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.

I’ve also noticed that ‘time in seat’ has made me a much better rider. Each year I become more confident, safer and still get to enjoy the best part of the sport of motorcycle riding – testing your, and your machine’s, limits. I think these riding experiences, including this one, have helped me reach a part of myself, deep inside, that is somewhat unconscious and untapped. Sometimes being alone, or lonely, can help put things back into perspective. You can evaluate what is really important in life – loved ones, friends and certainly personal mental health.

These personal journeys, along with time spent with my riding companions, really do become quite a ‘zen-like’ experience. Being alone in nature, the smells, the sights, the feelings of being ‘in’ the surroundings really is tough to explain to someone who hasn’t done it. There is only the now when riding, even over a long journey such as this for 19 days. You’re not thinking about the past, the future, only what is happening before you – it’s really quite freeing and helps recharge your inner spirit.

Friends/Acquaintances/Hosts: When I signed up for the VFRdiscussion.com online forum so many years ago I had no idea how profoundly it would impact my life. I’ve met some of the nicest, smartest and generally caring people. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting several of them year after year at meets all over the west. This year I had the pleasure of staying with two of these friends – Tim and Cassie Smith. Their warmth and generosity during my stay in Vancouver, Washington was unexpected and greatly appreciated. It’s great to meet such kindered spirits and folks with similar views and outlooks on life. I think one of the most profound things I heard on this trip was during my goodbye with Tim, loosely paraphrased, “you gotta look after your friends, what else is their…” How true! Words can’t express how grateful I am for their hospitality and friendship over the past couple years and during my stay.

I also had a chance to chat with previous meet buddies Bjorn, Christian, Tony (the boys from Vancouver) and Keith (Newport). All of whom are excellent guys in general and a wealth of information about where to go for rides. It’s with their help that I was able to explore some really neat places that I wouldn’t have normally have thought of based solely on reading a map. So much of the journey, and in life, is indeed ‘off the map.’ That’s why these special folks deserve such respect and thanx – they help us find new places that make our journeys worthwhile. From conversations over the years I’ve taken mental notes of things they’ve talked about and many of which I went and checked out on this trip. Thanx fellers!

The ‘Deets’
Here are some of the details of my/our trip:

Distance: 7799 Kilometres (4847 miles) – more distance in less days than I’ve ever ridden (almost 460 kilometres/day)
Riding Days: 17 days (2 off the bike)
Fuel Economy: Averaging about 40 mpg over the entire trip
Territory: Two Provinces, Two States (Three if you include a few minutes inside Idaho)
Temperature: Low 8 celcius (the day we left Calgary), High 39 celcius (The Dalles, Or)

Repairs/Mechanical Costs: nada, zilch, zero, $0 – pray to the holy god of Honda and my bullet proof bike

Most expensive accommodation: Tofino ($165/night) – worth every penny – one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited, ever…
Least expensive accommodation: Bend, Or ($49/night) – cheap like borscht! – Motel 6/Super 8 are so cheap in the US
Special Mention – Worst Accomodation: Rodmay Heritage Hotel – My heart goes out to the owners who are restoring this place, but $75.00/night felt like about $50.00 too much. This place is old in the worst way – no plumbing, no ventilation and creepy inner furnishings. What an experience. I guess the bad helps us define what is good – this was especially bad.

Best Road: Suislaw River Road (Oregon) – If you get the chance to take this route (and the connecting Smith River Road) – it’s the best road I’ve ever ridden.
Second Best Road: Siletz to Monroe (Oregon) – This is the second best road I’ve ridden to date – beautiful, technical and completely vacant – the quality of a very good road

Things that come in handy on a trip for 19 days: iPod (tunes are an absolute must), raingear/rain booties (bring it and you’ll likely never have to use it, don’t and you are sure to get wet), ziplock bags (keeps things dry, compartmentalized and the stinky clothes away from those that are clean – great tip, Bjorn), a riding companion (Fiona and Tim made the trip far more enjoyable).

Biggest Surprise: Mary’s Peak, Or – I’d heard it was beautiful, but man, it really was. I’ll have to go back with hiking boots next time.
Biggest Letdown: See aforementioned ‘heritage hotel.’ – I remember Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols last words from their last gig – “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated…?”

Fave Riding Tunes for this journey: Sleeping Sickness – City and Colour, Norah Jones – Broken, Eddie Vedder – Rise, Lady GaGa – Poker Face, My Rights vs Yours – New Pornographers, Midnight Regulations – AlexisOnFire

See you on the roads next summer.