When I got my first motorcycle, my life was changed forever. Suddenly, every trip became an adventure. A ride for an errand or
even a trip downtown became something to look forward to. The motorcycle also gave birth to another hobby: motorcycle magazines! Motorcyclist, CycleWorld, Road Rider, BMW MOA, anything I could get my hands on. One day back in the 70’s, I read an article about someone who rode a motorcycle from California to Alaska via the Alaskan highway. Since I was living in the other side of the world, it was extremely unlikely I could ever undertake such a trip. Nevertheless, I was so fascinated by that article, it inspired me to start doing my own versions of a long ride. My subsequent first time long rides were so exciting it felt like I had traveled around the world!

Life is so full of surprises. You can never predict the outcome. This becomes more so on a bike ride adventure. You just need to make sure you stay alive and survive the ride. When you walk out of the adventure, you carry with you a treasure of memories that will last you a lifetime.

Thirty years later, I am doing what I thought I could never experience in this lifetime. A bike ride to Alaska! Unpaved roads, miserable weather, dangerous and unpredictable animals, large hungry mosquitoes, no rest rooms, no gas stations, no repair shops, no restaurants, no motels!

What is it that constantly makes a motorcyclist ride an inherently unsafe vehicle towards a dangerous and uncertain destination? Maybe the answer may be found at the top of the world? Maybe a cure for this obsession may be found by journey’s end? That’s what I thought 17 years ago when I did a bike ride from Manila to Davao along the Pan-Philippine “Highway”. I did not find a cure back then. In fact it made the disease a bit worse I think. My heart still skips a beat today whenever I remember that trip.

Preparing the bike for the trip. We do not want to be riding a bus on the way back home.

The first day of the ride! I ride my bike gently along a deserted city under the illumination of streetlights and a twilight sky. I nurse the motor to a slow warm-up. Some kids delivering newspapers stop and stare. My gear is piled way up high at the back, never seen it that high before. I look like a hobo on steroids and begin to wonder if anything might fall off. The road leads me to a freeway on-ramp and suddenly all hell breaks loose!

It feels like being dropped into a blender. Los Angeles, the motor-mayhem City. Always on the move. Move fast or get out of the way. “Go with the flow” me thinks. A handful of throttle catapults the bike onto the freeway. Everything on the rear view mirror is oncoming. Raise speed to match traffic, watch Tach, shift gears, look at speedometer. I stare in disbelief at the indicated speed. A delivery van flies by at even higher velocities. Wait dude, this is early Saturday morning! Some drivers are conversing on their cellphones. Moms are talking with impatient kids in the back seat. Occasionally, a driver can be seen reading the morning papers. Everything looks just like regular rush hour traffic except there is a colorful sunrise unfolding on the horizon. Why is everyone in such a mad rush to get to their destinations at this early hour? Maybe if everyone rode motorcycles then people would at least enjoy the going. You all know. We habitually select longer routes between points “A” and “B” just to prolong a ride. In fact, silly as it may sound, our destination is our own driveway we just left a few minutes ago. We just want to pass by the arctic along the way…

The bike sounds and feels good as it glides along at speed. The urban commotion and smog begin to dissipate as I make it out of the big city. I glance towards my rear and see the long dark tentacles of the big city still trying to reach out for me. The road is smooth and wide open straight ahead. The weather is clear, all my gear is intact. We have escaped the rat race! Now there is nothing left but enjoy the ride. I can feel the cool fresh morning wind rushing by my face. What a wonderful feeling! An escape to freedom, to ride and explore. The beginning of a new adventure!

6:30AM, northbound on the I-5 freeway just outside Los Angeles. This is pretty much how the roadway looks like for the next 1,270 miles.

The first few days were spent on smooth free-flowing multi-lane expressways that ran northbound towards Vancouver Canada, 1,270 miles away. Vancouver is the capital city of Canada’s province of British Columbia (BC). Vancouver being as far as it is, the city is not even close to half the distance to our destination. We aren’t even near the start of the Trans-Alaskan Highway. From Vancouver, the adventure level goes up. We need to go an additional 682 miles farther north towards the city of Dawson Creek, Canada. The route is via provincial roads with few vehicles and great views. Way out in northern BC, Dawson Creek is mile zero of the Trans-Alaska highway.

This is where the famous highway begins its northward trek and most vehicular traffic to Alaska pass this way. More than 90% of the Trans-Alaska, also known as the Al-Can highway, is inside Canada. It passes along Canada’s northern British Columbia and Yukon Provinces. It is 1,422 miles long and terminates at the city of “Delta Junction” in Alaska where it connects with another highway called the “Richardson Highway”. From there, we shall take the Richardson highway to Fairbanks. From Fairbanks, we shall take another highway, the Dalton highway, north towards the arctic. For this trip, we shall deliberately avoid the tourist attraction centers like Anchorage and Denali. We shall visit instead portions of Alaska not commonly seen or difficult to see. Off the beaten path so to speak. Unless you are familiar with the area, you will need to take out an Atlas or map of North America for reference. If you are contemplating a similar trip and have a lot of time to see the sights along the way, it is advisable to purchase the Alaskan Milepost. The Milepost is a publication that details all the points of interest along the Alcan from beginning to end.

As far as weather is concerned, unpredictable can be an understatement! Therefore we will try to be prepared for all eventualities. We will bring a good rain suit, some cold weather gear in case we meet some snow, and hot weather riding gear (it can be more than 35C in some places). Ditto for the camping and sleeping gear.

Checking out the Alaskan ferry terminal at Bellingham, Washington.

People fortunate enough to take a cruise ship to Alaska, normally board the luxury liners at Seattle. People who opt instead for the Alaskan Ferry service board the ferry in Bellingham. Bellingham is a small town just north of Seattle Washington. Many travelers who are driving to Alaska take the drive-on drive-off ferry in order to lessen the amount of driving. The Alaskan ferry travels north from here along what is called the “Inland Passage”, a sea route near the coast towards the Alaskan port cities of Skagway or Haines. From either city, one can drive up north, enter Canada, connect with the Trans-Alaskan highway in the Yukon, and then drive along the Trans-Alaska onwards back to Alaska. If that just didn’t sound right to you, then you really need to pull out that Atlas. At this time we are deciding to not take the ferry. The Ferry trip will take 4 days to Skagway and I think I am going to get bored staring at the sea during all that time. We shall travel the entire route by land instead and do the ferry thing some other time when we are older :).

About to enter Canada from the small town of Sumas, Washington State. We are along Main Street downtown looking north and the road ends right into the Canadian border inspection station. The border guards were initially concerned about my planned itinerary and offered much good advice on how to enjoy my travels through Canada safely.

Having lunch at the lovely Canadian town called “Hope”, a distant suburb East of Vancouver. The provincial roads in rural Canada will always bring a big smile on any touring motorcyclists face. They are very much like the rural roads in other countries such as the Pan-Philippine highway and it is usually safe to stop anywhere along the way. The traffic is much slower than in the US since people out here are not in such a constant hurry like they always are in the typical big and busy US cities. As a consequence, travel is a lot more relaxed and it feels safer. With the summer temperatures sometimes in the 30’s Celsius, it is hard to believe that we are at such high latitudes so far away from the equator.

Beginning our northbound run along the old Trans-Canada highway from Hope. Our destination for the day is Cache Creek.

The Trans-Canada passes along several mountain ranges as it runs north along the Fraser Valley. The Canadian Pacific Railroad line may be seen on the opposite side of the river. A CP train can often be seen hauling over a hundred freight cars at a time using SD90MACs (in case you are a train buff like I am).

One of several tunnels along this route. The tunnels protect the highway during winter avalanches which are common along this route.

An interesting feature of travel in rural Canada is that along the way, there are many places that have historic significance. There is always something interesting to look at and therefore it is best to travel slower and stop often. That is never a problem given the normal speeds people out here travel. The posted speed limits are usually 90 or 100Kph and whoever decided on these figures must be an enthusiast of the beautiful scenery and history of the communities. Sometimes too, the speed limits are determined by the known population of wildlife in the area and this explains why speed limits unexpectedly drop to 60kph in remote locations far removed from any town or settlement.

The Trans-Canada is Canada’s main coast-to-coast highway. It is more than 17,000 kilometers long and runs from Vancouver in the west coast to St John’s at Newfoundland/Labrador in the East coast. It passes New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia provinces. At some parts, there is a “new” Trans-Canada, which is usually in the form of a much faster multi-lane expressway that runs parallel to the old. The new expressways are designed to cut down on travel time and runs along a different, sometimes shorter and usually less scenic route. On this trip, we shall avoid the expressways and restrict our travel to the old, more rural, Trans-Canada highway. There is much more to see and experience on the old road.

The original bridge at the city of “Spences Bridge”. The Old Trans-Canada crosses the Thompson River via a more modern bridge less than a km away and passes right through the city in the background. As we approach Cache Creek, the scenery begins to look desert-like. Around here, the climate is very dry and the area receives very little rain year round. Large birds like Hawks and Eagles may be seen roaming the skies looking for prey but we must keep an eye on the road. There is abundant 4-legged wildlife roaming the area too.

Hillsides begin to look barren as the Trans-Canada nears Cache Creek.

The city of Cache Creek is located along the old Caribou Wagon road which early explorers and gold rush miners traveled along during the 1800’s. It is believed that the name of the city was due to its being used as a storage outpost by fur traders in the Caribou region. Today, the city is a cross roads between highway 97 which runs north towards Dawson Creek, and the old Trans Canada highway which we just traveled on and continues East from here towards Kamloops. Also, just a few miles north of the city is the terminus for a spectacular roadway from Vancouver popularly known as the “Sea-to-Sky” Highway. This roadway passes Whistler and Lillooet before it joins up with the 97.

Dinner at downtown Cache Creek. This is a popular diner that has been in business since the 1950’s. I have stopped here before on other bike rides in the past. Note the dry landscape in the hills behind. This picture was taken at 8pm and gauging from my own shadow, there is still a lot of sunshine left in the day. Sunset comes much later in the day as we travel farther north towards the Arctic.

Our destination for the next day is the city of Dawson Creek. Given the distance and normal speeds along these parts, we needed to get up early in the morning in order to increase our chances of finding a good place to stay overnight at Dawson Creek. It is generally best to make the destination before 6pm in order to get good choices for an overnight motel or campground.

Northbound from Cache Creek at 8am.  We bid the Old Trans-Canada highway good-bye and we are now on the Highway 97. The view in the picture above is pretty much how the road looks like all the way to Dawson Creek and even all the way up to the Alaskan border, more than 2,700kms away. After the desert-like environment in Cache Creek, the countryside is green once again. The map holder on the tank bag starts becoming really useful by now. A throttle lock allows me to take my right hand off the throttle while riding in order to take these pictures.

At a few places along the way, the road is now being improved and expanded into a freeway-like highway. For now, there are only about 50 miles of such roads along the entire route but there will certainly be better roads like these in the future.

Shopping for souvenirs at a gift shop along the way. Note Flags of USA, Great Britain, and Canada.

By noon, the temperatures are about 30C and gets a bit cooler when it is overcast. It is summer after all. The lack of any traffic along the road is typical. Populations and cities become smaller as we go farther north. Why? The reason becomes very clear if you stay around for winter!

Stopping for a Moose-burger at Hixon, BC. Culinary adventures and motorcycling always seem to go together always.

Next major towns are Williams Lake and Prince George. Then the road goes uphill as it begins to cross the Canadian Rockies eastbound. Sorry, we couldn’t take pictures while doing the twisties. Just too dangerous. Besides, we are running out of time and need to concentrate on making good speed in order to make Dawson Creek at a reasonable hour. After crossing the Rockies, the road descends down to the flat prairie lands of central Canada. The Canadian Rockies around these parts are extremely scenic and make for an excellent destination in itself.