DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

I thought about getting a selfie sitting at a Starbucks so as not to disappoint those that think us GS guys only know how to do that. Who knew that crossing all those fly-over states there'd be no Starbucks anywhere. I couldn't even find one in Calgary.

Good start to the trip!

@Kyler, this should be moved to DAMN rides, no?

I’m on my way back to Calgary today to start the real adventure up to Tuk on the Arctic Ocean. I’ll try to post some photos when I’ve got internet access

Hope I remember where I left my keys.

Twist wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 24, 2023 1:42 pm

I’m on my way back to Calgary today to start the real adventure up to Tuk on the Arctic Ocean. I’ll try to post some photos when I’ve got internet access

Hope I remember where I left my keys.

Goodluck!

Bucho wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 24, 2023 2:18 pm

Twist wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 24, 2023 1:42 pm

I’m on my way back to Calgary today to start the real adventure up to Tuk on the Arctic Ocean. I’ll try to post some photos when I’ve got internet access

Hope I remember where I left my keys.

Goodluck!

Thanks! Big Ben will seem like it’s in my backyard after this trip. It’s still on the list.

Phase 2 is complete - We made it! More to say after I've caught up with all my honey-dos at home.

I'm very envious! Well done!

Awesome!

We had a great ride from Calgary through Banff, the Icefields Parkway, and Jasper National Park. Banff was a circus, very busy with tourists leaving us with this as the best opportunity for a photo with the Banff sign:



Icefields Parkway:









Watson Lake sign forest:



The ALCAN highway on the way to Whitehorse:

We knew there was a possibility on this entire trip that wildfires could affect our route but were given a surprise by a Yukon511 electronic sign as we rolled in to Whitehorse - the Dempster was closed until further notice due to the fires. CRAP!



Some online research and talking to a few other riders that had been turned around left us feeling like our destination goal might not happen and we considered our options. One option was to take a private charter up to Tuk but decided against it for two reasons: 1) flying up there would have been cool but would have made us tourist vs steely-eyed adventure riders; and 2) it was $14,000 and nobody was willing to whip out their Amex and take one for the team. We decided to depart Whitehorse for Dawson on the hope that it would reopen and formulated a plan B if it didn't: we'd probably stay a day or two in Dawson to give it a chance to open and if not, we'd take a ride up and over the Top of the World Highway through Chicken in to Alaska and down to Tok before turning back south. The ride up to Dawn is a really scenic ride that posed its own challenges of many miles under construction where we rode over muddy gravel. But the views were nice:



The Dempster intersects the Klondike highway about 25 miles outside of Dawson where we met a small group of riders that had been among the first ones released that were trapped north of the fire closure - the road was open now!!

Before photo at the start of the Dempster:


Dawson is indeed a pretty cool destination in and of itself. Dirt streets and the 1800's facades on the buildings many dating back to the gold rush:



All it needed was hitching posts for our "steeds."