We started out, a minute apart, down a twisty-windy mountain road, steeply pitched between dense forest patches. I didn’t even know that roads with 14% downgrades existed, but combined with sudden hairpin switchbacks, this one was a challenge! The best part was coming around a tight bend into (well, almost into) a HUGE steer, just standing in the middle of the road.

We arrived in Quesnel just before dark- tired, sore and hungry. According to the score sheet, I am currently in 12th place of 14 bikes; could be better. Brad is doing much better, he’s in 8th place overall. We are both learning a lot, and tomorrow we might do better!

Yesterday’s big cow was scary, but today the wildlife came running out from every direction. Moose look really goofy when they gallop! We rode down lots more steep gravel roads, and down long dusty ones. Lots of highway construction slowed us down, but we made it to Fort St. John in time to find a Walmart and KFC. Tomorrow is a long day that starts at 7am, and will take us up into colder country.

So far all of our gear and preparations have held up. The race has claimed its first casualty, though. A rider named Ned had to drop out due to fan failure on his bike. The only car in the rally also left us today, but for schedule problems that forced them to go home. This leaves 13 bikes for the rest of the trip.

Today was the day that couldn't be seen. We rode through one type of limited visibility after another. Fog, smoke, rain, mist, low light, and all of it really cold and really wet. Our electric coat liners worked great, and the electric gloves that Becki loaned me were also terrific. Our bikes are running super, and so far everything seems to be holding up. I am currently in 9th place overall, and Brad is in 8th. We are doing better than that in our class (700cc and under, no computers) but I am not sure what standing we are within that group. The "Whiz Bang" class can have all sorts of navigational computers and electronics, but our group, the "Seat of the Pants" class can only have stock bike parts and a GPS unit. It's hard enough to keep track of the information on a route sheet, GPS, speedometer and clock, much less a computer, too! Those Whiz Bang guys must be better multi-taskers than I am...

Alcan 5000 Day Four
Today I messed up the first TSD (Time/Speed/Distance) segment. The idea is to arrive at a certain point exactly on time, not early or late, by traveling at an exact speed for an exact length of time and distance. Up until today, I have not had an accurate speedometer, my clock was wrong, and my GPS was broken, so I didn't know where, when or how far I was. You can imagine my scores. Today I was excited, because my clock was right, my GPS was working, and I had a formula for my speedometer. Then I fell just at the start. No big deal, just a slow-motion clunk over in the street, really more ego bruising than anything else. The big problem was that it took nearly a minute to get the bike up and running, and we get penalized a point for every second. It turned out that it wasn't enough to knock me any lower in the standings, I am still in 9th overall, but it was a really awful score. Brad did much better, but not enough to climb any higher than the 8th place he still holds.

We lost another bike today, but got Ned back, sortof. Michael's KTM is sick, maybe out of the race. It has a valve problem, he says. I hope it gets fixed! Ned rented a KLR650 and rode with us today for the second half and again tomorrow. He's trying to buy it, but isn't sure if it's for sale...that would be cool, if he started the race on a BMW and finished on a Kawasaki! Either way, he's still out here having fun. Today we rode over 300 miles of dirt, all twisty and winding. We rode up and down, through mud, dirt, and gravel, with moose, bears, trucks and lots of campers. I rode more miles of dirt today in one day than I had ever ridden in my entire life up to this point!

Tomorrow we ride about 5 hours of "technical" off-road. I'm not sure what that means, and I am a little nervous, but I'll try anything! We are in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory tonight, and Skagway, Alaska tomorrow. Whitehorse is having a heat wave. There is no air conditioning in the hotel (though there is great internet access) and we are hot. After being cold for two days, I never expected to be roasting near our Northernmost point of the trip!

Once I was done bawling, I noticed that everyone was helping each other and really working as a team to get all of the bikes through. Jamie led the group, and we all waited for each other at each intersection. I was "reassured" by the whole group, and I found my confidence. I also had some wonderful advice, which may just be the answer to life, the universe and everything. Jeff told me to "keep your feet on the pegs, your butt in the air, and your eyes on the prize." This got me through the rest of the very challenging ride. In fact, I started to get a little over confident, and launched myself into the woods at about 30 mph after hitting a log in the trail. I knew that I shouldn’t have looked at it, since that always means that I will hit it! I was impressed with my bike, since it just got back up and kept on going. I did too, but I sure am sore.

Ned rode with us on his "new" bike, a KLR that he bought from Jamie. Michael also rode with us, on a rented bike. Both of them have had to drop out of the race due to major mechanical issues with their bikes. The other Michael is also looking iffy, since he hurt his foot in today’s ride. I am not sure what his condition is, but he was in the bar tonight with a walking cast on his ankle; he seems to be in good spirits, though.

Our equipment is still holding up, although we have made some minor repairs. Brad’s chain guard rattled out some bolts which we replaced with some of the screws meant for my leg. I twisted the braces on my leg when I catapulted into the brush, so Jan and Joe will be annoyed at me when I get home, but I am feeling great! Tomorrow we ride a long long day that lasts until late at night, but maybe we will see the Northern Lights in action!

Webmaster's note: I just want to repeat this. She used parts for her leg to fix the motorcycle! Go cyber-rider!

Most of the riders went on an optional side trip to a restaurant about 70 miles away from the hotel. We started to go, but about 30 miles into the dusty, twisty, steep road we realized that we could not see through the setting sunlight reflected off of the dust and that we were not riding safely. We turned around and went back to the hotel. I was glad that we did when I heard the rest of the riders roll in at nearly midnight!

We were originally supposed to be on a ferry for most of the day tomorrow, but there was a glitch in the plans. Somehow our reservations didn't make it here, so we are riding extra miles instead. Tomorrow is planned as 385 miles, of which 130 are dirt. Hmmmm...sounds like another really long day! We have a Time-Speed-Distance segment in the morning, I still have to do calculations for that (it's nearly midnight!) We lost another rider, the guy that hurt his foot. Michael flew home with a broken foot, and might need surgery. His bike was OK, and I guess will get transported home. That leaves 11 riders. Brad is in 6th place overall and I am in 9th. If I could get my GPS to work, I know that I could do better. We are in 1st and 2nd place for our class though! Of the bikes under 700cc without fancy navigational computers we are leading! This is fun, though it sure is a lot of work, too.

I couldn't have gotten here without the help of so many people. Jan and Joe Saunders spent so many hours working on the design for my leg, and it's holding up completely. The Springlite foot from Otto Bock really is lightweight and responsive, it lets me ride and walk without thinking about it. I can stand up on the pegs and shift the bike around, partly because Chris at UnderGlass welded steel blocks to the peg for me and lengthened my shift lever. My Tech-4 boots are as comfortable as sneakers, just like Alpine Star promised they would be. The Schuberth Concept helmet from BMW of Orlando saved my head when I launched through the bushes, but it also has withstood 3000 miles of gravel without even getting scratched, and keeping me comfortable. BajaDesigns helped us with our larger gas tanks, and we definitely would not have been able to make this trip without them! Sun State Fun Sports in Mt Dora made all of this possible, of course, since they found us the bikes and Mike helped us with the purchase price a lot. There are so many other people that I should mention that I don't even know how to mention them all. When I ride down the road for hours on end, I think of all kinds of perfect things to write, but by the time I get here and try to write, I can't put it all together. It probably doesn't have anything to do with the pitchers of beer that seem to always accompany dinner...

After that the day settled into a long long long long hummmmmmmmmmmm of the motor with the throttle held nearly wide open. The weather kept things pretty well hidden, so the ride was mostly about how many songs can I remember the words to and sing in my helmet. Every 100 miles or so, we stopped for gas, and the day went by. So far, a list of broken, dead or missing stuff: My Garmin GPS 60C gave up the ghost completely; my chain guard is in my saddlebag; my MP3 player is in the other saddlebag dead; My helmet microphone got crushed when I crashed into the bushes; a roller is missing above my chain (not really sure what it was supposed to do anyway...); Brad's helmet intercom had to come out because it was too uncomfortable on his ears; both of our rear tires are bald and I hope they make it back to Seattle. All together, not a bad list of damages, considering that there are two bikes and one rider that are out of the race altogether! Of the bikes that are still in, some are limping. Paul is kicking his shift lever with his heel and can't go down to first, and some of the others are fighting other mechanical hassles. Chris solved his when he realized that his pack strap was covering his air intake, strangling his bike. No wonder it wasn't running so good!

We rolled into Whistler at about 1:30, and we are staying in the nicest hotel of the trip! When we got to our room, there was a wonderful wine/cheese/fruit basket waiting from our friends Becki and Chris! The merlot was great, but it tasted even more wonderful because we were so cold and hungry. Now it's nearly 5pm and we've showered and been to the bar. Everyone is sharing their ideas for "next time." I don't know if there will be a next time for us, but I am very glad that we came. We won't know our final standing until tonight's banquet, but no matter what it is, I finished. I have done something that I really wanted to do, something that was a real challenge. If I had passed on this opportunity, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. Did I have fun? I'm not sure how to answer that. Parts of it were fun, parts of it were hard, all of was something that I am glad that I did.

The banquet was really nice, the food was great. The awards were not the reason we all did it, of course, but it was a concrete finish to the adventure. Brad finished in 6th place overall, I finished in 8th place overall! Not bad out of 15 starters...and in our class (IIIG- Under 700cc without computers) we finished in 1st and 2nd place! We also received The Northern Lights award, which was sortof a motivational category. Everyone was really proud of themselves and the evening was really nice. The awards were small versions of a primitive northern rock sculpture called "Inuksuks" which were left by ancient hunters to mark that other humans had passed along lonely trails. A fitting memento of this adventure.

After the banquet, the laundry room beckoned. After the laundry, exhausted sleep. Then, in the morning, we did it again! We loaded up our bikes, pulled on our boots and electric jackets, and rode to Seattle. A "short" 250 miles or so down the road and we were in Kirkland again. It was ironic that some of the most beautiful scenery of the whole trip was in those 250 miles. Maybe it was because those were the first miles that we had not had to fly through at an accelerated pace too fast to notice the beauty? Anyway, we reluctantly loaded up our trusty steeds into our patiently waiting pickup, and started the drive home.

We crossed Death Valley, drove through the night, ate a lot of jerky, and got home just in time for Hurricane Frances to take our power for four days...it's good to be home!