I managed to put a little twist in my planning by breaking my tibia at an enduro race in Nebraska two weekends ago. The break is clean, though, so I'm pretty confident it'll heal quickly enough to allow me to stuff my foot in a burly boot for the ride and let it finish mending. The show must go on!
The northern half of Alaska doesn't offer many options as far as getting up to Prudhoe Bay, but to the south the choices are plentiful. The Devil is in the details, but luckily some calendar constraints, as well as some of our desires, have allowed Jason and I to come up with what we think is a great route! I've made pretty extensive use of The Adventurous Motorcyclist's Guide to Alaska, by Lee Klancher, and have also kept The Milepost near-at-hand. The former I've found to be extremely helpful for trip planning, as it's written by and from the perspective of an "adventure" motorcyclist and provides great info, and although I've referenced the latter a few times, it will mostly (in its eBook format) be used as a reference during the trip...more on that in a later post. Here's an overview of the 9,000 mile route we're planning to ride...
Since I was old enough to remember, bicycles and motorcycles have been a big part of my life. From riding shotgun behind my grandfather on his Hondas in the 70's to my own cross-country moto trips, and all sorts of moto and bicycle racing in-between, two wheels have been THE unbroken constant in my life. After years of lusting after them, I finally picked up an "adventure" bike a few years ago (a BMW R1200 GS Adventure) and hit the road a week later for a ride through the Canadian Rockies.
I did a daily blog of that trip...that I almost finished (you can read it here)...and now, on the verge of what I hope to be another great trip, I've decided to do another.
The two guys you see in the picture above are me (left) and my good buddy, Jason. I met Jason in 2012, shortly after moving to Colorado, at a multi-day dualsport ride. Those few days of riding would turn out to be pivotal for me, as they brought me into the world of offroad motorcycle riding. Over the last few years Jason and I have become great friends, and we've already logged quite a number of days and miles together, both on- and off-road. Jason secretly wishes he lived in Colorado, and takes every opportunity he can to visit, so between his trips up here and mine down to Texas to race, we get to see and ride with each other pretty often for a couple of guys who live over 600 miles apart. It helps that we have very compatible riding styles and preferences, and that we seem to have developed an ability to put up with each other...something that's not easily found for either of us!
About a year and a half ago we realized that we both had the same goal of riding our ADV bikes -- Jason has a Triumph Tiger 800XC -- up to Prudhoe Bay, where the Alaskan Pipeline starts.
