1. Yosemite

    August 25-27, 2015
    Posted on March 14, 2017

    It was time to leave the city behind, but not before some scheduled maintenance. Alex’s bike was due for an oil change and Ben graciously agreed to show us around the Alameda island to warm it up. Ben has a WR250X, which is closely related to Alex’s WR250R, and they swapped bikes to try them out. Alex said it felt very very different.

    After changing the oil and fixing a couple other minor things, we were off towards Yosemite. Once out of urban area and off the freeway, the path passes through numerous farm fields, with local produce advertised on the side of the road. Everything from strawberries and peaches to walnuts and almonds – I was getting seriously tempted. Sometimes when you go with a purpose in mind, you tend to keep going by inertia, instead of stopping to check something unexpected. So in this case, by the time we caved in and agreed to stop at the next available fruit stand – the farm fields ended and we were reaching into the mountains. Think faster next time.

    Stanislaus National Forest

    Stanislaus National Forest

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  2. A Taste of Nunavut

    September 18-25, 2016
    Posted on October 26, 2016

    It was just one of those evenings when you randomly browse the internet, stumbling into the most unexpected of things. I had to do a double take at the thing that popped on my screen:

    Plasmatic Explosion, Artur Stanisz

    It was presented without any caption or credit. At first I wondered if this is even real, or if this landscape was just a figment of imagination of a skilled CGI artist. After a bit more searching, turned out this is real, and this is right here in Canada, Auyuittuq National Park. Just 3 short flights north, a week of hiking and pretty much anyone can go see it.

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  3. The Warm Welcome to California

    August 23-24, 2015
    Posted on August 22, 2016

    I woke up with an unexplainable fear in my mind. Half awake, I could faintly make out rapid banging sounds which grew louder as my consciousness took firmer grip on my surroundings. It was cold enough that I could see my own breath. Bang! Bang! Bang! I felt butterflies in my stomach as my first guess for the nature of the noise was gunfire. Suddenly, I was not sure if I should continue breathing or play dead. In a few moments I realized that it was actually someone chopping wood. At 6 am. Is this something these people do for fun? After playing Christian rock (2-3 songs tops, on repeat) until about 4 am…

    It’s not that this place was getting on my nerves, it’s more like it got there so deeply and permanently, we have both silently agreed that we’d rather sleep by the side of the road than have the privilege of experiencing this side of America again. No more RV camps for me.

    I waited just long enough for my brain to fully start up, after which we packed up in record time, topped up the oil again and were out of there.

    A herd of elk along a California highway

    Out on the road we started seeing tour buses! One stopped right on the side of hwy 101 (there wasn’t much of a side to it), and everyone poured out to indulge in some wildlife viewing. There was a small herd of elk relaxing in a clearing.

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  4. Crater Lake

    August 21-22, 2015
    Posted on August 6, 2016

    Sometimes life works in weird ways. Back in Olympic National Forest I dropped my bike in a funny way and broke the mirror mount. As our schedule was pretty much non-existent and the chances that this tiny part will just randomly happen to be in stock at the next Yamaha dealer were slim, I just called up the next place I knew we will be in sometime this month: San Francisco. A local dealer there placed an order for the part and I went on my merry way.

    Fast forward to the day I was contemplating heading to Crater Lake. Upon closer examination, turned out this iconic landmark is way inland, a few hours away from the coast. Visiting it would take at least a full extra day of travel. Alex was insisting we just push to San Francisco and pick up the mount so I can finally have two mirrors like a normal person. A little disappointed, I agreed. And then he noticed a Yamaha dealer on the side of the highway in a sizeable town with a romantic name North Bend. He insisted we stop and check it out. And in the most unlikely fashion, they had that part in stock.

    While there, we also checked the oil level on my bike, and found it lacking. For the last couple of months, even before the trip, we noticed that oil was disappearing from my XT. We were topping it up occasionally, sometimes as much as 600 ml after 1000 km of riding. For a bike with barely more than a litre of oil in the first place, that seemed troublesome. We topped it up again in the parking lot, and I kept wondering if I’m measuring it wrong, or if there is a problem with a bike, a thought I was pushing away as hard as it kept creeping back at me.

    For now, seemingly free from mechanical issues, we headed to Crater Lake.

    North Bend

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