Yeah man, "deep melancholy" pretty much sums up the scene. There's the Alcan north out of town and the Alcan south out of town. And not an intersection for 200 miles. You can't even go for a drive:suicide:. I was shocked that there was even anyone in town that had a motorcycle- what's the point? Like a lot of the villages up here that are off the road system, I found many places through northern Canadia that had absolutely no reason to exist. No industry, no tourism- unless you count the people passing through who stop for gas and a meal. Nothing but a few hundred people passing around std's and trying to get through another winter without climbing into a warm bath with a razor blade.

Well, there's yer little ray of sunshine for the day!:nutkick: It starts gettin better from here! Promise... Japhy

Finally gettin far enough south for good weather! Dawson Creek is like 70F and feels like heaven. Sun's shinin, bike's runnin good, finally get some 91 octane, found an open beer store:thumbs_up: (stash was gettin thin). Speakin of thin, the tread on my back tire had been leaving at an alarming rate. Pressure was checked each morning, but them northern roads are all chip-seal. We've got some of that in Alaska as well, but the crushed rock they roll into the oil is about the same size as what you'd find in asphalt. Canadians must just find a talus slope they can mine for the stuff- cause it is COARSE! 2" crushed rock was not unusual. Like riding on a cheese grater.
Now I'd figured that at some point in the trip I'd need a tire, but I was beginning to wonder if I'd make Sturgis before having to take a day and have it replaced. Another 500 miles and I wasn't sure if I'd even make the border. Well neat. So we ain't makin time anymore- gotta find a dealer with a whitewall. I'd had the foresight to make a note of about a dozen Harley shops along my route and the nearest one was Kamloops, BC. 200 miles later I roll in (80 degrees by now. Sweet.), and give em my predicament. It's 2 in the afternoon and I'm not holding out much hope that I'll be makin any more miles that day, but damned if they didn't have me back on the road in 2 hours! Even washed and detailed the bike!
So now we're headed 150 miles to Washington state plus a tire and minus about 12lbs of Yukon mud. South outta Kamloops, then east over some pass and down into... uh, ...Peachland? I think that's right- don't have a map in front of me. Anyway there's a road that then travels south along Okanogan Lake. Man, pretty country. Wine country, turns out. Vineyards up and down the hills, about 2 dozen b&bs all advertizing wine tastings... I know what you're thinking, but I had to make that border by sundown so I didn't stop.





Till I spotted this pub with a patio about 20 miles from the Free World. There was this bartender in there (a happy one) wearin a long black dress with an open back (nice tatoo). Maybe travelling alone had givin me an overactive imagination, but I have NEVER seen a dress cover so much and still be that revealing! Man did it fit. Clingy.

Ah, now where was I? Right, headin for the border:drive:. Meet the Man at the gate and, as it turns out, the American border patrol actually gives a shit about who's comin and who's goin. Go figure. No hassles though, and we're off to find a place to crash. For a change, I actually know where the hell I am as I grew up in Wa state. So i head down to Tonasket and then cut east through the hills towards Republic, finding a nice little lake to camp at around 11pm. Man, does it feel good to be back in the states- particularly this state. If there's anything Alaska lacks, it's variety. You can drive across Washington and go from rainforest to desert. Nice to get a change of scenery every hunert miles or so.
While I'm at it, here's a coupla pics from the trip down.


South of Tok, AK


Lk. Kluane, Yukon


Buffalo in Northern B.C.


Muncho Lake, B.C.


Okanogan country of N.E. Washington

Enjoy the weekend, I'm gonna! -Japhy

good stuff!

That right there is one purty picture.

Yeah, but like most places up here, ya gotta ignore all the mud in the foreground! Look past the mud, swamp, mosquitoes, etc. and you've got a darn nice spot. Not trying to be an ass, I appreciate the comments- it's just that when I look at that all I see is my muddy ol scooter on the side of a muddy shitty road in the middle of friggin nowhere with nobody tellin me what to do, or how to do it, or how fast or slow i should be going, can't stop and have a beer that's not safe... Damn Vette, yer right that was a fine picture! Really brought back some memories for a minute.:beer:
Take care, Japhy

I wouldn't want to see a sparkling clean Bike in that pic. It's being ridden, for real and it shows. That's what's so cool to me. There's a time and place for perfectly neat and clean and that doesn't seem like it to me.

Sounds like paradise; mosquitos, mud and all.

It does kinda grow on ya! Nothing like a little freedom to let you look past the hardships.
I've been riding all weekend and now it's time for beer and barbeque, so I'll get the next chapter up tomarrow (tues.) Take care, Japhy

If only more Americans would recapture this idea; but I digress. Looking forward to the next installment. :thumbs_up:

Hey guys, winter's comin' and I've been busier than a Senator in a cathouse:laugh:
Where'd I leave off... Back in America! Eastern Washington and the weather's HOT! The scenery is refreshingly different than the Arctic and now I'm officially on vacation. I start working south from Republic

A pretty nice little town a guy could see himself retiring in. Down further out of the Okanogen country and starting to see some desert.

Little further on and I come to the Grand Coulee Dam. Well, I haven't been here in ages, so I stop for a picture and happen to find a couple on a Heritage Softail heading home to Idaho who'd be happy to take a pic for me.

Those tubes on the face of the dam are large enough to drive a truck through -just to give you a sense of scale.
It's gettin to be past breakfast time so at Coulee City (I think that was it), I start looking for a restaraunt. And as luck would have it, I found one. Same time as this nice couple also headin back to Idaho. Well I haven't had any decent conversation since Watson Lake (remember her?), and I was still getting over the heebie-jeebies from that so all three of us get a table together and we must have taken 2hrs to eat! He was a cool cat and man the stories just started flyin across that table. His wife was in stitches most the time. And I nearly had fried egg out the nose on an occasion or two. Kinda folks you wished you could stop in and see more often.

He reminded me of Santa Clause's hippy brother or something!
From here I've got to make a detour west of the Cascades so I can see the Old Man while I'm down. I figure the best route would be over the pass at Mt. Rainier. It'd be a pretty ride on two-lane road and it'd dump me down into Enumclaw -where he happened to be. Kind of a no-brainer, right?
Well it starts out fine enough, just catching the edge of some rain showers outside of Yakima, heading west up into the mountains on a beautifull twisty road following a stream. Traffic's light, road's been freshly paved, great big pine trees... perfect. Fer a while. As I gain altitude, I can see I'm going to hit a little weather pokin over from the rainy side of the state. Oh well, whadda ya want -egg in yer beer? Now I'm up good and high, it's raining, I'm peering through the soggy windscreen at a fog line 25 feet in front of me on a road with no shoulders or guardrail that's making switchbacks 3000 feet above the valley floor that I presume is down there under this cloud I'm in. Just when I get comfortable riding along at 20mph with NO visability -just following the stripes, I see a sign for road construction. Stripes are gone, pavement's gone, my nerves are shot:surrender:. Georgia must be makin a killin on all this friggin greasy clay they're exporting. And I'm not kidding, you couldn't see more than 20 feet in this crap.
So I make it down the other side allright (you prolly guessed), roll into Dad's at about 2 in the afternoon and we had a blast. Had a beer or 10:beer:, had a bar-b-que with him, my step-mom, and a friend we've known for 20 years or so. Hit the road the next day at about the same time. Man, 24hrs of R&R felt awsome! I hadn't been off the bike for more than 6hrs at a stretch for 3000 miles and five days.
I'll keep em comming as I can, long as anyone's still readin! -Japhy

Oh hells ya!