What Cops do when not protecting and serving.

[Viejo]

Alaska-What Cops do when not protecting and serving.

When 4 Austin Police Officers got tired of protecting and serving we loaded up and headed off to Alaska. For David, who is currently a Motor Supervisor, this was his 3rd trip to Alaska by Motorcycle. He has 3 sons and now all 3 have made the trip with him. Just think about that for a moment. To me its amazing and a great accomplishment. Aaron was with him this trip. David rode a 2003 Goldwing.

Its the 2nd trip for Tony who is a supervisor on the Mounted Patrol unit. Tony rides a 07 Adventure.

This is my 2nd trip to Alaska. I took my daughter Amy up when she was 17 back in 1998 with David and his oldest son. I have a 02 GS.

The rookie on this trip was Raul. He is a Lt. in the Recruiting Division and rides a 1500 Goldwing.

Starting milage on Tony's Adventure 7139.

This is the route up to the Arctic Ocean.

Kinda puts things in perspective huh.

We left early in the morning on June 2nd, 2007 and rode a 4 day 2800 mile Bonzai run up to the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek. Along the way we traveled through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia. All of this was beautiful country but we didn't take the time to smell the roses. Banff National Park and the surrounding area is a must do trip in and of itself. This photo of the gang was at Lake Luis in Banff.

Thats all there is time for tonight. there is lots more to tell. Here is a little teaser photo. There is obvously a good story behind this.

 

[BexarWolf]

For Sale - Cheap. Goldwing and matching trailer. Trailer never dropped.

tee hee

I can't wait to hear the r-r-r-r-rest of the story.

 

[Viejo]

Hey Bexrwolf. How did you make that picture bigger?

 

[BexarWolf]

I just copied it and used imageshack.us as the link. There's an option to resize it and I clicked it off to let it be the original size.

 

[Gilk51]

You got my interest.

 

[jhansen]

"protect and serve" the doughnuts!

Looks like fun? was had by all.

 

[The Bruce]

Bravo!

 

[RedPill]

All right, it has been nearly 8 hours since you posted the first part of this. Now, wake up and do the rest!

 

[DaveC]

For Sale - Cheap. Goldwing and matching trailer. Trailer never dropped.

tee hee

I can't wait to hear the r-r-r-r-rest of the story.

How much for the cup holder?
Little duck tape and some velcro, no worries, be on the road in no time!
In true adventure rider tradition, some one is taking pictures while the two muddiest guys do the work

 

[sarge33rd]

This is Nr2 on my list of "must do" rides before its all said and done. (Tail of the Dragon is Nr1.)

Congrats to all!! Look fwd to hearing/seeing about the rest of the trip.

 

[Viejo]

Quick post before running off to work. I took the photo of Dave in his time of need. There is no way I'm going run up there and see how he and Aaron are before taking 3 very important photos. For insurance reasons of course. Now if they were still laying in the mud I would only have taken 1 picture.

 

[Janet]

 

[sharkey]

Wow, not a single donut in the pictures. THAT is a travesty of justice.

Yeah, what's the story on the Wing?

We drove to Anchorage in a F350 bout 15yrs ago. Best trip of my life. I have a pic of Dawson's Creek I gave to my mom as a gift.

Man, I might have to get my photos out now. Good times...

 

[Duke]

This is gonna be good... I can feel it.

+

 

[Chirpy]

In a fit of jealousy, the trailer attacked the Gold Wing, pushing it off the road?

 

[Goat Trail Green]

Excellent

Keep it coming !

Mike G

 

[JTM]

 

[Dirtrideroader]

In a fit of jealousy, the trailer attacked the Gold Wing, pushing it off the road?

I had a bike trailer do that to me. Except it was a bicycle trailer filled with two fighting kids. Funny how daddy crashing and breaking his collarbone will quiet a couple of kids. Especially after riding to the bottom of the ditch in the trailer.

 

[Hemibee]

Quick post before running off to work. I took the photo of Dave in his time of need. There is no way I'm going run up there and see how he and Aaron are before taking 3 very important photos. For insurance reasons of course. Now if they were still laying in the mud I would only have taken 1 picture.

Probably should do 2 photos if they are laying in the mud so if one didn't come out good you would have a back up. Looking forward to the rest of the story.......

 

[Viejo]

Time to contnue the story. We camped on night 4 at the Lake Louise camp ground in Banff National Park. This is not your typical camp ground. If you ever wanted to know what it is like to be a monkey in cage then stay here. The camp ground is surrounded by a Jurrasic Park style electric fence. Not to keep the campers in but to keep the BEARS out.

Lake Louise has the most unusual color of any Lake I have seen. It is fed by a glacier and it is a beautiful truquiose color.

Next day it was up the Jasper Highway also known as the Glacier Highway. Certainly one of the best motorcycle roads for scenery I have ever seen.

Did I mention we may have left a little early in the season. It may be summer time in Texas in June but not up here.

One of the many furry friends we saw during the trip. This one is a black bear. Most of the bears we saw by the roadway were Black Bears.

This is the Columbia Glacier.

This is the same photo of Columbia Glacier taken back in 1998.

I can't tell if it has receded or advanced. They say it is receding.

As you can see in the photos the sun was not with us on this day. The temp was in the mid to low 40's and raining most of the day. For those thinking about making a trip up to Canada or Alaska spare no expense for water proof riding suit or rain clothes. YOU WILL NEED IT. Now that I brought it up I ended up spending alot of money getting ready for this trip. I purchased the Olympia AST riding jacket and Olympia Ranger Pants. They are waterproof and I can't say enough good things about it. Gotta be the best out there for the money. considerably cheaper than Aerostich and in my opinion just about as good. After buying that, a Zumo 550, AirHawk seat cushion, BMW crash bars, and tank bag I was out couple thousand dollars. That AirHawk is a must have item. I also have a BMW K1200LT that I could have taken on this trip and saved having to buy some of this stuff, but Tony and I have made Prudhoe Bay our goal. Need the GS for that.

Next stop is Athabasca Falls. Most of the rivers were in flood stage which made this pretty dramatic.

Thats it for now. I will try to post some more later tonight

 

[10-95]

Sigh...............

4 more years to retirement and I'll be headed that way. The wife and I are planning on a trip that will last about 3 months.

Give me my fix............

 

[Gilk51]

and I'll be headed that way.

You made a good stab at it here recently. But you didn't tease us like these guys are...

 

[Kidder]

<snip> After buying that, a Zumo 550, AirHawk seat cushion, BMW crash bars, and tank bag I was out couple thousand dollars. That AirHawk is a must have item. I also have a BMW K1200LT that I could have taken on this trip and saved having to buy some of this stuff, but Tony and I have made Prudhoe Bay our goal. Need the GS for that.

Viejo,

Was the GPS useful on the trip? A friend of mine and I are heading to Alaska summer (July) of 2009. I'm debating whether I need a GPS or not. I hear that it's not much use in Alaska. What say you? Oh, and the Zumo 550 is the one I would get if I were to get one.

Also, what about gloves and boots? I have a good Tourmaster rain suit but my boots and gloves aren't waterproof. I could treat them but not sure how effective that would be.

I look forward to the rest of the story.

 

[Viejo]

The Zumo 550 is great. I wouldn't want to travel on a long trip without one. Of course you can get by with out it and do the old fashion way with maps but these are way too cool. Need to find the BMW shop in Fairbanks just ask it, it will take you there. It took me to someones residence and thought it made a mistake. No, George at Trails End BMW in Fairbanks works out of a house at the end of a long driveway.

Thats Tony's Adventure being worked on. More about that later.
The Zumo also entertained me with its MP3 player and it works as a bluetooth telephone. Having the GPS also kept me busy playing around with it on the road. This could be a bad thing but it kept my mind off the monotony of the ride. Its also nice because it switches to Kilometers per hour when in Canada. The maps were very accurate and has every road in Alaska on it including ones that are not paved. One thing funny happened. Tony also has a GPS. When we were northbound on the Dalton Highway both of our GPS units went to night mode in the middle of the day at exactly the same moment about 10 miles short of the Arctic Circle. Couldn't read them unless we were in the dark. Stayed that way until we were about 30 miles from the circle on the way back. Then they both started working properly again.
I also recomend spending the money for waterproof boots. If not I guarantee your feet are going to get wet. I brought alot of winter clothes and I needed all of them on this trip. Highly recomend a heated vest or jacket. Even though you may have Goretex gloves, buy the waterproof glove covers. With Goretex gloves your hands will stay dry but the exterior of the glove gets soaked and takes forever to dry out.

We are still about 1500 miles away from "The Incident" So stay tuned.

 

[Viejo]

Spent the next night in a camp ground near Prince George BC.

This may look silly but ya better have one of these. You can't begin to imagine how mean these little buggers can be.

Next morning we had planned to not take the Alaska Highway but to go up the Cassiar Highway. Then we noticed someone trying to rob the local donut shop. We were not having any of this so we administered some Texas justice. Shortly there after we were on our way again with a dozen and hot coffee. Turned out part of the Cassiar was closed due to flooding. We turned around and headed back toward the Alaska Highway. Mile 0 is in Dawson Creek BC. North we went.