Prudhoe Bay bound!
 

The bike is packed and ready to go, I'm ready to go, all that's left is to actually get this show on the road!

Thursday after work, I head north!

Trip shook me down on FB earlier to be sure to post the Spot Tracker link here for anybody that was interested, so here they are.

Spot Tracker

Spotwalla



And the obligatory pic of the bike loaded and ready to go.

Looking forward to following your trip on here. Have fun and be safe!!

Where's the rifle mount?

Over pack much? Take pictures, your spot report will be followed intently, I just bookmarked it

I embedded the spotwalla. Leave already so the error message goes away.

Cool thanks man.

I'm ready to go I promise! Spot will go active Thursday around 5pm. :D

Hey, when you swapped out the IMS tank for the stocker did you look to see if there was a radiator guard protecting the radiator? Its very vunerable to damage in an off with just the stock plastic shrouds.

The bike had an aftermarket radiator guard on it when I got it. It didnt' work with the IMS, so I left it off. When I put the stock tank back on this weekend, the radiator guard went on with it.

ETA: did I look to see? LOL. You remember I had this thing apart to every nut and bolt right? haha!

cool beans

Have a great trip!

Right on!!!

Let the mass "living vicariously through Tracy" begin!!

Be safe, man....and bring back a ton of pics for the rest of us. :dthumb:

ride safe!

Have a great trip!

Ain't that the truth...

Have a good trip, my friend.
We'll grab Mexican Martinis when you get back. :dthumb:

Sounds like a plan Greg! I'll be ready for a leisurely 1000 mile weekend on the BMW after I get back. :D

I've got the bike totally packed now. I doubt I'll sleep much tonight. Hopefully I can leave work early, but with being gone for 25 days, I don't think they'll be too sympathetic to my plight. LOL

Safe journey, keep us updated if you can.

Good luck bro... you're goona have a blast... My dad and I saw 26 individual Black bear on our trip down in May... not much else, but every other time I've seen shit tons of bison and caribou

Have fun, dude. Safe travels!

Well, I made it to work. LOL.

Didn't sleep much last night, which I expected. I have to go to a meeting with another guy about 2 hours out of town today, so at least I won't be sitting in my office staring at the bike all day.

Hopefully I can get out of work early. The Spot will go live as soon as I roll outta here. :D

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I've been looking forward to this one for a long time.

Have a GREAT trip, Trace! Swing by Sturgis on the way back and say hello. I'm heading up there next week.

Still not gone, get on the damn road already :nee:

Definitely, get moving slacker!

Good luck and stay safe on the trip, it should be one hell of an adventure.

Weird. Maybe he forgot to turn on the spottracker or it's not working. I got him just north of Perry as of a few minutes ago.

It's on, sucks to be viewing it from this side of the spot.

Seems to be working for me - I see him as being in Nebraska right now

Awesome

I am in Nebraska now. :D Rolled in about 12:30 this morning.

Hit some nasty rain, thunder, lightning, the whole smack. I think Mother Nature was welcoming me back to the road.

The Spot was having some line-of-sight issues I think. I didn't have it mounted at the highest point on the bike. I do now, so hopefully tomorrow it will be more reliable with pinging the sats.

We are heading out in the morning, so there won't be any Spot activity today. Sorry 'bout that Trip. LOL

Looks like he's almost in North Dakota now. :cool:

Be safe, have fun and I wish I was on this ride too :lol:

Jeff

damn he's going that route... fuck... that's a boring ass ride... especially I29... and windy as fuck. hope it's a tail wind... (always a head wind no matter if i'm going north or south...:lol:)

We are in Regina, Saskatchewan tonight. This province is flatter than Kansas!

Pics or it nevah happened!!!! :lmao:

Quebec is worse...it's flat...and boring...and those bastards Quebec-ouis will be standing around speaking English to each other until you walk up and ask for directions and then they'll shrug their shoulders, start babbling in French and walk away. :lol:

Ride safe, man!!

You should go in the winter....it is cold as fuck there. :lol:

I just looked at the MAP...does he realize it is 4300 miles from OC, OK to Prudhoe Bay, AK? lol

thats like a trip to the store for the rest of us with all the miles he does

It is fuck'n flat! that's for sure... but like Cutty said... at least it's not winter (I drove through there in Feb on the way to MS... -30... fun stuff..

you'll hit some nice country tomorrow depending on where you stop... probably Dawson I'm think'n, past there the towns get really spread out.

He's doing in one ride what most riders around here do in 3 seasons :lol:

It took me a year and a half to put 4500 miles on the ZX6rredflip, granted they are cayon/track only miles.

I just realized this 4300 miles is only one way. fak

Did he go with others on this trip?

Some people take the ferry from Alaska back down to Washington, and then ride home from there.

I think Grex's plan might have been to stop by Ushuia for lunch on his way back to OKC from prudhoe

When it comes to motorcycle trips, that boy does everything the hard way. :rolleyes:

I took the Ferry up to AK 6 years ago... a cool trip... and I'd do it again, if it was that you'd miss some of the most amazing country by doing so.

oh and it's FUCKING EXPENSIVE! course it's a couple night journey and I had a truck and Uhaul (and a berth w/shower and window)

Looks like he will be in AK in a day or so.

We are in Beaver Creek, YT this morning. Heading to Fairbanks today. Saw a grizzly bear yesterday on the side of the road. He growled at me. Wish I had that on my helmetcsm!!

I can imagine you probably need to wash the suit after that... fuck'n Grizzly's are huge...

saw a bunch of black bear on the way down, but I think I could take'm :lol:

Dude, you ran from bees, no way you are taking on a bear

Unless it's a stone bear, then we will moleste it.

fuck'n 20 on 1!


no... I never did... that was all you and NtS

And Kathy

werd

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...28_5364900.jpg

Congrats on making Alaska.

We are in Fairbanks now. Auxiliary fuel cans acquired. Tomorrow morning, we ride north. :)

Good luck, bud. Be safe out there. :dthumb:

It is Saturday morning. You know what that means. Spot will go live in an hour or so.

Beautiful sunny morning. First stop, Yukon Camp for gas then the Arctic Circle sign. Then, onward north. :)

nice... now's were it'll get interesting! good luck be safe!

I was following that road all the up to the bay...and it doesn't quite make it all the way there.

It does, look at the satellite images, there are a ton of roads up there that aren't on the regular map

most of those roads are only complete though in the winter... like the one to Dead Horse

But the one that goes to the bay is open all year round

OIC...but are there any fuel stations?redflip

yup

Yup, they have 2! But I believe they both only sell diesle and 87. And they are fairly expensive, between 6 & 8 per gallon last I checked

We made it! 12 hours but we are here. The first 350 miles were easy. The last 150 were hell.

Tomorrow we go back to Fairbanks.

Check your oil levels. Take pictures

nice... Congrats!

Outstanding....great work!

Ride safe...I'm looking forward to the pics!

Doesn't look like you made it the whole way there. Better not turn around just yet. ;)

I grabbed a screenshot of your entire spottracker page of the trip up there.

Awesome, congratulations on making it.

That kicks ass

Ok guys and girls, as I'm sure you've figured out if you're watching the Spot, we made it back to Fairbanks safe and sound.

The trip up the Dalton was perfect weather. The trip down was anything but.

We had rain for the first half (240 miles) from Prudhoe Bay to Coldfoot, 3" mud for 20 miles, and snow for another 30 miles over the Brooks Range.

Gas in Prudhoe Bay was $5.39 a gallon. I would have felt better about that if I hadn't gotten some water in my tank. The bike died 40 miles north of Coldfoot, in the rain, in 3" of muddy muck. It took an hour to get that fixed.

There is no lonelier feeling than to have your bike die in the middle of the Alaska forest and not know why, or what you're going to do, or if you'll even be able to fix it. LOL

We are staying in Fairbanks for an R&R day today.

It's the tough days that will stick with ya, suck it up nancy, quit yer bitching.

hells yeh, tell him to stop acting like a pussy, just because he had to wrestle the bear down doesnt mean shit in my book.

trace, still need pictures

Here's a pic for ya. This was taken at the Arctic Circle on the way back down the Dalton, after all the mud and rain.

You'll notice my suit isn't black anymore. That's Dalton Highway mud. We hit the carwash today for the bikes and gear, and my suit it still that shade of brown. LOL

Your suit makes a nice shade of brown

yeah the silt up there is a PITA to get out of any sort of fabric let alone off your plastics (in break up, when the ice melts from winter, I'd get all over my sport bike)

looks like he went west of fairbanks for some reason, but back in fairbanks.

His rear tire blew out 30 miles out of Fairbanks yesterday. After the fix, they called it a day back in Fairbanks. Hopefully that's the last of the bad luck.

that sucks

Just to steal his thunder

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4651623_n.jpg

How does it snow in Aug? What elevation was that?

same way the ground never thaws north of a certain latitude... We had snow in Anchorage in July when I was stationed there (I was in Iraq at the time) and it's elevation is 10'

Anchorage was usually pretty steady on the weather front... but every once in a while, Snow would fall... I remember flurries in Aug but it wasn't cold enough to stick...

Back in the US. Enroute to Seattle after dinner in Vancouver. Today was the first day we have seen sunshine in a week. Rain all week wore me out.

Thats because canada is a country full of socialist pigs

Spot still shows you in Vancouver as of this post.

We are in Jackson Hole, Wyoming tonight. 69 degrees and feels great this evening. Spending the day here tomorrow too, and back on the road Friday.

I'll be home Sunday afternoon. I'm sure ready, but has it really been 3 weeks already? LOL

I was starting to wonder.
Seemed like it took you four days to get to Alaska and two weeks to get back. :lol:

Would you be in a rush to return to Oklahoma?

Fair point :lol:

Hahaha

wow, what a trip man.


hope to see more pix

Looks like you made it back, congrats on staying safe and having one hell of a trip.

Thanks goof.

I did make it home safe and sound this afternoon, but not without my share of difficulties to handle on the road, a few of which have been mentioned here already.

Here's the official incident tally in order:

1) Flat front tire in Prudhoe Bay the morning we woke up there. (I think it was sabotaged, more on that later)
2) Got 2 gallons of water at $5.10 a gallon out of the fuel pump in Prudhoe Bay getting ready to leave. (This caused the bike to die 40 miles north of Coldfood in a 5" muddy muck, while in a heavy rain. Took an hour to sort out.)
3) Lost the headlight high beam coming off the Dalton on the way to Fairbanks.
4) Rear tire belts split and popped the tube. Had to get a new tire. (This one was my fault.)
5) Lost the headlight low beam 100 miles from Missoula, Montana as it was getting dark. (Had to ride 5' off my buddy and ride by his headlight. I don't recommend this. Ever. It sucked. Alot.)
6) Speedometer quit leaving Missoula, Montana the next morning.

And the grand finale....

7) The clip on the chain master link ditched out on me somewhere between Omaha, Nebraska and Topeka, Kansas this morning. The ONE thing I didn't have a spare of. Dammit. Ended up having to get a U-Haul, loading the KLR up, and doing the last 300 miles that way, but at least I got home in one piece.

It was a hell of a trip, and I'll try to start writing up the ride report in a day or three.

Official day/mileage tally is 25 days and 9,845 miles.

Congrats on getting home safely.

Sounds more like life with a KLR to me.

sounds like an adventure...


you got home safe and in one piece. sounds like the perfect trip

Everything is an adventure. It was just a joke...

yeah hence my comment... I remember the thread about adventure... just wondered if you did

9k in 25 days...Hell it took me 2 years to break 9k on my bike.

Glad you made it home safely! Looking forward to the massive amount of pics and other details. :)

I've enjoyed the thread... I just wish I had this type of time off. WOW