Canada to Argentina 2010

[Utah Bones]

Great bikes! On board for this one.

[gregk205]

count me in

[ac_elite]

Another Islander subscribed

I guess it's a good thing to get that part of the trip done and over quickly, it only gets good from here on end.

Maybe I missread the blog, but did the lady actually left and boarded the ferry...., were you able to sort out the paperwork so that all the costs for this are on her.

Have a fantastic trip,

[BlackBeast]

Hi Naomi, Alberto, & Graham,
We are a few weeks ahead of you, so hopefully will run into each other along the way. Ride safe!
Daryll

[GR8ADV]

I'm in.

Damn less than 50 miles!

Can't believe she borded the boat. If it were me she would have stayed put until the RCMP arrived. Hopefully you got all her info, insurance etc. If not, hit and run is a biggie in most countries.

But in the end, if this is the worst thing that happens on this epic ride, you are in good shape.

Keep it commin'

[betitolara]

Thanks Dave, great tip :)

Originally Posted by toowheels

Hey Alberto, Naomi & Graham!

Here's to hoping the re-start is much better!!

Naomi- a little tip you may want to do with your Rev-It Sand jacket...

I just put the Camelbak reservoir in the back pocket and run the hose up through the side belts and under the velcro/snap for the right vent. It works perfectly and there's no backpack in the way/blocking the venting and just adding weight.

Have a great journey

Dave

[betitolara]

Hey Pat, thanks for the interest.
Cheers

Originally Posted by IslandSpark

Salt Spring eh? Glad to see some more locals taking the plunge! I'll be following along, if you need any info or something done on this end let me know! Take care.

Pat

[betitolara]

Yes, the lady left. The police wouldn't show up b/c no airbags got deployed and no serious injuries happened. Although the bike was not drivable so in theory the police should have been there. Anyway, the lady will be charged for 'leaving the scene'... and her insurance is covering ALL damages to the bike and riding gear.

New posts and picture are up! check them out

Originally Posted by ac_elite

Another Islander subscribed

I guess it's a good thing to get that part of the trip done and over quickly, it only gets good from here on end.

Maybe I missread the blog, but did the lady actually left and boarded the ferry...., were you able to sort out the paperwork so that all the costs for this are on her.

Have a fantastic trip,

[betitolara]

Darryll, good to know brother. See you 'en el sur'
Safe travels.

Originally Posted by BlackBeast

Hi Naomi, Alberto, & Graham,
We are a few weeks ahead of you, so hopefully will run into each other along the way. Ride safe!
Daryll

[betitolara]

Yeah I know.... I couldn't believe my eyes when the accident took place.... it is a very strange feeling seeing the whole thing developing.

I was telling ac_elite about the lady, insurance and RCMP.

thanks for your support GR8ADV

Originally Posted by GR8ADV

I'm in.

Damn less than 50 miles!

Can't believe she borded the boat. If it were me she would have stayed put until the RCMP arrived. Hopefully you got all her info, insurance etc. If not, hit and run is a biggie in most countries.

But in the end, if this is the worst thing that happens on this epic ride, you are in good shape.

Keep it commin'

[betitolara]

Departure day #2

I woke to the sound of drilling this morning. My dad was in the garage mending his bike. He was successful and we made plans to leave today. Once again we said goodbye to everyone, though this time it was a little anticlimactic; we didn't even bother with pictures.

Before repairs

After repairs; ready to go! Some more repairs

Off we went to the 11:50am ferry from Fulford with Nikki, who was heading back home to Victoria. Success we arrived in Swartz Bay, AND we made it past the beginning of Lane 3. Hurray! The ferry was late so we passed the time adjusting our suspension settings.


Second try @ the ferry terminal


Last minute repairs on the ferry

The weather was getting progressively worse as we approached the mainland. I put my waterproof liners in but Alberto assured my dad that it was only going to spit so they didn't. Before getting back on the highway in Abbotsford they both suited up, and it proceeded to pour down.

It was darker than normal because of the cloud cover so we picked up gas and groceries in Hope with the plan of staying in Manning Park for the night. We camped at the first campground available (just before the resort) and had a gourmet dinner in darkness, sheltered under some tree cover.

Camping for the night. Not another camper in sight. La Gringa doesn't like the rain? Supper time = happy time

Learning of the day? A pelican case can also be used as a bear catch.

[betitolara]

(Writing by Naomi)

This morning I woke up to discover that we had set-up the tent in the worst possible location on the campsite. We were in a puddle. The tent was soaked through the bottom and so was my sleeping pad. Okay, we'll pay more attention next time. So everything was soaked when we packed up the camping gear.

We didn't get rained on today, and after we left Manning Park the sun was shining pretty much all day. It was even hot in Princeton and Osoyoos. We stopped for lunch just outside of Princeton at a nice day use area by the river. I think Graham is starting to like peanut butter.

Lunch: protein, fruit, grains Lunch break Mr. Bump eating up

Some minivan tried to run me over in Osoyoos, but since my dad's incident I'm even more on alert around traffic so I managed to avoid him. The drive was nice. HWY is being resurfaced so there is some really good bike riding to be had.

By the time we arrived in Castlegar we were hoping to make camp. It was still early but we had lots of camping gear to dry out. We bought some supplies for dinner and went on the hunt for somewhere to camp. We checked out a campground/RV park in Castlegar and they wanted 33$ for us and our tents. No thank you. We continued on. We stopped at another RV/Motel camping spot west of Salmo on HWY 3. $20 a tent you say?!?! For a field?!?! No thank you. We drove into Salmo and found a perfect camping spot in town ( a Municipal campground of sorts: KP Park). It was under 20$, and had everything we needed; sold! We even met a really nice person, Mateo, who gave us advice on places to see in Mexico and Central America plus he gave us some dessert. The dessert container also was substituted as a strainer for our pasta so that was a double bonus!

yum yum, dinner

[betitolara]

(Writing by Naomi)

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the Dragonfly Cafe in Salmo, sponsored by Graham. Our friend Mateo tracked us down there having breakfast. He invited us to speak to his alternative high school class. Once we had packed up the bikes we stopped by the HUB. Unfortunately there was only one student there, but we had a nice chat and they wished us on our way.

After a quick gas stop we were on our way. I had launched a pre-emptive strike against the cold from the Salmo-Creston summit by wearing my heated vest. It was about 15 degrees on the way up, and then it dropped 10 degrees drastically in the last 5min of the climb. Plus the fog/mist that was waiting for us at the top was a nuisance. Unfortunately once we started our decent we never regained full starting temperature. I kept my vest and heated grips at max for the rest of the day.

It was very windy in Creston. This was the first time for me riding such an upright bike in strong wind. It felt like I was piloting a sail. A tiny preview to whats to come in Patagonia I'm sure. The wind/cold continued until we crossed into the US at Roosville. Dad looked sufficiently chilled while we were waiting at the border for Alberto to do his thing inside. We said goodbye to BC, which according to VANOC is the best place on earth.

Saying goodbye to BC for a while. BC vistas Near Fernie, BC Saying good bye to Canada 'Peru passport?' immigration officer - 'Come into the office Sr.'

We successfully navigated our first BigDog waypoint (we have BigDog's waypoints for doing the CDT). Yay, this part of our trip has finally begun. We found a nice little campsite just outside of Eureka to stay at for the night and tomorrow, we've been told, the sun may be out. We were also told, by the same local, that tonight there are freeze warnings out so I guess you win some you loose some.


USA land


Camping near Eureka


Creek next our campsite


Planning time


Personal diary's write up


Blog and ADV RR's update


Warming up by the fire


Los colores de la noche


Our campsite

[betitolara]

I can't believe that when we set off this morning I wanted to wear my summer gloves and no heated vest. I opted for my winter gloves because they are waterproof and it was raining, but I said no to the heated vest because it's a little bulky. How I regretted that choice. We started climbing into the mountains and my temperature gauge started flashing at me when it read 3 degrees. I figured my bike was trying to warn me of ice, or maybe it was just trying to tell me that people don't ride their bikes at this temperature. The lowest temperature displayed was 0.5 degrees, which was accompanied by snow at the edge of the trail. After a little while I had no choice but to stop, unpack my vest, and regain normal body temperature. We did see a bear before reintegrating into civilization at Whitefish, and some great scenery. Worth the frozen thumbs and toes? Yeah probably.


It was a wet day in the mountains


The start of the CDT


First snow of the trip

The temperature was flashing like crazy Montana Yeah.. it was a bit chilli 'look-at-the-map' stop Hallo'! Naomi and her dad :) Views of Montana Nomi Road shot Nomi again The water wasn't warm ..haha The GoPro is a cool little camera

We stopped for lunch at the Safeway, where apparently fast food is a foreign concept. The rain had finally subsided when we were leaving Whitefish. We even saw blue sky in the distance. After zigzagging across the countryside Tomtom led us astray and we ended up at a dead end; not what we needed when we were running low on gas. Alberto also won the prize at this dead end for first bike down. We did get to see another bear and several bow hunters for our troubles on the detour. We got back on track and arrived at a campsite with 1km left in my tank. Alberto's bike was noticeably dirtier than the other 2. Where did he go... through every single puddle he saw. One wrong turn from Tomtom? Not bad for a day in the wilderness.

Safeway lunch stop

Looking for the next CDT waypoint

Montana farmlands

The spot where I saw a black bear

The mysterious road had some nice views

Panoramas

It was getting dark

La gringa taking a nap.

Phew, just made it! Well to a campsite anyways... Night time reading

[betitolara]

It appeared that our campground for the evening was in a bit of a swamp so there was a lot of moisture when we woke up. The plan of attack for the morning: get on Hwy 83 and find a gas station. Once again fill with gas, we picked up the CDT. The first trail of the day was fun and snaked through the forest. Our first day of sunshine let us appreciate some Montana scenery (mountains and ranchland). Bonus.


Woke up in fog


Montana's peaks


Zoomed-in


Change in scenery


Old barn


The flat road


Looking good


Graham

Hey dad, you could start in your own tv show... long way home? Say cheese! Nomi

By mid day we ended up on a stretch of road that had huge ruts and deep puddles. Alberto went down and I subsequently also went down. Both our right side pelican cases were the victims of the crashes. Mine fairing worse than Alberto's because my lock clean broke off and was somewhere in the muddy puddle. Dad to the rescue... he got dirty with me as we searched through the puddle. In light of the circumstances we took a break for lunch and tried to repair the cases. Alberto managed to bang his back to a useable state but mine had to be repaired with zapstraps. It is no longer easily removed for now.

Searching for the missing parts. Down to earth Couldn't make it through :( We both fell at the same time

Fixed up and ready to go. Missing a case... and traction

We were making slow progress so we booted down the highway en route to Helena. Hwy 12 was actually a lot of fun. The section we drove had a nice twisty summit then back onto the dirt before entering Helena. It was a little bit bizarre heading off into Helena National Forrest and then seeing that the land was parceled off and there were driveways everywhere. There was a nasty section of gravel (Alberto thought it was fun, I thought it was nasty) before we came out the other side. I could have done without that but I did pull off an amazing save when I lost tracking in the deep gravel. How I did it I'm not sure, and I don't really want to go back to find out.

Dad was starting to go through withdrawals so once we came back out of the forest as Basin we b-lined it to Butte and found a nice motel for the night. He had been on the wagon for 4 DAYS, with no dessert as well. How does one get by.


Souvenir from the fall


Just a bit messy


Mi novia


Panier-less


Might as well have some food


Mr. Bump missing home ..haha


surrounded by 100s of farms


Fairly straight rd


Wet feet from falling in the mud


Helena National Forest viewpoint


Back on dirt


Change of plans, let's go to Butte!


Near Butte


@ Eddie's Motel in Butte