Author: admin

Season’s greetings

It’s too early for holiday decorations, the Gears of War pumpkin is still sitting on the porch, so a colleague suggested I put a Santa hat on it and “call it good.”

Gears of War pumpkin head
Gears of War pumpkin head, Santa edition

 

Now available on ADV

Now that I’ve wrapped up the ride report here, I’ve started to re-publish individual segments on ADVRIDER.COM available here so I can share with the broader motorcycling community. It will be the same content in both places, the ADV thread will just have larger pictures within the text. If you’re coming over here from ADV and want to read through the whole report before it’s completely on ADV, just start reading here.

A little bit of html massaging is required when moving a blog post from WordPress to the vBulletin software, particularly with the photo handling. vBulletin has no built-in captioning or ALT tags, so I’ve just opted for a straight up photo display on ADV. I’m definitely a fan of larger photos, it really makes the journey pop out. I’m also pleased to see that all of the embedding features – Excel web app, Google/Bing maps, Vimeo videos – work just fine without any editing required.

Enjoy!

“I’m on a boat, I’m on a boat, I’m on a…”

Here was our home for the next 4 days…

The ferry M.V. Columbia crosses the Lynn fjord in Haines
The ferry M.V. Columbia crosses the Lynn fjord in Haines
The M.V. Columbia in port at Haines
The M.V. Columbia in port at Haines
Bike parking on the Columbia
Bike parking on the Columbia - bring your own tie-downs!
Tents on the Columbia
We took the lower deck - out of the rain, a bit noisy, protected from wind.

Anticipation was high for the Inside Passage, and I kept bouncing around the decks firing the shutter on my camera, finishing with almost 500 images by the time we docked in Bellingham.

Let me share a few of the good ones here…

Clouds and fog over the Inside Passage
Clouds and fog over the Inside Passage
Container ship on the Inside Passage
Container ship on the Inside Passage
Shipwreck on the Inside Passage
What caused this...?
Tug boat on the Inside Passage
Blue sky, big sea
Rear view from the Columbia
Rear view from the Columbia

The Tongass National Forest is the largest forest in the United States, covering over 5.7M acres, with 19 different designated wilderness areas. It’s simply immense, and traveling by boat is one of the best ways to appreciate it. We saw whales, sea otters, swimming deer, and orca. We saw no bear, but would steer people to a recent article in National Geographic magazine to read about the rare ‘spirit bear’, which is a black bear born with white fur. Fascinating stuff.

We also ran into some great people on the ferry…quick shout outs to Rich, Don, and Steve…

Lunch at the Ocean View in Ketchikan
Brady, Rich, Steve, and Don at the Ocean View in Ketchikan

Here are a few composites for additional local color…

Lighthouses on the Inside Passage
Lighthouses on the Inside Passage
Vessels on the Inside Passage
Red on right, green ahead

If anyone is interested in seeing more of the Inside Passage, MSNBC did a nice photo essay over the summer, worth a scan.

After landing in Bellingham, it was a quick scamper home, and we called it a wrap: 5100 miles, 50GB of media to wade through, and time to power scrub the bike.