very uninterested in helping us which was pretty disappointing, Modern Motosports did help us by providing the name and number of Mt Baker Motosports to whom we later took Chiwi to (US purchased bike in Canada ..Them and The Us’s).

While at Modern Motosports we contacted expat kiwi David, we were organised to stay with them that night before heading to Vancouver Island, Davids work is just down the road so he rode down and caught up with us, he had just purchased a wee strom from Modern Motosports so he new the owner, this helped us too.

A decision was made not to go down the motorway but take the back streets, this turned out to be a very long haul as we caught the traffic and roadworks, the result is that David left after us and beat us home by a long shot, never mind we did get there in one piece which was the aim of the game.

Two Moto Kiwis 2 Aug 2012 18:17

Blue Monday
 
While at Mike and Odettes in Peachland we saw a Blue Bird which caught our eye. :huh <- Blue Dudes Bro

We set our camera to catch this amazing blue bird but do you think it would turn up again for a pic... no way!!

Ellen hopped up early in the morning (dumb thing to do on a Monday) and took the camera for a walk (we don't have a dog so that will do).

On recording her walk we discovered how much Blue is around us, enjoy a few arty shots on Blue Monday in No Order (some of you folks our age with get that :D)

Blue Butterflies

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Blue Drum and Sky

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Blue Movie??

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Blueming Handstand :eek1 <- with Blue Dude

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Blue Boat

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Blue Grapes

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After that it was Tuesday so back to normal. :evil

Two Moto Kiwis 2 Aug 2012 18:21

Vancouver To Bellingham To Vancouver To Bellingham To Vancouver ... You Get It!!
 
We had organised to take Chiwi in the following morning to get a professional doctor at Mt Baker Motosports to take a look at her saw tummy, we left from Davids home only to get three kms up the road at traffic lights to see oil pouring out again ... F words again ..... same same!! here we bloody go again :baldy:baldy:baldy:kboom

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Trailer Trash!!!

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Turns out, the seal bailed only 10 meters from Davids home!!!, check out the snail trail, one of two that were to be left as presents for Davids street.

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Ring neighbour, get trailer, will travel, Chiwi now turned trailer trash was taken to Mt Baker for surgery, condition unknown.

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So we did the usual things you do when getting a bike fixed like crossing the border, leaving the country, getting grilled by border guards etc so just another normal day in the nutty life of One Point Five Moto Kiwis.

That afternoon David rang Mt Baker and talked with Luke, he said Chiwi will be ready by 5pm so come and pick her up.

So we did the usual things you do when picking up a bike after it is fixed like crossing the border, leaving the country, getting grilled by border guards etc so just another normal day in the nutty life of almost Two Moto Kiwis.

That evening David and I took Alexander and John (Davids two boys) for a ride around Langley area, a nice evening cruising around and about 40 km on Chiwi all going well.

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David on his 2012 wee strom, beautiful colour too :clap

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In the morning we had organised to got to Stanley Park and actually enjoy Vancouver, the day dawned a real cracker, we jumped on Chiwi and left to town only to arrive at Stanley Park amidst a pool of oil and a very well undersealed bike ... F words again ..... same same!! here we bloody go again!! :baldy:baldy:baldy:kboom

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A quick call to David and our knight on shining Weetrom turns up with some oil, no tools this time as these are all in Hobbit some 50 km away!!!

The silver lining is we crapped out in a spectacular place.

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We left Stanley Park after refilling the sump with oil spewing out and headed to Davids work to get more oil, the call was then to trailer Chiwi again to avoid engine damage, would have to say at this point I was starting to not see the funny side of this, David, our host was cool calm and collected and was able to do my logical thinking, we can’t thank David enough for helping us out of a not only one tight spot but two!!

So again we did the usual things you do when getting a bike fixed like crossing the border, leaving the country, getting grilled by border guards etc so just another normal day in the nutty life of back to One Point Five Moto Kiwis.

This time Chiwi was going in for more than overnight surgery and maybe have her stay extended several nights ... this at the time of writing is still an unknown.

Vancouver Island was calling, a visit to meet Alberto and Naomi was a must with the info we have got from them to start our trip ... so guys we will blame you for this stuff if that is ok 8-D.

We packed up from Davids, wedged ourselves onto Hobbit travelling very lite with no camping or cooking gear and most of our gear stored at Davids, Cindy (ADV Cowgirl) read our thread for help so upon arriving on Vancouver Island kindly offered us lodgings to get our feet on the ground and sorted out.

Two Moto Kiwis 2 Aug 2012 18:22

A Great Night Out - Two Grateful Kiwis
 
In between the mayhem we had with Chiwi we had organised prior to meet Susan and Grant Johnson, the Camp Mum and Dad of adventure world travel by bike.

Given that Grant has been very ill we were extraordinarily lucky to have a couple of hours over a dinner with them, for us this was better than meeting the pope.

Grant through his difficulties is as ever very positive and still took the time out to give Ellen some great riding advice and to chew the fat about travel and bikes, something I can talk about about until I am blue.

A huge thanks to you Grant and Susan, inspired and inspirational does not come close to how we felt over the evening and onwards, as Grants says if it is just a problem it does not matter and it can be solved, after me feeling angry about the oil seal saga with Chiwi I felt a little small to be honest compared to what Grant has gone through with Cancer and will continue to go through for some time and the extra work and responsibility that Susan has to take on regardless.

You guys are the true definition of a team, we will take a leaf from your book and use them very wisely for our life and travels.

Again thank you for your time

Two Moto Kiwis 2 Aug 2012 18:24

Vancouver Island - What a Blast
 
Huge thanks to Cindy for taking us in and welcoming us to the Island, some net time to catch up with ADVers, Hubbers etc and work out accom and things were starting to fall back into place, with the fate of Chiwi still unknown we have no option but to make the best of where were at.

We had a very nice ferry ride from Taswassen to Swartz Bay on Friday 27th July.

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While we are waiting in the que in Tswassen, a couple came to us said we can jump right in the front or the que because they give motorcycles priority - we felt lucky. When we were 3/4 way to Swartz Bay, the captain announced there were some killer whales on the left side, we were sitting there in perfect viewing seats, and true, three or four pods of killer whales were jumping and playing - what a nice welcoming to Vancouver Island!

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Cindy found us from ADV forum, she offered to pick up us from the ferry and when she knew we didn’t have any where to stay for the night, she offered us to stay in her house, since she works at night, so Andi and I slept on her bed.

Andi and I were cramped onto one bike, so we couldn’t take our big tent with us. This is one thing we did not consider that we would have to do a portion of our trip on one bike ... bad planning or optimistic that we have two reliable bikes .. not sure. Cindy even lent us her little tent. We are now armed and dangerous again!

Another ADVer David from far north of the Island and his wife Kandi offered to meet us at Sayward the next day in the evening, so we had some good advice from Cindy and rode to the north to meet them. We missed one route and decided to go around lake Cowichan, which turned out to be a two hour gravel road in the middle of no where, that’s how our adventure unfolded and we still made it with time up our sleeve.... easy as bro!!

We finally arrived at Sayward around 7pm, David and Kandi arrived just after 8pm. We had tea at the pub, which was very nice, then headed to a free camping ground.

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Sunday morning, after a quick breakfast, we started to travel further north. David led us to Mt Cain, which is a ski field in the winter. The gravel road was maintained very well, I’m used to sitting on the bike without foot pegs now.

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Groovy concrete blocks on the way down

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Our original plan was going through another gravel road pass a cave then arrive to Telegraph Cove. Only about 15ks up, the road closed for logging. We had to turn around, get on paved road to Telegraph Cove.

Telegraph Cove is a tourist destination, it is a little harbour, with nice restaurants and cafes, its beautiful too. We had lunch there, then Kandi needed to get home, so we went to Port McNeil to send her on the ferry back to home after a quick stock up on food.

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Some cool signs

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And some custom paint jobs :D

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David then took us to the very north of the island. We were planning to camp at Cape Palmerston, but when we got there, the sea fog was quite thick, almost drizzling. There were lots of Salmon berries around, we had a good feed on them. They are orange and red, the orange has a light sweet and bitter test, the red ones are sweeter.

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We had a huge feast on these YUMMO :clap

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We decided the coast is not very good for camping, because our loaned tent is only good for dry night. David has his plan B, which was 15ks back on the way back called Swan Lake. We got there, also brought some fire wood with us, then realized the plan B was no good either - the place looks very wet and the path to the lake looks like a bear trail, and the lake was only a puddle - no good for drinking...then the mozzies came out!

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Fire wood collecting, the DR logging truck! :D

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Our hunting for camping turns into a mini adventure in itself. Time to form a Plan C. We went all the way back which was only another 5 k, and finally found a wee camping site on a river side. The river called “ Good Speed river’”. Just likes its name, the river was quiet. We set up our tent and lit a camp fire on the river bed. After a bit organisation, we had our steak, potato, onion and corn all cooked.

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Then we realized the water was coming up. First we shift our fire further up, the water was still creeping up quietly, we had to move back up to the bank. Hence you see the photo of our fire in the middle of the river now. Anyway, it was time to bed, we just leave the fire for the mother nature to deal with..... two Great White Hunters and an intellectual Asian sidekick .. all this local knowledge and experience and we forgot about the tidal zone.

Oooops

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July 31, Monday

I (Ellen) woke up in the morning found my side of the tent was wet. It was drizzling overnight. I got up had a wee look around, found some animal prints 5 m from our tent. Later David got up he went around and yelled out to us he found some wolf foot prints. ..so thats what it was!

Seems that the deer had wondered through our camp closely stalked by Wolves, see the size of the Wolf prints and you will see we are not talking a Chiwawas!

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So more berries for breaky and we were off to Port Hardy, we have a brunch stop at a restaurant, we thought it was a little early by out intrepid leader had big plans for us which were soon to unfold.

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After being fed and watered we headed to Port Alice Who TF is Alice!!!! :huh

Papermills are not usually known for their beauty but check out the rust colours on the tank at the Port Alice, from there we headed up over the top and down to a lake edge to a house, one of Davids friends however he was not home.

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Continuing on our merry way we arrived at Link Creek camp, neat spot, dunny stop and quick chat then mount the ponnies again, part way along the track a digger was blocking the track, he was excavating rubble out of a blocked culvert.

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The digger driver kindly moved so we could sneak past, it was only 5 minutes and we ran into some other adventure bikers, they had taken a wrong turn on the way to Vanishing river so David invited them to follow us through which they duly accepted.

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We stopped at the creek called Vanishing River that goes down into a cavern and pops back out about 4km away, the steps and walkways had been destroyed by the trees which came down in a flood so it was careful steps to get down to view.

We all refilled with water as it was beautiful, clean, clear and tasteless so it was a very nice stop.

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Once climbing back to the road we continued on to our turn off point at which the other guys headed their way and we carried on our route, they we very appreciative of meeting up with us and more so David as he made their day which allowed them to continue on Plan A rather than go all the way back and around via the road, great stuff David your blood is worth bottling mate!!!.

We were going to have a swim however the wind had picked up a bit and the clouds were doing their best to shroud the sun which in turn dampened our enthusiasm so it was time to water up and have a snack, we then carried on to Woss(vegas) to fuel up and kiss goodbye (well man hug anyway).

We took a shortcut, (the definition from Murphy is "the longest distance between two points"), the bastid was right David led us astray and soon the adventure turned into some stump jumping and bike wrestling.

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We had to come back cos it go worserer and harderer.... :D

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Last time we listen to David ... ouwh this is quicker with less dust :evil

Upon saying goodbye Ellen and I took a left turn at Mt Cain then carried on through to Gold River, we were treated to wildlife and a groovy shingle road which was sometime very rough and some parts almost like pavement, we did a loop around Gold River before heading to the Upper Campbell Lake to set up the house and camp the final night on Vancouver Island.

The campsite was cool, we had a fire pit, fire wood, our own personal beach and private camp site, Ellen took the advantage of going in for a swim while I got the fire up and running for her to dry off beside.

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Mum nature gave us greyish morning to start with which was great for getting all our riot gear on (cos ya hot in that stuff), we packed up and rode to Campbell River township, this was a breaky and food up stop then on our way back to Cindys to drop off her wee two man tent that we used on the Island, although small it saved our bacon with having both of us squashed onto Hobbit.

Again at Cindys... hellos, afternoon tea, the giving back and thanks for the gear, hugs all round and we were on our way to the Ferry at Swartz Bay ... destination Salt Spring Island to meet Alberto and Naomi .... a big highlight for us.

GSARiderOne 4 Aug 2012 05:58

Hey guys. Loving your ride report. If you travel through Illinois please let me know. Would love to meet up with you. I live in the central part of the state near the towns of Peoria and Bloomington. Would love to have you take a rest here.

Jim

jhoncooperworks 4 Aug 2012 14:20

Hello Im from montevideo uruguay If you want to visit there is no problem my and my father we travelled all across southamerica many times and we can help you with hints and tips for your trip. Also we have a workshop and you can leave your bike stored here uruguayan customs give you one year to leave the bike. any thing just contact at lemes54@hotmail.com
Kevin

Two Moto Kiwis 7 Aug 2012 22:46

Salt Spring Island
 
The big trip to Salt Spring Island was to meet up with Alberto and Naomi from Taking The Road South blog Taking the Road South and Canada To Argentina on ADV Canada to Argentina 2010 - ADVrider

Coupled with their trip information and budgeting stats they were very instrumental in helping Two Moto Kiwis fly ... and here we are.

Naomi was away at work so our original date was abandoned, luckily Chiwi got the guts ache and delayed our Vancouver departure by a week or so, just the week we needed for Naomi to finish work, come home for two days then off on their next adventure ... we could tell you about that but we would have to kill you!!

On the ferry across

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As timing would have it we arrived the same night Naomi was meant to come home however her flight was late thus she missed the Ferry crossing, no worries, we still had another day in between.

So we met Alberto, Graham (Naomis Dad) and Nina (Naomis Mum), they greeted us with open arms and gave us Naomis old bedroom for our stay and a NICE hot shower.

They said you can take a shower if you want (I reckon it translates to please take a shower 8-)), a wash and dry, new gruds and T shirt and we were as flash as Michael Jackson, a red wine was presented and duly accepted along with some very nice nibbles. We talked of travel and bikes .... something we are getting good at.

For us to be sitting there and chatting was one of the big boxes ticked for our TMK journey with originally the only reason to go to Vancouver to meet Alberto and Naomi. Of course this changed when we were invited by David an expat Kiwi who became our saving grace with assisting Chiwis medical issues and being able to meet Grant and Susan Johnson even given Grants medical issues and David on Vancouver Island who led us astray which was so cool and of course Cindy who helped us with her tent, map and info and a place to stay for a night so we could get our sht together and organised.

Susan, send Grant back under warrantee, we are getting new cases under warrantee for Chiwi so maybe that is all Grant needs. 8-)

Vancouver (and Islands) then turned out to be a very eventful part of our trip, not sure which order to thank you all in so I won’t ... just a big thank you across the board as everyones help, hospitality and warm welcomes made the trip for us in which started out less than ideal with Chiwi.

Back to Salt Springs again now, the following day after arriving Alberto went to Vancouver and met Naomi, he had to go to town anyway so it worked out well, Ellen and I slept in, got up to date with our writing and went to town for a coffee and wonder round just to take the place in, I felt straight away I could live there with ease.

There is Ural Sidecar rides too, groovy bike.

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We also bought ingredients for Ellens famous Sushi (or Shushi as it is called on the mainland), on the way home we went to a thrift shop, I bought sun glasses for 50 cents and a belt for a buck so we really boosted the local economy.

Graham took us up a mountain track early evening which was an excellent work out rewarded with magnificent views.

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Ellen and I with Graham and the dog called Enfield

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Alberto and Naomi arrived soon after we got back, greeting and hugs to Naomi returning home from work and meeting us for the first time.... and she didn’t even run away.

Another excellent evening of Kiwi made Sushi and red wine we had locally brewed by VISA, a mid night finish was had despite it being a school night for Graham .. honourary Kiwi being first to get there and last to leave .. on ya mate!

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The following morning Alberto was changing his rear tyre for a better one, being Kiwi I had to be a part of DIY, with two of us on the job it was done in no time, my oil was change was due as I had clicked over 10023 miles so Alberto and I jumped in the car and went to a local shop, in no time I had my oil changed and my air filter washed and re oiled, ready to race under 80 km/hr.

The afternoon continued with a ride on Albertos F800GS, Alberto took Naomis bike, wee cruise around the Northern part of the Island to Southy Point, we then headed for home and picked up Ellen for a quick trip up Mount Maxwell, again spectacular views and a neat ride.

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On our return we shed the riot gear and turned into humans, a quick trip into town to meet Steve another fello ADVer who lives there, he owns a Liquor Store and bar and shouted us a round and a roady over chats of bikes and travels.

It was part of the deal for Ellen and I to shout Alberto and Naomi a coffee or beer or something as a token of appreciation for the trip info help so we all stopped off at the local store and bought Nacho stuff and big Water Melon and another bottle of wine.

As our Ferry was 6.15 am departure it was a 5.00 am start, the evening was rounded off by the sound of closing panniers and zips ready for the early start.

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On board

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We did make the Ferry and on exiting the Ferry crossing we stopped for a group photo and group hugs, Alberto and Naomi with their input with trip stats etc gave us a solid grounding for budgeting and of course with pics and write ups as good as they did we almost didn’t need to go!!!

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Huge thanks and a real pleasure to meet you guys.

Two Moto Kiwis 11 Aug 2012 14:42

Vancouver Island To Creston To US Border
 
After saying goodbyes to Alberto and Naomi we sent them on there way on the secret adventure which they can tell you about and we carried on to the border crossing destination Mt Baker Motosports again hopefully for the final time.

At the border we were grilled by the friendly border guard who was full of jokes and happiness, we did get through easy enough as we had nothing of interest to them anyway.

On arriving at Mt Baker Motosports Luke lead us through the situation in which Suzuki are owning the problem having machined the cases oversized. They will be supplying new cases and will pull the motor and fix it which will be done in Fresno when we catch up with a buddy who lives there.

Mt Baker Motosports were very good to deal with and fixed thing as good as they could to ensure the seal stays put until the new cases arrive. We left Bellingham back over the border and were grilled by a nice lady who was full of jokes and happiness too, she must be related to the other guy, they seemed to be from the draught horse family ....draggin their hoofs and with long faces.

We arrived at Davids (Kiwi Cannuck) place to repack, regroup and spoon on the K60 Heidenau front tyre on my bike as the Trail Wing was spent and getting very dodgy.

Cultus Lake was to be the new destination for the night as we headed east toward Glacier Park along the Crows Nest highway (Highway 3),

On the way we were treated to four Vincents parked on the side of the road ... one of which was a hybrid of some descripts, still camera worthy tho.

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Also a lake which took our interest, cool shapes.

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Crows Nest Highway was nice but a quick stop at Mc Dees in Osoyoos to have cold coffee netted a better plan through a back road beside a lake, this was to turn out to be a great training ground for Ellen, Chiwi performed well and so did Ellen ... go girl.

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This road went from Trail down to Seven Mile Dam and along the lake, neat wee ride and STINKIN hot, spot the soggy Asian....actually the whiteifoo camera man was just as bad :D

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We stayed the night at a neat camp after Chiwi got too hot and lay down for a rest only 10 meters out from camp so I had to right her and encourage her to come right into camp .. mission accomplished.

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Swims and food down we sat around a camp fire with marsh mellows the size of footballs, supersize me supreme and they were beautiful with a biscuit wrap and chocolate ... must be a Canadian thing eh.

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Some of the beautiful rock work along the river.

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Following morning we had a leisurely pack up and wondered on our way turning left right on the border at Nelway (didn’t wonna meet draught horse 3). This took us back out to the Crows Nest again and on to Creston and down to the border for the final time to exit Canada, a place that we will miss for sure.

On our exit from Canada we arrived at the Eckhart border, this guy obviously wasn’t part of the draught horse family as he was a dude, we were asked sensible questions and given great information from a guy who was actually interested in our shenanigans.

Farewell to Canada for the final time (on this trip), the most of Canada was simply outstanding and we loved it, could I live here hell yeah.

Chur fellas ,will see you again.

Two Moto Kiwis 11 Aug 2012 14:44

Going To The Sun .....
 
Managing to escape Canada (with reservations about leaving) and finding ourselves in the USA it is on to the next groovy location, destination Glacier Park.

We continued down Highway 95, turned off left onto Highway 2 then 508 into the back and beyond, stunning road that got narrower with less traffic as we carried on, perfect. This road took us through various small shingle roads and tar seal roads, we thought we were lost but turns out our navigational skills had improved so we should have trusted our own judgement first off.

Koocanusa Lake was our destination to camp that night however we stumbled across a small camp ground at Caribou Creek, there was only two other neighbours.

The family that was staying there had two VW campers and a MG car... not very American you lot!!!, Cath came out and promptly shifted her MG so we could park Hobbit and Chiwi and welcomed us in, totally cool, this will do us down to the ground!!

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We had set up and organised ourselves when Thingymajig (sorry I can’t remember your name) pulled up on a 6 cylinder 1500 Valkerie Honda with a camper trailer, great setup you have mate (Ellen was specifically told not to get any good ideas)

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He joined us and Toms family for a fire and coupled with some red wines and a chats we had a great evening, subject of discussion was my Star Wars Yoda chair and how I managed to fit my man bum into it ...... does this chair make my bum look big?? :evil :rofl

The following morning we set off toward Whitefish for supplies etc after watching the girls go fishing for breakfast.

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Cath (sp) if you read this can you email the picture of us standing on the road with your big breaky catch, ta :clap twomotokiwis at gmail dot com

This bridge appeared .... quite a big bridge for such a back road ..... it then on to Glacier National Park, it was 103 F or 39.44 C for us normal people so just warm enough.

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On arriving at the park we purchased a National Park Pass as we will be in and out of the parks throughout our US part of the trip, next thing was to find lodgings for the night so we went to the information centre, the place was packed with people pouring in and out like bees from a beehive, the only campground showing up as available being 40 miles away at Lake Bowman so off we went to get there before it filed up.

Now.. we have two directions, Mrs.Garmins and the Park map ... who to believe as they both showed different stuff. :eek1

Sensibility won over on this occasion and we used the Park map, this turned out to be an adventure in the making as some roads had been blocked by slips so it was combo to get to camp, Mrs.Garmin then sent us down a goat track in which a local agreed we should go that way... I don’t think he liked us. :D

From shingle road to dirt track to gravel lump to quad track we came upon a dry creek, the only way through was down across and back up, I knew Ellen did not have the skills so I did the riding part, only another 50 meters and we were back on relatively normalish shingle roads, this then took us into Bowman Lake a neat ride in itself and good practice for Ellen standing on the pegs on loose gravel, powder, rocks twisting and turning up and down.

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This was camp for the night and look at the map to see what to do, the following morning we rode up to Kintla Lake and Ellen decided it was good enough for a swim, we mulled around for a while then made our way back down the road to hit the main attraction Going To The Sun.

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The road was choca and it turned out to be a snail ride in a line of hundreds of cars...literally. Smoke filled the air from some wild fires further south but the views were still amazing, we stopped about half way up to have some lunch and pics still very very hot, spot the Harleys near the bottom of the pic.

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Waterfalls everywhere there was so much to choose from to photograph, then right on the road side... very cool indeed.

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Just a bit further up there was major roadworks so it was down to one lane and a sit in the cue, we only had about a 10 minute wait of the possible 30 so that wasn’t too bad... did I mention it was hot...warning moobs :eek1

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Unfortunately from there was stop start stop start ride the clutch bla bla bla so not much fun to the top.

Stopping at the top the people were like ants all over the place so it was a quick stop and carry on down the other side to Highway 2, on the way down we were treated to seeing a young grizzly having a chomp on berries, nice looking animal he/she was.

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We continued round the bottom of the park on Highway 2, Devils Creeks was the next destination to set up camp, was some soggy sweat filled gruds, socks and tees.

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Wifi was on our list of wants at this point so we could update our ride reports and get some emailing done to sort Chiwis case change, just up the road from the camp is a cool pub with Wifi so everything came together.

ADV rider came to the rescue as we contacted shezonit (a Dudette from the tent sign up ) and she kindly took Two Dodgy Kiwis in, just happened a Hotrod show was on the weekend so our timing was mint.

Two Moto Kiwis 16 Aug 2012 04:53

Canada Sum Up And The Heart Speaks
 
I am writing this on day 100 of Two Moto Kiwis, a trip of our lifetime, a new normal of new places, faces and spaces.

Hundy Day photo in Polson!!!!

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How Andi Sees It

Highlights Non Motorcycle

Right grab a crate of beer, some hankies and sit back.

This is a biggy, Canada is somewhere Ellen and I have both been to but only to Montreal so the rest was an unknown thus we had no expectations.

Starting at the top, Dawson City, cool, cannot explain the place well enough to do it justice and I suggest you dust off that wallet and get there, you will NOT regret it.

Inuvik, done that now, enjoyed it and have ticked that box, was great to get virtually right to the top.

Whitehorse, meeting Otis and Daniel, Claire and JD our hosts who we couchsurfed with, Otis gave us the lead to Fort St James, on ya mate we were stoked.

Meeting Dick Hubbard and Ken Wilson coupled with their better halves in Stewart/Hyder, I always looked up to Dick (Mr Muesli in NZ) finding inspiration from his life and successes, we knew he did some motorcycling and to meet up with him and in Stewart/Hyder was huge.

To the bears at Lake Kitwanga, thank you for not eating us but you owe me ten bucks for new undies tho!!!

Fort ST James, amazing, hidden gem and both of us loved it, biggest thank you to Mel, the people were the icing on a cake that was already hearty, the location we were spoilt rotten with and I guess it is fair to mention mum nature who gave us a great run with weather after the Cassier cold.

Meeting Richard in Dunster, been to NZ, bought a bottle of wine up for a chat and gave Ellen a Greenstone tiki to take home, this will travel with us as our good luck charm.

Catching up with our great mates from NZ in Edmonton, Dickie and Elaine, great catching a wee slice of homely hooligans.

Banff, meeting Griff and Lisa, guys with worldy advice on helping us get off the ground and just Banff itself, simply stunning.

Nakusp area, stunning, great ride with Ken, Pierre may the frogs be with you buddy!

Meeting Mike and Jing in Canmore, what a surprise and a huge thing for Ellen to meet Jing having done what we are about to do.

Michael and Odette at Peachlands, very welcoming and great fun, we will be back for that hospitality and Gin!!!.

David Barret in Vancouver, what can I say other than he saved our arses BIGTIME, for Chiwi to crap out was bad enough but to break down where we had access to vehicle and trailer and more so a great guy willing to help it transformed a huge issue into a great opportunity, David, we could ramble on and on and can’t thank you enough, I say that with a huge public blokehug.

David (part two ...gunnerbuck), you made Vancouver Island for us mate, your company and Kandi was mint.

Cindy, well she took us in and it gave us the time and contact to sort out with David (gunnerbuck), on ya chick.

Alberto, Naomi, Graham and Nina, dudes, a pleasure meeting you all.

Canadians across the board were fantastic, the welcoming, help, friendship you simply cannot measure ..... not sure I want to leave!!

Lows Non Motorcycle

I struggle to think of one, for me it would be leaving Canada.

Only the grumpy lady at Mazadian Lake camp .. she needs to find a new job that does not involve people.

Motorcycle Highlights

Started from Dawson and ended entering the US.

Kaslo vintage bike show, what a treat for me, kid in a candy shop, Ken thanks for your company and the ride.

Seeing NZ stickers go riding past in my mirrors at Stewart/Hyder then chasing them down.

Getting Chiwi back up and going, ok thus far.

Being able to do the factory fork lowering on Ellens forks in Griffs garage with the proper tools and dry space, you don’t appreciate your own workshop until you need to do something technical away from it, thanks Griff, you have made my life a lot easier by making Ellens life a lot easier!!!.

Mt Baker Motosports in Bellingham, kinda US based really but was on our Canadian leg, they did the best they could with the time and parts, we thank you guys for the service you gave us to get us back on the road.

Motorcycle Lows

Undoutedly Chiwis Countershaft seal issues, we could EASILY have done without that.

The Heart Speaks

This round of The Heart Speaks is not as saucy as round one which was essentially the levelling platform to find our new normal, the new normal means being taken away from a daily routine which everybody hates (until you don’t have one), the new places, the new challenges of not just going to bed but first to find a place to put your bed.

When you come home from work, you raid the kitchen with flowing water, food galore and snacks at the ready, internet to check your emails in the hope that s o m e o n e might love you so these are all the things that are taken away from you when you live on the road.

Our new normal is rolling out our tent and sleeping gear when we are camping and pulling it back down and packing it up in the morning.

This has to be done rain or shine, windy or still, icy or dry, camping is great and a saves a lot on accommodation costs which is a fair proportion of the budget gone just to put your head down and suffering from insomnia I never get my moneys worth but you always meet neat people from around the globe doing their new normal.

Although Ellen and I can have our tent up within three minutes of pulling up we have seen some epic arguments on setting up... thankfully our turn to sit and watch and sometime larf quietly.

The rider training hit home with Ellen, she realised that not doing it at home under controlled conditions without house and contents on was a mistake and that my side of the trip was very hard and at times very unenjoyable, as you all know the harder side caught up with us both.

Ellen has been taking time out in carparks to practice under instruction (not just me), we have been lucky enough to have great words of advice from Grant Johnson, Mike in Canmore, Griff and lots of lady riders, basically all echoing the same words as me but not from the hubby so to hear it from others has secured her mind .... not that she trusts me now tho!!

Like all humans, we have had navigational tests sent our way, Mrs.Garmin is somewhat of a school teacher giving us unwanted homework, add to that dehydration, 35 - 40 deg C and hungry and the mix is never good.

We have learned to slow down, take a break and stop, maybe a cold drink and a nibble and not long after that life starts to make sense again.

I am happy to say that I still love Ellen and I have removed the add off Ebay “Female Suzuki Crash Test Rider For Sale”.

Ellen I love you and really appreciate the effort in trying to step it up to make our lives easier thus better, nothing like a good air clearing scrap to reset “How To Stay In Love On The Road 1.01”

As you were people, next ride report on its way soon.

Ellen’s Point of view

What can I say about Canada? Highlight is every where we have been and all the people we have met, only low is to say goodbye to this place.

Thanks Andi giving me the chance to improve my riding, when I said I started to enjoy the riding, it really freaked him out. I’m sorry dear you have to put up with me for next 21 months.

Andi Again

Ouwh shit!! :eek1 :D

MikeyMoto 16 Aug 2012 22:52

Hello Two Moto Kiwis,

Enjoying your ride report, as well as your lovely photos. I just read you last report regarding your Highs and Lows and this caught my attention:

Quote:

Lows Non Motorcycle

I struggle to think of one, for me it would be leaving Canada.

Only the grumpy lady at Mazadian Lake camp .. she needs to find a new job that does not involve people.
I am pretty sure this is the same grumpy woman that ruined our stay (my wife and I) at Meziadin Lake campground. You are correct, she does not like people! Well, take solace in the fact that you are not the only ones who have had a run-in with her. Lovely campground though. Happy Travels,

Regards, Mike.

Gipper 17 Aug 2012 03:56

Good Job guys, pleasure to meet you both and be able to help out fellow overlanders

100 days done and lots more to come - Keep livin the dream!

Two Moto Kiwis 17 Aug 2012 21:50

Glacier Park To Polson To Missoula
 
Leaving Glacier Park the weather continued to be very hot and great training for Central America.

The mission was to find a camp site that was suitable for tenting as everything we had seen was set up for RV’s with tarseal where you wonna put the tent up, everything else was on a hill or angle.

Devils Creek turned out to be the winner, although fairly close to the road we managed to get in behind a bank and trees to knock out the noise. Neat place with a creek so it was time to give the shirts a swim and dry.

During the evening we went to the local bar/cafe/pub and jumped on their Wifi to organise the next round of our trip and to see where we wonna go, with no idea of what was coming up we contacted shezonit from Polson from the ADV tent site thread as she had good offerings with local information.

Next morning we continued our way around the bottom of Glacier park, and started making our way to Polson not knowing if we had a reply or not, on arrival at Polson it was into McDees for a cold coffee and Wifi, shezonit (Maren) replied saying sweet so a quick phone call and we were sorted.

Maren had spare space for us which was cool and given she had been to Mexico a few times had some great information for us, while we were in town getting supplies she called Rocky so he could come over and see our bikes, well the small world thing happened again, just so happened we had bumped into Rocky and his riding buddies in Smithers in Canada, we had lunch in the car park with them.

Needless to say soon as he saw our bike he said I know these guys!!!!

On our return Maren told us that we were meeting someone who we had already met, classic!!!

Pizza from a local restaurant was on for tea along with discussions on travel and places to go. The following day was a local custom car show, there was some really beautifully done cars some with some serious coin poured into them.

48 Cadillac

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A custom something

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Groovy Rat Rod

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Beautiful T Bird

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And most importantly the bikes!!!

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There are many more images of cars if you want to see them go here Polson pictures by Twomotokiwis - Photobucket

Ellens famous Sushi was made for tea after a big day looking at hot cars, again the map came out and with the ADV infosystem in full flight we drew lines all over our map for places to go, things to see, an indicative idea of where to go after telling them what we were into.

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The following morning after a leisurely pack up we rode back up to Bigfork and round Swan lake heading to Missoula.

Lance from ADV lives in Missoula, he was keen to meet us and put us up etc, Lance is a good friend of Geoff & Gus from Australia who are soon to be setting off for South America as well Geoff & Gus's Blog so we will meet them there, looking forward to that as Geoff has been a great source of information and a tech head on IT stuff helping with our web site set up etc.

Upon arriving in Missoula we found our the demolition derby was on ... saweet !!

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Sub Trip Within The Trip

Ellen got lost in Missoula

Left Polson, we headed to Missoula, to meet Geoff’s friend Lance.

If we took road 93 from Polson, there is only about 125k to Missoula. But Rocky said it is very boring. He suggested us to take the road back to Big Fork then going through a forest road, that is much batter.

We took this long way round, only 100k more and happened to see more forest fire again.

It didn’t take too long to find Lance’s flat thanks to GPS for once. He showed us our accommodation - Pink Lady, what a cool van. Lance is flatting with three girls, they are all very welcoming and I felt back to my old university time, flatting is great!

Then Lance asked what we want to do for that evening. Go swimming in the Clark Fork river or a demolition derby event?.

For me, I voted for swimming any time, they boys, of course, going to the car thing. Well, lets just lose each other for a while, do our own things.

Andi asked me if I want to take the GPS or Cell phone, I said no just in case someone steals it. I think I can find home (I call all the places we are staying home now) no problem, just a few blocks away from the river....what can possibly go wrong!!

Lance and Andi dropped me off at the river bank -- it’s in the middle of town, a concert is on for the night in the park which is right beside the river. I went down to the river - there were lots of people floating down stream on their rubber tubes, a natural water fall just under a big bridge which connects North to South.

I jumped into the big river to cool myself down, it has been more then 30 degrees, and the cool water just felt so nice. When I decided I had enough, it was nearly 7pm.

I thought I was walking to the right direction. After 3 set of traffic lights, still can’t find a over bridge which was a landmark I remembered. I walked back to the river, the concert is on and the park is packed. I tried another direction, after 100m, I decided to get back to where I started -- I got totally lost now.

What can I do now? I went back to the park, found a security guard, told him I got lost. He asked me: “Do you remember the street name?”
“Nope, but I know it’s not too far from here.”
“But how can I help you if you can’t tell me where do you want to go?”
“I have a phone number (I hope it’s the right one), if I can borrow your phone to ring my husband.”
“No problem.”
He dialed the number for me, but it’s an answer phone. I left a message - hope it was our phone and said I got lost, if he can come and pick me up on the way back.

It was too uncertain, firstly, I didn’t know it was our phone; second, I didn’t know if Andi took the phone with him; thirdly, if he did come to pick me up, I didn’t know when.

With some quick thinking, I remembered at Lance’s flat, we checked “spot” on our website see if it worked. If I can get on line I can locate Lance’s address, and if I can find a local map, the problem would be solved.

I asked around where can I get a local map, a gas station cross the river might have one. It took me a few minutes to get over there, I got the map. Now I need internet. It was nearly 8pm, Sunday night, all shops were shut. I found a Mexican restaurant, ask the owner if he can help me. He had an iphone, pretty small, however we managed to get the street address. It was on the corner of two street, which was exactly how I remembered. I had my map marked and off I went.

First, I needed to cross the bridge again. I thought it was a bit odd. I was sure we didn’t cross the bridge to get there. Maybe Lance’s took a shortcut. Anyhow, I had to trust the spot. I walked along the street, nothing looked familiar, it might be a different route. I walked and walked and walked, nearly a hour later, finally get to the point which marked on my map. The house is not there! On contrast, it looked like a big park with loud speakers telling people about the race. I was near the park where the car race took place! Andi must have taken the spot with him, and the last location is the car park.

What can I do now? It’s nearly dark, and I hadn’t had any food since Polson. I went into a transport company asked if they have computer for me to check my email. I knew Lance sent us his phone number earlier, at least I can call him. “No” they said, “ Maybe the shop two blocks away has it.” I was a little bit disappointed, but still there was hope.

I started to walk, all of a sudden out the corner of my eye Hobbit and Lance’s KLR sitting in the parking lot right in front of me. They are still here! I wrote a note and put it into Andi’s helmet: “I’m looking for you in the field, don’t leave without ME!”

As I was walking to the park, the event has finished. I saw Lance and Andi were walking towards me. It took Lance a few seconds to recognize me: “How did you find us?” “Thanks for Spot.”

It was such a relief seeing them.

Back To Missoula

My front wheel was feeling slightly out of balance so Lance took my bike to his work to check it, that is when the next level of disappointment started.

Per Ellens bike Hobbit threw his countershaft seal out only 100 metres from Lances house, he did not know until he got to work and he left a Hansel and Gretel oil trail for 2 miles to his work.

More calls to Suzuki and the local shop in Missoula, the local shop in Missoula being very disinterested and pretty unhelpful .... great!!!!

A couple of calls later to Leland Suzuki and these guys were on it and organizing things, I also discussed my 3rd gear which is whining pretty badly and our chain guards that had broken in half.

Not having a great start really for the want of buying a reliable DR!!, please Suzuki give us a sporting chance!!

Lance kindly lent us his workshop to do a temporary seal repair, this involved a large cleanup, clean the seal and surfaces, glue the seal back in and peen the case edges to stop the seal from bailing out again.

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On the social side of things it gave us a sporting chance to take in Missoula, we took a trip to Weer Hots Springs which were VERY hot, watched the huge forest fire blazing on the back.

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Tubing!!!! ... in truck tubes down the Clark Fork River, great fun and neat views, did get a bit cold at the end as sun fell but no one died so that was ok.

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Ever wondered what a rail bridge looks like from underneath while floating past on a borrowed truck tube with a lima a rita in your hand, a wet arse and a train racing overhead... well ... now you do!! :D

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Our great hosts Lance and Erin

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That concluded Missoula and we said our good byes to Lance and Erin, next installment hopefully good news on the bikes.

Two Moto Kiwis 17 Aug 2012 23:23

Some Useful Info For DR650 With Safari 30L Tanks
 
Afternoon all

Ok, we did a milage check the other day (when my bike was going).

We decided we wanted know how far the bike would go till reserve, I do not know what the reserve capacity of the Safari tank is so if someone does know please let me know.

So ..... riding the bike the speedo reads 60 mph, Mrs.Garmin shows 56/57 mph corrected.

That gives a correction value of approx 5%.

I travelled 441 miles so 709.7 km (approximately ) when is spluttered and I changed over to reserve.

Correction of 5% on Speedo would be around 419 miles or 675 km till reserve which is not too shabby.

We have yet to bend our fuel lines horizontal on the carb to get the last of the fuel out which I will do when we do the main valve service.

Anyway, hope this info is useful for someone ponding the merits of a larger tank for your DR 650.

Noel900r 21 Aug 2012 13:30

G'day Andi/ellen
 
Guy's you've had me spell bound for the last couple of days ,Ive read all of your posts,very much enjoyed looking at your photo's,will follow the rest of your tour with interest,Noel
p.s kiwi's beat us in the football again,this where i claim my NZ ancestry (mums a kiwi):D:thumbup1:

Two Moto Kiwis 22 Aug 2012 01:17

Missoula To Kalispell
 
Monday August 13th 2012

Lance takes my bike to work to check the balance of the front wheel, he didn’t even make 100 metres and Hobbit spat the countershaft seal out, same problems as Ellens bike Chiwi.

I had previously written to Suzuki asking if there was a bad batch of cases on the later 11’s and early 12’s but they had not replied.

Both bikes are only 3 months old, my has 11200 miles and Ellens had 8000 miles on it, 99% road use.

All warrantee work is at the dealership and it is on us to get the bike to the dealership despite it being a Suzuki problem, this has cost us dearly now with excessive amounts (10 Litres) of oil be poured through the engines only to have it all spat out on the road.

After a while I have started to not see the funny side of this and I am quietly getting angrier at Suzuki for not owning up earlier, being RTW bikers it adds an extra time, expense and energy just to get the bike to the shop which I don’t believe they appreciate.

We do expect some bits and pieces but come on Suzuki you are fast destroying a reliable reputation here and it is getting to test our patience especially when it hits us in the wallet for new machinery.

Friday 17th at 5.30 pm we left Lances place after getting some positive info from Lelands in Kalispell.

We decide to take the back roads north so headed on out through Plains and Hot Springs, we did make a navigational fopar so carried on through to Elmo where we found the camp ground for the night, tent spaces were full and we were offered a catamaran to sleep in, how cool is that!!!

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Now we have accommodation for Two Floaty Kiwis, the sound of the water tapping gently against the hull was very nice, this was a first for us sleeping in a cat so it was coul.

The following morning we were treated to the very generous offer from Les of a hoon on a jet ski and to take Kayaks out as well to enjoy the sunny day, we duly accepted both and had a blast, first Ellen and I went out then I went out for a one up hoon doing hamilton turns etc ........well cool.

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We then went out on the kayaks with Les and his sister Crystal, we enjoyed a great chat and paddle around the lake edge while taking in spectacular views of the surroundings.

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Eventually we left to head up to Kalispell just prior lunchtime to find out the bike parts fate.

Clocking in to Leland Suzuki in Kalispell on Saturday18th after waiting most of the week in Missoula, Lelands advised that “most” of the parts where available bar a couple of bearings.

So being forever positive and looking to turn baddies to goodies we set too and decided to explore some more around Kalispell and make the most of all the time staying within a stones throw in case either bike let go again .... kinda like diarrhea and not leaving far from the toilet. :eek1 :D

A decision was made to go to Lake Koocanusa via Marian through the Pleasant Valley, this turned out to be quite an adventurous road in itself.

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We didn’t make it to the lake as we stopped off at a small river and met some local hooligans who invited us in for a swim and the camping was free so that was mint and fitted our budget perfectly.

If you think this looks like a Chinese Laundromat that is because it is!! :rofl

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After setting up camp we piled into the river for a swim and sat in the sun, outstanding!!, on conclusion of the playing we were invited over to join them for home made burgers, I tell ya that had so much more appeal than the rice we were cooking.

A fire was lit, drinks were poured and general shite was talked around the fire until we all went to bed, Shawn who was one of the lads was a bit crook after being attacked in broad daylight by Tequila....he had bottle flu in the morning.

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Saying goodbyes after a monster breakfast of leftovers we did a loop of the lake and headed to Libby then over to Bull Lake to make camp for the night, stunning place, warm water so swimming was on the agenda.

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Nec morning the large Cedars were calling us to have a look, these monsters were 500 years old and 2 -3 metres girth and beautiful but size does matter fellas, we have trees 2500 years old and 14 metres girth Tāne Mahuta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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You can take a million photos in here, beautiful place.

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Gettng back to camp we packed up and headed south and back around to Polson to catch up with Maren and Rocky, we ended up staying the night before escaping at 7.30am in the morning to Kalispell to Lelands Honda and Suzuki.

Two Moto Kiwis 22 Aug 2012 01:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noel900r (Post 390002)
Guy's you've had me spell bound for the last couple of days ,Ive read all of your posts,very much enjoyed looking at your photo's,will follow the rest of your tour with interest,Noel
p.s kiwi's beat us in the football again,this where i claim my NZ ancestry (mums a kiwi):D:thumbup1:

Heya Noel, glad you are enjoying our ride report, we are certainly having fun sitting the practical side then writing about it too.

Welcome to follow us, any suggestions for writing etc would be welcomed for us to improve for you guys.

Nigel Marx 22 Aug 2012 06:21

Onya mate, lovin' the blog.

Cheers bloke

Nigel in NZ

Noel900r 22 Aug 2012 10:53

Mate you guy's are kiwi's ,what can a Aussie teach you!
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Two Moto Kiwis (Post 390088)
Heya Noel, glad you are enjoying our ride report, we are certainly having fun sitting the practical side then writing about it too.

Welcome to follow us, any suggestions for writing etc would be welcomed for us to improve for you guys.

:D just taking the piss.No carry on its all good.I spent a year working in Canada ,so have been to a few of the place's ,you now i never met a Canadian i never liked,great people.look very much forward to your south America part of the journey.Its on my list.take care Noel:taz:Ps just because he's aussie.

Two Moto Kiwis 27 Aug 2012 06:54

Kalispell And The Whining Post
 
The sole reason to come 150 miles north from Missoula was to get Hobbit and Chiwi sorted out hopefully once and for all, 3rd gear was groaning badly in my bike and had been getting progressively worse from 5000 miles until Lelends took it apart at 11000 miles.

This is an image of a 3 month old DR650 :cry

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On pulling down Hobbit they found 3rd to be bad .... blue from excess heat bad with hardening coming off (what a surprise), two set of cases were supposed to have been sent to fix the oversized countershaft seal hole however only one lot turned up with some confusion with Suzuki that Ellens bike had been fixed??? .

New cases with number put back on

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3rd gear, turned blue from heat, suspect from the hardening coming off and creating drag.

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With 3 months to spend in the USA before our B2 VISA’s expire we have now used 3 weeks of this getting the F%&^$n Suzukis sorted out and we are not there yet, we have a good long time for our trip however our US bought bikes are now stuffing our US based trip, bearing in mind it cost us $3500 NZD with flights, application fees, interviews, time of work etc to get these so essentially it has already cost us over $583.33(approx) a month just to see the place before we had even set foot here.

So this is the whining report of broken bikes and way behind on looking at what we want to look at, we may consider extending our VISA’s providing they don’t royally rip us if we can so we can at least see the US instead of Suzuki dealerships.

Suzuki, you have a known problem, sort it out as you have now cost us a lot of time and money which we are less than impressed with, this will prevent other RTWers doing a Suzuki Shop Tour like we have been forced to do.:baldy:baldy

Lelands Suzuki, Leland's Honda Suzuki in Kalispell, Montana offers new and used Honda and Suzuki parts, accessories & maintenance for your sportbike, cruiser, dirtbike, atv and muv vehicles. the non whining part, these guys are simply great to deal with and really pulled out the stops for us as best they could with red tape removal and getting stuff sorted but they too are jammed in the middle, these guys are our saving grace.

We can’t complain really as the weather has been fine and we went to Glacier park again (but should have been west and back beyond Yellowstone by now!!!) but we will, sometimes you get a shit build up and now we are at that point where prematures failures are causing us time and monetary issues and being on a budget the last thing we need is unwanted, unneeded, unnecessary failures that beat our budget up as that means something else has to give!!!!!

On brighter note Ellens riding is coming on well, we are as at writing our whinge report in a Walmart Carpark and Ellen is practicing her U turns, stops, starts etc which is cool.

Not long now and we may even be back on the road and be able to put the practice to pleasure.

New Note To Add

Today is Friday the 24th August, Lelands rang and told us that they needed a part that only a New Jersey Dealer had so it won’t be here until Saturday afternoon at best.

They wanted Ellens bike in so they can start that and make some progress, we took it in which left us stranded for wheels so they kindly lent us a DL1000 so we are leaving the country and heading back to Canada for a few days so we don’t waste any more time.

The camping ground that we have been staying at White Birch RV Camping, Country Motel | Kalispell, MT the owner Larry has been outstanding to say the least, very friendly and accommodating and he is even looking after our gear while we are reduced back to one loner bike, Larry your support in a time where things got tight for us was mint and we really appreciate it.

Bye bye USA hello Canada ...we are BACK!!!!

markharf 27 Aug 2012 07:57

I had a warranty repair done on a Kawasaki a couple of years back which took a month or longer. I was several thousand miles into a trip at the time, and ended up buying a backpack, flying to Europe with it, wandering around bike-less, then returning to pick up the bike. It cost thousands of dollars, and I got back to Europe with the bike just in time for winter--subzero temps, ice and snow all the way through Germany and parts of France, etc. etc. etc.

It's all part of the game. Be glad it happened in North America instead of, say, the Bolivian altiplano.

Count me as one who will continue reading appreciatively. Thanks for the text and photos!

Mark

PS: For big trees, head for the Pacific coast, where there are many which put those puny Rocky Mountain cedars to shame. And if it's really thickness that matters, look for El Arbol de Tule outside Oaxaca--something like 15 meters in diameter (not girth). You and the DR's will be there before you know it, countershaft seals and all.

Two Moto Kiwis 30 Aug 2012 00:16

Photos Only Today - New Report Coming Shortly
 
http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...sp/file-55.jpg

This what Andi saw when he woke up this morning:evil

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The truth is the owl was sitting on a tree...

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Then there was salmon in the river...

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and more...

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back to yesterday, met Neville in Nakusp, photo for Griff

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Can't believe meet these guys from Ausi, same bike, almost same set up as us

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Walk up to an old mine this afternoon and some more photos...

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Two Moto Kiwis 30 Aug 2012 00:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by markharf (Post 390543)
I had a warranty repair done on a Kawasaki a couple of years back which took a month or longer. I was several thousand miles into a trip at the time, and ended up buying a backpack, flying to Europe with it, wandering around bike-less, then returning to pick up the bike. It cost thousands of dollars, and I got back to Europe with the bike just in time for winter--subzero temps, ice and snow all the way through Germany and parts of France, etc. etc. etc.

It's all part of the game. Be glad it happened in North America instead of, say, the Bolivian altiplano.

Count me as one who will continue reading appreciatively. Thanks for the text and photos!

Mark

PS: For big trees, head for the Pacific coast, where there are many which put those puny Rocky Mountain cedars to shame. And if it's really thickness that matters, look for El Arbol de Tule outside Oaxaca--something like 15 meters in diameter (not girth). You and the DR's will be there before you know it, countershaft seals and all.

Heya Mark

Thanks for your supportive words, yeah always better looking at the brighter side but I have to admit this has wound me up a bit having now spent 1 month sorting the bikes out out of teh 3 months we "had", especially with such little miles on them.

Suzuki spent $1602.54 on Ellens and .......... $3953.71 :eek: on mine and third gear still grizzles :thumbdown: .... at least the countershaft seal is still in the hole!!!

We have made the most of the situation by getting and out looking around but it has involved a lot of back tracking etc is now nice to be heading South again hopefully trouble free.

Two Moto Kiwis 2 Sep 2012 04:22

Idaho Falls - Klim Visit
 
Finally picked up our bikes from Lelands, although Hobbit’s third gear still noisy, we have wasted so much time waiting for them to be fixed, time to move on or we will never see half of what we want to.

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Just before we left, Larry’s neighbour Al came over, Andi and he talked about motorbikes (as ya do). He said he had a few “old” ones, including an Indian. Andi said to him he saw a great one in Kaslo a month ago and will show him some photos only to find out Al is the owner!!!

We both jumped on the fully decorated Indian in the morning before leaving Kalispell and took turns at taking photos. Then AL offered us a ride in his baby car...a 1966 Shelby signed personally by Carroll Shelby .... how cool is that.!!!

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The Indian

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I think it suits Ellen better

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Finally we hit the road to Bitterroot, catching up with the lovely family we met at Caribou Creek nearly a month ago.

Katie was working for the food bank that day till the afternoon, Tom and Nori came home after working on their lake house near Flathead Lake. We all ended up arriving the house nearly same time! Katie showed me her pottery workshop and all the art work displayed around their house. All of her three daughters have inherited her talent, they can draw, design and make beautiful stuff.

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Katie and Tom's cat likes our bikes

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Their eldest daughter Meg Natural Dwellings Architecture came back the next day in the morning from Missoula to catch up with us. She is an Architect, we are very impressed by her design concept, using natural and recycled material to build cool houses that are sensibly green and easy to heat/cold control.

Tom, the only man in the house, cooked us huckleberry pancakes for breakfast, used his grandmother’s sour dough starter which she gave to him about 50 years ago, yummy!

Unfortunately, we don’t have too much time to spend with them either. Ellen would love to make sushi for them, we have to save it for next time meeting them again, maybe in NZ!

We took 93 down to Salmon. Must be very close to the some serious forest fire, smoke became thick and strong, we even passed one firefighters camp and saw hundreds of tents and vehicles at one place.

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The smoke made for some spooky backdrops

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We saw some really cool fence work too .... well at least I liked them cos we don't get them in NZ like that

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Andi found a place to get his knee down near Idaho Falls just testing the Klim pants and Heidenau tires ... it all worked ok.:evil

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We called Mark who is the Klim marketing person and the man that set me up, we contacted him along the way, we had also contacted Edward from ADV rider as tent spacer, Mark invited us to stay with them however we had already sent a request to Edward so we rang Mark to tell him where we were at.

Well small world strikes again, I rang Mark and told him who we were staying with ..... Mark replies “I work with him” ... so now we know the Idaho Falls motorcycling circles are very communal.

With some work to be done to the bikes and Edward having tools etc he invited us to take care of it all before hitting the road, we took the opportunity and went to get some wine for a treat .... we had a groovy night of talking travel, shit, motorcycles, Klim and all the other good things in life.

Dunno who these dodgy buggas are..:D

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Next morning was our official business meeting with Klim being a sponsor of my gear, we met Mark and Edward and we were taken for a secret squirrel tour of Klim including “area 51” which is limited, secretive, sensitive, secured and under surveillance, although we have been sworn to secrecy I can say with authority to watch this space with Klim .... you will not be disappointed!!!

At Klim HQ with Edward

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Such was our status we were allowed fotos on the "star of the week park :rofl

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Heise Hot Springs also called us for a relaxing plunge and mum nature dealt to us with a thunderstorm of epic proportions, we spotted a camp ground area with a building and a soffit so we piled in under that for cover.

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After 10 minutes the rain was still going hammer and tongs, we walked around the other side of the building to the bigger soffit and a lady (Rose) greeted us and welcomed us in out of the rain, next thing she says Klim gear, my husband works for Klim!!! :deal

... me.. who is your husband? :huh

Lady .. Mark, :eek1

me ...you are kidding me we just had lunch with Mark!. :D

Lady ... so you are the Kiwis staying with Edward :eek1 :huh :D

... me ... well ... yes :evil

Lady ... r e a l l y she says.. I will just ring him :huh :eek1

me ... doh!!! :eek1

He wasn’t in trouble but it was a very funny phone call, seems that if you don’t know Mark from Klim here you are not a local!! :rofl

Friday night Paul from Klim came around to Edwards place on his F650 Bemma, we helped change his rear tire out and replaced the chains and sprockets for him.

Paul very nice meeting you mate and a pleasure to help you as well.

Saturday morning was a lazy start, Edward and I attacked his KTM 950 SE (note to oneself I must not to slobber on other peoples bikes) this bike has a setup that would make any ADV rider envious including 30L tank and winch ... too many things to list.

A tire change and some adjustments, then it was onto the DR’s, I did our headlight turn off switch and both our new chain guards got RTV behind them and inner tube washers with flat panel washer to try and give them more support and stop them from breaking.

Hopefully this will work.

Saturday evening with groovy tunes playing and some Smirnoffs and beers we had an entertaining night, again mum nature dishing up a thunderstorm with lightning galore and thunder that rumbled the house...luckily we were not in the tent.

Sunday morning is departure day to Yellowtone National park .....

Two Moto Kiwis 9 Sep 2012 05:16

Teton And Yellowstone
 
Teton tops, stunning and abrupt, the camera could not do this place justice and nor can my writing, the recommendation is to go there.

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Jenny Lake

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So Yellowstone was raved about by many thus it was on our list of must do’s.There is some real beauty and the thermal works are pretty cool.

On entering the park we were greeted by a fat man in the booth who would not let Ellen in until she has signed our National Parks pass for her bike.... WTF ... her bike wasn’t signed???

So he (Park Ranger Booth Police) says she can’t come in,

Me, why not?

PRBP, she has not signed the card

Me, ok chuck us a pen

PRBP, reluctantly puts card on clip board with a pen and passes it too me

Me, pass it to Ellen

Ellen, signs it!

Me, Ellen passes it back

(Interuption) at least 8 cars behind us

Me, pass the clip board back with the signed card

PRBP, unhappily passes me back our card, I then ask for a park map, he says we can have two, I politely say one will do fine ... yet again he was put out ..... Hmmmmm nutha person who needs a job that does not involve people, maybe it is his sister in Mezadian Camp!!.

Eventually we leave the booth after the card fiasco, funny thing is he did not even ask for ID!!!

Mammoth was our destination for the evening so we cruised the park with everyone else at 20 mph and stopped and took it all in.

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I am feeling a little inadequate now :eek1

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Neat camp site at Mammoth with flush toilets and a great host and hot springs only 2 minutes down the road...perfect.

The hot springs we visited three times as we ended up staying a second night after deciding that we wanted to see the rest of the park so we left our camp set up which made sense.

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ADV salute

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Cool wee cave

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During the evening at the hot pools one of the Feds put a note on Ellens bike saying it was parked illegally and that her plate had been called in for “Driving Recklessly”, there were no “No Parking” signs and we were on the edge of the carpark so we can’t quite figure out if they were pulling the piss or not, secondly I am not sure where Ellen Recklessly drove although I did see her mindlessly and recklessly accelerate from 20mph to 22mph at one stage.:huh

On one of the walks we went to the Ranger lady said we can’t park in the car park because if someone came in in a 12 meter motorhome there would not be much room!!!! ... .and she was serious .... I was waiting for some smart bastid to pop out of the bush with a camera and say “You Have Been Punked”, anyway treat it as a joke but mate the Feds in that park don’t have a sense of humour or even a personality.

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How to spoil a beautiful place, just add Park Ranger, give him/her a stupid hat and $1.00 dollar store badge and they think they are Starsky and Hutch.

Mammoth hot pools, go there, absolutely great and so relaxing, can’t recommend that enough and certainly after Recklessly Driving at 20 mph in Yellowstone all day, stunting for that long is just hard work. :D

From Yellowstone we left on 212 to Beartooth Pass, that is one seriously high road and fantastic views, there were many forest fire burning so vision was restricted but being there on the top of the world was awesome.

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At the base of Beartooth we stopped at road works behind two dodgy dudes on Wings, we said giddays etc then on our merry way to Red Lodge, we did some fud shopping then it was agreed that a nice coffee would top it off before heading to find camp.

We pulled in on the main street and saw the two dodgy Wings parked there, at that point the owner (Jim) came out and over to us, interested in what we were doing he offered to buy us lunch, we agreed on a coffee ..... that is what we wanted.

On completion of their lunch we walked to a coffee shop and were treated to a coffee by Paul and Jim, two mate on a road trip.

We sat and talked for maybe two hours when the shop lady said she needed to boot us out at closing time in 4 minutes ... we read the body language and took the subtle hint ... we said thanks and goodbyes to Paul and Jim, great guys and great afternoon, many thanks guys, just the stop we needed to relax and get energized.

Dead Indian Camp was calling so we hunkered down and got there, we were treated to a magic sunset over the pass just before the camp with the forest fire making for an excellent backdrop of colours ... out came Two Photo Kiwis again.

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Arriving at camp we were greeted by the host and a fello ADVer Keith, we all sat round the camp fire and had a yarn, drunk wine and beer ... it was harsh but we managed it.

The following morning Keith gave us some great local info on backroad to Bonneville and he said he would ride with us up to Beartooth where he would turn right, we were ready to go but his KTM 950 was reluctant with the cooler morning so the mighty DR came to the rescue to jump start the KTM .... success and we were on our way.

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During our return visit back through the Waterfalls area we followed a R100PD into the parking lot only to find out it was Ken and Carol Duval, what an absolute treat to bump into these guys.

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Later that day we caught up with Keith back at his home in Jackson as he invited us to put a tent up in his yard which was well cool.

Thanks to Keith for having us and we look forward to seeing you again sometime.

Two Moto Kiwis 11 Sep 2012 05:02

Jackson To Bonneville Salt Flats To Moab
 
The day started with a breakfast at the local, we shouted our host Keith out for having us stay and giving us help.

On completion of breakfast we said goodbye to Keith as he had to go to work, Ellen and I set off back home to pack up and head South on the roads/track Keith had suggested but while in town we did the touristy photo thing.

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Jim and Paul (the dodgy wing dudes) surprised us when they turned up, turns out that they too had stayed the night in Jackson, they had looked at our TMK page and looked on Spot only to find we were only a few hundred metres apart, well they set to, followed the directions and saw the bikes, well done guys and great to catch you up again.

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A yarn was had and hugs goodbye and they were on their way and we carried on, packed up and set off South toward Bonneville and to stop half way at a camp near Snowville.

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We took various back roads and made a couple of mistakes and ended up heading over a goat track which turned out to be quite fun.

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Part of our mission in the space programme was to check up on Rover and see what photos it had taken, couldn't find him tho :D .. .sorry NASA.

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We arrived at camp a little late but enough light to put up the tent etc.

Following morning with Bonneville in our sights we took a shortcut across the plains on shingle roads etc, we travelled 75 miles without seeing a soul, tar seal was in front of us for some 20 miles then off into the gravel again.

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The road was corrugated to hell and smooth in other sections, we did manage to find one of three trees to have lunch under in the shadows before hitting the big desert to Bonneville.

On arriving at Bonneville we went out on the the flat where Burt made us proud, for locals to get in it was $20.00 bucks ... for Kiwis it was free!! :clap

On ya Burt!!!

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We carried on out through salty water and salt crystals which soon caked the bikes sticking like shit to a blanket... who woulda thought eh.

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We checked out the srutineering tents and there was some seriously high powered vehicle ranging from bikes, car to trucks, they even have a 200 mph tent!!

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Ellen and I had our own we race, her riding skill improving to Motard level.... really traction able eh :evil

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As we were short on time with our bike failures scoffing nearly a month of our US trip we decided to hit the road to Cantville where we set up for the night.

Next morning we literally hightailed it down to Moab to our next wanted destination, the only highlight was watching a tire blow out and off only metres in front of me with rubber and smoke everywhere, luckily I was not hit by the flying rubber that flew past me.

Secondly was the truck that rolled and caught fire which was front page news, we didn’t see it happen tho.

Moab was hot on arrival and we set up in a RV park which had Wifi and hot showers so a bit of a treat really.

We met two ADV fellos there as well on Triumphs so ended up having chats to them.

Two Moto Kiwis 12 Sep 2012 05:17

Moab - White Rim Trail - Ellens Crash(s)
 
Day One

Whoa what day, started out ok with a leisurely ride to Canyonland Park in beautiful weather, today was going to be picture taking and rider training at Ellens request.

The plan was to ride Moabs famous White Rim Trail which is used by 4 wheelers, MTBrs and Adv bikers.

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To be fair it is not very hard but you have to keep your mind on the job so you don’t ride off a cliff literally! ... and they are big heights in some cases 100’s of metres.

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Ellen fell at various points along the way in the sandpits and technical sections, the worst we broke her windscreen extension.

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At one point she fell 4 times in 30 meter or 100 feet, it was very hot, patience were wearing a little thin and words were said.

Only 3 miles from what was to be our camp site at half way Ellen binned her bike very badly on a steepish short ascent, somehow she turned the bike 90 degrees to the tracked and gased it ending up hanging of the edge of a small drop luckily not going any further.

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First assessment was that Ellen was OK, second was to check Chiwis health, at first glance the right hand case was smashed open and crooked, the tool tube had taken a hell of a hiding and was in bad shape and the highway peg set was bet, the Barkbuster saved the day again and it took a kingpin hit on hard rock.

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The next mission was to try and right Chiwi and get her back on the track WITHOUT dropping her over the edge, if that had happened we would have had to set camp and just wait for help, no cellphone coverage etc and we were nearly at the midpoint of the 110 mile circuit.

We tried our rope but could not budge her, we emptied her of the top box, removed the food bag and left case, eventually with much grunting and pulling we managed to get the front wheel back on terafirma then back onto the track, we managed to get her started and take her up to the more level section to execute at least temporary repairs so we could get to camp.

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On inspection of the right case it had been split open at the front, the full length hinge on the Kincrome case saved the day by not letting go completely and my kiwimade timber crash bars paid their way again but not enough to save the case.

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The tool tube took an absolute beating and the hit S shaped the aluminium cover on the right hand side, the hinge was bent and the ABS plastic was ground back pretty badly, the aluminium swiping itself off on the bedrock on the way passed.

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We levered the case back into shape, luckily with the heat of the day this helped with getting it sorted.

The tool tube lid I removed and beat back out flat on some flat rocks with another rock ... who needs a hammer?!!!

The tool tube will never shut properly now or keep water out as it has lost a lot of the plastic and aluminium to mum natures abrasive Moab rock.

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The camp was a welcome site and we set too with Krazy glue and RTV, hopefully this will hold at least until we can get some plastic welding done, we straightened everything out as best as we could and made things function.

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The camp area was very cool allowing us to take advantage of being in a beautiful place for the evening

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Some really groovy trees

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Beautiful sunset

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The night time provided with some stars to play with photography ... not too bad for a wee camera.

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A couple of us after doing repairs and settling down for the evening

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Day Two

Ellen at sunrise ready to race (or jump off the cliff) :D

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An early start was on the cards having not even made it half way due to Ellens cliffhanger episode, a quick breakfast, no coffee as we did not have enough for coffee and to fill our packs, filling our pack was way more important so that won.

Only two minutes out of camp Ellen lost the bike to a sandpit, one of many that were to come, all the good work with glue etc was undone in an instant and added to the damage quite badly due to the weakened case.

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The trip to be fair was turning into torment for me as I spent half the trip going back and forth and picking her bike up and slowly watching it get wrecked.

Ellen took a pretty good binning on the left hand side as well, this time smashing the front out of the left box, again there was more binnings which saw the case get damaged further.

There were really neat rocks and formations as well as spectacular backdrops

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We ended up having a break and scoffing chocolate coated coffee beans for energy as picking the bike up again and again in 38 degree heat knocks it out of you pretty quickly.

We eventually made it out totally shattered and luckily we only ran out of water just as wee hit the road back to Moab, on returning to the camp we had hot showers, and BIG guzzle on Coke to take in the damage.

Noel900r 12 Sep 2012 11:41

Guys really impressive photos
 
Sorry its come at such a cost ,trust you will be able to make repairs,enjoying your posts very much.I hope the stacks havent caused to much personal injury.Noel

Two Moto Kiwis 12 Sep 2012 12:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noel900r (Post 392332)
Sorry its come at such a cost ,trust you will be able to make repairs,enjoying your posts very much.I hope the stacks havent caused to much personal injury.Noel

Thank you, I was not hurt at all, Andi was tired and angry trying to pick up my bike 14 times...

I did enjoy the trip more than he did.:cool4:

Two Moto Kiwis 17 Sep 2012 19:45

Monument VAlley
 
Monument Valley

What a gem, this was recommended by many and so well worth while, different scenery to Moab which still takes first place for coolness.

Upon leaving Moab we sent our POV camera back for repairs as the main unit would not acknowledge the camera head, pretty disappointing really as the camera has had very little use but VIO POV have said they will take care of it ... lets hope.

As soon as we had finished at the post shop mum nature dealt to us with a pretty good rain storm, the temperature wasn’t to bad tho which made it ok and the bike got a good wash from red Moab dust and any remnants of Salt from Bonneville (we had thoroughly rinsed the bikes down after the flats!!)

With Monument Valley in our sites we set to, hunkered down and got their as dust was looking like beating us, the campground was in our GPS so we were set ... or so we thought!

On arriving at the “camp” ground we found a fence and scrub, further up the road was some tables etc which turned out to be a camp ground, $25.00 plus tax they wanted ... no dunny, wet sand, no shelter, no way.

The guy in the park booth said the camp ground just up from us was under repair thus closed, ouwh man, dusk is beating us.

We turned around and headed back into town and went to an RV park and camp ground .... full ... again!!!! .. but the nice lady said if you don’t mind being up by the road then put the tent us there .. .saweet.

Hot showers, swimming pool r e a l l y slow Wifi and neat neighbours, we were good to go.

Sleeping temperature was great as it cooled of with the wet weather only spoiled by a dog that was practicing singing all night!!, dawn broke with semi clear skys with ominous clouds daunting the backdrops of Monument Valley, this didn’t detour Two Soggy Kiwis so off we set, they recommended we did not take our bikes .. I think cos they wanted to sell us a tour.

We made it round no problem even with a few lakes thrown in for good measure on the road with now way round, dirty water and ruts made for interesting riding.

Here are a few photos, we won't bore you to tears so if you want to see more go here Monument Valley pictures by Twomotokiwis - Photobucket

Yay we were there!! :clap

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Coupla fossils in front of the Monuments :D

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a-Klim-tised to the wetter weather.....

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Ominous clouds building :eek1

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We were chased out of the valley by rain but luckily it did not last too long.

On completion of the Valley we continued on to the Gand Canyon North Rim .. that comes in the next installment of Two Dodgy Kiwis.

Noel900r 17 Sep 2012 21:33

The weather may have not been with you but!
 
You could have not have asked for better light for photography ,simple Beautiful!!!!:D

Two Moto Kiwis 23 Sep 2012 15:37

Arches National Park - The Missing Report
 
Ooops, forgot about this one and thundered on posting later stuff so this is a Dr.Who time machine step back in time.

Our day started out with an invitation to go to breakfast with a Chinese man, Xiao Pong, very nice guy we had met at camp the previous evening, a little unusual to see Chinese camping thus he caught Ellens interest.

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We were there

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Over breakfast we discussed the Arches park, Zion etc so he was a wealth of information, we trade info on where we had been too, on conclusion of breakfast we all headed on our travels all a little wiser and a little more prepared, something you can not buy off your GPS or map.

Only just north of Moab the Arches Park was well worth the ride and walk, we loved the place.

Only a small report with a few photos as the place is not big and the main event is The Delicate Arch which pretty much everyone knows about.

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There are the twin arches and the windows too, all providing fascination to viewers including Ellen and I.

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The rock formations and colours are seriously cool and nothing like we have in New Zealand, we were lucky enough to be there firstly when it was fine and got some groovy pics, secondly a thunderstorm came across and soaked the place in matter of minutes.

Due to the heavy rock base the water has nowhere to go accept along the ground thus only a few mm of rain and the place was running like a river and it totally transformed the colours into different place.

With nowhere to hide we got a bit wet from our shorts down, we had seen the ominous looking clouds from a distance so took our wet jackets with us, it wasn’t until we were at the end of the walk at the Arch that the rain fall was imminent, somewhat of a treat in the desert.

Upon returning to the carpark some Harley riders had been caught in the rain, seems as though the fingerless gloves and waterproof bandanna’s were not quite as waterproof as they though, they all looked a bit cold.:rofl

Back to camp and pack up to head on to Monument Valley which you have already read about, on the way we went through a town called Mexican Hat .. not sure why??

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Two Moto Kiwis 23 Sep 2012 15:38

Zion National Park
 
I feel like Max Headroom here talk..talk..talking to myself.!!!!

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Ok back on the time machines we fast forward to Zion National Park.

On arriving at Zion it was clear the rock formations were very different to the others.

They consist of large waves of smooth rock, all the faces on various angles giving it quite an unusual moonscape. :eek1

Soon we disappeared into the 1 mile long tunnel only to pop out into a completely different world.

As we were running a little late in the day we decided to go to the camp ground first and set up, too late, FULL!!

We rode in anyway looking for a fello rider to share a site with, the camp host came over and asked us what we were doing so we explained to him, he said follow me I will take you over to a motorcycle which he did, we wrote a note and left it on his bike, we were going to head out of camp and leave our bikes with the host.

No sooner we decided to do that the neighbours (Steve and Roye) turned up on the other side, I went over to them and told them we chased a Squirrel out of their chilli bin only to find out it wasn’t theirs anyway.

So we got chatting, we ended up sharing their site that night and taking it over the following day when they left.

In between times we bought some red wine for a treat and they served up some tortilla chips and had some pre dinner chat and nibbles, very nice indeed, thank you to Steve and Roye for your welcoming hearts and hospitality, it was very nice for us.

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Given they had been to New Zealand and even in Wanaka in March this year they new of where we lived which was really neat.

That following morning it was a bubble and squeek cook up of leftovers and need to finishes, this set us up nicely for the big day ahead of us that we had planned of stomping up a the Narrow River Canyon on the Virgin River and visiting the pools etc.

The day was stinking hot, up in the late 90’s or about 38 degrees C in normal language so it was really nice to get back to camp already set up, we spent the day canyoning and climbing, beautiful place.

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Under a waterfall

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Rock faces reaching to the sky that really stuff around with the human gyroscope

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Next morning we packed up to the next leg of our Journey to to Henderson which is part of Vegas.

Stinking hot so we decided to go for a swim in Lake Mead, the water temperature was 84 degrees F ... not far off steaming!!! yay that is how I like it.

Off into Henderson to make an assault on the big city, Starbucks was calling for a Frapaccino and some food for travels.

Two Moto Kiwis 23 Sep 2012 15:40

Las Vegas
 
I went to Las Vegas about 18 years ago so was interested to see it again, Ellen never having been there was in two minds, we decided to jump onto couchsurfing to see if we could get a host for the night as it would have been very uncomfortable with the temperature in a tent.

We contacted a couchsurfer, Chinese guy called Dave and sent a request to him.

He replied promptly to us and it was when we were sitting in McDees loading our photos so the timing was perfect, he agreed to host which was cool.

We arrived at his place, whoa ... we went for 3rd world tenters to 1st world Vegas stars.

Dave has a very nice home to say the least and very generously offered to take us into town so we could see the strip from the safety and comfort of a local driver and an air cond car, a 550 Merc nothing less, we said ... o u w h OK.

No need to go to town to lose all ya money tho..:D

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The Merc was twin turbo thus was not lazy in any aspect, Dave drove us around in to town and down the strip, we stopped at one Casinos and parked the car to go and watch the water display which was amazing to say the least.

Casino ceiling.... similar to our tent :huh

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Our host Dave, Ellen and I, actually I look like the odd one out :D

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The water display in front of a casino .... o u t s t a n d i n g !!

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While we were there two hot young lusties were getting their photos taken with all the guys, this is her, I had a little bit of trouble focusing on her face, something must be wrong with the camera but I don’t think I will get it fixed.:eek1

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After the water display we went out for tea to a Chinese restaurant and the food was outstanding.

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Mmmmm duck :clap

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We returned back to Daves and sat with a wine that we had bought for another treat (two in a row) and had a chat about life for a while.

Dave was flying out the following morning so we all peeled off to bed not too late, Dave thanks for hosting us you made our stay in Vega very memorable, we will catch up again for sure.:clap

In the morning breaky was had, some photo instructions were given on how to use our camera and we were on our way to cheat Death Valley.

Death Valley was HOT, also the lowest point on our GPS read -264 ft, we stopped for lunch at -7 feet and 45 degrees C, the thermometer went to 50 degrees C then hit the stops ... Whoa, we were just dripping.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2c62f524.jpg

Hard to photograph sand and make it look cool .. at least with our gear

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...psc4afcd99.jpg

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I should have stopped at -264 ft below see level but I failed :cry .. so -7 will have to do. :clap

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...pse6827ec8.jpg

Lunch was a little on the warm side, be fair to say we were Two Toasted Kiwis with a half side of roasted Chinese :eek1

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...psc3272124.jpg

Having made it through and cheated Death Valley we carried on towards Sequoia National Park taking a small back road to a cool camping spot 6000 feet above stress level.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5a74385e.jpg

Nice camping spot that we had to ourselves

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A fire was had, tea was eaten then off to bed to recharge our batteries.

Noel900r 23 Sep 2012 21:17

no guys you are most deffinatly not talking to your selves
 
Every time i log on yours is the first i check,once again wonderful photo's and commentary.Noel:D

Nigel Marx 23 Sep 2012 23:04

Bloody great. The colours of those rocks are amazing.

Cheers

Nigel in NZ

Mervifwdc 24 Sep 2012 03:53

Great pics and writing! And no your not like max headroom talking to yourself. :-)

We might meet you somewhere on your way down, we will be heading up next year.

Merv and Sarah.

Two Moto Kiwis 24 Sep 2012 06:16

Sequoia National Park
 
Upon leaving our camp at Kennedys Meadow Camp we climbed to 9200 ft through a pile of twisties fit for a motard race, Ellen and I smoothly and quietly carved up the road with virtually no one else to contend with while taking in the views supplied by mum nature.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0fc33173.jpg

We stopped at Springvale to get some food and fuel, a cyclist pulled up and we got to chatting , turns out he too had been to Wanaka which made it very easy for us to explain where we live.

Leaving Springvale we carried on up the hill, I missed my turn as Ellen had turned the sound off on my GPS, we took an excursion which took us up a steep zig zag only to have to come back....nice views tho :D

On returning we picked up the correct road and continued on our merry way stopping only at a local dairy to get a coldy before hitting Sequoia National Park.

We arrived at the park booth to be very nicely greeted by the Yogi Bear, a quick chat and park map we were on our way to the BIG trees, part way up we had a 15 minute stop for road works.

We arrived at camp slightly late after taking the wrong turn earlier, no stress plenty of light and great facilities so all was in order, we even had a wardrobe :evil

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...psd7a35418.jpg

The following morning we set of to see Sherman and the BIG trees, now I am no gardener and I don't have green fingers but wow :eek1, pretty cool, a little hard to photograph with our gear but we had fun doing it.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6b860a0c.jpg

The Sherman was certainly big and pretty glam, some of the large trees stand incredibly high.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps569cb75a.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...pseb04ce9c.jpg

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One that had fallen was the edge of the carpark support, the root system was massive!!

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps69ae007e.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...psfaac9339.jpg

Some have huge voids in them from forest fires

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That evening we took a stroll to the head of the valley, stunning place and beautiful weather, life is good.

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http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2cf52e28.jpg

We met some people up there who wanted to go to New Zealand so we went back to their camp later and sat around the camp fire, drunk wine and chatted about travel etc.

While in the park we went up Moro rock ...so cool!

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...psfa75aab0.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps20b04150.jpg

:eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps63d7c6a6.jpg

Nice pic of Ellen :clap

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...pscd33db45.jpg

Things got a bit rough later that afternoon when we went to the lodge, I got too close to a bear and was attacked ... very lucky to be alive.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps57702ebe.jpg

The trees were so big it made the DR look small

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Next morning we set of toward Fresno via Buck rock fire lookout, on leaving the forest we carried on to Fresno to meet up with our mates Shann and Tonya, we organised to be there for my birthday which Pierre pointed out and yes I am 20 with 26 years experience.

We were treated to a black bear in a tree ... about 50 -60 ft high in the tree :eek1

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9fc0a60a.jpg

Spot him up in the tree!!!

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Lastly before exiting we went up to the Buck Rock lookout

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8df68663.jpg

Steep stairs up

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http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ps872ccf9d.jpg

Pretty good view too

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...psa3378f55.jpg

Ellen on the way out.

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We were lucky enough to have tires and various bits and pieces sent to Shann and Tonyas home which made life very easy for us so we took the advantage to get everything done and dusted while having access to work space, tools, swimming pool etc.

Two Moto Kiwis 24 Sep 2012 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mervifwdc (Post 393659)
Great pics and writing! And no your not like max headroom talking to yourself. :-)

We might meet you somewhere on your way down, we will be heading up next year.

Merv and Sarah.

That will be great, you know how to find us...

Cheers
Andi and Ellen

Dave J 29 Sep 2012 21:11

Excellent report / pictures. Thoroughly enjoyable :D

Two Moto Kiwis 30 Sep 2012 03:36

Andi's Birthday
 
It has been over a week since we arrived in Fresno, Andi hasn't got time to put any photos on our RR co he is busy replacing parts, doing maintenance and enjoying himself ... who woulda thought eh!! :rofl, I have to take over and just do it.

Andi's birthday, first time in his life he is younger than his twin brother in NZ...

The day started from a beautiful sun rise

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ay/file-28.jpg

Followed by surprise gift from Geoff and Gus (It's Gus's birthday too) from Ozzie, you need look hard the left bottle to see the difference

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...day/file-1.jpg

a decent American BBQ

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...day/file-4.jpg

Ellen's famous Sushi

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...day/file-5.jpg

some Crayfish

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...day/file-7.jpg

and a nice new hair do

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ay/file-13.jpg

We did have a cheesecake

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ay/file-22.jpg

but Maestro (the cat ) wants to crash the party

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ay/file-24.jpg

with the real life Karaoke, we all sang "Happy Birthday" ... thank god (or the winemaker) for wine :D

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ay/file-12.jpg

in the end, we all retired to the couch, ARAI need a design change for piss drinking :eek1

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ay/file-27.jpg

Two Moto Kiwis 30 Sep 2012 03:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave J (Post 394408)
Excellent report / pictures. Thoroughly enjoyable :D

Thanks Dave, have to say we are having fun providing the ride report bier

Two Moto Kiwis 3 Oct 2012 19:33

Fresno - The Big Bike Session
 
Friday 21st.

Well we had organised to catch up with Shann a good mate of mine and his good lady Tonya who we had not met as yet.

Coupled with it being my birthday on the 25th it was the ideal time to take a brake and do some much needed catchup work on the bikes as well as spend some quality time with a good mate on my birthday, life is good.

Our list for the bikes included, rear tires change, sprocket hub and wheel bearings, air filter clean, failed LED light replacement, wire in the POV power outlets, replace Ellens side cases, adjust the fuel intake pipe, oil and filter etc, apart from that we were up to date.

Greetings were had as we had organised to meet at Clawsons Suzuki, an easy point from Shanns work, we then followed Shann home.

We met the lady who managed to tie him down, Tonya, very nice lady and very welcoming.

Saturday 22nd.

We did nothing, had coffee, went to Costco etc and had a very lazy day.

Sunday 23rd.

In the morning we set off to Pismo beach, on the way we stopped at a winery .... WOH HOH 11’s, I felt like seafood for lunch so that seem to win with the crowd, we ate at The Splash which was very nice, following lunch we went for a stroll along the beach and poked our heads into the caves, very relaxing and nice to stick our feet into salt water and sand.

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We headed out onto the pier, normally talking about Pelican we would be referring to the cases, these where just hard case.

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Imagine what you could do with a neck that twisted like this :evil

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Who can out-steer who??

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On conclusion of the walk we headed north to Hearst Castle and headed back home via a winery valley.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...no/file-41.jpg

Nice sitting in the back and being driven

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Shann has a cat/alien ..... it seemed kinda normal ... ish

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As time went on we were staring to get suspicious as the antics were very robotic

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...no/file-39.jpg

Busted ...... confirmed this was in fact a battery powered alien cat cleverly acting as a prostitute as a disguise ... didn't fool us tho

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...no/file-55.jpg

Monday 24th.

Went to the Apple shop to get our trackpad sorted out as it was on a part time holiday, did some writing first, swimming and general mucking around.

Shann took us to In and Out, better than Mc Dees by a long shot and a first for us, really enjoyed that.

Towards the end of the day we went to the Dollar Tree where everything in the shop is 1 buck, could not believe the selection of goodies you can get.

Tuesday 25th September 2012, 46 but not Rossi.

My birthday, all about me and it was, I am an identical twin and Paul my twin bro is in NZ, for the first time in our life I am one day younger than him, we are 4 minutes apart at birth, bit of useless information.

So the funny thing was it is meant to be a relaxing do nothing day (which we had already done), Shann and I spent some quality bloke time working on the bikes and talking shit, tires changed, Oil changed, etc so great progress.

Carbs lining up for surgery

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...epair/file.jpg

Oil and Tires ready to go on and in

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...air/file-1.jpg

Bombs away on the oil

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Ellens damaged case replacement underway

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...air/file-3.jpg

Shann getting ready to change his oil

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...air/file-4.jpg

My Cush drive bearing broke off the internal shoulder part of the cup, very weird, was going to replace them regardless but was surprised to find one part broken ??? :eek1 :huh

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...air/file-5.jpg

Heidenau K60 Scout taken off at 12200 miles, I could have easily squeezed another 400 - 500 miles out of it if I had too, we are very happy running these, we are running the 140/80-17 which fit in perfectly.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...air/file-6.jpg

Nice to have access to a jack to make life easy :clap

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LED marker light replacement under way with some quick soldering to be done

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...air/file-8.jpg

Geoff and Gus Geoff & Gus's Blog also did some dodgy dealings with Ellen and Shann and had organised to put their own trip sticker on some Ozzie red called Yellow Tail which was absolutely mint, onya dudes.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ay/file-10.jpg

Wednesday 26th

Was a continuation of bike work, took time to get sorted properly and at the conclusion I was very happy in my mind that everything was done properly.

Thursday 27th

Can’t remember so it musta been good. :freaky :evil

Friday 28th

Kings Canyon, as Ellen and I had not been there we took a road trip in Shanns hack, bloody thing didn’t have a roof but that made it easy to take photos.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...on/file-34.jpg

We did go to roads end and really enjoyed the ride which was swift at times but being able to look out the window without multitasking and having to watch out for terrible drivers made it a real treat.

Hair is our shiny hered driver :wink:

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As usual the scenery was terrible but we made the most of it :D

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...yon/file-1.jpg

Neat cottage from yesteryear

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...on/file-31.jpg

Hoods lookin tough

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...on/file-26.jpg

Shanns hack

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...on/file-36.jpg

Shann with his hack, we don't have wide angle lens to take in the whole corner so we used Ellen's sunnies, kiwi invention bro :D

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...on/file-37.jpg

Interesting tree

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...on/file-32.jpg

Superb riding road :clap

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...on/file-22.jpg

On our return to Fresno we picked up Bryce (Tonya's son) and went to Chipotles mexican food, YUM, very very nice indeed, no pics as we were starving and forgot to take photos.

Saturday 29th

Shann and I got to go for a bloke ride with just the two off us so something we had been planning for ten years, coupled with his local knowledge we went to local lakes and mountain roads, we had a blast, he let me ride his 900SS .... a quick trip down memory lane with handling, power, brakes etc ..... something we don’t have now. :rofl

Parked at the lake

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Take him for a ride and he just flips me off :rofl

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ide/file-5.jpg

And again .... mum warned me about boys like him

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...de/file-11.jpg

Adv gear and sports bike .... don't think that combo will even take off

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...de/file-17.jpg

I was on the ride too :D

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...de/file-10.jpg

Over one of the passes it go so cold the arse fell out of the temperature.:eek1 it would have dropped to 25 deg C :D

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ide/file-2.jpg

...guess you could say I lost my cool :confused

Sunday 30th

Shann, Andi, Ellen and Greg (Shanns dad) go to Yosemite, I think we were escorted out of Fresno so we didn’t nic anything on the way out. :evil

Lunch spot was at Oakhurst and burgers were the order of the day, Greg had a generous moment and shouted us our lunch... we musta been polite or something :D, thanks dude!!!, upon finishing at the trough we carried on to Yosemite National Park and formed a game plan to head through to Tunnel view point where pictures would be taken and Shann and Greg would ride back to Fresno leaving us homeless. :eek1

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...emite/file.jpg

Greggs bike looks like it has dipped into a chroming tank so photo ops for the twisted minded were in order, we utilized the shape of the tank which made some cool pics.. so enjoy a quick trip into my mind.

Ellens bike

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-73.jpg

Shanns bike

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-76.jpg

Being friendly

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-77.jpg

The whole bikie gang looking hard arse

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-78.jpg

Ellen and I then set camp and were given a lucky break in a FULL camp 4, some people had just gone so it was our lucky day given people had queued earlier for 3 - 4 hours.

Two Moto Kiwis 5 Oct 2012 04:52

Yosemite National Park
 
This post is more about the pics as I simply can't explain it so I will let the "picture is worth a thousands words" take over, enjoy.

After Shann and Greg left us homeless in a strange land we were lucky to score the camp site at Camp 4 the climbers camp, see the FULL signs!.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-69.jpg

And the bear aware pics :eek1 :eek1

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-70.jpg

The first thing that caught my eye was the accessible parking sign which was over the OTHER side of the wall ...... WTF :eek1...are they meant to park on the cliff side??? :D ... they should change the sign to inaccessible.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ite/file-2.jpg

We found ourself surrounded by young fellas and fellesses .... all the fellas had 6 packs!!!! ... bugga me I felt like a monster and from an old peoples home... perfect we love hanging with younger people.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-53.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-52.jpg

After setting up we headed off to Glacier lookout, whoa ... top of the world views second to none, looking over the edge was spooky for me but I made the most of scaring myself which was plenty enough for my daily quota of scaring myself daily so I know I am alive.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-10.jpg

Half dome was standing out with grandeur amongst his shorter counterparts and with the evening sun pasting the western faces it was a pretty cool sight to see.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ite/file-3.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ite/file-4.jpg

Spot the people on the top

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ite/file-5.jpg

Yosemite Village below looked like a toy village and the cars like matchboxes, again looking out and down gave me the willies.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-15.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-16.jpg

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So we had some neighbours from England who were closer to our age and some young gun rock climbers, really neat taking to these guys from around the world, watched some vid of them falling of a cliff .....and larfing!!.:huh

We gained some local knowledge on a walking track to the top of Yosemite Falls, a 2800ft climb ... perfect for us oldie non 6 packers.

Two climbing kiwis set off on a mission to conquer the mighty Yosemite falls, it started off as a zigzagathon, 60 actually!! then leveling out for a while before the final assault up the gully part 2 zigzagathon.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-50.jpg

The views were getting more and more stunning and breath taking (maybe the breathtaking bit was cos we are unfit), although the falls were not falling the abrupt rock faces and majestic surfaces of granite slowly changing colour as the day progressed added up to a walk that would make you stand there in silence and in awe.... so we did that.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-21.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-22.jpg

Ya just can't help yaself from looking!

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-23.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-30.jpg

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Nearly there

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-34.jpg

Upon reaching the top I was scared, overwhelmed, had vertigo BIG time and totally gob smacked .. so a normal day.:D

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-37.jpg

Chance to take off the smelly socks in the sun ..... so nice! :clap

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-38.jpg

Big views

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-39.jpg

Other way

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-40.jpg

Some strange trees

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-43.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-44.jpg

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Really neat tree right near the face

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-41.jpg

What can I say but make the effort to go if you can, you will not be let down, it proved hard on my knobbly knees from previous injuries but worth every bit of discomfort.

Al Capitan was calling us so we climbed aboard the free shuttle bus to have a look at this incredible rock face, 5 climbers had just started an ascent earlier in the day so we we treated to a level of climbing we had only ever seen at the Wanaka Film Fest. :eek1:eek1:eek1

I am not sure how to explain my feelings seeing them hanging on a rope other than fear, thrill, excitement, awe, crazy, etc ..... be fare to say it is not my game.

See the tree, to the left is where they are.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-60.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...itanClamer.png

See the zoom up

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-61.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-62.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-66.jpg

See the close up.

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That night was quiet in the camp as the climbers returned very tired (and us) so sleeping was easy as no parties were on, the moon was out, again I will let the pics do the talking.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-71.jpg

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...te/file-72.jpg

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The following morning we packed up and headed out of the park to Lake Tahoe.

Two Moto Kiwis 11 Oct 2012 21:48

Lake Tahoe
 
With the ride to Tahoe being uneventful it was relaxing and pretty with some of the passes already sporting autumn colours that were sneaking in quietly but noticeably.

Truckee was our next destination which was a house swap we did in NZ two years back so a time to catch up on some writing, the photo precessing and learning how to use imovie etc, unfortunately the place we were staying at had a hot tub, garage, great views and a soft bed with sheets ... and cups .... bit of a bugga but we got by.

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First day we walked around town, did some food shopping and got a thermometer to replace the previous escapee in Fresno, what started as a quick walk to the shops turned into about a 12 km walk, nice to get the legs moving again after Yosemite but on the flats.

Some stuff in the shops (note Ellen time)

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...kee/file-9.jpg

Rest the old bones

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Our reward was a dunk in the hot tub to soak the bones .... l u v e l y !!!

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Second day was a catch up and fix it day (again), Ellens Touratech cradle had been playing up so it was the trouble shooting day with upgrades on software from Garmin eliminating the problem, turns out the Garmin power cradle was the problem.

Also my AME grips are playing up, they cleverly turned themselves on in Fresno to full heat when it was 99 F so very unwelcomed as I struggled to hold the bars, I had to pull the power again on them so I would not rate these grips very highly at all giving this is already the second set.

Third day we took a day trip to Incline Village and Sand Harbour, we spotted some money into the local economy buying food etc, in exchange we had bean spotted beautiful weather with a nice ride, win win.

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...kee/file-1.jpg

X marks the spot!!!

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That evening was one of luxury again in the hot tub, this was turning out to be a hell of a treat.

Day four, we planned to do a biggish walk on the Pacific Crest trail however we got a little waylaid and ended up riding up Donner pass road from Donner Lake, again we were graced with great views, a groovy bridge and car that had a little damage, should buff out tho, I suspect not enough compression damping eh.

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We rode around to the roads end and left Chiwi there, our feet took us for about a 4 mile walk around the lake, through the camp ground and back, we then returned to town to get some food.

Ellen decided to head off for a run into the forest and found a road that headed up to a lake and pass so that was on the agenda for the following day to look up there.

Did I mention the hot tub. :rofl:rofl

Day 5, video mounts had been bugging me so it was time to do something about it, off to ACE hardware for a skunk around, found some sprung loaded brackets which are perfect so it was all on to get these mounted.

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On completion of getting the mounts done we we both piled back onto Ellens bike and rode through the forest block to Watson Lake, Brockway summit and Watson point to look over Lake Tahoe, spectacular views to say the least and a neat cruse through the forestry.

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Cool track to get up there

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Not sure why this sign said this but I obeyed anyway :D

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Day 6, so it was time to leave and head off up to Reno to meet Scott and Joanne.

We cleaned up, packed up and shot off up highway 89 to meet up with Scott at Sierraville, Scott then took us on a roundabout ride to lookout points and forestry roads which was mint as without local knowledge we would not have seen any of this.

Two Moto Kiwis 13 Oct 2012 02:14

Reno
 
Scott and I talking at an icecream stop on the way to their home ..... nice

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Scotts weapon the KTM 950 Super Enduro loaded with the right fruit :clap

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Arriving at Scott and Joannes around 5.45 pm just before dark we were greeted by Joanne and her sister Jan who had been on a marathon run ... sounds like fun!!! :huh

Ellen knocked up some tea (Dinner) which was a Chinese stirfry mix which turned out to be a crowd pleaser, coupled with a few wines a good time was had by all.

Scott had Monday off work so invited to take us out on a local ride, Ellen said the boyz can go for a hoon (ride), Scott then said well take the 990 Adventure so I didn’t have to peel the cases off the DR (and I stand a chance of almost keeping up given he was taking his KTM 950 Super Enduro)

What was a man to do but accept this invitation and walk straight past the DR!!! .... so off we set.

Ouwh yeah

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A rideby past our official photographer

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Scott and I headed off off like two kids heading into a sandpit with powerful tonka toys, given it was a loaner and I was on unfamiliar roads I took it easy and I didn’t want to buy 3/4 of a second hand smashed 990 Adventure.:eek1

We swapped bikes during the day, at one stage I was doing 110 mph on the 950 SE, the Devil on my left shoulder blew the Angel off my right shoulder so it was game on, been a long time since I had power, brakes, handling and sound all working at once on the gravel. :evil :D :rofl .... that thing is sic

Unfortunately I had to give it back but the 990 Adventure was certainly not the short straw either.

Following Scott on the road section

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Me on the 990 Adv, I nearly split my helmet with the grin!!!:D:D

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Just as well the ARAI is tough enough to hold my silly grin :D

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A stop at an old burnt down house

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Scott bein well mannered

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We hightailed back averaging about 90 - 95 mph on the gravel roads, I felt like a Dakar racer and even once home and showered I was still fizzing at the most excellent hooligan days riding I have done since leaving home.

Thanks Scott you are a good bastid, great fun, a great rider, a great host and now a great mate, looking forward to catching you guys agin either here, NZ or on some dodgy trail.

That evening once life calmed down to normal we headed out for Tea (Dinner) and had the best steak that I have eaten again since we left home.

Root beer, steak, mash spud and beans .... I was a man content and from the KTM I was spent, be fair to say I might have enjoyed the day.

On the way home we stopped in at Freeze Yoghurt and had a dessert each, YUMMO ... musta been serious fattening cos it was beautiful.

Noel900r 13 Oct 2012 11:31

G'day Guy's
 
Looks like once again you have come through with excallent photo's.Hey you know how us Aussie'/kiwi's call dinner/supper TEA.well my brother has a canadian girlffriend ,jeff (my brother)would say something like i im going to have TEA now ,or i have to get the dog it's TEA she sent a heap of different TEA'S from Canada ,she thought Aussie's must drink a lot of TEA even the bloody dog drink's it !!!Well it made me laugh.Carry on enjoying reading your travel's.Noel:D

Two Moto Kiwis 13 Oct 2012 16:19

Nevada Desert
 
Tuesday morning Scott and Joanne had to make sure the wheels of industry were turning while Ellen and I set off toward Crater Lake via some dodgy backroads Scott had directed us to, we started on part of the road from the day before so familiar territory then head up to Gerlach, then up via Vya then on towards Adel.

A stop along the way

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A pond that was slightly green ... I am sure it was safe to drink :evil

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So you think in the desert there is not much to take photos of....

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You are right .. to a point anyway

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We were not going to make Adel as Ellen was spent and dropped the pace considerably which I recognised straight away so we started looking for camp at 4.30 pm.

We explored a few avenues off the road which were cow trails, I saw a hut with an access road so had a look up that to find a locked gate so I returned back to the road, we continued with options running low as the pace is covered is Sage bush and the wind was picking up.

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We came upon the Antelope Sanctuary so we turned off up to that, we saw what looked to be a lookout type building so headed for that ... well we arrived there to find a cabin made of stone with windows and fireplace and bunks.... we couldn’t believe our luck.

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Wine was in order as we watched the sun go down, we set up had Tea (Dinner) then I set too and wrote this report while listening to the wind whistle around the building, this was a nice feeling.

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We had the whole place to ourselves and an amazing sunset with outstanding desert colours

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So it s is 8.03 pm now on Tuesday night, it is pitch black outside, Ellen is in bed and the last of my wine has evaporated so time for the human battery recharge and have the wind sing us to sleep.

Two Moto Kiwis 13 Oct 2012 16:20

Nevada Desert To Crater Lake
 
Wednesday morning we woke to a slightly overcast sky, no sooner had started packing up and mum nature decided to turn it on for us, the lite cloud cleared away to a stunning clear sky with warmth as welcomed as a gravel road to an adventure rider.

The sky provided us with some neat colours again.

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Interesting moss on a rock

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The digs

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Some unusual growths in front of the digs :eek1

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Inside the digs ... check it out!!!

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C o f f e e

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We looked across the plato from chez Delis stone mansion and thanked the Adventure Motorcycling and camping gods for great digs and great riding and great place, I am not the religious type but someone/something needed to be thanked. :D

Upon packing up we headed north toward Adel, then left on highway 140 on black top through a twisty road to Lakeside, nearly lunchtime we decide to food up at Safeway and head across to Subway for lunch after.

Doing the tarseal cowboy bit

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Lunch and food shopping done it was time to fill the machinery as well prior to making our way to Crater Lake, we past many small towns and within an uneventful ride we arrived at about 3.00pm at Crater Lake National Park, only one camp ground open now and it is $21.00 (with no BJ with that...fark).

No biggy given the last nights huge bonus so swings and roundabouts, the day was still stunning although cooling a lot quicker a lot earlier, the notice on Yogi Bears booth saying last night was 33 deg f (nearly zero for normal people).

Camp set up was in order and we decided to use the rest of the day with a short walk out of camp and loop back up, the creek at the bottom of the gully offered us beautiful spring colours which are filling our days more and more every day.

We found permanent frosting already on the track much to our surprise and a sure indication that winter is setting in fast.

Dodgy bridge

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Stunning creek and colours

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Most excellent autumn colours providing a surface that looked like a heavily decorated cake

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A blue bird that neither of us can remember the name of ... it a bugga gettin old.

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Tea (Dinner) was Macaroni cheese after cheese and crackers for the entree, Wallace and Grommitt woudla been at home here.

An earlier night with pitch black and low temperatures was had after our fire died down about 8.00pm.

Two Moto Kiwis 13 Oct 2012 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noel900r (Post 396320)
Looks like once again you have come through with excallent photo's.Hey you know how us Aussie'/kiwi's call dinner/supper TEA.well my brother has a canadian girlffriend ,jeff (my brother)would say something like i im going to have TEA now ,or i have to get the dog it's TEA she sent a heap of different TEA'S from Canada ,she thought Aussie's must drink a lot of TEA even the bloody dog drink's it !!!Well it made me laugh.Carry on enjoying reading your travel's.Noel:D

Heya Noel

Classic mate ... that is our take on it too, we are still Kiwis so will talk Kiwi as that makes us Kiwi and keep us Kiwi and to that end a bit different from the rest of the crowd we are currently haunting :clap:

Really appreciate your comment on our photos, we are trying to do better with what we get each day, hope your ride is going well too mate.

surf dude 14 Oct 2012 17:09

Excellent RR, thanks for sharing, enjoy the US, I sure enjoyed NZ.

Two Moto Kiwis 19 Oct 2012 22:56

Crater Lake
 
This post is one of more pictures, I simply cannot write about a destination that will rival New Zealands best, found myself standing on the top of the crater with a small tear of appreciation trickling down my cheek. Simply WOW.

We left camp and set off for Crater Lake, it was -3 deg C or 26.6 F for you guys in the US.

It was a very crisp ride but short enough not to worry about putting on the woolies.

The day was warming up very quickly, upon arriving at the Lodge we asked to leave our riot gear with them for safe keeping.

They were very accommodating so we left them with our gear.

On exiting out of the lounge area through the door that opens out onto the lake we were instantly wowed,

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I have to say we were both blown away, an older fello said he had been there a dozen times before and never seen the incredible reflections we had in front of us.

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Our aim was to climb up to the top of Garfield to the viewpoint, this turned out to be very easy compared to Yosemite falls being only half the distance and one third of the elevation.

A tree on the way up being used as a stone store

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Us ... luvin it

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Ellens stalker shadow .. it seemed to be enjoying itself too :rofl

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The view from the top :eek1 :eek1 :eek1

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Big mounts in the distance

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The edge of the lake

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The lake was so still it looked plastic

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The return walk was one of many photos as Ellen and I could not help bringing out the Two Photo Kiwis enthusiasts.

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We were getting worried cos Ellens stalker shadow was getting bigger .... hmmmmm :evil

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On the way around the crater we dropped in to see the hoodoos or pinacles

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Back at the Lodge a coffee was had, pictures uploaded, gear picked up and we were on our way, we headed on our way to Diamond lake..

Noel900r 20 Oct 2012 03:49

Once again excellent work!!!
 
The last time i saw a reflection like those shots i was at lake Matherson in the south island (N.Z),i went to see some hoodoo's in Alberta(Canada) not a patch on the ones shown.im sure your photography is getting better all the time.Travels well im not on the road at the moment(with the exception of weekend rides) ,work,work ,work hope to change that next year.carry on !Noel:D


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