After a few hours sleep, I awoke in the morning and headed east into New Jersey, then north into New York State through Huckleberry Ridge State Forest. I continued northeast into Connecticut before heading north to Massachusetts and finally New Hampshire. There was a quick jaunt east into the smallest state by area, Rhode Island, and the first to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown. From Rhode Island, I headed north back into Massachusetts to the New Hampshire border where I had to turn west to touch the state of Vermont, which was the second last state of the 48 I needed to touch (Maine being the last). It was after dark when I rode west into Vermont and I had to ride 100 miles back east until I reached Laconia, where I was met by my daughter who drove down from her house in Boston to greet me. I had previously shipped my laundry from the Kansas City checkpoint and she showed up with a clean bag of clothes! Laconia HD (actually in Meredith, New Hampshire, not Laconia!) had a large open-air tent set up outside the dealership where I slept to get 5 hours of sleep in the U.S. As the forecast for the next day for Maine was rain, I was glad that I got a good night’s sleep.

Welcome Home, eh.

After Laconia, I started out east to the Maine coast where I picked up U.S. #1 north at Yarmouth, Maine. It was raining off and on for most of the 250 miles to the border crossing at St. Stephen, New Brunswick. The Canadian Customs Officer said I wasn’t the first Hoka Hey rider to cross into Canada, but I was the first Canadian that he had seen. He said “Welcome Home”, and sent me on my way.

I headed east along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy. It was night riding, so I had to be extra vigilant looking out for moose and deer. I continued east though Saint John heading to Moncton hoping to make the Cobequid Pass in Nova Scotia before I needed to stop for sleep. I was able to reach Salisbury, New Brunswick, just west of Moncton and after riding through the rain for most of the day, I was getting fatigued so I stopped for a few hours sleep. I woke up just before dawn and planned to make the finish line in Sydney, Nova Scotia for dinner.

Finally, I was on very familiar roads, as I spent several years living on the East Coast in the 90’s. I knew the roads well and felt right at home, so I crossed into Nova Scotia at sunrise, and travelled up over the Cobequid Pass on the TransCanada Highway towards Sydney. I was heading east on the Trans Canada Highway and the Canso Highway towards Cape Breton Island. I took the west side of Bras-d’Or Lake towards the Cabot Trail where I picked it up at Buckwheat Corner. I headed west on the trail towards Margaree Harbour and the coast ride north through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The Cabot Trail is still one of the most beautiful motorcycle rides in the world. I almost forgot how spectacular it was because it had been five years since I was last here.

I carried on through the beautiful Cape Breton Highlands National Park, where the roads were smooth and excellent for riding. After riding through the park, I headed south again towards Sydney and the final check point! As I rode over the finish line, I felt a great sense of accomplishment, and frankly, relief that it was over.

I was greeted by the local Cape Breton H.O.G. Chapter and Andrew Tonet, Director of the Cape Breton H.O.G. Chapter, and other local residents. Also there to greet me was Hoka Hey event organizer, Beth Durham.

Last but not least, Wilf Ramsay, the Harley-Davidson Retailer in Sydney was on hand.

It was a pleasure to see Wilf as we have an association that goes back for nearly a decade.

I’d been informed via email that a premium room at the Delta Hotel was waiting for me, which I really looked forward to … a long hot shower and a bed. But first I had to fulfill a promise that I made to Bob from Las Vegas and Walter from Louisiana that I would buy a lobster dinner after the Challenge. Bob and Walter had arrived the previous day and were also at the finish line to greet me. So it’s off to dinner and a soft mattress, the first indoor sleep in three weeks.

I will have one more post in the next couple of days with a synopsis of the trip and thanks to the many people who helped make this journey possible.

Hoka Hey,

John

After riding through Arkansas and Texas (again!) I started heading east towards New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a Saturday night and Bourbon Street was closed to traffic so I didn’t get to see what all the excitement was about but kept on riding through the night, where I slept just before the Mississippi (again!) border.

As I rode off of beaten path of Biloxi, Mississippi I was struck by the contrast of the natural beauty of the land and the poverty and devastation left by Hurricane Katrina 6 years later.  On one side of the city there are white sand beaches with beautiful mansions lining the water and on the other side there are abandoned and ruined neighbourhoods.

I continued riding through the extreme heat of the south, into the short panhandle of Alabama and into Florida.  I took the backroads of Florida to Pensicola and north through Georgia where I spent the night.  I felt good finally being on the East Coast with the finish line within sight.

I started making really good progress through SC, a 400 mile stretch of road on Highway 301 that took me to North Carolina and into the first East Coast checkpoint at Rocky Mount Harley Davidson.  When I finally arrived at 11pm, they were closed but left directions outside.

 I slept for 6 hours on a bench outside the dealership and it was the best sleep of the trip so far.  Feeling energized I began the day continuing to head north to the next checkpoint at Laconia Harley Davidson.

The route to the last US checkpoint, took me along the costal towns of the Eastern US.  Including the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Virginia.  As I was riding across the bridge, the bike began to move side to side.  My first thought was that a bridge was a terrible spot to get a flat tire.  I slowed down but continued to ride and the movement of the bike changed again and I thought maybe the road was uneven.  I finally pulled over and began to get text messages that an earthquake had hit Virgina, with the epicenter not far from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

I continued along the back country roads of Delaware and Maryland and finally into Pennsylvania at night along a lonely state road where I had to be on constantly on guard for animals.  I finally stopped for the night and its moving on to Laconia tomorrow.

On the Blue Ridge Pkwy

I woke up from a few hours sleep under the canopy of a gas station got on the bike entered and finished the famous Trail of the Dragon without even realizing it!  There have been so many challenging and technical roads along the way and this one wasn’t any more difficult than some of the roads in California, although there were some turns which you had to take at 10 miles an hour or you would have ended up off the road.  Its definitely a treacherous stretch for a lot of motorists and one of the local towns has erected a “Tree of Shame” where car and motorcycle parts of vehicles that didn’t appreciate the difficulty hang from the branches.

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina I met Steve and Debbie, a couple from Lakeland, Florida who were on their own motorcycle trip of a lifetime, covering 7000 miles including spending time in Toronto and Montreal, where they had a wonderful time.  It’s been great meeting and sharing stories and experiences with Hoka Hey riders who are on this great journey and at the same time, meeting other people who are on long and fascinating motorcycle journeys of their own.

I arrived at Bumpus Harley Davidson in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and received a warm welcome from Tom and staff.  I grabbed a shower and left at 1pm towards the historic Natchez Trace Parkway.  In its entirety it’s a 400+ mile Parkway and its history dates back 10,000 years where research points to bisons and giant sloths as the large animals who created the path.   It’s an incredibly scenic route and great for motorcycle riding with long sweeping curves and no commercial vehicles.  I would recommend a visit or a ride if you get the chance.

As I rode west thru Mississippi, I noticed the roads were so banked that I had to fight to keep the motorcycle on the road, the bank of the road kept trying to throw you off.  It looked like a race track which is great if you’re going in circles but a challenge when you’re trying to go straight!

After a night sleeping on the pavement in Mississippi where the spiders are as big as apples, I’m now heading through Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana.  Heading back into Texas is a little frustrating, since the route has already taken us there and some people have decided to stop, but I’m pressing on!

Hoka Hey!

Dragon Harley-Davidson below "tail of dragon"

Made it to Wisconsin Harley Davidson and was warmly greeted with a nice food spread by Brad and the great staff.  The good food was followed by one of the best riding days yet.  The weather was perfect, in the mid-70s, as I rode along the west shore of Lake Michigan.  There was nothing overly special about the scenery, just great weather and good roads, which makes for great riding.  After crossing over the Mackinac Bridge I rode into Indiana at night, touched the corner of the state and headed towards the next checkpoint at Columbus, Ohio.  A.D. Farrow is the oldest HD dealership in American celebrating 100 years in 2012.   I arrived at sunrise and had a complete service and new tires put on.  Next up is “the tail of the dragon” in Tennessee, 311 turns in 12 miles and the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

Grand Junction, Colorado

After Sturgis, I headed south through the flatlands and cornfields of Nebraska, where like Saskatchewan, if your dog runs away, you can watch him go for three days.  After checking in a Grand Junction,Colorado, I rode along the mountains passes of Highway 520 in what is best described as ‘ledge riding’.  The mountain roads are thrilling to ride but with a 1000-foot drop and no guardrails, it is not for the faint of heart.  I cleared the mountains and rode into New Mexico.  A quick check-in and I was off with directions to Kansas City.

I met a follow Hoka Hey rider named Roger, a veteran of the Iraq war who is also serving in Afghanistan and registered for the Hoka Hey while over there and made it home just a few weeks before the start of the Challenge. We rode together through New Mexico and spent the night in Logan,NM, where we found a spot to camp out under the canopy of an abandoned building. Roger’s bike broke down during the Challenge and to meet the rules he had to fix it or buy a new one. Rather than forfeit he bought a new bike to continue on!

With this second half of the Challenge in front of me, I feel like I’m starting to make better time as I know what to expect and am paying closer attention to directions. The first half of the Challenge, I lost a lot of time doubling back when I made a wrong turn and now it seems I’ve developed a good pace.

On the way to Gail’s HD in Kansas City, we passed through Texas and Oklahoma then on to US54, where it was 500 miles of highway riding….long, boring riding. The smells of the cattle land inTexas was so pungent it would make a maggot gag and I may consider never eating beef again.

All the HD retailers along the way have been extremely welcoming to the Hoka Hey riders and Gail’s HD was no exception. They were watching the riders progress on the Hoka Hey website and each rider enters the driveway to clapping spectators. The service staff prioritized Hoka Hey riders and they offered food, water and a much needed shower.  

The bike has been running extremely well, with an oil change at 8400km and I minor service to check the tire pressure and spokes.  

Next ride is 825 miles north to the Home of Harley Davidson in Wisconsin!

Me in Wyoming

The last leg of the West Coast journey was some riding along the Louis and Clark Trail which took me to the next checkpoints in Great Falls, Montana and Idaho Falls where I met up with some fellow Hoka Hey riders.

The energy and excitement of the ride is still pushing me along and as we crossed the plains of Wyoming, we made the decision to stop for the night in Jackson Hole. The plains can be especially dangerous at night when it’s too dark to see the wildlife on the side of the road and when you’ve been riding all day and not as alert.  I found a field to sleep in and settled under a tree for some shelter.  About an hour into some much needed sleep, I was startled awake by the automatic sprinkler system!  A few feet away the dry concrete was good enough to get another couple of hours before heading to Sturgis. 

It’s motorcycle week in Sturgis and as expected there were thousands of bikes in the area.  I wanted to get through as quickly as possible so as not to slow my ride to what was one of the highlights of my trip, meeting the Chief of the Lakota Sioux at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota 

The riding on this portion of the journey has been great.   You experience a variety of riding, from highly technical riding in the Teuton Mountains crisscrossed with switchbacks to the Plains where the road and the sky unfolds for miles before you.  I’ve found the mountain riding on the US West Coast to be more exciting and technical than the mountains of Europe.

Physically I feel great.  The only minor compliant is occasionally sore calves and I just try to stretch them out when I can.   I’m looking forward to more mountain riding in Colorado which is the only State I have not yet visited.  Until then…

Walter from Louisianna

Bob from Las Vegas

The road to Reno was a mountain pass full of twisting roads.  Technical and hard riding and even with more than 40 years of riding experience it required a lot of concentration.  The Road Glide handled the turns seamlessly and I pulled into Chester’s Reno Harley Davidson to get the directions to the next checkpoint.

I hit the road with the new route in hand, a ride over the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway 1 and north to Oregon.  I have done a lot of riding in my life and I was really looking forward to this part of the ride since I have never been along this stretch of road.  The scenery along the highway was breathtaking with Redwood Forest trees so big and so close to the highway you could see the gauges in the bark from where the transport trucks would take the turn too close.

While the views were spectacular, the long and winding roads were making my arms tired and I was begging for a stretch of straight road.

It was along a straight road in Washington State that I had my first (and hopefully last!) close call of the Hoka Hey Challenge.  I passed a transport truck on a State Road and that was fine.  About 5 miles down the road, a car in front of me stopped abruptly to make a left hand turn.   I made a quick stop but I knew the transport I had passed had been following me, and sure enough, when I looked in the rear view mirror, I could see him barreling down.   As I tried to move out of the way, I could see in the mirrors his tires smoking from trying to stop.  Because I had stopped close to the car in front of me, it was difficult to maneuver out of the way.   Thankfully, a car in the oncoming traffic lane pulled over to the shoulder to let the transport truck move over, where it came to a stop about 20 feet beyond me.  A quick sigh of relief and off I rode.

The Hoka Hey Challenge started at sunrise in Mesa, Arizona on Friday August 5th. The ride was going to take us through National Forests and down the Las Vegas Strip.

I met up with some fellow riders from Mesa and we headed towards Flagstaff, Arizona along one of the first highways built in the US, Historic Route 66.  As the heat continued to beat down I suddenly felt a nice, cool, breeze on my wrist.  I looked down and noticed my watch had flown off and was shattered on Route 66.  Oh well, no time to stop!

The first checkpoint was Las Vegas Harley-Davidson, where I received our next set of directions to Chester’s Harley-Davidson in Reno, Nevada.  At each checkpoint the riders are given paper directions for the route to the next checkpoint and because the Hoka Hey Challenge rules state that we cannot use GPS, you need to study and review the map to keep on track.

The directions pointed us towards Death Valley, California, which we hit just before dusk on Friday and the heat was like a blast oven.  Death Valley is certainly the proper name for the place.   We kept riding though Yosemite National Park at night and finally stopped at a scenic overlook for a quick sleep around 6:30am on Saturday, just over 24 hours from the beginning of the Challenge.  The temperature was a little cool, but welcomed after the heat of the day.  I rolled out my sleeping bag and slept on the ground for a couple of hours.  My adrenaline is still pumping and I’m determined to finish the race well so before long I’m up again.  Reno, here I come!

The bike I will be riding during the Hoka Hey Challenge

I am fortunate to work for Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada and they have generously provided me with the official bike of the Hoka Hey Challenge, a 2011 Road Glide Ultra.   Several modifications are being made for the Hoka Hey bike to make it ideal for long distance endurance riding, including:

-Extra rear lighting for safety

-Luggage rack on the tour pack

-Reduced reach handle bars

-Use of SYN3 synthetic oil instead mineral oil which maintains viscosity at extreme temperatures

-Addition of a heated seat for extra comfort during cool temperatures

-Addition of 3” taller windshield for inclement weather

-Addition of highway foot pegs

-Installation of the GPS tracking system, required on all riders motorcycles.

The motorcycle is also decaled with my Sponsor, Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada, Test Our Metal (Harley-Davidson Canada’s National Demo Program, which I manage), Harley’s Owner Group (HOG) and Deeley Racing.

Only Harley-Davidson motorcycles are permitted to enter the Hoka Hey Challenge and the 2011 Road Glide Ultra will be the perfect bike to get me across the finish line.

This is my final week of preparations before flying to Arizona.  I’m off to some sporting goods stores to buy the final items I’ll need for the journey.

More on that in the next post!