2013 USA Motorcycle Tour: Chapter 6, Day 5

The last day of our five day tour started off in Kingston, Ontario. Our plan was to go north towards West Port and then go west from there towards Toronto.

Bananna sandwiches

Carrying bags through the hotel for the last time was painful to say the least

Maybe we took the wrong roads, but the ride back was pretty boring and straight forward, hence the lack of pictures. As we approached Toronto, we split off one by one. After we shed our touring gear, Alok George and I met up again to wash the bikes. They REALLY needed a good rinse.

Nothing like some Bim Bap to round off a 5 day motorcycle tour

The RR tucked away again

Well, that's it. The 5 day USA Motorcyle Tour was complete. While our bikes were never built for this kind of trip, I'd say that they finished in much better shape than the riders. By the time I slid into bed on wednesday night, I felt physically broken. 5 days. That's my limit for sport bike touring.

2013 USA Motorcycle Tour: Chapter 5, Day 4

Day four of our trip looked promising. Low humidity, no rain and clear skies. We prepped our bikes like we always did and I noticed the dirt and grime that had built up over the last few days.

Another day begins ...

... with dirty fenders ...

... dirty tails ...

... and dirty swingarms

We quickly fueled up and made our way out of Burlington, Vermont. While not a huge city by any means, still proved to be difficult to get out of with morning traffic.

Gas, don't leave home without it

Cooking my radiator Burlington, Vermont

Because the rain had thrown us off our original route, we had no time to tour the White Face mountains in New Hampshire like we had planned. Because of time restricitons we started to head back to Canada. The route we decided on was through the Adirondack mountains again towards the Ogsdenburg boarder cross. We departed Vermont via ferry.

Leaving Vermont

This would have been a more appropriate machine for our trip

Arriving in New York

Familiar Adirondack roads greeted us as the ferry docked. The mountain roads were definately very pretty (especially when it wasn't raining ice cubes) but still quite boring otherwise.

PIN IT!!!!

As we reached Lake Placid, food started to enter our minds. We stumbled across another somewhat famous established called Tail O' The Pup. What the BBQ ribs lacked in quality, it made up for in quantity.

Don't worry, no homo was declared

The knee down experience

Back on the road with a full stomach, we made good time and found ourselves in Ogsdenburg very quickly.

Once we made our way through Customs Ricky decided to head home (probably for women) while Alok George and I wanted play some more (because we have no girlfriends).

Bye Ricky!

Chillin' in line

Pushing our bikes to avoid over-heating

dead US bugs imported to Canada

Officially back in Canada!

With Ricky gone, the rest of us headed towards Kingston, Ontario for the night.

Somone cranked the AC and ripped the knob off

2013 USA Motorcycle Tour: Chapter 4, Day 3 (The Big Wet)

On a soggy Monday morning we left the modest comfort of Best Western and joined the ranks of Utica commuters. Unfortunately we were diverted from our original route by a king sized storm system headed towards New Hampshire. This sent us north into the Adirondack Mountains instead of east towards Lebanon. We planned a route around the rain system with Burlington, Vermont as our goal.

While our detour into the mountains was supposed to avoid rain, we were completely drenched by our first gas stop. It was during this gas stop that George found rain suits that cost $1. Predictably the glorified garbage bags began to shread themselves to pieces as we approached walking pace. By the time we were reached cruising speeds, I found myself regularly assaulted by bits of plastic rag.

As we rode deeper into the Adirondacks, it seemed that while there were some great scenery to be seen, there wasn't much around in terms of nice twisty roads... which may not have been a bad thing given the tricky conditions.

As we arrived at Tupper Lake, the mid point of our mountain journey, all of us, even me with my Frog Toggs, were totally drenched. We were cold, tired, wet, hungry and really needed some food. George led the group into the first place that looked like it might have food.

The Trail's End, as it turned out, was a famous biker bar. The owner, who went simply by The Beard was one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He threw all our wet clothes into the dryer and even gave some rain gear to Alok George and Ricky. You bet we left a nice tip for Mr. Beard.

Touring bikers or axe murderers? You decide

As we continued our journey through the Adirondack mountains, the weather continued to be persistently terrible.

Things started to dry out as we entered the Lake Champlain area. However, menancing skies urged haste.

The ride through the islands towards Burlington took place in the twilight of a cloudy day. With the night came merciless rain, unlit streets, twisty roads and incoming high beams. This turned into an interesting game of 'guess where the corners are'.

After an eternity of riding in the spray of cars, we arrived in the pocket of civilization that is Burlington, Vermont.