The Route

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...

Jason and I will be doing most, but not all, of the route together.  We've both ridden all over the U.S., so the southern part of our trip isn't nearly as important to us as the stuff north of the border.  We're also both very comfortable and confident traveling solo, so while Jason starts his trip riding from his home in West Texas to visit family in Utah, I'll be starting my

Leg 1: Colorado Springs, CO - Salt Lake City,UT -Waitsburg, WA - Plain

journey from my home near Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a couple stops:  first to see my friends Jason and Giselle in Salt Lake City, UT, then up to Waitsburg, Washington, to visit friends Carmen and Dave.  Although he had to head back early, I rode to Canada during the first part of my trip through the Canadian Rockies with Dave in 2010.  After a quick visit Dave will join me for the ride to Plain, WA, to meet up with my uncle Bob where we'll spend a couple days kicking around the Touratech / Northwest Overland Rally.  This first leg of the trip will be about 1,400 miles.

Leg 2: Plain, WA - Seattle - Port Hardy, BC

After the rally, Uncle Bob and I will continue to his place in Seattle where I'll have a quick visit with my family, then grab my passport to cover some ground that I've wanted to see for a long time:  I'll be riding the ferry from Anacortes, WA, through the San Juan Islands over to Sidney, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island.  Then I'll ride the length of the island and board the Inside Passage day cruise ferry, which sails from Port Hardy, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, through the BC Pacific Coast Islands to Prince Rupert, BC.  Meanwhile Jason will take the land route, likely through Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and the heart of southern BC, and meet me in PR.  This will add about 850 miles to my trip, bringing the count to 2,250 mi.

After meeting in Prince Rupert we plan to ride the Stewart-Cassiar Hwy (aka the Dease Lake Hwy), up through the northwest of British Columbia, to its northern end where it meets the Alaska Hwy, just over the border into the Yukon Territory.  There we'll turn west and ride across the very southern portion of YT and into Alaska.  In Tok we'll turn off the Alaska Hwy and take the Tok Cutoff southwest to the Richardson Hwy, which we'll turn north on.  When we reach Paxson we'll head west on the Denali Hwy, our first extended section of unpaved road, and one I'm personally really looking forward to.  After reaching the western terminus of the Denali Hwy, we'll turn right and head north on the George Parks Hwy, which will take us all the way to Fairbanks, adding 1,700 miles to our odometers, for a 3,950 mi running total.

Leg 3: Prince Rupert, BC - Fairbanks, AK

Leg 4: Fairbanks - Prudhoe Bay - Fairbanks

After throwing some new rubber on our bikes in Fairbanks we'll ride 80 miles north out of town on the Steese and Elliott Hwys, then tackle the Dalton Hwy (aka Haul Road), where we'll cross into the Arctic Circle 115 miles later, then reach our northernmost destination another 300 miles up the road, arriving at the start of the Alaska Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay.  This is kind-of the quintessential North American adventure moto destination as it's the farthest north you can ride on the continent, and it's mostly unpaved.  Returning back to Fairbanks will add 990 miles to our trip, bringing us to just about 4,950 mi.

We'll leave Fairbanks heading south down the northern end of the Richardson Hwy to Delta Junction, where we'll pick up the northern end of the Alaska Hwy, then backtrack just a few miles back through Tok.  After turning left/northeast we'll start what's known as the Klondike Loop, which begins with the Taylor Hwy.  At the Alaska/Yukon border the name changes to the Top of the World Highway, then we'll cross the Yukon River, putting us in Dawson (aka Dawson City).  This fifth leg will be about 390 miles long, contains a bit over 100 miles of unpaved travel, and puts us at around 5,350 mi.

Leg 5: Fairbanks, AK - Dawson, YT

Just past Dawson the road's name changes again, this time to the Klondike Highway, and if time and sanity allows we're hoping to ride the only other North American land route to the Arctic Circle:  the 456 mile-long Dempster Highway, all except 11 mi of which is unpaved.  The "highway" leaves Yukon and crosses into the Northwest Territories, travels into the Arctic Circle, then ends in the town of Inuvik.  There we'll simply turn around and ride back to the Klondike Hwy and continue southeast.

Leg 6: Dawson, YT - Inuvik, NT - Banff, AB

Instead of continuing all the way to the Yukon capital town of Whitehorse, we're planning to ride the mostly gravel/dirt Campbell Hwy through Faro and Ross River to Watson Lake.  There we'll rejoin the Alaska Hwy, crossing into British Columbia to ride to the "Mile 0 City" of Dawson Creek, where the Alaska Hwy starts.  Finally, we'll enter Alberta, get some pizza in Jasper, then ride the spectacular Icefields Parkway through Jasper and Banff national parks, ending in the beautiful town of Banff.  All told, including the Inuvik spur, this leg will put an additional 2,600 miles on our odometers, bringing our total to nearly 8,000 mi.

The final leg of the trip will see us head east out of Banff on the Trans-Canada Highway through Canmore, then turn south on the Kananaskis Trail, about half of which is gravel (partially not shown on the route map due to seasonal closure).  At the southern end of the road we'll pick up highways 3 and 6, then cross back into the good ol' US of A at the Chief Mountain Border Crossing in Montana.  We'll continue east for a few miles on the Chief Mountain Hwy, then turn south on Hwy 89 to St. Mary, where Jason and I will likely part ways; Jason will slab it the fast way back to Texas while I hope to ride Going To The Sun Road across Glacier National Park, then ride through Yellowstone National Park, crossing into Wyoming in the process.  Depending on projected traffic through the parks, and my level of fatigue, I may just stay with Jason, but either way from there it's into the beautiful state of Colorado and back home to Colorado Springs.

This final leg will be the last 1,400 miles and bring the final grand total to nearly 9,500 miles.  For me, about 400 of those miles will be via ferry, and if we make it to Inuvik, well over 2,000 miles will be on gravel and dirt roads!

Leg 7: Banff, AB - Colorado Springs, CO