The Boat

Day 19-23   The Ferry South to Bellingham

We met a lot of fellow riders on the trip up north. Some bragged of riding for two to three months! Now, Chuck and I love to ride, but that would get old. We spent 18 days on the bikes: some long, some short, some wet, some hot, some cold, and some a combination of two or three of these conditions on the same day.

We invited the Wolfes over to our place

Cruising wine drank from a Dixie cup, life is great

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We have discussed if you are going to ride all summer we would need to have little vacations from the daily routine of riding. If you don’t do that the ride can go from fun to routine, to a grind. Although we have a system of only the essentials coming off the bike every night, this process of load unload can get old. Shawn and I have come up with a system that has been working well. Each of us has one side pannier that has a soft bag that conforms to its exact shape. In this are all our clothes and our Sanuk sandals. These are great travel shoes because they take up very little room and they can be worn for all après riding activities. On top of the panniers, or side cases, we each have a piece of soft luggage that carries the following: electric vest, electric socks, electric gear controller, water repellant hat, mosquito face net, bandana, wind and water repellant jacket, extra gloves. In the truck we have a combo bathroom kit , his and hers, Shawn’s very small travel purse, the laptop, tie down straps for the ferry, and all charging cords for cameras, phones, and computer. Strapped to the top of the trunk, is a soft bag that holds the motorcycle cover, extra face shields, some bungees, rags, and sunglasses.

In the bag on the tank we have cameras, binoculars, maps, flashlight, tire gauge, sunscreen, spare keys, and bug spray, etc.

When we arrive at our destination we remove our soft bag of clothes, and all the contents of the trunk. It’s pretty easy to get the room in one trip.

Unloading the day's catch of Sockeye salmon

If a multiple week or month or two long rides is the plan, we recommend rest days at least once a week. After two to three weeks a 3-5 day stop would be a good idea. We rode 18 days without a rest day mostly because of our limited time and what we wanted to see.

Shawn and Barbara liked the idea of the 5 day ferry ride after our 18 day schedule. I think this is the best way to do it. We are enjoying the casual schedule of boat life. Rooms are great, food is good and pricing very reasonable. We try to get off the boat, if not for anything but to go for a brisk walk. We have done this in Yakutat and Juneau.

We are getting ready to dock and hopefully find a wireless signal and post some stuff to the blog.

Thanks again for being a part of our adventure!

Scott, Shawn, Chuck, and Barabara