Day 22 - June 22
Today I left Livingston, Montana toward the north entrance of Yellowstone National park. I drove the eastern side of the upper loop and the western side of the lower loop. It was a beautiful day, traffic was not too bad and I saw a lot of wildlife in the upper portion of the park. I left Yellowstone and stopped to visit some friends At Jackson Lake Lodge, who hosted the 2005 Curve Cowboy Reunion.
Total mileage today: 332.
This will be the last day of photos and reports. The remaining ride home will be Interstate Highways in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, neither of which yield many great photo opportunities. I had originally planned to go back home through Dinosaur National Park and in to Denver on US 40, which is a very scenic ride, but with the forecast temperatures for the Denver area in the mid to high 90s I decided to travel very early in the morning and take the most rapid route to get into Aurora before the hottest part of the day. I would go east to Lander, south to I-80 to Cheyenne, then I-25 the rest of the way home. Since I was trying to make good time, I didn't take any more pictures during the remaining ride home. My original plan was to be home on June 25 as I had to be back to the office on June 28. With the delay due to the bike repair and the road problems on the Cassier in B.C., I had to alter my route considerably, but I was still able to see 90 percent of what I had planned. I missed Denali National Park and Fairbanks, AK because I was getting worried about my timetable. Michelle and I are already planning to go back to Alaska to spend a week. We'll probably fly into Anchorage to save time. Alaska is a beautiful state and there were many things I didn't have time to do or see.
UPDATE: We did make it back to Alaska, but this time by plane (eyuck!) and rental car (double eyuck!)
That trip is here. Not a cool as another motorcycle trip, but we did see more of Alaska. The next bike trip will have to wait.
While I didn't make it all the way to Inuvik as I had planned, I did get to ride well past Fort McPherson on the Dempster. Had I known that the Cassier Highway was not going to be a good option for the ride home, I might have invested the time to make it to Inuvik, but my timing would not have allowed me to get out to Tuktoyatuk to actually see the Arctic Ocean. I plan to make the trip again and complete my ride in the next few years. While I am not upset with BMW for the failure of the part on my motorcycle, I think the dealership and BMW could have done more to keep me from losing a week out of a three week trip due to the failure. The part could have been ordered, transportation arranged and a dealer for the repairs could have been chosen in a much more efficient fashion. All of these items were handled in a serial fashion, when they should have been initiated simultaneously. To me there is no excuse that a tow vehicle wasn't arranged to get me to a particular dealer the very day of my failure. Instead they began trying to decide on a dealer for the repairs only after I made it into Dawson City. That cost me a day. Then they started looking for a flatbed only after determining what dealer I was to go to, which cost another day. When the dealer failed to order the part in time for Friday delivery, he didn't have the foresight to order the part for Saturday Delivery, that cost me an additional three days. Without much effort at all they could have had the repairs completed by the end of the day Saturday, saving me a bunch of lost time and saving BMW a bunch of money. Had I gotten the bike back Saturday, I would have been able to ride the Denali Highway and see the park. I would have hit the Dempster with good weather and made it to Inuvik in time to make the day trip to Tuktoyatuk.
Total mileage remaining: 515.
Total mileage for the trip: 8500.