The ExploreNorth Blog

I’ve been saying for a few years that I’m semi-retired – although I have to work, I can pretty much do what I want, when I want to do it. I’ve just discovered, though, that to be truly semi-retired, a guy needs a toy or two. The motorcycle is the first toy I’ve had since selling the airplane 25 years ago, and I love it!

On the first day (Friday), all I did was ride it from the dealer’s to my garage. Day 2, my friend Amanda, who just bought a new Kawasaki Versys, invited me to go riding, and we went out to Marsh Lake and back – 125km. Day 3 was the first major road trip for both of us – to Skagway and back – and we had a ball. Here we are in my driveway Sunday morning.

Leaving on our little adventure…

A brief stop at Emerald Lake.

We had lunch at Glacier Smoothies in Skagway, and a look at the Seven Seas Navigator, a small ultra-luxury ship that I’d love to see the inside of for a week or so

I’ve decided that on sunny weekdays I need to work in the morning and then reward myself with a ride in the afternoon. Yesterday, it was time to get my portable garage set up properly. It’s not level, it’s not anchored properly, and it’s a mess.

The first step was to anchor it properly, with a 4×4 at the bottom corners.

I built an overhead tire/wheel rack in the barn, but it requires carrying the wheels up a ladder – it seemed like a good idea at the time but didn’t work out that way. A chest-height one over the snowplow storage spot will be much better. It just took a few minutes to figure out the right measurements for it.

Much better – I have to add a shelf for the tarps and finish levelling the garage today, but the job is largely done.

The Whitehorse-Tagish-Carcross loop is very bike-friendly, so that was my reward. This is looking east on the Alaska Highway at Jake’s Corner, where you turn right onto the Tagish Road.

The eastern end of the Tagish Road – sunshine, lots of curves and virtually no traffic!

I stopped in to see a cousin and her family at Tagish – it was good to see how the bike handles on a mile or so of gravel.

Passing Crag Lake, near Carcross at the west end of the Tagish Road.

My initial summary of the bike is that it fits me like a glove, but does have some issues that have solutions except for one. That one is the range – with a 4.5-gallon tank and getting 44 miles per gallon, you can’t get very far without a fill-up. I used the reserve tank yesterday to complete the 225km loop – the reserve is 1.2 gallons.

I’ve got a lot to learn about motorcycles. Not only am I surprised by how many manufacturers there are now, there are a lot of dealers online with great deals on accessories and gear. I’m keeping track of them on my new motorcycle page

There’s a very long “to-do” list hanging on the fridge, and only 3 weeks until I head out of town again. The weather is mostly sunny and warm, so I’m not inclined to work on inside projects.

The first outside job to take care of was simple – clean the hot tub and get the water-guy out to fill it. We used to use our well water, but the truck brings nicer water (softer, easier to keep balanced) and it’s already heated – no stress on our well pump, filters or water heater.

Then the big job – move the greenhouse. I never have liked it where it was. It was a visual “clunk” in our beautiful view and it was so shaded that it was no good as a greenhouse. It’s very well built, though, so I didn’t want to just knock it down.

Step 1 – clean it out (including a few hundred pounds of soil).

Step 2 – jack it up, run a chain through it and tow it as close as possible to the new location beside the meat shed.

That was fairly easy…

A heavy rain stopped work for this day, but it was now really clear that the move was going to be a good idea.

Day 2 (yesterday), Step 3 – clear the willows from the new site.

Tidying up. Each of the 40 or so willow shoots was given a dose of Roundup to prevent re-growth.

Step 4 – this was the back-breaker: dragging/prying it into place with a comealong and pry bars.

Step 5 – move all the stuff that was in the greenhouse to its new home. We like the “camp” look of the new layout. Due to the trees it still won’t be a top-notch performer as a greenhouse but we aren’t avid gardeners anyway.

And the view from the upper deck this morning is hugely improved – that was a worthwhile project