Teasers:
Planning:
For quite a while now I'd wanted to ride to Northern Canada, first to Inuvik (because the road ended there) and then to Tuk once they pushed the road through. A buddy of mine was heading up in his truck for vacation this year and that brought back my desire to go. My current contract was up on Aug 2nd and I thought that would be a good time to head out.
The real push to go was when I went to the North Central Washington GTG and ride and talked to some folks that had been
Once the decision was made to go, I read up on what people had experienced, started thinking about what I'd need for the bike and the trip. A spare 5 L gas canister was a must, warmer cloths so maybe an extra dry bag, some spare brake pads and a new set of Shock Socks made the list and were ordered. I also bought a smaller stove, some new gloves and ordered a Tractionator GPS tire as I wanted something that would make the trip.
Shiny new rubber!
Crash bars mounted, oil change done:
I mapped out the kilometers and it looked like a minimum 14 day ride, which included two rest or flex days (i.e. if the weather sucked or I simply needed a break. Not too bad and totally manageable, though I'd be averaging between 500 and 600 km / day, much of it highway. Very different than the rides I normally take, which are meant to maximize time on the side of the tire.
The living room soon looked a bit messy as I worked on packing and figuring out how to best carry everything.
I really thought this trip was going to be about the riding, but in the end it turned out to be much more about the people I met, and rode with, along the way
Saturday - Day 0:
Final packing proceeded pretty quickly, I'd had a complete list from a decade-plus of road trips, it didn't need that much tweaking.
Before going I really enjoyed Dynobob's thread about his trip to the Yukon, and based on his advice read "Klondike - The last gold rush" by Pierre Berton. Great book, and I love this quote at the beginning:
Planning:
For quite a while now I'd wanted to ride to Northern Canada, first to Inuvik (because the road ended there) and then to Tuk once they pushed the road through. A buddy of mine was heading up in his truck for vacation this year and that brought back my desire to go. My current contract was up on Aug 2nd and I thought that would be a good time to head out.
The real push to go was when I went to the North Central Washington GTG and ride and talked to some folks that had been
Once the decision was made to go, I read up on what people had experienced, started thinking about what I'd need for the bike and the trip. A spare 5 L gas canister was a must, warmer cloths so maybe an extra dry bag, some spare brake pads and a new set of Shock Socks made the list and were ordered. I also bought a smaller stove, some new gloves and ordered a Tractionator GPS tire as I wanted something that would make the trip.
Shiny new rubber!
Crash bars mounted, oil change done:
I mapped out the kilometers and it looked like a minimum 14 day ride, which included two rest or flex days (i.e. if the weather sucked or I simply needed a break. Not too bad and totally manageable, though I'd be averaging between 500 and 600 km / day, much of it highway. Very different than the rides I normally take, which are meant to maximize time on the side of the tire.
The living room soon looked a bit messy as I worked on packing and figuring out how to best carry everything.
I really thought this trip was going to be about the riding, but in the end it turned out to be much more about the people I met, and rode with, along the way
Saturday - Day 0:
Final packing proceeded pretty quickly, I'd had a complete list from a decade-plus of road trips, it didn't need that much tweaking.
Before going I really enjoyed Dynobob's thread about his trip to the Yukon, and based on his advice read "Klondike - The last gold rush" by Pierre Berton. Great book, and I love this quote at the beginning: