I had an incredible opportunity to take my bucket list trip to Alaska on my motorcycle with my brother and his son's father-in-law. It wasn't a real convenient time, it cost more than I wanted to spend, and another thousand reasons could have aborted the trip (like they so often do). I am just glad I did not let any of those excuses get in the way.
They left Farmington NM on June 12th. I left my house in Bozeman and rode through Yellowstone National Park to meet them in Cody, WY on the 13th. From there we rode through Glacier NP, Banff, Jasper, and many other Canadian parks on our way to Alaska.
We travelled the Chief Joseph Byway, Beartooth Pass, Going to the Sun Road, Ice Field Parkway, Cassiar Highway, Alaska Highway, Richardson Highway, Glenn Highway, Parks Highway, Dalton Highway, Top of the World Highway, Dempster Highway, and many many more.
We were able to visit Hyder, Whitehorse, Fairbanks, Deadhorse, Valdez, Anchorage, Alyeska, Seward, Homer, Denali, Tok, Dawson City, Watson Lake, Dawson Creek, and many more that I am sure I am missing.
It took us 36 days in total. In that time, there was not a day that I was not on the motorcycle. 29 of those days, we camped. Mostly we wild camped on remote spots we found. We did spend about 6 nights in the provisional campsites in Canada. They are actually very nice to use with very dispersed camp sites. Most had firewood and water included.
I used my hammock for all camping. Mostly it was pretty easy to find sites. In Alaska, especially the very wet sections, it could be difficult to find trees with the proper spacing that was not completely filled with underbrush. The very moist soil also made the trees more flexible than they are down here. A 6 inch tree flexed like a 3-4 inch tree in Montana. Several times when I had to use smaller trees, I had to tie them back to additional trees for support.
There were so many experiences, I could tell stories for hours, so trying to limit it to this space is a challenge. I think I will leave it at those highlights and let people ask any questions they may have.
By the numbers, we went 36 days, 10976 miles, and 204 hours in the seat. The mountains were incredible. The lakes were incredible. The rivers were incredible. The wildlife were incredible. The glaciers were incredible. Words fail me, but the entire trip was incredible.
I will try to add a variety of pictures for the trip in general and a sampling of the hammock locations, but photos are always a challenge on HF.
**Edit, it is limiting me to 15 inline, so I will have to figure out something else for the rest of them.
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Originally Posted by joe_guilbeau
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