In June of 2024, I took off an a 6-week, 6,500ish mile ride from Badlands National Park, South Dakota to the Arctic Ocean in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada. To maximize my riding time in The Rockies, Arctic Canada, and Alaska, I started the journey by road tripping from Connecticut to South Dakota with Tori (my now-wife) & the motorcycle in my truck. To get home, I shipped ship the bike back from my final destination in Anchorage, Alaska and hopped on a plane.
I uploaded the tracking data from my InReach Mini to Spotwalla and embedded my route below. Along the way, I tried to make regular posts to tell the story of the trip and share photos and short videos. At the bottom of the page you’ll find information on the initially-planned route, gear load out, and (spoiler alert) the build of the bike I thought I was going to be taking.
Follow Along
Live Map
Note: You may need to refresh the page or use Chrome/Firefox to view the embedded map. If that doesn’t work, try this link.
Ride Reports & Trip Updates
Some combination of reflections, photos, and (short, unedited) videos every few days as I went along. My goal is to edit together videos for each leg over the winter.
Leg 6: Ending in Anchorage
Tok to Anchorage I woke up early to make the 6 hour drive into Anchorage….
Leg 6: Dawson City and the Top of the World Highway
Leg 5: Back Down the Dempster
Leg 5: To the Start of the Dempster
I’m sitting in a motel room where I was hoping to have wifi and write…
Leg 5: Into the Yukon
Leg 4: To and Through the Telegraph Creek Highway
Leg 4: The Salmon Glacier and a Taste of Alaska
Leg 4: Nisga’a Lava Fields
Leg 4: Prince George to Terrace, BC
Leg 3: Bears, Cows, and Mud on the way to Prince George
Valemount to Sheridan Lake (and Bears) A direct route from Valemount (which was a bit…
Leg 3: Into the Canadian Rockies
Rest Day in Creston, BC
My first rest day is quite welcome after 11 days on the road. Despite not…
Leg 2: Up the Idaho Panhandle to British Columbia
Despite feeling a bit beat when I got to Wallace, I woke up feeling well…
Leg 2: More Adventure than I bargained for on the BDR to Wallace, ID
Despite planning to sleep in, I woke up in my cabin around 6:30 Mountain time….
Leg 2: North Fork, ID to Powell, ID
Heading out of my yurt at the River’s Fork Lodge (after waiting for the day…
Leg 1: Yellowstone, WY to North Fork, ID
Today was the last big-mile day for a long time and the last day of…
Leg 1: Sheridan, WY to Yellowstone, WY
I took off early from Sheridan knowing that this was another high-mileage day. It was…
Leg 1: Wall, SD to Sheridan, WY
Today was officially the transition from the drive out to the proper trip. After an…
Leg 0: Prep and (some) Rest in South Dakota
I left the AirBNB in Wall at around 7:30, aiming for Sturgis Motorsports while Tori…
Leg 0: Connecticut to the Badlands
The trip started by loading the Norden, all my gear, and all the gear Tori…
Trip Planning & Preparation
I first thought of this trip immediately after finishing my cross country trip in 2018, but was only in the Winter of 2022 that I started seriously planning it while rebuilding the DRZ from the frame up to be a lightweight, long distance adventure bike.
Some of my favorite rides and trips have involved pointing my bike in a cardinal direction and going where the road takes me, but this trip was long and complex enough that it required a bit more planning than I typically do. Other than just knowing whether it was feasible in the amount of time I could afford to take off work, western Canada and Alaska are some of the most remote areas in North America with limited services and volatile climates. I tried my best to plan & prepare just enough to give me a good foundation from which I could improvise as the trip goes went without feeling like I was locked into a schedule.
I am eventually hoping to ride the entire length of the Pan-American Highway, at least in pieces. In addition to knocking out the Northern legs this trip was good practice for packing & living off the bike for an extended period of time.
