| Author | Message | ||
     Hughesatron |
Hey everyone, I got back from my trip last week, so I thought I'd share some photos, stories, and hopefully encourage some of you to go on a trip like this sometime. The entire trip took 16 days with 3 1/2 days spent in Alaska. We would have liked spending more time there, but this trip was more about the journey, less about the destination. Also, my friend Shawn only had 2 weeks of vacation, so we had to cram it in. The entire trip was about 7,600 miles. It took us 6 days to get to Alaska from Denver. The roads were in great condition for most of the route. The section between Whitehorse, British Columbia and Anchorage, AK had a lot of gravel construction areas. The Cassiar highway on the way back had about 80 miles of dirt/gravel. All-in-all, we probably rode through about 300 miles of dirt/gravel. It was nice to have dirt-oriented street tires, but it wasn't necessary. We saw and met a lot of fellow motorcyclists on the Alaska-Canadian highway. About 80% of all motorcyclists were on BMW GSs, maybe 10% on V-Stroms, 5% on KLRs, and the rest were mixed. I only saw one Buell the whole time. We ended up riding 11-13 hours or 500-700 miles each day. We camped most of the time when not staying with friends in Washington and Alaska. We didn't feel rushed at all throughout the trip, because the farther north we went, the more road construction exists, but also the more daylight we had and thus longer we felt like riding. In Alaska, it got "less bright" around 2:00 AM, and then "more bright" around 2:30AM. I could read a book in my tent at midnight without a headlamp. Anyway, enough rambling. Here's some pics.  | ||
| Hughesatron |
My '06 Uly with 30k at the start of the trip and Shawn's Vstrom 1000.  Camping in Yellowstone.  Outside of Glacier National Park.  Near the Grand Tetons.  We ran out of gas 5 times on our trip. Each time we had enough in our 2 gal spare cans, so no big deal, but this was a fairly common occurance.  | ||
| Hughesatron |
We saw lots of wildlife in British Columbia and the Yukon. Here moosie moosie.  Once you get past Whitehorse, you don't get much of a choice for gas. It's either Unleaded, or Diesel. There is no mid, low, high grade. Here's a typical "gas station".  The Uly got dirty from all the construction areas.  Typical road construction.  This gas station actually had premium grade gas!  | ||
| Etennuly |
That is just awesome, great to see your map.....uh.....need more pictures! | ||
| Hughesatron |
We both ended up doing this a lot. Pretty much every gas stop. Unless you've got a Goldwing or a windscreen that you are staring through, you'll get a ton of bugs and crap on your helmet shield.  Shawn smacked this little bird with his windscreen in the Yukon. died on impact.  Icefield Parkway in Alberta. This section of the drive was beautiful.  Icefield Parkway.  Bears on the side of the road in the Yukon. We saw about 10 bears within 30 miles during one stretch.  | ||
| Hughesatron |
We came up on a group of motorcycles who were slowing down. Shawn passed, but I stayed behind briefly because I wanted to see what happens. They stopped about 20 feet from a big black bear on the other side of the road. The closest rider turned off his engine to take a photo and the bear started walking over to him. It took him a moment or two to get the bike started. He revved his engine when the bear was a few feet from him and the bear was startled and ran off. It was pretty rediculous.  Here's the obligatory photo at the sign.  Pretty awesome glacier near the road on the road between Tok and Anchorage.  Took this around 10:30pm near Anchorage.  Met some Chileans who drove from Chile to the Yukon. They had their windshield smashed by debree from a construction vehicle and decided to replace it with glass from a glass table (like in a dining room). Although temporary, it looks super dangerous. I'm not sure they made it through the border to AK or not.  | ||
| Hughesatron |
My 77 connector melted at about 34k miles. We ended up just hardwiring the connection together with electrical tape, but the battery was dead, so we had to wait about 20 minutes for a vehicle that had jumper cables. This happened in alaska about 50 miles from the border.  it looked like we were having a yard sale while waiting for a vehicle with jumper cables.  We took a flightseeing tour of Denali national park from Talkeetna. It was totally worth it. We were just warming up here.  Mt.Mckinley / Denali from the air.  Pretty sweet glaciers and mountains.  | ||
| Hughesatron |
pics from the flight     This was taken southeast of Anchorage. It's at a famous couple glaciers, but I can't remember the name now.  | ||
| Hughesatron |
I started off with a brand new set of Pireli Scorpion Trail tires. The front still looks awesome, but the rear was past the wear bars when we got to Washington, so I had to replace it. They had some deal going, so I got a front also.  We ran into some trouble with the law for speeding on the way back.  | ||
| Hughesatron |
that's pretty much it. I highly recommend you do this trip if you are considering it. The mosquitos weren't nearly as bad as I heard they would be. The roads were actually quite good, and adventure memories will last me a while. Time to plan the next one! | ||
| Ultimigo |
Wow! Looks like a great trip! My buddy on his 2010 Multistrada and me on my 08 Uly were going over Weston Pass yesterday and started talking about planning an Alaska trip and here you have it all mapped out from Denver. Perfect! Will have to ping you for more pointers as we get further down the road :-) Thanks for sharing! ultimigo | ||
| Road_kill |
Great pics. Thanks for sharing. I took my '85 HD Super Glide from Phoenix to Fairbanks and back in August '89. Absolutely motorcycle heaven. I bought my Uly with a return trip to Alaska in mind. Your pictures remind me I need to start planning ... | ||
| Hooper |
"Here moosie moosie"  Inspiring! Thanks for posting! (and how awesome your side stand didn't break  ) | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Thanks for the travelogue. Someday...hopefully. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near that bear though.  | ||
| Eulysses |
Young butts. Ahh...those were the days. I love AK...you can smell the adventure in the air. Thanks for sharing your story...gets the juices flowing. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
What a fun adventure! AK is on our bucket list and the Uly seems like a great bike for that journey. I'm with Electraglider on the bear thing though...yikes! | ||
| Charlie_zulu |
My Uly is @ the 30k mark also, I'm leaving for the Arctic circle and perhaps the Dusk to Dawson ride first week of June next year. Good Pictures | ||
| Discochris |
Thanks for the pics and write up. The best motorcycle trip I've ever been on (pre-Uly) was a trip to Hyder, AK for the Hyderseek gathering in 2005. The ride up the Icefields Parkway is something every motorcyclist should experience. | ||
| Sekalilgai |
sweet! thanks for sharing...certainly on my bucket list  | ||
| Dynasport |
Thanks for sharing. I dream about a trip from Florida to Deadhorse one day.... Right now I am planning a much less adventurous trip from Florida to California and back for next year. Stories like this make me want to leave tomorrow. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Fantastic! I'd love to do that ride someday. | ||
| No_rice |
thats cool. someday i sure would like to do something like that. | ||
| Ghostrider |
That looks like a lot of fun. I'm going to have to do that one! | ||
| Windrider |
Great Post, thanks for sharing the pics and the story. The Uly is a great mount for a trip like this. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Hey Hughesatron Any thoughts on your gear - what you liked and disliked and what worked or didn't work? Great pictures - thanks for posting. ... | ||
| Hughlysses |
Awesome report! Important safety tip for other Uly owners- do NOT attempt to ride to Alaska and back with the original factory 77 connector. | ||
| Windrider |
Hughlysses, I think that the most important thing to do for a trip like this is take along a good attitude like Hughesatron. Sure it is better to have that 77 connector bypassed but it did not end the trip and only added a little adventure to the ride. Any bike can have some troubles on a 15 day 8K mile trip. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Good point Windrider. | ||
| Nose2wind |
Is this 77 connector a problem waiting to happen on the newer 09+ or just the 06? | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
They changed it in 2008 I think. |
