Traveling to Alaska from Idaho to Alaska on motorcycle

[gzecc]

My son and two friends are going to alaska via the alcan highway. Can anyone describe this trip? Road conditions, cell service, rest stops, towns?

 

[sportbikerider78]

Yout need to check out the adventure rider forums. http://advrider.com/forums/

There are MANY that have done this and many leave very detailed trip reports.

I'm insanely jealous and imagine me doing crazy stuff like this once my son is riding age.

Prepare prepare prepare....but also pack as light as you can.

 

[Knots]

I've driven from CT to Alaska in a pickup. My brother and I rode the Trans-Labrador Highway on motorcycles.

I think the most important tip is to never be in a hurry. Most of the crashes I read about on the Trans-Lab were from people trying to make time...

 

[1kzwoman]

Drove a 4 cyl truck up. Loved it. Prepare everything you ask about is there but very limited at very long distances at premium costs.
Dawson,Grand prairie are good re supply points, white horse is not.
Destruction Bay has earned it's name.
Roads are frost heaved and narrow with vehicles of all sizes traveling.
I'm jealous of your mc trip

 

[Knots]

We stopped in BC at this lake because we needed a dip:



I nearly had central nervous system shut-down due to the water temp. Little did we know that just up the road was the hot springs. Worth a stop:

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/liard_rv_hs/

 

[Knots]

The pipeline haul road north of Fairbanks was hairy. Lotsa washboard and the 18-wheelers travel at high speeds and spit gravel at you.

We met a guy from Japan up there on a 250. He didn't look like he was having fun.

Great scenery in the Brooks Range.

 

[HeatsTwice]

I hich hiked from Santa Barbara to Homer via the Alcan Highway in 1983 almost 5000 miles. All of the above posts are true. I will add the following:

1) Bring a lot of 100% DEET.
2) Bring a mosquito proof tent otherwise you will never be able to sleep while camping out.
3) Canada does not allow hand guns. Do not bring one. If caught you will go to jail.
4) A semi-automatic shot gun with slugs is the only way to ward off Grizzly and Big Brown bear. Pepper spray works too - if you are not hungry.
5) Keep your food away from where you camp. This way you will hear the bears before they enter your tent.
6) Towns are usually 200 miles apart in the Yukon, British Columbia, and Alaska. But fire truck drive between these towns nightly looking for road wrecks. If you run out of gas, sometimes they will help you out.
7) Getting picked up as a hitch hiker is easy in BC, Yukon, Alaska. Its part of the culture to pick them up. But you may find that you are being picked up in order to drive a guy who is too drunk to drive or has smoked too much hooch. Don't carry the shot gun.
8) Always pass a moose on its hind side. They can't walk backwards but weight 1200lb and will crush you if you pass in front and they run into your way.
8) Stay away from Moose if it has young. The neck and its horns can flip a Chevy - or toss you to your death. Its easy to be taken by surprise stumbling across them in closed small fields where you may have surprised them as well.
9) The distances are emence. Do not be in a hurry "to get there" after the 5th day. If you do you will run over a porcupine and it will flatten your tires. You can eat porkupine when in the Yukon because they don't have trichinosis. Just gut them, burn off all of the quills on a fire then roast em. Taste like pork.... go figure.
9) If you are up there durring the 4th of July, get invited to a local pot-luck. They usually serve local delicacies (elk, moose, king crab, clams, bear, and.... beaver). Some of the best beaver I've ever eaten was Alaskan .
10) If you smell garbage its probably a bear close to you (they live off trash heaps) and get the hell outa there.
10) If a herd of elk or herbivore of some kind run quickly past you without regard, you should run too - wolfs or some other predators have caused them to run.
11) Bring a fishing pole and get a license.
12) The low tides on the Alaskan shore will reveal thousands of mussles, cockels, and clams of all sorts. Good eats if you are hungry. Check for red tide warnings before you eat them. Thats how 1/3 of Captain Cook's crew died.
12) Fresh road kill is edible - if you see it being killed. Tarmagan are a wild grouse which are always flying out in front of the rarely passing vehicle. Again, good eats.
13) Alaskan woman are ALWAYs on the hunt. Beware they are good at it.
14) There and back will be a grind - especially on a motorcycle. But people walked the distance during the Klondike gold rush.
15) In Alaska out back you are food.
16) If you see a dust cloud 20 miles away, beware, it will usually be a driver hauling at over 100 mph who "is" in a hurry. When he passes you he may be in the middle of the road and not see you.
17) Try not to kill your travel buddy's after the first 8 days. Just put some distance between you and them and agree to meet up someplace after 500 miles. They will number in the few of your assets.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

Sounds like a blast. Been cross country and back twice on my bike.
All good points made above.
#17 above is especially true.

 

[bag of hammers]

I wanna go

No matter how much a trip like that beats you up, it also beats the hell out of the alternative - the regrets from not going. Hope they have a blast....

 

[HeatsTwice]

I wanna go

No matter how much a trip like that beats you up, it also beats the hell out of the alternative - the regrets from not going. Hope they have a blast....

Yes, I faced many very crappy situations in the three months I spent on that trip (digging graves in order to eat, witnessing horrific traffic accidents, feeling the rejection which comes from being perceived as a transient, miles from anyone I knew, many days spent cold, wet, hungry, mosquito clouds following me everywhere I went, accidentally surprising moose and having to run for my life.).

But the good memories I had (like being comically urged by some residence of Homer to run for Mayor, meeting some very unusual people, seeing sites that most people only see in books or on National Geographic shows, and knowing what it is like to be really hungry) make me glad I did it. Especially because, since then, I've spent the past 32 years in corporate office cubicles, meeting rooms, and on manufacturing test floor. I have gotten married, had kids, own houses, and been shackled by the lead weights of affluenza which now make it impossible to go back and do it again.

The stories alone that I've been able tell to people who think I am crazy for doing it made it worth it too.

 

[DAKSY]

I too, am jealous. I will make an Alaska ride one day. It's DEFINITELY on my "bike-it" list. For this year, I'll hafta settle for 22 states in 16 days, NY to Sturgis. Then to Yellowstone via Beartooth. Then thru SLC to the Grand Canyon. Then to the 4 corners...Santa Fe. KC. St Louis. Nashville. Tail of the Dragon & The Cherohala Skyway & up to Arlington to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender. Then back to NY.

 

[bag of hammers]

I too, am jealous. I will make an Alaska ride one day. It's DEFINITELY on my "bike-it" list. For this year, I'll hafta settle for 22 states in 16 days, NY to Sturgis. Then to Yellowstone via Beartooth. Then thru SLC to the Grand Canyon. Then to the 4 corners...Santa Fe. KC. St Louis. Nashville. Tail of the Dragon & The Cherohala Skyway & up to Arlington to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender. Then back to NY.

That's a pretty good runner up Hope you have a safe journey.

 

[firefighterjake]

Just don't go too far north of Anchorage . . . my sister wrote me last night to say right now the whole town of Wasilla is on edge with a huge wildfire up there and as of last night they were just waiting to hear if and when they would get the order to evacuate.

 

[HeatsTwice]

Yea the fires up there get so big its useless to try to fight them - except to protect structures. I remember travelling for 100 miles through a burned out forest in the Yukon.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

I have some friends of friends dog mushers up there, something like 2500 dogs in that area being cleared out, sounds like a lot of property damage, came up quick on them.

 

[sportbikerider78]

I too, am jealous. I will make an Alaska ride one day. It's DEFINITELY on my "bike-it" list. For this year, I'll hafta settle for 22 states in 16 days, NY to Sturgis. Then to Yellowstone via Beartooth. Then thru SLC to the Grand Canyon. Then to the 4 corners...Santa Fe. KC. St Louis. Nashville. Tail of the Dragon & The Cherohala Skyway & up to Arlington to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender. Then back to NY.

The dragon is only a 2 day ride from NY. I have been there more times then I can count. That area is not a destination, it is the ride around the area that is the most rewarding. The dragon is cool, but over hyped. The surrounding areas are just amazing. Plan to ride there for a week and never get sick of it. Don't forget to take the Blue Ridge Parkway down, that is also amazing. I have ridden it at least 6 times and it never grows old.

 

[sportbikerider78]

I hich hiked from Santa Barbara to Homer via the Alcan Highway in 1983 almost 5000 miles. All of the above posts are true. I will add the following:

3) Canada does not allow hand guns. Do not bring one. If caught you will go to jail.

If you are a legal permit holder in another state, Alaska has recriprosity with almost every state. You could box up the gun, ship it to an FFL in Alaska, and pick it up when you come through.

You're right on the Canada portion, of course.

 

[gzecc]

Son just finished their trip. 3 guys drove on VStroms from NJ to SC to Yellowstone to Palmer AK down CA west coast to Vegas to CO back to SC. 14,000 miles in 32 days.
Weather was in their favor. They had a great time. I'm glad its done.

 

[Knots]

Jealous. I was riding to NH to meet a buddy at bike week and I felt like chucking it all and continuing west.

Glad they kept the shiny side up.