I created this blog to chronicle my first major solo adventure in late 2008, when I rode my motorcycle over 4,200 miles in just over three weeks from the east coast to the west coast of the USA. That was the longest amount of contiguous time off I had taken from a job in nearly eight years and it solidified a slowly building realization that I wanted something different out of life – I wanted adventure!
In the year and a half since then, I’ve completed major overland trips on two more continents along with another 10,000+ miles around the USA and I’ve gained a strange need for the challenge of open sky around me. While I was driving an auto-rickshaw across India I started to think about what I wanted to do next, and it’s been bouncing around in my skull ever since. I want to drive across Africa, I want to cross Australia, but most urgently I want to visit the Arctic Circle!
Originally I thought about just flying up to Alaska and spending a month or two puttering around, but I realized I haven’t really explored one of the most beautiful countries in the world – Canada! Instead of flying over it, why not drive through it? And instead of driving through it, why not ride through it? And if I’m going to ride through it, why not do it on something that will force me to take local roads at slow speeds and be a bit challenging?
As a result, I’ve decided to ride a scooter from Washington DC up north through Canada to Deadhorse Alaska – making the final 414 miles to the Arctic Ocean along the Dalton Highway made famous by the show Ice Road Truckers. In order to maintain some level of sanity, I’ll be doing this in July and August, two of the warmest months of the year up north with nearly endless days… if I’m lucky I may not even suffer too many days below freezing…
In the year and a half since then, I’ve completed major overland trips on two more continents along with another 10,000+ miles around the USA and I’ve gained a strange need for the challenge of open sky around me. While I was driving an auto-rickshaw across India I started to think about what I wanted to do next, and it’s been bouncing around in my skull ever since. I want to drive across Africa, I want to cross Australia, but most urgently I want to visit the Arctic Circle!
Originally I thought about just flying up to Alaska and spending a month or two puttering around, but I realized I haven’t really explored one of the most beautiful countries in the world – Canada! Instead of flying over it, why not drive through it? And instead of driving through it, why not ride through it? And if I’m going to ride through it, why not do it on something that will force me to take local roads at slow speeds and be a bit challenging?
As a result, I’ve decided to ride a scooter from Washington DC up north through Canada to Deadhorse Alaska – making the final 414 miles to the Arctic Ocean along the Dalton Highway made famous by the show Ice Road Truckers. In order to maintain some level of sanity, I’ll be doing this in July and August, two of the warmest months of the year up north with nearly endless days… if I’m lucky I may not even suffer too many days below freezing…
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