has anyone ever taken an ALASKA TRIP BY MOTORCYCLE?

Many times my friend... It is the grand adventure!

There is only one choice for the road.. The Alaska Highway. Starting in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and ending in Delta Junction, Alaska; 1422 miles in length, it connects British Columbia, to the Yukon, and finally Alaska itself. The down side is you have to get to the Alaska Highway in order to drive it.

There are numerous stretches that are affectionately called the "historic sections"; lots of bumps and dips and hair raising whoop dee doo's! These we call frost heaves, and they can rearrange most of your innerds without warning. A quaint phrase developed during construction went like this... "...this wandering in and wandering out fills my mind with serious doubt as to whether the lout that planned this route was going to he#@ or coming out".

I have always liked quite a few stretches of the road...

Toad River

Stone Mountain Provincial Park

Fireside

Rancheria

Kluane, the Kuskawalsh, and Silver City

These are but a few of my favorite friends.

With a bike, you'll need to plan way ahead! Motorcycle shops are few and far between; literally hundreds and hundreds of miles apart.

Make sure you are proficient at changing a tire. This of course means you'll need canned air to refill, a patch kit, so on and so forth.

If you are riding an air cooled rig well not much can go wrong in the engine aside from oil leaks and such, but overheating will not be an issue. Watercooled: remember the extra pre-mixed anti-freeze

Lube for the chain (no worries if your on a shaft ride). A slightly more than basic tool kit, and so forth. Emergency link for the chain just in case it breaks.

Personal items:

*Two sets of rain gear (its gonna get muddy in places).

*Boots that are very sturdy and waterproof.

*Helmet (I have always prefered a full face; not much on eating bugs along the way)

*Lightweight bike cover

Now for the fun stuff... homework!

You will need to spend a large portion of your spare time for the next several months studying. Yep, welcome to Grad school! Purchase a copy of The Milepost (see link below), and start mapping out your trip.

Hotels or camping it won't make a whole lot of difference aside from where you end up at days end. Most hotel accomodations are ok (not the waldorf), and a bit expensive (Motel 8 in Ft. Nelson is about $120.00/nt CDN). Reservations are not necessary, but if you are certain about a particular date then go ahead and make some.

The condition of the highway is great! Mostly all paved (chip sealed), with just a few construction zones (which will never go away). you go, anad go hard when you can, but when you hit the older stretches... SLOW DOWN! FROST HEAVE AHEAD!

Watch for small orange flags (construction flaggers) at ground level, these mark the heaves. Many times you will be down to less than 10 MPH (well since your in Canada most of the trip 20 KMP). Lesson here... become a tourist.

Don't forget to plan some side trips like going to Skagway, and route yourself to Dawson City, Yukon via the Klondike Highway Loop.

Lots of videos available to help as well, so check those out!

If you have a problem, most travellers will stop to lend a hand, as you are all in the same boat.

If fishin is on the mission, well my family has a charter boat in Homer, Alaska for those big Alaskan Halibut, or Salmon.

For your return, take the Alaska Marine Highway, or as we call it, The Blue Canoe. Relax aboard ship, and see the other Alaska.

Have a great ride, and take lots of pictures to post!

Happy Trails!

The only road to Alaska is the Alaska Highway starting in Dawson Creek, BC, Canada. Once you cross into Alaska you may take side trips. Stay on the Alaskan Highway to Delta Junction, the official end. Continue North to Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway, same road. Turn South on the Parks Highway to Anchorage. Continue through Anchorage and pick up the Seward Highway. You may continue on to Seward, Wittier, through a tunnel, or turn off and go to Homer, the end of the road. You must return to Anchorage to pick up the Glenn Highway, Turn South at Glennellen on the Richardson again to Valdez. Returning to Delta Junction on the Richardson and South on the Alaskan Highway to leave. Do not take the Tok Cut-off on a motorcycle. The RV's and trucks coming at you will cover you with flying gravel.

We drove up in early May and found frost heaves near Destruction Bay, YT and the very Southern part of Alaska. There will be road construction somewhere on your trip. Just be flexible. There will be signs along the way saying "BUMP" believe them. There will be some gravel areas, just ride like you would in the lower 48.

There are no best parts of the road. They are all wonderful. Snow covered mountains in July. Moose, Caribou, Bison grazing along the road. Remember, they are much larger than you.

You should pick up a copy of the Mile Post. We got ours at Amazon.com. Their price was the cheapest, $17 vrs. 25 and a RV store. This is a guide that RV'ers use. It lists all the sights, rest stops, motels, gas stations and everything you might need along the way. Since you'll be traveling by motorcycle you'll need this information. We have a 1,000+ mile range on fuel and stations are seldom more than 200 miles apart.

Also you will want to pick up the Great Alaskan Tour Saver coupon book. There are so many buy one get one free deals it will pay for it's self in a few days. Try www.toursaver.com. Buy it before you leave as the first place to get it will be Fairbanks and you will have saved several hundred dollars before you get there. You can also plan your trip around the coupon book.

I'm not to sure about tent camping since they have two kinds of bears that eat people, the Black and the Grizzley. You will need a passport. No guns or pepper spray allowed.

You will have the ultimate trip. I tell everyone going in a motorhome to raise their sun visors all the way up since the sights go to the sky.

Haven't done it but I think that would be so awesome!