A thing on my bucket list since 2017 has been to ride up and camp on the shore of the Arctic Ocean in Tuktoyaktuk. Before 2017 they only way to get there was on an ice road in the winter (or fly in). Canada undertook a major construction effort to extend the Dempster Highway up beyond Inuvik making it possible to ride to Tuk in the summer.
New tires and fresh oil change done and I'm leaving this coming week to ride out to Iowa to meet up with a friend from Georgia. The first phase of this adventure is to make our way to Calgary where we have a storage place rented for a month. I'll fly back home for obligatory summer vacationing and family reunion fun and return to Calgary in late July where we'll start phase 2 for the 5,000 mi round trip up to Tuktoyaktuk. We're not sure yet what route we'll take back south but could end up just leaving the bikes in Calgary again and flying home in early August. If we do that there will be a phase 3 in September, maybe just to ride the bikes back home but that'll be a September decision.
Anywho, that's the plan but it's not called an adventure for no reason. Stay tuned for updates here.
Tuk for muktuk
Tuk for muktuk
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
Re: Tuk for muktuk
very jealous! Looking forward to trip reports.
Ken
Die young as late as possible, remember who you were before the world told you how it should be. -- Barry Morris
Die young as late as possible, remember who you were before the world told you how it should be. -- Barry Morris
Re: Tuk for muktuk
thats pretty cool Wes.
I know many of us like to poke fun at GS riders for being all kitted up and just making a run to Starbucks…
But DAMN!!! You are really using that bike!
I know many of us like to poke fun at GS riders for being all kitted up and just making a run to Starbucks…
But DAMN!!! You are really using that bike!
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Yamaha TW200
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Yamaha WR250R
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Re: Tuk for muktuk
Pretty cool. Our friend Austin went there last year after we dropped him off at the canadian border at the end of the NEBDR. It was quite the adventure. Several bear encounters (one close enough to damage some bodywork at speed.)
Stephen (not Steve) - '20 Husky 701LR / KTM '20 500 EXC / '17 150 XC-W / '21 E-XC / '21 890R / '19 Sherco 300FST / Sur-Ron LBX / Segway X160 / Sur-Ron Ultra Bee
Re: Tuk for muktuk
Yikes!! We'll pick up some bear spray heads up in to the Yukon. Would very much like to not use it.
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
Re: Tuk for muktuk
It should be an adventure either way.
Beta 390 RS
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Yamaha WR250R
Yamaha TW200
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Re: Tuk for muktuk
I had this trip planned back in 2020 for my 50th..then covid.
It's still on my want to ride list so I will be following your report closely! Ride safe! Take lots of notes!!!!
It's still on my want to ride list so I will be following your report closely! Ride safe! Take lots of notes!!!!
F*** work.
Ride motorcycles.
Ride motorcycles.
Re: Tuk for muktuk
Phase 1 of the adventure is done. I arrived back home today on the red eye flight from Calgary. 2,900 miles in a week and never spent more than an hour all week on the interstate. We had a damp/cool day or two and a stinking hot day or two but the weather was mostly just fine the whole way. Along the way we caught a couple of minor league/college baseball games, visited the Field of Dreams and the Little Big Horn National Battlefield. We camped only once due to heat or evening storms and the one night we camped we almost breifly got blown away but it was short lived and the night time temp was perfect for that one camp.
So we're 45 miles from the Canadian border so we got out our passports to make them handy for the checkpoint. I hear my friend Phil go "ut oh" and he turns pale - he brought an expired PP instead of the valid one. A bunch of phone calls yielded nothing useful so I convinced him to just ride up and try it while his wife was figuring out how to FedX the good one to us. We rolled up to the border, me first, and after taking care of making sure I wasn't doing anything I shouldn't I mention to him Phil's problem. His reaction was "meh, no problem." No delay at all coming in to Canada on his expired PP but now he's got another problem - how to get home. His wife sends the valid PP overnight to our hotel in Calgary only the next morning he gets a call from UPS saying due to a plane mechanical he's not going to get it for several days yet - and we have a flight home that night. He's pondering the hotel bills and being left behind when I suggest to go crash the US consulate in Calgary to see if they can work some magic. He spent half a day in the bowels of the consulate and left with an Emergency US Passport good for a year and was able to make the red eye flight with me back to Atlanta where I connected and got home about 1pm today.
We got the bikes stored in a 10x10 drive up unit near the airport and we'll be flying back up to fetch them to continue the adventure in about 3 weeks.
First b-fast in Romney WVa at a locals hang out for old men. "Where ya head on your bike?" "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Obligatory food porn in Champaign Ill (650 mile day to overnight there):
Home and gun shop of Browning in Nauvoo Illinois:
"If you build it, they will come"
Blue Earth Minnesota (home of the green giant):
Rode through Sturgis and Deadwood:
where the politics were pretty plainly stated:
Little Big Horn Battlefield:
In phase 2 of this adventure up to Tuk, these guys (grizzlies) are on our minds:
And finally, chilling in Calgary waiting on Phil to resolve his passport problem:
It was a great road trip but the real fun begins in phase 2 late July.
So we're 45 miles from the Canadian border so we got out our passports to make them handy for the checkpoint. I hear my friend Phil go "ut oh" and he turns pale - he brought an expired PP instead of the valid one. A bunch of phone calls yielded nothing useful so I convinced him to just ride up and try it while his wife was figuring out how to FedX the good one to us. We rolled up to the border, me first, and after taking care of making sure I wasn't doing anything I shouldn't I mention to him Phil's problem. His reaction was "meh, no problem." No delay at all coming in to Canada on his expired PP but now he's got another problem - how to get home. His wife sends the valid PP overnight to our hotel in Calgary only the next morning he gets a call from UPS saying due to a plane mechanical he's not going to get it for several days yet - and we have a flight home that night. He's pondering the hotel bills and being left behind when I suggest to go crash the US consulate in Calgary to see if they can work some magic. He spent half a day in the bowels of the consulate and left with an Emergency US Passport good for a year and was able to make the red eye flight with me back to Atlanta where I connected and got home about 1pm today.
We got the bikes stored in a 10x10 drive up unit near the airport and we'll be flying back up to fetch them to continue the adventure in about 3 weeks.
First b-fast in Romney WVa at a locals hang out for old men. "Where ya head on your bike?" "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Obligatory food porn in Champaign Ill (650 mile day to overnight there):
Home and gun shop of Browning in Nauvoo Illinois:
"If you build it, they will come"
Blue Earth Minnesota (home of the green giant):
Rode through Sturgis and Deadwood:
where the politics were pretty plainly stated:
Little Big Horn Battlefield:
In phase 2 of this adventure up to Tuk, these guys (grizzlies) are on our minds:
And finally, chilling in Calgary waiting on Phil to resolve his passport problem:
It was a great road trip but the real fun begins in phase 2 late July.
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
Re: Tuk for muktuk
The expired passport sounds stressful. Glad it worked out.
The rest of the trip looked cool
The rest of the trip looked cool
Beta 390 RS
Yamaha WR250R
Yamaha TW200
Surron UltraBee
Yamaha WR250R
Yamaha TW200
Surron UltraBee
Re: Tuk for muktuk
Bruce