A bucket list ride to Alaska

I need to go home and read all this, looks good.
I see my sigh in your picture

That was the room I stayed in. I thought the motel was decent and had a good laundry, my clothes needed it by then.

The Canadian customs people near Haines and at Hyder were very polite. The woman at Stewart border asked if I had weapons, I said I didn't, then she asked if I had bear spray - I said I did, then she asked if I had other weapons - I said it was bear spray and I was glad to have it, no other questions.

Nice!

The rest of the ride to Bellingham was mostly dictated by the wildfire situation affecting much of BC. I called BC ferries to see if I could catch a ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy but it was booked out for at least a couple weeks and they indicated standby wasn't likely. I wasn't wanting to ride 97 south through the wildfire area which was just opening up to traffic so I decided to ride to Jasper/Banff and catch the ice fields parkway. That didn't work out so well as the park was choked with smoke, I'm not very sensitive to that sort of thing but my eyes burned some and throat was a bit sore from the smoke.





I looked for a campground south of Jasper but they were all full so I spent the night at a nice but overpriced resort

Next day rode down to Lake Louise which was a bit too busy for my taste

the road to Lake Moraine was closed due to the crowds and full parking lot so I passed that up and decided to ride out of the park on 1 and take 95 south to 3 then east.

3 was nice.

I live near the Columbia river so I took a picture of this sign. It was well past a view of the flats area which looked like a bog from what I could see.


Near a summit truck brake check area on 3

Crossed over into Washington at Osoyoos. Much of Washington is arid and hot until you cross west over the mountain ranges.



I like stopping and reading the heritage markers even though they usually aren't that monumentous.


Winthrop is an interesting little tourist town east of the cascades

into the cascade range

Then a short ride back to Bellingham to load up the TW and drive home, on I-5, a drive I hate. There is always some traffic issue in Seattle (last Saturday a disabled bus) and Tacoma (this time a small grass fire) to turn the ride home into hours of stop and go misery.

I wasn't going to ride on I-5 with the TW so I took Cook road in Sedro Wooley to 11. 11 north along the coast is nice.



The Kennicott was in port loading up for another ferry north when I got to Bellingham



The end

The chef would have been furious, but would have relented as grilled cheese sandwich is top 5 food of all time.

Always great to see TW200 RRs, hope you do more

Very nice! I went to Alaska last year and saw a few dual sports/adventure riders and wished I had my bike there. It is now a new line on my bucket list. We went to Juneau aslo and I believe we stayed at the same campground as you. You mentioned the glacier water lake, our guide to hike the glacier told us that there are no living fish in that lake due to the heavy particulate content. Very cool trip.

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I'm hoping to go again next year. If my wife decides she doesn't want to go I would like to fly to Anchorage, rent a motorcycle to ride around for a week or two and maybe take the ferry back.

Fred,

It sounds like you were hitting some pretty sizable crowds, no surprise. Just gunna mean if I make any part of this trip I better have some hotel reservations in place.

The pics of the lakes interlaid with the mountains are incredible, thats what I'm yearning for!

Great stuff!!

I agree that reservations are a good idea. Where I stayed south of Jasper I got the last room at sometime around 6 pm and during the few minutes it took me to check in three people came in looking for a room. Campgrounds were full too.

What is the route plan? Just to Jasper or farther towards Alaska?

The last pictures of Diablo lake were in Washington North Cascades Park. Unfortunately a motorcyclist died that day just west of Diablo, by the time I rode by only his mangled motorcycle was left in the road with shellshocked looking rangers directing traffic. Apparently excessive speed and he ran off the road and into a rock, bike must have bounced back in the road. 20 in the park is popular with motorcyclists.

When I used to ride in the US, the ride up Hwy20 to Winthrop was a favourite. The most memorable was a ride one year, just after Memorial Day when there had been record snowfall. The snow in the mountains was spectacular to see, there were places where the snowbanks along the highway were 10, 15, 20 feet high. It was truly a Peak Experience (pun intended) but caution was the word; the highway was still sandy.

Thanks for posting this, it brings back memories and that itch to make the migration north.

Since the entire country is virtually on lockdown, I've been reading up on some ride reports as my getaway until we get freed up.

I'm currently scouring Cycletrader and Craigslist for a TW200 mainly for off-road riding in the SoCal Deserts and the BDRs. It seems as though the older I get, the more I appreciate taking the slow lane in a wanderlust...

who know???

great write up!

cheers...

Thanks, I have enjoyed reading your reports. Small bikes are about all I have ridden. I had a Moto Guzzi V7 II for a short while but never got comfortable with it. Until you replied I forgot about this report. It doesn't sound like this year would be good to try it. I am hoping to ride the Lolo Motorway and Magruder Corridor in June or July along with my son on CT90/110s. Some of the western states aren't as restricted as Washington, Oregon, California.

Great report! When I saw the first picture, I thought "that looks familiar". I live in north of Bellingham. When I was a kid we would go to Winthrop every summer to camp at Pearrygin lake.

Beautiful photos. Thanks for posting

Did you ever make it back up to rent bikes? I did that a couple years ago and had a blast.