North America in no rush

[Tenere Traveller Mike]

Hi All,

I am planning to fly my bike & myself to Halifax (from UK) or possibly Quebec around the 1st June for the start of my long trip.
I have purposely not planned much but the start is; Trans Labrador Highway followed by James Bay & Trans Taiga Road, wander across the rest of Canada heading for Inuvik.
After Canda then hope to do Alaska before heading all the way South. I am on no real time scale and do not intend to ride interstates and basicaly see where the wind and peoples suggestions take me.
I realise I can not possibly take in everything, but if anyone has some "must sees" I will start to plot them on a map and see how many I can make.
Thanks and hope to meet some of you along the way.
Mike

[markharf]

First thing you want to do is figure out how you're going to handle your USA visa. That alone will render your plan to ride a lot of long, deserted roads "on no real time scale" difficult and perhaps impossible.

Then, unless you've got some real enthusiasm for endless spruce bogs, you will probably find that the Trans Labrador Highway and the necessary transit down through Quebec back to the pavement leave you without any desire to ride the very similar James Bay and Trans Taiga routes. There are plenty more spruce bogs in the Yukon and Alaska if you're headed that way, and they've got the added appeal of including greater variety of landscapes plus more wildlife.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

[Tenere Traveller Mike]

Thanks Mark, I have appointment next week for my visa so hopefully will be able to get a better handle on time scales.
Mike

[PanEuropean]

Mike:

I agree very much with what Mark wrote in his post above: Any one of the highways you mentioned (Trans Labrador, Trans Tiaga, James Bay) will be sufficient. I think you would die of boredom if you rode all three of those roads in the same year... assuming that the insects didn't pick your bones clean by the time you finished the third road.

Have you sat down and looked at the actual distances you would have to cover to accomplish what you have described in your post (i.e. those three roads, then getting to Inuvik)? Cripes, you are looking at some serious mileage... in the order of 10,000+ miles before you get down to the US border.

You also have a fairly limited window of opportunity so far as weather is concerned to accomplish such a ride. The frost-free season is not much longer than about 90 days for all the areas you mentioned.

If you were to ride from (for example) Halifax to Inuvik, then ride south to Vancouver and enter the USA there, you would cover a minimum of 7,800 miles, assuming you followed the shortest possible route and made no side trips. That doesn't include a side trip to Alaska. To put that distance in perspective, London to Vladivostok is only about 7,000 miles by road.

I think you need to recalibrate your expectations. If you ride Halifax - Inuvik - Vancouver, you will see just about all the geographic regions that Canada has to offer, you will get more than enough dirt-road riding, and you will see enough unpopulated forest area to last you for the rest of your life.

FYI, I've ridden from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland, and from the Arctic Ocean to the southern border - I'm speaking from experience.

Michael

[dude]

Check Google Earth, it will show distance, towns, even some gravel. Follow secondary roads. Stay of the Trans Canada. Try not to camp near pritty little lakes, you'll be eaten alive. Enjoy.

[KerryF]

Check out the Southwest. Amazing scenery and vistas.

Kerry

[Old Git Ray]

Hi MIke,

Karen and I are also on a Tenere (1200) and are also travelling NA. CA and SA before shipping out from Buenos Aires in Feb 2014

Perhaps we could hook up somewhere ????

This is our rough route of the NA part although we have decided to bypass Chicago.

Red and Yellow are done. Green is proposed.

[Tenere Traveller Mike]

Hi All,

Thanks for the suggestions. I know the mileage is big, quite used to long remote raods, used to work in Kazakhstan and rode there a few times.
Date now fixed as 20th June, flights not booked yet but hope to have them done by the end of the week. First stop Halifax, think I will head for the Tans Lab, then see how it goes, concidering the very valid points above.

Ray,
Am sure we can hook up somewhere along the way. Do you have an idea when you are planning to cross into Canada head for Alaska?

Mike

[Old Git Ray]

Mike

Very, Very roughly we will likely be entering Canada below Calgary on about the 10th June and exiting via Vancouver around the 20th July.

We are like you, no real plan, more of a wish list and a line on a map.

We do however need to be in Arizona by the end of August.

HTH

Ray

[twowheels03]

Don't miss Moab Utah and ride the White rim - chicken corners and shaffer trails.

Be a nice change after all those trees !

Plenty of camp grounds on the way out of town toward Aches NP or free bush camping along the lane that takes you to the Shaffer and chicken corners trail - that's also out by Arches NP - opposite side of the road.

Paul

[amzahsulaiman]

Hi All,
The more I read about who, when and where riders are going I become so very much eager to go now to do just the same! Alas! My long flight from where I lived is confirm now on 14 June 2013. But, I am certain we will bump into each other somewhere.
Safe ride always.

Amzah