Ride Your Dreams

Ride Your Dreams by Shannon Lee Mannion (Reprinted from Cycle Canada in Jan/Feb 2000)
The roads. It's always about the roads. Joan Armstrong found this out when she undertook a 20,000+ kilometre trip to Alaska, leaving Ottawa in mid-June on her 1996 FLHTC Harley-Davidson.

ome people travel in a crowd but not self-sufficient Joan. Retiring at 53 from a human resources job at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Ottawa, she was determined to live her dream to ride to Alaska and back, "It's not that I'm brave," she said before she left, "I'm decisive. If you wait for people to go with you, you'll be left behind sucking your thumb." So on the day before the summer solstice, she said goodbye to her husband and set her front wheel in the direction of the Gold Rush.

Winnipeg was her first major stop and she spent five days visiting relatives and taking in the National HOG Rally that started on June 24. Joan would have been there anyway but IT was a boon that the rally was in Winnipeg this year and not on the east coast. Winnipeg, after all, is on the way to Alaska. Granted, it is only about a third of the way but with copies of Let's Go Alaska and The Milepost tucked into her saddlebags, she was ready to keep heading west until the signposts clearly indicated, "Alaska, turn here."

Stopping at the HOG Rally was auspicious in many ways. She got to see old friends from former rallies and to make some new. This is how she met, Paulette Benning, Danielle Bourque and Jean Ooms from Saskatoon. They formed an instant bond and invited Joan to go on a run. "We did the circuit heading north to Lake Winnipeg, and when we returned, I was invited to have supper with the Saskatoon HOG Chapter."

"In retrospect," she observes, "All during my trip, I found myself relying on the kindness of strangers. The biker community, in particular, is very social and willing to help. For example," she says, "On my way through Saskatoon, I stayed with Jean for two nights and had a great evening when we went with Danielle to the Berry Barn for Saskatoon Berry pie. Delicious!"

When Joan was almost out of Alberta, the enormity of what she was doing hit home. "I got to the turn-off of Highway 43 on July 1 and that's when thought, ‘I'm actually on my way to Alaska. My dream is coming true. I'm actually going.'" This was about the time the scenery started to change, from the yellow fields of Saskatchewan canola to decidedly more rugged terrain. Distances between gas stations grew as she continued north into British Columbia toward the Yukon. It often occurred to her that her trip might suddenly become 'eventful' if she ran out of gas. Joan tells about a close call:

My normal gas consumption was reduced because I was pulling a trailer Each morning, I would always depart with a full tank of gas. However, heading towards Haines, Alaska, I was surprised to find out that there were no gas stations for 175 kms. Ascending the Cilkat pass in fog and mist at an elevation of 1,065 km, I became concerned that my gas was getting very low. I virtually coasted to a stop at the US border. My first question to the crossing guard was a distraught, ‘Where is there a gas station?’ Apparently, people running low on gas is a regular occurrence and US Customs keep a couple of gallons which they sell to “desperate” motorists.

On another occasion, in rain, fog and cold, I was descending the pass from Valdez when the bike coughed and died. This was the only day when my heart skipped a beat. I was in the middle of nowhere and thought, ‘Oh, now what,’ as I switched to reserve. There must have been dirt or water in the system because, fortunately, it caught.

If gas was a concern, others things you might expect were not. Camp grounds were, on the whole, comfortable, safe and secure, and problems with wildlife, nonexistent. Joan had to invest in a new back tire over her 55-day trip, what with pulling a trailer and the rough roads. She recounts what the roads were like, "Asphalt in the north is quite different," she exclaims. It consists of course rocks and there is always road construction in the area.”But these drawbacks aside, when you're living your dream, you don't think about giving up without a fight. And her trip coming across Canada had been fabulous, "One thing I must say, our country is flat, rocky, hilly, just a beautiful country. And our roads...there are none better. I read about some of these highways in Canadian Biker before my trip. They turned out, indeed, to be gorgeous." But those northern roads! It all comes down to the roads. The further north she went, the rougher they got.

Joan talks about some of her concerns as she rode above the 60TH parallel, "Whenever I met another motorcyclist, I'd always say, how are the roads. I inevitably got information that disillusioned me. When you keep on hearing that the roads are wet, bumpy and awful, it puts doubts in your mind." With her indomitable spirit slightly bruised, she recalls the effect that this had on her and how she overcame the negativity.

With an involuntary shiver, she begins, "One day, it was very cold and I was dressed in every bit of clothing I'd brought. I met a fellow traveller and asked him how it was ahead and he said that it was awful. I admit that I wondered if I should keep on going. But I told myself, Joan, get on that bike and you just head off. And I rode out of the rain and my spirits rose and I told myself that I wasn't going to listen to people any more." She figured that being forewarned by bearers of woe boiled down to two
things: either they were bad drivers or the roads were really bad. She had confidence in her riding ability and the second, well, she was going to Alaska and that was that. She'd deal with the roads on her own terms.

Over the eight-week trip, the FLHTC did admirably. Everything held but the starter. Disconnecting her trailer, friends helped Joan push-start her 900-pound bike to make the connecting ferry for Prince Rupert at Haines, Alaska. As chance would have, she met two American travellers, brothers long past 60-years-old, in the loading lane. One of them was having a similar problem with his Harley.

When they got to Juneau, they discovered that there was no Harley Dealer. This leads Joan to another story, "A Good Samaritan overheard that we were having problems and put us onto the Southeast Panhandlers, a Harley club who do their own maintenance work.. They had two starters in stock so we went to "Lumpy's" garage and both bikes were repaired in time to meet our 6 p.m. ferry departure. Had the parts not been available, we might have waited two days or more for parts to be flown in. We were extremely lucky." Overall, Joan calculates that Harley-related expenses for her trip ran her $1,000. That's for the starter, the back tire and four oil changes.

Heading into the unknown means that one's senses are heightened and the focus is on getting around the next bend in the road, over the next hill to see, to do, to explore. If Joan has one regret about her Alaska journey, it's that she did not venture to the Arctic Circle. "When I saw the sign on the Dempster Highway that said, No Services for 370 kilometres, I decided to head in another direction. Travelling alone, my concern was that if anything happened, like a tire puncture, I would be in trouble.

That's one of the things that Joan advises to those planning a similar trip--leave a paper trail as cell phones do not always work. "Every time I went into a visitor's centre, I always signed the guest book. At least people would know where I'd been last. The other thing I would say is to have lots of gas and warm clothing." Then, of course, there's Joan's recipe for having a "trip that'll be in my memory forever." She says, "I was friendly and I took the time to say hi.”

And the most important thing to remember, "A smile on your face will get you everywhere."