| Total Days | 9 |
| Days on the Road | 9 |
| Total Miles | 2158 |
| Average Miles/Day | 240 |
| Low Mileage Day | 50 |
| High Mileage Day | 327 |
| Total Gas Stops | 17 |
| Total Gallons | 68.3 |
| Total Gas Cost | $220.60 |
| Average Miles/Gallon | 33.33 |
| Average Cost/Gallon | $3.23 |
| Low Cost/Gallon | $2.379 - Bellingham, WA |
| High Cost/Gallon | $3.529 - Meziadin Junction, BC |
| Total States Visited | 2 |
| Total National Parks Visited | 1 |
| Total National Monuments Visited | 0 |
| Lowest Temperature | 50.2° |
| Highest Temperature | 97.1° |
| Lowest Elevation | -36' |
| Highest Elevation | 4,750' |
| Days with Rain | 1.5 |
| Nights in Motels | 8 |
| Average Cost/Night | $111.93 |
| Low Cost Night | $80.96 |
| High Cost Night | $128.44 |
| Wireless Connections | 8 |
| Wired Connections | 0 |
| Telephone Connections | 0 |
As I mentioned previously, this trip definitely exceed our expectations. We planned to ride in our 50th state and if we saw any bears at the viewing station that would be an extra treat. As I mentioned in one of the daily write-ups we actually saw 4 or 5 bears before we ever got to Hyder.
The Fish Creek Viewing Station was excellent. The entry fee was $5.00 US per day for each person and you could go in and out as often as you liked. The viewing platform was a long (about 200 yards) deck along the creek and you could get great views from almost every point. We were afraid that it would be so crowded that we might have trouble finding a place but that was not the case. It was kind of an interesting dynamic, people would stand around whispering quietly so as not to spook any animals. Then all of a sudden a bear would appear and people would begin to move to the closest point and begin taking pictures. The bears normally entered at one end of the creek and slowly moved their way along the creek, so you could really stand at one point and usually get some good shots. There was no pushing or shoving, people were very accomodating. There was also some very impressive camera equipment. I don't know much about it but there were some very long lenses and fancy tripods. Some people appear to come early and set up for the whole day. The station is open from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Besides black and grizzly bears, there were also frequent bald and golden eagles. It was a very majestic site and we were very happy that we got the chance to go there.
We turned over 99,000 miles on this trip and the bike was flawless. We only got 33.3 miles per gallon and I'm not completely sure why although there seemed to be a lot of up and down on the route. We were somewhat concerned about gas availability along the way because of the remoteness of some of the areas but that wasn't really a problem. Using the Milepost we were able to pretty much plan all of our gas stops. The only minor problem was coming home and going through Kamloops. We didn't want to stop for gas in Kamloops since we were on a freeway and assumed there would be exits with gas on the way out of the city. This was not the case and we had to go all the way to Merritt to get gas. Ultimately we went 195 miles and we put about 5.7 gallons in what is supposed to be a 6.2 gallon tank. So we had probably another 15 miles before we ran out. Of course we still had a gallon in the trunk in our Rotopax gas can.
Once again I used the Fillup Android App to keep track of mileage and fuel usage. The only problem was that it uses gallons and US dollars and we were dealing with litres and Canadian dollars. We just wrote down the data at each stop and converted to gallons and US dollars in the evening to add to the app. This strategy worked fine.
Speaking of mileage, the roads were great for the most part. The only exception was the gravel road to the Salmon Glacier but we knew that ahead of time. And it was a small sample but I thought the drivers in Canada were more friendly and less aggressive than down here. It was a pleasure - until we got on I-5 in Bellingham.
Although we had the Garmin hooked up the entire time we only used it once and that was coming out of Kamloops to find the next gas station. We also had the Roady2 XM Radio going the whole time although it would fade in and out numerous times when the southern sky was blocked by a mountain or tall, dense tree stands.
We took pictures both with the Nikon S7000 as well as our phones on occasion. The 20X zoom on the Nikon was very helpful and the 4X zoom on the phones not so much. We also took several videos with the Nikon of spawning salmon and bears in the creek. The camera has optical zoom and then after that goes into digital zoom mode. We found that if stayed within the optical range, we got much better results.
I think the only equipment problem was with Linda's jacket. Early in the trip the zipper got stuck and she could zip up but was afraid to zip the jacket open for fear that she wouldn't be able to get the zipper started again and wouldn't be able to close the jacket. So for the remainder of the trip she just zipped it almost open and then took the jacket off over her head. It was definitely inconvenient for her.
There were few chains of hotels like Holiday Inn Express so we stayed at mostly local places. The problem is that we wanted to make reservations ahead of time because this was the middle of vacation season and it can be difficult to judge a motel from a web page. In the end the worst place we stayed also happened to be the most expensive. This may have been gouging due to the fact that the fires were heavy in that part of BC and several roads were closed and whole communities were being evacuated. Because of this many motels in the area were full. We actually had to change our route going home because the route we came in on was closed for several days at a time.
We actually don't have plans for next year's trip yet but it will be hard to top this year.