Bears and pic-a-nic baskets.

I was looking at a map at this place called Yellowstone National Park and I see this campground called "Mammoth Hot Springs". I decided to break my cardinal rule of not paying for lodging to camp out here. Who doesn't love a good soak in hot springs? Turns out you're not allowed to enter the hot springs here. They're just for looking at. It was a little disappointing, but even still, not even Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson himself could buy a better view.





Let's head up the nearby hill, shall we?



That isn't snow in the background, it's mineral deposits caused by the hot springs.

Now I might not have needed to pay for lodging that night, but I'm glad I did. My neighbor was one Chris Mainard. A biker from Seattle that has ridden his Harley Street Glide to Alaska and back; something I couldn't have done on the Valkyrie. We shared stories, he shared his fine scotch, I shared my cliff bars. A good time was had. And I got this tip: The Beartooth Highway out of Yellowstone might have been recently voted the best motorcycle road in the country, but only because so few people know about the Chief Joseph Highway, which splits off the Beartooth just before it starts to climb into the mountains.

Oh man...Ride the Beartooth, or give it up for the Chief Joseph Highway...Decisions, decisions. Gotta love when it's a choice between awesome and awesome. When the time came, I decided I would ride the Beartooth Highway and I'd save the Chief Joseph Highway for a return trip.

I will say this much about the Beartooth: If there is one day when I wished I had a helmet camera, this was it. The Beartooth Highway (US-212) climbs up to 11,000 feet and is gorgeous the whole way through.







It just keeps getting better as you go. It is pretty cold at 11,000 feet, but not too chilly, and not nearly as windy as Mt. Washington in New Hampshire was. It's kind of like biting into a York Peppermint Patty:



After the highest point and you start descending the mountain, the views remain amazing, but they take on a different flavor:



Since I was going to Dayton, Wyoming, I then got to head up US-14 through the Bighorn National Forest. This road was also a great, beautiful ride and climbed to about 9,000 feet. My poor carburetor spent a lot of the day gasping for breath.



Man, what a day.

Neck Paintings

Hey! Remember my friend Jaime out on Salt Spring Island that if you haven't read the post immediately below this one that you've never heard about?

"What's she doing out there on Salt Spring Island?"

Glad I pretended you asked!

She makes scarves. Jaime, you see, is a crafty person. No, I don't mean she's scheming and tricky. I mean she's real good with textiles. She makes these amazing scarves that her friends jokingly call "Neck Paintings" because they really are like wearing a painting around your neck. She showed me one that definitely evoked Van Gogh's "Starry Night". Of course, maybe I only thought of that because of the cupcakes in Portland. I wish I had a picture. Instead I'll just rip a couple of pictures from her website:







Aren't those beautiful? Wouldn't one of those make the perfect accessory? Have everybody "Oo"ing and "Ah"ing over your incredibly unique and beautiful scarf? Yes. Yes it would. Here's a link to her blog where at the very least you can leave a comment saying "Hey I want one of your scarves!":

dharmathreads.blogspot.com

Oh, Canada

As I rode my bike from Seattle, Washington into British Columbia Canada, I couldn't help but notice that they seem to understand what's supposed to fuel a car up here:



High octane, and it's got no ethanol in it. Can't beat that.

I was visiting my friend Jaime from Japan out on Salt Spring Island, so I had to take a ferry to get there.





Salt Spring Island is a beautiful little place. Right next to the Fulford Harbor ferry docks are two places to grab a bite to eat, cup of your favorite hot beverage, and maybe some baked goods to go. The Morningside Bakery, and the Rock Salt Cafe. Both are exceptional, and if you find yourself on Salt Spring Island looking for a bite to eat, live a little and splurge for a meal at either or both of these places. It'll run about $13 Canadian at the time of this post.

When I finally find the address I'm looking for, thanks to a friendly cop who escorted me right to it, my jaw hit the floor.



Is this paradise? She must have like 5 roommates in this place. Turns out, no, it's just her and 1 roommate, who's work takes him all over the world so he's out a lot.

That porch is the perfect spot for breakfast.



What a view!

SSI was a beautiful little island, but it seems more suited to retirees who are already established and settled.

On the ferry back to the mainland, I met a couple of really cool B.C. bikers who were also techies like myself. One of them handed me this card:



For free?! Well, I guess everyone's got to have a hobby.

So then I spend a couple of nights in North Vancouver. Where it was also beautiful. When I got there, my host took me canoeing with a couple friends to go collect their crab traps from earlier that day. I didn't bring my camera because I was worried it might get wet but I should have taken the risk. The view from the canoe was amazing.

The next day I went out and explored Lynn Canyon Park. I went over to the suspension bridge, but my heart sank a little bit when I saw how crowded it was.



But even this anti-social misanthrope couldn't help but smile on that thing because the view is amazing and it swings back and forth like crazy. Not the least scary time a person can have on a bridge for sure. If you're afraid of heights, this would probably be some great exposure therapy though...

Anyway, I was there during a peak hour and everyone seemed to be congregating at the bridge. They didn't seem to realize or care that "30-foot pool" was just a 10 minute walk down the trail on the other side.

I gotta say this is one of those times I wish I had a car to stash stuff in and just head out in a swim suit and flip flops:



This would be the perfect place to come out and- oh. Never mind.



Here's a Canadian energy drink:



In Canada, Nestea "Brisk" is Nestea "Cool". I found that funny. It makes it seem as if Canada is like an Earth 2 where everything is similar but ever so slightly different. Wait! Oh my god!



Is this toilet paper trying to advertise that it feels like wiping your butt with a cat?



I hope so!

Anyway, after North Vancouver I gunned it over to Cheney, Washington. for a night.

Funny story:
When I was a freshman in highschool, and Napster was THE THING, I found myself in a Napster chatroom about anime (Japanese cartoons) one night. I remember talking to someone (Let's call him "Josh") about this tv show that was on Comedy Central called "Frank Leaves for the Orient". It was a funny show, but I mentioned it because in the show, Frank hears about this program where you can go and teach English in Asia and you don't even have to be a teacher. Well, Josh says "You know that exists right?" and he links me to the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program.

We exchanged AIM screen names, and I would talk to Josh about once a year after that.

That first conversation influenced the next 7 years of my life (and pretty much the rest of it too), as I planned on participating in the JET Program, minored in Japanese Language and Culture in College, and lined everything up to join the JET program as soon as possible after I graduated.

During our last annual conversation I told him about this trip I was on. We exchanged facebook info, and he invited me to come stay with him.

That's who I stayed with in Cheney, Washington. My new, old friend Josh.

: End of funny story.

After Cheney, I ran it on over to Columbia Falls, Montana. Montana is gorgeous.



Big Sky Country indeed!

I was pleased to see that the no ethanol in premium gas policy extended this close to home. Guess you don't have to go all the way to British Columbia before people know what to put in an engine.

The original plan was to spend 1 night in Columbia Falls, then camp for a night in Glacier National Park, then head on over to Bozeman, Montana after riding up "Going to the Sun Road" which is a legendary road. Well, it turns out most of "Going to the Sun Road" was closed (still too much snow on it). This was on Monday and I heard it was going to open up on Wednesday, but I can't dilly-dally around waiting for roads to open: there's home needs be gettin' to! So my host allows me to stay a second night and leave for Bozeman from Columbia Falls. I did go in to Glacier though and take what part of the road that I could. It's beautiful in there:



Darn shame about that road not being opened. I guess the time to go to Glacier is in August.

Anyway, I arrived in Bozeman yesterday. I have so far eaten at I-Ho's Korean where the food is quite good. That's it. I roll out tomorrow to camp in Yellowstone National Park for a night, before taking another legendary road ("The Bear Tooth Highway") eastwards, back up into Montana, and ultimately down into Dayton, Wyoming. For a night. On my way back to NY. I should be back in NY mid August. Which would mean the second half of this trip only took 2.5 months as opposed to 6. Here's hoping everything goes according to plan...

What?

Seattle

The first thing I did in the Seattle area was go to lunch with a friend at Dixie's BBQ. Dixie's BBQ is an old auto garage that's been turned into a BBQ with some good grub.



They have a sauce simply called "The Man" that is only for people who like their food to hurt them.

The next day I rode around the area enjoying the nice weather and the good scenery.



It's...bigger out here. I was riding around for hours and haven't covered hardly any of the Olympic Peninsula.

Then I went on the Seattle Underworld Tour with another friend out here. I was told they change the script of the tour after 8pm. Before then it's a little candy coated and not as fun. The old city is actually under the current one. Since Seattle started out as a logging town, as it started to become a proper city, there were a lot of problems with the infrastructure. After the great fire of 1889 they raised the city up by as much as 36 feet in some places. But business owners downtown didn't want to wait for them to finish raising the streets, so they rebuilt their buildings at the original level. This leaves a whole underground portion where all SORTS of seedy stuff can go on. Interesting fact, during the gold rush 2,000 women claimed to be seamstresses but only a handful had sewing machines.

The next day I went to The Lunchbox Laboratory with yet another friend. This place is great. They specialize in burgers. Each week, some burgers are presented as weekly experiments, and the ones that really catch on get put on the regular menu. As a result, when you bite into your burger at Lunchbox Laboratory, you feel as if all you've experienced up until this point is a close approximation of what a burger should be. I've eaten at Wolfgang Puck's. I've eaten at Emeril's. I've grown up eating my mom's cooking which trumps them all anyway. I will put my own burgers up against any of theirs. Yet not even my own recipe could compete with this place.



Also, they serve drinks in beakers:



Aaaaand they have an arcade upstairs or at least, they will. I believe when I went it wasn't up and running yet.

After lunch, I went to the Pike Place Market which is a bustling little scene where you can get pretty much anything: Chocolate, pasta, chocolate pasta...the list goes on. It's where the original Starbucks is:



There are talented artists and buskers aplenty at the Pike Place Market. It's worth checking out but be prepared for a massive crowd.

I have no way of ending the blog this week with any degree of wit or eloquence, so:

The end.