July 28 - Going to the Sun Road again

Decided to go back and ride the Going to the Sun Road again to do some hiking. I rode behind Bill so I could take some pictures while riding. Just as we were getting started on the road, we saw a Grizzly bear cub loping across the road. We drove toward the east end of the park to do some more hiking.

We hiked to the St. Mary Falls trail and saw Virginia and Barring falls as well. We met two guys on the trail who were from State College (can you believe that). They told us about a trail that most people don't travel that would lead to yet another fall so we took that trail as well. It was all so beautiful. Lots of water rushing and roaring down. The water was an aqua blue. Found out that whenever the water is that color it's because it came from a glacier. Wanted to see if the water really was as cold as I thought glacier water would be so we took our shoes and socks off and soaked our feet for a little bit .... AND only a little bit. It was FREEZING but refreshing!!

After that refreshing break, we took another hike to Sun Point. The view was another amazing one. Sun glistening on St. Mary Lake and mountains in the distance. The beauty just surrounded us.



It was time for lunch so we took our packed lunch to the bank of the St. Marys Lake and ate while the water lapped around our feet. Of course, I had to take off my shoes and socks and soak my feet. The water wasn't nearly as cold as the falls. I was actually able to keep my feet in the water for at least 5 minutes without them going numb. What a relaxing lunch.

Still wanting to keep riding, we decided to go on to Many Glacier. We had huckleberry ice cream at the general store that was delicious. Huckleberries are very plentiful here. They have stands that sell huckleberries and cherries all along the roads.

After that respite, what did we see but a HUGE bull moose taking a rest in a wooded area. Lots of people all around but the moose didn't care. He just laid their taking it easy.

Well, it was time to head back to Hungry Horse so we decided to take the Going to the Sun Road (instead of going the long way like we did last night). The construction on the road holds us up at least 30 minutes. They are fixing the boulder walls and getting the road ready to pave.

Finally made it back to the motel. Ate at the Nite Owl Back Room. Declicious baby back ribs and fry bread... glad we had all that hiking to use up some of the calories.

Truck fixed, trailer hitched -- check off list

Well, can't believe it BUT the truck got fixed by the Ford garage yesterday. I picked it up and off we went to Spring Mills to pick up the traner from Nevin Stitzer. As we were getting closer to Spring Mills, the sky got darker and I thought, oh yeah, just one more thing on this wonderful day of mine. It did pour buckets for about 5-10 minutes but then sun came out and Nevin and I were able to hitch the trailer and off we went back to State College.

Picked up Shuffy from airport (yeah, remember, he was gone while all this was happening!!). -- check off list

So, two more things checked off list. Tonight will be packing clothes and getting bikes packed in trailer. We're getting closer to take off!

It's 2010 and time for another trip -- Glacier National Park

YEAH!! It's time again to plan our two-week bike trip. This year we decided we wanted to explore Glacier National Park. If there's time, we may drop down and take a tour of Yellowstone. We've never been to Glacier but we have been to Yellowstone, just not on our bikes.

So, if you'd like to explore with us, make sure you check back. Our plan is to leave July 24 from State College trailering our biikes to somewhere in Montana. See I told you, we still have planning to do. I need to purchase a new helmet but other than that, I think we have all the clothes we need.

If any of you  have been to Glacier and have some MUST SEE's, please let us know. A colleague, Robb Meinen and family will be at Glacier the same time as we will be so we hope to catch up with them to say hello and share our experiences.

Please leave us comments and we'll answer back when we can.

July 1, Day 5 - Begin the Alcan Highway

Today is Canada Day, a holiday for Canadians to celebrate the anniversary of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country. Most of the towns were having parades and celebrations. Luckily, we stayed out of any parades.

We left Grande Prairie about 6:30. It was very cold and dark rain clouds. On the way we stopped at Beaverlodge, a small town with a HUGE beaver statute. Beaverlodge is home to the Northern Agricultural Research Station. The federal experiment station started in 1916.

Next came Dawson Creek, often referred to as the Mile Zero City because it's the beginning of the Alaska Canada (Alcan) Highway. We expected a lot but it really was just a stopping point to get a photo. Here's a little bit of history about the Alaska-Canada (Alcan) Highway ... Upon entering the war in 1941, the United States decided to build a corridor to connect the US mainland to Alaska. In 1942, thousands of US personnel, engineers, and contractors poured into the city - the terminal of rail transport - to construct the Alaska Highway. The highway was completed in less than one year, although, it's not the highway we were on today. When it was built, it was 1,422 miles. Today, the highway is paved and is only 1,390 miles. We took a little side trip of about 3 kms to see what the Old Alaska Highway looked like. I don't think we would have made as much time as we did on the old highway.

Bill has said that riding the Alcan Highway has been something he's always wanted to do. It's been fun helping make his dream come true. He's like a little kid in a candy story. My Dad always talked about wanting to drive up the Alcan but he never made it. I'm pretty sure he's been with us as we've been travelling. I've felt a guardian angel.

We had a great lunch at Pink Mountain Restaurant in the Pink Mountains. All of us would recommend eating here if you take this trip. Good food. Continuing on, we saw 2 black bear along the side of the road. That was enough to make us turn around to get a picture. Take a look, lots of dark clouds. Shuffy also made the mistake of looking at his temperature gauge -- 40 degrees. Those of us delicate people out there (Bren, Dee, Lin), know that this is way too cold for us. I think I had about 7 layers of clothes on. They almost had to get a lift to get me on the bike. But as we kept driving northwest, we started to see blue skies. The temperature went up to at least 50 -- a heat wave. We were now in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Lots of curves and trees.

Within 6 miles of where we were going to stop for the night, Bill ran out of gas again!! Sure glad we packed the extra gas can. We had gone over 100 miles without seeing a gas station and the one we did see was closed. We pulled into Fort Nelson about 3:30 p.m. Decided to go to the heritage museum that chronicled the history of Fort Nelson. Some of the exhibits included vintage cars, photographs of the construction of the Alaska Hwy and a trapper's log cabin.

We got some advice from people at the museum that we should stop at the hot springs near the summit (the highest part of the Alcan). Stay tuned to see if the boys will stop there.

Shuffy's are on the road again

It's time once again to get on the road -- the Alaskan Highway that is. Yep, we're going to ride the Alaskan Highway on our motorcycles. Harry and Anna Carey will be riding with us. We're going to trailer the bikes to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan beginning June 27.

I've been doing a little research and thought there may be some others out there that might need the information I've found so here are a few links if you're also preparing a trip to Alaska.

1. Some ideas of what to see:
   http://alaska.org/best-of-alaska.jsp
   http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/alaska-motorcycle-road-trip-450549.html



2. What to wear:
   http://www.blogger.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://alaska.org/what-to-wear.jsp
   http://alaska.org/packing-list.jsp

Looks like I'm going to need to layer deep. When we road to Nova Scotia, I had 7 layers on. Wonder how many layers I'll be able to have and still move :-)?

So, if you've been to Alaska and want to relive your trip or maybe you've never been to Alaska but want to follow us on our trip, subscribe to this blog so you'll know when it's been updated. I can't tell you how often I"ll be able to update. That will depend on when we have a connection. But I do promise you that I'll have lots of pictures on Flickr for you.

Leave us a comment if you wish or just follow us as we head north to Alaska. -- peg and bill

Day 3 - leaving from Texas

Since we had such a late night (didn't arrive at the campground until 8:30 p.m.), we decided that we wouldn't rush around in the a.m. Got on the road at 9:10 a.m.. The Princess says we have about 300 miles until we reach Albuquerque. Hopefully we'll be riding by late afternoon. It's cloudy, which is perfect for driving in the motor home. For those of you who don't know what our home away from home looks like, here it is, all 63'.







Edith wanted to know what scenery is passing. Here's a picture of the alternative energy windmills we saw in Oklahoma. As I see more to take, I'll keep adding. You keep reading





Well, it was a long haul across Texas and halfway into New Mexico. Thought we'd never get there. It got a lot more hilly as we made our way to Albuquerque. But, we made it (and so did the bikes). In fact, we're getting ready to ride somewhere. Will post more tonight (with pics).


Since the boys were couldn't wait to get on the road with the bikes, we didn't take as much time as we should have to look at a map. In fact, we didn't even look at a map, did we?? Some guy at the campground mentioned that we should ride up Rt 550 to some pueblos, so off we went. As we kept going, there was a HUGE black cloud over us and was quite windy. Fortunately, we didn't get too much rain. Just enough to make us stop and put our rain gear on. Unfortunately, Brenda's bike was acting up, coughing and sputtering. So we decided we better get back to the campground so that the SL Shuff Garage (that's Stanley Lewis Shuffstall Garage) could take a look at her.


Lou worked on Bren's bike and then they took a short ride to see if his work paid off. Peg and BIll road to a Mexican restaurant that Peg ate at when she was here last year for her conference. Then they road to Old Town Albuquerque and walked around.

Lou thinks that Bren's bike doesn't like the altitude here in NM.We'll see how she works when we make our way on several trails tomorrow. More on that tomorrow.


The picture with the 4 yahoos is the cabin that Bill & Peg stay in while Lou, Denise & Bren stay in the motor home.

In the background of Bill's picture are the Sandia Mountains.