Some Alaska Photos
Many followers of my adventure have been hoping to see more photos. My apologies for not posting sooner, getting back to the world means getting back to being responsible and catching up on things. I recognize that I need to make time to organize photos and videos so that I do not let them gather…
After Action Report #1
Now that I have been back for a while and had a bit of time to contemplate my journey I will try and report intelligently on the good and bad of my trip to help those that plan on similar adventures. The first report is on riding gear. I rode with a Shoei GT Air…
An Unseen Force Pulling Me Home
Joe made breakfast to send me off on my final leg and I was on the road at 8 AM. I really felt a strong force tugging me home so I rode at 75-80 on the 101. Normally I would take highway 154 through the Santa Ynez Valley but it is closed due to a…
The End is Near
July 14 The campground in Big Basin Redwoods was very quiet and the night got very dark. The tree canopy was probably covering 80% of the sky so even though the moon was bright it had little effect. I awoke before 6 AM and started to get packed and then fed the shower with a…
A Long Ride Through Northern California
July 13 I awoke in Gold Beach and was on the road by 7:30. I had debated what route to take after getting back into California. I have debated for days on whether to go to the sierras or not. I like the east side around Mammoth and Devil’s Postpile and I like the west…
More Twisty Roads
July 12 I was up early and out of camp a bit after 7am. I rode south toward Hoodoo Butte on route 22 and then 126 to Eugene. The road to Hoodoo was more of the great twisties like the previous day. Around Hoodoo the terrain is volcanic rock. i am always fascinated by the…
Road Nervana
July 11 Today was the most amazing windy road riding that I can remember. I rolled out of camp in Mount Rainier NP and first rode over the Chinook Pass and then back into the park. The road was great and the views of the mountain were fantastic. I made my way out the southwest…
July 9 and 10
Sunday morning I woke up in a comfortable bed, it was nice. We had a lazy day where we did not do much of anything. I got a tour of Kelly’s and Dirk’s mushroom grow house and learned a bit about growing exotic mushrooms. They are members of a co op that sells mushrooms to…
Back to the Lower 48
July 8 The morning arrived with clear skies and I knew it would be warm so I packed up and hit the road with no warm layers. THe twenty miles into Lillooet were very pleasant at 60 degrees and the winding road had few cars going my direction. I turned on my GoPro at one…
Homeward Bound, Sort Of
July 7 It turns out that the campground is very noisy; I did not know this a month ago when I was in the nice lady’s basement. There were a lot of loud Harley’s and muscle cars making noise in the area and I did not sleep that well so got up a bit late.…
So Long Cassiar Highway
July 6 I awoke to a clear day in the mid 50s. I have not had that in quite a while. I rolled out of the campground about 7:30 and had a great ride out of the narrow slit between the mountains. The town was still asleep and the road crews that slowed me up…
Stewart, CA and Hyder, AK
July 5 The ride today was absolutely fantastic. The exact opposite of yesterday’s cold, wet slog. I left Dease lake a bit after eight AM with some overcast but within an hour the sun broke through and did not go away all day. I had set my destination as Stewart Canada right near the bottom…
Oh, Wet Canada
July 3 and 4 Today is the day that Justin and Alla go off on their own so that they can get to the Icefields Parkway while I make my way to the Cassiar Highway. The morning in Skagway is very windy and cool. There are wind warnings on the water so it turns out…
Skagway
July 2 The morning was dry when we got up so once again we got to put away dry tents. Again, the simple things like this are great. We went off to try and find a real breakfast. Haines has three restaurants so the pickings are slim. We chose the Chilkat Restaurant and Bakery (serving…
Haines
July 1 We awoke to perfectly dry tents and a warm morning in the low 60s. The sun was trying hard to shine and succeeded on and off. Today we want to end up in Haines, Alaska. We rode about twenty miles to the Canadian border the check point. The lady was all business and…
June 30
We arose early to get a start on a long day’s ride. A gravel road is like riding twice the distance of a paved road. Our goal was to make it up the Too Cutoff and back on the Alaska highway almost to Canada. Even though there was a slight rain most of the night…
McCarthy
June 29 The day’s goal is ride to McCarthy and the Kennicott copper mine. The Kennicott mine was the richest copper deposit ever found. The ore was 70% copper whereas other mines at the time were 4%. McCarthy was once the largest city in Alaska when a billion dollars of copper was brought out in…
Leaving Homer
June 28 We arose early so that we could get on the road and make some miles past Anchorage. The weather was not in our favor and our desire to go to Seward was overcome by the forecast of rain. We saw a good deal of the Seward peninsula so missing Seward is not a…
Homer
June 27 There was no rain in the morning when we rolled out of bed and packed our bikes. We made a quick stop for gas and some groceries and then headed to Homer. We have been watching the weather forecasts for days and really want to go the Seward but it is getting soaked…
Denali to Anchorage
June 26 Monday morning we awoke to clear skies and knew this was the day we would see Denali. The morning was warm as we packed our bikes. Our friend Aaron had rolled into camp the night before after his trip to Prudhoe Bay on his KTM500. He, John and Andrew rode the 240 miles…
Denali
June 24, 25 Denali was made a park in 1917; in 1921 seven people visited the park. Today there are about 575,000 visitors each year. If you have ever been to Yosemite in the summer it seems like there are that many people every day. The vast expanse of this 6 million acre park are…
The Denali Highway
June 23 Friday morning we woke to a cloudy day in the high 50s. After packing the bikes we went to the lodge for coffee and found the lone waitress busy because the cook did not show up so she had to do everything. Reliable help can be hard to find in Alaska. We served…
June 22
The day dawned clear and warm in Chena Hot Springs. We went to bed about 1am so we slept in and got a later start than usual, 11am. The ride back to Fairbanks was very scenic and going the other way let us see things we had not seen going in. Justin needed a new…
Dalton Highway
Tuesday we I awoke to rain in Coldfoot. At the next camp there were five other people riding four bikes that came form the D2D. Three of them were set on riding to Deadhorse so they were going to wait the day and see how the weather panned out. I was on the fence since…
June 19
I awoke in the comfortable bed at the U of AK. It never got dark and I am glad I bought an eye shade. You must force yourself to go to sleep. I got the bike packed and got on the road about 9am and had breakfast about 20 miles outside Fairbanks. The day was…
Fairbanks
June 18 The photo is of the Tanana River and the Alaska Range beyond. The camera did not capture the lighting as I saw it and I have not altered the exposure, maybe when I return I will try. The channel in the foreground is a smaller arm of the main channel seen towards the…
Fair Well Dawson, Hello Alaska
The Dust to Dawson activities happened on Friday. They consisted of a Poker Run through the gold country, a banquet and biker games. The poker run has a set number of stops and at each stop the rider draws a card from the deck that has been split up for each stop. The winner of…
Dust to Dawson
June 15 Besides my interest in the gold rush history of the Klondike I planned this trip to be here for the annual motorcycle gathering shortened to D2D. This is the 25th year commemorating the journey of two life long motorcycle friends. One rode here with the ashes of the other. They made a pact…
Gold!
I spent the day in the Klondike gold country. It was worth it. After striking camp and moving to the tent cabin I had reserved months ago I left some gear behind and headed into the hills. My goal was to see Parker Schnabel’s operation and see if I could see the gold dredge that…
Dawson City, Yukon
June 13 What a cool place is Dawson. A lot of old buildings that are in use, or not. I have poked around the town a bit and will do more later. I now comprehend that I really am in a remote area. There are a lot of people around here but if you go…
The Klondike
June 12 Just after going to bed a very light rain began to fall and it kept up all night. It was hardly any rain but a tent makes it seem like much more than it is. It never gets dark this far north. At midnight it is just getting to dusk and the sun…
June 11
The Yukon I awoke at Liard River Hot Springs dry and warm in the lodge. My temporary traveling companion is very easy to get along with and we have very similar philosophies about most things. The room we shared is about the best $60 I ever spent. We have talked with two other riders on…
Day 9
The day dawned clear and sunny. It was still light the night before until almost midnight and the sky lightened in the morning a bit after 4am. In Dawson Creek some locals told me that the area had three different Menonite sects. Some of them were in the samw campground and their kids were making…
Day 8, I Think
It is June 9 and I am sitting in my tent with a light rain falling. I am camped at Charlie Lake just outside of Fort St. John in British Columbia. I spent five hours today riding in rain from prince George to Dawson Creek. I awoke at about 5am in the basement of the…
Day 7
I awoke to a nice dry tent in Lake Louise. It seemed to take forever to get packed and on the road. My neighbors in camp are a couple riding their bicycles from Vancouver to New Foundland. They figure it will take 2.5 months. The Icefields Highway through Banff and Jasper is very scenic. The…
Canada, eh.
Day 6 I left the comfort of Jed and Nancy’s awesome lake front house after they fed me a nice breakfast. The ride north from Flathead Lake was very nice. There were no particularly twisty roads to make things exciting but the day was clear and sunny and the temperature rose into the 70s. It…
Day 4
After last nights drama I awoke to a perfecctly calm and clear morning and all I could think was ‘get me outta here’. I did not even make coffee, I just started cleaning the gear that needed it and packing the bike. I love dealing with a wet tent in the morning. But, at least…
Day 3
It was a nice clear day when I awoke at 530 and started packing up camp. On previous trips I could pack up camp in about an hour but it took longer, probably because I hve more stuff and it needs to be arranged just so. I wanted to ride a bit before breakfast but…
Day 2
I left Berkeley heading for the Sierra Nevada to cross on highway 88 at about 730am. I droned along the I-80 until Hwy 12 to get to Sutter Creek. Not long on the 80 I could swear I smelled pot again, at 830 am; wake and bake. Sure enough, when I passed a articular car…
Finally Off
Day 1 The start of this trip was different than all my previous trips in that I was saying goodbye to my wife and all that is familiar for two months instead of a week or so. It has not really sunk in yet. Soon the ride seemed like numerous other I have taken because…
Final Preparation
I have spent the last several days in final preparation. This involved working out where things get packed and in what order. A few odds and ends had to be procured as well. I have the food I will take, save for perishables that I will get just before leaving. One thing I have learned…
The Bike
If you have read my previous posts you already know that the machine I will be taking on this adventure is a BMW R1200GS Adventure – a 2011 model. There are so many good things already written about this bike that I cannot add anything new. It is an amazing machine. I have had it…
Prologue
How did I get here, to the place where I can go on this epic bucket list adventure? I was born in 1958 and grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. I bought my first motorcycle in 1977 on April 17, which is also my father’s birthday. I plan to ride another 40 years,…
Follow My Motorcycle Trip to Alaska
This blog will chronicle my two month motorcycle trip to Alaska. This trip has been a long time in the making and I am very fortunate to be able to do it. My name is Kevin Gerlock and I live in Fallbrook California. I plan to leave on June 2 and return just before my birthday…
My Motorcycle Adventure to Alaska 