Tomorrow will make one month that I have been travelling solo and I often get asked “Do you get lonely?”.  Although I do miss my friends and family and think of them often I can honestly answer that “No, I don’t get lonely”.

It looked as if I would ride right into the face of the mountain, but the Rockies were still 80km away. The highway north from Calgary was deceiving, the Rockies appear so close but it feels as if it takes forever to reach them.

 Once in Banff National Park I was again taken back by the scenery, mountains on both sides of me, a glacier river running beside the road and not a cloud in the sky. I had been to this area a few years ago but not by motorcycle, and it seems much different this time. I decided to avoid the tourist trap of Banff and just did a quick drive through. Instead of stopping at Lake Louise I decided to visit Moraine Lake about 14km away from Lake Louise. Moraine lake is smaller, less visited and just a beautiful as Lake Louise.  My next major stop was Athabasca Falls close to the park exit at Jasper. A must see for anyone visiting the area.

Stopping to take photos and ending up in great conversations with interesting people made for a fun day but not one of great distances. I camped for the night in Hinton Alberta at the most northern KOA campground.

Morning arrived with the heaviest dew I have experienced so far on this adventure. Waiting for my tent to dry delayed my departure. I was determined to reach Dawson Creek BC today and the beginning of the Alaska Highway, mile 0. Taking highway 40 out of Hinton, the “scenic route to Alaska”, proved to be just that, scenic. Mountains to my left, valleys to the right, twists and turns in the road and warning signs “Next gas 184km”. Making it to Grand Prairie for lunch was not a problem.

The problems came after lunch. Rain clouds move in, put rain gear on, rain clouds move out, now I am hot, take rain gear off, rain comes, now I am wet.  Rain gear goes back on before I get even wetter, Ok it’s staying on, no its not I am hot again, no dummy leave the rain gear on. I get splashed with mud by a small convoy of logging trucks. See, rain gear on was a good thing, but the bike is dirty.

I finally reach Dawson Creek and the rain gear comes off – for good. I get the customary photo in front of the “World Famous Alaska Highway” sign.  Feeling exhausted from the rain gear dance I decide to push on to Fort St. John and get a room for the night. The hotel has a room, a hose for me to wash my bike and ice for the Glenlivet. Life is good.

Town of Vulcan Alberta

Captain, Klingon War Birds de-cloaking of the port bow!

Evasive maneuvers. Maintain current speed.

The War Bird has matched our course and speed. They are charging weapons.

Red Alert! Battle stations everyone!

Captain, direct hit to our shields. Shields down by 20%.

Return fire. Target their engines. Fire Photon torpedoes.

Direct hit, but only minor damages to the Klingon ship. CAPTAIN, Another War bird is de-cloaking, starboard side, weapons charged.

Fire at will, give them everything we’ve got.

One Klingon ship is disabled; second ship has suffered minor damage.

Lay in a course for …….

Captain! The Klingons are launching their new secret weapon, the Honda Varadero, a stealth fighter occupied by a single warrior. It is firing a new weapon; shields down another 20%.

Evasive maneuvers. Fire at will!

I cannot lock weapons on the Honda Varadero! Captain, we are no match! Shields have failed; engines are not responding, fires on decks 4, 5 and 8. WARP CORE BREACH!

All hands – abandon ship!

Well it’s back on the highways and the kilometers just seem to fly by as we make our way south east towards Alberta. The wildlife continues to amazing us with herds of bison and numerous bear sightings. One day just along the edge of the highway we managed to see eight bears and we would stop to take a peek just a little too close for comfort. Heading south we are leaving the land of the never setting sun and although we have yet to see any stars we have been able to enjoy some stunning and colorful sunsets.

It makes me feel good at the end of the day when we have found a free campsite, some better than others but still free… One morning after enjoying the free campsites at Inga Lake we packed up and headed back for the freeway only to find the 2km gravel road leading to the lake had turned to mud in the overnight rains. After nearly laying my bike down I managed to watch in my mirror as Erin slid out and rode into the ditch. The worst feeling rushed through my body as I sat stunned with what to do. I hit the kill switch and left my bike in the center of the road, keys in it and lights still on I start running back my boots sliding out from under me on every muddy step. You can’t imagine the ridiculous amount of emotions and fear that you can cycle through in a 50 ft run when it seems like 50 miles. I arrive to Erin standing on the road looking disappointed at the mess in the ditch. She’s OK. Just as fast as all the emotions and fears rushed through me they melted away. What a relief I thought as my head cleared and my now working brain turned my attention to moving my bike off to the side of the road and switching the ignition off.  The first step to getting Erin’s bike out of the ditch was to take all the luggage system off the bike. We then had to push it down the ditch 150 meters to where it was shallower for any chance of pulling it out. The clay and mud mix made it almost impossible to ride the bike out, so we laid it back down and dragged the front tire out of the ditch. Now the bike was facing across the road and with Erin pushing from behind and me beside it walking the clutch, we shot it back up on the road. Only to confirm the roads terrible condition an F350 4×4 went by sliding and drifting on the slick muddy mess. The front tire and fender where so packed with mud that the front wheel wouldn’t turn so we spent a good chunk of time removing mud from the bike. For the next 1.5kms I leap-frogged the bikes back to highway, riding one 200 meters then walking back and riding the other next one 200 meters past the first one.  The whole ordeal from accident to getting back to the highway took about an hour and a half and was a long exhausting process in full motorcycle gear.

It’s experiences like that which build solid memories and granted that nobody got hurt it’s all part of the adventure. Sometimes it’s the hardships that you can look back on and smile knowing that you persevered and now have a gnarly story to tell.

Sorry that I don’t have any pictures of that whole mess but with the rain and my muddy hands I didn’t feel like running my camera. So enjoy these Bison!?! We are now stuck in the rains and with flood warnings out on most of the highways we head south out of Grand Prairie.

What I heard the most in past few weeks was the question: “Are you back already?!!!”

I never thought that I would see Montana again, at least not for a long, long time, but here we are, back to where I started a year ago. Since I started this journey on my motorcycle, I have covered Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alaska, British Colombia, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. It seems like forever ago but such a short distance, more like a shakedown ride to me.

I learned a lot about riding and more importantly living on the road. I met some amazing people, saw some beautiful places, and built a sophisticated touring machine out of a 1982 Suzuki. But my true discovery came in the form of a dawning comprehension of the struggles that go on every day on every corner of this planet: in particular, the travesty of extreme poverty and malnutrition.

Well actually that wasn’t it. I discovered that I’m not the only one, and there are hundreds if not thousands who share the passion to help bring relief to those suffering from hunger. This journey evolved beyond the scope of my one-man band, and eventually I founded and incorporated the Transcontinental Humanitarian Corp., a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization to bring together those with a similar passion and desire to give a helping hand to ordinary people during times of extraordinary tribulation.

This is not an impressive resume for a so-called adventurer. From the minute I got back to Montana, I had the itch to get back on the bike again and head out for the unknown. But you know how it goes, when the bike is ready, I’m not, and when I’m ready the bike is not. Since I had a warm dry garage, I figured to fix everything I could possibly fix and with that in mind, I tore up the bike to pieces again.

I had some problem with the steering head bearings (which turned out to be far more gone that I thought), the rear brake needed new pads, the headlight wiring had to be redone to fix the voltage drop, wire the new fog lights, add some reflectors to the boxes for more visibility, add more lights to the back to mark the width of the bike, hardwire my GPS, Install the new camera mount, sand and clear-coat the side covers (cosmetic only but they had been bothering me for a long time), fix the oil leak form the cam-chain tensioner, head gasket and oil pressure switch, Install an alarm system,  change the gearbox and drive shaft oil and grease everything.

The bearing races were in awful shape; no wonder this bike wobbled a lot in low speed. I could run my fingernail across it and dig in deep in the grooves made by the roller bearings. The rear brake pads were almost to the metal, and they were so far down that I could barely see any brake fluid in the reservoir. After adding 5 relays, the electrical system is now in tiptop shape and the headlight is as bright as it can be. I also added a security system with a screaming siren to ward off bored and crazy kids in third world countries; it also gives me a peace of mind while sleeping as I know it will go off the second a bird lands on it.

By the time I was done with all these chores, the bike looked and felt so good that I didn’t want to ride it anymore! In the meantime, Cynthia went back to California to give her two week notice and quit her job for the long run. She has come a long way. To be honest I didn’t think that she would make it more than 3 days, but she braved the road for 3000 miles and 40 days and she was eager for more. She quit her job of seven years as a social worker to join a crazy expedition on a motorcycle around the world. I did the same thing, but this was my dream. She wasn’t a rider, nor had she ever camped out more than a couple of nights at a time in her whole life without being close to her familiar surroundings. That’s adventurous in my book.

I picked her up at the airport in Missoula, and we are packing again, this time even smaller. We’ll be on the road before you know it, and this time no return for at least five years…

The city of Edmonton is built on the North Saskatchewan River with a population of over a million. Although I’m not a fan of large metropolitan areas, I have to admit that Edmonton is a great place to spend some time in. With its wall to wall night clubs, restaurants, and never ending shows and festivals, it truly is a hub for tourists and city lovers.

I rolled into town around 5pm on Thursday and met Sabina, my Couch Surfing host shortly thereafter. Sabina is a 26 year old Croatian-Canadian whom I met on Couchsurfing.com, the website for travelers who offer up their couch as a free night’s rest to other travelers. The couch surfing concept was introduced to me not long ago and I figured I’d give it a try. My sweat wasn’t dry yet before we were off to a party. Her circle of friends are from many different walks of life and parts of the world. I met people from Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Iran, India, Croatia, Russia, Spain, Canada and the United States all in one night and one place. It was just as she likes to put it:  the United Nations Council.

The next morning was rainy so I decided to spend a portion of it at home working on the computer. When the rain finally let up, I geared up for the sponsor hunt. Since it was Friday, I had a hard time catching the owners or general managers in stores, but managed to add two more sponsors to my list. The remote switch for my inverter was acting up, so I stopped at the Home Depot and bought a heavy duty switch and installed it in the parking lot. It’s amazing how many people ask me where I’m heading everywhere I stop. It must be the gunship look of the bike!

That night Sabina made a lovely dinner and we went to the “Edmonton Fringe Festival”. There were a lot of musicians and amusing plays from everywhere all in one place, lubricated by Canadian beers. One of the shows that I really liked was performed 5 feet off the ground by two American girls who called themselves Aerial Angels. These girls held the crowd together with their funny and masterful show for a good 45 minutes. (There’s a clip of the show under Video Journal page)

I was anxious to leave Edmonton but the weather didn’t co-operate so I stayed yet another night. Partying as usual with the international crowd capped off the night.

Throughout my stay, Sabina and her Russian friend Tatiana showed me much of the city and together we enjoyed some great food and treats. Our last excursion was to the University of Alberta Devonian Botanic gardens. This magnificent garden is 190 acres and is filled with exotic plants from much of the world. Rows and rows of vegetables, herbs, flowers, cactuses and trees, and includes an indoor tropical garden and butterfly house that made you feel like you were walking in the Amazon rainforest. It’s definitely worth seeing if you’re out and about.

I’ve been studying the weather and my maps and will start early tomorrow morning, heading for the top of the world. Weather forecast is still not favorable, but I’m pushing through based on my acceptable risk factors. If the conditions stay the same, the Dempster Highway will be impassable after all these rains and I’ll be forced to go with Plan B. Plan B is riding to Alaska and getting to the Arctic Circle via Dalton Highway. The Dalton Highway is just as bad as the Dempster, but it is shorter and more accessible.

Winter is closing in quickly at these latitudes and you can already feel the chill of the upcoming months. I have no time to waste if I want to get out of the north without getting snowed in. My cold weather gear is already out of my panniers. Next stop, Santa’s front yard…