After spending 9 glorious months in the white winter
wonderland of Grande Prairie, Alberta (Canada), working as an oil/gas
pipefitter apprentice, I'm finally back on the road again with my darling
DR650, Nessie. She originally broke down
with a spanked engine (main crank bearing blew out into engine), falling 200km
short of my winter stop. Over the chilly
winter I spent hours outside in the snow working on the bike, using another
cheap ’08 DR as a spares bike. Lots of
new modifications were done and still ongoing, as always. In the last year of riding I put 55,000 km on the new bike. I rode around Grande Prairie during the
winter to get to training, shops etc and put on another 6000 on the replacement
engine.
I’ll return to my way of breaking down the trip into
days, mostly for bikers, and will always write ‘biker’s note’ where there is
valuable information for travelling motorbikers. Now the wheels are rolling...as is my crank
bearing ;)
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| The start of the Alaska highway in Dawson Creek, BC. |
5 August 2012 (160 km) – One Island Lake,
Welsh's Cabin (Camp)
After
delaying my departure for consecutive months, and then a few extra days at the
end (Vegas, roommates birthday, mate returning to town) I finally escaped the
frosty grasps of Grande Prairie on Sunday afternoon. My roommates big cute mutt decided to chew my
universal charger as a going away present on the last day, and my resulting
rewire fried my free phone...which I was pretty happy about! Phone’s are a drag on the road! I had a beer and hotdog with a good mate
before leaving and headed off to another training partner’s family cabin at One
Island Lake in British Columbia (BC). It
was a nice easy first day and I was lucky to meet his family and mates at the
cabin, as well as partake in the digestion of an UNREAL deep fried turkey!
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| Colton's old fella with the primely cooked Turkey! |
6 August 2012 (177 km) – Beatton Provincial
Park, Fort Saint John (Camp - $16)
After
hanging around the cabin sorting some minor bike adjustments out and helping
(more watching) the Welsh’s add to their cabin, the urge came to hit the road
for good. I made it to FSJ and met a
couple of bikers who were coming south now, but their third partner had an
accident and was flown out. Beatton PP
was a nice out of the way place to camp, although Charlie Lake smells a little!
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| Squirrel! |
7 August 2012 (161 km) – Halfway-Graham
Recreation Area (Camp
- free)
Always
keeping an out for free campgrounds I decided to head for the H-G Rec
Area. I had a late start adjusting the
bike a little more. On the way out of
town, I was recommended very wisely by the Welsh’s to stop at the Shepherd’s
Inn for some food. It was certainly no
disappointment, and the chilli I had with great thick bread was superb, and
just as I had been told! I headed off
the highway not further on, taking a backroads route I chose to get some
scenery and nice camping in, not to mention avoiding smelling like gasoline at
the end of the day from motorists exhausts!
The campground at Halfway-Graham was fantastic! Set on the convergence of a river, the free
camping sites had a fireplace and table as well as a toilet nearby and a great
horizontal-shower (river)!
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| Love the hay bails in the farms up here! |
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| Halfway-Graham Rec Area, just below my campsite. And my horizontal shower... |
8 August 2012 (486 km) – Tetsa River
Outfitters (Camp)
Today
was without a doubt, an almighty, break and test day! I didn’t know it yet but what was ahead was
going to suck my butt-cheeks to the seat!
I headed off in the morning and made my way further west before turning
North on Deadhorse road to get to Pink Mountain. The road was a fair gravel path, but the
further I got the smaller and more pleasant it became...
...until
I found myself at a campsite at a dead end on the road with 3 blokes having
breakfast. I thought I was on the wrong
road but it turns out I wasn’t. I was
warned there was a washed out bridge but I’d be able to cross it, and these
fellas had camp just before it and were fishing in the area with quads. They even had a bear come into camp the night
before and was trying to open their BBQ, when they popped their heads outta the
tent and scared the berries outta the bear!
All he left behind was a big dirt paw mark on the BBQ cover...and his
berries!
The
blokes told me quads could cross the bridge where it was washed out as there were some small
pine trees bridging it, but I couldn’t as my one, narrow wheel track would slip
between the trees and I and the bike would fall a good 6m to the river
below. I had to try it though, as I
didn’t have enough fuel to back track the other way! I gave it a go. The bridge was an obstacle! I had to realign the pine trees. I rested the front tire on a pair of trees
(no bigger than 10 cm diameter!) I stood
to the side of the bike. Heart pounding
like hooves at a race track. I gunned
it. The bike wobbled in the middle as
the trees sagged under the weight. The
tire nearly slipped through, so I pinned it for the end. It didn’t matter if I crashed on the other
side, so long as the bike made it! And
then...DIRT! YEEHAH! She was all good. I parked it all up and took a calming
breath! My video of it all failed! The fellas came over and wished me well...as
I headed down what was now no longer a road, but a quadding trail.
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| The bridge washout and makeshift pine bridge. |
It was
slow going as all the culverts had been removed leaving a deep muddy crevace
and my 50/50 tires slipped up in the quad ruts.
I wasn’t sure I was on the right trail but I was headed north, which was
good. Further down the treacherous trail
I found another bridge on a 30 degree angle that’d been washed out. This one was a little easier with some
bridging planks. The culverts returned
and eventually it turned back into a road.
Oil facilities were in the area, which was good. They need servicing. Finally, the road was gravel again and I
could pick up a steady pace. I thought
it was all over.
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| The bridge on the angle after crossing it. |
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| And some more quad trails ahead. |
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| Finally, I was back on gravel...but not for long! |
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| The washout mother... |
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| Part 1 of the crossing |
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| And part 2 and where I ended up belly bogged on a log! |
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