Day 1: On Saturday, we left Castle Rock with our sights set toward the west. Dave had come up from Texas on Friday and made the 800-mile trip over a leisurely 10 hours. His bike of choice has always been the mid-80s Honda V65 variety (he has 3). For this trip, he had chosen to ride his Sabre fitted with a fairing (with a windshield extended by two old helmet visors) and a custom seat that had been intended for some other bike. Dave can make anything work with a handful of zip-ties. Of course, he travels with a whole slew of spare parts and tools – he even changed his clutch master cylinder after breakfast while in Washington because the old one just wasn’t feeling right. He is a great friend and motorcycle partner with a ridiculous packing style (which should be evident from some of my photos). It is his opinion that if it can be attached to the bike, you may as well bring it. With his arsenal of 28 rubber bungee straps, he can attach just about anything you would ever want to take on a trip (and many things you wouldn’t, I’m certain). Of course, we didn’t get an early start because I hadn’t really begun to pack until that morning. By 11ish-AM, we were on the road headed north to I-70, where we would take that west until it was time to find camp for the night. We actually wound up just outside of Moab, UT for a night’s stay on the Colorado River.
Before leaving Castle Rock, CO
Campsite on Colorado River
Day 2: We woke up Sunday morning and decided to head north for the day. On last year’s trip, we had wanted to make it up to Glacier National Park, but were forced to turn around in Missoula, MT because my rear end was way too sore (not a fan of the stock seat). I was full of confidence this year with my new Sargent Seat. Therefore, we decided we would hit it this year and head to the coast by way of Canada instead of going due west from Colorado. So, we hopped back on I-70 for a short spell until we hit Highway 6 and rode that north to I-15. We stayed on I-15 into Idaho until we could get off of the interstate with Highway 26. 26 takes you through the Idaho Energy Lab past Atomic City. We cranked back on the throttle a bit through here after I noticed that Dave began to glow with a tint of green. 26 took us to Highway 93 which we took all the way to Salmon, ID. 93 is a beautiful stretch of road as it follows the curves of the Salmon River. We camped for the night at a lovely little campground on the river.
Dave cruising in Idaho
Our bikes at camp on the Salmon River
Day 3: The next morning, Monday, we got back on 93 and continued to head north into Montana which carries you all the way past the west side of Flathead Lake. Of course, this was not without a little bit of construction adventure. Just south of the lake on 93 was about 10-15 miles of the worst construction I had ever seen. There were at least two signs calling for motorcyclists to use extreme caution. It seemed what they were doing was peeling up perfectly good concrete roadway and replacing it with gravel. Then, for some reason unbeknownst to me, the crews would water these patches of gravel so that the formed a nice gravel-mud paste. Some of this paste must have been a concrete mixture because by the time we were able to stop and get off the bikes, both of our scoots were covered in a thin layer of concrete. Grrr. We continued up 93 until Highway 2, which took us into Glacier National Park. We camped in the park that night – what a beautiful place.
Dave at Montana border
Evening shot of the lake near our campsite in Glacier
Day 4: Tuesday morning was spent taking in all of the sights on the Going to the Sun Road in the park. I had never scene such natural beauty before. It seemed that every turn had me thinking “OMG, this is amazing!†It took a couple of hours for us to get through the park because of all the times we simply had to stop for pictures. The road dumped us out of the east side of the park, where we hopped on Highway 89 and took it into Alberta. We entered Alberta on Highway 2 and traveled on it north to Fort MacLeod, where we were able to hop on Highway 3. Our goal was to get into British Columbia and take Highway 3A up along Kootenay Lake (a rider from Canada that we met in Idaho told us about it and the ferry that takes you across the lake). We make it to the ferry port on the east side of Kootenay Lake around 7ish PM and find that we must wait an hour for the next ferry to Balfour (thank God for these long summer days). While waiting, Dave takes the time to rearrange his precarious load – one of his favorite pastimes. A woman on the ferry tells us we should camp at Toad Rock, a campground for motorcyclists. Toad Rock was a trip! What a bunch of happy hippy folks! They were gearing up for a big party for the coming weekend – they expected 1,000 campers to enjoy live bands and (I’m sure) liquid libations. For more info, check ‘em out at http://www.toadrockcampground.com/
Morning shot of lake - man that was a cold swim!
One of the rivers in Glacier
Me at a Glacier vista
What a view - Glacier is beautiful
Mountain goat in Glacier - he was a little nervous...
Bike on the ferry on Kootenay lake
A campsite at Toad Rock - what wonderful people. A great place to camp...
Day 5: After a great breakfast on Wednesday morning in Nelson, British Columbia, we decided to take 3 all the way to Highway 395, which will take us back into the states. At the border crossing, they ask us to pull to the side so that they can search our luggage. After going through mine, the head to Dave’s bike and – upon seeing his packing style – decide he had nothing to hide. We rode 395 all the way to Highway 20, upon the recommendation of the fellow who searched my luggage. He insisted the North Cascades Highway was a sight to see. 20 brought us to more construction – now the scariest patch I have ever seen! In this 15 mile stretch, they were coating perfectly good concrete road surface with hot tar and peppering it with rough gravel. There were more signs advising motorcyclists to use extreme caution. It seemed as though they went through extra trouble to put more gravel down in the curves, just to keep things interesting. I was sliding all over the place. The only good thing about this patch of deadly construction was that the gravel and tar picked up by my tires worked to beat off most of the Montana concrete. Cool. While on 20, we stopped for dinner in the cool little town of Winthrop. Winthrop definitely has its roots in the old west, and many of the buildings are original (complete with wooden sidewalks). The ride along 20/North Cascades Highway was the second most beautiful ride of the trip (next to Glacier). It was unfortunate that it was already so late in the day – we could have really enjoyed taking out time through the mountains. We stayed on 20 all the way to Burlington, where we hopped on I-5 to head south toward Seattle. We camped in the Seattle area and took a day off.
A shot of the town of Winthrop, WA
My scoot in the Cascades
Day 6: Rest in WA. Amy, I missed you.
Day 7: Friday found us back on I-5 heading south until Highway 6 which we took to Highway 101 so that we could experience the coast – the ultimate goal of the trip. We took 101 south through Washington and into Oregon, taking in some amazing coastal vistas. We camped in a great State Park campground called Honeyman on the Oregon coast.
Shot looking down the Oregon coast
Lighthouse on the Oregon coast
My bike on the coast
Scenic shot from campsite
Day 8: On Saturday, we continued down 101 into California and followed it through the Redwoods National Park. What a beautiful trip! It felt as though we were traveling through an enchanted forest, completely different from all that we had seen on this trip so far. I kept holding out for a chance to take a picture of the large trees that you can drive through. I should have done a little more research on this, because we ended up passing through the park and I hadn’t snapped a single shot. Oh well – another time, another trip. We followed 101 to Highway 299 that would start taking us back east. 299 was probably my third favorite ride of the trip. It had lots of lovely curves and beautiful scenery to boot.
California hillsides
Day 9: Sunday would take us through the rest of California via Highways 299, 44, 36, and 395, on into Nevada where we hopped onto I-80 on briefly before getting onto Highway 50, America’s Loneliest Road (no exaggeration there). 50 carried us across Nevada (and into The Nothingness), where we hit our first real storm somewhere in the mountains. There wasn’t much rain, but lightening surrounded us like the Gods were calling in long range artillery to keep us in one spot. I pinched a new crease in my seat on that mountain pass. Fortunately, we got through safe and sound (unlike a car we passed that had swerved into our lane just moments before and slammed into the rock face of the mountain). We spent that night at an RV campground in Delta, UT. It was 11:30 and we were pooped.
Self-snap in California
Over-the-shoulder shot in California with Dave in view
Look at that lonely stretch of road
Another shot of Highway 50 taken at about Mach 2
Day 10: We got a fairly early start on Monday morning, the last day of the trip for me, so that we could make it back to Castle Rock at a decent time and Dave could continue on to Dallas (or so we thought). We made good time once 50 joined I-70, which would carry us back to Denver. Of course, we hit tremendous temperature changes in Colorado. It was a hot 102 just east of Grand Junction, but dropped to a rainy mid-50s in Vail. We rode in the rain across the Rockies, from Vail until my house in Castle Rock. We arrived home shortly after 6:30 PM. Dave headed back for Dallas within only an hour, or two at my house.
My scoot in Utah
Dave's creative/utilitarian packing style
Close-up of Dave's gear - note Off can placement
Dave on I-70 in Utah
All in all, the trip was just over 4,000 miles. We had a great time and saw so many beautiful things (many things have been left out of this quick report just to keep it on the small side). Attention all riders: I highly recommend riding the Going to the Sun Road, the North Cascades Highway, and Highway 299 in California. Can’t wait until next year’s trip – I think we will be headed to Alaska…
Hope you enjoyed this
...thanks for posting them for us...Australia has nothing that compares to that....great job.. 
