Conclusion

Small Victorian

My last day of vacation, I had time, and decided I would not rush the day. The GPS took me to my elected parking spot in the "Old West End" of Toledo, from which I visited said neighborhood. It was the first time I saw a neighborhood in active decomposition, with 2/3 of the houses rented to, or owned by people who just did not care, while the other 1/3rd was owned by usually aging persons taking great care of the property. It certainly takes a lot of money to maintain such houses, as they can be very ornate, and almost all of them are large or very large.

Couple of nicely maintained Old West End houses

 At the north end of the neighborhood stands a cathedral in excellent shape and richly decorated, that I wish I could have entered to visit the inside.

Holy Rosary Cathedral in Toledo, OH

Parisian original metro entrance.

 I ended up the visit with the Toledo museum of art which hosts a very large collection of very fine paintings and bronzes. I had a smile on my face for the entire duration of my visit. As can be seen on the picture below, French artists were very well represented.









I then returned home, on a brand new highway the GPS was not even aware of. I calculated that I would have to get gas outside of Fort Wayne. 3 miles away from the exit I wanted to take, the bike sputtered. I knew the signs... Out of gas! I had miscalculated, I realized later that my mileage was 25% worse than I thought due to high speed, wind in my face and probably not very good gas in the tank. By chance I managed to coast into an exit. I was just done securing the bike when a dude came to my rescue, taking me 5 miles to the next station, and then back! Thanks to Mr McCoy of http://rlmccoy.net, I only lost 1 hour on the schedule and got home at a very reasonable 6 pm, leaving me some time to put things away. The house was still in good order, no issues.

In yellow, the 2013 trip. Purple is the 2012 trip on the F800ST, all paved roads.

What a trip this has been! I'm sure I've lost weight and I was a little tired coming back. There was, just like in 2012 but for different reasons, some stress. This was my first off-road adventure, and it was on a monster bike with full luggage, on my own, in some quite remote areas. Not the kind of places you want to break a leg. Yet of course I have no regrets, and am coming back wanting to do the same again, just in a different area of the country.

The earrings!

I got the kids this week-end, and Olwen put on the present I got her at the Johnson Wax store - FLW inspired earrings. You be the judge.

Of course this road trip gave me a lot of experience both on and off road. I'm now starting to be comfortable with the technique of "trajectoire de securite", and was able to break my speed record on the 465 access ramp I take on my daily commute, in good confidence. The technique is safe for unknown roads as well as known roads, and very elegant I would say. In terms of off-roading I would love to be able to travel more off-road now in order to continue improving; there are many different possible situations and I need and want to learn as many different tricks, techniques and skills as possible. In time I will start prepping for 2014; in the meantime I'll resume the rest of my life.

Cheers!

Toronto to Spring Green

Moose on Kensington house

I decided yesterday at night not to go to Casa Loma in Toronto. Too much logistics. Instead I went to have breakfast in a Chinese shop, and that was good. Next was a more detailed visit of Kensington since I learned that this is where "4 brothers" was filmed, and I like that movie.
On the way there, 3 young Chinese men stop me and the leader addresses me, I catch a couple of English words in there but I ask him to repeat. They are dressed in black, mostly. He bows and tells me that his friend told him that if he found someone walking in the city with a backpack on, he should give him 50 dollars. I'm surprised and wonder what the catch is - are they gonna sell me god, goods or services? But no, and he pulls a 50 CAD note from his stash and puts it in my hand. He then gives me his business card, holding my hand and bowing, a la Chinese. I tell him that i'm from the US, since his business is about house renovations. That's fine with him, he's got friends in the US. It seems anyway that this is about luck, more than anything else. So I accept the unconditional gift. This is what happens in Toronto's Chinatown!

Community daycare!

I visit a bit more of Kensigton and see that a community-organized daycare is steps away from 2 houses with Porsches. The gentrification of the neighborhood has started.

Kensington gentrification has started.

I then go to Tim Horton's spend some hard earned cash, and return to my room to pack. I've already washed the windshield this morning, and hung the "tenting" side case to the bike. Now i just have to depart by 11 am, which will let me escape hopefully the worst traffic.
I actually departed around 11:15, which is still a good time. There was just one hitch... I loaded up the bike, got it in the correct orientation for departure, then got lazy and tried to mount it without putting it first on the side stand. I thought my balance and management of the verticality of the bike was good enough, but not! It went down on its right side, not too hard. Then it kept sliding down the parking lot and towards the street as I was trying to pick it up. Once it got as far into the gutter as it could go it stopped and I could get it back up. Thanks for the nice offer by the old Chinese man to help (the hotel is very close to Kensington and Chinatown), but I'll manage on my own :)
After a couple of days off the bike I knew it was going to be a challenge... So I started the engine and took off, knowing that some amount of speed is the secret to balance. The GPS did its job, I got out of town without a problem, and traffic was fine. Going west... then south.. then towards Niagara Falls. Oh F**k! The curses came out of my mouth until I was deaf from their reverberation in my helmet. Got over a giant bridge, which is always unnerving due to possible wind issues, then pulled over at the first "collector" as they say here. I checked the GPS and sure enough I had set it to avoid toll roads. I must have done that in Wisconsin, as usually toll roads suck from the scenery perspective (see Pennsylvania last year). But for Indy-Toronto, you just HAVE to take the toll road, especially since there's no toll for non-Canadians! Anyway, I set things right and the GPS recalculated - I just lot maybe 20 minutes, but at least I took advantage of the stop to unload some of the Tim Horton's my kidneys were done processing.
One important thing I forgot to note on Toronto. This is a town under construction. There are more buildings going up there than I've seen anywhere. A lot of them are on the waterfront, now that it's being developed. But there are also some downtown. And I'm not talking 3 stories too, we're dealing with massive development here. As a matter of fact, as I was looking for the exact location of some of the pictures I took, I used google maps street view, and they're not up to date, although they seem to have very recent pictures! And these guys ain't stupid, like in some city I know - the buildings that are going up are world-class, really nice.
The ride was quite cold, temperature reading 64 F. There was even a tiny bit of rain. Once I stopped for gas, paid with Chinese money, I put in the windproof layer in the jacket.
It was weird and nice to travel the same road I had traveled with the kids a couple of months earlier. The ride was going well, buttocks were taking it OK. I was starting to get used to longer rides, pinching the gas tank with my knees to relieve butt pressure. I stopped at a road station for a while, got another x-large "cafe moka", blogged a bit, and resumed travel. Supposedly, another 2 hours. Maybe more with immigration. Immigration, what a stupid concept. Who invented borders? Let's take them down, let's evolve.

What you lookin at?

The last 2 hours of the ride were fine, although on the last hour I was tired and losing attention. But traffic was easy. Got into the hotel, got ½ of the luggage up, got the jacket off and picked up the rest of the luggage. People looked at me like I was from Mars. I wonder why, given the picture here…

Got things straightened out in the room, then walked downtown to the craft brewery place and got myself a couple of Ohio specials. Fine beers. You do get that reliably in the Midwest. Town is OK, the nice part of downtown is really small but mighty fine. Now that’s a college town if I know one. State University seems to be the only thing around. Oh, and it seems that as one goes south from Canada,  clothe sizes go up. You also get that reliably in the Midwest.

Too late for pictures, I got to the beer place (that’s all it is, the food was the worst I’ve had on my entire vacation) before sundown but by the time I finished processing the morning pictures (did that there), it was nighttime. And I still had to walk back to the hotel, a 30 minute walk with a Toronto blister J

It actually took an hour, since the 2 beers in my bloodstream had me confused and going the exact opposite direction that I should have gone.

So I was recapping about this trip while riding. First, who’s coming with me on the next one?

Also, the bike. The blog last year did not end well bike-wise. Well, for a change this is a mighty fine motorcycle. That is, if you’re man enough to man-handle it. I’m borderline man enough… can do it for now, but I also know that in 10 years, it will be too big for me. It’s a bike one gets attached to. On tarmac, it’s a power, torque and handling beast, it rules even with luggage. It brakes also very well. On dirt it’s mighty fine at good speed, meaning on forest roads, even bad ones. On technical passes, then it’s about technique. If you don’t know how, then you’re screwed, because the beast is heavy. If you know, then I don’t know, because I don’t know how.

The trip: It was a good choice. As usual I prepared for hours, looking for what to visit.Sure there were some issues, but overall what a discovery. Seriously, Manitoulin island deserves its name (again, that’s land of the great spirit, I think white people from the US would say “God’s country”). In terms of weather, it’s inconceivable how lucky I’ve been. It rained at night just when it needed to – it made the sand trails passable, because for a noob like me, dry sand is impossible. And it never really rained while I was on the road. Glory to the FSM.

Me: wow, I made it, so far. Still have tomorrow, but looks like I’ll be fine. I am sure I’ve lost some weight (yes, I can do that). I am guessing that’s from diet (skipped a few meals, and been on a light diet anyway), as well as from stress. I am extremely safety conscious so at all times I’m calculating whether what I’m doing is safe, and what the proper course of action is considering the current situation. Takes a toll. In terms of riding ability, I have made a lot of progress, essentially off-road. Take into account that I was a complete noob, and then it makes sense. Still I have a couple of achievements I can be proud of. One thing that I have learned is that speed is your friend, especially off-road. When going really slow, it takes a lot of steering to keep the bike up. Speed a bit, and a lot less steering is required. Somehow also, at some speed the motorcycle becomes self-stabilizing, and that’s how one can sort of surf on bad surfaces. Of course “en toute chose mesure est bonne”, that is there is a good range of speed, with a minimum and a maximum! And speed should not be a cop-out for technique. Technique is your first friend, speed comes next. As for road technique, I've been applying the french police "trajectoire de securite" and I like it a lot. I'm trying to make it automatic; I'm good at it on right-hand turns, but not yet on left-hand turns. Go figure.

Seriously though, I need someone to adventure-ride with. Think about it – I spend a huge amount of time preparing, the trips are always awesome. If you have a bike, you should join.

The blog: I don’t know if I’ll continue, that is for next year. It takes a lot of time away from the rest of the entertainment. Kind of like it though, so maybe I will.

 Tomorrow will be another day. The last one for vacation this year. Let's make it count!

Toronto

First half of the day boring - yet another giant north-american city:

A Chinatown like in any major US city

Nice murals here and there

Provincial parliament, I think

A museum building that stands out

"We outgrew our building", they said. True that.

NYC? No, Toronto.

Borderline...

Does this mean what I think it means?

Before that it was called Bro's place.

They have black squirrels in Toronto. Did not know such things existed.

 The afternoon was much more pleasant as I finally figured out the places "where it's at" in this town.

Old and new - something you don't get much in NYC, but plenty here.

Not the US - saw nobody with a gun, but plenty of hair colors.

The distillery district - great hangout, great soul,

and very decent beer.

Every American city has one of these it seems...

OK, this is the first time in my life I liked Chinese food. This was great!

If you're in Toronto you HAVE to go to Kensington Market,

where you can buy all sorts of stuff.

Wet Sand

After leaving the Falling Rock Café, I returned on my steps for a quick visit of the town, and stopped for a picture of the High School. It was so different from Carmel High School, I wanted my kids to see how other student’s environment and experience could be removed from theirs.

A bystander in a car drove to me and started chatting. He was also an amateur photographer and an adventure rider, having had a 1200 GS and currently on a 650 V-Strom. We swapped many stories and laughed a lot together. That was another really nice “northerner”.

Just outside of charming Munising, there was a waterfall advertised, so I went to visit it. It was actually very nice.

I filled up my water bottle then left and let the GPS guide me. Weather was very nice. Unfortunately I was still on the road, and as nice as the scenery was, that was not the plan. After a while finally the GPS gave up and took me to a typical UP trail, compact sand wet from the night before. That went very well for a long time, however I ended up seeing a puddle as wide as the trail ahead. I stopped to scout by foot, but the bike rolled forward on its side stand and went for a nap on its left side.

That was the opportunity I was waiting for! The camera was locked in the right side case, and was therefore reachable. My previous drops were on the camera side. Once the photo was taken, I picked up the bike and went scouting by foot. The trail was flooded for 100 yards on its entire width, to unknown depth. I had tried to wade onto the road, but water entered my supposedly waterproof boots and I backed off. I guessed a depth of 4 to 12 inches.  It was not possible to go into the woods and around the water. With a partner, taking the flooded road would have worked and have been enjoyable, but I did not want to attempt the crossing alone. I took another route.

After several hours of riding, I saw that sundown was coming and I had to prepare and stop for the night. I could find no campgrounds on the way. The National Forest was still far ahead, the only location where “camp anywhere” was allowed. At one point I saw a sign for a campground and took the trail leading to it. I caught up with an SUV and pickup truck, which I was content to follow. I always try on my trips to “pair up” with some vehicle, in case I run into trouble. After a couple of miles of trail, another sign indicated the campground to be 6 miles away. I decided against pursuing, not knowing the shape of the road ahead, and not wanting to commit to another 6 miles without knowing really was at the end. I turned around, quite aware that I was burning daylight. I gunned on the entire length of the trail, now that I was starting to have a feel of the bike on this kind of ground. The bike was shaking sideways, and it felt like the entire play of the suspensions was being used, but this felt in no way on the edge of safety. This flight will remain a highlight of this trip. I put a hotel as my destination in the GPS, but on the way there I found the Tahquamenon Falls State Park with a campground, which had availability. I stopped there, set up camp, and drained my laptop battery processing the day’s pictures. The obnoxious neighbors were noisy, running the A/C with the door open, complaining loudly about Obamacare and laughing that their little kids were bringing up Bill O Reilly at school. Those morons were the only ones running the A/C at night, but other than that the camp was quiet and I caught some sleep.

On Saturday morning, I got up early although I would have been happy to catch another 30 minutes of sleep. But I was ½ day late on my schedule and had a lot of ground to cover to get to the next campground. I had to camp there, because the next day I was taking the first ferry of the island.

This time, no slugs in my boots, but a lot of dew in and on the tent. I packed rapidly and was on my way to the lower falls, which were magical with no crowds, sunrise, and a bit of early morning fog.

Lower falls looking downstream

I did not linger, but still decided to ride 4 miles to the upper falls.

Lower Falls looking upstream

Not as enchanting as the lower falls which were very expansive, but taller and with their own charm.

Upper Falls

Can't park better

The next destination was Sault Ste Marie. The original plan was to ride off-road to there, but at this point I did not have the time, and was not eager to second guess the GPS as to what was the appropriate road. So I rode straight to Sault’s microbrewery on black top, passing by some more of Michigan’s Upper-Peninsula’s great landscapes, and got there at 11:20.

I went to visit the locks and by luck got to see them in action for a giant ship that took the entire basin.

An Empty basin, and a giant bridge to Canada. I hope it's not too windy up there!

Lunch!

Tin ceiling!

There really wasn't much to see so I bought a foot-long at Subway and ate it at the brewery, washing it down with an awesome old-German style beer.

Finally, I had to face reality, it was time for the 5-hour ride to the campground. This was hard on the buttocks, which I would rise up every so often as if to moon my followers, in order to get some blood flowing in my fleshy cushions. The scenery was spectacular. I even stopped once to go see some rapids up close, but that was “first nations” territory and I was not allowed to. The road went through many “reserves”, and villages and streets with native names I could not pronounce. This is one difference with the USA that I find very pronounced – the invisibility of the natives in the US, their presence in Canada. I filled up at a couple of stations held by young natives.

The belvedere on Manitoulin Island offered a view worthy of Alaskan scenery, which unfortunately photography can not fully render.

View from 10-mile point on Manitoulin ("the den of the spirit")

The campground was easy to find with easy-going, hippie-like owners. I interrupted their dinner with my arrival, but that was how business was conducted. The climb to the campsite on grass and rocks tested my newly acquired skills and confidence. I set everything up then went to the local restaurant as a reward for a good ride.

Camp is setup

This was an establishment that prided itself on personal service, their own recipes, locally procured ingredients, and herbs from their own garden. It was full and took forever to get service, but it was worth it. I returned by night, seriously under the speed limit in case deer decided to cross the road. I was afraid that with the night’s dew, the climb would be more slippery and difficult, but it was fine. I had taken all the luggage off, too. I prepared as much as possible for the next day. Then, in the quiet of the campground, and with the noise of the river flowing into the lake nearby, I fell asleep rapidly.

First bike coming out my ship is an adventure BMW!

On Sunday I packed up as quickly as possible, and left ahead of schedule, leaving more used clothes behind. Again I rode very slowly to the ferry, on account that this was vacation and I was ahead of schedule, the scenery was nice, and there was too much wildlife around. I actually did see a deer in the distance early into the ride. I pulled over the let cars pass by, cars that I would eventually pass since motorcycles go into the ferry first.

Before the ship arrived, time for some pics...

As such I got to wait with a group of riders from West Virginia, all of them on Harleys. I chatted nicely enough, but still as an outsider, with a couple of them.

Me, and then some Harleys

The boat was huge, and the experience was beyond my expectations, like the rest of the trip.

Still at the port

This guy was just floating in the wake of the ship

I was outside the entire time except for a visit to the various quarters. Given the line, I decided against coffee on board.

I stayed outside, watching the immensity of this relatively small lake, the islands, the lighthouses, and those funny Canadians.

Deboarding went almost OK, but I had forgotten to put the GPS on in my hurry. I rode out alongside the HDs, and decided to keep with them for a while. I was no major roads other than the one we were on, and based on the direction of the sun we were going South.  It was my first such experience, being at the end of a group of 30 motorcycles riding in 2 lines. It was, although an HD group, quite an OK experience. After a while however I pulled over, got the GPS out of the bag and installed it. I was on the right road, so I decided to catch up. It was a challenge since they were going at a good clip. After many exciting passings, I caught up. This was the first bunch of HD riders I saw that knew how to actually ride. The group eventually scattered into sub-groups going different directions, until eventually I was left on my own. I refueled, stopped for a snack in a deserted location with many flowers, then started again. I got confirmation that I hated Toronto traffic, but made it safely to the hotel, which appeared to be in Chinatown. I locked the bike, took my first shower in days, organized everything, and went to Queen St for dinner and a couple of beers, and watch more of those funny Canadians.

CAST 2013

CAST was an excellent conference, by testers for testers. There was a great "esprit de corps" but for some feuds between thought leaders. There was some vocabulary and concepts that I was not up to, which I learned about on my laptop. Evenings were spent doing some photo processing, after understanding what the problem was on this particular laptop. So, no visit of the town, just an outing with a former colleague now working for an insurance company. I also discussed with one of the presenters and thought leaders, about his life as a consultant. It can be stressful but very rewarding. The building hosting the conference was an FLW, and was nice and up to date. It had been built 40 years after the death of Wright, and almost 50 years after the plans were drawn!
There is not much to say about the ride to Green Bay, except that once there I went to a micro-brewery where both beer and food were magnificent. I went to bed later than I should have; this is what happens when you have TV (I don't at home) and happen on some stupid show that you've heard about.  The next day, I left for Escanaba, and realized that I was going the direction opposite to all the Harleys, who were going to some HD event. How appropriate. On the way to Escanaba I stopped for snacks and parked the bike poorly and it ended up falling on the side opposite the stand, probably due to wind. Thanks to YouTube lessons, I used the correct technique to pick up the bike with all the luggage on. It was so easy I was surprised, and encouraged for my off-roading, where I expected to drop it quite a bit.

Water for horses at the old Indian trailhead.

Escanaba was not a very attractive city, so after taking a look at the lighthouse I left for my off-road adventure. The ride towards Munising, which was to be 95% off-road, started well and took me to an old Indian trailhead.

Setting up the bike for off-roading.

The GPS waypoints I had put in before leaving were doing the job. There were a couple of patches of shallow sand, just enough to make it fun but not scary. Anyway, the handlebars were not set for the standing position required for off-roading, and the GPS was in the wrong location so I stopped and made things right.
That's when the fun ended though, as the GPS decided to get to the next waypoint by taking a detour on paved roads. That's not why I was in the area, but I could not get the GPS to change its mind, and did not want to get the detailed maps out, I would get lost anyway with them. So I decided to wing it and "go north". Take a right on that road, and go. Now that was way different as this was deep sand. I "caught" the bike once as it was sliding but the next time I compensated and went off the track. This, over a length of 30 feet - and I had 100 miles to go. I did not want to spend my time picking up the 650 pound bike when it fell, or risk damage to the luggage, or get lost in a deserted area. So I reluctantly decided to obey the GPS and went back on the road. Why did I get this adventure bike? This was such a disappointment. After getting myself together while riding on the tarmac, I decided that I had enough gas to attempt offroading again. Made a right on a gravel road, but was stopped by a nice guy telling me a big truck was coming and anyway this was a deadend. I tried another road and ultimately learned from another couple of nice guys that I was about to reach "Rapid River Truck Trail" which where I should have been all along. I stopped later to play with the GPS setting and put it in "shortest possible distance" mode. Which was good for that day, but wait until the next day... Anyway I eventually got to my destination, a dead end which happened to be on the North Country Trail.Set things up, including a tarp over the bike since it was starting to rain and I had very limited storage space in the tent, and went to sleep. There were many noises and a lot of wind, and rain, and there was a period when I could not sleep as every strange noise made me think of an approaching bear. A tree in the forest came down crashing, and I thought that this could be the tree that I had suspended my food bag from (that's what you do in bear country. The other option is to keep it in the tent with you, and fight off the bear when it comes for it). Only after I tied my bad-ass fixed-blade knife to my wrist did I calm down and fell asleep, under the delusion that now I could stand a chance against a black furry opponent.

Obstacle passed!

The next day, I got up at 8, although I was hoping to get up earlier. This time it took me a couple of hours before departing, as there was much to pack. I headed for Munising's "falling rock cafe" via the shortest path, per GPS directions. That was as planned at the beginning, and I reached the highway. However the GPS wanted me to take an extremely narrow path through the forest, the "pipeline trail" and I obliged. Since it had rained all night the sand was compacted. There were many roots and the branches were so low I had to constantly dodge them. And all of a sudden there was a challenge, the biggest I'd ever been confronted to on a motorcycle (besides impassable mud). I walked the whole way to scout it, wondering whether to go. In the end the question is, can I turn around if I can't make it. The answer was yes, and I had learned how to deal with that particular soil I was on - don't go too slow. If you go too slow, the wheels sink into the wet sand. Also, the steering becomes extremely difficult, heavy. After much breathing I got on the bike and got it to go through the challenge. I was surprised to be on the other end at first try, and very happy so took a couple of trophy pictures.
The rest of the trail was fun as it was wet sand, making it great practice. However I came to what first appeared to be a vertical wall of sand. This was scary; the slope was increasing and the whole way was still sand, the bike was losing speed even though I was starting to gas it; the coming slope would have been a challenge even on tarmac as it seemed to be a 100 foot, 35% slope. While starting the ascent I thought "I know how to turn around on a slope in theory but have never practiced. Also, I've never been up such a slope." An additional issue was the tires, which were the original, road-biased. So I decided to give up even though that meant taking the challenge in the other direction... Getting the bike around took me 30 minutes of effort, but it worked once I took the luggage off. The challenging portion of the trail was OK in that direction, so I returned to the road and got to charming Munising where I started this blog entry, sipping coffee in the local hippie cafe.

Turned around, with the impassable grade in the background.