Well, I’ve been back home in the San Francisco Bay Area for a few weeks now, and I thought I’d like to put some words together to reflect on what might be the most prolific motorcycle trip of my lifetime.
Chris Weld
First off, I need to thank my riding partner, Chris Weld for being a great companion on the way from the Bay Area eastbound across America and across Ontario. For folks who know him, Chris is a legend of the Northern California motorcycling community, being a founding member of the BMW Club of Northern California (BMW NorCal), and one of the first hundred members of the BMW Motorcycle Owners’ Association of America (BMW MOA). This was at least Chris’s 40th time riding across the country. The guy is also 81 as-of this trip. The fact that he not only did the trip but was even pushing us on on our longest day riding all the way from Glendive, Montana to Brainerd, Minnesota. He really made an adventure out of it, and I’ll have lasting memories of running out of gas in Jackpot, Nevada after the power went out across all of Northeast Nevada; stopping in at the Winnett Bar & Grill, chatting up the owner/operator of the place and coming away with two of the most interesting bottles of whiskey I’ll probably ever have; and getting into the only motel in Circle, Montana after the desk clerk had gone home and waiting out the thunderstorm that rolled through under their porte-cochere.
Chris also seemed to have a great time exploring around Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec while my brother and I were chained to our computers working our day jobs while he was in the Ottawa area — at least until he had his accident on the first weekend in town. Which, very thankfully, Chris wasn’t seriously hurt in.
Even sorting out the aftermath of the accident turned into a bit of an adventure, since Chris got into Canada at a land border with no passport, we had to apply for an emergency passport at the US Embassy in Ottawa so he could board a plane to fly home, which was another thing I don’t think I’ll forget!
Marvin Bohn
I met Marv for the first time on the way eastbound. Marv is a long-time friend of Chris Weld from many cross-country MOA National Rally trips, and he certainly made fast friends with me too. The guy hosted Chris and I on our way east, and me on my own on my way west as well. What a hero. It was really nice to have such a gracious host, and gave me a good reason to see North and South Dakota to go see him in Brainerd, Minnesota.
Planning Process
Like I’d imagine most working people would need to, I had to start from a fixed schedule of available time I could take off of work, and from that come up with a feasible trip that could be done within that time limit. Given that even the most direct road route from San Francisco to Ottawa is 3000 miles (5000km), there were going to have to be some long days to get the trip done in the week off I had for each direction. I wanted to cover not much more than 400 miles per day (640 km per day), while also setting aside time to see some sights along the way. For the most part, that worked out, but it definitely would be nice to have had a day off in the middle somewhere.
Having Google Maps with the “Avoid Highways” setting turned on even had me on some pretty interesting roads, especially on the return trip westbound, where the only Interstate highway I took to cross the US was a 40-mile stretch of I-35 south leaving Duluth, Minnesota all the way back to the East Bay!
The Bike
I bought the bike for the trip, a red 2007 BMW R1200GS, with only about 31,000 miles on the clock in late April 2024. After only a tire change and attaching a phone mount to get it into travel condition, it made the whole trip eastbound without any serious issues at all! I really was impressed how well “Die Grosse Rote Maschine” was to ride and how bulletproof it seemed to be. A very convenient and affordable oil change at The Ottawa Goodtime Centre before returning was the only maintenance I had done on the way. If not for intermittent brake lockups needing a roadside brake fluid flush on the first afternoon of the return trip, the bike would have been just about flawless in its performance!
Highlight Sights
The highlight sights from the way eastbound undoubtedly were Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. The natural beauty of that area around Jackson, Wyoming was incredible. The Teton mountains are like a sawblade of peaks jutting out from the beautiful Wyoming meadow lands around them. They really were spectacular. Yellowstone, while maybe not quite as spectacular as Grand Teton, was still amazing to see. The whole place was covered in mountains, hot springs, geysers and canyons around every corner. Crossing the continental divide at least a half-dozen times while crossing that park, on what was not even close to the most interesting road through the park was awesome.
On the return trip, my two favorite sights were definitely the north shore of Lake Superior on the Trans-Canada highway 17 in Ontario and riding through eastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. What can you say about the north shore of Superior? It honestly felt like riding through the Canadian Shield’s version of the Pacific Coast Highway, only with a safer highway (maybe not as twisty, but I’d say 80% as scenic). Ontario isn’t known as a particularly mountainous province, but the utter wilderness and rugged, rocky hills could have fooled me into thinking otherwise. Combined with the oncoming Fall colors on the trees and gorgeous views of the lake made for photo ops around nearly every corner!
Eastern Wyoming and Northern Colorado also had some great, twisty roads, and beautiful mountain scenery to see. Considering what my expectations of Wyoming had been (I’d only seen Wyoming from I-80 before taking this trip, which is one of the dullest 375 miles (600 km) of roadway in existence) I was thoroughly impressed with both. Not least of which was crossing the continental divide in the Colorado Rockies not far from Steamboat Springs!
Friends
I definitely need to do a better job of keeping up with my friends back home. It was great to see everyone that I was able to. Napoleon on his Harley, learning about his trips out to Sturgis and how his brother was doing; Hanna on his Suzuki V-Strom and Trevor on his Kawasaki KLR as they’d just gotten into adventure riding this summer and both are now busy dads. Man, time’s flown by. It’s kind of crazy that we’ve all ended up as motorcycle riders after all this time. I really need to make more of an effort to keep in touch and get out for a ride when I’m in Ottawa in the future!
Family
Lastly, I need to say thanks to my brother, Chris Geggie. Chris very graciously put me up for the three weeks that I was able to spend in Ottawa. Not only did he host me, but also my riding partner, Chris Weld. A guy he’d never met before the trip. Chris you were an amazing and accommodating host. Thank you very much for tolerating the two of us taking over your place for weeks!
To my folks, especially my Mom, thanks so much for the hospitality you had for us. The Labour Day picnic you put together in Smiths Falls, Ontario was fantastic and such a solace for us after Chris Weld’s crash the day before. Also special thanks go out to my Dad for being so willing to help in our initial plan to get Chris down to upstate New York for his rescue flight home, before the US Embassy took over. I’m glad we didn’t have to go with one of those plans in the end.
Statistics
- States/provinces visited:
- 12 states:
- California
- Nevada
- Idaho (1st time in Idaho)
- Wyoming
- Montana (1st time in Montana)
- North Dakota (1st time in North Dakota)
- Minnesota (1st time in Minnesota)
- Wisconsin (1st time in Wisconsin)
- Michigan
- South Dakota (1st time in South Dakota)
- Colorado
- Utah
- 2 Provinces:
- Ontario
- Quebec
- 12 states:
- Parks visited:
- Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
- Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
- Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario
- Minuteman National Historic Site, South Dakota
- Badlands National Park, South Dakota
- Mount Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota
- Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
- Dinosaur National Monument, Utah
- Distance covered: 7,160 miles (11,523 km)
- Eastbound: 3,751 miles (6037 km)
- Westbound: 3,409 miles (5486 km)
- Longest day: 560 miles (901 km) – Steamboat Springs, Colorado to Ely, Nevada
- Times bike dropped:
- Chris Weld: 1
- Me: 0