Alaska-Canada Adventure Ride, July 2019

F800GS on the Denali Highway

Introduction

Alaska-Canada route map This adventure ride is the longest ride I have done to date and a true test in motorcycle endurance riding. The trip from start to finish took 29 days and covered about 9000 miles, camping most of the time, riding my 2015 BMW F800GS Adventure motorcycle. It was done as a round-trip from Sacramento, reaching as far north as Tuktoyaktuk of the Northwest Territories, Canada on the Arctic Ocean, and then venturing into Alaska to continue exploring some of its well known routes, before eventually heading back through Canada and home again.

The ride was done with 4 other friends (all local to Sacramento), with all of us having experience together on various adventure and dual sport rides. We took the following bikes:

Jon - BMW R1200 GSA
Vicki - BMW R1200 GS Rallye
Tucker - BMW R1200 GSA
Randy - Suzuki Vstrom 650
Steve (author) - BMW F800 GSA

Our plan was to camp most of the time in order to save money on the expensive motel rates that Alaska and Canada are known for in the summer season, while also giving us more flexibility of where and when to stop. Carrying camping gear and camp food put extra pressure on packing the bikes while still maintaining a reasonable degree of agility for the off-road sections.

Given the remoteness, it was also important to be more self sufficient from a tools, parts, and tubes perspective to deal with whatever road-side repairs or flat tires we may likely encounter. We also needed to carry sufficient clothing to deal with the cold, rain, and mosquitoes. Given the scenery of the trip I also budgeted space to carry an efficient but comprehensive set of photo gear for capturing both wildlife and landscapes, plus a small drone for additional coverage. All of this was packed in two aluminum side pannier cases plus a large waterproof Wolfman expandable duffel bag on the tail. Some of us were more efficient than others, while I tended to maintain a leaner profile in terms of what I packed (see my detailed packing list at the end of this blog).

In the trip planning phase I put together a rough itinerary with a possible destination for each day. I found that the use of the app WikiCamps was extremely handy for identifying campsites. It is also helpful in identifying which were free, have showers, water, etc. To make this easier to use while on the road, I downloaded the maps of the app for the entire trip into my phone so that WikiCamps could be used in an offline mode. This proved quite fortuitous given how remote many of the locations we traveled through with no cell coverage.

In general, we tended to make faster progress than what was planned, and thus required some adaptability for each days travel. For these reasons, we did not bother with any reservations and decided to just wing it. Being adaptable in our camping arrangements and willingness to do this in inclimate weather helped make this possible.

The following pages will provide a brief summary of the route that we took each day with thoughts and observations of the experience. At the conclusion, you will also find a summary of the experience, GPS tracks of the entire ride, my packing list, a post mortem of the bike, and a link to a video of the ride from Dawson City to Tuktoyaktuk via the Dempster Highway. It has hoped that this should aid others with a similar ambition to do such a ride.

Intro <Next Page> Conclusion

Index by day

Day	Segment
1 - 2	Sacramento CA, Cottage Lake OR, Bellingham WA
3	Bellingham, WA to Helen Lake, BC
4	Helen Lake, BC to Sunset Lake, BC
5	Sunset Lake, BC to Stewart, BC
6	Stewart, BC to Watson Lake, Yukon
7	Watson Lake, Yukon to Faro, Yukon
8	Faro, Yukon to Dawson City, Yukon
9	Dawson City, Yukon to Eagle Plains, Yukon
10	Eagle Plains, Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories
11	Inuvik, Northwest Territories to Tuktoyaktuk and back
12	Inuvik, Northwest Territories to Engineer Creek, Yukon
13	Engineer Creek, Yukon to Tok, Alaska
14	Tok to Fairbanks
15	Fairbanks to Chena Hot Springs
16	Chena Hot Springs to east end of Denali Highway (Seven Mile Lake)
17	Seven Mile Lake to Valdez
18	Valdez to McCarthy and back to Liberty Falls past Chitina
19	Liberty Falls to Nabesena and back, then to Tok
20	Tok, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon
21	Whitehorse, Yukon to Dease Lake, BC
22	Dease Lake, BC to Stewart, BC
23	Stewart, BC to Co-op Lake (east of Burns Lake), BC
24	Co-op Lake to Jasper (Robson Campground), BC
25	Robson Campground, BC to Kootenay National Park, BC
26	Kootenay National Park, BC to Lewiston, ID
27 - 29	Lewiston ID, Bend OR, Mt. Shasta CA, Sacramento CA

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