Trip Pictures Posted.

Hi folks -

I have posted the pictures from the trip that I took with my Nikon
camera as opposed to the camera-phone pics that I have been posting here.

You can find the new pics at the following link

Alaskan Tour Pics

Thanks for following along!

best -

mqqn

Made it back home after a 26 hour marathon ride,

Wes left Saskatoon at 7:00am their time, and arrived back in Peoria at 11:00am the following day.

That was quite a ride. Justin stopped in Rockford at his parents house, and Russ and I continued on home.

My speedometer had quit working west of Edmonton, so I do not know the exact mileage yet, but it is somewhere around 9800 miles total.

Total damage to my bike: two engine mount bolts, broken windscreen, broken headlight glass and many scratches on the gas tank from the tank bag and the dirt and crap that got under it on the gravel roads.

The front forks are beat up with little pits from the gravel as well.

I would not take a motorcycle that I considered a showpiece on a trip like this.

I slept for 5 hours then got up when Maggie got home :^). I then slept until noon the next day, and went to bed at 7:30pm last night and just got up.

Now I have some yard work to take care of.

Thanks to all of you who were following us here - it was fun for us to know that you all were watching our progress.

mqqn

Alexandria Mn.

Stopped @ Doolittles Woodfire Grill for dinner. Exellent!

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escape from Canada!

This was at the US customs before going into North Dakota. Glad to be back in the USA! Gas was 2.43 a gallon at the first gas stop in Rapid City - we paid as much as 1.43 a litre in Canada. Stinky!

Kawie shop in Winnipeg.

I stopped here when I saw this shop to buy a speedo cable for my bike. It did not fix the speedo - so it must be in the drive unit on the front wheel. Oh well - no speedo until I get back home. After riding this bike so much, I can tell the speed by the tachometer, but I really miss the odometer....

Yorktown SK.

Getting closer to the border, eh?

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Just a little bit south of Saskatoon Saskatchewan.

Well, right in Sasketoon but was referencing the old song. We did 750 miles today AND got Russ a tire mounted. We are now about 1600 miles from home and should re-patriate late tomorrow. Lars will stop in Rockford @ his parents and Russ and I will blaze for home. We will just nap @ a rest stop somewhere to expedite. I will post a link here to the pics we allt took with our real cameras. I'll update tomorrow when back in the land of miles and familiar temperatures.

Beaver Lodge Alberta.

Russ lucks out and gets a tire at the first Honda shop we see. They even have the correct (odd) size for the connie. Correction to last post- Port St John is in BC.

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Port St. John Alberta.

We did 950 miles yesterday. Now about 2200 miles to home for me. FB broke it's speedo cable yest. afternoon so will try to find one in Edmonton today.

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Watson Lake BC.

The famous sign forrest. Google it. The roads in this part of BC (and YT for that matter) are not good. I will elaborate when I can post from a computer.

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Back in Haynes Junction Yukon Territory heading for home.

We got a nice room at the Kluane Park Inn, one of only two doubie sidded bars in Canada. We have over 5000 miles now. Lars and I wore out our back tires in one week without doing burnouts lol. Verizon told me that they do not guarantee data service in Alaska or Canada. I have been queing up messages while behind the 'toque-curtain'.

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Toms house

Palmer AK. Tom is one of Justins friends who fed us steak and beer and let us use his garage to change our oil etc. Then he put us up for the night. Great people! Thanks Tom!

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Anchorage AK.

I broke two more motor mount bolts on the way here. I have extra bolts now and can change one in 15 mins. We went through Wasilla en route. Another spectacular ride.

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The White Moose Healy AK.

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Washing the crud off the bikes.

At Fairbanks. There is crap everywhere!

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In Healy, AK.....posting from pc..

Hi peeps -
We are at the White Moose Motel in Healy AK, in the Denali Range.

Larson is playing with my D40 while I am using his netbook to post here.

We went into the Dalton Highway portion of our trip only to find that there is no cell capability at all north of Fairbanks, so I apologize to those who were following the blog....I just had no way of posting!

The Dalton Highway is a two-lane road that encompasses almost every road surface that you are going to encounter on Earth.

The road starts in Livengood AK, and continues for 480 miles up to Deadhorse Camp at Prudhoe Bay.

We rode the 66 miles from Fairbanks to the start of the Dalton, and you immediately run into a fairly normal looking gravel road, not unfamiliar to you in the cornfields of central Illinois, the difference being the voluminous heavy industrial traffic - that is to say LARGE trucks, many designated "oversized loads" and accompanied by leading and trailing pickup-trucks with orange strobes and signage.

The road is 2/3 paved (such that it is...) from Livengood to Coldfoot, but the paved portions are littered with "damaged road" signs that indicate to those on a motorcycle that you will have something to dodge coming up....

You will see every surface from nice, smooth, marked pavement to large, coarse one-lane gravel. Remember, this road, although now designated a scenic drive by the state of Alaska, is really just a way to get industrial equipment and supplies up to Deadhorse Camp and support the Alaskan Pipeline.

The most challenging aspect to the road from my perspective was the routine maintenance crews consisting of a pump-trailer to pump water into a water truck, which then applied the water to the road (mixed with calcium-chloride to give the gravel dust a concrete-like consistency). The result was a slippery surface so slick that I was forced to slow to a crawl on these sections. This is where you will have trouble if you are on a bike equipped with sport-bike tires, as were my two companions and myself.

Aside from those wet sections, the road was either bumpy pavement or rough gravel. We could easily manage a 55mph average speed on the road.

We were the only people here on sport bikes, all of the other cycles were of the "adventure" style, meaning that they were part dirt-bike, and part street bike.

People up here thought we were crazy to ride our bikes up here - as did most of our friends and relatives back home lol.


Tonight I sit at a comfortable and clean motel called the White Moose in a small town in Denali called Healy.

We will post more pics, and when I return we will post high quality pics and HD video of our adventure.

Tomorrow we will head for Anchorage, where we have new tires for our machines (we have over 5000 miles on the brand new tires we mounted prior to leaving) and will change the oil in the bikes - then we will be heading across Canada via Edmonton and Winnipeg, entering the states near the North Dakota/Minnesota border.

Thanks for all of you checking in on us - you have added an interesting aspect to our trip!

best

mqqn / Lars / Krazi

Back at the start of the haul-road.

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At Deadhorse.

Got there at 7pm. Not much there. Very desolate. It was 39 degrees F, and the locals were in t-shirts. Cell is not available for data north of Fairbanks.

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Broke windshield on FB.

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Breakfast @ Coldfoot.

Mmmm. Fresh blueberries.

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Atigun Pass.

4630 ft elevation

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Arctic Circle.

Arrived at Arctic circle at 10:30 pm with the sun high in the sky. Russ's repair holding up.

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Yukon River Crossing.

About half-way between Fairbanks and Coldfoot. Sunny and warmer, mid 70's. We notice a MAJOR problem with Russ's bike. More in later post. No cell til Deadhorse.

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Broken engine mount!

At Yukon River Crossing I notice Russ's fairing is broken at all the screw lobcations. Inspection reveals broken engine mount on right side and missing on right side. The people @ the gas stop here are awesome and let us work on the bike with full use of the old tire shop on the property. We find just the right bolts and barn-yard the bike back together. Someone is looking out for us, as this could have been a trip-ender for Russ and curtailed our push up the Dalton.

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Block heater plugs.

All vehicles up here have them. We saw several moose up here already. Black bears are as common as raccoons are at home.

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Broken trunk lock on FB.

This cheap trunk gave me the whole 25 dollars.

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Fairbanks is here according to Justin.

In the northernmost Dennys in the world.

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Northernmost Dennys .

In Fairbanks. Leaving now for the Dalton Highway.

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Fairbanks. AK.

We made Fairbamks by 11:15pm. The sun 'set' at 12:40 but the pic above shows as dark as it gets. The roads and scenery were awesome again except the last 120 miles or so, which were a mix of frost heaves and dips from the perma-frost melting. Gas is 3.43 / gallon. Cell coverage was very spotty in the Yukon.

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Alaska border

Of course there is a tour bus here taking pics.

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Haynes Junction YT.

Awesome place to eat ! Corner of Logan and Kluane.

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FWD:Blackbird electric problem.

Quickly resolved.

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Whitehorse YT

Had fresh blueberry pancakes after working on fat-bastards fairing. It is sunny and around 65. North, to Alaska. Fuel is getting more spendy @ 1.25 per litre. Data cell coverage is getting spotty.

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Teslin YT.

This porch became our accomodations after we found no fuel while trying to ride all the way to White Horse. This morning Russ noticed my left tip-over bar lower mount was gone. I found the bracket when I removed the fairing. Off to Fairbanks.

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Teslin YT.

This porch became our accomodations after we found no fuel while trying to ride all the way to White Horse. This morning Russ noticed my left tip-over bar lower mount was gone. I found the bracket when I removed the fairing. Off to Fairbanks.

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Major catastrophie.

This is what 50 dollars Canadian looks like when your unopened litre of Jack rolls out of your saddle-bag.

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Fort Nelson BC.

Primarily known as a place to buy fuel. More 160 klick running.

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Wonowon BC. 66 and sunny.

Great road with big sweeping turns. We had to stop and top-off due to distance to next services.

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Here we go!

1500 miles to Fairbanks.

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Early start from Dawson Creek.

The roads are pretty good to this point, much better than in Ill. We were able to run 160 clicks for a long way. We saw our 3rd bear and our first moose. This town is mile one of the Alaskan Highway.

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Leroy at Grande Cache. Great friendly people and pups up here.

Still chilly but sun is out. Saw elk, black bear and huge deer. On to find a place to camp. We will have sun until around eleven pm.

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The scenic route to Alaska

Brule AB. We see the first sign that has Alaska on it.

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Jasper BC

63 and sunny. The ride to here was SPECTACULAR!

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Shane checks air filter.

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Happy birthday to mqqn.

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Lake Louise BC on my birthday.

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The bikers laundry

I

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Lars innovates. Leaving Banff on highway 1A then north past ice field.

Sex-say!

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FWD:The Parmigan Inn Banff BC.

We enjoyed a nice meal at Giorgios Trattoria and now enjoying a nice room , knowing that tomarrow will be a tent on ground affair. We will say goodbye to Shane in the morning as he planned to return home.

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helps to attach pic.

Rain continues. Russ lost the low-beam on his headlight. I brought a spare.

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Banff.

Rain continues. Russ lost the low-beam on his headlight. I brought a spare.

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The first rain.

Dennys in Calgary. It is rainy and cold. Not making good time. Canadians do not use their headlights in the rain. Whats up with that, eh?

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Slow at the border.

Sweetgrass Mt

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