6/22/2010:   The Hoka Hey Challenge (race) is on! 

Eric made it to the first check point in 25^th place.   He remains salty (the heat!) and unscathed, despite a 4-bike accident along the way.   They’re now in Mississippi, heading north —– hopefully out of that brutal heat.   GC

Stone Step Alaska; the HOKA HEY finish

Well folks, it’s about a month to the start of the Hoka Hey challenge and our main man, Eric, is now back in Anchorage after spending last week driving the 1000 miles downrange from the finish line (pictured at left) ;  burying 6 gallon gas cans every 170 miles all along the way and marking them with a GPS coordinate kilometer marker and land mark notation….WHEW!!!  No surprise, he’s working in his Super Duty 351M w/ C6 trans Bronc………., a true thoroughbred, guaranteed to pass up everything on the road but the gas pump. According to Eric, it has “studs on mains,heads, roller cam , roller rockers, MSD ignition,400plus hp, Kevlar bands in trans. Shift kit custom ground camshaft …. you name it. “.

He’s seen grizzlies, porcupine caribou, Alaskan cowgirls, a whole lot of beauty and more to come ……. the Challenge is just a month away.    Hoka Hey, Eric !

Meet Eric Wickre (the original, Alaskan Viking Cowboy), treated at our center December 2008 for Stage IA osteomyelitis of his left tibia, a con-sequence of an open fracture suffered in 1981.   His (and others’) entire medical case portfolio will be posted  at http://www.osteomyelitis.com/html/news.html#featured-case .  After successful treatment at our treatment center in  San Diego, Eric is now back to his rough-and-ready cowboy ways, having just been selected to be one of 1000 motorcyclists from around the globe to compete in The Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge —– also known as the “Iditarod of Harley Davidson, 2010”.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The Challenge is a grueling, 7,000 mile race from Key West, FL to the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska where “winner takes all” …one half million dollarsin Alaskan gold!  It starts June 20th and ends in Homer, AK on July 4th.  The secret route will initially head 1,000 miles into Mississippi. There, riders will get a map for the next leg of the ride: traveling the back roads, highways and byways; enduring hail storms, heat waves and scorpions; sleeping along side their bikes every night for the entire journey.

Join us as we follow Eric’s epic journey through the Americas on  OSTEOMYELITIS  BLOG.                                           Good luck, Eric!!