Will do. Four more weeks at work... We're subletting our apartment and just found someone willing to take it, just need to get the papers signed... Almost there. Almost there.

Hi wipe-out, sounds like a nice trip!

Its 4000 kms from Calgary to Prudhoe, bearing in mind that you will have to ride South again to Vancouver? which is another 4000 kms it totally depends on how far you want to ride each day, but allowing 3 weeks is realistic, maybe you will ride it much faster and have some time in hand.

Whichever way you do it, make sure you ride out to Banff from Calgary and go on the Icefields Parkway 93N to Jasper and then either go North to Alaska or West to the coast!

This thread gives good info about the Dalton:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-s-don-t-71602

Where will you stay in Central America to dive for the month?

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

I will do some more research and planning on the Alaska route once I got work off my back. These are giving my some good indication on distances:

http://www.motoquest.com/guided-moto...nada-alaska-22
http://www.motoquest.com/guided-moto...enture-tour-28

Just using these as a reference, we're not planning on any guided tours.

I'm not sure about diving - I'm an absolute amateur and easy to impress Ideas are welcome! Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica...

Interested on the Honduras/El Salvador stretch in general. Is one to be preferred over the other regarding safety etc.? I guess plenty of people come through all the time so I'm not too worried, just trying to do my homework!

It depends what you want from your dives, Caribbean or Pacific - be a good idea to research more on a dedicated dive forum as I haven't been in CAmerica since 2003.
Theres a few places we used to go to in Costa Rica, Belize and Honduras. Roatan in the Bay Islands is a sweet spot to hang out for a while, BUT you have to park the bikes up in Tegucigalpa and catch a flight, which may not be ideal.

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

One more step in the right direction. We received our EPA exemption letter!

My recommendation: book a riding traing course for your girl, both onroad and offroad. This trip is her best chance to gain experience quickly and greatly improves your trip - e g by being able to have a bit more gear on the bike(s). Personally I can' imagine doing a long trip two-up if it includes camping gear and if you need some additional clothing for hiking!

We're still alive! Just not working anymore, so considerably less interested to surf the internet...

With work out of the way we got things moving at home. Put all our stuff into a storage room to make way for the guys renting our apartment. I felt like one of the boxtrolls there for a while...



Finally though the day had come, last Sunday morning I packed the bike and rode off to my parents place close to Frankfurt, from where we would have the bike transported to Canada.



It's supposed to be a five hour ride from Berlin and the weather forecast was not too bad. Of course it started raining 30 minutes after I left and for the fun of it didn't stop for three hours. I was happy and singing along anyway, any day on the bike beats every day at the office, right?



My girlfriend arrived a day later and we spent some time with my family. And finally yesterday, we set off to the airport to drop off the bike. Everything went supersmooth and the guys at the cargo center and Air Canada were really great to deal with. I think it didn't hurt that most of them were bikers and really enthusiastic about the trip!



So now the bike is sitting at the airport until it is going to be put on a plane on Thursday. By the way, to my surprise and contradicting what I had been told before it would have been okay to have the duffel on the bike, not just the panniers (in the picture below the panniers are off for being x-rayed).



And with that - we're basically off to our adventure, out and about. About 1,5 hours from now my dad's going to take us to the airport. And if no bear is going to eat us within the first couple of days into the trip I shall continue to update this thread now and then. Currently also trying to figure out Spotwalla to have some tracking.

Any recommendations for the Banff/Jasper area and how to avoid the hordes of tourists?

And anyone know how to resize the pictures directly in the [IMG] tab with attributes? Is it possible at all?

Picked up the bike today. Again, the guys at Air Canada were super helpful, even customs was a breeze. Took them just a couple of minutes to release the bike.

Bike's parked in front of the hostel now, going to start packing some stuff later today and then head out early tomorrow morning.



We also got some bearspray.

Looking forward to properly be on the road again!

Welcome to Canada!


There's no real way to avoid all the Summer tourists in Banff & Jasper, but its such a beautiful area that its worth putting up with them for a few days, you can camp at Tunnel Mountain if you are staying in Banff, lots of hikes to do in the National Park. After you head past Banff on highway 1 a few kms down the road take the 1A signed 'Bow Valley Parkway' which is the back route to Lake Louise, sometimes you might see some wildlife from this road. Worth visiting Lake Louise or head to Moraine lake too for some nice views and the Columbia Icefields tour is expensive but a fun trip on the Icefields Parkway heading to Jasper, have fun!

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

Sounds like the perfect beginning for your trip. No trouble and everything is fine.
thx for private message, gives me a smile - thought you forgot me ;-)

enjoy your trip, looking forward to see more pictures and stories.

funfact: i´ve read your blog already months ago in preparation for our trip.

Did you already made a decision about heading north to alaska?

Really lousy WiFi connections up North. Yes, North, we're headed for Alaska. We're already in Dawson, we made over 2.500km in the past four days. Tomorrow we're gonna check out what all that fuzz around the Dempster is about. Then we're headed for Fairbanks over the Top of the World Highway, change the rear tire, attack the Dalton and return South via the Denali. Weather has been treating us well so far. Good times!

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