bear glacier

GeoTagged, [N55.91155, E130.02105]

in the smoke shack

GeoTagged, [N55.91155, E130.02105]

kittwankool

the original americans

at the junction

bear in the bar!!

GeoTagged, [N55.91155, E130.02105]

turning off at the junction we pulled north. that's where the actual fun and adventure started!! the cassiar highway! oh man, riding can't hardly be better! the traffic! awful! 3 cars per hour!
I know, lotsa exclamation marks. but it's true. !!!!
anyway, we saw 4 grizzlies and one black bear within 2 hours. beautiful vistas and wonderful roads. the landscape! snow capped mountains, glaciers, beaver ponds, flood plains, glacier streams, misty fjords, waterfalls. rain too!
and another bear! in the bar! the sealaska bar! few of you will know the bar...

in the smoke shack

GeoTagged, [N55.91155, E130.02105]

further down the road we pulled over at a roadside stand selling bannock (similar to Navajo fried bread but better) and smoked salmon strips.
the lady running the stand invited us to check out the gitsan village. we also went over to her house to see the smoke shack. pretty interesting!

in moricetown

what an awesome day! well, just another day of great riding...
after shopping in Smithers, and having great coffee!, we carried on riding the yellowhead hwy. and it became better and better and best!!
first we stopped at moricetown where the gitskan indian fish for salmon with gaff and net. now, we are talking salmon 40 pounds and more! per fish!

breakfast stop in Fraser lake

GeoTagged, [N54.05566, E124.85210]

sitting in a coffeshop in Fraser lake for breakfast we are trying to warm up. it's bloody cold. locals say summer never came.
starting out at 7 from Prince George we want to get to Stewart/ Hyder today. still a long way to go!
the traffic is sparse, the road smooth and mostly straight. the landscape consist of long stretched out rolling hills. trees, mainly spruce, pine and birch, more looking like oversized chopsticks, cover the terrain all the way to the horizon.

day 5, birkenhead lake to prince george

we hit the highway around 8 in the morning. what a blast! we continued on the sea to sky highway which hooks up with the cariboo highway at cache creek.
all the way it's riding of the finest order! the road snakes along a canyon wall with drop offs of 300 m and more. sometimes the road itself drops to the canyon floor and bridges over the river. sights if glaciers and icefields, lush forest and alpine lakes are few of the treats.
the cariboo hwy gives one an idea of the boreal forest. more sticklike and less solid than their cousins to the south they nonetheless make an impression by their vast expanses.
the afternoon really treated us with heavy rain. another taste of the north!
after 650 km and plenty of wet we called it quits in prince george and crashed in some cheap hotel in some questionable area.

the last 5 days

we started last Sunday from
San Francisco, riding on US 101 clear to just below the Oregon border and camped out at redwood national park. just a typical ride in Northern California except it was cooler than usual which was fine with us.
next day was a long one with us going all the way through Oregon to Washington. we arrived in greyland with the coming of dusk after bagging 750 km. it was partially rainy but mostly sunny on the Oregon coast. going over the impressive Astoria bridge over the Columbia river touching ground on the northside it poured down for 20 minutes. but then followed the greatest part of the day: long sweeping curves, medium narrow twisters and straight runs along the sloughs and wetlands of the southwest of washington. from the rain polished foliage glistening in the golden rays of the setting sun below dramatic cloud formations, it was breathtakingly beautiful. we giggled, so excited we were.
day 3 took us along the western edge of the olympic peninsular past the rainforest to port Angeles. there we took the ferry to Vancouver Island .just north of victoria we camped at a provincial park (similar to a ca statepark but way better managed).
on Wednesday we took another ferry from nanaimo to horseshoe bay north of Vancouver. that's where Peter joined us.
and another afternoon of terrific riding followed. we took the sea to sky highway east to the mountains. just incredible for motorcycling!!! camp was at Birkenhead lake. watch out for the bears!

we are already in British Columbia after 4 days of partially long rides. on the way to Alaska we are! how did that come about? in June:
klaus (one of my best friends): oli, we are coming to sf on July 24 on the motorcycles. are you around?
me: yes, I'll be back on the 22nd. perfect, let's go for a ride then.
klaus: sure, but we are going up north to Alaska.
me: what??? I want to come too!
klaus: why don'tcha?
me: well, ??? why not....
so now we are here in Birkenhead Lake provincial park in bc. we, that is klaus from l.a.;a buddy of his, Sean from Long Beach; and Peter from Vancouver, a relative of klaus' wife. oh yeah, me, Oliver from San Francisco...