ABC"s of Touring - To the Edge of Alaska
In the spring of 2002 while talking to some of my riding buddies, the subject of the ABC's of Touring came up.
The ABC's of Touring is a contest sponsored by HOG, the Harley Owners Group, where you take pictures of your motorcycle in front of a state or county sign, a HOG rally banner or other event specified, all with a current issue of HOG Tales in the photo for proof.
We talked about how it would be nice to get into the list of the ten runners-up because we didn't think we could actually place in the top 3 spots; one of the guys had met the rider who posted 166 points a few years earlier, during the Route 66 tour when it came through town, and that seemed like an unreachable goal at the time.
Someone else mentioned that it wasn't often that anybody got that many points, and after checking Hog Tales for the previous year's list we saw that the runners-up list looked reachable, so off we went.
My friends and I had several trips planned through out that year and we figured we would just start seeing how many points we could accumulate.
One trip led to another and before I knew it I had made it to 47 states and made it into 3rd place, and my friend Warren got to 7th.
After the list of winners was published in 2003 I thought about how much fun I'd had seeing the country and all of the places I'd never been, that I decided I was going to make a plan for 2004 and see just how many more new places I could visit.
And being a bit competitive, I decided to see if I could match that 166 point total that at the time I thought was the best that had ever been turned in.
I found out later that two people in the 1990's turned in 172.
I realized that the big difference between a lot of points and something really impressive like the 3 point totals above, had to be the state HOG rallies.
So when the January issue of Hog Tales came out I sat down and started planning everything around when the rallies were.
Using Microsoft's MapPoint software and the list of rallies from Hog Tales and then coordinating with the rally details in the HOG members' area on the website I came up with what looked like a workable plan.
With 4, 5 and 6 rallies all scheduled on the same weekends I knew it would be a challenge, but it just meant there would be a few weekends of hard riding.
From Memorial Day until Sturgis weekend in August there were over 25 rallies and a lot of miles to cover.
My first ride was to the Louisiana State HOG Rally on April 1st where I took my first picture, what a cool way to spend April Fools Day.
The last picture I took was in University City, Missouri, real close to home, on the 11th of December, when I realized that through all the trips crossing most of North America I hadn't bothered to stop and get that U city.
Fitting I guess since that's what they call it in the St.
Louis area.
Eight and a half months, 66,000 miles, 6 back tires, 7 cases of oil, and a ton of beautiful scenery, and the quest was finished.
There were a few failures along the way; I never did find that danged X county, and I didn't make it to quite as many rallies as I planned, and I didn't make it past 166, but getting that note telling me congratulations for the most points made for a great ending.
I started riding in 1971, and although I didn't have a Harley at the time, like some of my friends, I really enjoyed being out in the wind.
Our trips for a couple of hundred miles can't compare with the thousands I've ridden on the Harley Dyna for the 2002 ABC's and the 2003 Ultra Classic that saw most of North America in this years ABC's.
The longest and most adventurous trip this year was riding the Alaska Highway.
I left home with several gear bags and an extra tire strapped to the top of my tour pack.
When I got home almost 8,000 miles later the tire was gone but I had acquired two extra gas cans.
The plan was to leave St.
Louis on the 17th of Sept.
and head for the Oregon State Rally before making my way to Alaska.
If you ever get to ride US 20 across Oregon it's a beautiful ride, but make sure you keep your tank topped off, you never know when you're going to ride into a little one horse town and be told they sold out of gas yesterday.
Many thanks to the cowboy with an extra gas can.
I made it to the rally in Bend, right before it finished, but since I had to cross some mountain passes I decided to stay the night because of fear of ice on the roads thanks to an early cold snap.
Everything went great the next day and I made it part way into British Columbia where I stopped and spoke to a friend who warned me to watch for the bears, moose and caribou as I headed off for the Alaskan Highway.
The next evening right before I made it to the highway I started seeing snow and I heard on the radio that they had 18 inches in the area just 48 hours prior.
I talked to a trucker at a fuel stop when I got to the highway and he said that the roads were clear but that the gas stations don't stay open late.
He was just a little wrong on the gas; sometimes they just close for the season.
This made for the second time I had to beg for gas on this trip so at the next town I bought those 2 gas cans I mentioned.
They're continuing to make the highway better and better but luckily it wasn't raining while I was there because their idea of working on the road is to just tear out all of the pavement and start from scratch; the soft dirt I road on would have been impassable in the rain.
But even with all the construction delays and the begging for gas I finally made it to Alaska, but since I was now over a day and a half behind schedule all I saw of Alaska on this trip was the state sign when I got to the border.
It was pitch black, the temps were falling and it was spitting a light mist so I decided to take my picture and get headed back south just in case Mother Nature changed her mind and got nasty.
My next bit of fun was when I headed up the 60 mile stretch of highway to get to the Northwest Territory, and with about an hour of daylight left I thought I might at least get to see it in the light.
But maps lie; what was supposed to be pavement turning to gravel at the Territory line instead became gravel, and narrow, just 15 miles into the road.
So now I'm watching for wildlife and trying to make it safely down this less than stellar road.
I did finally get to see the Moose everyone talks about being abundant in the area and thankfully he only wanted to run along side the road and not in it.
And I also got to see a bear cub by the side but another thank you to his mom for not showing up.
Needless to say I didn't get to see the Territory in the light and the trip back was now compounded by having to ride that fun road in the dark, but at least the wildlife stayed away on the trip back to the main highway.
In all the thousands of miles I've ridden, I don't think I've ever been so glad to see concrete.
The rest of the trip, except for the now sparse construction issues was pretty uneventful, but I did find out that Kansas is not alone when it comes to wide expanses of nothing to see.
Alberta and Saskatchewan bore a strange resemblance to Dorothy and Toto's home state.
If you ever want a chance to see a wide variety of critters on one trip then I would recommend riding the Alaskan Highway; I was chased by a coyote, counted 3 bears, 1 moose, 4 caribou, more deer than I could count, and farmer Brown even let his goats and pigs wander out to see me at the highways edge, and this doesn't account for all of those nice glowing eyes in the dark that I couldn't quite decide what they belonged to.
And although I was disappointed not to see any bald eagles while I was crossing the Yukon on the way to Alaska, I was rewarded right before I crossed back into the states at International Falls Minnesota with a spectacular sight; a fairly large bald eagle launched from a tree very close to the highway and as I passed he turned to look and see what startled him.
I guess it was just a welcome home look.
I would like to thank all of the State HOG Rally organizers and chapter workers that helped me when I needed assistance with getting pictures of the rally banners and there were quite a few who held up a banner in the dark or brought out a banner to replace a missing one.
I'd also like to thank my better half, Mary for the support to finish this little quest of mine.
And lastly, but most importantly, I would like to thank the troops stationed around the world that provide the freedom for myself and all of my friends who love to ride our Harley's to the far corners of this country, just for the fun of riding.
The ABC's of Touring is a contest sponsored by HOG, the Harley Owners Group, where you take pictures of your motorcycle in front of a state or county sign, a HOG rally banner or other event specified, all with a current issue of HOG Tales in the photo for proof.
We talked about how it would be nice to get into the list of the ten runners-up because we didn't think we could actually place in the top 3 spots; one of the guys had met the rider who posted 166 points a few years earlier, during the Route 66 tour when it came through town, and that seemed like an unreachable goal at the time.
Someone else mentioned that it wasn't often that anybody got that many points, and after checking Hog Tales for the previous year's list we saw that the runners-up list looked reachable, so off we went.
My friends and I had several trips planned through out that year and we figured we would just start seeing how many points we could accumulate.
One trip led to another and before I knew it I had made it to 47 states and made it into 3rd place, and my friend Warren got to 7th.
After the list of winners was published in 2003 I thought about how much fun I'd had seeing the country and all of the places I'd never been, that I decided I was going to make a plan for 2004 and see just how many more new places I could visit.
And being a bit competitive, I decided to see if I could match that 166 point total that at the time I thought was the best that had ever been turned in.
I found out later that two people in the 1990's turned in 172.
I realized that the big difference between a lot of points and something really impressive like the 3 point totals above, had to be the state HOG rallies.
So when the January issue of Hog Tales came out I sat down and started planning everything around when the rallies were.
Using Microsoft's MapPoint software and the list of rallies from Hog Tales and then coordinating with the rally details in the HOG members' area on the website I came up with what looked like a workable plan.
With 4, 5 and 6 rallies all scheduled on the same weekends I knew it would be a challenge, but it just meant there would be a few weekends of hard riding.
From Memorial Day until Sturgis weekend in August there were over 25 rallies and a lot of miles to cover.
My first ride was to the Louisiana State HOG Rally on April 1st where I took my first picture, what a cool way to spend April Fools Day.
The last picture I took was in University City, Missouri, real close to home, on the 11th of December, when I realized that through all the trips crossing most of North America I hadn't bothered to stop and get that U city.
Fitting I guess since that's what they call it in the St.
Louis area.
Eight and a half months, 66,000 miles, 6 back tires, 7 cases of oil, and a ton of beautiful scenery, and the quest was finished.
There were a few failures along the way; I never did find that danged X county, and I didn't make it to quite as many rallies as I planned, and I didn't make it past 166, but getting that note telling me congratulations for the most points made for a great ending.
I started riding in 1971, and although I didn't have a Harley at the time, like some of my friends, I really enjoyed being out in the wind.
Our trips for a couple of hundred miles can't compare with the thousands I've ridden on the Harley Dyna for the 2002 ABC's and the 2003 Ultra Classic that saw most of North America in this years ABC's.
The longest and most adventurous trip this year was riding the Alaska Highway.
I left home with several gear bags and an extra tire strapped to the top of my tour pack.
When I got home almost 8,000 miles later the tire was gone but I had acquired two extra gas cans.
The plan was to leave St.
Louis on the 17th of Sept.
and head for the Oregon State Rally before making my way to Alaska.
If you ever get to ride US 20 across Oregon it's a beautiful ride, but make sure you keep your tank topped off, you never know when you're going to ride into a little one horse town and be told they sold out of gas yesterday.
Many thanks to the cowboy with an extra gas can.
I made it to the rally in Bend, right before it finished, but since I had to cross some mountain passes I decided to stay the night because of fear of ice on the roads thanks to an early cold snap.
Everything went great the next day and I made it part way into British Columbia where I stopped and spoke to a friend who warned me to watch for the bears, moose and caribou as I headed off for the Alaskan Highway.
The next evening right before I made it to the highway I started seeing snow and I heard on the radio that they had 18 inches in the area just 48 hours prior.
I talked to a trucker at a fuel stop when I got to the highway and he said that the roads were clear but that the gas stations don't stay open late.
He was just a little wrong on the gas; sometimes they just close for the season.
This made for the second time I had to beg for gas on this trip so at the next town I bought those 2 gas cans I mentioned.
They're continuing to make the highway better and better but luckily it wasn't raining while I was there because their idea of working on the road is to just tear out all of the pavement and start from scratch; the soft dirt I road on would have been impassable in the rain.
But even with all the construction delays and the begging for gas I finally made it to Alaska, but since I was now over a day and a half behind schedule all I saw of Alaska on this trip was the state sign when I got to the border.
It was pitch black, the temps were falling and it was spitting a light mist so I decided to take my picture and get headed back south just in case Mother Nature changed her mind and got nasty.
My next bit of fun was when I headed up the 60 mile stretch of highway to get to the Northwest Territory, and with about an hour of daylight left I thought I might at least get to see it in the light.
But maps lie; what was supposed to be pavement turning to gravel at the Territory line instead became gravel, and narrow, just 15 miles into the road.
So now I'm watching for wildlife and trying to make it safely down this less than stellar road.
I did finally get to see the Moose everyone talks about being abundant in the area and thankfully he only wanted to run along side the road and not in it.
And I also got to see a bear cub by the side but another thank you to his mom for not showing up.
Needless to say I didn't get to see the Territory in the light and the trip back was now compounded by having to ride that fun road in the dark, but at least the wildlife stayed away on the trip back to the main highway.
In all the thousands of miles I've ridden, I don't think I've ever been so glad to see concrete.
The rest of the trip, except for the now sparse construction issues was pretty uneventful, but I did find out that Kansas is not alone when it comes to wide expanses of nothing to see.
Alberta and Saskatchewan bore a strange resemblance to Dorothy and Toto's home state.
If you ever want a chance to see a wide variety of critters on one trip then I would recommend riding the Alaskan Highway; I was chased by a coyote, counted 3 bears, 1 moose, 4 caribou, more deer than I could count, and farmer Brown even let his goats and pigs wander out to see me at the highways edge, and this doesn't account for all of those nice glowing eyes in the dark that I couldn't quite decide what they belonged to.
And although I was disappointed not to see any bald eagles while I was crossing the Yukon on the way to Alaska, I was rewarded right before I crossed back into the states at International Falls Minnesota with a spectacular sight; a fairly large bald eagle launched from a tree very close to the highway and as I passed he turned to look and see what startled him.
I guess it was just a welcome home look.
I would like to thank all of the State HOG Rally organizers and chapter workers that helped me when I needed assistance with getting pictures of the rally banners and there were quite a few who held up a banner in the dark or brought out a banner to replace a missing one.
I'd also like to thank my better half, Mary for the support to finish this little quest of mine.
And lastly, but most importantly, I would like to thank the troops stationed around the world that provide the freedom for myself and all of my friends who love to ride our Harley's to the far corners of this country, just for the fun of riding.
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