After reading just about every travel guide available, paying attention to ideas from the various lists, forums, and a year of anticipation, it's finally time. I've made coast to coast and border to border rides before but this will dwarf them by comparison. Realizing that this doesn't hold a candle to anything related to the IBR, it still is a major trip for me and the longest vacation I've had in over 30 years. On Sunday I will embark on my FJR and head north via as many scenic roads as I can muster. The ride is far more important than the destination but I wanted to pick a destination that offered the prospect for an excellent ride. Artic Circle in Alaska, here I come!
The route calculates out to be about 9,000+ miles depending on any diversions I come across along the way. Unless the weather is perfect and the roads in exceptionally good condition, I just as soon not destroy the FJR on the 300 miles each way on the Haul Road north of the Artic Circle to Deadhorse and I may chicken out on the 160 miles of gravel roads from Tok, AK to Dawson in the Yukon.
It's still a little early in the year but I have to be in Calgary for a couple of days next week and it didn't make sense to delay the trip on North and make two trips to Canada so close together. I'll be traveling alone and will maintain a lot of flexibility in the actual route and in the timing. Although I plan on staying in motels about half of the time, I will be camping out the rest of the time.
Not to pimp it too much but I will have a Star-Traxx unit with me setup to send my position into the system where my family and friends can see where I am at. More importantly, I have an "Emergency Push Button" mounted on the bike in case I get into trouble. If I push the button, a special message is sent to the cell phone of my wife with the time and position that I sent it.
She also has the ability to log on and send me a "page" which will cause a LED on my dash to start blinking. This is a signal that I need to call home as soon as possible. Besides this trip will be a good test of the ability for the satellite to work in very remote locations where cell phones and the like would fail.
If anybody is interested, you can monitor my progress by going to the
Link: http://www.Star-Traxx.com/customers/...6EB147DD637CED
Or you are welcome to logon to the site at http://www.Star-Traxx.com with the user name of "Alaska" and a password of "trip" (all lower case).
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. Good Luck and be safe! I'll have to check your progress. Bring back lots of pics.
I see you're up just west of Calgary. Watch out for them mooses!! 
Originally Posted by kingnothing
