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It was a dream for quite a long time to travel
through North America on a Harley for a couple of months. Me and Sandra planed the whole
trip, but as live is, it went everything different and I flow to Chicago with two other
friends who came only for Sturgis and a couple of days. The rest of the trip at that
moment looked like a one man tour, but again everything went different.....
To begin with
the end - the map I was drawing on my tank during the trip gives an
overview of the whole trip:
But let's
begin at the beginning...
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I flew into Chicago on August 1st 1996 with nothing
but my hand luggage and some money. Immediately I and my friends started to look for a bike
that would carry me through the USA. Three days later I found myself in a garage in front
of a very nice '64 Panhead. She was not only looking good but she was also running like
hell. No question, I had to buy that Hog.
The only thing: THIS SEAT WAS SO UGLY that I had to take it off immediately and I rode off
seating on the frame! |
I left Chicago on August 4th for Minneapolis where
my friend knows some people who helped me making the registration of the bike. Guy and
Jenny turned out to be good friends and I'm always welcome when I fly into Minneapolis to
stay there. So they are when they will come to Switzerland one day.
Then I left for Sturgis where I stayed for the Rally. |
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In Sturgis, or better at
Black Hawk Cycles between Sturgis and Rapid City where I had to get my
Alternator fixed I met Dexter from California how has a fiend that lives
close to Black Hawk Cycles in the Black Hills. Dexter took me up there to
introduce me to Bob and Barbara. |
I used the time to make my Pan ready for the planned
trip across the whole country. Bob invited me to stay at his place where I could use his
tools and the garage.
It was time to build a seat... more exactly it was only a cover over the frame for the
battery with no padding made out of a an old road sign that I found beside the road. |
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Bob and his Shovel |
| Ready to hit the road -
first target: Alaska |
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After ten days of beer drinking and having a lot of
fun I left Sturgis and the Black Hills and rode west to Yellowstone National Park. |
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 I stayed a few days in the Park to watch
all the spectacles.
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| Then North to the Canadian border, Banff, Jasper and
Prince George. |
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From there I took the road to Dawson Creek where I
entered the ALCAN (Alaska Hwy). One of the most popular roads on earth and well known for
its bad condition! There are so many constructions on that road that you
have to ride on loose gravel almost all the time and the gravel part is mostly the good
part of the road!
A good experience are the crossing or passing Trucks. The road disappears for a few
seconds in a dust of dirt and flying stones.... |
| In White Horse (Yukon) it started to rain and was
very cold so that I was thinking about turning around an going South again. But the
weather forecast for the northern part of the Yukon and Alaska was good so I packed my bike
and hit the rain. The Alaska Hwy is almost too easy after you get used to its bad
condition, so I took the 'On Top of the Word Hwy' to enter Alaska. |
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This is the most northerly land border to the USA.
The only problem: there is no pavement on that road at all! Well I already had good
experience in riding gravel roads and I finally reached the border to Alaska. |
| It was the first week in September and already
the
beginning of fall. I toured Alaska for about one week with a lot of sunshine. Only the
nights in the tent started to be cold. One morning when I wanted to drink some water out
of my bottle I recognized that it was frozen. I checked my thermometer and was shocked: 10
centigrade below zero! |
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One of the Highlights of the whole trip was the
Denali National Park and Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in the United States of
America.
The first day in the Park the weather was not very good and it was not
possible to see 'the mountain'.
I did walk around the park for a day and saw a
lot of bears, moos and other creatures.
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| The next day was a perfect day! The sun was
shining, the sky was dark blue, the trees yellow and red and on the
mountains was fresh white snow from the days before.
Just awesome!! |
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And my Pan again!
People can tell what they want but a Panhead is the best vehicle to
travel - and she made it to Alaska! |
| The nights were cold and
it was hard the get the Pan started in the morning. Sometime I had to wait
till 12o,clock when it was getting warmer to kickstart.
But it was nice weather the rest of the week and
I enjoyed Alaska a lot. |
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Now it was time to ride down to the coast - Anchorage, Homer and Valdez.
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From Valdez I rode back North to Tok where I took the ALCANE down South to
Haines Junction.
Great Indian summer days!
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From there a small road is winding over a pass and down to
Haines - a little harbor village
I could watch a Grizzly fishing in the river. He was very close and was
catching one fish after the other.
That was the last Grizzly I have seen on my trip! |
| Then the time has come to leave the biggest state of the USA and head back
South to warmer
countries.
I took the ferry from Haines to Prince Rupert. |
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This see-way is called the Inside
Passage and takes about two days with several stops in little fisher towns
across the coast.
The day when I left Alaska with the boat it the
weather started to get worse again - the winter announced himself! |
Back on land I first had
to go to Prince George again and then South in direction Vancouver.
I stopped in 100mile House for two weeks to visit some friends and enjoy the beauty of the
Canadian outback.
The Ten-ee-ah Lodge is a beautiful place in the
middle of nowhere.
I was helping out in the wood. One day we had
blown an engine of one track and had to replace it. |
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Here I also met my girlfriend who flew into Atlanta and rode her modified XT500 up
North
to meet me here in Canada, but this is another story.
She arrived in the middle of the night and the
next morning when I got out of the tent we were a little shocked:
There was fucking snow all over the
place!! |
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stay!
We were horse-back riding. The fist time for me -
it took me a while to find out how to deal with the horse.
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One of our new friends was a pilot - I had to
fly! Ten-ee-ah Lodge - air view.
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After two weeks we had enough and
had to move on. The
road took us down to Vancouver. |
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ferry and we were on Vancouver Island.
A beautiful place to be.
Camping in the rainforest. |
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We left
Canada behind us and in Port Angeles (state Washington) we crossed again the border to the USA.
From there on famous Hwy101 down South.
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In Arcata (California) we left Hwy101 and turned left into
the country.
Beautiful roads are winding over the hills - riding like in heaven!
Through Redding and Tahoe City to the Mono Lake. |
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From there over Tioga Pass (9945 ft.) into the Yosemite National Park.
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From there to Fresno and into Sequoia
Nat'l. Forest.
And further South:
Bakersfield - LA and finally Riverside. |
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In Riverside we met again our friends
Dexter, Pamela and Dave I met in Sturgis. Dexter invited us to his house
and we
stayed there for a while
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During that time we went down to the Delmar
Race Weekend.
On the bike show and swap meet you could find any
famous motorcycle from the good old times!! |
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From Riverside we went east towards
Las Vegas. On the way we stopped in a little Western town before we hit
the desert and the 'gambling town'.
A view beers and a couple Dollars
later we left Las Vegas behind us and headed towards Utah to see all the
famous national parks.
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| Zion National Park was the
first stop..... |
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then Brice
Canyon, |
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| Arches
& Bridges National Parks |
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| Colorado
River |
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Monument
Valley |
| Nice Tree in-between
the monuments |
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Antelope-
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-Canyon
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Grand Canyon |
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Death Valley |
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...and from there we went back to
California to stay at Dexter's house for another couple days. |
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Together with Pamela, Dexter and
Dave we went to the Love Ride close to LA.
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Since it was November already
Sandra had her flight back home form Atlanta soon and I had my flight
from Chicago where winter has arrived already, I decided to ship my Pan
back to Switzerland from LA. Dexter worked in Pomona Valley Harley
Davidson at this time so I could build a crate for my bike at the shop
using pallets from new HD's. |
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To bring Sandra to Atlanta with
her bike and to travel up north to get my flight to Mexico City I bought
a Van but this is another story.
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The
End |
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Traveling
information:
(August 1st to December 27th, 1996) |
Bikes:
1964
Panhead and a modified Yamaha XT500 4
month (August-November 1996)
26'273
km
States:
Illinois,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, British
Columbia, Yukon, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah,
Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico
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