Mike's Alaska Motorcycle Odyssey 2011: June 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Day 3 to Cambria CA

Morning in camp at the crest of the coastal range dawned beautiful and sunny but moist and dewy, so the first order of business was to dry out my down sleeping bag (I hope that I can keep it dry in Alaska where it will count!).


Drying out my down bag...and some other suspect items...

Rode from sun on top to coastal fog below.

Great place for breakfast in Santa Margarita

After two long riding days and the super kind offer from friends Steve and Jill to spend a night in their new Cambria beach house, I gladly accepted. Rode a whole 77 miles today! That really drops the average, but my goal is to have fun, and today feels like a great day to relax and kick back.

Steve and Jill's house overlooking the Pacific.

Beach below the house.

Rotating vent on fireplace which intrigues me for its other possible applications.

Cambria on the coast

Driftwood bench

Can you see the bench with the view?

Tracker Website Address

If you want to track my progress go to

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=18NsrCzc1W3h2rqtmh4m7OWIpnNQMMOsY

and enter password Alaska (capitalized)

I am over nighting in Tok, Alaska and WILL update this blog at some point.

Amazingly, there is actually reliable and reasonably fast internet here at the campsite...

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Best of Day 2, Saturday June 25, 2011

Thought for the day: You know you're roughing it when deodorant becomes your most valuable commodity.

Through the town of Mojave and through Tehachapi pass I was continuously pounded by a giant, well-padded fist of wind. These places are noted for their prevalent fierce winds, and for their preponderance of wind-electric generators.

Thru the ever-shifting and cockeyed hills of the earthquake-prone coastal range

Daily contrasts are already intensely polar and, I think, only bound to become more so as my journey progresses. Today began with a cool, solitary, calm meditative perfect ride out of Joshua Tree that I would bottle and sell if I could, to sweating through a beating by gusts of 100+ degree air, wishing it would end.

Speaking of my journey, it actually has a "goal": to ride all the way to Prudhoe Bay, on the Bering Sea (Arctic Ocean), the farthest north settlement reachable by road in the US. The last 400 miles are supposed to be especially difficult for any vehicle: dirt, gravel, mud, dust, washouts, ruts, coated with corrosive magnesium chloride... Most riders that try it are riding "cross bikes", basically street-legal dirt bikes with knobby tires and tall suspensions. Ah, what the heck, my sport bike is just a well-dressed dirt bike.

At Black Mountain Campground in the coastal range

Working on photos after dark

Another thought for the day: I am traveling in a direction that makes the sun go down and never set.

#end

Great Morning Ride

Got up at 0400 to the last quarter moon with Jupiter below, packed up and on road thru Joshua Tree by 0440. What a delight after 120 F yesterday, I actually had to put on my jacket with temps in the 60's! I ate it up and wished I could'a saved the leftovers for later!

An Oasis!

Late Afternoon miles on the sands of Joshua Tree

View from The road

Bivouacked on picnic table to keep away from the creepies!

In digging out my tools from under my seat (which required taking ALL my bags off) to help these guys fix a broken alternator belt on their car...

...I knocked the bike over and scarred my helmet! At least my head wasn't in it...Moral of story: don't leave your helmet sitting on the bike!

Former home of famous airplane and spaceship designer Burt Rutan... but they say after 3 of his employees died testing the rocket motor for Spaceship one (that won the Ansari X Prize) he has given it up and moved to Wyoming...

Rotary Rocket VTOL experimental prototype on display...NOT on display was Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two and Mothership Eve, tho I actually got to see both in their hangar after talking with Rex, the only guy working there on this Saturday. They were mated and Rex was getting them ready for a drop test flight scheduled for next week. It was an impressive and beautiful sight -- they are BIG -- and I wish I could have taken photos, but that was prohibited.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Day 1 - Chiriaco Summit

Based on my fond recollections of visiting Chiriaco Summit with Wendy back in the 80's, I was anticipating dining at the General Patton Cafe. I recalled it was chock full of memorabilia from the WWII Gen. Paton training camp that had existed here, now some 70 years ago.

History of Chiriaco

The old cafe had, since my visit with Wendy, been renovated. There I was served 2/3 of a burger; it looked like the other third had broken off sometime during the cooking process, leaving substantial bun-estate vacant. I pointed this out to the server who took the plate back to the kitchen. About ten minutes later, I saw a man approaching purposefully, and I was certain that this was the manager, who would be apologetic and present me with a full replacement burger. But he told me to either eat the one previously served (I suppose it was still sitting in the kitchen somewhere) or go somewhere else. I politely told him I'd go somewhere else, then sat at the table for another 30 minutes enjoying a glass of water and reading about Joshua Tree, no longer a monument, now a national park. The Patton antiques that had given the old cafe its personality had been put into storage, I was told.

I kept the bag of chips that came with the burger and went across the street to the Foster's Freeze, under the same management, but the only other place in town (and this the only town between me and my destination). I ordered the $3.50 "premium" burger from the attendant, who, when I asked for lettuce, tomato and onion, advised this selection. When my number came up he handed me a bag along with a "sorry, we don't have any onion." After brief negotiation, he went across the street to the Patton Cafe and pilfered a slice of onion (the one from the burger I'd ordered there?); kudos to him. Upon unwrapping the swaddling around the burger, I found enclosed a (meat?) patty literally the size of a silver dollar. Oh well, at least I had the chips.


Foster's Freeze Workspace and eventual dinner venue

Friday June 24,2011 @ 1004 MST

Oh it's hot! Spell that with a capital T, HOTTT!

Glad I left early. I'm at a rest stop about 60 mi east of Quartzite. It's a slog out there on Interstate 10. Everyone's trying to go somewhere fast. Probably to air conditioning.

take a look at the lower right of the display...yup

Day 1 and the Beginning of the Blog

I am sitting in front of Flying J Ehrenberg, just north of Pichacho Peak, having a yogurt and wheat bread snack.

Water from this Walmart Camelback knock-off bladder tastes terrible. But I only paid $9.98 for it. That makes easier to swallow.

Still in my own backyard but this is farther north than I've ever been on this bike. Odometer just turned over 10,000 miles. In the process of observing the ten-thousand digit change for the first time ever, I discovered that the odometer uses a factor of exactly 1.6 in its conversion from miles to km, which is an approximation. The actual conversion factor is 1.609.

So far so good. On the interstate highway I had the throttle locked for about 60 mph, which is less windy and more fuel efficient than a higher speed, although the bike is quite comfortable at 75... or 150.

0'dark hundred departure

Beginning time and mileage

First Fuel stop Flying J Ehrenburg

Next planned refueling is Quartzite, though I will probably make a rest stop before that.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Trip Prep

I spent less than two weeks from the time I hatched (probably an appropriate metaphor for where i should be residing) the idea on a lark to go to Alaska on my motorbike to actually departing...and there were some other things I did during that time, such as deferred house repairs that had to get done before leaving, repairing the AC on the Entrada rental, and taking Melanie for her wrist surgery... so it was really quite a short suspense and compressed prep activity. Time will tell how well I did my homework.