Alaska-Canada Adventure Ride

Days 1-2 - Sacramento, CA to Bellingham, WA (873 miles)

Alaska-Canada route map The goal for the first two days was to cover as much ground as possible in order to reach Bellingham, WA near the border of Canada by the end of the second day. With that in mind we traveled via the I-5 freeway until about 20 miles before a campsite we identified earlier at the mid-section of Oregon along Cottage Lake.

About 3 hours into the ride as I was starting to feel a bit of seat fatigue, I realized I forgot to bring my Air Hawk inflateable seat cushion that I used on my Baja and Pacific Divide Ride trips. WIth a sigh, I thought: "Oh well, I guess I will just tough it out.". Interestingly enough, by about the third day of the trip, seat fatigue no long seemed to be that big a concern.

As a note, I found the first night camp at Cottage Lake, Oregon to be the most unfriendly for motorcyclists of the entire trip. Despite the small size of a motorcycle, we were each charged a separate vehicle fee with a limit of 2 vehicles per site. They did not distinguish between a 30' motor-home, a large truck pulling a 5th wheel travel trailer, or a motorcycle. Trying to reason with the clerk ended up being useless, and for this reason I would not recommend this campground for motorcyclists, especially if traveling as a group and expecting to share a campsite to save money. I am not sure if the same policy is true for other Oregon State Park campgrounds?

On the second day, to reach Bellingham, we traveled up the east side of the Seattle area via I-405 in order to minimize the worst of the traffic Seattle is known for. The town of Bellingham is quite an attractive bedroom/retirement community within an hour's drive of Seattle. It seems like a place that I would not mind visiting more in the future. Enjoying the hospitality of one of Tucker's friends, we were able to couch surf at their house, while also enjoying a nice dinner and breakfast.

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