Friday July 29, 2011

Since we had such great luck finding people to stay with from the BMW Anonymous book, we decided to find more people to stay with in Glendive, Montana. Glendive is near the border between Montana and North Dakota, and is the largest city in the area, but don't tell the people who live there that we drove through the town almost without noticing. We stayed with a nice couple who own a small farm of about six sections. For those of you know don't know, one section is 640 acres.

Not long after we arrived, the husband took us on a long tour of his property which was great because neither Marc nor myself had ever really been on a farm before. There are many things you learn from being on a farm even for so little time. For instance, did you know one cow will eat 3 whole acres of grass in one month? The couple told us that in order to make good money selling cows you have to own at least 200, and they are in the field eight months out of the year. Do the math and you'll realize how much acreage that requires. As we were driving through the fields, the farmer told us about the difficulties of raising cows. I was taught that feeding corn to cows was horrible, which it is, but if you want to have many cows and not have any of them starve in the winter it is almost a necessity. I am an environmental studies minor, and as a result I have studied a lot about corn production in the United States and the decline of the family farm. While it's good to study articles from the safety of my dorm, it is also important to get out to a real farm and hear a real farmer's stories of selling corn for ethanol and not-so-good pinto beans to Mexico for refrying. I think all city folk should take some time away from their herbal teas and tour a farm. Don't get me wrong: I also love herbal tea.

The next morning we woke up at 5:00am in Glendive on a mission to pass through the Dakotas as fast as possible. Even though we had never been there we suspected the Dakotas were not going to be for us. For the most part we were correct, and here's why:

Highest point in North Dakota: 3,300 feet

Highest point in Oregon: 11,239 feet

Number of Pro-Life Billboards in South Dakota: 25 (and those are only the ones we saw)

Number of Pro-Life Billboards in Oregon: I have never seen one

Largest city in South Dakota: Sioux Falls with 160,000 people

Largest city in Oregon: Portland with 584,000 people

I recognize that every state has its own flavor, but I didn't like the taste of the Dakotas. This photo represents everything we saw while driving through. We saw the sky, grass, road, hay bails...and the occasional eye-rolling billboard. We decided it was best for our readers if we did not include photos of the billboards.

We did, however, manage to find the only pretty thing in South Dakota. If you happen to be in that state, Mina Lake just off of highway 12 is a cute little place we camped at when we just couldn't drive anymore. The cost of the campground was a little steep, but the campsite was pretty, and it was warm enough that we could go swimming in a lake for the first time on our trip.

I now write to you from St. Paul, Minnesota where we drove to after staying at Mina lake. Our friend Elliot just graduated from Macalester college and owns a house in this city, so we will be staying with him and having adventures for the next two days.

Enjoy the sun,

Amelia

July 28, 2011



...Oops, sorry we forgot you, Glacier.


So, in all the fuss about the oil leak and our sudden change of plans (heading south to Missoula instead of going across the north) we forgot to talk about one of the most beautiful places in the world: Glacier National Park.  For those who haven’t been, I highly recommend it and even for those who have, another trip couldn't hurt.  Even if all you do is drive on Going to the Sun Road it is still a worthwhile trip.  

A civil engineering marvel, Going to the Sun Road winds its way along the side of the mountains, in many spots with only a stone guardrail between asphalt and the valley floor thousands of feet below.  The designers of the road wanted it to really blend in with the mountains, and I think they achieved their goal, using local rocks for retaining walls and choosing a twisty, winding path up and over Logan Pass.  Unfortunately the road takes quite a beating in the winter and as we rode through about half its length was gravel waiting for new pavement, but even that couldn’t detract from the beauty.


We came over Logan Pass around dinner time (stupid time zone cost us an hour), stopped at the visitor center and discovered that all the campgrounds in the park were full, so we continued out and ended up staying at a KOA campground only about a mile from the entrance.  I’ll be honest, the KOA (Kampgrounds of America) campground was a very odd experience for us both.  While we had a nice little tent site where we set up camp in a clump of trees, not too far away was a pool, hot tub, showers and even a convenience store.  When you add these amenities and the row after row of tightly packed RV’s all together, the KOA felt more like a resort than a campground.  I couldn’t help but wonder: is this really how people go camping these days?  Maybe I’m old fashioned, but camping means no hot tub.


In an effort to find cheaper camping (and somewhere less noisy as well), we packed all our things the next morning and headed back into the park.  Basically, at this point we completely lucked out.  At 10:30 that morning when we reentered, all the campgrounds in the park were open, so we quickly made our way to St. Mary campground to snatch a nicer spot for the night.  We ended up in a very nice wooded sight with a wooded tent area and a nice big picnic table that I would say ranks only second behind Lac Le Jeune in terms of campsites.

To make the best use of our short stay in Glacier we decided to do a ranger-led hike.  The long hike I did last time I was in Glacier was still closed due to snow, so we instead picked the combination hike/boat tour of St. Mary Lake and St. Mary Falls.  In my opinion, we made a good choice because as we sailed across the very pretty glacial lake, the captain gave us a tour and history lesson of Glacier National Park.  When we docked about forty minutes later farther up the lake we followed Ranger Lee about a mile and a half along a very pretty trail to St. Mary Falls.  

Again, to Glacier, sorry we forgot to write about you.  We didn’t forget your beauty and we never will.

Tuesday, July 26

Writing from "Who-knows" Montana. (Actually US-12 at Deadman's Basin Reservoir.)

Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster for me. It all started Sunday night at the very pretty St. Mary campground in Glacier. We had just finished up with dinner and while Amelia started to calculate our expenses for the week I went to check on my bike. I didn't really expect much: the tires had been holding air well, the brake fluid was brand new and Dad topped off my coolant before we left. As I was checking the bike, I noticed that the oil level seemed to be a lower than I remembered, and so, just for the hell of it I pulled the bottom cowling off of the oil pan to look for leaks. Honestly I was expecting that I didn't tighten the drain plug properly or something since I changed my own oil last time, but instead I found oil farther back, seeming to be coming out of a hole in the bottom of the transmission housing.

Not really sure what a leak from behind the engine meant but in need of an oil change anyway, we altered course and spent Monday back tracking over the mountains and then due south to get the leak looked at by the only shop in Montana in Missoula. The moment the guy at the service desk looked at the bike he diagnosed the problem as a rear main engine seal failure. That is, the seal between the engine and the transmission was starting to fail and so engine oil was leaking out the back of the engine. While the actual oil loss was not that much, it has the potential to get all over the clutch and cause it to slip. So that was the bad news of the day. The worse news was that the repair will cost $1200, maybe more and the worst news of the day was that the shop told me they couldn't do it for at least 2 weeks.

Because we were already there, I had them change my oil, and as the shop closed up for the night I rolled my bike back out into the parking lot and just kind of plopped down, feeling kind of lost and overwhelmed at the cost of the maintenance that it would need. We were originally going to camp near the town of Lolo, but instead we pulled out the BMW Anonymous book and Amelia started calling people while I started calling motorcycle shops. For those who don't know, the Anonymous book simply has lists of phone numbers by city and codes for things like camping, spare room and work space. Like the saint she is, Amelia started calling numbers in the Missoula section and even though the first four or five came up no, she just kept trying. Soon she reached someone who said we could stay with them for the night and off we went. Little did we know we were about to meet the nicest people in Montana.

Not only did this wonderful couple let us stay in their basement, they also treated us to ice cream, let us take showers, use their washing machine and even helped us with route planning. This couple, complete strangers just a few hours earlier, took us in like we were family they had known for years. After the kind of day that makes you want to abandon all hope, they were truly a godsend. We will always remember their kindness and I only hope we have the chance to pass it on to another BMW rider in need.

As for the bike, there's really nothing to do but keep riding. Several different people have told me that there is no way to know how long I have before the oil fouls my clutch, only that it will happen eventually. Right now we are about 275 miles from Missoula camped at a primitive campsite on Deadman Basin Reservoir just off of US 12. The bike still purrs along like always, and for a while today I even forgot that anything was wrong, but then I remembered, it's only a matter of time. I only hope the clutch holds out until we reach civilization again.

-Marc

July 22, 2011

Jasper National Park to Wasa, British Columbia

Columbia Icefields, Athabasca glacier.

I am reminded today of how much chance and split second decisions shape our lives. If it hadn't cost so much to camp in Jasper National Park we might not have left this morning and we would have been stuck in camp while it rained all day. After leaving camp if we hadn't been quite so cold the first couple hours of riding this morning we might not have pulled over at the Columbia Icefields visitor center overlooking the impressive Athabasca glacier. And if that semi-truck driver had been going just a little bit slower or the other cars just a little bit faster, when his trailer jack-knifed coming down the mountains he wouldn't have hit them, blocking the road and most likely killing all the occupants of the two other cars.

According to the news article (http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Fuel+tanker+crash+explosion+park+claims+multiple+lives/5147610/story.html), the collision happened at just after 3 o'clock, about an hour before we came upon the line of cars backed up behind the accident. After sitting in line for about forty-five minutes we were just about to join the growing numbers of people turning around when we heard from a man walking by that the police were walking motorcycles around the scene. Down the shoulder we went in a last attempt to see if we could find someone actually in charge. As we neared a police officer I just head the end of his conversation with several car drivers telling them that the road might be closed over night when he came over to us and pointed down near the police tape where several other motorcycles were gathered. We learned later that one of the other motorcyclists had convinced the police to lead the bikes through the accident because they didn't have enough gas to take the detour.  Due to our perfect timing and were able to tag along with them as they paddle walked around the back end of the twisted and burnt trailer, still emitting thin whips of smoke, the front end of a truck barely recognizable through carnage.  In the end we made it safely though the scene of the crash and continued on our way to a cute little motel in the town of Wasa, but not without considerable stress, both mental and physical.

Looking down 93A at a peak in the distance.

But with all the excitement late in the day, I feel I've forgotten to talk about the beauty of the early parts. The Icefields Parkway (Hwy 93) is absolutely gorgeous. Words cannot describe the grandeur and sublime beauty of the mountains. There have only been a few times in my life where I have felt truly small in the world and today was one of them. With the weather as cold and rainy as it was today, I only felt like that awe was magnified. I imagined the mountains chuckling as they hurled wind and rain at us, asking rhetorically, “Who are you to think you can pass though us?” But every time I had resigned myself to the cold the clouds would lift, the sun would come out, and suddenly the Rockies didn't seem so threatening anymore. I can't wait for tomorrow and our return to these mountains as we enter Glacier National Park.

Wednesday July 20, 2011

Today is the third day of our cross-country adventure. We left Portland late Monday night and drove two hours to Tacoma, Washington. Our friend from high school, Stephen, goes to the University of Puget Sound there, so we thought we would say two nights with him. At this point it is tradition to visit Stephen before we go on long trips. Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early to go on a day hike on Mt. Rainier with Stephen and his friend Lindsey. Stephen had done this hike at least a dozen times before so he assured us it would be fun. Little did we know that Stephen is a huge liar...or that he just cannot predict weather patterns. When we reached the trailhead for the hike, it was cold, covered in snow, and so foggy that you could not see one hundred feet in front of you. We decided to go on the hike anyway, because we are such awesome people. After a mile of marching uphill in the snow, it was agreed that we should head back. Going down the mountain was more fun because it felt almost like skiing. About halfway back down, we came across a snow slide someone had built. We all saw the clearly marked 'No Sliding' signs at the trailhead, but we thoughtlessly ignored them and all of us went down the slide at least once. Please don't judge us; we had to make some fun from the horrible weather. As you can see, it was really fun.

Driving back down the mountain, we took our time stopping at waterfalls. The waterfalls were beautiful and numerous because the snow was melting. Stephen said there would have been many old glacial features to see if it weren't for the fog. If my professors ask, I noticed all of them and they were great.

Now is the part where I tell you about watching an octopus devour a crab. Stephen works in a marine biology lab on his campus, and while out doing research one day he found a wounded octopus washed up on shore. He brought it back to his lab to keep as a pet, and we all went to go look at it. When Stephen fed a large crab to the octopus, we gathered around the tank like Romans in the Coliseum. We watched as the octopus and the large crab battled it out, but eventually the crab scared the octopus, so Stephen dropped in a smaller crab and we all watched the octopus devour that.

After touring the lab, we went to a local pizzeria/bar for a trivia game, and then slept at Stephen's house again . We woke up at 6:30am for our three hundred mile ride to Kamloops, British Columbia today. The ride was gorgeous! Everywhere I looked, there was picture perfect scenery. On BC license pates it says 'Beautiful British Columbia,' and that is no exaggeration. The ride made me so proud to live in the pacific northwest where the weather isn't always great, but the area makes up for that by being incredibly breathtaking. Our campsite in Kamloops is beautiful because the weather is nice, the forests are huge, and we have a view of a beautiful lake. Someday I would like to travel back here and stay for a week. I am excited for what tomorrow brings, because we will be heading into Jasper National Park.

-Amelia