Took advantage of the great weather and went on a blast north on the forestry trunk road. Surprisingly with such great weather there wasn’t a sole around. I pretty much had the road to myself the whole afternoon.

We’ve had very little rain the past few months so everything is popcorn dry. The road was a dust bowl and the new gravel areas that they have put down since our torrential spring rain is like riding on marbles – fun, challenging and occasionally butt-clinchingly scary!

I had intended to ride the route up highway 40/940 all the way to Nordegg but instead turned off at the junction with about 130 kilometres of gravel road left to go. If I had pushed on I would have had to come back through Rocky Mountain house and the prairies at dusk and dark – too many creatures are stirring at that time of day.

There are a few really scenic spots – the Waiparous area lookout, coming down from the first junction to Sundre and looking towards the mountains, and a few kilometres before the turn-off to 584 (last one) to Sundre. Lots of good mountain panoramas. They were also conducting a prescribed burn on the other side of the range towards the Icefields Parkway – smoke can be seen coming in a huge plume over the mountains and a cloud that stretches for hundreds of kilometres.

Overall a great day. It’s getting towards the end of the riding season and won’t be much longer before it starts snowing at higher elevations – sad face –

Waiparous Lookout

Red Deer River - Looking Towards Yaha-Tinda Ranch

Nordegg Junction to Sundre - Check out the fantastic fall colours

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Lovely weather today for fall in Calgary. Perfect weather for a ride. I’ve recently picked up the southern Alberta copies of the Backroads Mapbooks and decided to go out exploring on some of the less traveled side roads.

Today I headed out through Bragg Creek to Longview. Over Highway 532 by Indian Graves campground and to the junction of the forestry trunk road (940/40) heading down towards Coleman.

I had planned to take the Old Man River Road up through the Cataract Creek snowmobiling area and reconnect with the forestry trunk road at Highwood House and head home.

The road starts off as gravel, then gravel and mud/dirt, then mostly dirt then the last section is really abandoned road right back to the Forestry Trunk road. There are no signs that I could see and the road conditions become almost like a walking path. The road has obviously been abandoned for a considerable time since the one sign I did see just before a broken old wooden bridge was still in miles per hour.

It was fun to get out there and see another part of the Kananaskis that I’d never been to before. Luckily the weather was fantastic. If there had been any chance of rain or recent rain activity that road would be a complete disaster and virtually impassable.

I got all the way around to the junction to turn back towards Highwood House and discovered with the last few metres that the road was closed. Luckily it had a wide walking path around it so I could skirt around the gate. Seems odd that the road was fully open and accessible from the South but not at all from the North.

I didn’t see a vehicle or any signs of life for several hours. A great riding adventure.

Cataract Creek Area - Kananaskis - The road is abandoned from this point North.

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Distance Traveled: 9347 Kilometres (5808 miles)
Approximate Cost of Fuel: $450-500 dollars (fuel is very expensive up North)
Lodging Costs (Camping and Hotels): approx. $1,100-1,300
Number of Days on the Road: 17 (15 on the bike)

Lowest Temperature: 0 Celcius (Destruction Bay, YT – sleet and snow-like conditions)
Warmest Temperature: 24 Celcius (Carmacks, YT and Liard River, YT)
Repairs/Maintenance: New Tires in Fairbanks, AK – $350 USD
Least Expensive Accommodation: Tie – Sealaska Inn (Hyder, AK) $65.00/night – What a deal! and Tara Vista Motel (Hinton, AB)
Most Expensive Accommodation: Best Western (Homer, AK) – really, not worth more than most of the 65-85 hotels
Worst Accommodation: Downtown Hotel (Prince George, BC) – honestly, Prince George’s downtown is one of the scariest places I’ve been next to East LA

Best Road: The Dempster Highway – hands down the most challenging, beautiful and interesting ride of the trip
Worst Road: The ALCAN/Alaska Highway in Yukon Territory – the Alaska side is beautiful, the Canadian side looks like it has been in constant decay since it was made during WWII – parts of this highway are worse than the infamous Dempster Highway.
Honorable Mention for Best Road: Tok, AK to Valdez, AK on the Tok Connector Highway – high passes, mountain ranges, wildlife and beautifully paved

Impressions of the Trip:

The North is absolutely outstanding in every way. It’s remote, isolated, stunningly beautiful and a challenge to travel through. These are all the attributes of a great adventure. The weather can be abysmally bad and quite the opposite really quite mild. There is no shortage of scenery and wildlife on this trip. I’d hazard a guess that anyone traveling this area will see more wildlife in a few weeks than they’ve seen in their entire lives (unless they work at a zoo).

I’m quite happy with how things unfolded during this trip. I’ve only had some off road experience for day trips into gravel and forestry roads. I think as I got more comfortable riding in this terrain I’d be more likely to venture off on to more gravel, dirt and abandon roads.

This is a type of trip you could be a lot more adventurous if you had a riding partner or two. Being out on the Dempster Highway 400 kilometres from help is a bit unnerving when you’re riding solo. Having a serious accident could literally be life or death – having help would certainly make the trip less risky. Although, it’s been very hard for me to find anyone that will take on these types of challenges or that has enough vacation time.

The North is definitely a place you could visit again and again and still only scratch the surface of what there is to see. I think I can safely say that at some point I’ll return by motorcycle to the North. If you’re looking for an adventure and place that not many will see – this is it! Go and see for yourself – it’s amazing!

Equipment:

• SW Motech Crash Bars – essential for a dual purpose bike – these prevented hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of damage in my get-off
• Barkbusters Hand Guards – on the cold days they helped keep the wind and rain off, also prevented major damage to my bike during aforementioned get-off
• Tires – The Pirelli Scorpion Trail did very well on the highway (4500 kilometres and still going) and fine on the Dempster (in the dry – they’d be scary in the wet); Heidenau K60 Scouts – I’d definitely use these tires again – they were excellent highway tires and superb off-road
• More Tires – In spite of what people say – bring a second set. Road tires for the trip up, knobbies or good 50/50 for the Dempster or trips off road
• Oxford Heated Grips/Jett Hawaii Heated Vest – I would have been miserable and cold without these. The Jett Vest is unreal – on low it will keep you warm for the entire day, and, it’s got no wires tethering you to your bike
• Good rain gear – You may not need it, but if you do, you’ll be glad you brought it
• Trax Panniers and SW Motech Racks – Hard luggage is the best investment you can make in any bike – they kept everything dry, there’s tons of storage, and they are excellent crash guards
• Camping Gear – really helped on the days where it was nice to get in touch with nature, also the days where I arrived late and didn’t feel like seeking out expensive accommodation (you can save a bundle of cash traveling with camping gear) – on average 15-18/night.

The Bike:

The KLR did the job it was asked to do. After traveling up and down the west coast so many times on my VFR this pales in comparison. It was passable as a highway bike, moderately capable as a dual-purpose bike, and required nothing to keep it going for the trip except gas and 1/2 litre of oil. It gets superb gas mileage (45-50 mpg on the highway /53+ on the low speed stuff like the Dempster Highway)

I must have tried to switch up into sixth gear about 45,000 times during the trip. Really, Kawasaki, would it be that hard to add another gear for cruising on the highway. It drove me nuts after thousands of kilometres vibrating along at 5,000 RPM. I’ll consider a larger front sprocket to lower the revs if I was to do another long trip on the bike.

To me this seems like a bike that would lead me to purchase a larger adventure bike – BMW GS Adventure. It seems like a perfect bike for trips like this. The KLR has been a bargain bike to equip for the trip and I easily could have bought two completely kitted out for the price of one GSA.

Hotels:

I can’t believe there are still ‘smoking’ rooms in hotels. Most municipalities in North America don’t allow smoking in public places, why in hotels? Also, non-smoking seems to mean that there is no one currently smoking in the room with you. Many of the hotels stunk of smoke even in their ‘non-smoking’ rooms.

If you can hit the major towns or trap towns mid-week you’ll save a bundle. Most will gouge you if they can on weekend rates.

The last day is one of the best because you get to go home but it’s always bittersweet since it’s the end of another good long ride.

I slept in again since it wasn’t a very long day and I knew I could make it back home by the middle of the afternoon. The final pack took only a few minutes. I noticed something that I missed after my ‘get off’ the other day – the supporting racks for the right side luggage was bent a bit. A quick firm pull and it bent right into shape.

I love riding the Icefields Parkway highway. Even after all that I’ve seen on this trip, and others, it is still one of the most beautiful highways I’ve ridden. I was very fortunate to be able to duck and weave through the various storm fronts that were moving through the mountains and only had about ten minutes of rain the entire day.

The first thing I notice every time I come back to Alberta is how terrible the drivers are. I rarely crowd the middle of the highway or the left side of my lane for this very reason. People are tired or inattentive and on several occasions drivers crossed the centre line – yikes!

There was also some sort of Cannonball Run type race going on; the “Bull Run” I think. I’m all for enjoying a day in a nice car in the mountains but these yahoos were passing on double lines, in speeding through pedestrian areas, and driving about 50-60 km/h over the limit. Pretty dangerous considering it is a scenic drive and not a race track.

I took a few pics along the way. Stopped to look at the scenery and generally took my time winding me way back home on this final day. A successful and enjoyable trip. Wrap up report to come….

Since my 'get-off' these damn mirrors won't stay put - three joints in opposite directions

Back through the Icefields Parkway - Cold!

Welcome back to the prairies and Alberta.

Today has probably been the least eventful day of the trip. Which I guess is a good thing since everything went according to plan.

No rush today as it’s a short riding day at least in comparison with the past couple of days. Didn’t leave the hotel until 8:30 this morning.

When I say not eventful – no animals, no weather events and really nothing to see on the way. Contrary to Alberta Tourism’s recommendation of highway 40 between Grande Cache and Hinton, AB being a scenic byway – well, it isn’t. It’s better than taking the superfreakinghighway number 2 south through Edmonton. But really, there are no vistas, no scenery, not much of anything to catch your attention. It does gain significant altitude up to 1300 metros at some points but other than that it is a tree-lined highway to avoid bigger highways.

After several longish days my arse is getting sore. The KLR seat is very narrow and causes extreme discomfort when ridden for long days for several days in a row. So when I arrived in Hinton today I was glad to get off the bike to give my tuckus a break.

Hinton is kinda like the Teutels (American Chopper) meets extreme sports meets ultimate fighting challenge. Yikes! I didn’t bring my requisite 4×4 with 40″ wheels and a dirt bike in the back. Guess I’m really going to have to buy one of those TapOut shirts after all – just to fit in! Welcome back to Alberta, Mike! Haha.

Midweek hotels are easy to come by and cheap ($65) – the Tara Vista Motel. So I’ve relaxed and had some grub. Tomorrow is the last day of the trip. I’m looking forward to being home in my own ‘crib’ and bed. I’m always a bit sad to see the trip each year come to an end. Before it’s over though I’m fortunate enough to zip back through Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff before getting back home to Calgary. Should be a few more pics from this ride.

A fantastic day of riding again. I was a bit concerned this morning when I woke up, more on that in a second, and saw dark clouds and spitting rain.

Let’s start with the camping experience last night. I say ‘camping’ since it in no way resembled any form of camping I’ve previous known. 

I was able to sneak across the street after 8:00pm for the ‘free’ dip in the hot springs -which was awesome. When I came back I had a quick chat with a couple from Montréal who were just coming back from Alaska and their attempt at the Dempster highway. They had the same luck – they turned around the day before when it started to rain. They rode in for 6 hours turned around and straight back out the same day – 14 hours in total back to Dawson. Wow! That’s full day.

Got everything set up and hung out as long as I could outside before the bugs started to drive me crazy. Not biting or anything just plenty annoying. This has been the exception to the rule up here – the bugs haven’t been that bad, in my opinion. So I took a book and huddled up in the tent to read for a while before bed. That’s when the ‘camping’ experience began….

First of all the place is run on a giant diesel generator. Fine by day, unfortunately, they don’t turn it off at night. I figured about 10-11 pm they’d shut it off for the night – not a lot of call for power. But, they didn’t. Luckily it’s a consistent sound so I feel right asleep. That is until a band of idiots rolled in at midnight. Four tents with adults, kids and complete chaos. One would think that if you rolled in that late at night you’d try to be as quiet as church mice. Not! Finally at 2am I’d had enough. If you’ve ever heard my “oi!” at the top of my lungs you’d know that all bets are off and I’m pissed off. Apparently, that was the sign they were waiting for as they were completely silent for the remaining 4 hours before I had to get up. Thanks guys!

They came by to ‘apologize’ in the morning to which they were greeted with a waving hand as in ‘talk to the hand, Hammerhead!’ Not impressed.

The day went very well from that point on though. The ride from Liard River through to Muncho Lake and into the Rockies is really fun! It’s a great curvy and twisty road for several hundred kilometers and is very scenic. There are lots of glacial moraines and plenty of changes in altitude right up to 1300 m (3500-4000 ft).

I stopped in Muncho Lake for gasoline. The lake is a lot like Lake Louise with the opalescent blue waters and the rock lined shores. It is also the home of Canada’s most expensive gas – I really needed gas and they really wanted to sell it to me – for $1.89 per litre (for you Americans that’s approaching $7.50/gallon). Ouch! I have to remember though that if I’m by there again that the lodge looks like a great place to stay – a wood log cabin.

I hadn’t realized that this would be it for gas stops. Many of the other places on the map were just that, on the map. They were little mom and pops that have been deserted. Kinda sad really to see all those small businesses left for dead.

Quite a few sheep sightings along the way today. I know I’ve seen them a million times on rides around Calgary but I still like to stop and see them. There were some youngins that were strutting there stuff alongside the road. Pretty cool to watch.

After several hours the mountainous backdrop starts to change to more deciduous trees and eventually back to rolling hills. This is where the day turns into making distance and less about the scenery. It’s a long way to Dawson Creek.

Not much to see for the last half of the day. Treelined highway with no views to the horizon. This is when the iPod is a lifesaver. You can pass time a lot better when you can sign along with your fave tunes in your helmet. Trust me, it works!

I stopped in what is the most interestingly named place thus far – Pink Mountain. I’ll have to look and find out how it got that name because there is nothing pink around. Haha. I got to meet the local guard dog at the gas station a Coon Hound that apparently was on break and taking a nap on the porch.

I kept pushing along kilometer after kilometer and made it to Fort St. John and decided I might as well push on to Dawson to save about 75 K for the next few days riding. It’s pretty odd after spending two weeks surrounded by mountains to suddenly be out in a yellow field of flax. It seems to happen so quickly but it’s been coming for days. Things are starting to look a lot more like things around home.

One last butt pucker moment. In the town of Taylor which has a really long and high steel grated bridge deck. These are pretty challenging as they grab the tread of your tire and cause the entire bike to oscilate or wobble back and forth. There are a few of these along the way and I’ve ridden over them before but this one had another challenge – wind. Strong, wind. Gusting winds pushing the bike across towards oncoming traffic as the bike wobbles. That really tests one’s intestinal fortitude! Whew!

Wheeled into Dawson Creek and found a room at the Lodge Motel – $85.00 seems to be the going rate for a decent room.

I’ve mapped out the final two days of the trip. 1000 kilometers is too far for me to go comfortably on the KLR (I could easily do it on my VFR). So two 500 K days should do it. Tomorrow through to Grand Cache and down to Hinton, AB. It’s supposed to be a really scenic ride and it’s one of the few in Alberta that I have not done yet. The last day will be back over through the Icefields or Nordegg and back to Calgary.

Muncho Lake, BC

The Greeting Committee - Sheep

The Pink Mountain Coon Hound