Nice report riding Nomad. Have to coax you into Central and South America.

Another Nomad

__________________
When you come to a fork in the road…take it!

BLOG: paulnomad.blogspot.com.au

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If I had a wallet that never emptied when used, then yes, you'd have no trouble coaxing me into South America

Great reading NomadGal... sat here at work in the the UK wishing I was on the bike crunching the miles to never never land... Ride safe and have fun...

Steve (Bones)

Thanks Steve!! I will try and have fun

After my last post at Starbucks I headed back to my tent (hoping it was still there).
I had marked how many miles exactly it was from the intersection so I would find it again. Glad I did cause I would have rode right past it


Yep having a green tent comes in handy


I cooked dinner while enjoying the fact that I actually had a houseplant for a while

I packed as much as I could (which really wasn’t much as I was tired) and went to bed hoping it would not rain during the night.
I slept like a rock and in the morning was woken by a shining sun.
It looked like it was going to be a very nice day.
I took my sweet time cooking breakfast and breaking camp, but was sure I’d be out of there by 10.
Why is it every time I am sure of something, something else happens?
Anyway, it was nothing major, or at least I hope it won’t be, but upon checking my tire pressure I noticed that the front was just a tad low, but the back didn’t show any pressure at all! I looked at the tire, but it looked fine, not flat or anything. I decided to get my green slime air compressor and look at the pressure that way as I figured my tire gauge bit the dust. Same thing, 5psi. I had a flat and didn’t even know about it. I had felt that Spirit seemed to pull a tad more, but I thought it was because of all the weight. I plugged the green slime in my 12 volt and blew up my tire.
I thought I’d better keep an eye on it and keep checking the pressure every so often.
This is the first time I had a 130/80/17, as I had mentioned before, and I guess pne of the pros on this tire is that you can ride it without any air in it!!

I also notice that the passenger footrest mount was missing a bolt. Must have rattled loose at some point. Luckily I had a whole bin of odds and ends, including a bolt that fit.

I finally took off at 10:30 and headed to Carmacks. Boy did Spirit ever ride a lot better!!! What a difference a full tire makes LOL!



I got to Carmacks at around 12:30 and was able to finally talk to my Dad.
It made all the hassle of going out of my way to go to White Horse worth it.
The fact that I now had 2 full cans of gas for my stove helped too, even though I didn’t find much of any kind of food for the road, as the only health food store was now gone.
A big part of me was nervous about setting out to do a 425 Km dirt road, but I had heard it was a gorgeous road, so I felt I just had to ride it, nerves or not. My only hope was that the nice weather would dry out any mud there might have been.

The road started out very promising and I enjoyed having the next miles paved


Everywhere along the route were burnt areas, and if I had not worked for a long time, I would have stopped and made camp among all the other Morell pickers, and made some money. As it was I just couldn’t do it, I had just finished with work and the thought of doing it again just didn’t sit well with me, I wanted to be free for a while, money or not.






I pulled over for a little rest and a quick snack, and couldn’t help but take a pic ot the mountain in between the shrubs

I also found some insulated winter gloves at the side of the road. It looked like they had been there a while, but the inside looked immaculate, never worn, as if they fell off someone’s snow mobile in the winter.
They fit me, so I decided to keep them and see how warm they were after they dried.


Seeing as the day was sunny, charging my GoalZero Sherpa 50 battery seemed like a good idea


This road just seemed like heaven to me, it was gorgeous beyond words, pictured don’t do it justice!


Before I knew it I had arrived at the town of Faro, the end of the paved road!




So far the road was just slightly damp, but very well packed with an occasional wet area.


It was a gorgeous road though!




Crossed over a bridge with a spectacular view, so I made a U-ey and parked the bike.
It was a pretty deep gorge!!

The one thing that was both annoying and a blessing were the heavy trucks barreling a tremendous speed down the road. I’m sure they helped to pack the mud down nice and tight, but the drivers could care less about other traffic I think….


I got to the turn off for Ross River, the last place to get gas.
I kept riding and ended up at the river where a ferry was waiting. Wait a second??? Did I miss the gas station? I knew that the ferry took you to the road heading into the North West Territories.
I turned around and asked a lady pushing a stroller down the road whre the gas station was. I had gone right past it! In my defense it wasn’t an ordinary gas station though. There was a fence with two huge metal tanks like on the back of a truck but stationary, with a wall that had the pumps mounted on them.
There was a note saying please fill up first and then go into the grocery store to pay for your gas. How nice!!!
I have to admit that I find the gas prices here in Canada staggering!! $1.50 or more per liter, which is about $6 a gallon.
I did notice though that ever since I filled up Spirit’s tire I had way better mileage, about 50 to 53 Mpg, not bad for a 685 cc
After enjoying Ross River, a cute little town with very nice people who kept asking me questions,

Once back on the road, I had a choice, back track 10 miles and hit Hwy 4 then make a left, another 10 to 15 miles, or go down the short cut, only about 7 miles. Hmmm, the entrance of the short cut was scary!! Deep ruts with mud, but it had some dry groves too, so I thought I’d chance it. I’m glad I did, as that was the worst part of the whole road!
The short cut was beautiful!!




After no time at all I hit the main dirt road (untreated secondary Hwy)



I rode for a while enjoying the really well packed gravel road, looking for a place to make camp.
Occasionally I saw a spot that could have worked, but I held out for something better, a place with a view!
After abut half an hour I barreled past a pullout.
Screechhhhhhhhh, well, as much as I dare to brake on gravel.
I came to a full stop and turned around, that spot would be awesome if there was room for a tent!
I rode Spirit up the little hill to the lookout, and saw that it was just the most prefect place!! In one word, Awesome!!



I parked Spirit and pitched my tent, the only con about the place was the amount of bugs, gnats really, no mosquitos thankfully!





I was in heaven, a perfect place, nice and quiet, and maybe one car every few hours.
I ate and went to bed, blissfully at peace.

The night had been cold and windy but other than waking up a 4 having to use the bathroom, I slept like a baby.

The next day turned out to be hot and sunny. Did I mention hot???
I can’t remember the last time I was this warm. Sitting in the tent in my bikini enjoying each little breeze that blows through. There is no shade in this spot, but I didn’t care. I finally had a chance to take a baby-wipe bath without freezing my butt off!
I hung my shirts out in the wind to freshen up a little, and worked on Spirit. Looks like I need to re-bleed the brakes, they still feel sluggish like they have an airpocket in them.
I did change the Moose handguards, I had them on wrong so they didn’t break the wind at all. Hopefully they will now.
The rest of the day I filled with reading, taking pictures of flowers, typing my RR, and knitting.

Wow! Look! It’s as if the flower has a rib cage




I love my little roomy vestibule!


Freshening up my shirts


There are blue ones


and pink ones


some gorgeous wild roses


even very orange trippy moss on rocks

I can’t get enough of my view!!

After a good meal I decided to crash early

I woke up around 7, made a cup of instant coffee, and oatmeal, and packed up.
I was out of there by 9:30


As I was packing up my tent though, I noticed a few of these right under my tent wall. What the heck is this? I saw lots of these spit looking things on Vancouver island as well.


I am starting to really like my tent. I can pack everything while the outer shell is still up, which will keep me dry in the rain, and bug free.
Then I quickly break down the rest and leave.


One last look……

I rode for a few hours and mostly the road looked like this:



Once in a while a break would come with a bit better view, but all in all it was very smooth and relaxing



I stopped at an outlook, and saw a bird in the tree, as I was taking a picture it flew straight toward me!!



The he landed on the trash can observing me

I gave him a few sesame seeds, and hopped back on Spirit.


What a cool little log cabin this had been!


sometimes the road took my breath away


For those of you who are X-men fans!!

Unfortunately after this sign the road went down hill!!
I have discovered that you can actually shimmy your bike’s butt when going over wash board to fast!!
I did not like this part, it felt as if my teeth were gonna fall out, but around 70 km it wasn’t too bad.

At one point a sign came up that said road construction. I ended up following this truck, glad he didn’t dump any more water than he did.
After I passed him I wondered if that was all as far as the construction went, boy, did I ever wish that had been the case………….

Have you ever found yourself crying without knowing it????
I had to stop at the stop sign that a young girl was holding. She asked me just you?? I answered” Yep!” The I asked her how the road ahead was, she said it’s nice and soft, ??????? I figured I’d misheard her.
She let me go after radioing that a woman on a motorcycle by herself was coming.

The second I hit the dirt I about shit my pants, it was soft!!!! And how!
I hit the throttle telling myself you can do this!! One of those heavy rollers past me and I swerved to the left figuring that the road must be a tad more solid after that thing rolled over the dirt. Yeah, not really, but I was doing fine, until….
The dirt turned into upturned mud, with tire-tracks going left and right and up and down, with piles of mud here and there. Before I knew it I was about 6 inches deep in mud. Spirit’s rear end was sliding left and right and left and right for what seemed like forever. I was terrified and in my mind already saw myself flying over the handlebars while Spirit slid sideways. A construction worker heading toward me in a truck saw what was going on, and he pulled way over to the side to give me room to get out of the mud. I kept hitting the throttle tears streaming down my face, but unwilling to give in to my fear or ease off on the throttle, that would have ended disastrously! After a while the road got better and I hit some regular soft dirt before hitting gravel again. I don’t know if I breathed that whole time, I was so shaken up but kept on going. After a while it looked like the construction area was over and done with, and I was on a regular gravel road again.
I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t wipe, I made it!!!

You know, things do happen for a reason. I had been bummed that my ride over the top of the world had been one through mud and rain, but thinking backwards, if I hadn’t gone through that, there was no way in hell I would have made it through this! I am sending lots of thank yous to the guys that invited me to ride with them on that muddy road to Dawson City. I owe you more than you know!!

Before long the views turned nice again, and I took some more pictures (I had stopped shaking by then)


I made it to Watson Lake, and of course the first thing I saw where the famous signs





I stopped at the visitor center and asked for directions to primitive campsites. Well, the most primitive one was at Watson Lake, so I headed that way.
I also found out where I could take a shower


Flowers outside the visitor center

I found the camp site and pitched my tent between the mosquitos, and then grabbed some clean clothes and went back to town.
After a wonderful shower at the recreation center, I sat down to use their free internet. Yeah, it was free for half an hour!

So I decided to find another place with wifi, and ended up at Andrea’s restaurant.
I decided to splurge for once, and ordered a Greek salad and potato skins.
It was wonderful!
I figured once in a while I shouldn’t worry about money and spending it, and that turned out to be rather serendipitous! While eating I checked my Paypal Acount and saw that I had received a wonderful donation from katoom916!
Thank you soo much!!! This salad was on you!!

I’m about to head back to the campsite, number 39 is my spot, and hopefully will sleep soundly.
Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Fort Nelson and then North into the North West Territories for just a little while. There is a road (number 7 that turns in to 1 and then 35) that loops around and I end up in Alberta.
From then it shouldn’t take me too long to get to JustJeff in LacLaBiche.

Fantastic report, good luck on your continuing trip, I look forward to following along.

Inspiring words and pictures, keep up the good work:-))

Why do I even stay in campgrounds?
After paying $12 to spend the night in mosquito zone, I also ended up having to sleep with my earplugs in as some of the neighbors thought it was okay to play rock & Roll music till 1 in the morning.
Needless to say after a tiring day (mud and all) I ended up with hardly any sleep.
The next morning I was disoriented and sluggish and got out of there pretty late.
Still I figured, it stays light long, so I can just take my time and ride longer.
I swung by Watson Lake tourist info again to fill up my warted bottles and met 2 guys on motorbikes heading to Dawson City. They asked me how far it was as they thought they could do it in one day. I guessed about 500 or more miles (it was 605) and told them it was a bit much for one day. I suggested the route I had just taken, warning them about the short construction nightmare. It would save miles, but I don't think they were interested.
They took some pictures and a lady took one with all of us. I gave them my ADV name and hope they'll remember it so they can post the pic.
I talked to my Dad for a while and headed out. About 5 miles later it popped into my head that I hadn't tied down the stainless steel water bottle on my passenger foot peg, I looked down, and sure enough, nothing there! Sh…..t!
I turned around with the hopes that it was lying in the parking lot of the info center. Right as I got there I saw something shiny and utterly flat un the highway surrounded by a puddle of water. :cry :cry :cry
I really loved that bottle, it held a lot of water!
So here I went trying to find another bottle that would hold water. Neither the grocery store nor the sport/tourist store had any nalgene bottles. I did find another stainless steel one for $10, not as big but close.
Got it filled up with water and finally was able to leave Watson Lake.
Once I started riding I got over my sad and frustrated mood of forgetting to tie up my bottle and having to buy a new one.
I think the reason why it frustrates me so much is that I am on a tight budget, and having to spend cash on something I really didn't need if I had had it together just frustrates me. I know people say that money doesn't buy happiness, but I do think having it puts you at ease. Still, I have to continually tell myself not to worry and that everything will be just fine. To be in the now and to quit worrying about what might or might not be. Some days that actually sinks in, other days not as much.


My first photo opportunity put a smile on my face


Yay!! Finally in Bison country!


Took a quick break to eat a Lara bar it the river, but there were too many bugs around to relax


Another bear!! I finally got my share of bears


Now this little bugger was determined to find out what was in the truck, it wouldn't budge. I rode up and he just looked at me, not going a foot away from the truck.




Just beautiful!


Aww, lots of baby ones too




I'm letting the pictures do the talking, I was just riding




I'm guessing it was loosing it's winter coat, either that or they always look so shabby




I was getting tired even though it was still early. I really am a person that needs a goof night rest!
I was riding through Muncho lake provincial park now, and everywhere it said campsite full. Tuesday will be Canada day, so it's a really long weekend with lots of folks camping.
Even Liard Hotsprings was filled up, so I didn't even bother stopping for a soak. Not my idea of fun to jump into a hot spring with tons of others in it.


The views were just amazing!








It's a pretty cool feeling riding that class to a lake, I don't know why, but I find it soothing and exciting at the same time.



After a little while I had to admit that I was beat, I needed a place to crash.
I kept my eyes open for a little dirt road veering off, but there was nothing, until I saw a grown in road making a sharp turn to the right. It was going up pretty steep but I had ridden harder stuff so I went for it not knowing were it would end.
Haha, I didn't have to go too far to find out. The road stopped all of a sudden, like it was never meant to go anywhere, or had utterly gotten overgrown.
It was perfect!


I was high above the traffic and had another great view.
It was perfect timing too, as no sooner had I pitched my tent and gotten my junk inside when it started to rain!
I was very happy that I could finally relax and go to sleep.
There were some interesting flowers in my tent, but one was of a dried up yellow flower that now had something like and Avatar, hair end thingy


Wonder if these gave James Cameron the idea for the Avator way of connecting ??? :lol3

I warmed up a carton of of soup and crashed!!
Slept like a log and woke up around 5 am just to turn around and leap a few more hours.
It had rained for a while that night but not when I woke up.
I relaxed and read for a while thinking I'd break camp in a little when it started raining again

No biggy, I was more than happy to stay put for a day.
Around noon the sun came out and made the inside of the tent into a sauna!! All that heat and moisture contained in a tent was a tad more then I bargained for and I started packing my stuff.
It felt good to be rested
I was out of there a little past 1 and happy to be riding again toward Fort Nelson.

Not too long after I had left I saw my first male moose close up!!!
I was ecstatic!! Finally a moose!!






I think he got a little annoyed with me, as I was creeping closer and closer, so he turned around and walked away.


Saw a couple on a bike, with an MSR tent like mine (or close) tied on the back (I recognized the green bag)
The license plate was foreign, maybe German??



I gassed up in Toad River and bought a sticker saying Alaskan Hwy and it had a drawing of a huge mosquito on it, LOL.
The gas price there was staggering, not to mention that Spirit started stuttering not too long after. Diluted gas???
I hope not.
Almost exactly 100 miles after Toad River I saw the turn off to Yellow Knife and Fort Liard.
I needed to go to Fort Nelson first though to get a map and to fuel up.
The visitor information center was right as I got into Fort Nelson. What an awesome place!!!
You can hand out and use their wifi for free, have a cup of coffee on the house and just relax!!
That is exactly what I am doing now

In a few I will go and find a gas station, and then turn around to head toward Hwy 77 into the North West Territories.
The weather forecast is rain for tomorrow, so Maybe I'll just camp for a day until the sun comes out. The forecast for Yellow knife is lots of sun.
Afterward I'll head to LacLaBiche in the hopes that my brothers fancy shock will be there.

Last night was I night I'll never forget!! My first real encounter with a bear!!
But…… let me backtrack just a little

Left Fort Nelson pretty late, but as I had a late start i didn't mind.
Got back to the turnoff to Fort Liard in no time


The first part of it was paved, so the riding was smooth.


pretty awesome bridge



I kept riding for a while, but realized that I was getting tired.
I kept looking for a little niche to park my tent, but nothing felt right
One spot really appealed to me, on a little ledge near the river, the trouble was I would have to ride though a muddy dip that might be more than a dip in the morning if it rained, so I exed that idea.
A few more areas looked promising but were too sandy or wet.
Then I saw a nice flat area that looked perfect. there were a few more places like it down the road as if more people could camp there.
I pitched my tent and made dinner, it felt like a good spot.



The amount of bugs was surreal though!!

I checked to see if by any chance I had reception, and sure enough, that cell tower that I passed saying something about peace and for your use, must have been put there for travelers. Awesome!
A little while later I went outside to brush my teeth and in the corner of my eye I saw movement.
Hiding behind the bushes staring at me with a curious look on his face was a big black bear.
Well, of course that first thing was I froze… could not believe my eyes. A bear, here???
Ahhhh, what do I do? oh yeah, noise, they don't like noise.
So here I was hollering you bear, go, shoo, go!! He looked at me as if I was crazy and walked hesitantly toward me.
My foghorn! Where did I put it? In the tent! so I ducked into the tent to grab it. While I had done that he had come to me even closer and was now a mere 15 feet or so away. I pushed the bottom on the foghorn to scare him away, nothing happened!!! Not a peep. What the??????
I then ducked back in the tent and got the bike keys, started Spirit up and revved the engine while hinting the horn.
Yeah, he didn't like that at all and veered away from me. I revved a little harder and honked a tad longer and he bolted across the road into the bushes. I left the engine running a tad longer, just to make sure he didn't come back.
Phew!!! A little nerve wrecking. Later everyone tells me a black bear? ah, no worries they are really shy and scare easy. Well, he didn't look shy to me!
I got to wondering if he was looking for food, and if he could smell through the Pelicans.
So I got out the brake fluid and dabbed some on the pelicans here and there (away front he stickers!) hoping to disguise the food smell. The I tied a knot in the tank hose in case the bear came back and thumped over the bike, I didn't want the gas to spill! I also put the little jack on the other side so Spirit would be harder to push over, and went to bed.
I heard a few noises, but nothing major. I did smell some stinky stuff though, but was too tired to care and fell asleep.

Nothing happened at night and I woke up after a good nights rest.
It had rained just a little during the night, so the tent was wet.
Wondering if the bear might be back at some pint, I decided to break camp and head to Fort Simpson.
I had Pm'd MitchG to see if I could pitch my tent up at his place.
I packed up pretty fast and dried my tent with my REI towel, took a picture of where I saw the bear, and left


he was standing just to the left of the hedge


Glad to be heading North. The scenery was not very exciting though.


I made to to NWT!!


The road turned into dirt once I was in NWT, and for the next few hundred kilometers I rode on hard packed and squarely gravel.

I stopped in Fort Liard to gas up. It's a small town and I met an older couple on a gold wing heading to Alaska.
They didn't have much on them, but he said the only way he was able to get the wife to go was if they would stay in motels.


I finally started seeing some hills again!


Around three I was starving, no idea why all of a sudden I was so hungry, so I stopped and got out the stove and heated up some Tasty Bite Indian food. Now I only have one left, sniff!

I felt rejuvenated and hopped back on the bike.
An hour later I hit the intersection to Fort Simpson.


Pavement again, yippee!! I think I rattled enough for one day.


Half an hour later I got to the Ferry into Fort Simpson




Fort Simpson in the distance.

Mitch met me at the visitors center and drove me around the island for a while.
He also noticed that my rear brake disk was history!! some huge groves were carved into the outside of the disk. The inside was still smooth. What the??? how was that possible?

Turns out that putting used disc pads from another bike might not have been the best of ideas.
I still have my old brake pads, so I'll put them on for the time being.
Looks like now I have to order a new brake disc and have it shipped to Jeff
I am so glad for the donations I have received in the last few days. It's like you all knew something was gonna happen!!!

Well, here I am now, and it's almost midnight. I am going to crash!!

Was I ever tired yesterday, hanging in there by a thread!
Now that I've had a good nights sleep (bug free) I feel so much better.
I went outside to take a look at my disc (rotor) and pads and saw that one of the pads was totally worn down to metal!
No wonder it scored the rotor!! How is that possible? When Jim shipped me a new brake caliper it had still tons of pad on the brake. Could it have just dislodged itself from the metal?
I wonder if a ton of mud got stuck in between from the "top of the world ride"?
Needless to say now I know why the scoring.
Looked online and boy those things are pricey!! $230!
JettnJim offered to send me one of his. but I start feeling that there not enough time in my life to make it up to him!!!

Mitch is a cool guy who has the good fortune of having a job that he really loves.
We were talking about that yesterday and it is so true that if you do something you love then your job is not just a job but something that is part of who you are. It's like living like you're retired, even though you're not, he was saying.
Most people once they retire start doing gardening or whatever, and finally enjoying their time. If they had done gardening as their job in life, they would have enjoyed their work more.

I can see in reality that that could be true, but I've just never found something that I enjoy doing more than a few times and then not get tired of it. LOL, must be my restless nature……
But that's what my journey is all about, finding the thing I love doing most, other than riding camping and knitting
I'm going to put my other brake ad on it today, and hope it will last till I get to Jeff's place.

The caliper slides on 2 thick pins that attach to a plate. It's that plate that is threaded for the 2 allen bolts that attach it to the axle holder on the swingarm.

If that plate is bent, one brake pad will be self-energizing -- the pad will wedge toward the disk. When you release the brake pedal that pad won't return as quickly or as well.

Or it could be dirty pins or a missing spacer. But you may want to look at the pins to make sure they're parallel to each other, not notched or worn excessively, and square to the 2 bolt holes. Look at the plate to see if it's flat (although it is formed into 2 parallel planes IIRC). Look into the pin holes of the caliper itself to see if the holes there are worn -- they're a softer alloy than the pins.

Ref ur comment....<The amount of bugs was surreal though!!>

Not sure wots worse the bugs in ur tent or the bears outside ... at least the bears leave you alone!!....

Hope u get the brake sorted soon. Worth doing the checks Grinnin mentioned before bolting on on new disk.

Keep the pics and journal coming.....

.......just get the caliper looked at and get a decent used disc, (rotor to you stateside) for 40 bucks and bolt it on.........! I never understand anyone that pays full shocking rip-off price for dealer parts when perfectly useable bits are lying around and you can spend the substantial savings on food, fuel and doing things on the road........!!??
2002 Kawasaki KLR650 KLR 650 Rear Brake Rotor/Disk in Spec | eBay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kawasaki-K...item1c21594849

...for ex. here are two, one on each side of the pond.....