The final push to Prudhoe Bay was an exhilarating experience. The road from Coldfoot to Atigan Pass was the classic mucky conditions we had prepared for. Rain, muck, potholes and greasy gravel. We were now facing it first hand. This section was the most treacherous of our trip. 70+ miles of nastiness. As we ascended Atigan Pass, the entire Brooks Range was surrounded in clouds. We knew they were all around us, but we couldn’t see them. We felt their presence as we continued our climb. The pass was intense and the road conditions were challenging. Spots of snow were on the shoulder as the temperature dropped. We had passed the Arctic Circle earlier today under significant wind, rain and cold. Freezing our asses off. Atigan Pass brought the element of elevation into the equation.

We all successfully reached the summit without any snafu’s. As we descended the other side of the pass, the entire north slope opened up before us. A vast, vast stretch of flat tundra and nothingness. As far as the eye could see. And with the sun staying aloft for most of the day at this latitude, the light cast an eery sensation. It was close to midnight, but felt more like early dusk. The road improved and the horizon line became our new focus. The ribbon of road we were on paralleled the Alaska pipeline for most of this stretch. As we crested each rise, the road would extend for another 15-20 miles. As far as the eye could see. A thin line of gravel road was etched across the Arctic tundra as we ran on adrenaline and petrol. 150 miles from Atigan Pass to Prudhoe Bay were all that was left.

The conditions on this part of the Haul Road can best be described as riding on 3 inches of marbles. In order to stay on top of the rock, you must maintain a healthy speed. On a few occasions, small paved sections of tarmac would suddenly appear. A nice respite from the jarring “edge-of-your-seat” riding we had experienced for the most of the day. But as soon as you would relax with pavement below your bike, the real road would reappear and awaken all of your senses.

The final 30 miles to Prudhoe Bay were probably the most surreal experience of our lives. The sky was a murky blueish haze. At times, one would look in your review mirror and see the flickering lights of a line of BMW 1200 GS’s buzzing across the tundra at speed of 70mph. It was a remarkable sight. A quick glance to the right and you would see a herd of musk ox. To the left an arctic fox. Ahead on the horizon were the dim lights of the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay. Like a distance oasis or mirage in the desert. As the lights of Prudhoe Bay drew closer, the adrenaline turned into hurried anticipation. We were so close you could taste it. We all stopped on the road 30 miles outside of Prudhoe Bay to collect our senses and to look each other in the eye. Was this really happening? Can you believe what we are experiencing? This is totally insane and the most incredible feeling you could imagine. When the moment of completing our final push to Prudhoe Bay arrived we were all numb. It was 2:30AM and we were cold, exhausted and elated. Dazed and confused, our collective senses directed us to the nearest accommodations to celebrate and crash. We checked into an industrial hotel in Deadhorse and dove into bed. 474 miles in 14 hours. It was a long way up the Haul Road. But we did it. An accomplishment that ranks at the top of our life long achievements. Each of us thought of our family, friends and business associates at that very moment. Wishing we could share an experience that cannot be shared. Words and pictures cannot exemplify the distinct feelings we experienced. 18 months of planning and countless phone calls, emails, as well as untold financial and human capital, all came to a climactic conclusion. CDA2PDB had finally arrived. We were at the top of the world in more ways than one.

This Friday would become one of the most monumental experiences of our lives. We all had goose bumps and nervous anticipation as we started our day. It was to be a very long day. Filled with epic moments, extremely challenging conditions and miles upon miles of The James Dalton Highway (Haul Road) greeting us with open arms every step of the way. Come and get it.

To ride the Haul Road is one of motorcycle ridings greatest achievements. The Haul Road begins north of Fairbanks and extends to Prudhoe Bay which sits on the edge of the Arctic Ocean where the oil fields are located. Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay is 475 miles. The Haul Road is the final 416 miles. To call it a highway is a bit of a stretch. 30% is paved. The remaining 70% is filled with the most wide array of riding conditions imaginable. At some moments we are hauling ass on the haul. In other moments we are hanging on for dear life. It can easily become a life and death matter if you are not extremely focused and on top of your game. 

Each year the Haul Road claims the life of motorcycle riders. This year, two riders died in early June as part of a 17 bike entourage. We do not know the specific details of what went wrong. But it did. A stark reminder that this is no walk in the park. As much fun as this adventure can be, you always know that at any given moment things could go bad in a hurry.

We left a good part of our gear at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. These were great dorm room accommodations we happened upon through a meeting with the director of the Residences Life program @ UAF (and his wife) in Dawson Creek. They were heading east from Alaska on their BMW touring bikes and they let us in on this little known fact. The university opens up their dorms in the off season and provide 24/7 hotel style services. $38 per room per night. Clean beds, hot showers, fresh towels, warm room and free laundry. The best deal we could ever imagine. We stored much of our gear at the dorms and took only the gear we would need for the next few days on the Haul Road.

We did not know exactly what the trip would serve up. We have heard tons of stories, talked with many truckers and riders who have experienced the Haul Road, and conducted as much planning and research as humanly possible. Our bikes were ready and so were we. The road ahead was calling.

As we rolled out of Fairbank, the weather ahead looked ominous. What we quickly learned was that the Haul Road is literally a living, breathing beast. Constantly evolving, the Haul Road is at natures beckoned call 24/7 365. The weather will dictate the conditions of the road. Built for hauling gear and equipment to the north slope oil fields in 1978, the James Dalton Highway follows the Alaskan Pipeline for the majority of the distance. Truckers continue to haul a tremendous amount of goods and services along this route daily. Recently, a trucker died on the haul road and over 2,000 trucks made an homage to him by driving in procession from Fairbanks to the spot he died. On the haul road, as well as all of Alaska, people look out for each other. Surviving here is a major focus. Truckers and riders share the haul road in the summer months. Truckers own it the rest of the year. Mutual respect is the order of the day. And with the volume of trucks that travel this route and the speed they maintain, you realize everything is centered around their work.

This is their road. This is their life blood. This is what defines them.

The first miles of the Haul Road was a bit of a mind job as it was a very rough stretch of challenging gravel. We all thought, if the next 400+ miles are going to be like this, we are in for a major adventure. It was what we signed up for. But we weren’t sure what the next turn in the road would uncover. We also realized that they probably made the first stretch of the road as nasty as they could to discourage the majority of pedestrians from venturing any farther. It was our first experience of what was to be many unique moments along the Haul Road.

The day was filled with some very nice twisties both paved and unpaved. The road conditions at the outset were dry and cool. Occasionally, road construction would become a serious enemy. Road graders, water, calcium chloride and the arctic tundra/gravel combo would easily turn into a mucky quick sand mixture at the drop of a hat and around the next turn. Great (in theory) for smoothing out a road for trucks. However, a terrible condition for a motorcycle trying to navigate through it.

Most people define the Haul Road conditions like driving on a foot of ice with 4 inches of baby poop on top. Those similarities are remarkedly true.

As we headed toward Coldfoot (the halfway point and only fuel stop along the highway) the skies grew dark blue, the temperature began to drop and rain was definitely up ahead. Not the best conditions for the road.

While at Coldfoot, we spoke with many truckers and a few bikers who were heading south. We asked them what the road conditions were ahead and their answers were not exactly promising. Gooey, mucky, slick, and snotty were all words that people described. Potholes like craters. Most bikers (non GS style) took spills and the mud, gook and goo on their bikes (and themselves) only added to their stories and the myth. Potholes, ruts, gooey muck, slippery slime and constant rain were the word of the day. And they were right. 

As we left Coldfoot, we had a pretty good handle on what the condition and specific areas the road ahead would offer up. Especially, what stretches posed the most danger and difficulty. The Range Adventure Riders marshaled on in single file. We gave everyone enough room to maneuver through any obstacles should we encounter any issues. As the rain began to fall, the road began to change. Dramatically. Each mile was different than the last. The terrain, traffic, wind and road conditions all had a major impact on how we would ride. Sometimes standing on our pegs and navigating a mile of potholes littered across every inch of the road. Sometimes riding through deep ruts and throttling through them for long distances hoping you would ride out of them on the other side. Sometimes hanging on for dear life as we hit the slurry. You had to pick a fall line (not unlike like downhill skiing) and ride the road with your testicles in your throat. Luckily, non of us took a spill. 

Amazingly, we all had a tremendous new found respect for our BMW GS’s. These machines were absolutely amazing. We joked of them being trusted steeds, but in fact, that us what they became. These machines performed flawlessly. They got us through some of the most challenging riding conditions on the planet with flying colors. When a hairy moment erupted (and there have been tons), these bikes just hunkered down and got us through the situation. In conditions like this, they are the only bikes that can make this journey. They are truly global adventure dual sport tourers. They never let us down. 

We saw numerous Harley’s and other motorcycles in the ditch, on their sides or stuck in the middle of the road muck. Sinking like they were in quick sand. Other bikers and truckers always stop to render aid. A sobering comfort on the Haul Road.

Next up, the final push to Prudhoe Bay.

Be sure to toggle through the gallery as we have finally uploaded images from the last major section of the adventure. Bandwidth and time to add this content has been limited. More posts coming soon. We hope to catch up to our events and share them with you.

This day was our first chance to experience Alaska head-on. The terrible road into Chicken was quickly erased into nice twisty tarmac as soon as we headed out of town. We think the novelty of crappy roads is part of the Chicken allure.

Our ride from Chicken to Tok was filled with excitement and our first chance in over 5 days to connect with the outside world. Cell phone service was back! We all quickly checked in with our loved ones, checked our text messages and emails as best we could. We filled our tanks and got on the road. As we headed north, we stopped for lunch at Delta Junction and had killer sized hamburgers. As we pulled out of Delta Junction, the weather took a turn for the worse and we had to change into full rain gear. The wet and cold appeared again. As well as more road work and gravel patches.

North of Delta Junction, we encountered a few random moose along side the road. And one dead one. The dead moose was a recent road kill casualty and was being quartered in sections for its meat by some Alaska resident “passer by’s”. A crazy sight for us from the lower 48. Most of us have hunted and have had to skin carcasses or clean our kill, but the witnessing of this act along side the highway, signified we were in Alaska. Where no natural resource goes waisted. Survival in these parts requires a whatever-it-takes attitude. These people needed meat to eat and took to it like buzzards.

As we rolled further north, large river valleys and the Alaska wilderness unfolded. The weather was still crappy, but the excitement of getting to Fairbanks was a great motivator. As we got closer to Fairbanks, We made quick stops at the North Pole to see Santa and Mrs Claus. We quickly caught up with each other as we headed directly to Trails End BMW and Outpost Harley Davidson in Fairbanks to assess our needs for prepping our bikes for the Haul Road. And an eventual postmortem assessment after our return. The guys at the dealership were incredibly helpful as they did more than service our biking needs but gave us invaluable advice on all things ahead. It was a great dealership to hang out at.

After we got our biking needs taken care of, we headed to the University of Alaska Fairbanks where we had dorm rooms reserved. An earlier encounter with a fellow BMW rider in Dawson Creek provided us with the best value in accommodations of the whole trip. He was the director of the Residences Life program at the UAF where non-students can rent rooms in the summer for $38. Complete with clean rooms, clean sheets, hot showers, free laundry, 24 hr concierge service and warm, dry rooms. A great break from the past 3 days of tent camping. A much need shower, fresh clothes and a great Italian meal at a local bistro capped off our arrival to Base Camp One. Fairbanks. 

Next up…..the Haul Road (James Dalton Highway). One of the most epic experience of our lives.

This day was to be one of our more dynamic days of the trip. A fantastic day of riding. The weather was great and nthe roads were incredible. Most of the roads in Canada are very well designed and maintained. Better than most in the US (sans the occasional road construction projects). Which we have encountered on numerous times throughout each day. These roads rock and so do we. The BMW’s motor on.

Our day started late as Travis continued to have mechanical problems with his bike. Repairs at the campsite allowed Travis to continue on with us. Our goal is to get him to Whitehorse where he can have parts flown in our additional repairs made. The road to Whitehorse was spectacular and got us back into heavy mountain riding again. The scenery grew larger and the rivers and lakes became larger. Especially, the rivers. They are big water up here.

Whitehorse was a really neat town. We stopped and stretched for a few minutes. Grabbed a meal and a few beers and said good bye to Travis. Sadly, we knew his trip was over. He was planning to turn back after he was able to fix his bike. We wished he would of continued on and held out hope he would catch up with us in Fairbanks.

Our camp this night was in Carmacks along the shores of the mighty Yukon River. The Coal Mine Campgrounds were very accommodating with hot showers! There was a large group of Germans on a guided rafting trip. We had a nice yak with them and enjoyed their enthusiasm and camping spirit. It is very appropriate that we continuously gravitate towards the German influence. All of us are of German ancestry, riding these incredibly designed and engineered BMW GS’s and meeting others who like us all along the way. 

Next up…..riding from the Yukon River to Dawson City over the “top of the world highway” to Chicken, Alaska. Pictures to be posted to the gallery soon!

An early morning rise (after riding through cold rain, wind and driving storms) saw us making a few adjustments to our bikes. Scout was up @ 4:30AM working on our bikes as we all rolled out of bed and cranked things up. A quick run through a Tim Horton’s for coffee and breakfast got us on the road in early light. This was to be one of our longer days as we drove through more rain, hail and windy storms all day long. Thankfully, our gear held up as the wind chill and wet weather dealt us some cold and nasty riding conditions. A stop here and there to grab gas and a coffee allowed us to warm up a little. But the stops in this region are long and far away.

We also experienced the edgy discomfort and anxiety of riding our GS’s over bridges with steel grated road bed on knobbies. Wow. You go slow and you could spill. Finding the right speed and you still have to fight every inch. But we manage to handle the various bridges. Travis managed to ride his GS 650 @ 50 mph while most of us crept along @ 25-30 mph. We rolled into Fort St. John and grabbed much needed hotel rooms and hot showers.

As we left Fort St. John the following day, the scenery continued to change as we left the Canadian Rockies in our rear view mirrors and the plains of northern BC and southern Yukon were in the windshield in front of us. The twisties kept coming at us, albeit with longer vistas. We logged a heck of a lot of miles this day as we left the cold and rain behind us. We stopped at Dawson Creek mid day to see “mile one” of the ALCAN Highway and realized there were many miles still to go.

Everyone had a great day of riding as we ventured on into the Yukon and into Watson Lake. Watson Lake is home to the world famous “sign forest”. There are thousand of signs from all over the world posted as modern pop art in the center of town. It literally is the center of town. there isn’t a whole lot more. We met some people from England and South Africa who were traveling through the region. As each day unfolds, we meet a wide variety of people. Each human encounter is as much of the experience as the scenery, conditions and roads we cover. The local culture and extremely unique individuals definitely make their indelible marks on our adventure.

We made camp a few miles west of Watson Lake in a nice provincial park and had a great evening cooking up gourmet meals of dehydrated back packing meals on our trusty Jetboils”. These amazing little devices can boil water for food, coffee, cleaning…what ever….extremely fast. They sip the fuel from the butane canisters and last much longer than we had planned. The weather is perfect this day with warm days and cool nights. The miles keep rolling on and adding up.

We can’t forget the stop @ Laird Hot Springs were the riders all took a much need soak and freshening up. This was a nice respite before we marshaled on to Watson Lake.

Somewhere over these past few days (as they all run together) we drove through an amazing stretch of mountain passes and winding twisties that saw us fuel up in Toad River BC. Toad River was a classic stop where we took a nice break under tremendous sunny skies and an encounter with a wide array of tourists. High school graduates on a back packing trip from Peoria (Steve’s home), family vacationers, hitch hikers, granola people, truckers, etc. The mountains around Toad River and the road around Muncho Lake had as much interesting terrain, wildlife and scenery as we have encountered in any given day. Moose, bears, mountain caribou, mountain goats, deer, elk all were along the road as we rolled by. The glacial color of Muncho Lake was spectacular.

First off, we apologize for the delay in posting new blog content. We have traveled through British Columbia, The Yukon and the first half of the Alaska segment where there has been no cell service and no internet or WiFi. So the next few entries will be us back tracking our experiences with you. Plus, the pace and adventure riding itself has not provided us much time at all top catch up. Thankfully, the great guys @ Fairbanks Harley-Davidson, BMW, Polaris have free WiFi while our bikes are being serviced. So while we have some down time, we will attempt to catch you up in chronological order. We also will do our best with uploading new images to the gallery. 

Another great day on the road. After leaving the hotel in Prince George early Sunday morning, we proceeded to roll out of town and ran into Travis who was separated from the team early on Saturday. We zigged and he zagged. Travis had to make camp @ Mount Robison Provincial Park Saturday evening as he was back tracking to catch up to our route due to the wrong turn he made. He broke camp @ 4:00 AM and was on the road to Prince George @ 5:00 AM. It was great seeing him roll into town as we were rolling out. A quick stop at the gas station to check tire pressure and fuel up allowed us to coordinate the days agenda.

Most of Day Three was sunny and dry. We covered 350+  miles and ran hard through some really nice twisties. The tarmac was in perfect condition with nice shoulders and plenty of view lines. The road ahead was calling. The primary goal was to reach Dawson Creek, B.C. and see the “0″ mile marker to the Alaska Highway. A few photo opp’s and beers topped our hour in Dawson Creek. Then it was back on the Alaskan Highway towards Fort Nelson and beyond. However, an ominous front of dark blue clouds with feather like tails was directly in our path. As we headed toward the storm front, the drops of rain turned into pea size hail with needle piercing pounding for 40 miles. Visibility was difficult as we rolled through a torrential downpour complete with lighting. All of the Harley’s we passed were pulling off the road and ducking for cover.

Our trusty BMW’s and rain gear made the experience tolerable and secure as we road through the storm and out the other side. We all decided to take advantage of another night in a decent hotel before we headed into the true wilderness of the Yukon ahead. Clean sheets, a jacuzzi, hot bath and a fresh meal were a real luxury. Tomorrow, we plan to rise @ 4:45 AM and be on the road by 6:00 AM. Tomorrows route will take us through Fort Nelson, Laird Hot Springs, Watson Lake and a camp site in the southern Yukon. A big day of riding and a lot of miles is in store for us to stay on schedule.

Words cannot define the experience we had today. Epic is an understatement. It could quite easily be labeled as one of the most exhilarating days of our lives. It is late at night while I am entering this so I want to keep it short. 5:00 AM will come shortly.

Today started with frost on our bikes at Finley Creek Outfitters in Canal Flats, B.C. and ended in a driving cold rain storm as we rolled into Prince George, B.C. But in between, we experienced an incredible day of riding through the most spectacular scenery in the world. The Canadian Rockies on a perfect day. We rode through fabulous twisties throughout British Columbia and Alberta. Our BMW GS’s were works of art and engineering as the purred up, down and around valleys, peaks and vistas of breathtaking beauty. The scale and natural wonder of this region is mind blowing. We experienced over 450 miles of deep green forests that framed countless valleys of milky green glacial rivers, lakes and waterfalls. All of which were overwhelmed by a continuous back drop of the most majestic mountains imaginable. Each topped off with snow capped peaks and grand glaciers. 

 Luckily, we grabbed hotels rooms tonight to dry off and warm up in  Prince George. This was our first access to electricity and Wi Fi. We’ll do our best to add images of Day Two and additional blog entries when we get back on the grid. Enjoy and be patient. We want to share our experiences with everyone. But logistics and our riding schedule will dictate when and where have the time and access. We are thinking of you all.

Day Two 2.0. We also wanted to mention the wildlife we experienced yesterday, which luckily, none of us hit with our bikes. Mountain Goats in Alberta’s Lake Louise Provincial Park, Plenty of deer, a moose, 5-6 black bears along the side the road (they were common place on our last stretch into Prince George), and another moose. Our ability to grab a shower and recharge our batteries (ourselves and our electronics) after a 500+ mile day was a HUGE benefit.