Taking the Scenic Route Thru Alaska to International

[rosebud]

Hi,

 

Phil is leaving on Monday June 6th for an International Motorcycle Rally in St. Louis the end of July. You might ask why is Phil leaving almost 2 months early for a city that is only 5 hours from the house. Anyone knows Phil, knows that he likes to take the scenic route to get places. He hates to travel interstate highways if he can. He loves to see the countryside. Well he’s doing the same for this trip. He’s taking the scenic route to St. Louis through the Canadian Rockies and Alaska.

 

I am meeting up with Phil on June 17th at Calgary, and get to spend 4 weeks with him this summer riding through Canada and Alaska, camping along the way.

 

We picked up a tracking device earlier this year call SPOT. It’s a satellite tracking device to allow you to track us along the way if you want to. Phil has the device set up to send a signal every 10 minutes. The link below will take you to the website to track Phil’s spot.

 

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0i6bFcY5Z2ESi4eU45pJpj26tzrIkpzBh

 

This link will take you to our trip blog. See our route that we will be taking, view the pictures that we post along the way, and read what we’ve seen or done for the day. There are two adventure trips that come up for Alaska and Beyond – select the one by Rosebud. And you will be able to see what I post along the way.

 

Alaska and Beyond by Rosebud

Edited June 7, 2015 by rosebud
Change title

[slowrollwv]

I hope that you and Phil have a safe trip. Enjoy it while you can.

[rosebud]

bump

[cowpuc]

OUTSTANDING!!! :clap2::clap2::dancefool::dancefool:

 

Thank you soooo much for including us in on this trip - THAT IS AWESOME Rosebud!!!:dancefool:

 

Ol Puc is wishing you both NOTHING but the best in everyway as you guys go exploring regions that Tip and I have DREAMED of visiting!!

May your trip be filled with adventure, good weather, MANY new friends and endless companionship!! You got my attention and prayers my friend!!

Ride safe!

Puc

 

CAN NOT WAIT TO START THE JOURNEY WITH YOU!!

[Mikealiasmike]

So envious! Few more years and I'll be doing pretty much the same trip. Looking forward to following you guys. Be safe and God bless

[Rick Haywood]

Summer of 2018 for us. I will follow you and look forward to the blog. Giv us some pointers along the way of do's and don't's

[rosebud]

And he's off! Phil left about 20 minutes ago. The Spot tracker is on so that you can follow him along the way.

[rosebud]

After 2 days on the road, and remember he has 10 days to go the first 2,000 miles he ended just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota last night. Temps have been hot. He told me that his outside temperature gauge read 113 degrees sitting in a parking lot in the sunshine. The first night he camped in Scott State Park in Kansas, but last night it was time for some air conditioning.

 

Today he'll be riding through the Badlands this morning and should be in Montana later today if all goes as planned. And a week from today I will be meeting up with him in Calgary. We'll have more pictures to post after I there. He's taking pictures, but has a hard time sending them to me.

 

Phil made it through the badlands ahead of the rain, but was off the bike in wall when it hit. He got on his rain gear, new riding pants, and hiking boots kept him dry. He said it poured all the way from all to Rapid City. He's in Sturgis now having lunch.

Edited June 10, 2015 by rosebud

[rosebud]

For anyone who's been watching Phil's path on Spot, it's been pretty cool watching him go along. He is in Shelby Montana about 90 miles outside of Glacier National Park. The area is predicting strong winds today 50 - 60 miles an hour until about 6 tonight. He's going to stay where he's at instead of packing up and trying to reach Glacier. So don't worry about not seeing him move today.

[BlueSky]

Still watching! Riding through Canada on the route you are must be something really special!!

[cowpuc]

Tried to put a message on that link but it wouldnt let me so I will put here what I wrote:

"""TOTALLY AWESOME!! Wishing you folks nothing but the greatest time of your lives on this unbelievable adventure!! Hats off to both of you for doing this - you are amazing!!

Puc"""

 

I LOVE the whole view a spot idea!! THAT is wayyyyyyyy cool!!! It looks like Phil is in North Calgary at this time !!! Hey Phil, ride safe out there and hoping you enjoy every second of every day on the bike my friend!!

[rosebud]

Phil thinks I brought the rain with me to Canada. We've road in rain every day since I've arrived on Wednesday. The Canadian Rockies are awesome. We stayed the first night Lake Louise area. Outside our hotel building were a family a prairie dogs. They were so use to being fed they would come right up to you. They like to stand and get their pictures taken too.

 

The next day we road through to Japer and then on to Prince George. It rained on and off all day. As we pulled into the campgrounds at PG the skies started to open up and really rain on us. We set up the mini Hilton in the rain. Listened to it rain all night and broke camp in the rain the next morning. Tim Horton's are pretty good places to dry out and warm up. We don't drink coffee, but they serve the hottest hot chocolate we've ever had.

 

Ended up last night in Smithers BC. Our goal today is to try to reach Watson Lake in the Yukon. Temps have been averaging in the 50's sure glad that I brought the liners for our jackets with me.

 

Here are a few pictures of our trip so far.

[WallyG]

My riding buddy and I (we're also business partners) did some work up in that area a while back, Tatogga Lake, and we stayed at the Tatogga Lake Resort. Don't let the name fool ya, it's a tidy little place where they serve great home cooked meals, omelets that are best shared by two (they're that big, I can barely finish small one, never mind the regular size), reasonably priced rooms, they've got cabins available, and, unless I'm mistaken, they also have camping spots.

 

I gotta say, I'm you two are riding one of the roads on our bucket list .

 

Ride safe, take lots of pics, keep posting so we can continue to ride, at least vicariously.....

[Goose68]

Love the pics. Looks like a great time

[cowpuc]

Totally AWESOME!!! Just checked you folks progress - AMAZING!!:clap2:

After reading your last post, hope your weather has changed for the better on this last leg? Hows the wildlife and mountain views? What are you paying for fuel and how is the availability? Are you finding ample camping area's (are you able to just pull over and camp?).. How are the roads and tire wear?

Sooooo much to think about it all just following along with your Spot Check map!!

THIS is awesome!!!

[rosebud]

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Internet service has been very spotty where we've been. We went up highway 37 through BC to Watson Lake, YK a few days ago. Stopped by the Sign Post Forest and retired Phil's vanity plate NEWTRK at the SP Forest. From there we spent 2 nights at Whitehorse. Beautiful country. The mountains are amazing. We took a bus/train trip through White Pass to Skagway on Monday. What an amazing ride through the pass that the circa 1880 gold miners took into the Klondike to mine for gold. After that we continued up the Alaska/Canadian Highway for Alaska. The roads between Haines Junction to Otter Creek are under construction for about 60 miles. What a mess. The permafrost heaves got the better of the exhaust on the trike. One on the heaves in the road pulled the exhaust apart and suddenly we sounded like a Harley instead of the venture . Once we reached Tok, AK we stayed in the Sourdough Campgrounds. They are ran by great people. Tim the owner use to be an RV mechanic and helped Phil put the exhaust back together. The ride from Tok to Fairbanks was filled with smoke from wildfires along most of the route. We ended up staying in a hotel instead of camping simple to get out of the smoke. Today we got our oil changed at Northern Power Sports and had them replace the battery too. We were having issues with the bike not wanting to start every morning. It would be great during the day, but overnight the battery seemed to drain, and we finally had enough of it. Gas in Alaska is running about $3.65 a gallon on average. Gas in Canada was running about $1.20 a liter. There are plenty of campgrounds once you get into the mountains. Phil found it harder to find a campground in the flatlands of SD, WY, or MT.

 

Tomorrow we're headed to Denali to camp for a couple of days and then we're moving on to Anchorage then Seward and Homer.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days.

[Flyinfool]

Thanks for sharing your trip, It really means a lot to me since I can not ride this year to have my own adventures.

[rosebud]

Hey Jeff, Happy to help out. We spent 2 fun filled day in Denali camping at the Riley Creek Campground for $22 a night. Sure can't beat the price. It was a little cold camping and we needed to run the portable propane heater a couple of times to arm up the mini Hilton. We did a bus tour into the park, and saw some animals, but a long distance away. You would need a big zoom lens on your camera or binoculars to see the animals. Alaska is very dry and no campfires are allowed any where. Denali is a semi arid environment with little rain.

 

This morning we packed up and moved on to Anchorage. We are staying in a hotel tonight - pretty expensive for a comfort inn, over $250.00, but we needed a soft bed, and a good shower. I think we were beginning to smell, at least each other. The plans tomorrow are to do laundry, visit the Ulu factory, and to take the Seward Highway to Seward. Gas ran $3.30 a gallon today. Very few Shell or Mobil stations in Alaska. The kids had given us gas cards as gifts this past year and we have no been able to use them so far.

 

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.

[cowpuc]

FANTASTIC ROSEBUD - like Jeff, I too really really want to thank you for sharing!! What GORGEOUS pics and awesome story!! :clap2:

Gotta ask, probably sound dorky but are you finding the dryness to have a positive affect on the skeeters and bug life up there? Can a person just pull off the road and camp or is it mandatory to camp in a "camp ground"? Those gas prices are amazing - about 50 cents more a gallon then we are paying back here in Michigan - NOT BAD AT ALL!! Matter if fact - I bet its cheaper there than in California right now..

At this point, if you were gonna tell your friends back home who may someday follow your lead and CTFW all the way to Alaska - what are two of the best roads or sites that you would advise not to miss??

My gosh THOSE are AWESOME pictures!!!

[rosebud]

We are in Seward for the next few nights. It's raining and in the mid 50's here. According to the locals this is normal summer weather. We were prepared for lots of bugs and skeeters. Every time I turned around Phil was stocking up on bug spray with 99% deet. The bugs have not been bad, but they had a dry winter here.

 

As far as what I would make sure I saw and tell others not to miss:

1.) Watson Lake sign post forest

2.) Ride Seward Highway from Ankorage to Seward. Most beautiful road we have ever ridden on.

3.) Canadian Rockies, the Ice Highway.

What to skip:

1.) Fairbanks, just not impressed with the area.

2.) Route 37 through Smithers and Dease Lake, kind of boring

 

I'll post some pictures later this week when I find the Seward Library and upload the pictures to the laptop.

FYI we are staying in a city park camping for $10 a night right on the water.

Edited June 30, 2015 by rosebud
Adding a little more info.

[jakester]

Awsome, keep the pics coming, loving your trip. Thanks

Bill

[cowpuc]

We are in Seward for the next few nights. It's raining and in the mid 50's here. According to the locals this is normal summer weather. We were prepared for lots of bugs and skeeters. Every time I turned around Phil was stocking up on bug spray with 99% deet. The bugs have not been bad, but they had a dry winter here.

 

As far as what I would make sure I saw and tell others not to miss:

1.) Watson Lake sign post forest

2.) Ride Seward Highway from Ankorage to Seward. Most beautiful road we have ever ridden on.

3.) Canadian Rockies, the Ice Highway.

What to skip:

1.) Fairbanks, just not impressed with the area.

2.) Route 37 through Smithers and Dease Lake, kind of boring

 

I'll post some pictures later this week when I find the Seward Library and upload the pictures to the laptop.

FYI we are staying in a city park camping for $10 a night right on the water.

 

THANK YOU for the info Rose and for sharing your ride with us!!! This thread is OUTSTANDING!!

Ride safe and have fun out there you two!!

[Snarley Bill]

diane, you and phil are the definition of real bikers. linda and i would love to be with you. looking forward to seeing you at the international. what a great time you are having. be safe . see you soon. ps. i got the jewelry. bill