Sport-Touring the Dalton Highway?

I appreciate all the work you put into the editing and posting. You have just set the new "standard"!!! I'll be on those roads this summer and your post sure helps. Thanks,

I just want to chime in with everybody else to say thanks for taking the time to edit all the video and posting it. It is truly inspirational.

Rick,

Great ride, good job on the video. Really enjoyed it.

Where to next?

Thanks! Glad you liked it.
I have two trips on my list - the southwestern states/Pacific Coast, and Newfoundland/Labrador.
Hope to do one of them in 2014.

The Alps are fun, I highly recommend it.

Question that I suspect Alcan Rider can answer. The Prudhoe Bay Hotel, was that the old Western Geophysical facility in a previous life? That building looks strangely familiar....

I noticed a bunch of nodwells and vibrator trucks in the video, but they aren't parked in a place that looked familiar.

------I worked up there in the early 80s for Western Geophysical-----

Rick, thanks for the vids,brings back memories,good and bad of my own solo camping trip up this past June. I posted a amatuerish RR. The guys at the camp Dawson city were urging me to ride up to the circle but i am glad I didnt after seeing your pics of the wet slime

There is no way my bike would make it over the high mud berm and no way i would have been able to pick it up if I wen t down. Just doing Top of the World on the Hayabusa almost did me in

My highlight was 37/37A. Fantastic,had to do it twice. It looks like you and i did pretty much the same route,i stopped at aerostich in duluth on the way home. Riding on 2 was a bit of a bitch at times,one town after another. Very slow,frustrating going.

I AM going back up north. Once is not enough.

After all the orders I've placed from Aerostich, it didn't occur to me that they were based in Duluth until I returned home.
If I had known at the time, I would have stopped in just to get out of the deluge and dry out a bit.
But that would have been a bad place to stop when I was soaked through.
I would have completely shattered my trip budget in one hour. :eek1

I watched the part on TOTW and i saw the corner where the grader and i locked horns. Shudder.....he was taking up almost the whole road ( just past chicken) and its a long way down on the other side!

He was gracious enough to back up a bit to let me by.

I was interested in the hay river part as thats next for me. What was your route?

Hay Lake in the NWT?

That was one of the surprise jewels of the trip. I'm glad I didn't decide to skip it just to save time.
I left Whitehorse early in the morning and went to Fort Nelson, BC.
Filled up with gas, grabbed a sandwich, and backtracked a bit to head north on the Liard Highway (77).
That road was mostly brand-new pavement (not even lined yet), and very little traffic all the way to the NWT border (100 miles).
After crossing into NWT, it's all gravel - another 25 miles to Fort Liard.
(That was a +720 mile day, fueled by my pent-up energy from waiting 3 days for the Alaska Highway to re-open.)

The Hay Lake Campground has a big sign on the right before you enter town.
Free campground with a water tank, pit toilet, nice shelter, no other campers, and a beautiful lake.
Pristine solitude.

Really nice ride report. That's what it's all about in my opinion. Did you ever have an occasion to drop the bike? Some of those mud roads and the deep gravel looked challenging. And if I'm reading your fuel log correctly the price of fuel in Canada is about one third of the USA. Interesting. I spent quite a while in Calgary back in '04 and '05 but don't recall seeing a lot of difference in prices. Thanks for sharing this!

Great story. I was there about the same time. Cheers!

Price in Canada is priced by the liter. That would make the price about 1/3 of the US priced gallon.

Don't mean to butt in here, but gas is measured in liters in Canada. Multiply the cost by 3.8 and you'll know the cost per gallon. It's a bit more expensive up there; fuel, food and lodging.

edit: Since I'm butting in here, I'll tell a story. I was on a ride to Hyder and stopped in a town after crossing the border to change some money and get lunch. Went into a small grocery and asked whether they could make a sandwich. The girl said, "Sure." I told her I wanted one with about a quarter pound of meat on it and she said, "How much is that?" I should have known better, since I've been married to a Canadian for 30 years, but I replied, "You know, four ounces." Then she started doing the math. "Let's see, that works out to about 113 grams. Is that what you want?" I smacked my head and said, "Yup." She made a heck of a sandwich while we talked about why the US doesn't use the metric system.

Yes, I managed to drop it twice, but never while I was moving.

Once in the parking lot just as I was leaving town, and once in Washington............

I pulled over to shoot some video, and balanced the bike precariously on the side stand since the shoulder was sloping severely. While I was carefully shooting a panorama, I noticed something heavy beginning to move. :eek1
By the time I realized it, it was too late. It went all the way over and "highsided" me across the ground.
It was hilarious.
A couple of guys in a truck stopped and helped me get it upright.

Oh well. I might as well share it with the world. The secret is out now.

Here's the video I was shooting when it happened:

http://youtu.be/yJ29DWBxg_Q

.

I just found out that I have deleted the notes I took with the names of the people I met along the way, but maybe someone here will see a familiar face.

This is the Canadian woman who was stranded on the Alaska Highway, and I towed her back to the Canadian Customs office.




I met this couple from Australia when I was on my way back down the Dalton Highway at the Yukon River station. They flew to Fairbanks and rented a GS to ride the Dalton.




I met this fellow in Fairbanks. He also stayed at the University dorm.




This father/son team was on a ride they'll never forget. I met them in Tok, I think. He had just installed a custom made set of handguards.




I asked this guy for suggestions on a place to eat in Dawson. It turned out that he worked for the Visitor Center and knew every place in town. However, I didn't follow his urging to experience a Sour-Toe Cocktail... :eek1

Rick,
After seeing your perfect ride and superb videos its nice to see that you too have your moments. Thanks - I think that makes the rest of us feel a whole lot better.

Nick

That was a nasty looking shoulder, and man, I hate it when that happens! As for the liter vs gallons, what was I thinking? I knew that, just had a brain fart. Thanks for sharing the video of the tip over.

Rick, something I've wanted to do for a long time. Thanks for the inspiration. At 54, I figure I'll be able to make it happen in the next few years.

Rick, do you mean great slave Lake ...? I amassuming when you got over the nwt border, you took a right onto that little road on the map. I am asking because I don't think I see a hay lake but do you mean Hay river.? At the top of # 2 ? Sorry, just looked at the map, not a right, but straight through to the end of 2.

Sorry - no.
Hay Lake is just a small campground & lake in Ft. Liard, NWT, only 25 miles north of the BC border on 77.
It's about 130 miles north of Fort Nelson, BC.