I have not been able to substantiate any of this, but I'll pass on the rumors.
1fatality linked to the race. According to what I have heard a gentleman fell asleep while riding and hit a guardrail. He was allegedly not wearing a helmet when the accident occurred. There was rumored to be a skid mark signifying that he might have come to just prior to the collision
50 cases of heat related withdrawals. Very possible to believe this. The south was extremely hot. Mark and I came close to having a problem down there until we pulled over and poured ice water over our heads and drank a lot of fluids
At least 10 accidents that involved riders down for various reasons with at least 2 being attributed to riders hitting deer. I even heard a story about a rider who came across a Ultra in a ditch off of the 212 in Montana. This was early morning. When he went down to inspect what happened he found a guy in a field with injuries. He thinks the guy had been there for about 4-6 hours before he came across him. It was a cold night but the rider was transported to a hospital and was reported to be ok. 1 rider was rear ended while riding at 65 by a car going 85. He sustained a broken leg and a lot of road rash. I can only guess that he hit the brakes after missing a turn and the car behind him was not paying attention, but that is only a guess. Easy to do though, we often had our eyes on the directions and road signs and not paying a lot of attention to the traffic around us
This is all rumor and conjecture at the moment. I am not sure what the actual tally is or what really happened to people. I just have third party info. As of now it is difficult to get any real info especially because I am in Seattle at the present time.
Mark and I had a couple close calls. In the south I was almost hit by a car that ended up in a ditch. Once or twice we hit the brakes because of a missed turn causing traffic behind us to so the same thing (we were very careful about this but sometimes traffic behind was not). A couple of times cars would turn out of driveways in front of us on some of the deserted back roads. There was evasive action required to miss a armadillo or some such animal In the ozarks. We did not see too much wildlife in the road. A few deer, a dog or two, one abandoned kitten, a chipmunk(rip), and a couple of close birds, but for the most part we were lucky.
I hope all that were injured are healing and able to ride again soon. My deepest condolences to the family of the downed rider.
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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
"border shopping"
Why are we in Spokane and not Alaska to finish this journey? Great question.the prescribed route had us going through one border crossing. Well, by the time we got there many riders had already crossed or attempted to cross in front of us. The Canadian officials had alreadynturned away a number of riders for various reasons and asked us to wait around the border before heading further into Canada. Mark and I did not see the purpose and decided to forego this border crossing and head tomthe next one over. It was a beautiful ride along lake Libby anyway so why not, we r not going to win, and we would like to push to the finish to help the winners cross. Rather than sit idle, we decided to go to another crossing. Well Canada has become more sophisticated since I last visited. We get to the border, wait in line, talk to the border patrol who ask us if we are part of this race. We politely say, not anymore, we are just trying to get to the finish at our own leisurely pace. They tell us to pull into the inspection area and asked us to sit down inside while they tear apart our bikes looking for illegal substances. Half an hour later and with our stuff littered all over the parking lot, they explain to us that "border shopping", the act of going to more than one border crossing, is illegal and that they could arrest us for it. Furthermore he did not believe that we were going to go at a leisurely pace through his fair country and that lying to a border agent is a jail able offense. So he gave us a piece of paper that said were allowed to leave the country and that if we try another border they will throw us in jail. So in the end, we got kicked out of Canada. A very anticlimactic end to this epic adventure. (yes it was part of plan A). Although we were thrown out of Canada, Mark and I would like to thank Santa Maria Harley for putting two amazing bikes together, all of the people that supported us on this ride, and especially my mom for supporting us at checkpoints with food, help, news and love.
We will post pictures once we get home to real computers. I warn that there are not a lot as we did not spend a lot of time taking pictures. And we will post some sort of wrap up.
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We will post pictures once we get home to real computers. I warn that there are not a lot as we did not spend a lot of time taking pictures. And we will post some sort of wrap up.
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Location:W Main Ave,Spokane,United States
Winner!
Congrats to the winners of the hoka hey challenge! 8482 miles in 190.20 hours, truly amazing
http://homernews.com/stories/062810/UPDATED-6-PM-JUNE-28-First-.shtml
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http://homernews.com/stories/062810/UPDATED-6-PM-JUNE-28-First-.shtml
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Sunday, June 27, 2010
Yesterday we ran into a guy named lee smith. He had been running with the front group until he blew his clutch going up a steep muddy dirt road to one of the checkpoints. After getting the bike fixed he rode 60 miles pulled over to get gas and realized he had lost his key. So he was stranded. Thanks martin and Eric for trying to help. Before we left him with a beer and his bike being towed to the local HD dealership he told us about the guys in the front pack. Lee is doing this because 7 years ago on the 20th he lost his son and was doing this in honor of him and to raise money for charity. Mark and I have been saying the guy who is going to win this is either going to win, end up in jail (we saw one of the front runners pulled over with his bike being loaded on a wrecker and the state patrol not letting him go on because of sleep deprivation. He had already hit a guard rail and he did not look so good), seriously injured, or worse. The guys up front have been averaging 2 hours of sleep, they have not showered, changed their clothes, and most impressively most are on sportsters with little to no bags. Lee says they are so tired that their eyes are swollen almost shut and that most of his time up front was dedicated to helping the others who are in the lead. What's more, they are over 24 hours ahead of us. With this knowledge in mind, mark and I are going to skip a couple of check points and jump to the front. We want to make sure that we are in homer when these guys come through. So with that in mind we found a great camp site in the middle of a field off of the 212 in Montana got 7 hours of sleep and are going to push through to the next checkpoint on a modified route. We will get some pics and post when we get up there. If we can help one of these guys we will.
Separately, there is more and more controversy building up. Nothing concrete but a lot of rumors. One of which that is most obvious is that it is virtually impossible to not "cheat" and be disqualified. Miss one road or turn in a 7k+ mile race and u are out. I do not know one person who has been able to follow this rule, there are too many turns or roads that are not marked or poorly marked that somebody did not miss it and had to find their way back or to a similar place. Very interested to see this finish
7k miles, I think not. The route so far has been just under 6k miles. Right now we are outside of Missoula Montana. We have not broken into Canada yet let alone the Alaskan peninsula. How many miles will this end up being, no idea. I do know we have another 2,500 miles or so to go to homer, but the way our routes going we have been spending a lot of time zigzagging back and forth.
How did the front runners get so far?
1. Not stopping to sleep
2. Packed light to get good gas mileage
3. Small bikes to get good mileage
4. Not getting lost
5. Only eating while filling up for gas
6. No showers
7. No changing clothes
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Separately, there is more and more controversy building up. Nothing concrete but a lot of rumors. One of which that is most obvious is that it is virtually impossible to not "cheat" and be disqualified. Miss one road or turn in a 7k+ mile race and u are out. I do not know one person who has been able to follow this rule, there are too many turns or roads that are not marked or poorly marked that somebody did not miss it and had to find their way back or to a similar place. Very interested to see this finish
7k miles, I think not. The route so far has been just under 6k miles. Right now we are outside of Missoula Montana. We have not broken into Canada yet let alone the Alaskan peninsula. How many miles will this end up being, no idea. I do know we have another 2,500 miles or so to go to homer, but the way our routes going we have been spending a lot of time zigzagging back and forth.
How did the front runners get so far?
1. Not stopping to sleep
2. Packed light to get good gas mileage
3. Small bikes to get good mileage
4. Not getting lost
5. Only eating while filling up for gas
6. No showers
7. No changing clothes
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Location:Montana Ave,Laurel,United States
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Plan A
You would think that after riding roughly 5k miles in a week we would have to deviate from our plan, not so! Plan A has been a very dynamic and flowing plan that we have strictly adhered to. Was that a shave ice stand on the side of the road in Oklahoma? Yep, you will find 'eat shave ice' in plan A. Should we get lost for 3 hours looking for a road that a competitor has taken the sign down for? Again, plan A. Should we help a teenager who crashed his car in a ditch on a long lonely stretch of highway after falling a sleep at the wheel and being woken up by 2 motorcycles? That's in there too. How about lose all communication, whether it be hardware failure or software failure, you will find that written down in there too. How about drive through a farmers field for a mile to get around road construction just as a crop duster starts his rounds over said field? Planned! All in all this trip is going exactly as we have planned it and we couldn't be more thrilled!
Big thanks to #1 supporter,mom, who has helped us find communication, brought us food at the check points, always has a smile on her face, and yesterday a shower (not a lake or a river or sprinklers, but an actual shower)
Thanks Mom
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Big thanks to #1 supporter,mom, who has helped us find communication, brought us food at the check points, always has a smile on her face, and yesterday a shower (not a lake or a river or sprinklers, but an actual shower)
Thanks Mom
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We're back!
After the iPhone exploded on the highway at 80 mph outside Memphis while I was sleeping, we haven't been online. That situation has now been rectified.
Two nights ago the weather started to get cold. We slept beside the sandstone spires in monument valley in Utah, and packed up as the sun rose.
We made it into Wyoming after making a rather unfortunate wrong turn. It took us so far off the route we tore up some interstate to get back on track. I would have thought Utah would be closer to a '55 stay alive' type state, but not so. At 20 over we were still barely passing people.
Last night we slept on the side of the road by the bikes - no tent necessary as the cold finally knocked the bugs off. Today we take the long way to Missoula through deadwood south Dakota, which will finally bring us within striking distance of Canada.
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Two nights ago the weather started to get cold. We slept beside the sandstone spires in monument valley in Utah, and packed up as the sun rose.
We made it into Wyoming after making a rather unfortunate wrong turn. It took us so far off the route we tore up some interstate to get back on track. I would have thought Utah would be closer to a '55 stay alive' type state, but not so. At 20 over we were still barely passing people.
Last night we slept on the side of the road by the bikes - no tent necessary as the cold finally knocked the bugs off. Today we take the long way to Missoula through deadwood south Dakota, which will finally bring us within striking distance of Canada.
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Location:Lander,United States
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
the math on sleeping for the first two days
1 st night 2 hours
2nd night 0 hours
3rd night 6 hours
we just packed up, about to leave! 2700 miles better get cracking!
2nd night 0 hours
3rd night 6 hours
we just packed up, about to leave! 2700 miles better get cracking!
update
What a trip this has been! I have to apologize for the slow posts, it has been a bit difficult to get a complete update as the time I have been taking to blog has been while we are riding on some of the straighter roads.
Some thoughts:
Alabama was great! we went through some great back roads! finally a chance to work on shaving down the floor boards! Best part is, at night, they leave a trail of sparks!
I cannot stress how hot it has been. Our ambient air temp gauges have been hovering right around 100 degrees this whole trip. Add to that the 80-100% humidity and it has been very difficult to deal with. I had to stop yesterday to dump Ice water on my head because I was starting to zone out and hear a weird buzzing noise. Once I got some fluids in me and cooled down all was fine and we kept pushing on.
Nobody does sweet tea like Georgia does sweet tea!
Memphis roads are terrible. there are small bumps in the roads where it looks like a root has lifted the asphalt. When you hit them they rattle your teeth and your spine.
The directions have been very difficult to follow. They are a bit convoluted in the way they were written. For example this morning when we pulled out, we got lost in Memphis for 3 hours and drove around in circles for 66 miles (literally) because instead of the directions saying "55 N" they said "take 55 towards I 240 to Arkansas". We took I 240 heading to Arkansas, realized we were wrong and got lost inside Memphis. Prior to this mishap, we had probably lost about 6-8 hours on being lost. The directions take us in a lot of circles. Good roads, but you have been on most of the names before.
We did the math on our sleep, for the past 96 hours we have slept 8. We remedied that today and took a long break. We slept about 8 hours. We are way behind, but that is ok, we are having fun.
I lost my phone today on a bridge on a small section of 4 lane highway. It fell out of my new, and much needed, map tank bag. I was going about 65 and there was no way I was going back to run across a very busy highway in traffic to get it. So until I get a replacement (hopefully tomorrow or the next day) posting will be few and far between.
we have a long trek ahead of us. 2700 miles to UT from Memphis. We never stay on a freeway for more than a mile or so. We are going as far south and west as Flagstaff and are taking back roads that roughly follow the 40.
When we pulled in last night we were roughly mid pack. Then we got lost in memphis (we weren't the only ones) so we decided that sleep was necessary. The front pack was about 6 hours ahead of us. Frustrating to know that if we had not gotten lost we would be up there. The actual first place group was a few hours ahead of them, but there is some controversy with them that I do not fully understand but has something to do with if they were following the prescribed route.
I have a feeling that people will start doing what we did in a day or so when the sleep deprivation catches up with them. We had a head start on sleep depravation in the Keys. A lot of people are not getting more than an hour or two of sleep a night. not sustainable.
There are two types of racers within this race. 1. Go all out and do your best not to get a ticket. These guys are at the front right now. I am not sure how many of them actually have gotten tickets, but I know that some have been pulled over. I am very impressed with how nice the police have been in all of this. I have to think most of them are Harley owners them selves as they have not been out in force to really stop us from racing across the country for money. The second group, which is where Mark and I are, are being a ittle more cautious. We are staying within the speed limits and consistently riding. This way we pay more attention to our route than keeping an eye out. (even though we have been way lost) Which one is better, I have no idea, but we will see in Homer.
Sorry for the lack of pics, I will remedy once I get a new phone.
Thanks for all of your support!
Some thoughts:
Alabama was great! we went through some great back roads! finally a chance to work on shaving down the floor boards! Best part is, at night, they leave a trail of sparks!
I cannot stress how hot it has been. Our ambient air temp gauges have been hovering right around 100 degrees this whole trip. Add to that the 80-100% humidity and it has been very difficult to deal with. I had to stop yesterday to dump Ice water on my head because I was starting to zone out and hear a weird buzzing noise. Once I got some fluids in me and cooled down all was fine and we kept pushing on.
Nobody does sweet tea like Georgia does sweet tea!
Memphis roads are terrible. there are small bumps in the roads where it looks like a root has lifted the asphalt. When you hit them they rattle your teeth and your spine.
The directions have been very difficult to follow. They are a bit convoluted in the way they were written. For example this morning when we pulled out, we got lost in Memphis for 3 hours and drove around in circles for 66 miles (literally) because instead of the directions saying "55 N" they said "take 55 towards I 240 to Arkansas". We took I 240 heading to Arkansas, realized we were wrong and got lost inside Memphis. Prior to this mishap, we had probably lost about 6-8 hours on being lost. The directions take us in a lot of circles. Good roads, but you have been on most of the names before.
We did the math on our sleep, for the past 96 hours we have slept 8. We remedied that today and took a long break. We slept about 8 hours. We are way behind, but that is ok, we are having fun.
I lost my phone today on a bridge on a small section of 4 lane highway. It fell out of my new, and much needed, map tank bag. I was going about 65 and there was no way I was going back to run across a very busy highway in traffic to get it. So until I get a replacement (hopefully tomorrow or the next day) posting will be few and far between.
we have a long trek ahead of us. 2700 miles to UT from Memphis. We never stay on a freeway for more than a mile or so. We are going as far south and west as Flagstaff and are taking back roads that roughly follow the 40.
When we pulled in last night we were roughly mid pack. Then we got lost in memphis (we weren't the only ones) so we decided that sleep was necessary. The front pack was about 6 hours ahead of us. Frustrating to know that if we had not gotten lost we would be up there. The actual first place group was a few hours ahead of them, but there is some controversy with them that I do not fully understand but has something to do with if they were following the prescribed route.
I have a feeling that people will start doing what we did in a day or so when the sleep deprivation catches up with them. We had a head start on sleep depravation in the Keys. A lot of people are not getting more than an hour or two of sleep a night. not sustainable.
There are two types of racers within this race. 1. Go all out and do your best not to get a ticket. These guys are at the front right now. I am not sure how many of them actually have gotten tickets, but I know that some have been pulled over. I am very impressed with how nice the police have been in all of this. I have to think most of them are Harley owners them selves as they have not been out in force to really stop us from racing across the country for money. The second group, which is where Mark and I are, are being a ittle more cautious. We are staying within the speed limits and consistently riding. This way we pay more attention to our route than keeping an eye out. (even though we have been way lost) Which one is better, I have no idea, but we will see in Homer.
Sorry for the lack of pics, I will remedy once I get a new phone.
Thanks for all of your support!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Rumors
865 miles n
We saw three crashes, 1 reported fatal
Not sure where we r n the pack but likely near back. Slow is smooth smooth is fast
Time to grab a some sleep
So far, been epic
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We saw three crashes, 1 reported fatal
Not sure where we r n the pack but likely near back. Slow is smooth smooth is fast
Time to grab a some sleep
So far, been epic
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Location:W Dame Ave,Homerville,United States
Sunday, June 20, 2010
212 miles in
The roads n florida are very straight. First roadkill confirmed. Rip little chipmunk
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Saturday, June 19, 2010
Local Dick rises for the occasion
Our heartfelt congratulations for your unopposed win!
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Riders meeting
Riders meeting went off without too many hitches. We learned two valuable rules
1. Any ticket, being a helmet violation or speeding, disqualifies u for the race
2. We get going at 6:43 which is sunrise
Excited to get on the road. It looks like we have a good group of riders with us
My favorite pic is this guys bike. He rigged a hammock to his bike foe the sleeping sections. Pure genious!
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1. Any ticket, being a helmet violation or speeding, disqualifies u for the race
2. We get going at 6:43 which is sunrise
Excited to get on the road. It looks like we have a good group of riders with us
My favorite pic is this guys bike. He rigged a hammock to his bike foe the sleeping sections. Pure genious!
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Sweet car
Saw this n Orlando
-turns out it's a trailer!
We tries to convince this guy to join us, not sure if he made it though
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-turns out it's a trailer!
We tries to convince this guy to join us, not sure if he made it though
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What to bring
What does it take to ride across the country in a couple of weeks. This is all my gear spread out over my living room floor. Compressed in four bags it fits on the Harley quite nicely!
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Temps
Fair
87° F
Feels Like: 96° F
Wind: From S at 5mph
Details
Webcam | Video
Just got a heads up from a friend who is in Florida telling me how hot it is. One of the many things we will have to deal with is the swing in temps. Right now it "feels like 96" in Florida, in Homer it "feels like" 46. Thats a 50 degree swing!
Cloudy
50° F
Feels Like: 46° F
Wind: From S at 12mph gusting to 23mph
Details
87° F
Feels Like: 96° F
Wind: From S at 5mph
Details
Webcam | Video
Just got a heads up from a friend who is in Florida telling me how hot it is. One of the many things we will have to deal with is the swing in temps. Right now it "feels like 96" in Florida, in Homer it "feels like" 46. Thats a 50 degree swing!
Cloudy
50° F
Feels Like: 46° F
Wind: From S at 12mph gusting to 23mph
Details
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Training Ride: 1,000 miles in two days
I learned over the weekend that with gas stops and a quick lunch in Spokane, I live exactly 500 miles from my brother in Missoula. Living in Seattle means I have only seen pictures of the Road Glides Los Angeles Harley and Santa Maria Harley prepped for this race. As you can see from other pictures on this blog - they did an amazing job.
I wanted some seat time on the new 2010 Road Glide, so I rented one from a Harley dealer in Seattle for the weekend. I cruised to Missoula Saturday, and back Sunday. What a smooth bike! Before the training ride I thought this race from Florida to Alaska was going to be hard. Now I'm worried we've made it too easy on ourselves.... Maybe we should have gone for a couple XR1200's.
But the XR's don't have as much fender space so we couldn't have had our bikes' names "Black Betty" and "After Hours" stuck on there. Kevin - I call Black Betty! I called her - she's mine!!!
71 in a 55 is now illegal
Sad news to report from the road: Montana has speed limits.
No, this is not new news, but it is important just the same. It used to be people could go about their business on Montana highways with only one rule in mind, the “Basic Rule Speed Restriction.” This rule stated motorists were to comply by driving “in a manner that did not unreasonably endanger other highway users.” My favorite part of the rule is the ‘unreasonable’ wording. So if you were reasonably endangering other motorists, no problem. It is only when you crossed the line of presenting a danger so unreasonable that you would be pulled over.
After travelling at a comfortable [redacted] MPH throughout Montana this weekend, a construction zone appeared around a corner. It was Sunday so no workers (nor other vehicles of any kind) were present. After slowing to what I felt was plenty slow, I learned it was not, according to one Montana Highway Patrolman.
I miss “Reasonable and Prudent”.
Big Thanks
Lions and Tigers and Road Glides
We will be riding 2 identical Harley-Davidson Road Glides. This is the perfect bike for the trip. It is a little quicker steering than the Street Glides or Ultra's because the front fairing is not connected to the steering column. This also helps to mitigate the affect of cross winds. The bikes come very comfortable from the factory, but we have added some back rests and higher windshields to make sure that we are as comfortable as possible for the 7k miles. Most importantly we have swapped the stock seats for something a little more comfortable from Harley-Davidson.
Like Professor Fate and Maximilian Meen, Mark and I are going to go an an epic adventure across the north American Continent (or should we be like Maggie Dubois and The Great Leslie? Then who's Maggie and which of us is Great?). We have entered ourselves in the Hoka Hey Challenge. Although I am sure you all know what this is, I will give you a brief recap. The Challenge is a mad dash across the US and Canada starting in Key West Florida and ending in Homer Alaska. According to Google Maps that is a 4 day 11 hour trip that will cover 5,487 miles. Of course that would be too simple. The Hoka Hey has already mapped out a 7,000 + mile route that will not be including any large super highways. The prescribed route will not be revealed to us until we get to Key West, and even then they will only tell us how to get to the next check point at which time they will give us our next driving instructions. The first checkpoint is 1,000 miles away in Mississippi! There are a couple of other rules of note:
1. Have to sleep outside next to your bike (No Hotels, Motels, Bed and Breakfast's, Brothels, etc...)
2. Only 1 rider per bike
3. Has to be a Harley-Davidson that is Air Cooled
4. No whining
This is definitely a trip of a lifetime. The race is limited to 1,000 riders that come from all over the world. We will all converge on Florida ready to begin our trek through deserts, mountain ranges, swamps, rain, sun, and even some snow all so that we can say we did it! Well, I guess some of them have entered because the first person to cross the finish line without breaking a rule will win $500,000.
From the Hoka Hey Challenge Main Website
On June 20th, 2010 some of the world’s most fearless riders will come together for a 7,000+ mile run from Key West, FL to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. Across two countries we will ride and test our will as warriors in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge!
Many are called but few will be chosen. Only 1,000 chosen individuals – those who can hear 10,000 horses hooves thunder across the prairie as they ride into battle – will be counted among the most elite riders to ever straddle a steel horse.
In the same manner as the finest military organizations, the chosen few will receive a numbered challenge coin, minted with the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge Logo. And, at the end, there lies a HALF MILLION DOLLARS in ALASKAN GOLD for whoever reaches the final checkpoint first. There is no prize in a warrior society for second place.
Every Harley-Davidson™ dealership in the world has been invited to participate so riders should prepare to be challenged not only by the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge Organizers but by riders from around the globe!
Meaning – It’s a Good Day to Die – “HOKA HEY” was the roar of every warrior that rode into battle with Crazy Horse. Join us as we ride into battle. As we put ourselves on the line to find out just who we are.
Any one looking for way to renew their spirit and do good for those in need, definitely needs to be a part of this great event! Whether you make it to the first gas stop or all the way to Homer, AK; participants who are in Key West at the start of the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge will be a part of something that is greater than any one of us.
We will only follow this particular route one time in history! So, if you have the heart to take up the challenge you will need to get your application in now!
Does your heart pump the blood of the warrior grandfathers?
ARE YOU A CHOSEN ONE?
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