North: The Summer of Adventure

[Cycle-Magazine]

One of the perks of being a writer is people foolishly trust you with bikes, so I've landed a KTM 990 Adventure. No set destination, just a vague notion based on a cardinal compass coordinate. No prior adventure experience, learning the riding techniques on the way thanks to the riding section here, and a serious case of navigational impairment this may be the worst planned adventure ever...

Still getting into the groove of trying to post as I go, but here's the first video. Not sure if I'll be able to keep that up as the camping starts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzvI9ekX9iY

North: The Summer of Adventure – Day 1: Vancouver to Tyax Lodge

In the history of slow starts this has been epic. Hannibal had an easier time wrestling up some elephants and infantry, than my getting out on the road the past few days. Yet, sitting here at Tyax lodge I’m hard pressed to be more satisfied with the first day of “North: The KTM Summer of Adventure”.

Yes, so much for “sleeping rough on the road”, but this evening’s opulence rests on a down payment of frustration. The KTM 990 Adventures had arrived earlier in week, giving me the hope of hitting the road early. That was thoroughly dashed against the brown collective.

Sartre is quoted as saying that hell is other people. Obviously he’d never dealt with UPS.
After six phone calls, a re-faxed invoice, conversations with border brokers, and a missing delivery that “Absolutely won’t reach you today Mr. Johnston”, I drove out to the UPS depot to pick up gear. Odds were in my favour; three phone calls said the package would be there, while a fourth said it was unreachable on a delivery truck.

Decked out in a KTM Phase jacket, Alpinestars Tech 3 boots and Bionic Protection Jacket, I’d reached Ewan-Poser gear nirvana. Ready to hit the road? Not quite.

Philosophically I’m ready for this, I’ve watched Long Way Round and Long Way Down. I was raised with Robert Service poems as bedtime stories, and have caught up on my Jack London audio books.

The harsh reality is that two days of UPS-hell had kept me from picking up essentials; spare tubes, tire pries, gas cans, and a compressor the list just kept growing. I’ve joked with friends calling this, “the worse planned adventure ever.”

Honestly though, I wasn’t really joking. Even over drinks in the lodge we’re mining road information from the local colour who greeted us in the parking lot, and invited us along for drinks. Lori, a rough-hewn sort of woman, is all right in our books.

Eventually you concede planning defeat, you may never make it out of your back yard, and then hot and frustrated you find the 990 Adventure pointed north and you’re rolling of out of Squamish.

The destination? Today is the Hurly River Road from Pemberton to Gold Bridge, some of the most grandiose scenery British Columbia has to offer, and then on to Tyax Lodge as a gentle introduction to the world of dirt road riding.

Gentle might not be entirely accurate, but I’m seeing the world though a road rider’s bias. Hairpins strewn with fist sized rocks; washboard and gravel are still challenges. I know the KTM is compensating for my incompetence.

Yet, there are glimmers here. Thrumming along at 70kph with a plume of dust in my wake. Bimbling along and taking in the scenery lakeside. Feeling a sudden groove with the bike, roaring up the road to Tyax.

This mid-life-crisis orange Ka-Toom is teaching me lessons along the way; keep loose, stand on the pegs, add gas, give the bike its head, and there’s a feeling of confidence. Tense and the ride becomes a battle.

That last lesson rings true on so many levels.

[J_Scott]

Try doing that trip on a Ducati Monster now Neil.:laughing

So is this the start of the trip? where are you heading? Let me know if you see my wallet in Gold Bridge. ;)

[Cycle-Magazine]

Nope, no wallet in Gold Bridge... Now in Wells, via Likely, Keithly Creek and Barkerville. Not a suggested S4R route, so we'll see you soon then?
The destination purposefully vague, the key to getting bikes from KTM for the purpose of epic trips is not to let them know where you're headed. I learned that watching long way round.

[Cycle-Magazine]

North: The Summer of Adventure – Day 2: Tyax Lodge to Egg Lake

http://www.youtube.com/v/j6M_RkvxJuU

Tyax Lodge, outside of Gold Bridge, B.C., feels deserted. A fabulous location, picturesque to the point of overload, Tyax should be bustling. Instead it’s quiet to the point of being our private lodge. There’s no menu for breakfast, the Chef simply prepares what you ask for free form.

The ride in would make Tyax an amazing adventure destination leaving me thinking the lodge owners are missing the boat… Except for the room price which is an exorbitant rate for summer.

Markets gained and lost in one deft blow. With soaring gas prices and the Canadian dollar nearly par with that of the US, lodges like Tyax could well be feeling the pinch.

The ride out isn’t as swift as in, I’m feeling my quads something fierce. A month ago a friend asked if I was “going to train up for the ride.” Obviously I haven’t in an unconscious refusal to renege the title of “Worst Planned Adventure Ever.”

Why? Aside from it being a catchy title, there’s a point. Very seldom has media put adventure in approachable terms. We’ll see how that all works out, because the truth is every time I stand my thighs scream a little more.

There’s a quick detour back into Gold Bridge for fuel. I’ve done some Internet legwork and the quoted ranges for the KTM 990 adventure vary from 220-290km, and I’ve not had time to determine how far my own clockwork orange will take to unwind a single fill up.

At Fred’s, the gas station in Gold Bridge, we talk with what I assume to be the man himself. Reports for our proposed route through the Mud Lakes vary greatly. Last night Lori said it should be all clear, with the exception of snow. This morning at Tyax one of the staff suggested there would be sever knee-deep stream crossings. Fred seems to agree with the latter.

A day ago they had snow, and the streams are likely still swollen. Yes, snow in July.

Photographer Kevin needs to get to a sportbike rally in Osoyoos, and given my fledgling adventure state I just plain and simple chicken out at the potential of a watery drop. So it’s to Lillooet, BC where we’ll part ways.

The Lillooet Pioneer Road skirts Carpenter Lake, running from verdant flats just outside of Gold Bridge to a rough, rugged and steep topography painted with conifers.

Meanwhile, the road oscillates between pavement and dirt in a waveform dictated by government finances rather than logic. Not that the KTM cares.

In Lillooet, I decide to take on a portion of the Fraser River Trail.

That runs from Lillooet to Barkerville, the dirt road start point for me is the Pavilion-Clinton Road. The area’s tourism guides have this to say about the Fraser River Trail, “In the late 1850’s the Fraser River Trail was the choice for most prospectors and travelers heading north on foot or by horse to the emerging Cariboo Goldfields from Lillooet.”

This is a rout dripping in history. Now it’s dripping in my sweat.

There’s been a recent rain, so the roadway was damp and rutted. That’s fine on the uphill. Even shooting along the crest though ranchlands fields of sage scenting the air, still not a problem. What comes up must come down… Actually that was the part I was hoping to avoid.

Deep-seated in my navigational impairment was the though that Clinton was substantially higher than Lillooet, rather than the more obvious “I’m about to cross the Marble Mountain range.”

It’s hard to execute a graceful decent, “standing on the pegs and shifting your weight to the back of the bike” when the bike has bodged on Ventura Luggage filled with camping equipment and two spare gas cans. Add to that a minor tussle with the logic of shutting off the ABS…

Hint to new KTM 990 Adventure owners. Start bike, shift to neutral, apply brake, hold the ABS button till if flashes three times, release button on third flash… or maybe it needed to be in gear? Perhaps sacrifice a chicken to the Gods of Braking? Unfortunately, the 990 Adventurer has room for the toolkit or the manual under seat. I chose the toolkit.

14% doesn’t seem like a lot. Until it’s a downhill grade on a one-vehicle wide road.

I can’t remember the last time I received this kind of adrenaline charge from road riding, nor the sense of accomplishment, nor the workout.

Nonetheless the pavement of Kelly Lake Road was a welcome sight. I am a wimp, as if further proof were needed. There are other destinations along the route, Jesmond, Big Bar, Alkali Lake, and Dog Creek, but they will wait for another trip. Now solo, I’m feeling a bit cautious and weary.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "Whoso walketh in solitude, and inhabiteth the wood . . . into that forester shall pass . . . power and grace."

Spoken like a man who’s never been lobbed of a cliff and has no desire to repeat the experience. Going solo is intoxicatingly absolute, but I’m willing to sip at that beverage gently.

Needing a dirt breather, the rest of the day was spent whipping though the Cariboo’s back roads. The joy of an adventure bike the versatility to take the routes you want; a sporting romp along Green Lake Road to avoid drone-way 97 for example. All in aid of arriving for a “rough” night at my parents place at Egg Lake.

Eventually I’ll have to break out the camping gear and worse the camp stove. After all I’ve brought boil-in-the-bag.

[Cycle-Magazine]

North: The Summer of Adventure – Day 4: Egg Lake to Barkerville

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANzGwBIYhJE

http://onewheeldrive.net/images/stories/2008/North/North_13-07-08/_MG_5805.JPG

Here’s an early birthday gift, somewhere behind me is a Honda Accord with all the KTM’s overstuffed luggage and then some. Admittedly having a well-used front-wheel drive as a sag wagon diminishes the adventure a of riding from Wildwood to Barkerville the “back way”, but it’s giving me a taste of what this bike can really do. Oh, dear gawd, it’s bloody dirt-road ambrosia with a chaser of complete hoonery thrown in.

Shooting along the 3100 Road the KTM is spiriting me along over washboard, potholes and rain slicked dirt roads. Lightened of its load the KTM is transformed into a capering, cavorting, fun machine. So here’s a tip then, regardless of suspension adjustments try keep the loads light. The second tip… more power good.

No matter what the situation, throttle seems to be the solution. I’m game for that. Thank goodness for the need to grab video and photo’s for the site though, it encourages one to stop and take in the scenery.

I shouldn’t need such reminders; this is truly some of BC’s best, with the peaks surrounding the 3100 into Barkerville still shot through with snow. There’s a hint of “Last Chance to See” here though that’s tainting it all, earlier outside of Likely, red stands of trees signify the encroaching pine beetle.

Logging efforts are salvaging trees, but the entire landscape is changing… mostly for the worse. There’s little scenic to denuded landscapes, nothing for tourism to trade on. More unthinkably the pine beetle has placed an expiration date on the forest industry in the province - estimates very from 5-10 years.

The ironies are multiple; forests are huge carbon sinks, warmer than normal temperatures in winter have ensured the beetles survival, and the transport of infected lumber may have assisted the “plagues” spread leading to the industries long term downfall.

At least on the bike I’m relatively fuel-efficient even as I take in the good and the bad our province has to offer. By comparison to the damage already done how much does a small gesture like taking a bike rather than SUV count for though? I’ll admit to keeping the RPM’s lower between the bouts of outright tomfoolery, strangely that’s almost as enjoyable. There are roses to be smelled, and daisies, and forget-me-nots… you get the picture.

http://onewheeldrive.net/images/stories/2008/North/North_13-07-08/_MG_5791.JPG

[skroonk]

Thanks for the vids and write up. My Duke II almost died on the gravel hill up to Weaver lake and this makes me quite envious.

[Cycle-Magazine]

North: The Summer of Adventure – Day 5: Wells to Vanderhoof

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rUGCbYUM4g

It’s a moment ripped from Northern Exposure, walking into the Wells Hotel for breakfast everyone already seems to know who the guy on the “big orange bike” is and where he’s come from. More mysteriously they have a fair idea where I’m heading.
Rolling into Barkerville on “the 3100” yesterday, my parents and I took a quick turn through the historic site. Spotting the orange Phase Jacket, one of the actors, dressed in historic garb, dropped completely out of character and started talking bike. Seems he’s talked bike to a few people.

Thrumming from Barkerville to Quesnel, the day start with twists, turns and tarmac that would do well by any sportbike, but the name of the bike is the Adventure and the dirt calls.

The Quesnel-Hixon road serves up the dirt, a sharp slap in the face after the morning’s road riding and a previous day riding without luggage. The first gravel descent has me cursing.

What can I send home? Throw away? After the epiphany of riding the 990 without luggage, everything today is feeling top heavy and clumsy. I’ve always read the KTM 990 Adventure as fitting a more hard-core dirt niche than the likes of BMW’s GS series, I’ll take this as further evidence.

If you’re thinking of taking it all with you, well don’t. Underlining the point is a dirtbike who’s been capering though the corners and wheelying up hills in front of me. It’s all I can do to hold with the DRZ400 for a while, let alone put on a show. Eventually I give up, pull over and mount the video camera.

Again, BC has trotted out the “spectacular”. Why did we change our tourism slogan from “Supernatural British Columbia” to the overly prideful and assertive “Best Place on Earth”?

From Hixon on the ride becomes a bit of a highway drone. Misreading the map leads to a mis-set of the GPS, robbing me of dirt road options that connect neatly through to my next waypoint, Prince George.

In Prince George, a nagging feeling says, “Check the oil.” Indeed the KTM is low on 10w50… Have you ever tried to find 10w50 on a Monday when most motorcycle shops are closed? A thanks goes out to the folks at the Harley Davidson dealer in Prince George who let me use the yellow pages to call around.

NR Motorsports was open, had a close enough weight of synthetic blend, and that was that. Actually the oil was the tipping point. Rolling the big and loaded KTM off the centre-stand the bike slowly toppled to one side – a true newbie mistake.

One good mistake deserves another, so my navigational impairment plunged me down a road to nowhere… or at least a housing establishment about 20kms from the highway. My first clue should have been when the GPS said I was riding through the middle of a lake. For the record I’m not a fan of pea-gravel, seems to let the front end push around a lot and the rear squirm tons.

The solutions of course are “more gas” and avoidance. After a brief fling with a parallel road composed of courser gravel, thickly strewn with fist-sized front-tire hopping rocks, I’m just fine with returning to the consistency of the pea-gravel.

So back to Highway 16 for the drone to Vanderhoof? Not quite, there seems to be long portions of an old highway 16 paralleling the drone-way. It’s rutted, bumped, graveled, pot-holed, paved, degraded, unpaved, even mud in places. Perfect, entertainment snatches the ride from the jaws of boredom.

It is here that the same bag that saved the Adventure from its parking lot drop, interfaced slightly with a couple branches. Apologies to KTM.

Pulling into Dave’s campground just outside Vanderhoof, I’m knackered. In distance terms it’s been a short day, in ride terms not so much.

Then I notice the front lock on the right luggage. Between one “interface” or the other, it’s been damaged. That nixes camping given that all my essentials and clothes are stashed in the slightly damaged bag. Ah, well, another night in a hotel.

Luckily the KTM toolkit is pretty robust - robust enough for me to get the lock operational. For the record if anyone is looking to steal some dirty socks, stinky undies, and my asthma inhaler the right case is open.

[gixxstar]

Logging efforts are salvaging trees, but the entire landscape is changing… mostly for the worse. There’s little scenic to denuded landscapes, nothing for tourism to trade on. More unthinkably the pine beetle has placed an expiration date on the forest industry in the province - estimates very from 5-10 years.

The ironies are multiple; forests are huge carbon sinks, warmer than normal temperatures in winter have ensured the beetles survival, and the transport of infected lumber may have assisted the “plagues” spread leading to the industries long term downfall.



You may want to research those ideas a little more.......the reasons behind the beetle infestation are a lot more complex than that. The forestry industry problems are deeper than beetle wood but that will certainly be a huge part of problems that we haven't even seen the worst of. You have some incredible places ahead of you. If you're going as far as the coast and feeling daring, I'd recommend trying Telkwa to Terrace the off-road way. :)

[Cycle-Magazine]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsMb_0QtYeM

At Kismet, the junction of highways 16 and 37, I have a moment of doubt and nearly turn back. There’s no strong game plan here, just an urge to press northwards. The sign here in Kismet reads “North to Alaska” conveying the enormity of North’s possible meaning. Originally the title was tied to riding Northern British Columbia, but now the Yukon is within striking distance. So why stop?

Riding solo would be one reason.

Earlier about 20km north-west of Decker Lake I detoured from Highway 16 in an attempt find an off road route partway to Smithers. With the GPS pointing me down roads disused and overgrown with brush and then through flowered meadows.

I was with the program, following the mauve line charted through obviously outdated map data. This is Adventure, you can pick the daisies out of the drive-train later.

The “road” is regained as a four-by-four track rutting though a marshy crossing. Minor stuff really. The 990 Adventure’s cardinal rule seems to be more throttle. The ruts grab the front end, the rear slides out in the slick of the mud, claxons sound in my mind. There’s no time for cursing.

A bad bike lets you get away with nothing. A good bike encourages you to do the right thing. I’ll assume the KTM 990 Adventure is a good bike.

Some combination of the following happened in a nonce; a foot goes out, ease the throttle, loosen the grip, bit more throttle again, up on the pegs. Through some moto-engineering alchemy the Adventure, overloaded and over-weighted, stays upright in a series of actions that remain unsorted even in recollection.

Dry ground, a fast-beating heart, and a lot panting remain.

The GPS points me across another meadow to a road that owns only virtual existence in software and history. I try an alternate route, the Garmin recalculating, a path that eventually spills me out onto a logging road that feels like a freeway by comparison.

Boiling around a corner, I’m confronted with off-road's final insult, a locked gate and a no trespassing sign. There’s nothing left to do, but backtrack. Through the second crossing of the slippery muck I slow to a crawl and feet down churn my way through.

My confidence is shaken. My mind filled with worries over riding alone. What if I dump the bike? What if I break it or myself? What if I break down? It’s easy to “what if” the adventure right out of yourself.

What if I push on? That leads to other questions. How far will I go? What will I see? What will I learn? Sixty-kilometers after Kismet I’m unprepared, vulnerable and alone, yet I’m still feeling the push to ride on. The 990 Adventure has been rock solid for the past 3500km of on and off road. Why should I doubt it?

Another thought occurs. Nothing to the North will be more challenging than today’s off road and non-road excursion, so what do I have to fear?

Nothing. Shakespeare’s Hamlet had it right.

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry”

Streams of motorcyclists, a mix of cruisers and adventure bikes, are oncoming southwards. All it takes is one dust covered Harley with Yukon plates to put this in context.

The KTM rails along the sweeping curves of the 37, a highway and destination rolled into one. We’re charging onwards towards the land of the midnight sun. The road bracketed by the Skeena and Coast mountain ranges and wrapped in overgrowth as if nature were reclaiming it offers beauty well beyond the twists and turns. There’s something for the soul here.

I arrive late into the Meziadin Lake campground and begin to set up camp. I’m put to shame by a group of cyclists who’s tents seem to transform instantly. My Canadian Tire version is an exercise knock-off imperfection as it lists badly and threatens to topple on the wind. After the first half-hour of cursing and a relocation to a campsite with better wind protection I have named my tent; H.O.T. – Hell’s Own Tent.

[Cycle-Magazine]

Meziadin Lake, BC to Watson Lake, YT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzD231fkuuk

Watson Lake to Whitehorse, YT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ThZ3ICC_TI

Whitehorse to Dawson, YT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG0NEm4XreE

The Dempster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBTOCF0TAiM

Telegraph Creek to Bell II, BC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QVCEfzkwaY

Stewart to Prince Rupert, BC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxHT-snfOgA

Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, BC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgpTrBwMqpg

[schmii]

well done.