Houston to Arctic Circle via Dempster 2009

John has been lifeflightef to Kalispel regional hospital. He's fine other than road rash on right arms, possibly broken collar bone, right wrist and some ribs. He is being x rayed right now and they going to run a cat scan too.
John said the bike has gone into a slapped before (not on this trip) couple of times at slower speeds but he had recovered. This time he was going around 75 or 80 mph passing an RV and I suspect there was cross wind.

Thanks for the offer Gale. I think we are good not much anyone can do at this point. The hospital is taking real good care of him.

Hoping for the best--standing by for further updates.

I've uploaded iPhone pics to smugshot lib. Will upload more when I have wifi. I'll see if I can take some of john's pics in triage

Hopefully John is doing fine now.
Any updates on his conditions.

They are going to make him walk a bit today to make the lung with a leak work. We have to find one way truck rental back to Houston. Anyone know of options other than uhaul? We can't seem to find one rental pickup in this lil town. The town is Kalispell, MN.

Solo, so sorry about the delay, and really thinking/hoping for John. We had the same challenge with a bike last year. I finally got a small u haul.

May I suggest if any of you have road side, like AAA, Progressive, what ever, call them , expain the problem tell them the cheapest thing for you and them to rent a u haul. I had to split the cost but did save me big time over cost for motel, eating, parts/ repairs.

I loaded the bike in the truck, slept in the truck , ate in the truck and went straight home where I repaired the bike.

Hope all goes well, you have my #

gale

So all of you heading back or just sending John back.
Thanks,

Budget Truck Rental
2535 Hwy 93 South, Kalispell, MT (406) 752-2827

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U-Haul Co
190 Batavia Ln, Kalispell, MT (406) 752-2648
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U-Move Rentals
1331 US Highway 2 E, Kalispell, MT (406) 257-2966

I'm thinking one way SUV rental with uhaul trailer. We can load all bikes and everyone on there...

Not a bad idea.

You should hire someone to drive him back to Houston...surely you can find someone with a pickup on craigslist..you can load the bike in the bed and they can drive him home..prolly cost less than renting suv and trailer anyway.

Why kill the whole trip for one man down...you made it that far!!

Ok, so you already know John had an incident. But since this is the first time I'm on a computer, I'll backtrack a little to bring everyone up to date. By the way, please don't call the hospital, John is getting lot of calls and it's hard for him to talk, with the broken ribs and punctured lung.

Backtrack Alert!

This is the first time I'll be camping, we find the only camping site that we see, it's off Hwy 93 off a dirt road. It does not have showers but has restrooms, that will have to do, it's getting late and we are all tired!


We head out early morning, since I couldn't take a shower, it didn't take me long to get moving. We have to get lunch, we can't keep John from food for any length of time, it maybe a sugar issue I don't know. I'm not going to argue with someone about twice my size!

We got a few showers but mostly the weather was perfect!

Want to see the bikes as well? How's this, oh yes we blacktopped it:

Really great scenery:

It was morning and the shadows were long:

Self portrait with a side pose:

If you're wondering, the gout flare up is still persistent. I'm taking happy pills twice a day but the ankle is swollen up and still hurting. The worst part is using the rear brake or trying to put the side stand down. Dropped the bike once while stopping to take layers of clothing off and the right foot couldn't hold the weight. No harm done, it's a KLR!

So much for the doom and gloom, John is keeping good pace, he is a very sensible KLR rider. Ask him how to increase HP on a KLR and he'll say it's not made for speed, if you want to go fast get something other than a KLR and he's right! George is showing some signs of tiring but at his age, he's doing great!

The mountains are getting closer:


We are here, in the mountains!

That is George in front and no that track on the road wasn't made by any of us!
And here's some fun with the camera, lets see how this comes out:

Yep, it's el cheepo camera!
Let's check the wheel...

Yep still turning!


Still rolling...

Everyone's still here:

And so are the bugs...

I got my tunes:




We stop over for a drink and a snack, I usually get some crackers and Mountain Dew. Then we head out further, this part of Hwy 93 had ton of construction, so the break felt good. Although it is kinda of hot, all of us are in full gear. We see the lake, we go through Polson, through Missoula, and we are on the Western side of the lake just past Big Arm.

I see John tucked in behind the windscreen and I see a big white trailer RV
to his right. He's trying to pass the RV, Ron is right behind him. I've never seen John tucked in, he is never in a hurry to pass anyone. Is he hungary? It's getting late and we haven't had lunch today.

The passing lane is going to end soon, but I don't think he can see the sign as the RV is blocking it, wait... there is a little wiggle... no, his bike has done this before and he's gotten out before...but it's never lasted this long, it's getting worse... oh no...John no...damn it it's going to be tough to get out of this it's a full tank slapper!!! He tucks in the bike throughs him off to the right, he rolls and the bike tumbles, sparks flying to the middle of the lane going the other way. I see John roll and bend over the guard rail, he's having trouble breathing, he should really lay down. Ron is trained medic he's already assisting John, he's checking vitals and assessing bodily damage. I and George move his bike to the side of the road going the other way.

Couple of passers by stop their are nurses who stop by to assist some have some medical stuff with them. A passer by asks if 911 has been called, I say no please call for us.
John is looking bad, but he's conscious which is good. Lot of road rash, this is the bike which fell again as an eighteen wheeler past it:

Medics arrive, soon after the cops arrive:


I try to stay away, Ron is much more experienced in trauma, I'll let him lead and take pics. Here's the cop taking pics of the scene:


I'm just standing out of the way and letting experts do their stuff. Soon lifeflight arrives:





Ron is going to help load John's bike on a wrecker, I'll head on and meet lifeflight at the Hospital at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

I meet John at the hospital. If you cannot handle injuries, don't look further (these are from smugshot gallery taken by iphone, not as good resolution):




He's in his own room now:

I was talking to John today, I asked him if this will make him quit riding motorcycles, he said not only no but h3ll no! We'll have to do this trip again. He wants to tear down the bike and find out what makes it go into a tank slapper, it's done if before but before he was going slower and had enough reserve power to power out of it. This time he was already at full throttle trying to pass the RV.

I hint maybe a more powerful bike is in order, he's a little hesitant, he likes them KLRs! But I think a twin with more power will be good, fuel injection won't hurt either (for high altitude riding). I'm thinking KTM 990 but I'll have to ride one to see how I like it. Ron rides a V strom 1000 which is also very capable but more on road than off.

This was supposed to be George's last long distance ride, but we'll see.

You can check out all the photo albums at https://solorider.smugmug.com except from Ron's camera, it takes a different USB cable and I don't have anything to get stuff off his Sony memory stick! Come one Sony, what's up with that? An SD card is so "universal".

How is John doing now. I sure hope he is feeling much better soon.

Thanks for the excellent report and update on John. Let me know if I can do anything on this end. Jerry

Best of luck. Sounds similar to our Alaska trip this year. Left Wichita, Ks. June 20 and my riding partner hit a deer 30 miles south of Cody that night. He wasn't injured, but the bike was totaled.

We'll do it again next year. Glad everyone is safe.

Just got back from the hospital. John is doing much better, still on pain meds but doing better than before. The hole in the lungs isn't getting any bigger so hopefully it'll heal up in a couple days.

We talked to the nurse today and she said the hospital maybe able to arrange something to get us back to Texas. We are all for it, I'm thinking it'll probably be Friday before they let John go.

I'm sure John getting bored out of his mind! He still can't take oral pain meds which he has to get used to before they'll discharge him.

Hoping John is recovering speedily.

Hey CJ. John is recovering speedily. They hauled him off for daily morning xray while I was visiting this morning but I walked with him around the ward. He has to use the IV stand as a crutch but he is making good progress.

Ron and George talked to the insurance guy. The bike will be totalled but the dealer said he'll buy it as a project bike. Ron/George are headed to the dealer to pickup John's belongings and negotiate price.

I'm at the hospital cafeteria and will head back to John's room in a bit. Everone at this hospital is very good with great attitude! The owners are from Texas. I wonder why there are no hospitals like this in Texas!

I'll get some more smugshots when I get back to his room.

My ankle swelling is way down looks like the flareup is over. Just have to take it easy for a few days while it's sore.