Yetti’s Pacific North West Exploration & Expeditions Picture heavy

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Well its like Christmas getting all sorts of goodies at work, and a few weird looks. I can treat a moto tire as checked baggage right?

Now all thats left is my riding pants to arrive:

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Pants have arrived!!!



BUT, since im still working the life of a risk manager.........after $20k of product dumped on the ground. The story im being told does not quite add up to the 1000kg box being upside down..

 

[ITTOG]

Is that polyethylene pellets.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Is that polyethylene pellets.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

It's actually shelled seed corn, each one of those box's holds about 1000kg of seed, or close to 2kibs. They are called " soft sides" but actually have 3/4inch marine grade plyboard sandwiched between plastic canvas. Allows them to support emense weight- but can be folded flat for empty storage.

 

[bigbuilder]

damn, you're winning at life. Awesome

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

damn, you're winning at life. Awesome

Bigbuilder, I dont know about that; Thank you though!! I am doing my best to explore, and enjoy the simple things in life whilst i am able to do so.

I am Back from Patagonia, and wow!! I will start the write up shorty I got back last weekend, after 36hours from Punta Arenas to my home in Eastern Oregon.


I will leave you with a few pictures but am planning on having the thread updated this week as we switched to 4:10's at work and the majority of my staff is off.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

On my last day in the office, October 31 2018.

I remember a pretty awesome calender notice coming up...


I was hoping for a quiet day, and to even leave early. I Still had 35 full time people, and 150 temps on site but the majority would have their last seasonal day Friday. Harvest was about to be done, last days are crazy anyway, even under the best of circumstances. And today, would be no different, whilst at lunch ( i had just sat down to my favorite local place) and ordered my last burger for quiet some time. My phone rings, when i see the name on my caller id, i was taken aback. It was an employee who had never called me in his 1 year working their thus far. I picked up the phone and answered in the normal fashion for a known employee, " hello ( insert employees name) how can I help you today?

The voice on the other line had an off tone to it, he said " Jordan, something happened with ( employees name). " His tone was hard to describe, i could not tell if it was him being serious, or a Halloween prank. Our maintenance dept and I are known for messing with each other.

I asked, walk me through the situation. HIs hand got crushed, and its bleeding everywhere I think he needs to go to the hospital.

I told him to put pressure on it, and head to the front of the facility, was out and heading back but would send someone to pick them up.
Small towns, so i walked up the the bar and let the owner know to put it on my tab, something came up and I had to go. I routed another manager and work truck to the employees location. Meeting them there, as they were transferring him to the truck for transport. Turns out, he did get his hand pretty good. I work closely with the local Hospital, I am embedded with the local emergency services.

Calling the charge nurse in the ER on the way ( the other manager was driving), and having the employee tell me a story about that happened the entire drive up. I let the Er know I was in bound with a PT, having a 3 inch laceration on his right hand opened to the bone with partial tendon sever. Having the employee " telling me the story" about what happened, does a few things for me. 1, it allows me to know and explain what happened, and 2, i can monitor their condition just by hearing them talk.

As you can imagine, no early day for me. After 6 hours at the hospital with the employee, and consults, and the Ortho suturing the tendons back in place, it was a late night. The employee was lucky, he is a bigger guy and has extra padding on the back of his hand. Had he been smaller, it would of severed all of his tendons. The company I work for is a extremely large worldwide multinational corporation. Safety is something that is taken extremely seriously, this location had just gone 400days injury free, and had done 765 the time prior. He has a large piece of machinery come down onto his hand, during the dismantling rebuild process, after another employee fell ontop of it. Even through his gloves, and the other employees harness an injury was caused. After something like this, i would usually have around 36 hours of investigations, paperwork, and meetings. We have 8 hours to let the CEO know. I felt bad, leaving the next day and not being able to stick around to get everything taken care of, but was able to get most things in place for the coming weeks. I got home at midnight, ( days like that salary sucks) I did still work through calls, and organization until I was in country.

The next morning, it was time to finish packing, doing laundry, and winterizeish the fifth wheel. Lucky I had most of everything packed and just had to add a few things, and make sure everything was charged. Threw all the gear in my truck, put in the slide outs, drained the water lines, turned off the water and water heater and turned the heat down to 60. I ordered a 200 gallon propane tank the week prior and had it filled and ready to go. Next step, drop the truck and dog off at mums place.

For work we leave trucks in long term parking a lot, and its about $100/week. I had a friend who came and picked me up, as i would crash on her couch so we would have one less step the following morning.

That 2:30 am wake up call, whew.........I had not slept at all the night prior, thinking about work, and the trip. Regardless I had a long 34 hours ahead of me. Grabbing a red bag ( the kind firefightgers put their gear in) it had all my moto gear, 1 new rear tire, and another 65 liter Osprey pack I headed into the air port in Pasco.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

I was a little nervous walking into the Airport, were my bags going to be overweight, Was TSA going to allow me to check a moto tire, what was I forgetting?

Awesome for me, And now the hurry up and wait game begins. Good news, all checked baggage was under weight, AND they were cool with the Moto tire. I flew from Pasco to Denver, an hour long layover. Denver to Huston, Huston- with an 8 Hour layover...

I had no carry on, just my passport, wallet, phone, tablet, sweater, charger and water bottle, battery bank Everything fit in my pockets. With an 8hour layover in Huston,i was going to leave the airport. After talking to one of the flight attendants who lived there- she said they had 2-3 hour TSA recheck time, and it would take Uber about 45mins to get into downtown. Looking back, i think she was actually hitting on me and I had zero idea until later, I should of just gone with her anyway. haha

I found some entertainment as I waited,




Not to mention i had lots of Spanish to work on, after a few drinks and some cake all was well! I knew my flight to Santiagio was a red eye, so was trying to stay up until my 22:30 flight time. What to say a bout this flight.....well it was delayed 2 hours, ( we were informed the plane needed some unexpected maintenance on the engines), and it switched terminals twice. Waiting, with my headphones in and attempting to work on Spanish, but way more interested in the conversation the girls next to me were having. We heard a shrill alarm, and flashing blue lights across the terminal, followed by a pre recorded message of " please evacuate the terminal to the nearest exit". I was pretty comfy, and a little slow moving/ to process. I did not smell any smoke or fire, a lot of people started to collect their things and evacuate. I watched the flight staff, and TSA....most with ear buds and not a one moved. The ladies next to me were getting worried and pulled the headphones out of my ear, asking why I was not leaving. I explained, if the airport staff is not worried, I wont be either.... We all had a great conversation after that, and ordered a few more drinks.

I found out my terminal was moved again, and made my way across the airport, as they seem to put it to the furtherest point away from the other locations. We were finally able to board, midnight ish. After getting settled in, We were told we had a few more unexpected delays. Shortly after, 4 well dressed gentleman in suits boarded the plane and made contact with a boisterous lady 10 rows back, she was having a Great time! She had been over served in the terminal, and was being escorted off our flight for swearing at and hitting one on out flight attendants. The flight attendant had told her no more drinks, her reply was " well ****** you, ill get it myself". IT was then that the AC stopped working, after another 1/2 hour the service techs boarded and proceeded to take all of the little Ac vents apart and replaced quite a few, seat.......by........seat. We eventually took off and headed on the 10 hour flight into Santiago. I was able too sleep for the most part, and the older lady sitting next to me had a great conversation. She was so excited for me, recently her husband had passed. She explained she was 70 and her and her late husband had lots of things they wanted to see. But always bought the " things" so they could do them, and never just spent the money to do them. She rented a car, in Santiago- and was out to explore!

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

So, if you dont know; let me preclude this by saying. I had almost zero experience on a motorcycle, other then the two day course I took for the endorsement, and an hour on my brother Honda cb500x the weekend prior to leaving. None, soooo almost anything I did on this trip moto wise, was the first time I had ever done anything like that. I landed in Santiago, hoping my Brother would still be waiting for me. But with all the plane delays, and him having his own troubles with his moto- I was not sure.

After de planing- immigration was nice and easy, grab my gear( lots of it still, big red backpack, big red bag, and moto tire) BUT now for customs, I was a little worried as all my moto gear was new, new tire, new helmet, new tach cable. Depending on who I got, I could have to pay 40% Duty on everything probably close to $1000 in gear. They had me unpack everything, including my bed roll. After explaining that it was all for my personal transport, ( using my bad Spanish and google translate), + lots of big smiles and shaking everyone's hand. They must of gotten sick of me and let me on my way....... not to mention I had to of been rank.....after 30+hours.

I was pretty happy to see my brother waiting for me at a cafe outside the exit. He had been battling some sort of stomach bug. And after a short buss ride to an exterior parking lot, we grabbed an UBER and were off to Hostal Casa Matte.


After a shower, catching up, a great diner it was time to crash and get my moto the following morning.

We both loaded onto Kp's KLR and headed to the outskirts of Santiagio to get mine. It had to of been hilarious to see to big gringos on one moto, in full armored gear none the less. After about 45mins dodging through traffic we made it through the security gates to where my KLR was being stored. After a jump start, and some fuel she was running. The network of travelers is awesome, this guy was just willing to let a moto sit in his yard under a tarp for 4 month until i could pick it up. At only my fourth time ever on a moto, I was off following my brother to the nearest gas station. Well.......


She did not make it......about 1/2mile short. It was a nice place to run out of fuel though. At first I thought i screwed something up, i was ridding along and she just dies( it had been sitting for a few months) hit the starter, and no go. After looking over everything sure enough, just no fuel. Kp was able to ride down and get a few gallons so we could come back and fill it up, to get it to the station to completley fill her up.....

Dump in some gas and continue on our way, pulling up to the station I immediately accidentally kill it turning into the station. In front of the most beautiful station attendant I have ever seen...... Oh Chile, you know how to grow em. Fill it up, pull over so we can pair our helmets ( they are Bluetooth with intercoms).

Once paired away we go, into the heart of Santiago. I think for my first time riding through traffic, passing, being at a stoplight, etc it all went well! I did hear a lot of " stay closer" in my coms though. We made it all the way back to Hostal Casa Matte with out incident. Pulling up in the front of the hostal, I stopped- also droped the moto and pinning the throttle. Luckly enough everyone came outside to see what all the noise was......I hit the kill switch and crawled out from under PeliRoja, and helped me to lift her back up. Only thing lost was my pride.

We have a few days of work to get them prepped,



I had a tire to replace, and a new Spedo cable, Oil change to do. Let the fun begin,

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Im going to drop a few images, of the route we took- Just follow the red dots and string them together, We crossed from Chile ad back into Argentina about 6 times.

 

[locrwln]

Looks like you covered some ground for sure. Can't wait to do the same.

Jack

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Looks like you covered some ground for sure. Can't wait to do the same.

Jack

Jack Thanks, Ill will keep adding the updates from the trip within the next few days. I use google maps to keep track of places I want to see, after reading blogs from
Desk To Glory ( http://desktoglory.com/ )
Brad and Sheena- Drive Nacho Drive - ( http://www.drivenachodrive.com/ )
And of course Runningfrommonday- there are a lot of blogs and forums out there where you can get advice and ideas. A pretty big hitter right now is a FaceBook group called Pan Am Travelers, a pretty good real time resource.

 

[locrwln]

Jack Thanks, Ill will keep adding the updates from the trip within the next few days. I use google maps to keep track of places I want to see, after reading blogs from
Desk To Glory ( http://desktoglory.com/ )
Brad and Sheena- Drive Nacho Drive - ( http://www.drivenachodrive.com/ )
And of course Runningfrommonday- there are a lot of blogs and forums out there where you can get advice and ideas. A pretty big hitter right now is a FaceBook group called Pan Am Travelers, a pretty good real time resource.

Looking forward to it. I too have been keeping track of those sites. I finally caved and signed up for FB for predominately that group.

Jack

 

[bigbuilder]

Looks like a fantastic trip.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Looks like a fantastic trip.

BigBuilder- Thank you I am excited to continue to bring the rest of the trip to this forum.

Looking forward to it. I too have been keeping track of those sites. I finally caved and signed up for FB for predominately that group.

Jack

Jack- Well Social Media, much like many things can be as good or bad as you let it be. There are plenty on the page that have real life advice, and extensive experience, and less who are keyboard warriors. ( the Pawley brothers Kp, Jordan, Alex, The Calders( who have a chevy like ours down there) and many more,etc will be a great resource) it can also be good if you just want to keep your family up to date. The majority of people you meet on the road will tell you the social media had made it possible to connect and meet up with others on the road, and has been a mostly positive thing. I saw an article on your truck a few days ago, and was going to share it into the group- but did not want to step on toes.


I did daily updates on my social media, I will copy and paste those highlights and fill in the details. I will also post the link to my public " Adventure 2018 Album" so anyone can preview.

https://www.facebook.com/pawleyranch/media_set?set=a.10215169884029807&type=3


As you recall, I had a tire to replace. We thought in the security of the hostal. A place where the moto district is a short walk away, and uber and uber eats are only a few clicks away. A great place to learn, with crowd sourced wisdom and lots of hands to help.

November 4th

Well, the rear tire has been replaced, and put back on. Took entirely longer with more people then expected. Now, the rats nest of wiring will get some attention in the morning. My brother and i have done plenty of tire changes, on bicycles, on trucks, on tractors. This Heidenau tire, was a bear! It took about 5 hours, with a few beers each and 5 people helping. Breaking the bead, learned a trick using the kickstand of the other KLR and weight to work around the rim, worked well! We knew it would be good practice fir when we needed to change it in the back country. We eventually got the old tire off, tube removed and new tire and tube back on. At this point we needed to reset the bead. With no air compressor at the hostal and the gas station mapped I strapped the tire and rim to the back of the La Perla Negra( Kps bike) and off I went. Found the gas station with not much fus, and survived my second time ever riding through traffic.

The air compressors at the gas stations here are awesome, its all digital, and free. Type in the pressure you need, lock on the chuck and press start and the machine does the rest! We sure are missing out in the states. Max pressure is 50psi, so I started there. Typed it in, hit start and stood back, waiting to hear the satisfying "pop" alerting me to the bead being set. No dice,

ok, well more pressure- 60, and start. And no dice, weird, so i figure ( also its Santiago Chile and a beautiful 80 degrees,in full moto gear) must need shifted, I deflate, bounce it like a basket ball in case something needs shifted- and try again at 60. No go,
cant hear any leaks, its taking air fine. So i dial up 70psi, and try again. Apart from being a fire fighter, I work as a risk manager and have seen tires blow before. So i put my helmet back on, and place the moto between the filling tire and myself. And start, this goes on until the pump max"s out at 100psi. Personally deflated, drenched and dripping sweat I strap it to the rack and head back to the hostel. I arrive back at the hostal after being gone for over an hour and a slightly worried brother and hostal mates. With the bad news, So its decided to remove it, re mount it- ( the inner portion was at the very innermost portion of the rim,not the outer bevel as it needed to be) After a few more hours it was tried again, this time Kp set off and came back 20mins later with it set and ready to go.



The day came to a close, with many beers sitting around the bikes telling stories and tall tales alike. The next day, we got parts of the wiring re done, ( it was a massive mess of South American Mechanic messes) PeliRoja, and La Perla Negra were as prepped as we could get them. We started our packing, and a tiny bit of planing for the following day. Wandered down town to get a sim card, random moto parts, bolts, and a new tank bag. KP needed a hair cut, after a google search he found just the place, and we headed out. As he was getting his ears lowered, I wandered about enjoying the city life. So many things to look at, and be easily distracted by. Soo many pretty distractions, I saw a little ice cream place ( Lusitano Restaurant & Café. )

I made sure I had the Spanish I would be required to order, checked my app and was ready!
from my fb post November 6th
" The adorable girl I ordered from, ( I attempted it all in Spanish) waited until I was through, to giggle uncontrollably. And replied in perfect English hahaha. "

This was my first big blunder of the trip, looking back I am kicking myself. As she was really into me, as we chatted and she kept coming out to check on me and flirt. You see, this very night we were headed to a spanglish party at
California Cantina.
A great idea, where you speak Spanish for 20 mins, and English for 20 mins switching on and off through out the event. I had blown the perfect opportunity to invite her out with the group. From my post that night somewhere around 1am " My first ever spanglish party! My Spanish is sooo bad, it's ridiculous. Thank you to those with the patience as I * attempt to learn. Last night in Santiago. "

The next morning, we were slated to begin our journey in earnest-