Texas to Alaska RT via the Rocky Mountains

[sahtt]

I am planning a trip through Europe I will begin in May of this year. Since I have used this forum for preperation (I am also on advrider) and it has helped me immensely, I thought I would contribute with some photos and wisdom from my first adventure. Hopefully it will help others and perhaps even inspire someone else to do the same.

If someone wants detailed route information, please ask. My route was simple - Austin to Fairbanks only riding the Rocky Mountains, then to Achorage, back down the Yukon and on to San Francisco. Lastly, we headed across through the deserts to New Mexico before reaching home.

We left on August 1st and gave ourselves 1 month. We arrived at 8am in Austin exactly 1 month later.

2 riders, a friend on a 05 Ninja 500r, and me on a 07 zx14, both stock with no touring modifications. My priority is enjoying the roads as much as possible first, reliability second, several other things after that, and comfort ranks somewhere near the bottom.

August 1st proved to be a worthy start to our trip. My tent fell off about 2 miles from my home and dragged on the pavement for a good minute before I noticed. I was able to salvage it and ended up having it replaced, for free, at the REI in anchorage. We made it from Austin to a lake in New Mexico to camp the first night, about 600 miles. We unexpectedly had to ride about a mile on a terrible gravel road to reach the campsite and got lost several times in the process. Gravel on a zx14 is not easy, but it proved good training for what lay ahead.




We camped most nights and only stayed in a couple hotels. That particular night some kids were driving their truck around (probably drunk) up and down the shore of the lake all night. I figured there was a decent chance they would either run our bikes or tents over but went to sleep anyways.

We continued through New Mexico towards Colorado. No GPS, just a few maps and my internal ability to know which was North was.

[sahtt]

Growing up, I used to frequent the town of Telluride, CO often. The mountains in this area are truly staggering but significantly off the beaten path. I noticed my friend picked up a nail in his rear while visiting a friend of my father's who lives in Telluride.
My friend contemplating our predicament:

Nearby areas including Silverton and Durango.


This was randomly on the side of the road and I had to get a picture.


I got on the phone to try to find a replacement tire for my friend. The rear tire size on the 500r is very unusual. A tire shop in northwest Colorado said they had a tire that would work. A gang of much more rugged than we were dirt bikers saw us at a gas station trying to figure out the tire repair kit. Were were 4+ hours from anywhere and didn't want to accidently destroy the tire. The crew of dirt bikers came over and did it for us with ease. We were humble enough to take the assistance with great gratitude. My friend bravely rode on the plugged tire for several hundred miles through desolate western CO.

After a couple hundred mile detour, we found the motorcycle shop near Grand Junction. After speaking to them on the phone while in Telluride and telling them about our bold plans, they offered to stay open late to help us. They told us stories of other riders heading towards alaska, mostly of their failure. A suzuki DL rider from Texas was there about a week ago with a bad rear wheel bearing. The issue couldn't be fixed quickly and he had to cancel the trip.

We thanked them greatly, stocked up on supplies, and headed north. We met a harley rider and his wife who had traveled a very long ways with their road king, trailer and all. The next morning I realized my friend's tire was deteriorating rapidly. Something was wrong. We were now hundreds of miles from the tire shop and in the middle of no where; but we had no choice given the rarity of the rear tire size and the fact we had just paid good money for this defective unit.

We headed back to the shop and were eventually forced to put the plugged flat tire back on the bike.I found a shop in Salt Lake City that said they had a good rear tire. My friend did not like the idea of riding that far on a plugged tire, but we carried on. The shop in SLC was tremendously helpful. We camped in Copper Canyon that night and woke up to find a bull moose standing next to our tents (about 10 feet from me). I had a ten second staring contest with him before he ran into the woods.

It would not be the last moose we saw on our trip north.
The campsite:


Some roads we traveled.


Stopping to rest for a minute, my friend dropped his bike in the gravel shown below. The bike wouldn't start and we had to drain the fuel from the carbs. We almost gave up, but finally it started.

[sahtt]

After Utah we went through Idaho and onto Wyoming. Wyoming is true cowboy country and has some of the most beautiful terrain and tarmac in North America. Bear Tooth Pass and the Chief Joseph Highway are two of the best. My father has a friend that owns many acres in Wyoming. His guest cabin is one of a kind.







Neither of had been to Yellowstone.


We explored a bit..



Cabin:


The road going west of out of Yellowstone towards Cody, WY etc. is exceptional. Huge sweepers going through canyons that never seem to end.

[sahtt]

Glacier National Park is also an incredible place. I would rank it #2 in the U.S. only to Yosemiti. Banf and Jasper are also below. These places are not possible to describe in words or through simple photographs, but I will try-
Somewhere in WY or MO we ran into the most violent storm we would encounter on our trip. A tornado like cloud criss crossed across the sky horizontally. Winds were 40-60mph and it was hailing heavily. At one point we pulled over and used our bikes as shelter from the hail. I still remember being unable to put my kick stand down due to the wind; in the short amount of time it takes to lift your foot off and extend the stand the bike would be blown over. I had to get off the bike first then put the kick stand down. We finally found shelter 10 minutes down the road.

Note the hail accumulated near the front of my friend's bike:








Many bears on our trip, this was the first; found on the far end of glacier national park. We camped all over bear territory and often cooked near our tents. It is a risk you have to take occasionally on a trip like this as you travel through Alaska and the Yukon territory.

[sahtt]

Between Glacier and Banf I purchased new gloves at a great shop in Calgary. I think it was called Redline. By now my friend and I developed a liking for Tim Horton's. We camped and cooked our own food most of the time, often resorting to beef stew when far from civilization. Once you head north from the Jasper area the population density drops sharply. Soon we were on the Alaskan Highway heading towards Alaska.

The Alaskan Highway.

Not as bad as legend makes it out to be, but it has a few rough spots. Especially if you are on a fully laden zx14.

The photos of Destruction Bay, AK were actually taken when heading south. It was pouring down rain on our way up; I didn't even know what the lake looked like until going back down.


We have gone about 4,000 miles in 8-9 days. The motorbike is beginning to show it.



Heading out to party, more to come..

[sahtt]

We continued north and finally reached Alaska.



Standard pickup truck's load in rural Alaska..


We stayed in rainy/muddy Fairbanks for a few days with friends (in tents in their backyard but we'll let that slide...). They showed us a good time. Heading towards anchorage we stopped by my friend's family friend's cabin. They convinced us to stay over night and we had moose meat balls and spaghetti for dinner. They run a reindeer farm..



We stopped by Denali but it was of course cloudy, foggy, and rainy. My friend lost it on the outskirts of the park at about 30mph and went into some peat moss. Fortunately he and the bike were okay, both a little bent but still functioning. The 500r officially earned the name 'the tank' and my friend officially started heeding my warning when I told him he was going too fast in the wet.

The areas between fairbanks/anchoage/tok are incredible (the triangle that forms the only real tarmac in the state hits all 3) and the roads are in good condition as well; many times better than the Alaskan highway.