Practice

Back in 2010 I rode in the inaugural Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge. I still haven’t written up that ride. Or maybe I did. I can’t remember. It was in 2010. But it WAS the ride that set my soul on fire for long distance solo motorcycling. It was a great ride but the only part worth noting now is that it took me as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska.

Actually, I went up to Fairbanks on the east side of the state and then down to Anchorage on the west side. At the time I thought that I had seen a fair representation of the state. But then later I actually looked at a map. I need to ride as far as I can go. I need to ride to Deadhorse. Here's a picture...but I'm not started with a plane ride.

I also know, based on the trip I took to Northern California last November, that I’m done with long rides that don’t include Kelley in least part of them. She wouldn’t want the all day in the saddle stopping only for gas thing that I like to do but she loves to ride and see the world from a motorcycle. So I will always want to schedule fly in’s or drive in’s for Kelley from now on. This year I will go to Alaska and then come back to Minnesota where a high school friend has offered his lake guest house to us for as long as we want. Kelley will meet me there for a week.

That settled, I am free to dream about Prudhoe Bay.

In fact, I’ve been fairly obsessed with the idea for a couple of years now. If you have read this blog, you know that I got closer this past spring when I bought a non-Harley. That V-Strom was a basic motorcycle. It gave me a sense of another kind of riding and I liked it. But it was clearly a tweener bike – too big for a lot of fun on hard trail riding, too limited for long distance comfort. It was close but no cigar. So I bought the Beast.

The Beast, a 2015 KTM 1290 Super Adventure, is more than adequate for my quest for Deadhorse. I have it almost perfectly set up. The only thing left is choosing which skid plate to buy and I’ve pretty much settled on the version from Altrider. It is waiting to be ordered and installed. One more paycheck under my belt and I’ll place the order.

For the time being, I’m still gearing up. I now have pretty much all I need for camping on the way. This time, I mostly bought good stuff, actually great stuff. Camping from a motorcycle means a premium on size and weight. Trade offs abound. I already had a great tent that I got at REI for the Hoka Hey ride, but the rest of my stuff wouldn’t do. It gets cold in northern Canada and Alaska. I remember freezing in the sleeping bag that barely came up to my shoulders as well as strapping everything to a Harley that has way more carrying capacity than the KTM, so it was off to the internet for me.

For camping, the most important stuff that I got include:

-       A Big Agness Summit Park 15 sleeping bag. VERY big guy friendly.

-       A sleeping bag liner

-       A sleeping mat

-       A pillow…which might need to be replaced.

-       A Jetboil stove

-       A GCS coffee press that is pure awesome

-       A few little camp cooking odds and ends

Believe it or not, the first time that I practiced setting everything up happened in our living room. Yes, a 55 year old man set up his tent and all of his stuff indoors for the first test ride. Then I slept in it for practice. Kelley thought it was cute. Emma thought it just reinforced what she realized a long time ago – when it comes to all things motorcycle I am plumb crazy.

Then it was time for me to practice. I looked into the future back in January and picked February 26-27 as the first completely free Friday/Saturday for me to pack up and spend the night at a state park. As the weekend approached, other things began to vie for the time away. First it was a conference on forming faith in families scheduled for Saturday. I really wanted to go but I decided I could send our youth minister with instructions to take great notes.

Then there was a shooting at a local pizza place the Sunday before. I received a call to host and conduct the funeral for the 19 year old kid who was so senselessly and horrifically gunned down simply because he couldn’t open the cash register quickly enough for the would be robber. The funeral was scheduled for the 27^th. So that made two decisions for me – I would do the funeral on Saturday and I would go camping the night of the 25^th. Gone Thursday night, Friday home to begin funeral preparations.

Maybe this is also part of the reason why long distance motorcycling is so appealing to me. I can’t talk on the phone when I’m riding my bike. I can’t hop on a plane to get back for an emergency…well I could but it would be more complicated. I have plenty of time on the bike to think about life, about ministry, about my family, about my life. It really is a triple blessing.

I can spend months plotting and planning for a long ride. I can enjoy the time away and all that I get to see. And I’m left with great memories of places I’ve been and the journey there and back.

So I’m heading to Alaska in June. The camping night was great. I learned some lessons.

Camping doesn’t save as much money as one would think. I’ve spent a fortune buying stuff. It cost me $25 to stay in Huntsville State Park, about the going rate anywhere. It is much cheaper to camp free in out of the way places – like next to the trucks at a truck stop which is what I mainly plan to do.

It took me 30 minutes to get completely set up for the night and start cooking supper. If I skipped cooking, camping will still cost me a couple of hours a day at a minimum. Last night was perfect, no rain, very little wind, and I set up camp just before it got dark. Pitch dark. Setting up in the dark would have taken longer. Then it takes a bit to get ready to go in the morning.

What that means for me is that I need to plan on more 500-600 mile days instead of 800-900 mile days. And that means that there are lots of places I hoped to go on the trip north that I won’t be able to go to because I only have so much time. Trade offs. The good thing is that there are hopefully many more years of doing this. I don’t like to go to the same places twice but there are lots of places to go.

The plan is to leave on June 20^th and be gone for 3 Sundays. Let’s hope nothing gets in the way.