My BMW luggage setup.. Caribou Cases

A few people have sent me emails from the advrider.com site asking how I like my luggage system on my BMW. I did alot of research and finally decided on the 36L cases from Caribou Cases (www.cariboucases.com). I had originally purchased a nice used set of Touratech aluminum cases but found that they did not give alot of storage room and were not totally waterproof.

The Caribou system matched with the Hepco Becker quick release rack system were PERFECT!!!. It was a very very solid system. The cases locked very securely, were totally waterproof, and were easy to take on and off. They are also INDESTRUCTIBLE!!! I went down with a fully loaded bike a couple of times (parking lot incident and a low speed gravel drop) and they handled it easily. They even protected the bike very well and prevented even more damage.

The installation was very easy with the instructions. Most of my time was taken up just getting the BMW factory rack off.

After installing my cases I had some room to put a toolkit that I made our of a 5 inch ABS pipe and also a little rack for my stove fuel bottles. It worked perfectly. The center of gravity and balance on the bike was great. My toolkit was waterproof and very secure.

This was a great system. Money very well spent. They cases will last a very long time.
Give Roger a call or email at Caribou and he will definitely take care of you.

Found some pictures!!

Just found some pictures while cleaning up my laptop...first couple are from Banff, the islands are the north shore of Lake Superior and then Alaska near Hyder.

Summary of Mileage

I did a quick summary of the daily mileage for the trip.
Total Mileage was 10503 km.

Day 1 - Home to Batchawana Bay ON = 931 km
Day 2 - Batchawana Bay ON to West Hawk Lake MB = 1167 km
Day 3 - West Hawk Lake MB to Medicince Hat AB = 1202 km
Day 4 - Medicine Hat to Calgary to Banff AB = 418 km (tire change day)
Day 5 - Banff AB to Jasper to Prince George BC = 660 km
Day 6 - Prince George BC to Hyder Alaska = 699 km
Day 7 - Hyder Alaska to Williams Lake BC = 934 km
Day 8 - Williams Lake to Revelstoke to Banff = 780 km
Day 9 - Banff to Grenfell SK = 1001 km
Day 10 - Grenfell SK to Vermilion Bay ON = 764 km
Day 11 - Vermilion Bay to Batchawana Bay ON = 1016 km
Day 12 - Batchawana Bay to Home = 931km

Total Mileage = 10503 km

Finally home and dry!!!

Got home late yesterday. I will do a quick update later.

Rainy riding.....but almost home

Spent all day yesterday riding the northern Ontario area, in the rain
with temps at around 8c.
Not as bad today leaving Lake Superior and on the home stretch.
Will be home today:-)

Banff to Greenfell SK to Dryden ONT

Left Banff Monday morning and started my trip back home. There are not alot of choices for routes to head east so I got back on the TransCanada and made my way out of Alberta. After an all day ride in nice sunny weather I ended camping in a small Saskatchewan wheat town called Greenfell.

Left Greenfell SK Tuesday morning with a goal of making it acrossut the prairies today. For the most part another all day ride through the eastern part of Saskatchewan and across Manitoba finally crossing into Ontario and ending up in Vermillion Bay Ontario.

Total mileage for Monday = 1001 km
Total mileage for Tuesday = 767 km

Looking forward to riding along the north shore of Lake Superior. The weather forecase for the Thunder Bay area and southeast doesn't look good. Rain and cold.

Internet and cell coverage will not be very good for the next day in northern Ontario, but I will do my best to provide an update.

Alaska and back to Banff

As I mentioned in my other post I made it to Alaska. \Even though it was the most southern part of Alaska.
I woke up Saturday morning and check the weather forecast and it was calling for alot of rain and cold north of where I was. I decided to turn back south and head for warmer and drier places. Also, I was running out of time and if I did head farther north I would probably need to leave the bike up there and fly back with the intention of coming back in a few weeks to do the return trip. Too much hassle.
So I left StewarT BC early Saturday morning with drove back down the 200km of the Cassiar and east to Prince George. This time \i was going to go south of Prince George and drive the central BC towards Kamloops, and then head east through Revelstoke National Park and then Banff.
On Saturday I made it as far as Williams Lake BC. I nice cowboy town north of Kamloops by a few hundred kms. The landscape in this area is much drier almost desert-like the further south you go towards Kamploops.

Sunday morning got up and continued to Kamloops and then west through Revelstoke. Very very nice ride....sunny day and not too warm. Once through Revelstoke and Golden BC , I entered Banff National Park from the west.
Camping in Banff again (which prefer to hotels/motels) and will figure out the plan for Monday.

Nice Sunday drive through central BC

Left Williams Lake this morning heading east towards Banff. Finally a
nice sunny day.

Alaska!!!

I am a little late in getting this post out.
I made a decision on Friday morning (regardless of the weather) to begin driving west of Prince George and then up the Cassiar Highway north to the Yukon and Alaska. I left early on Friday morning and the weather was fairly good. No rain which was great.
I rode about 400km Hwy 16 through some nice country west of Prince George. HWy 16 ends at Prince Rupert on the coast.
I was headed to the intersection of Hwy 16 and Hwy 37 . Hwy 37 is also known as the Cassiar Highway which until recently was one of the only routes north. The road has been gravel for most of its life and is mostly paved now.
A couple from Seattle recommended that I take this route instead of the more popular route that heads west and north from Price George.

This was a great choice. The weather was good and I felt like I was the only one on the highway. I was pretty disappointed with the trip through Banff and Jasper National parks because of the traffic and large number of tour buses.

Once I started north on the Cassiar I had 200 or so km until another junction where I could continue north to Watsons Lake or head west to the border fishing towns of Stewart BC and Hyder Alaska. The 200km ride was probably one of the best motocycle rides I have been on in 25 years. This area is very very isolated and I only met a couple of cars and trucks going in the opposite direction. There was also tons of wildlife, lost of deer, the odd moose, and bears!!! This is where is where I saw my first grizzly bear. It was making a quick road crossing about 200 yards in front of me. It had just come up an embankment from the nearby river. I think it was a young grizzly from its size. I didnt stop where it crossed just in case its mother was following!!

When I came to the 200km junction I stopped for a moment and then made a left on the to the Stewart Highway also called the Glacier Highway. This 65 km stretch was very curvy and basically was cut out of he canyon heading west to Stewart and Hyder. This 65 km was awesome and even better than the previous 200km. One of the highlights was that it went right beside a glacier icefield. I did a quick stop and took a couple of pics. This was much better than sharing the view of the Columbia Icefield with 30 buses and hundreds on tourists.
I had the glacier to myself. I preferred this area over the Banff and jasper Parks any day.
I finally arrived at Stewart and Hyder AK. It was everything I expected. They are very small towns with only a few buildings and businesses. There is a ship terminal where tankers dock.
I checked into the King Edward Motel, had a quick bit to eat in the little restaurant, and then went to bed.

Sorry about the pictures but that is the best I could do...

Mountains, bears , and lots of ice cold rain!!!

Left Banff this morning with nice weather on my way through Banff National Park and then into Jasper National Park to Jasper and then into British Columbia, another timezone, and Prince George.
The ride started out nice..but it got very ugly about an hour into the 6hr 600km+ ride. While riding the Icefield Parkway the rain started and then the temperatures started to drop from 20C down to the single digits and sometimes as low as 3C. Very cold when it is pouring rain and you are cruising at 100kph+. Luckily I had bundled up and my gear kept me dry..for most of the trip.
I wish I had more pictures of the Columbia Icefield and the glaciers..but there was no way I was stopping in that rain and cold to take a picture.
Even though the weather was less than ideal the scenery was great. The mountains in this part of Alberta and BC are amazing. Also, there was lots of wildlife out during the day. I was expecting to see one or two bears during the entire trip, but I lost count after 5 sightings today alone. I took a picture of one of them when it was convenient (not raining buckets!:-). Highway 16 from Jasper to Prince George is a great highway and I enjoyed the ride.

The weather doesn't look good for the upcoming days. I met a few folks (who were checking into the same motel to dry out) that rode down from Dawson Creek and the weather was worse farther north.

My next destination is suppose to be Watson Lake in the Yukon and then on to Whitehorse for a total of 1700km. Dawson Creek is on the way to Watson Lake.

I will be checking the weather tonight and will need to make some decisions tomorrow.

So far I have logged about 4400 kms....