I’ve spent
many hours thinking about this. Jim and I spent a lot time planning and
executing this trip because AK2 (2014) was really an extension of our first
attempt in 2012 (AK1). If you consider we started planning for AK1 in 2011 that
is 4 years dedicated to this adventure. I’m writing this blog entry for two
reasons:
·
Closure for me since this has been an important
part of my life for the last four years
·
Provide some things to consider for anyone
thinking of doing a similar trip
AK1 started
for me when I was invited by Jim in 2011 to go on his trip to Alaska and back
via motorcycle. He wanted to do this trip to celebrate his 50th
birthday. Jim and I were business acquaintances, in fact he was my customer,
and we both had Harley Davidson motorcycles. We had traveled to many of the
same meetings around the country and even taken a few short motorcycle trips
together. I jumped at the chance because visiting Alaska had always been on my
bucket list but not necessarily by motorcycle. Alaska would be the 49th
state I had been in leaving only Hawaii. I’m sure Liz will help me get to
number 50.
So the first
item is what were our goals for the trip? Jim’s was to celebrate his 50th
birthday and mine was to see Alaska. The reason this is important is the trip
could have taken a number of different routes to reach these goals. We both
agreed we did not want to camp every night because this means more gear to
carry and takes longer to set up and break camp every day. We decided that we
would share a hotel room every night to reduce cost and could always get
separate rooms if this became an issue. Here are the approaches we considered:
1
Ride motorcycles the complete route both up and
back
2
Using private vehicle, trailer the motorcycles to
Denver or Cheyenne and ride up and back from there
3
Put motorcycles in U-Haul Truck and ride to
Denver or Cheyenne to start ride then return via different route and get
another U-Haul in maybe Winnipeg, Canada for return
4
Ride to Bellingham, WA to catch Ferry to Alaska
and ride back via ALCAN to home (AK2 version)
Pros/Cons
for each approach
This was the
real biker approach. You see all the country from the seat of a motorcycle and
no one can question your commitment to the adventure. Your schedule is fully
flexible with only your end date a hard date if limited by available vacation.
You can take different routes up and back to see more of the country.
Approach 1 -
Cons
It includes
the most road miles and would take the longest to complete. It would also be
more expensive because every day on the road cost hotel, meals and gas.
Available vacation time must be considered. You have to ride through thousands
of miles of flat, boring and sometimes miserable conditions through the Great
Plains in both the US and Canada. The tighter your schedule the more you will
be forced to use Interstates to get across the flat country to the good riding
areas. This is the most rider exhaustive approach. Most miles on the bike
requiring more service along the route.
Approach 2 –
Pros
This eliminates
the Great Plains and even a few days off the total trip time since you can swap
drivers while the other sleeps. This would reduce rider exhaustion to some
degree since the real ride would only start once in the Rocky Mountains. It
would also reduce some of the cost with less hotels and meals as long as you
ride straight through to the start point. Reduces total miles on the bikes and
the Interstate miles at high speeds are the hardest on the bikes.
Approach 2 -
Cons
Some hard
core bikers will consider this the wimpy approach. You have to return to same
spot where vehicle/trailer is parked. Storage of the vehicle/trailer must be
addressed and could incur cost. Private vehicle/trailer wear and tear must be
considered.
Approach 3 –
Pros
Similar to
Approach 2 plus it eliminates the private vehicle/trailer storage issue and
wear and tear. You don’t have to return to the same spot to get the return
U-haul.
Approach 3 –
Cons
U-Haul truck
cost and availability when you need them at both ends of the trip.
Approach 4 –
Pros
This
approach lets you ride both directions but eliminates riding the same road up
and back on the ALCAN stretch. It also gives you a 5 day break to rest while on
the ferry. It eliminates some of the road miles.
Approach 4 –
Cons
Cost of
ferry for passenger, cabin and vehicle is about $1200-$1600 each. You must make
ferry reservations at least 6 months in advance. 5 days on ferry is extremely
boring. This approach inserts a hard date in the schedule (ferry launch) that
can’t be missed.
There are of
course multiple variations of the 4 approaches but we considered all the options
and selected Approach 4 (AK1 route counterclockwise; in other words, ride to
Alaska and return on the ferry).
If you read my
AK1 trip report you know that it went well until we got to the ALCAN and were
stopped by wash-outs and mud slides through the Yukon section due to extremely
heavy rain. When we knew we couldn’t make the hard ferry date we had to abandon
Alaska as our destination and turned south to return through the Rocky
Mountains. This cut our trip down to 15 days but we still rode +6,000 miles and
had a great time. We did get full reimbursement from the Ferry since it was not
our fault we missed the date.
Both Jim and
I agreed at the end of AK1 that we would try again 2 years late in 2014. Since
we had a bad experience with the AK1 trip we made a few alterations for AK2. We
reversed the route so that we rode to Washington to catch the ferry and return
to the US on the ALCAN route. This reduced the risk of missing the ferry
significantly since the roads through the US in June are rarely if ever shut
totally down. Once we made the ferry then our return schedule and route would
be totally flexible. We also decided to spend an extra day in Washington with
my friends so we could get the bikes serviced (including tire change) and
provide a safety margin in case we got delayed enroute by weather or mechanical
problems.
As we did on
AK1 we decided that we would not make hotel reservations in advance except in
the more remote locations in Alaska and Canada. We would only make those
reservations once we got in the area and as our schedule got more defined.
You can read
my day-by-day blog entries for AK2 to see how our plan progressed. The
following are things that I would do differently or things that worked well:
Iron Butt –
This is just something hard core bikers do for bragging rights (1,000 miles
within a 24 hour period). Jim and I had talked about doing this during AK1 and
tried for it but circumstances did not work out. Jim already has his Iron Butt
so he was doing it for me. For AK2 we decided we would try again and the best
shot was day 1 through the flat Great Plains (St Louis, MO to Rawlins, WY). As
the blog states we actually made it; 1037 miles in 16 ½ hours. I will never do
it again and looking back on AK2 it was not a good idea to do it on this trip.
The problem is it wore us both out right at the start of a long exhausting
trip. You have to pace yourself on a trip like this. You have lots of days and
many miles to cover and it will get exhausting after a while.
St Louis to
Washington in three days – This section is approximately 2400 miles and we
scheduled 3 days to make it through the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains.
This is 800 miles a day and is entirely too short a time. We should have taken
at least 4 days and maybe even 5 for this stretch. This was actually my driving
force for the Iron Butt. I knew that if we didn’t knock off the 1000 miles
while the driving was easy we would have a more difficult time making it up in
the mountains. We did have a buffer day in the schedule to get the bikes
serviced but it was still poor planning.
Anchorage to
Fairbanks – This is about a 400 mile ride and roads are good but not a lot of
facilities along the route after leaving Anchorage. The problem is it’s not
easy to determine the availability of gas in Alaska and Canada. ALWAYS expect
the worse and you won’t be disappointed. We filled our reserve tanks in
Anchorage since they won’t let you on the ferry with gas in them.
Dalton Highway to Arctic Circle (AC) – If you watch Ice Road Truckers on TV you get an idea what this is like except there is no ice. This section of the Dalton is hard packed gravel (lots of dust) when dry, loose gravel at road construction (many of these), mud when wet and a few stretchs of terrible pavement. We originally were going to go past the AC to Cold Foot to refuel then return (an additional 120 miles round trip). After 3 hard days getting to the ferry then 5 days on the ferry we were both tired and cut Cold Foot out of the plan. We agreed the goal would be the AC then return to Fairbanks. This is still a 400 mile round trip. You ride about 90 miles on pavement out of Fairbanks to get to the start of the Dalton. Once you enter the Dalton you are immediately on gravel and your speed drops to 35 to 45 mph. We rode at this speed for most of the 220 miles to the AC and back to the start of the Dalton. Summary of miles – Fairbanks to Dalton 90 miles, Dalton to AC and back to start 220 miles, then 90 miles from Dalton to Fairbanks. There is only one fuel stop on this stretch and it’s at the Yukon River about 60 miles after you get on the Dalton (I saw a 2nd one close to the Yukon River but not sure if it was open). You have to get fuel here both directions or you can’t make it back. I called the Yukon River store before we left Fairbanks to make sure they were open and had fuel. I highly recommend doing this. We saw several other bikes making this AC turn around and others making the full run up to Deadhorse at the end of the Dalton on the Arctic Sea. We knew we could make the AC run in a single day but would have to spend at least one night on the Dalton if we wanted the full Dalton experience; which we didn’t. It took us over 10 hours to do that 400 miles and we were both exhausted when we got back to Fairbanks. We made sure the weather was good and it remained sunny and dry the complete route until 17 miles at the end of the Dalton stretch. It started to rain and the road started getting wet but we got back to the pavement before it got too nasty. The 90 mile ride back to Fairbanks on pavement was rain showers but no big deal except we were both so tired from being on the Dalton. One thing both Jim and I said after the run was that when we got to the AC all we could think about was we had to ride the whole thing back to get off of it.
Dalton Tips
– Mosquitoes are terrible, carry a head net in case you break down and bug
spray where you can get to it. Both of mine were in my side boxes and I
suffered at the AC sign while taking pics. Drive slow until you get comfortable
then speed up 5-10 mph. This road is full of surprises and you have to be ready
to react so don’t speed. Read all the trip reports you can about the Dalton
written by other bikers. Some have terrible experiences and then others have a
good ride like ours. Weather is critical. If you ride the Dalton in the rain
you will have a much different experience from ours. The truckers own that road
so give them all the right-away. They were very good to us and slowed down as
they passed and we would slow down and pull over as far as we could so they
could go around. DO NOT get in the soft stuff on the side of the road. Stay on
the packed lanes. We both had CB radios and could talk to the truckers and I
recommend this for sure (at least one in your group). You are a long way from
help even though the road gets lots of traffic. There is no cell service and
the CB radios are short range. Even to start the help cycle would require someone
to get to the next site where a telephone call can be made. Carry a SPOT, at
least this will get the rescue moving a lot faster. I did this on my Yamaha
Adventure bike with 50/50 knobby tires and had a great ride. Jim did it on a
full dresser Harley Davidson with street tires and had a lot more difficult
ride but he still made it. Don’t rush to make the AC run, wait for a good
weather window.
Fairbanks to
Dawson Creek (ALCAN) – The ALCAN doesn’t really start at Fairbanks it starts at
TOK about 200 miles SE of Fairbanks. The ride to TOK is easy 2 lane pavement.
The ALCAN is 1400 miles long with only a few towns and few gas stops in
between. You have to plan this section carefully for where you will stop and
when to refuel. The answer is refuel at EVERY pump you reach. We would on a
number of occasions stop to only put a gallon of gas in our tanks. You cannot
appreciate the distances you will travel and not see any sings of civilization
except for the 2-lane pavement stretching to the horizon. There was not a lot
of traffic on the ALCAN and at times it would feel like an hour or more before
passing someone going the opposite direction. The main towns from TOK are;
Whitehorse, Watson Lake, Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek. We went through Watson
Lake and only stayed at Whitehorse and Fort Nelson. This made for some long
mileage days but we ran the ALCAN in three days. It rained a good part of the
time from TOK to Whitehorse and this is also the worse section of the ALCAN. We
had been talking to folks coming up the ALCAN about road conditions around the
Destruction Bay area (150 mile stretch from AK border to Whitehorse). They all
had nothing good to say. Take my advice, use info from other bikers more than
RVs and private vehicles. One RV driver had us really worried telling us how
bad the roads were and all the road construction and wet gravel. Even one biker
had a similar report but we’re not sure of his riding experience. What Jim and
I experienced was not nearly as bad as we expected. Yes the road was very bad
pavement with pot holes and huge waves (frost heaves) but they were manageable
if you kept your speed down. The worse was the road construction areas. They
would basically just tear up miles of the asphalt then lay down gravel then wet
it down. My bike did well on this stuff but Jim really had a few nervous
moments. It works best to ride behind a semi-truck who will make a path for the
bike though this mess. Even a car track is better than going alone with the
bike. When we made Whitehorse we both breathed a lot easier because we knew we
had passed the worse of the ALCAN. The rest of the ALCAN is just long miles
with occasional road construction but nothing like the Destruction Bay section.
Lots of animals so keep alert. I think I saw 20+ black bears, a dozen moose and
a dozen Buffalo plus many smaller animals. The best scenery for the whole AK2
was between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson; just beautiful.
Dawson Creek
to Home – After getting off the ALCAN you are basically back in civilization.
You still have long distances between fuel so don’t get too relaxed but it is a
lot easier to find and there are more towns and people plus cell service.
Conclusion –
The approach we used is not the right approach for everyone. Our approach was
an endurance ride and NOT a scenic excursion. We did see some fantastic sites
but they were few and far between. All we had on our mind after reaching the AC
was getting home and we both rode hard to get there. We split after getting off
the ALCAN to go different directions; me to my folks in Tulsa and Jim straight
to St Louis. We both had bad weather on that last stretch and had long
exhausting rides. We did meet our trip goals though which were:
1
Iron Butt
2
Reaching Alaska on a motorcycle
3
Reaching the Arctic Circle
4
Riding the full ALCAN
The ride
from St Louis all the way to Tumwater, WA (Seattle area) is extremely boring,
flat and not fun. The only scenery worth seeing on this stretch was along the
Columbia River (very windy here). All the rest was flat even going through the Rocky
Mountains. Yes you are climbing in altitude but it still looked flat.
The wind in
the flat rides was terrible at times. Add in some cold rain and you have a long
miserable ride; i.e. ride to WA from St Louis and the return ride through MT,
WY, CO, KA, OK back to AR.
You better
get along with your riding partner. Jim and I were able to do both AK1 and AK2
and still remain friends but you just want some alone time occasionally. We
were together almost 24/7 for close to three weeks.
Agree before
the trip on how the day-to-day ride will work; route, hotels, food stops, miles
per day average, etc.
Use the
right bike. After AK1 I realized the HD was not right for me. I wanted a bike
made for the roads up north to make it more enjoyable. Jim wanted to use his HD
but I bet he would use a different bike if we did this trip again.
I will
probably never do another long endurance ride like this again. I would much
rather trailer my bike to good riding spots then spend time riding the local
area on the bike. You are just too tired to ride around site seeing after
riding 600 miles to get there. With this approach I would be able to take my
wife and camp different spots on the way.
I think that
about covers it. I will probably think of things I missed and will add them
later if important enough. Thanks for following our adventure to Alaska.
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