StMary, MT

You have been selected to receive trip updates. If you would rather not, let us know. All, Sorry we haven't updated sooner, but last night was the first night we were near wi-fi. We left Tuesday the 5th in the morning. For lunch at Quisnos Dewey ate some old mans sandwich by mistake, but in his defence his blood sugar was getting low. Made 627 miles through Duluth and camped with mosquitos in Erskine,MN for $10 for all four of us. All of the rest areas were closed because of the budget shutdown. Wednesday 497 miles (detoured around the flooding in Minot and cross winds) (took a few train pictures for Andy Smith) and camped for free in Culbertson, MT park for free. The waitress there at breakfast said that even Mcdonalds was giving sign on bonuses because of the overwhelming number of jobs in the oil buisness. Yesterday we made 462 miles and with a Black Foot Indian Festival going on in Browning, all accomidations were filled up and rain storm impending we tried to set up our tents on the teepee grounds but with the 70 mph gust it became an impossible task. An Indian lady offered us some stew but we needed a place to stay worse and the teepee looked full. Finally called a KOA at St Marys, 35 miles on a mountain road at almost midnight, next to Glacier National Park and was promised a camping cabin but the office was closed when we got there. So we once again we set our tents up and just after getting in them the wind hit. we got very little sleep, especially the two that tried to sleep in their collapsed tents. One motorcycle blew over but there appears to be no added damage to Deweys bike. He is sleeping as of this writing. John, Larry and I are going to go for a ride through out the park while Dewey snores in the cabin that we have for tonight.

Great Times, John Bickel, Dewey Brockman, Larry Reetz and Chuck Marshall

Grande Cache, Alberta

All,

Took our ride up the Highway to the Sun, Glacier National Park, only about 13 miles because the road is still pass is still closed by snow.

Saturday we took a couple more rides into the park and tested our Go Pro camera.

Larry smelled antifreeze and after a couple of test runs he was able to find the upper radiator clamp was loose. He decided to head for home as planed while were talking to a guy named Nate Mauer from Milwaukee. (And his folks live in Cassinovia, WI). He was just returning from Alaska and we were the first he seen from WI.

From there we drove the 14 miles to the Canadian border.

Dewey asked if the border agent needed to see his passport, he said "only if you want to get into Canada and are those other two derelicks with you?" He was a biker too and told us the the best route North, since he said he liked us and are you still here? "Get off my yard.

From there we went down into Waterton Lakes Park and stopped at the Prince of Whales Hotel. It is a upscale place with a harp player and a spectacular view. We though it was a little upscale for us so all we did was take a leak and leave.

Left there and fought the continuing high winds and camped at Radium Hot Springs Provincial Park.

Today John put the Go Pro on his Helmet and recorded the scenery along the Icefields Parkway including two black bear, two moose. An elk, a deer and a partridge in a pear tree.

We left Jasper and hit some rain on the remote looking highway 40. They have had record rainfalls for the last three days. Even washing out highway 93.

Decided to stop for the night in Grand Cache at a Best Western.

Forgive our spelling, as it is 12:51 AM your time. And its only been dark her for about a half hour.

Thanks, Larry for riding with us and hope your making good progress on your way home and good luck to your father in law.

John, Dewey and Chuck

•IMG_0057.JPG (Dawson Creek, us at Start of Alaskan Highway)

Tuesday, 7-12, 9:25PM local time.

Hey all,

We are spending our second night in the Super 8 in Fort Nelson (Gary), British Columbia

We left Grande Cache, Alberta yesterday morning with weather threatening. Ended up with the rain gear on twice, and some of the rough roads claimed the lower portion of John’s inner fender and license plate.

Stopped for a picture in Dawson Creek at the beginning of the Alaskan Highway.

Almost made it to Fort Nelson but Dewey's bearing went out of his drive sprocket hub and threw the chain after chewing up the swing arm.

We were lucky it didn't lock up the rear wheel and throw him into the tundra, or if it would have happened when we passed a couple of semis not to log before that.

While Dewey was tearing it apart and no cell service a couple of guys stopped to see if we needed help. They had missed their plane by one minute in Edmonton on their way to a job site in the oil sands three hours out into wilds from here. Upon their offer to haul the bike into the next town, we thought it would too heavy to lift but they said "no problem eh".

So that leaves us in Fort Nelson with parts being air freighted overnight from a motorcycle salvage yard in Langley, BC that Dewey found on the internet. His Master Maintenance Tech job skills came in handy.

He has the bike ready for the parts so if they show up by 2PM here, we plan to get a few miles down the road after that.

See attach photo.

John Dewey and Chuck

Friday 6:51AM Local Time, Coal River, British Columbia

All,

Halaluya, the parts came in and we left Fort Nelson at 5PM yeaterday. We ran into some rain but the Northern Rockies are picturesque and we saw a black bear, a couple of cow moose and a calf in a tree sourounded pond and a big bull and a cow after that. There was one bull bison lumbering along down the edge of the road as if he was going some place. When we stopped to take a picture of group of bison in the road one of those big double bottom tanker trucks went around us and we thought a calf was going to get hit but they scattered.

When we stopped at a Toad River to get gas two people told us the rain was heavey with hail, up ahead near Muncho Lake but it was almost dry when we went by the green lake which could have prettier if the sun had been out.

After 225 miles we stopped in Coal river for the night at a motel powered by sd 33 Nissan generators. (two main and one for backup) The nearest power lines are 170 miles away. The guy said no one stays here in the winter.

Dewey, John and Chuck

Fairbanks AK, Wednesday, July 20, 5:15 Central time

All,

Sorry we haven't updated since last Thursday. We haven't been near a connection.

We are writing from a BLM campground in Fairbanks. After leaving Coal River, BC we stopped for lunch to warm up and dry off at Ranchica near Watson (Bill) Lake in the Yukon Territory and met some people named Acola that retired from Power and Light that knew Jane Ballmer.

After making 547 miles we stopped for the night in Pelly Crossing, Yukon, parking our bikes and setting up our tents in a park shelter for Free.

Saturday we rode through Dawson City after picking up a bolt, at Napa to replace the one that shook loose from John's foot peg. (One of the nicknames given to the KLR is "paint shaker") To leave town we took the ferry across the Yucon River onto the "Top of the World Highway" (approximately 200 miles, give or take a few kilometers)(must be called that because it follows the top of the mountains. The Canadian part was a mix of blacktop and dusty gravel and crossing into Alaska at the most Northerly Border crossing and stopped in the town of Chicken after we were wet and cold from the rain that started just before we got to Alaska.

The road from the border was narrow and became muddy and slippery but we managed without going down. At Chicken we talked to the driver of a semi tanker truck that surprisingly came across the ferry and the same road. John asked him what he thought of Ice Road Truckers and he said he had driven for that company and they pay the least because everyone wants to be on the show and then they the drivers usually drive for about three weeks and then they go back to Arkansas or where ever they came from. He said the haul road is actually in better condition in the winter than it is in the winter.

We stopped, and luckily found a room for the night in Tok as it was still raining and there was a wedding going on with many bikers scrambling from motel to motel.

Sunday morning we talked to some bikers that we met earlier in Watson Lake (from Green Bay area). One of them had some road rash and he said he smashed his bike on some road construction the day before just over into Canada. The other two in his group were going to ride to Fairbanks and he was going to ride in the wrecker that was going to haul his bike there to be repaired. Don't know how that all turned out.

We road from there, 461 miles, most of it in the rain up the Dalton Highway to Coldfoot after stopping for pictures at the Arctic Circle arriving in Coldfood at 1:00AM and still light out. We stayed in the converted old barracks that were built for the construction workers building the road and pipeline in 1972. The room cost $219. We slid the two twin beds together and we all three slept sideways across them like the wild hog movie. Did we mention it costs $219.

So Monday morning we reserved a room for the night again at $219 knowing that it would not get dark at all and left most of our gear there so we didn't have to haul it up to Deadhorse/ Prudho Bay. We filled our tanks to the brim at $5.46 per gallon, seems like a bargain compared to the room. Most of the other bikes we saw took extra gas. A couple of us hit reserve just after getting to Deadhorse. The road there was scary in some stretches.

All we did there was buy and send some postcards, ate a buffet dinner in a modular metal building that was a hotel, and again filled our tanks to the brim and rode back to Coldfoot arriving there 1:30 AM Tuesday morning putting on 498 miles on the round trip. The road was treacherous in different ways on the way up and the way back and we feel very fortunate to get back without incident. Most people ride up and spend the night there and ride back the next day but then we have less brain cells than most. John says "even if someone financed a return trip for him he would not do the trip from Coldfoot to Deadhorse again". "Too Dangerous. But if they want to pay for a return trip to Alaska he will take them up on it.

Yesterday on the ride from there to Fairbanks we stopped at the, quaint, Yukon River Cafe for a slice of home made pie. While consuming our pie another bike came in and said "hey are those your KLRs out there? One of them is laying on its side." we went out and Dewey's bike looked like a dead horse with its leg sticking up. (kick stand).

Thanks for your patience, we will send another update when we can.

Dewey, John and Chuck

DSC02222.JPG

Monday, July 25, 2011, 10:45 PM Local time.

Burwash,Yukon Territory.

To all, our faithful followers,

Tonight we found a quaint place in the Yukon called the Burwash Lodge on Kluane Lake, to spend the night. John says it reminds him of a place near Genoa, WI that his grandfather took him fishing at.

Last Wednesday, after finishing our last post we headed south from Fairbanks to Denali National Park, and rode back into the park the 15 miles that they allow you to drive and turned around, seeing a good view of Mt.McKinley on the way out of the park. We camped at Grizzly Paw RV park just south of Denali and saw Jonah who was fromGermany, we had met him in Coldfoot a few days earlier. He had been to Inuvikthe day before and ran into Charlie Boorman who is a actor and Ewin McGrager road motorcycles together in “Long Way Around” and “Longway Down.” Charlie and a cameraman were filming for a show about the Great North. Jonah was interviewed by Charlie but does not know if it will make the cut, he had fun and said Charlie was fun to be around.

Thursday the 21st we took the plane ride out of Talkeetna over Mt.McKinley with the weather as the guy said was “as good as it gets”. Usually only that good three or four times a year and usually lasts for about a week when it does.

From there we stopped at Wassila for gas and a gander atRussia. We took a picture but it didn’t come out to good. Must have been too cloudy.

We spent the night in Anchorageat the Harley Davidson dealer where they allow you to camp for free in their back yard.

Other motorcyclists there included a German couple on BMWs that rode to the southern most city inArgentinaand to Mitada del Mundo (Dale B.) (the equator in Equador). And were on their way to the Arctic Circle and toPrudoeBay.

Friday we went to Seward on theKenai peninsula. From there were going to go to Homer and with the Salmon run in full swing the traffic was backed up because of a bad accident so we camped at a state park nearMoosePass.

On the way there John’s chain started to show signs of serious wear so when we got back to Anchorage, on Saturday, we picked up a new one at the Kawasaki dealer and ate a free hot dog at a low rider competition, behind the dealership. We took the chain and installed it with some help from MotoQuest Tours, next to the Harley shop. The guy there was originally from Praire du Chein.

We camped at the Harley dealer again.

Sunday the 24th we rode in the rain and gusty winds as we approached the two and a half mile single lane tunnel that is shared with the train, toWhittier. (motorcycles have to stay between the rails)

We were lucky to get a spot on the ferry toValdez, without reservations. The ticket lady sent us to a neat little seafood place called the Swiftwater Café, while we waited to board.

InWhittierand under way we saw glacier melt water flowing down the steep mountains. It could only have been prittier if it wasn’t raining.

A couple, now retired from the pipline that has lived inValdezfor the past 30 years, originally fromAppleton, Wi., told us of a place to go see bears, sea otters, sea lions and seals feeding on the salmon. All true except the bears.

It was after 9PM and we wanted to get some miles so we stupidly left Valdez in the rain going through the tight Keystone Canyon with water falls and glaciers, up into the mountains, over the top and down into the next valley where it stopped raining and ended up camping at a roadside overlook, outside Glennallen at 2AM. (mentally challenged again)

Today we rode through Toke again eating at the highly recommended Fast Eddy’s and then crossing intoCanada.

So far we have almost riden 6400 miles.

John, Dewey and Chuck

Attaching a photo of us at theArctic Circleat 10PM

PS:Dewey says “sometimes he feels like a stranger in his own country and why is the Canadian border guard a south Asian?” “And the hatchet is the only weapon we have.”

link of tunnel video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5uEd5t3k44

Wednesday, July 27, 10:17PM local time, Iskut, British Columbia

To those who haven't given up on us yet,

Our progress has been slow. We got a late start after sending our last post and loading our bikes in the rain yesterday.

Then last night we were looking for a place to camp along the road and ran into a strange fellow from Winnipeg, originally from Transylvania.

He rode with us for a few miles and we stopped to camp at a nice lot along a river and before we got our tents unrolled he had caught an arctic grayling. And he said he has some garlic, butter, onion and potatoes to cook us supper with. All at about 11:30 PM. We set up our tents. He caught two more fish and we built a fire, but there was little fire wood. The next thing we know he is riding his GS 1200 up the highway and out of sight and in a few minutes later he was going the other way and ten minutes later he comes up the road dragging a dead pine tree maybe 20 feet long behind his motorcycle. The guy was amazing. He cut it into about 10 pieces with a dull hatchet. He gutted the fish added garlic (Transylvania) and fried them in butter in a pan on the coals. It tasted delicious. He was a bit strange and crazy but a likable guy.

By the time we got done it was starting to rain going on 2:30 AM.

This morning we tried to wait out the rain but it continued so we finally loaded our wet gear and got going, later than planned.

We saw Uley (Transylvania) with his fishing pole fishing at a bridge on our way to the start of the Cassiar Highway and waved on our way by.

The Cassiar highway is a somewhat narrow two lane highway with no painted lines with no shoulders that winds its way through the Cassiar Mountains. John said "oh crap" to himself when he saw Chuck follow a car pulling an old camper, that was that was attempting to pass a slow pickup truck. The car and Chuck both whipped back in behind the pickup just in time to avoid a head on with and old Pontiac that was coming the other way. The traffic lightened after that except for the two places where the brown bears were eating along the road. The views along this highway a quite beautiful but it continues to rain.

Which brings us to this great little cabin that we stopped at tonight at 9 PM. The cabin overlooks a lake with a steep mountain just on the other side and a brook running within 15 feet of our cabin. The owners are lucky to have these views all the time.

Here is their web site address.

http://www.mtshadowrvpark.com/

Thanks and stay tuned.

Thursday, July 28, 10:10 PM, Vanderhoof, British Columbia

We left our cabin by 8:30 AM without our rain gear on and made it all of about five minutes down the road before we had to put it on. It rained most of the day and cold with hail just before finding this motel for tonight. All of had leaks in different parts of our rain gear. A couple of us were stuffing hand towels under our cloths. We were all pretty miserable..

The rest of the Cassiar highway had new blacktop with painted lines and John got some video of one of the three bears that we saw.

We made it just short of 500 miles today and will be looking for rear tires in Prince George tomorrow.

So far we have traveled 7600 miles and have around 2000 miles to go. So that puts us about five days from home.

John, Dewey and Chuck

Monday 10:30 PM, Superior Wisconsin

We apologize but we neglected to forward the e-mail we got from Larry Reetz letting us know that he made it home in a couple of days after passing through a storm and then kept going to stay ahead of it.

Tonight we are in Superior, Super 8 because just after getting here, while eating at Culver's, it started to rain.

Friday, the day after our last post it didn't rain but we did get hosed at Northern Power Sports, in Prince George where we bought our tires. (yes Rockie we did need tires) The tires were twice what we can get them for at home on the internet. Plus the 12% Canadian harmonized sales tax.

They said it would take all day. We said we would like to take the wheels off and that would save them time but they said the owner doesn't let anyone work in their lot. So we left the bikes with them and walked about a mile to do our laundry and to have breakfast.

When we got back they asked John how long he hadn't had rear brakes. John replied "if I hadn't had rear brakes I would have been laying on your show room floor, what did you do?" They bled the lines and added fluid to get them working again but while lubing the chain they sprayed the rotor and they still don't work very well.

Dewey's was next and they found that he had another bearing problem. This one on the chain side of the rear wheel, next to the one that failed earlier and probably related. So we had to let them repair that costing much more than if he fixed it himself. But good thing they found it, eh?

Also we had to loosen the chains because they were way to tight.

Chuck's was next and they said I needed new break pads, which is true but by that time I wanted to say "get away from my bike".

So our total cost for the three tires, mounting and balancing and one bearing came to $1104. And with the exchange rate it will be 8% more in US dollars.

We knew we should have got them in Alaska but we procrastinated.

We left there about 4:30 and rode to a campground in McBride and met guy from Milwaukee riding a 1981 Yamaha 250. Going to be traveling for two years here and South America. He has about a month done. "traveling250.com"

The next day we rode 706 miles and after looking for a campground in the dark we ended up in a rest area for the night near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. John says "we haven't wised up much.

Last night we stayed in a campground in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba thinking we had accomplished something until we talked to a guy from France that left Vancouver June, 20th on a bicycle going to Toronto.

Some where during our trip, we decided that we would go home through Canada along the Yellowhead Highway avoiding US interstates that we all have been on many times. We turned south, east of Kanora, Ontario and crossed the border at International Falls. We found it very senic and highly recomend it.

The guard asked John what he did for a liveing and he told him today was his first day of retirement and the guard said how can that be if you are on a bike trip? John said he saved up vacation so he could ride to Alaska. And the guard said "you rode those fricking things all the way to Alaska!?" While John was getting his passport out the guard noticed the can of anti monkey butt powder and said "man you must have need it for that bike." John told him it was uncomfortable getting there but we took them because of some of the roads that we took them on in Alaska and the Yukon.

When we get home tomorrow we will have ridden about 9700 miles. We will share pictures and stories if you are interested.

We would like to thank friends and family and all the others that followed us along on our journey. You all made us feel closer to home.

We would also like to thank our fellow taxpayer for building and maintaining all the roads that allowed us to make this trip.

John, Dewey and Chuck

PS: And thanks to Al Gore for inventing the internet so we could sent out these updates. Eh!