Just had a GREAT interview with Entertainment Radio Network. I’m so honored that they contacted me.

The segment is on Adventure Motorcycling–and guess who they interviewed–ME! I love taking about the sport from the female adventurer’s perspective.

http://www.ernlive.com/ is Entertainment Radio Network’s web site–not sure when the interview goes live but I’ll post again when it does.

~MAG (Alisa)

Liz Jansen of Trillium Tours is doing an interview series with female motorcyclists which appears every Monday. This week Liz interviewed me.

The whole series is quite interesting, filled with heaps of inspirational ladies. Kudos to Liz for doing this!

Check it out:

http://ht.ly/6LFIj

The plan:
Edward and I were to ride some of the wildest, most remote open spaces the West has to offer.
Montana=The Gravelly Range
Wyoming=The Big Empty
Colorado & Nevada=Pony Express Trail through the desert
California=KTM Adventure Rally (not so empty)
Nevada=Loneliest Road in America (Rt. 50, unfortunately paved)
Oregon=some pavement chasing a fruitless errand
Idaho & Montana=The Magruder Corridor (the largest wilderness area in the USA) (more info HERE)

I tried to send a SPOT message at the end of every day, and sometimes even remembered to send one from one of the really cool, wild places we were at. You can click HERE for a link to our SPOT page–be sure to set the history to “All” . (Note that I do not have the tracking feature enables as I did while riding South of the Border.)

The reality:
All that and more.
Pony Express Trail. Mormon Trail. Oregon Trail.
21 days. 2 Showers, 21 nights of camping. 1 tip-over (me, parking the bike at the last campsite of the trip!)

Here’s a sneak peak at some of the terrain we rode:

There are several commercial hot springs in our area (Heise Hot Springs, Lava Hot Springs), but Edward and I are going to head out on the KTM 950′s, ride the road less traveled, and find some “backcountry” hot springs to camp near.

Edward has been working on a compilation of GPS waypoints for hot springs for the past year…I’m a lucky gal!

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Here are a few pics from our visit to Liard Hot Springs in Canada last year:

Liard Hot Springs c. Edward Wilkinson

Liard Hot Springs c. Edward Wilkinson

Liard Hot Springs c. Edward Wilkinson

This week I saw Michael Murray on there.

In 2008 Edward and I went to see his presentation on the Trans-America Trail (crossing America on all dirt roads and tracks)  at Max BMW (NY)…he gave out lots of good info, and sells lots of inspiring motorcycle adventure DVDs (www.MotorcycletravelDvds.Com)

>>>Fast forward to the following summer, and Edward and I rode the Trans-America Trail together.

>>>Fast forward to THIS summer, and Outrider Journal has published my story on one day in our TAT adventure.   What’s so cool about Outrider Journal is large-format, 9 x 11-inch magazine that uses premium paper with fewer ads than most moto-mags. It’s  more like a coffee table book than a magazine.

Look them up on the web at www.OutriderJournal.com for a copy of the article or to subscribe.

It was really fun for us to ride the 500 miles home together–it’s been a coupe of months since we’d been able to ride together, and it brought up all the great memories of the summer we traveled together in 2009.

The great, wide open of Montana and Idaho.

Riding in to Idaho Falls…

So we pull up, and there are three adventure bikes parked out front. Neat-o! I swung around back as I usually do to park, but then realized when would I have the opportunity to take a pic of FIVE KTM 950′s parked in front of my house…

So here are three weary travelers in need of some serious bike maintenance.

Craig, Matthew and Ardie the Australian bloke had already ridden 12,000+ miles to and through Alaska and back. They were headed back to the Continental Divide Ride to finish their southbound journey, then head to their respective homes in the midwest and Australia.

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Here’s what a small moto-world it is:

When I was having the fuel pump issues with my 950 on my Southwest trip, my friend Chris Kelly got online and somehow found Craig…and Craig shipped me a fuel spare pump he had out of the goodness of his heart. Much later I learned that Craig is friends with Edward (Craig didn’t know this when he helped me, a stranded traveler)…

Matthew is good friends with my cousin Ken, who was supposed to ride to South America with me (Matthew had put me up several times when I passed through Cleveland).

So we were glad to host then and even gladder to be able to spend time visiting old friend and making new ones.

I wake up before the alarm goes off, and look out the window.

It’s a sad day–last day of the tour. But we have a lot of miles to cover, and a volcano to see, so let’s get started.

Mount St. Helens

We leave Cascade Locks in a group, but we split up along the way due to our individual interests. Karen has re-routed us onto the WEST side of Mount St. Helens since the pass on the East side is still closed due to snow (!). This means a longer day, so some go straight to the hotel.

I take off with Pam and Karen, but these gals go so fast I just hang on and enjoy the ride, and forget to take pics!

At the Mount St. Helens visitors center they decide to take the tour, so Charlene and I decide to ride up the 55 mile (one way!) scenic road up to the top of the mountain.

I forget to put the lanyard around my neck, and realize the mistake as soon as I pull the camera out of my pocket. Luckily Charlene does not run it over, I retrieve the pieces, and chuckle that it still works after a 60 mph get-off.

My Ktm is not shy.

It’s a magnificent view.

Charlene and I at last arrive back in Issaquah, and we are happy to see that everyone has arrived safely.

SUCCESS!

We have a final farewell dinner and recap our tour,

take a group photo

and say goodnight.

It’s been a great tour, and I am very pleased to have brought to life my vision of empowering other female riders.

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Today was my day to play. Charlene and I took off to ride, and we caught glimpses of Mt. Hood along our path. There was construction on the road, so we took a detour up to the ski area to get some decent pics of the snow capped mountain.

We stopped in Hood River and had a FANTASTIC lunch on a deck overlooking the Columbia River, and egad, what’s wrong with me? no pics. No food pics, no river pics.

We were the first ones to arrive in Cascade Locks, so I made the dinner plans while Charlene rested on the deck overlooking the river. What a pretty place!

It was hot.

Monica bought us ice cream cones down teh street from the hotel, but hers melted so fast, sh ended up sharing it with a canine tourist.

It was kinda fun for me to get back to the hotel and see all the bikes lined up so prettily…and all the ladies doing maintenance on them!

Dinner was a casual affair this night after our “how to pick up your bike” seminar (many thanks to Harley-Davidson for providing us with those handy little brochures with illustrations!)

http://rumbum.com/994-into-the-darien