Motorcycle Trip to Nova Scotia Wrap-up

In general, I have to say that I’m pleased with my motorcycle trip to Nova Scotia. I made it to my prime objective, Cape Breton, although I missed out on some secondary objectives, albeit they were mainly ones I developed while underway. One miscalculation was getting to Philadelphia one week before the Alexandria and Cleopatra exhibit opened. I alsoarrived on Prince Edward Island before any of the Anne musicals opened, and I was too early for the ferry to the eastern side of Newfoundland, but maybe that was a good thing. I was very lucky in my timing in regards to the weather, since I missed, in some cases by a day, major storms. I was also lucky enough to learn a little about the early history of Native Americans by visiting Chaco Canyon, Bandelier, Mesa Verde, and some of the Mound Builder sites in Ohio. I learned a little of the history of the Manhattan Project by visiting Los Alamos. I finally got to board the U.S.S. Nautilus. I overdosed on airplane museums. I learned that I liked period food at historical recreations including including Williamsburg, Louisbourg, and Greenfield Village. There are great art museums in the midwest, and they are free. Japanese gardens can be found across the country and I walked in the footsteps of Daniel Boone at the Cumberland Gap.

I surveyed Motel 6s across the country, as well as REIs, Fedex shipping centers, and McDonalds wifi. McDonalds needs to work on the consistency of the quality of their wifi. It ranged from incredible bandwidth to totally dysfunctional. REI and Fedex were uniformly up to snuff across the country. The Fedex locations with computers and printers were a real find. Motel 6 has increased in qualityin the last few years. Some were very basic, but others were surprisingly nice. They need to work on their wifi, but I’d say they’re better off than McDonalds. In the Midwest and East I saw that obesity really is a national problem and if anything, tatoos are more popular there than in the West. Single serving coffee machines are very popular in Canada, and they only serve sweetened iced tea, even if you order unsweetened iced tea. Canada is expensive, but Louisbourg was cheaper than Williamsburg. Alexander Graham Bell was obsessed a little too much with tetrahedrons (go see the Bell site in Cape Breton). It’s not dangerous to visit the Detroit Institute of Art.

In terms of equipment, I have nothing but good things to say about the Suzuki DL650. At the worst, it did consume 2 quarts of synthetic oil during the trip, but it kept running through high winds and heavy rain, and survived the dirt roads of Chaco Canyon. The chain and both tires survived the entire trip, unlike my trip to Alaska. The first generation Michelin Pilot performed well with rear adventure touring tire. The Kaoko throttle control helped make the trip possible since my hands aren’t in very good shape these days.

Garmin GPS made a lot of things possible that would have been difficult to do with paper maps. Unfortunately, the first Garmin was pounded apart on the way into Chaco Canyon, even though it was mounted in a padded housing. The second one, purchased at the REI in Colorado Springs, survived the rest of the trip. The Ram Mount weatherproof (but apparently not shockproof, in spite of all the foam) kept the new GPS nice and dry through the heavy downpours in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Missouri. However, the plastic cover makes the unit hard to read in daylight once it gets a little old.

The PLX saddlebags worked much better than expected, better, I think than the more conventionally shaped Givi bags I’ve used in the past. Some people have complained that they look like they won’t hold much, but they are actually quite boxy inside, so they hold more than the curvier older models. Just like the older ones, they aren’t perfectly weatherproof, so you need waterproof sacks for your sensitive gear. The SW-Motech trunk rack worked fine and made it much easier to get access under the saddle. My first generation Mags Bag soldiered along again, but its rain cover was shot. At a REI I got a large waterproof bag, the kind made for rafting, to go inside the Mags Bag.

I wished I’d packed my Big Agnes tent and Jetboil stove, since I ended up buying near duplicates in Colorado Springs after my experiences with a bivy sack and no morning coffee in Chaco Canyon. I was glad to have them in Mesa Verde and when I was forced to camp due to the Schultz fire in Arizona. The ultralight North Face sleeping bag was just right for the conditions, especially once I had a tent. At the Colorado Springs REI a sale was onging when I was looking for a tent so the selection was pretty limited. I ended up with the 2 person version of the 1 man Big Agnes Seed House that was sitting in my closet back at home. At least I got it on sale, maybe for less than I paid for the 1 man. I’m puzzled since the two man isn’t all that different in size from the 1 man, both packed and deployed. The 2 man has clips on all poles whereas the 1 man requires threading one pole through small sleeves, which might be a pain if you’re under duress. Might as well just get the 2 man in my opinion, if you have to make a choice.

A sore point was the failure of my rain gear. Things do get old, and in Los Angeles it’s hard to test gear for suitability in a major downpour. Granger products just can’t restore waterproofness after a certain point I guess. Marmot high tech 3 layer Goretex parkas can fail. Thanks to REI and Sears Roebuck, I was able to find replacements that saved the trip. Unfortunately, the Walmart boots were pretty miserable and scraped my toes raw initially. One pleasant surprise was that with the Shure noise islolating ear buds I could easily hear my iPod while going down the road. The black foam that came with the earphones worked fine. This definitely helped survived some of those long boring stretches. Also allowed me to catch up with a lot of podcasts. It was a shame though, since I had gotten custom casts made of my ear canals to work with Etymotic ER6i earphones, but the company that did the work didn’t return the earphones so I wasn’t able to use them. Eventually, after the trip I did get the Etymotics back. I’ll have to see if the custom ear pieces work any better than the stock Shures.

Mesa Verde to Home

The campground at Mesa Verde was on the luxury level. There were raised areas for pitching a tent-something I really hadn’t seen since camping near Quebec 30 years before. Near the campground were free showers and and a laundry. The store had wifi, but the bandwidth was pretty poor. They had beer, but you had to buy a whole six pack, which may be a good or bad thing. The campfire was a pretty good schlepp since the campground was so large, but it was a good way to wear off the effects of the beer. The Big Agnes tent I’d bought in Colorado Springs on the way out made for a comfortable night. For breakfast I feasted on Via coffee and the last of the hobo bread from Greenfield Village. The Jetboil stove boiled the water for my coffee in no time.

The roads were torn up 6 miles beyond the campground, but after that they were in good shape. It was a good thing that I’d bought my tickets at the campground since there were lines at the real visitors’ center. I did check out the exhibits there, though. First on my itinerary was Cliff House. Years ago when I came here with my family the weather was bad so we could only visit the museum. Finally I actually was able to visit the ruins. Cliff House was impressive, but the visit was a little rushed. Cliff House and Balcony House you can only visit as part of a ranger led tour. We may have been rushed, but we were also behind schedule so I had to rush over to Balcony House to make my tour group.

As I had learned at Chaco Canyon, many of the Pueblo dwellings were built with balconies, but most were destroyed when the structures were rediscovered. Balcony House is one of the few structures which still has its balconies intact. It is also challenging to enter due to the requirement to climb ladders and scurry through narrow openings. This makes me tend to sympathize with the theories that the cliff dwellings were built for defensive purposes. On our exit, we were delayed since a couple had to be evacuated by the rangers. Fortunately, they were able to walk away once they were extracted.

After the guided tours I went to museum after having lunch at the concession, where I was wished a happy Fathers’ Day. The museum and the building it was in were both interesting, although some of the dioramas seemed to be out of date. Thankfully, the mummy of the native American woman had been removed and hopefully granted reburial. I remembered that from my previous visit. Right outside of the museum one can descend to Spruce House on a self-guided basis. Spruce House has the reputation of being the best preserved structure, although there is a reconstructed kiva that one may enter. After that I decided to take off since I wanted to get to Flagstaff that evening. Photos of Mesa Verde at:

http://ikemi.info/graphics2/MesaVerde/index.html

My progress to Flagstaff was pretty good as I proceeded through a large John Ford movie set. Unfortunately, I couldn’t visit the Four Corners monument since it was undergoing some sort of mainenance work. I remember visiting it with my parents. While heading to Flagstaff I started to notice a large cloud roughly to my left, that I seemed to be flanking. I finally realized that it was a smoke cloud. Finally, at Cameron it sank in that the way to Flagstaff was blocked by what came to be known as the Schultz Fire. At the Cameron Trading Post they were very gracious and allowed me to use their RV campground, which was lacking sanitary facilities for tent campers. Better than nothing since their motel had no vacancies. Once more I got to use my tent and sleeping bag.

In the morning the road was still blocked, so I had to divert via the Grand Canyon. Fortunately, they weren’t charging for entrance, probably due to the fire. I stopped to take a few pictures and then continued on my way home through the desert. Although it was a little toasty in some places, I was pretty lucky and the temperatures weren’t too bad. Just high winds in a few places were the only impediments. It actually became cold as I go to Victorville. I was pleased to see that the Outpost Cafe was still there, although I didn’t stop in. I used to stop there with my father and his friends when we went dirt biking in the Mojave. Last pictures from the trip at:

http://ikemi.info/graphics2/GrandCanyon/index.html

Finally, I arrived home in Inglewood, a little over five weeks after I had started. No problems with the bike except for adding 2 quarts of oil. Fedex, REI and wifi at McDonalds had been my lifelines for resupply, sending loot home, and obtaining information on where to go and making reservations.