Days 4 through 7

6/26 - Hyder, AK to Watson Lake, CA - 402 miles
6/27 - Watson Lake to Haines Jct - 363 miles
6/28 - Haines Jct, CA to Tok, AK - 294 miles
6/29 - Tok to Valdez - 258 miles

Day 4 - The morning of day four we cross back in to Canada from Hyder. There is no checkpoint coming from Canada in to Hyder. Going back in to Canada you have to clear customs. Seems the Canadians were coming over to the US for for alcohol, cigarettes, and guns and the Canadian government needed to put a stop to this bad behavior. It is still cool with the temperature around 50 F all day. Saw a bear, a moose, and sheep. The day was spent riding the Cassier highway back north to where it joins the Alcan highway. There was virtually no traffic. It was almost as if the road had been closed just so we could ride it. Encountered about 30 miles of good gravel road. The lakes and rivers are spectacular. I realized there was no litter on the sides of the road. When is the last time you saw a road with no litter for a hundred miles?

Day 5 - More traffic today being back on the Alcan. A little warmer in the 50's & 60's. Talked to two riders on KLR 650's. They spent time in Whitehorse getting a new chain for one of the bikes. A failed master link was the problem. This is the second problem with a master link we have heard of in the first week. The first one was the guy on the 250 Ninja and now this one. If you are running a standard master link, safety wire it. Better yet get a rivet type master link. We are seeing a lot of bikes making the trip to Alaska. Counting our bikes, there were nine bikes at the hotel tonight. Surprising to me is the age of the riders. Most are in their 60s. We had dinner with one solo rider from Florida. He said he had talked with his wife last week and confirmed that his first social security check had arrived on time.

Day 6 - Saw bear, moose, and coyotes today in the Yukon Territory. Frost heave from Haines Jct to the US border was pretty bad. The RVs had to slow down, they really bounced around going over these sections. I could feel the rear suspension bottom out a couple of times on the deeper whoops. Avoiding the potholes was easy and we made good time.

Day 7 - The last 30 miles in to Valdez is the most spectacular scenery on the trip. We stopped at Worthington glacier for some pictures. From there on over Thompson Pass and down through Keystone Canyon is distracting to ride as you are looking at the jagged peaks, snow fields, and waterfalls.

First Three Days

6/23 - Seattle to Williams Lake- 432 miles
6/24 - Williams Lake to Smithers - 387 miles
6/25 - Smithers to Hyder - 217 miles

Day 1 - this was the get out of town day. The two way communication with the radios is very nice to have. Saves a lot of stopping. We had a little rain, a little sun, and mostly overcast. Crossing the border only took about 10 minutes which was nice because sitting in line on your bike in the rain is not much fun. A couple of basic questions and we were done with that.

We talked to a couple of riders in Cache Creek. One on a big BMW, the other on a Kawasaki 250 Ninja. They were headed to Prudhoe Bay also. The guy on the 250 was trying to set a new Iron Butt record for smallest displacement bike to complete the Ultimate CC. The Ultimate Coast to Coast (CC) is a ride to go from Key West in the Florida to Prudhoe Bay in 30 days. . He had recently completed that basic 50CC riding from California to Florida in under 50 hours. We talked to him right after he had lost three hours to a broken rear chain. This lost time may have been enough to not let him finish in time, but he was still going for it. The 250 Ninja is the first bike I got my daughter so she could learn to ride on little bike. I think it has as much horsepower as my riding lawn mower and the guy riding it was at least 225 lbs.

Day 2 - A weather repeat of day 1. Down to about 40 F in rain the showers and up to 65 when the sun came out. Wearing my rain suit to keep dry and warm and I have had the heated grips on almost all the time. Gas in Canada is running $4.00 - $4.30 a gallon. I'm getting about 44 miles to the gallon. The posted max speed is 100km/hour ~ 62mph.

Day 3 - Cool again today. Wore the top of the rain suit just for the warmth. No rain today. So far this trip has been cooler than anticipated. I think I will wear the heated vest tomorrow. The stopping point today is Hyder, Alaska. This is the closest point in Alaska you can drive to and is the location of the Hyder Seek. There is another competition to ride your bike in each of the lower 48 states plus Alaska in 10 days or less. The end point is Hyder. Each year at the end of May riders from all over the US ride to Hyder for dinner. A small percentage of them are completing the 49 state ride. Last month there were 200 bikers in this very small town of under a 100 people.

We rode to the observation platform a couple miles out of town to see the bears eating salmon. We are a couple weeks to early. No salmon=no bears. I did take a walk down to the city dump and saw a black bear. He stayed about 30 yards away.

Ready to Start the Ride

The trip to Seattle was uneventful. The most difficult part was paying for the gas each time I filled the tank on the truck. I didn't think my truck could hold $60 worth of gas.

The ride begins Saturday morning, 6/23. Our route north will be Seattle to Williams Lake, Smithers, Hyder, Watson Lake, Haines Jct, Tok, Valdez, Anchorage, Talkeetna, Fairbanks, Coldfood, Deadhourse (Prudhoe Bay). Sorry no cool map to show you with the route all laid out in contrasting color.

Ready for trip to Seattle

I packed up just the way I would be riding. Two hard panniers, two dry bags, and a tank bag. A total of 110 lbs. Then went for a 20 mile ride to see how it felt. I increased the preload on the rear shock. Now I remember why I don't like riding two-up. The handling is not nearly what it is without the load. Getting the bike on the center stand now takes significant effort.

Bike is loaded in the trailer ready to go.

More Bike Prep

I was worried about stones being thrown up by oncoming traffic. The classic approach to protecting against this is to mount a screen guard on the headlights. I decided to try a 3M product that is a clear plastic film 0.040" thick. You can see the thickness in this picture taken after applying to the headlight. A company called X-Pel sells this in the size you want. Then you cut it to your headlight outline with a scissors. It has a strong adhesive and conforms to the shape of the headlight. Advertised as being able to take stone impacts over a 100 mph.

I thought the bike was leaning to far over when using the side

stand so I welded a 3/4" spacer to the bottom. This significantly reduced the lean angle.

Another situation that is common to run in to is needing to put the side stand

down but the ground is so soft (read mud) that the bike will fall over. I used some aluminum plate to increase the surface area by

about 10X. The clips are used to snap the plate to my crash guard when not in use

I wanted a way to lock up the bike without a cable or chain. I also wanted to trailer the bike on the center stand. My friend Paul welded a tab on my center stand with his heavy duty arc welder. I was then able to drill through the center stand and the new tab. Once the lock is in place, the bike is not moving unless it is picked up.

Riding Gear

The main pieces are a two-piece Aerostich riding suit, full face helmet, and trials boots.

The suit is a heavy cordura fabric with impact padding in shoulders, elbows, and knees. Treated with Nikwax it is reasonably waterproof. But in Alaska this is not sufficient. I also have a one-piece rain suit for when the it really gets wet out. A heated vest and heated hand grips will also come in handy. When it is hot there are zippers to open that provide good air flow.

I like full face helmets because of the protection and warmth. With ventilation slots for airflow it is never to hot.

The boots are primary designed for trials riding, but I really like them for comfort. The provide more protection then regular street riding boots. They are not waterproof so I have both waterproof socks to wear and slip on rubber boots to go over them.

For gloves I have my light leather summer gloves and a pair of heavier waterproof gloves.

Bike to Bike Communication

I've never used a communication system before when riding but I think this is going to be very helpful. After some research Michael found Motocomm to be a good solution for the helmet microphone and speakers. The pictures below show how they fit in to the helmet. Motocomm makes a couple of different push-to-talk switches. One mounts on the handlebar, the other option is a mini switch that velcros to your index finger. The nice thing about the mini switch is that you are not connected to the bike via cable.


There are lots of options on radios and you can

spend a lot of money on the specialty radios. The flexibility of the Motocomm headset lets you pick from a wide variety GMRS/FRS radios on the market. We went with the Midland GXT600. It has good transmit power, takes special Nicad or AA batteries and is water resistant. The radio fits in one of the front pockets in my riding jacket. With earplugs in I have to turn the volume all the way up to hear but I think it will work OK. I think we can get a couple of days per battery charge.

Getting Ready

I realized I started this Blog in February and have not updated it. The excuse is that I have
been working on the bike, camping equipment, and logistics. All the standard prep items were done including new tires, spark plugs, air cleaner, battery, engine oil, anti-freeze, drive chain, and front sprocket.








I was particularly worried about flying gravel from the big trucks that will be encountered in Canada and on the Alaska pipeline road. I found a very nice stainless steel water radiator guard from Germany. I could not find anything for the oil radiator so I fabricated a guard from aluminum plate. This should protect the lower
part of the engine.

I was also concerned about the rear tire throwing mud on the rear shock so another shield was fabricated for the rear.

I'll keep adding more posts over the next week
before the trip begins