2 Texans to Alaska (and back)...

I am in going to Glacier N P this June,,,,Great RR

not too much info and not too little... just right
and great pics!

still enjoying every word and image
thanks for taking us along on your journey

Great report so far... love the photos!!

I have subscribed to this one....

Pat in NH

I have a ride planned around the country this summer that has a stop in Vegas for a conference. I was thinking I'd continue on to Alaska via the coastal route, but you're making me seriously weigh going inland. Now give me more!

Amazing how many people came up last year and I missed them :eek1

Great RR - I'm lovin' it!

where are you located in Alaska?

Huh - thought that was in my profile before :huh Guess I missed filling in a city-ish location.

Ah well, all fixed now

I actually grew up in Santa Rosa, CA and that area. Still have family doing grapes in the Alexander Valley.

My buddy and I will probably be riding thru there after the Dalton on our way back south in June. I'll pm ya later

Banff NP, Alberta to Dawson Creek, BC

Day 8 - June 7, 2010
Mileage Today - 483
Total Trip Mileage - 3,351

We awoke to the pitter-patter of rain falling on the tent fly. It's bad enough that every morning you have to stuff all of your living/sleeping quarters into a couple of small stuff sacks, but when it's raining, it makes it that much worse. The motivation is gone at that point, and you try to sleep some more so that maybe when you wake back up, the sun has come out and everything is dry. This hasn't happened for me ever, and today would be no exception. So we pack up everything in the rain, roll the tent up (wet) and hope that wherever we are camping tonight will be sunny and the tent will have time to dry back out before we have to get in.

Hiding out from the rain, having our Canadian (Columbian) coffee:






The stretch of road between Banff and Jasper National Parks is known as "Ice Fields Parkway" or something similar to that. There are several glaciers that are viewable from the roadway during this stretch. Many have melted and retreated tremendously (argue amongst yourselves to determine reasons, i.e. global warming, smiting, friction). It was a truly beautiful ride, but it was also slightly miserable with a hint of numb extremities thrown in for good measure. Something about "Ice Fields Parkway" and 43 degrees does not mix well. At least it was raining and not snowing.

Ice Fields Parkway:
















We took this crappy picture of our first Bald Eagle sighting:



Showing off my fancy rain gear gloves. I think I can also handle a fairly stiff concentration of sulfuric acid with them as well. Thank you Harbor Freight.



After about 3 hours we were finally heading East and descending from the Rockies into the foothills where we would again turn North and head for Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

We headed into the town of Hinton for gas. It was early afternoon, and we talked about potentially camping somewhere around there. It had been a pretty cold ride so far, but the weather seemed to be better in the direction we were headed, so we decided to push on and see if we could make Dawson Creek. A few weeks later, I found out that Hinton had a pretty gnarly hail storm later that day, so it was a good thing that we pushed on.


Backtracking a couple of miles after filling up. That would be our turn:



Almost to Dawson Creek:



Something about the BC sign has always bugged me. I have seen it a ton of times in other ride reports, and it just seems out of place. Looks more like a sign for a shopping mall or something .


And so it begins...



Camping tonight was at a camp park on the edge of town.



The time changed again when we entered BC and we had no idea what time it was. Subsequently we missed the "last load" deadline at the camp laundry, so we sauntered into to town to waste away the remainder of our evening doing laundry.

Tomorrow is our first day on the Alcan - not quite what I was expecting :huh.


jordan

Super RR and pic's!

Since you are posting last summer's trip, I assume you made it home!


Waiting for More....


Lance

Great ride report, thanks for sharing your adventure

Enjoying your report. Thanks for sharing it with us.

still enjoying every word and picture
love the ICE FIELD PARKWAY images.... just gorgeous
numbing cold? maybe
once-in-a-lifetime experience... DEFINITELY

thanks for the ride

I'm in!! Great report so far!

Keep it coming. Loving it.

Looks like the camp spot I used this summer at Dawson creek nice report.

Dude, do you realize how lucky you are? Every picture of your wife shows a smiling face and an adventurer's spirit. Great ride report....I'm in. Have I mentioned how lucky you are?

MK160

Subscribed! Thanks for posting!

Oh boy, do I !
And to top it all, she rides too.





This summer we will be doing a 2texans on the TAT (west) on 250's, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We need to finish this write-up first.


And by the way...

Thanks to everyone for the comments, it really helps motivate me to get theses days hammered out and posted up. To all you guys writing Ride Reports: It is amazing the amount of time it takes to do these. Anyhow, back to work...


jordan