Enjoy!

Day 1

Ontario is pretty boring along the highway, specially when, you guessed it, it rains. But I had a goal and I wanted to get home tonight!

Overall the Trip took 27 days, just slightly over 14,000 km, a 3 oil changes, 1 tire swap, 1 chain and sprckets change, and I dare not calculate the amount of gas.

I saw a lot, experienced a lot and I think it’s changed me a bit. It has definatly toughen me up a notch. The golden rule of always bring ducktape still has proven to be golden. And there is a LOT more not urban areas than urban areas. Wich is awesome for those of us who like Nature slightly more than cities.

I also, want to thank again, xcel, Kurai, Dragonia, KLRChickie, ZED, Shewolf, Jäger, Fezz, you guys at Vernon Motorsport, the members of WR205R Forums and the members of M4E. Without your assistance, your emails, and your comments. I wouldn’t have been able to complete this journey. You have my deepest thanks and I’m looking foward to seeing you again someday.

This will conclude this trip. There’s bound to be another one someday. But for now, the bike needs major cleaning.

See you online or in the trails!

- Medski

I took a break I was almost out of gas and I didn’t know where to go for that (or for civilisation of some sort for that matter…)

So I pulled out the Knife I bought in Idaho…

(I forgot to tell you guys about that story…)
Knife story: I was out of gas and I finally found a pump! I had the Rotopax empty, I allready used it… And I was about 45km into fuel light so I had about 0.2 gal left in it… So when I found the pump, I started pumping gas in it. and filled everything. ONLY THEN I noticed they were not accepting Credit Cards for under 20$ :/

I had no cash on me and after trying to argue with that old lady, I ended up buying a Knife to round up the price to 22$… You never know, A knife can be handy in a trip…
(end of the knife story)

So I pulled the knife out and started to scratch off the oxidation from the cable plug, After 10-15min I tought I had something good going with the cable so I tried it and Boom! It worked. Phone GPS was charging again!

So I had it search and point the way to the nearest gas station and it was in range. So filled and continued on. I had 570 miles to go today, I was a bit late on schedule. So I headed back on the Interstate and made good time. The 14-48 setup works better than expected. I can cruise at 70mph as opposed to 58-59 for the same fuel efficiency compared to before just because of the rpm change. Wichis awesome!

So I’m just outside Detroit tonight and I’ll be home tomorrow. I can’t wait for my bed!

But for lunch I opened up the Ration Pack (M.R.E.) that Jäger gave me when I left from Trail, BC. My god, that little pack it full of stuff… Check the pics, there’s like a meal, some strawberry applesauce, a bread, peanutt butter and jelly, 2 satchel of coffee and 2 of tea. A gatorade-like powder and a satchel to pour it in with water, wet-ones, salt, tabasco, pepper, napkins, chewing gum, and i’m forgetting some of the other stuff that was in there.

I put the meal in the heater pouch, poured water in it, it heated. I waited a few mins while eating the bread with peanutt butter and jelly and then the meal was ready and it was super good!

I wonder if I could buy some more of that stuff for future trips, they pack small and light and are quick and easily prepared, even under the rain (so thats good for me!!)

I arrived in St-Louis around 5pm, found a Moteal dropped the stuff and went to check on Fezz. I got to his place and we went for a beer. Got a few and walked back to his place where we chatted a bit and played some guitar. We’ve had a cool evening. It’s always fun to finally meet people you’ve been talking to for a while.

OMG!! My right saddle bag was on fire. I quickly used my camelback to douse the flames and extinguish the bag on fire. One of my shoes inside the bag burned a bit but other than that no biggie. I repaired it with some tie-wraps and ducktape, repositionned my bag so that it doesn’t happen again and went on my way again.

About 200km later, there’s the rain again. And I got wet till it was time to unpack under the rain for the night. But I did the mileage I wanted to get done so it’s all good.

I was looking foward to the drive into over the mountains. It’s a pretty cool drive, or rather would have been if it wasn’t, yet again, pouring rain. I sniffed out the rain beforehand though and I was allready all suited up. The rain came down hard and cold. And I was going over Vail Pass wich sits at over 10,000 feet of elevation. It was very cold. A very drastic change from the morning. I kept going, I was allready wet…

Got to Denver and it warmed up a bit as I had dropped about 5000 feet of elevation and rain stopped. I had a few more miles in me before giving up on today… So I pressed on. And soon after I was reminded how cruel Karma can be haha. Rain again. I was wet so whatever, at least it wasn’t cold. I drove about 120 miles east of Denver (200km) and called it a day.

Sorry no rainy pics of the afternoon.

I took highway 6 to Moab, very desertic but scenic route. Nothing else to say but wow canyons! I arrived in Moab and for some reason yet again seemed like everything was sold out. I managed to get one motel room at 3h pm. I off loaded R2 and went to play in arches national park.

Nice canyon road going up with awesome views but hey what’s that, a dirt road branching up! I took it then arrived at a fork. Left said: “4×4 required, high clearance only.” So I figured that looked like fun. Boy were they not kidding. Needs at LEAST 3-4 inches of lift and at leaf 33-35in tires… That trails was rough. I kept thinking “oh shit oh shit” but R2 held and pulled through just about everything, exept a huge uphill half wheel deep sand box about 400 feet long wich got me stuck for a good 45min good thing I had water.

I got off the bike and pushed it up while spinning the back wheel and it barely moved.. Still managed to get out. Steep rock climbs, steep rock slope going down. It wasn’t easy one bit. I felt I was trying to go down a downhill mountain bike competition course but on a motocross…

Loads of fun an adventure though, the msr bottle broke and fell 3 times.. I dropped the bike once and got flipped highside swiveling and losin the front end in a deep sand pit. Didn’t Burt though as I was in sand. Took me about 2-3 hours to go through that 30 something miles trail. Then, back on sweet Tarmac. My forearms and wrist were shot… And I was hurting in the legs.

Nothing beats the smile on my face though. And oh, did I mention I love this bike?

So I pressed on and noticed a nail in my tire. But I was inserted in a knobbie so no flat! Oooof! Back on the road!

I arrived ok in Salt Lake, but a tad tired. Big Day tomorrow… Bed time now

I arrived at my destination even more soaked than last night and tomorrow supposed to be not raining in the kootenays… But here rain followed me it looks like… I took like 1 picture at a cool looking spot the only 2min it wasn’t raining on my head haha!

I’m back in Montana now. Sleeping at Kalispell. Tomorrow gonna head even more south and hopefully get out of the rain… I figured the more I go towards the desert the less rain right? We’ll see how my karma likes this one!!

It’s a good thing my gps app has turn by turn shouting in my scala rider g4 headset otherwise I would still be lost in Idaho. Keeping the iPhone in a dry bag when it’s pounding like that…

I called Jäger during that coffee break and he told me about the route down south on the west shore instead. It’s quite scenic! And bonus: not waiting on the ferry. Also it’s wasn’t raining that way. But oh well, i was allready all wet.

I stopped in Trail tonight, wich is also the place Jäger was at, so I got to meet up with him over dinner. It was very fun meeting him and oh what’s that! He brought me an Infantry Ration Pack with the individual flameless ration heater bag thing… How cool is that! I’ll be sure to post pictures of the adventure of cooking that stuff when I get to it in the next couple of days. I’m thinking i’ll save it for when I’m in the long run in the flatlands because that part has nothing in sight as far as food goes for long lenght of times.

On another note, I’m on the 2nd part-ish now. The going back home part. I’m a bit behind on schedule and must decide on the route to take home. The fastest and safest one to take in order to be in time is the most boring one or the one I came by. Neither is ”awesome”. I’m on this trip right now and I should make the most out of it. I’m gonna go as far south as I can tomorrow and see from there.

I would very like to be able to reach Utah and then go east through Colorado and Kansas instead. We’ll see how it goes, with the loosing 3 hours on the way as well…