This long post contains a narrative of my 2017 Labrador trip. It is reconstructed from emails and offline notes arranged in chronological order. The occasional conversational tone may be due to the email exerpts. [[ ]] indicates hazy recollections added later.
This was my first multi-month motorcycle trip since 1982. There was a lot to learn.
For organizational purposes I'll break the narrative into three parts.
June 19, 2017
I got under way a day late (this morning). So, whatever date range I gave you for arriving in Portland, shift it back a day. And, then file it under fiction.
I'm in Lone Pine killing time in an air conditioned diner to avoid the 105 degree heat until check-in time at the hostel down the street. Left home before dawn specifically to avoid being on the road during the worst of it. That worked but left me with a big time gap to fill writing silly emails.
Chatted with a hiker who is part of a group hiking north on the Pacific Crest Trail. They started at the Mexico border and are headed to the Canadian border. They jumped off for supplies and to split up. Apparently, due to the wet winter the stretch past here still has 30 foot deep snow and treacherous ice cold rivers. Some of the younger hikers plan to power through it while the older, wiser ones are skipping around it.
Kind of fun sitting here. This is one of those places featuring casual and informative conversation with strangers. The proprietor has just been talking about the water situation now. In the next few weeks they expect flooding in some nearby towns due to runoff as the snow begins melting in earnest. The LA aqueduct is full as well as whatever normal diversion channels they use. Owens Lake which dried up providing LA with water is now likely to flood. This will cause problems for an ongoing dust mitigation project.
Meanwhile Death Valley hit 135 yesterday (?). Between the effects of massive surface water removal by humans and human caused climate change which is likely to produce more on/off flooding, not to mention heat this area could be an unexpected poster child for the downsides of fiddling with Nature.
[[ Ok. It couldn't have been 135. Death Valley's record is 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 C) set on 8/17/20. Maybe it was 125, not 135. ]]
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| Whitney Portal at Lone Pine |
June 20, 2017
At Lundy Canyon Campground. No wifi and out of range for Verizon to provide a mobile hotspot.
[[
Ride from Lone Pine to Lundy is not long and arrived there around noon. That gave me time to ride up past Lundy Lake to a convenience store to pick up a beer.
The campground is government run though I'm not sure which government. County? Similar to a BLM campground, sites have a picnic table, a bear box and little else. There are pit toilets and non-potable water.
I found a nice site amongst a stand of aspen.
]]
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| Sierra Nevada from US-395 near Lundy Lake. I dropped my sunglasses here and they got run over. |
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| And another view of the Sierras from Lundy Canyon. |
June 21, 2017 Carson City, NV Motel 6
Lovely sight in the morning as the first rays of sun came through the aspens lighting their trunks and the fronds on the tall grasses. The gentle spectacle lasted only a couple of minutes.
[[ I have no notes on the ride up to Carson City. The mountain scenery soon dwindles after Mono Lake. Took a side trip to Lake Tahoe having never been there. I'm sure it's lovely but all I found was a small beach full of sun baked people trying desperately to enjoy themselves and a hoard of bored teenagers.
Checked into a Motel 6 in Carson City. I remember fierce winds that tore the cover off my bike in the parking lot, little used sidewalks and dinner at a Subway down the main drag. I'm not sure if this city lives on (or for) anything other than its casinos.
]]
June 22, 2017 Klamath Falls, OR (Maverick Motel)
Sitting in Carson City yesterday I tried to figure out a route to the coast to get away from the heat. One possible went through Red Bluff, CA but then looked at the temperature forecast for today: 112 F.
Finally I hit on Klamath Falls where I am now (in a motel way out of my league). Here it's a balmy 79. The ride up was quite nice over summits alternating with broad, high valleys. There is also a long stretch through the Modoc forest. Nothing as spectacular as the Eastern Sierras but really nice. Odors gradually shifted from sage to pine.
There is very good pizza by the slice at Rodeos across from the Maverick Motel.
June 23, 2017 Vaneta, OR Airbnb backyard camping
June 24-28, 2017 Portland, OR Visiting friends
[[ A friend drove me up the Columbia Gorge. These pictures are exactly my imagination of the Pacific Northwest. ]]
June 29, 2017 Duvall, WA Airbnb Campground
[[ This was the last night before turning east on US-2 which would be my route until Michigan. This was an Airbnb campground in progress. Kind of pleasant. I remember a feel similar to Boy Scout camp in Pennsylvania - in the woods away from towns but without feeling remote or primitive.
I remember breezing past the last gas station before crossing the Cascades and thinking I should have stopped. So, worried all the way about running out of gas, nursing the bike along. Got to the next station with plenty to spare. ]]
June 30, 2017 South of Coulee City, WA Sun Lakes Dry Falls Campground
[[ Dropped off US-2 to view the dry falls and then proceed to a nearby state run camp ground. The falls are quite interesting having been carved out by floods at the end of the last ice age.
The camp ground was less entrancing. I had written a friend "tonight at a public camp ground... my idea of hell or at least purgatory." Following is my subsequent explanation.
"Public camp grounds" is a pretty generic description. What they are like can depend on who owns them (Fed, State, County, local muni, private) and who actually operates them [[ and the clientele, of course ]]. Some camp sites in national parks, for example, are operated under contract with private entities. So, experiences can vary from wonderful to horrific depending on expectations and reality. Here's a copy of my notes on the previously mentioned camp ground which was in Washington near Coulee City.
*Sun Lakes CG - Nearly 200 sites jammed cheek by jowl. Lots of nice grass but you can't camp on it. Tents must be on the hard packed dirt and gravel. About 3 pay showers to service hundreds of people. Park Service staff alternately friendly, annoyed, indifferent. Can't blame them much considering the mass of people they deal with. Children screaming constantly, adults shouting and jabbering, a colicky baby, cars revving, doors slamming, a car alarm that repeatedly goes off. And this lasts until well past 1:00 am. No sense of any "quiet hours." Late arrival? No problem. Just pull your car in and back and fill and let your headlights shine into everyone's camp site. Now slam the doors, and bang around setting up your tent and talk all you want in a voice that can be heard 100 yards away. And people with no idea how to build a proper camp fire filling the entire camp ground with dense acrid smoke. Then a man on a riding mower starts work at 6:00 am mowing the adjacent golf course. Fortunately, I was already up. ]]
July 1, 2017 Sandpoint, ID, Garfield Bay Campground
[[ After the campground from Hell I took a detour to see the Grand Coulee Dam before heading east on the 2 to Idaho.]]
Grand Coulee Dam was worth the side trip. I didn't take the tour but viewed it from several places both above and below as well as spending time in the visitor center. At first I was underwhelmed. But then I realized that it is 550 feet tall - wait, I thought 350 but Wikipedia says 550. Something in the proportions makes it appear squatter. I guess because it is very long and doesn't have that tall, curved, graceful look of a Hoover Dam or even the dams in Azusa Canyon near Pasadena. In fact it reminded me of some of Hitler's mega-fortifications with its flat surfaces, straight lines and insane volume of concrete. Three powerhouses just one of which can supply all of Portland's and Seattle's electricity needs.
July 3, 2017 Havre, MT, Motel
Montana: Damn, this state is big and empty. At least I saw a couple of black faces in Kalispell, the first since at least Washington. And now I'm seeing native american faces, this being Blackfeet territory.
July 4, 2017 Wolfpoint, MT Airbnb campground
As for camping I've camped 6 times so far on this trip. Only that one was horrible. The one in Idaho was only spoiled by an unexpected fireworks show plus the local yahoo factor that lead to extemporaneous fireworks and loud music until after midnight. Oh, and the ATVs going up and down the dirt road kicking up dust.
So far I'm enjoying riding across the Great Plains. Picture a straight brown asphalt two lane road stretching to the horizon, green or brown fields and grasslands on either side also stretching to the horizon occasionally interrupted by some hills or low mountains bluish in the distance, wooden utility poles with sparse wires like sentinels along one side and a low blue sky dotted with white clouds stretching to infinity in all directions. I wouldn't want to live here but it's nice to ride along and imagine the original inhabitants as well as the various Europeans who came west through here. I've been stopping at the many "historical markers" which are quite good at supplying a paragraph of context.
[[ Took a lot of pictures this day. Here are a few. ]]
The rusting vehicles in the background add a bit of recent historical perspective.
[[ The writing style of these signs is fun. I keep imagining a frustrated author getting by composing historical markers for DOT. ]]
Yeah, this state is huge and with enough people to fill maybe two suburbs of Los Angeles.
Fort Peck Dam is sprawling but oddly unspectacular.
A final sad note.
I plan a few days in advance. Tomorrow is Minot, ND for one night and then two nights in Grand Forks, ND. [[ I've been in communication with my house sitter to retrieve and forward my bike registration which I left behind. Grand Fork is ]] where I hope to rendezvous with the vehicle registration. I will also pause to change the oil in the bike and clean it up again. It's covered with bug splatter.
July 5, 2017 Minot, ND, Dakota Inn
Now in Minot (pronounced My Not more or less), ND. The landscape changed from Montana to North Dakota. It seems scruffier, less kempt, less pure, flatter. This impression is not helped by highway 2 turning from a two lane road to a four lane divided highway as well as by a denser population. Also, there are trees that don't look natural breaking up the expanse. Perhaps they were planted as wind breaks. There's plenty of wind. Coming into Williston near the western border of ND I saw a remarkable amount of new residential development from tract houses to dense clusters of McMansions for what I'd expected was just another crossroads town. As there were a few old oil pumpjacks (those things that nod up and down) starting just before the Montana-North Dakota border I wondered if this was related to the shale oil boom. Sure enough, past Williston newish looking oil operations began appearing. Usually these were one to several pumpjacks and some cylindrical tanks and occasionally a flare burning off gas and nobody standing around (so where are all the jobs? attending a Trump rally?). Wikipedia confirms that northwest ND is/was part of the shale boomlet.
[[ Motels like this feel like relics from the days before the big interstates sucked up all the long distance travel trade. They are all alike: a small room, big noisy air conditioner, a little desk, a folding thing to put a suitcase on, a tv you probably won't be able to figure out, maybe some non-removable hangers for clothes, carpet that's seen better days, an odd smell that is universal to these places, a common blend of the odors of countless occupants, cleanings and abuses. ]]
Left Bessemer, MI continuing east on US-2 in Michigan's UP (Upper Peninsula). Here the terrain is hard to see as the foliage is jungle dense on either side of the road. This makes for somewhat tedious travel as there is no place to rest your eyes except on the road ahead. More wildlife. A doe and fawn that looked like they were contemplating bolting across the road before turning back into the trees. A turtle 2/3 of the way across my lane that I barely missed. It was headed toward the busier oncoming lane. It took a couple of seconds for me to realize I could stop and rescue it. A couple more to think I should and a couple more for guilt to set in. By then I was too far down the road. I doubt that it made it.
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| Nowhere to look but straight ahead. |
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| The summer foliage is jungle thick here. |
Spent the night at a campground in Ottawa National Forest called Little Bay Du Noc which is a small inlet on the north shore of Lake Michigan. The caretakers are an elderly couple that keep it in good shape and told me it took three years to clean up the trash when they took it over. Sad (as our President would say). It rained a bit but it was quite a nice peaceful spot with a beautiful golden
sunset over the water. The mosquitoes were ferocious.
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| I like the late afternoon colors on the water. |
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| And a pretty nice sunset. |
I noticed small trees and shrubs growing in the water near the shore. This I supposed and the proprietress confirmed was because Lake Michigan had receded in recent years and now apparently is again rising. I tried to guess how much higher it might rise. Some 10 or 15 feet from waters edge is a 4 foot bank. So I'm guessing that is the real high water mark.
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| A bleak day on Lake Huron. |
The remaining bad part of that 24 hours consisted of me setting a record for getting lost on what should have been a simple 90 minute ride to Ann Arbor. I took the wrong freeway passing Flint and ended up backtracking on secondary roads and repeatedly misreading the cryptic instructions google was giving me. Even managed to get turned around in Ann Arbor (where I lived for four years as an undergrad) but finally made it to the Airbnb. This was an apartment like those typically found near large universities and occupied by students or young instructors.
[[ Spent the first morning ]] purchasing a new smart phone that will/should work in Canada. This was an all too typically frustrating and expensive experience. With all the advanced technology at their disposal phone companies seem utterly incapable of making acquiring a phone simple and quick. Never mind.
In the afternoon I wandered around the U of M central campus and some of the streets where I used to live half expecting to fall into some existential rabbit hole. The campus has expanded mightily in the last 45 years. Thankfully, most of this has occurred away from the central campus. For example, there's an entirely new "South Campus" as well as a "North Campus" that was already taking shape when I was there. Many of the old buildings have been renovated inside which was disappointing as I wanted to find classrooms just as I left them. But here and there were lovely old wooden doors left in place.
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| Owen Coop where I boarded for a bit. I'm always reminded of the hotel in Fawlty Towers. |
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| Angel Hall |
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| Judging from the sculpture his father must have been an interesting guy. |
Today's ride to Hamilton was uneventful though had to stop multiple times to make sure I'd taken the correct turns. I'd thought of crossing the border at the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit but after reading reviews of its decrepit state and the likelihood of long delays I opted to follow I-94 up to Port Huron, MI and cross to Sarnia. The whole ride was on express highways and boring except for one intense stretch past downtown Detroit.
July 16, 2017 Brookeville, PA, Super 8 Motel
So, left Hamilton and rode the short distance to Niagra Falls (Canadian side). From the road one can see about the upper 2/3 of the cataracts. The immediate area was clogged with tourists and parking was outrageously expensive. Found a cheaper parking lot about a mile upriver and took a stroll along the river almost to the brink of the falls. The river is just as interesting as the falls full of spectacular white water rapids for more than a mile. Interestingly you can walk right along the river (on a high embankment) with nothing other than a lot of foliage to prevent stupid people from straying into the swift water. Also interesting were some islands in the river that showed the same vegetation growing in the water as I saw on Lake Michigan - more evidence that water levels are rising.
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| Upriver from the falls |
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| The brink |
Crossed the border and headed down US-219 but then got off to look for lunch. Strayed into Hamburg, NY and after eating noticed US-62 passing through town. Decided that looked fun and headed south.
US-62 was an unexpected nostalgic treat. Not because I'd ever been on it but because much of it looked exactly like the roads in central PA in the 50's and 60's. Two narrow lanes, no real shoulder. None of the curves straigtened and none of the dips and hillocks filled or flattened. Passing through farm land alternating with dense forest and occasionally following the banks of the Allegheny river. An occasional straight section where the view ahead looks like a gentle roller coaster. A joy to ride with perfect weather of sun mixed with large clouds, a breeze and benign temperature. One of the sublime moments that makes this kind of travel worthwhile.
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| U.S. 62 |
62 intersects US-322 which heads east through State College (my hometown). 322 is much like 62. But it was getting late and I began to despair of finding a motel. I guess that with the arrival of the interstates very few long distance travelers take these old highways so services like motels disappeared. Eventually, I hopped on I-80 just to find an exit with lodging.
July 17, 2017 State College, PA, Airbnb
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| A somewhat tattered Polyphemus moth was hanging out outside the motel this morning. |
[[ I should mention that I grew up here leaving in 1966 to go to college and barely returning until 1986 for grad school. In those 20 years the town changed mightily exploding in population and sprawling out over open fields where I used to explore as a child. In the nearly 30 years since grad school it has become an unfamiliar place. Certainly the outlines of the old town are there and many of the same buildings but it no longer feels like home. I felt like a stranger passing through. ]]
July 18, 2017 Sister's house in Paramus, NJ
[[ Over next couple days I rested and did some maintenance tasks on the bike: oil, air filter, new rear tire. ]]