Sunday, June 11, 2006
Headin' Home
Drayton, ND to Brookfield, WI
I set the Screamin' Meanie for 0430 and went to bed. Got up relatively easily and washed my face, etc. I had done most of my packing the night before and in order to save time, I left the tank bag and GPS on the bike, covered with the Nelson Rigg bike cover. Since this was a very small town in ND, I wasn't too concerned about theft. Heck, you could practiically throw a stone from one end of the town to the other.
Got going right on time and headed toward Karlstad, the next town. I knew I needed gas, but didn't know what would be open at this hour of the morning. It's in exactly these conditions that the big PIAAs are worth their weight in gold -dark two-lane road in deer country - they light up the road for about 1/2 mile. In fact when I have ALL of the lights going - the PIAA 1100s, the big PIAAs and the bike high beams, there is something like 550W coming out the front end - awesome sight! Finally found a 24/7 station and filled up for the longish ride up Rte 11 to Rosseau where I would turn toward the border. I made the turn at Rosseau only to see a sign saying the border crossing was only open from 8AM to midnight and here it is 6:00AM. What to do now - guess I'll have some breakfast... a deluxe omelet and coffee later, it's still only 6:45. I pulled into the Holiday gas station and asked about the border crossing. Seems that the border crossing at Warroad is open 24/7 and Warroad is only 20 miles away, so down the road I go.
The Northwest Angle as it is called is US property, but to get there you have to enter Manitoba,Canada, then recross back into the US. When you return you have to do the same thinkg, so to get to and from the Northwest Angle, I crossed the border 4 times. The US/Canadian customs at Warroad is a formal affair with armed officers, an office, etc. The US/Canadian customs office at the Angle is a shack with a videophone and is actually eight miles into US territory. The one I checked into and out of was called Jim's Corner and is clearly labeled as the customs shack.
So, I checked in at customs in Warroad, told them I was going to the Angle and would be back thru in a few hours and took off. At Moose Lake the pavement abruptly ends and becomes gravel, so it's back to dirt bike time again. The road is really in pretty good shape, but when another vehicle passes you going the other way (usually a pickup hauling a boat), there is this huge cloud of dust that envelopes you for a few seconds. Multiply this scenario by 4-5-6 times, and you, the bike and all of your gear are covered with dust.
I finally got to the Angle Inlet, the small resort town that was my destination and stopped at the T intersection. Looking at the sign with arrows pointing left and right, I saw the smallest Post Office I had even seen - the customs shack at Jim's Corner wasn't too much smaller. I had to have a picture of that!!
I turned left and followed the road a bit to Grumpy's Bar and Restaurant with an "OPEN" sign lit up, so I stopped for coffee and chat with the only people in there, who happened to be the owners. Nice place and very clean. I can imagine this was a busy place in the aftenoon and evenings.
I got my water and pebble samples, took the requisite pictures and headed back down the gravel road, checked back into Canada at Jim's Corner andran the remainng 20 miles of gravel road back to the US. Checked back into customs at Warroad again and was on my way down thru Minnesota. Apparently the gravel road and all of the bouncing fried my one remaining PIAA lamp because it was gone. Now I have only one low beam headlight and the big PIAAs, so it looks like I'll be running at night with the high beams only - still okay for conspicuity, though.
For some unknown reason, the Garmin GPS has difficulties in northern Minnesota. It rerouted me all over the place and even turning it off and on again didn't help too much. Fortunately, I knew that I was going to be on Hwy 11 for some time, so I just ignored the thing.
I took a small shortcut and some backroads to pick up Hwy 53 at Ray, MN and headed for Duluth, a town I have visited many times (home to Aerostitch/Rider Wearhouse) and knew my way from there quite well as it is the route for the Bun Burner 1500 as well as the Great Lakes GOLD rides that I had done last year.
I started getting tired north of Rice Lake and had to stop 2-3 times to clear my head. These weren't long stops, sometimes only 2 or 3 minutes, but it was enough to shake the cobwebs out and keep me going.
At Eau Claire it started raining and would continue for the remainder of the ride. Traffic was moderate going south, a lot heavier going north because this was Friday afternoon/evening and people were headed to their "cabin up north" My highbeams didn't seem to upset too many people, but I was just waiting for someone to piss me off enough to blast them with the big PIAAs. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and the big PIAAs stayed quiet.
I walked into the Red Rooster, my end-of-the-ride watering hole, about 2130 after a 900 mile day and the end of an 11,200 mile journey, glad to be home safe and sound.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this incredible odyssey as much as I enjoyed riding and writing about it. I'll publish a recap and a what worked/what didn't work section sometime in the next several days.
Later,
Mike
I set the Screamin' Meanie for 0430 and went to bed. Got up relatively easily and washed my face, etc. I had done most of my packing the night before and in order to save time, I left the tank bag and GPS on the bike, covered with the Nelson Rigg bike cover. Since this was a very small town in ND, I wasn't too concerned about theft. Heck, you could practiically throw a stone from one end of the town to the other.
Got going right on time and headed toward Karlstad, the next town. I knew I needed gas, but didn't know what would be open at this hour of the morning. It's in exactly these conditions that the big PIAAs are worth their weight in gold -dark two-lane road in deer country - they light up the road for about 1/2 mile. In fact when I have ALL of the lights going - the PIAA 1100s, the big PIAAs and the bike high beams, there is something like 550W coming out the front end - awesome sight! Finally found a 24/7 station and filled up for the longish ride up Rte 11 to Rosseau where I would turn toward the border. I made the turn at Rosseau only to see a sign saying the border crossing was only open from 8AM to midnight and here it is 6:00AM. What to do now - guess I'll have some breakfast... a deluxe omelet and coffee later, it's still only 6:45. I pulled into the Holiday gas station and asked about the border crossing. Seems that the border crossing at Warroad is open 24/7 and Warroad is only 20 miles away, so down the road I go.
The Northwest Angle as it is called is US property, but to get there you have to enter Manitoba,Canada, then recross back into the US. When you return you have to do the same thinkg, so to get to and from the Northwest Angle, I crossed the border 4 times. The US/Canadian customs at Warroad is a formal affair with armed officers, an office, etc. The US/Canadian customs office at the Angle is a shack with a videophone and is actually eight miles into US territory. The one I checked into and out of was called Jim's Corner and is clearly labeled as the customs shack.
So, I checked in at customs in Warroad, told them I was going to the Angle and would be back thru in a few hours and took off. At Moose Lake the pavement abruptly ends and becomes gravel, so it's back to dirt bike time again. The road is really in pretty good shape, but when another vehicle passes you going the other way (usually a pickup hauling a boat), there is this huge cloud of dust that envelopes you for a few seconds. Multiply this scenario by 4-5-6 times, and you, the bike and all of your gear are covered with dust.
I finally got to the Angle Inlet, the small resort town that was my destination and stopped at the T intersection. Looking at the sign with arrows pointing left and right, I saw the smallest Post Office I had even seen - the customs shack at Jim's Corner wasn't too much smaller. I had to have a picture of that!!
I turned left and followed the road a bit to Grumpy's Bar and Restaurant with an "OPEN" sign lit up, so I stopped for coffee and chat with the only people in there, who happened to be the owners. Nice place and very clean. I can imagine this was a busy place in the aftenoon and evenings.
I got my water and pebble samples, took the requisite pictures and headed back down the gravel road, checked back into Canada at Jim's Corner andran the remainng 20 miles of gravel road back to the US. Checked back into customs at Warroad again and was on my way down thru Minnesota. Apparently the gravel road and all of the bouncing fried my one remaining PIAA lamp because it was gone. Now I have only one low beam headlight and the big PIAAs, so it looks like I'll be running at night with the high beams only - still okay for conspicuity, though.
For some unknown reason, the Garmin GPS has difficulties in northern Minnesota. It rerouted me all over the place and even turning it off and on again didn't help too much. Fortunately, I knew that I was going to be on Hwy 11 for some time, so I just ignored the thing.
I took a small shortcut and some backroads to pick up Hwy 53 at Ray, MN and headed for Duluth, a town I have visited many times (home to Aerostitch/Rider Wearhouse) and knew my way from there quite well as it is the route for the Bun Burner 1500 as well as the Great Lakes GOLD rides that I had done last year.
I started getting tired north of Rice Lake and had to stop 2-3 times to clear my head. These weren't long stops, sometimes only 2 or 3 minutes, but it was enough to shake the cobwebs out and keep me going.
At Eau Claire it started raining and would continue for the remainder of the ride. Traffic was moderate going south, a lot heavier going north because this was Friday afternoon/evening and people were headed to their "cabin up north" My highbeams didn't seem to upset too many people, but I was just waiting for someone to piss me off enough to blast them with the big PIAAs. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and the big PIAAs stayed quiet.
I walked into the Red Rooster, my end-of-the-ride watering hole, about 2130 after a 900 mile day and the end of an 11,200 mile journey, glad to be home safe and sound.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this incredible odyssey as much as I enjoyed riding and writing about it. I'll publish a recap and a what worked/what didn't work section sometime in the next several days.
Later,
Mike
