Hello!

About me:

My name is John and I'm from Toronto Canada, I'm planning on a trip from Toronto to Vancouver and then from there will be making a the long trek to Alaska. I will be travelling through the Canadian side to Vancouver, even though it's a longer path. I have friends and family who live in Manitoba and I have friends who live in Alberta. I'm planning on making a detour route down to Seattle from Vancouver because I have some online friends that I wanted to visit while I was out in the west end.

Whether you choose to come with me from Toronto, or meet up with me along the way it doesn't matter to me. Company is company and especially during a long ride it'll be the most helpful experience to have someone by your side when times are rough.

Why I'm going:

As of writing this message I have yet to travel alone outside of North America. I'm planning my first solo trip to Europe backpacking around in January 2015. This is going to be my first adventure alone and it's a scary experience for me. However right now it's one of my goals in my life. Depending on how my experience goes in Europe I had plans on doing a motorcycle adventure. I wasn't exactly sure at first, but I knew it was something I was interested in doing. As I continue to think about the trip I'm falling in love with the idea and I want to do it. I want to do it for myself, and another reason is because I want to do it for someone I fell in love with. This is going to be a huge experience and anyone willing to share the experience is welcome. Not only am I interested in visiting all of the different scenary along the way, but I want to go see the Northern Lights. I also want to reach the end of the world, if that's even possible by bike.

When is the trip?:

The trip isn't going to be for awhile, there's still a lot of things that I need to do to prepare myself. I'm thinking the earliest I will do the trip is leaving Toronto in August 2015. If I don't plan on doing at that time, then I plan on possibly pushing the dates even further back till 2016. There's still a lot of preparation I need to do, financially, mentally, and emotionally (who cares about physically!) I'm not in any rush to go, but I know that right now it's one of my goals that I want to achieve and it's a 1 in a million opportunity for me.

Experience:

This is something I need to be honest and open about. As I mentioned as of writing this I have zero experience travelling alone, but you know what? I'm okay with that, because I have confidence in my ability to stay alive. The really important thing I need to mention though is my motorbike experience, I have none. I have zero knowledge of cars or motorcycles, but that's not to say that I'm going to do this trip blindly. Since it's a goal of mine to go to Alaska, I'm going to put 150% effort into learning and researching everything that I need to do and learn for me to prepare myself for this trip. This is why I said that earliest is "August" because I may not even be ready by then. However I know Summer time would be the most beneficial time to travel through Canada as the roads will be better (I hope?) Definitely having a researching partner for this trip would be perfect because two heads are better than one. Someone who is experienced with motorbikes and can offer suggestions and maintenance tips would be great too. But even if you have no experience like myself, it's a learning experience for the both of us to learn everything and anything that we can.

Please feel free to private message me or post here if this is something you'd be interested in planning out with me. If you have any tips or suggestions please feel free to let me know too! I accept all and every form of tips or suggestions for my trip and a little note as to why it would be a good tip would be awesome too.

Thanks!

John

Hi John,
Well done! on putting your dream out there!
Before leaving for my solo ride from Seattle to Alaska in 2013 i was told by a local who lives near Fairbanks, the best time to see Alaska by motorcycle is from Summer Solstice (June21) to end of July = 6 week window. Depending on the weather, you may be lucky and get more sunny days either side to really see Alaska's big horizons, or you'll get rain. And then again, everyone will tell you something different....as we know, motorcycles can be ridden in all types of weather and terrain, so i think it depends on what you want and what you are prepared to put up with!

In my experience, you'll mostly travel alone if you want to ... there'll be lots of different types of bikes on the road that time of year in the land of the great north.

I'd also recommend getting yourself to as many HU Meetings as you can as each is a little different - the one in Nakusp may be a useful goal.

Your trip outline sounds wonderful.... hope you enjoy your preparations & Keep safe!

Hey Aussievange!

Thanks for your reply!

It's funny I'm looking forward to this trip a lot more than my trip to Europe in January. I'm looking into motorbikes to get for this sort of travel. My budget isn't going to be crazy as I'll be coming back from Europe with a tiny bit of savings left over.

I'm going to need to spend at least $4000 in laser eye surgery as well for my trip. So that's going to cut my budget by a lot. Does anyone have any recommendations on bikes that are durable and good for a trip of this magnitude?

I'm looking for any suggestions as any help is better than no help with no experience under my belt.

Also I have had friends who have travelled up to the Yukon and Alaska and survival skills are a necessity. I guess a solution is to go overnight camping somewhere.

I went on a $2,500 '01 KLK. Just got back from Guatamala on a $3,000 '07 KLR. Not the only bike for the job but it works. You don't need survival skill, just some camping experience. Weather can be brutal even in the summer. I saw, sunshine, rain, sleet, hail and snow all in the same day. Motels are crappy and expensive so camping pays off. Spend some money on good gear like a light tent, sleeping bag and pad. It will pay for itself in a week. Look on ebay for good high end gear cheap.

Hi John.

I am shipping one of my motorcycles to Halifax or Vancouver from the UK in April 2016 and propose to travel in Canada, Alaska, USA and possibly South America if time permits. I hope to be away from UK for about 12 months as I will have retired by then.

Propose camping and motels but I also have a number of friends in Canada and USa where I can find a bed for a few days.

If you are in London on your 'Europe trip' let me know and we could meet up.

Graeme

I live in the Vancouver area. The best time to go north is June July early Aug. It's starting to get cold in Sept. 90% of the roads are paved, it's getting so you have to go out of your way to find gravel. A good sleeping bag & plenty of bug repellent is mandatory. When you pass through Vancouver area if you need any help with anything give me a shout. richard.sullivan85@yahoo.com

I note the comment by Aussievange that a great idea would be to get to the Nakusp HU Meeting August 20-25, but a better idea would be to first hit the Ontario Meeting - it's only an hour from Toronto, and June 18-21, so you'll learn a lot BEFORE you head off

See you there!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
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