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USA Road trip

April - June 2022
A 75-day adventure by Barnaby Read more
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  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 75

    That's a wrap

    June 16, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Final post of the USA and Canada road trip! 😥😥

    Can't believe it was 2.5 months ago that I was getting on a plane to Colorado, expecting to spend 3 months riding down to LA, then up the west coast to Seattle and back across and down to Denver... and here I am now in an airport in Alaska waiting to fly home having gone down as far as San Diego and up as far as the Arctic Circle 😂

    This trip has been nothing short of sublime, tough at times battling the wind, then battling the snow, then the heat of the dessert, then battling the rain... then more snow. But every single day has been incredible and always in a different way from the last. And despite the challenges that I soon discovered with travelling on a bike, I would head straight back off again in a heartbeat if I could... which I might do... we'll see! It's going to be strange to not wake up every morning and ride 350 miles, greeting the exit of every corner with a muffled "fuck me!" in my helmet as the mountains get bigger, or the canyons get deeper, or even just seeing the nothingness become more nothingy... or sometimes just because I'm so cold that everything hurts.

    Skippy will be sorely missed but heads off on a new adventure back down the Alaska highway with his new owner, and this time with his very own Alaska licence plate just to prove how hardcore he is.

    Feeling quite proud of what Skippy and I achieved, WHAT A BLOODY INCREDIBLE ADVENTURE!... 'MURICA! 🇺🇸

    Now I'm off to Mexico to rest my slightly battered feeling body, lying on a beach and drink cocktails for a little before I fly home 🍹⛱️    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 75

    Anchorage

    June 16, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    The final stop.

    Not much to say about anchorage, its alaska's largest city but its pretty dull (the views around it are great!).

    There's some guidance bars and it's one of the few places in alaska where you feel like you're in some kind of normal civilisation, but the crime rate is high, the streets feel a bit run down, homelessness is high. Its not somewhere I feel I'd need to return to.

    The bike shop dies have a great waiting room however and it's where skippy got his super awesome official alaskan number plate! 😁 go Skip!!!! He's achieved so much in the last few months!    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 74

    Whittier

    June 15, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Well this is a weird place...

    A 2 mile ride through a tunnel on a railway track to get to a town with a population of 200. All 200 live in 1 building!

    Every few days a huge cruise ship will show up and flood the town with 7000 tourists. I luckily avoided one of those days!

    The scenery is pretty amazing, and the derelict building used to be the largest in alaska! Back when whittier was primarily used as an army base after ww2.

    Definitely worth the visit.    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 72

    Kenai Fjords National Park and Seward

    June 13, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    I saw Killer Whales!!! I don't think I need to say anymore about this place. They have always been my favourite animal for as long as I can remember and now I've seen them in the wild. I had goosebumps watching them swimming through the water!

    Seward was about 150 miles from anchorage (I think). It was a tiny little place but plenty of hikes (apparently - I didn't do any).

    I jumped straight onto the boat and went out to the Kenai Fjords National Park. I saw Killer Whales (if you didn't already know), humpback whales, sea otters, porpoises, puffins... and other seal type things that I can't remember the name of... I didn't really care as I was watching the Killer whales 😂. We also took the boat right up to the foot of a glacier and watched it calve and crash into the sea, it was nuts! Sounded like thunder but looked so small... because we were so far away.

    The hostel in Seward was a strange little place but great fun, nice people all with interesting stories. Spent the evening chatting with a guy who'd spent 16 days climbing Denali... seemed like a stupid idea to me.

    Before checking out in the morning I took a walk up to the river where you can see the salmon swimming upstream. There was a small shed on the stream where they monitor and record the ages of a sample of the fish going through. They also help the salmon to stay safe while they have the baby salmon (can't remember what that's called either) and then record a sample of the babies swimming back down stream. It was actually pretty interesting.

    Also saw a moose and 2 bald eagles on the walk!    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    1
    Day 69

    Denali Park

    June 10, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After the Arctic Circle ride Kip, Rich and Shad were heading the same way as me down to Denali Park. I didn't have anywhere to stay sorted, was planning on just showing up and finding a camping spot but they already had somewhere booked and let me pitch up with them for the couple of nights I was staying.

    It was great fun, we played lots of cards, drank some beer and ate some great camp cooked food (Rich is a brilliant chef).

    Spending 2 nights there meant I had a day without needing to get on the bike so was able to head out to the park and do a bit of hiking. We stayed pretty close to civilisation as the other guys had another day of hiking the following day and had a big hike planned. But even staying close the views were awesome, we hikes around a lake, saw some pretty cool beaver dams and a few moose!!

    A couple of says of brilliant chilled fun (despite the rain and cold).    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 67

    Arctic Circle

    June 8, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Made it to the Arctic Circle!

    WHAT A JOURNEY!

    2 years ago I didn't have a motorbike licence and now I've just finished riding one from the Mexican/US border (or 15 miles above it to be accurate) to the Arctic Circle. Its all very silly really 😂 It feels like I've reached the last major milestone on the trip... even though it wasn't a milestone at the start. I've bumped into a few people doing the same run up to alaska and they have all told me they've been planning for a couple of years. Not really sure what they were planning though, there's 1 road and you have to use all the petrol stations because there's 150 miles in between them. Perhaps I'm missing something or I'm just stupid haha! Either way they were all very surprised I'd just decided to do it a couple of weeks ago amd even more surprised I was doing it on a 500cc, seemed to get me a lot of respect from everyone else on their big bikes.

    I found a group of 3 guys who had ridden up from San Diego and were unsure about whether to do the ride up the Dalton Highway to the arctic circle... I persuaded them they should so I would have support of anything went wrong on the 150 miles of dirt we had to do. It didn't and we all made it just fine... except we missed the only petrol station (using the word very loosely as you'll see in the pictures) so the Jerry cans became essential to get us out of trouble!

    The ride up was ok temperature wise, some snow but not terrible. We camped up there overnight which was pretty chilly and light... all night... in fact I haven't seen night time in about a week now and it's really messing with my body clock. The ride back down in the morning was freezing! It was actually snowing on us as we rode.

    I'm nearly 11,000 miles into the trip and Skippy hasn't let me down once, what a fantastic little bike 😁    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 66

    Alaska ride day5: Haines Jct - Fairbanks

    June 7, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Another 500 mike day but we've made it to Alaska!!! Crazy times 😂
    The roads were terrible, they get torn apart through the winter by ice surges under the tarmac so you get huge drops and bumps in the road.

    Got drenched all morning by the rain but it cleared up this afternoon. By the time I got to Fairbanks it was a lovely 24 and sunny!

    Stopped at North Pole on the way, enjoyed a little Christmas before heading to my hostel in Fairbanks and who would be there... but the 3 guys I've been bumping into at every petrol station, lunch spot, breakfast spot the whole way up. Got dinner with them and settled in for an early night... except that's not possible because its 10.30pm and looks like its still 2pm outside.    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 65

    Alaska ride day4. Watson lk - haines jct

    June 6, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Didn't cover as many miles today as I'd hoped but enjoyed the company of Al and Jim for another day amd should still get to fairbanks tomorrow with an earlyish start.

    Probably only did about 380 miles today but saw some great scenery and stopped for an hour at signpost forest. I have also encountered the famous Yukon mosquitos... there are billions and billions of them. The second I stop my bike they swarm around me, climbing into my helmet, up my sleeves, down my jacket. And they're huge, a couple of times I've found myself wondering whats dripping down the back of my head only to realise its my blood from where a big mossie has got me!

    Had a great time in the middle of the day, waiting for the pilot car to take us past the road works we collected about 20 other bikers, all at the front of the queue. So once we were allowed to go we had a huge group of bikers all riding together through the gravel, so much fun!! I'm getting a huge amount of appreciation for skippy, everyone else is on big adventure bikes, Africa Twins or BMW GS's. One group even came up to me and said "huge respect for you doing this ride on a little 500 duuuuuddeee... thats awesome"... I felt like a proud dad next to skippy 😂

    Ride with Jim and Al all the way to their sisters and then used her Internet and phone to find accomodation for tonight. Didn't use it though as it looked like a dump and the place up the road was $20 more but actually looked good, so I voted for that one.    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 64

    Alaska ride day 3: Pink mtn- watson lake

    June 5, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    This road is incredible, it has taken the top spot on my all time favourite roads list (not a real list, but if it was this would be top).

    The road itself is pretty uninteresting but the experience of riding it is insane. A combination of the views, the vastness of the country, the wildlife, and even just the loneliness makes it such a mind blowing experience. Where else can you find a road that takes 5 days to drive, where you have no phone signal (everrrrrr!!!!), you set off in the morning tackling 100 miles at a time, nor knowing where the next fuel stop is or where you'll sleep that night. Its terrifying and exciting all at the same time.

    The views today were extraordinary. Heavy rain this morning eventually cleared to reveal a backdrop of the northern rockies, lakes a bright blue from the minerals (sulphur??) And so much wildlife!!! I do however have a new rule for bears. No more stopping to take photos of them, much safer to just keep riding past! I've been warned they can be pretty unpredictable out here so best not to chance it by shoving a camera in their face! They're also mich bigger in northern bc than southern!

    On the one hand I don't want this road to ever end, on the other hand I'm looking forward to the comfort of civilisation... in the meantime I guess I've still got 3 long days of riding before I get to another proper town or city!

    460 miles done today. Sunset was 11.15pm... thats just getting silly.    Read more

  • TravelerUSA Road trip
    Day 63

    Alaska ride day 2: Edmonton to Pink Mtn

    June 4, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Holy shit is this country big. Once you hit the Alcan Highway the traffic dissapears and you quickly find yourself on your own surrounded by trees and straight road.

    Occasionally the road lifts and you get a glimps over the trees only to realise that it's just more trees for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Pretty much everything above Dawson Creek is just untouched forest.

    Rode 503 miles today and found some riding buddies who are going to whitehorse so we're riding together and staying in the same hotels etc. Nice to not be alone out here! It's a pretty lonely place!

    Accomodation for tonight is in Pink mountain. Its basic but they have a restaurant serving a few home cooked meals - you dont get the luxury of looking around other restaurants out here!. (WiFi was down so I'm actually writing this the day after). Room was $125.    Read more

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