short trip north

[silverdevil]

the pics will tell the tale







still in the 49th state, entered on the 3rd of july

[Nana]

Oh, what fantastic pictures! what a fantastic trip! Can't wait to see and hear more about it. Be safe and have a wonderful, wonderful time :yes:

[Lunchbox1983]

Now that is a road trip, have fun and take lots of pictures to show us.

[CRASH]

Tell Sarah I said hello

[silverdevil]

we are now into day 24 of the short trip, only 8235 miles down and about 1500 more to go.

after I get back I will add pics and some ride report stuff to go with it.

[John Luciano]

all the images have been removed ????????

[silverdevil]

the images will be returned plus more.
I am back home and have the pics in order, just have to upload to get them back to here.

total trip was 27 days and 9514 miles.

[silverdevil]

OK, I got the maps loaded, pics will come another day<br />
total trip was 27 days and 9514 miles.<br />
<br />
the order of the maps is the top is the Alaska part<br />
the 2nd is the northern Canada<br />
the 3rd is the southern Canada <br />
the 4th is the northern US<br />
the 5th is the southern US<br />
if you follow the numbers in yellow from the southern US counting up from 1 you can follow the path. we went up via the ALCAN highway and came back through British Columbia. <br />
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<a href="http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/red-blue-silver-devil/Alaskapart.jpg" target="_blank">http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...Alaskapart.jpg</a><br />
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<a href="http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/red-blue-silver-devil/AlaskatripCanadanorthen.jpg" target="_blank">http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...adanorthen.jpg</a><br />
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<a href="http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/red-blue-silver-devil/AlaskatripCanadasouthern.jpg" target="_blank">http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...dasouthern.jpg</a><br />
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<a href="http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/red-blue-silver-devil/AlaskatripnorthenUS.jpg" target="_blank">http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...pnorthenUS.jpg</a><br />
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<a href="http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/red-blue-silver-devil/AlaskatripsouthernUS.jpg" target="_blank">http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...southernUS.jpg</a>

[Gorilla]

Nice ride. Congrats.

[Road Runner]

Nice ride, thanks for sharing. How did the Stallion perform on the ride?

[John Luciano]

Bet you got a lot of questions. What was the average MPG

[silverdevil]

the Stallion did screw up in a few ways but never stopped me.
the CRUISE switch went out for the 4th time, the first 3 times was with less than 3,000 miles, the last time was 6,000 miles later or around 9,000 miles total.
the fan for the AC/HEAT went out, I could still get heat or AC but only while moving at highway speeds and forcing air thru the system.
the bike would not come out of PARK twice and due to others I was able to get out of that one easily.
the fan motor for the radiator did NOT turn off with the key 4 times, I think it would finely turn off when the battery died but I did not let it go more than about 10 minutes and started it up and drove down the road and the next time I stopped it shut off with the key.
I will be going to Thoroughbred Motorsports next week and get the thing worked on. they are located about 100 miles from my house and about 10 miles from one of my daughters house.

gas mileage was all over the place, low 30's to mid 40's. I pulled a trailer and during that time it was low to mid 30's. one time I went about 150 miles without the trailer with speed limit at 55 and I got 44 MPG

I will start to upload pics very soon and then download them.

[Road Runner]

Silverdevil, Having that many issues with Stallion is NOT good news. We have a 5,000 mile ride thru Dakota's & around Lake Superior planned, leaving in 2 weeks. Geez, I was going to take the Stallion, but think we will take the little red Miata convertable we bought last week. Its not much bigger and is a lot of fun with top down, plus 100% reliable.

Looking forward to seeing your photos. Thanks for sharing all the info.

[silverdevil]

I had to put this in under 2 messages as they said that it is toooooo long
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My Alaska trip that started on June 24th of 09. The trip lasted 27 days and went 9,514 miles according to my map program, I never wrote down any mileage numbers while on the trip.
I did take my camara and my PC so I could make some records of the trip during the trip and the following is what happened.

Day one started at 5AM on the road heading to Milano to meet up with 2 of the 5 guys taking the trip. This day was not a good day because the temps reached the 100's and all of us have been on these roads before. We ended up in the panhandle in the town of Childress, Tx and did 493 miles.
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Day 2 was not much better but we did get out of Texas early but the temps were still into the 100's in the afternoon. We ended up in North Platte, Ne with 509 miles.
as you saw in yesterdays pic there is a white Goldwing trike, a black Goldwing trike and a Stallion trike on the begining of the trip. The black Wing started having a problem with his temp gage going up and down. So he decided to have it checked out in the morning at the local dealer in North Platte.

Day 3 started with the white Wing and me in the Stallion taking off on the trip and the black Wing heading to the local dealer, much better day as far as the temps go but we did run into the first rain of the trip before we entered into Montana. So we ended up with 2 of the 5 in Boradus, Mt with 489 miles for the day. after we got settled into the room we heard from the black Wing, his temp gage was a bad sensor and not a bike problem so he started to catch up with but he ended up with another problem. The rear end of the bike stopped him and he got towed to Pierre, S.D. He got there late and was not going to find out anything until the next day

Day 4 started out good except for one thing, we all took chairs with us so that when we stopped we could set up the chairs and relax on breaks, I left my chair in the motel room in Boradus. Other than that the day went good. We made it to our destination of Great Falls, Mt with a total miles for the day of 386 miles were we meet up with another member of the 5. Now this guy does not have a bike so the owner of the white Wing also has a Honda Magna 750 which he loaned to him. this guy also does not have a home, he lives in a mobil home and does the U.S. when and where he likes, Him and his wife set up home in Great Falls about a month earlier and he got the bike ready to go from there. We also heard from the black Wing, it seems that when the bike was triked they did not do any lubeing of the drive shaft and the shaft backed out of the rear end and could not slide back in. Problem solved as all it needed was lube and he was back on the road again and would try to catch up with us in the A.M.

Day 5 started out good, we are now 3 of the 5, the white Wing and the Stallion at the motel, the Magna 750 shows up. This is the day we made it into Canada.
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As we go passed the sign saying Welcome to Alberta. We ended up in Calgary, Alberta with 312 miles for the day.

Day 6 started with a breakfast (if you want to call it that) at the motel in Calgary. The good thing was that the black Wing shows up and we are up to 4 of the 5 bikes.
We head north towards the next destination for the day. Here we are going down the road north out of Calgary with the white Wing, the black Wing in front of me and the Magna 750 behind me.
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We were down the road a bit when #5 of 5 showed up to join up with the rest of us.
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Now this guy is on a R1200GS and his trip is a little different. He started out 3 days before the rest of us and headed to Key West, Fl. he wanted to do an Iron Butt run from Key West to Prudhoe Bay, Ak. And this was about where we would meet up, he is the younger member of the group at age 38 I think. None of the rest of us will be doing the Prudhoe Bay part of the run, only the R1200GS.
The day was un-eventful after the 5 of us got togeather and it is now 5 of 5 on the trip. we pulled into Grande Prairie, Alberta with 466 miles for the day.

Day 7 is another good day, we are all togeather for the first full day heading down the road. Now the temps in Canada are much nicer than in the first few days in the US, the lows are in the mid 40's and the highs in the upper 70's. We leave Alberta and go into British Columbia and about 80 miles into the trip for the day we pull into Dawson Creek, B.C. which is the beginning of the Alaska-Canada Highway that was built by American Soldiers durning WW2 to get troop from lower 48 states to Alaska.
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Of course we had to stop and get some pics, there was a light rain but it did not stop the taking of pics.
We did not get very far down the road when the guy leading noticed a sign pointing to the "Old Alcan highway" so we took a detour to follow it. About 2 or 3 miles down the road we found an old wooden bridge, another picture taking time.
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Leaving from the far side of the bridge was a rock road so we decided to go back the3 or 3 miles and get onto the get paved part of the new Alcan highway except for the R1200GS, he decided to go down the rock road and see where it meets up with new road. After about 5 miles or so there was the R1200GS, so it was not that long of a detour for him. This ended up being our longest day of the trip and when we got to our stopping point for the day at Liard River, B.C. we chalked up 554 miles.

Day 8, another good day as all of them will be remembered as, started out leaving Liard River and heading north towards the Yukon. One of out sites for the day
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When we get to Yukon we go in and out several times before we acually get into the Yukon, the road just follows the line between Yukon and British Columbia for over 36 miles. All of the others stopped at the first sign that said welcome to Yukon. I kept going because I had remembered that there was a better sign down the road from my first trip about 13 years ago, and I was right.
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When the others caught up with me they decided to take the same pic I had just done. Another 7 or so miles down the road we came to the town of Watson Lake, Yukon which is know for the "Sign Post Forest". During the war when the American Soldiers were building the road one of the soldiers put up a post in the ground and added a sign denoting that his town was "x number of miles back the other direction". Since that time many many (up to several mil by now) signs have been added.
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In 1996 when I was here last there were 6 of us on that ride, we put up a sign with all of our initials on it stating our trip to Alaska and the Artic Circle. Could not find the sign among the so many with so little time.
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What are 'Sea Gulls doing here:"
Time to go on down the road to our stopping point for the day in Whitehorse, Yukon with 402 miles for the day.
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...il/009-011.jpg
This if you look close is the worlds largest "weather vain" located at the air port in Whitehorse. It is on a pedestal and when the wind changes it will move like any weather vain. The R1200GS gets a new set of tires at this point for the last part of the Prudhoe Bay run, he changed them in the parking lot.

Day 9, we are going to make it to Alaska today. But we do have some other things to look at on the way there.
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and we finely get there.
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Our stopping point for the day is in Tok, Ak with 387 miles for the day.

Day 10, very early in the morning but it is daylight, about 4AM the young man on the R1200GS takes off on his quest to make it from Key West, Fl to Prudhoe Bay,Akaska. The rest of us get a few more hours of sleep and then take off south towards Valdez, AK. But of course we must look at the view on the way.
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...il/011-003.jpg
We arrived at Glennallen, Ak and stayed there for 2 nights, miles to get there was only 137miles.

Day 11 we will be going down to Valdez and back to Glennallen, suppose to be a very scenic ride and it is.
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After having to look at all that stuff we made it to Valdez, Ak for lunch, had mexican, it was better that what we had at the last Montgomery nite ride.
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The above is Valdez harbor and behind my bike is a ferry boat. And now for our return trip to Glennallen, it is tough but we made.
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After a very exausting day of 118 miles to Valdez and 118 miles back to Glennallen, one reason we did that was so we could park the trailers for this part of the trip. So a total of 236 miles for this day.

Day 12 of this ordel begins on our way to Ancharage, Ak just so we can say we have been there.
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After leaving Ancharage heading north towards the next stop of Talkeetna, Ak and a total of 293 miles for the day.

Day 13 starts like most of the days, very nice, but there is a problem. There was as many as 63 forest fires going on during the week we were there and some of the next pics will show that. For instance you have to look VERY hard at the pic after the one saying stuff about "Denali" to see Mt. McKinley the highest point in north america. the Mt. McKinley will be the 2nd pic to follow.
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We did go into Denali National Park but did not go beyond the main building showing exibits of Denali. After this the next stop will be Fairbanks, Ak
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and like the sign above says into Fairbanks with total miles for the day at 274.
the guy that was on the R1200GS will not be for the return trip, it seems that as he got close to Purdhoe the transmission started making noise, he checked on having it shipped to Fairbanks via all of the dead head trucks returning to Fairbanks from Prudhoe, the price he got for the 500 miles was 3,000 dollars. He rode it back to Fairbanks and made it to the BMW/Harley and several others dealer. the service department said that they could get to the bike in the fall, he ended up making arrangments to get it shipped to Wild West in Katy. He then went across the street and bought a Can-Am Spyder, he said for his wife who does not like 2 wheels when by herself. So now there will be 4 trikes and 1 bike on the return trip to the US, of course 1 of them is a reverse trike.
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u.../015-002-1.jpg

[silverdevil]

this is the 2nd half of the ride report
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Day 14 will be a very short day as 3 of the guys will be stripping the BMW and building up the Spyder, such as the J&M CB, the GPS and other things, 2 of us will go on to Delta Junction, Ak which is the end of the ALCAN highway, total miles will only be 95 miles, the shortest day. in fact we had to take a break the ride was so long.
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...il/015-004.jpg
and after that made it all the way to Delta Junction and the end of the ALCAN.
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...il/015-006.jpg
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the others made it much later to Delta Junction after they moved all the stuff to the Spyder.

Day 15 started with the othes getting there pics at the end of the Highway and then we were headed back to Canada with the first stop being in Destruction Bay, Yukon and the miles for the day at 332 miles.
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and the one 2 wheel bike had to make it over the steel grate bridge one more time.
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Day 16 has us trudging on down the road.
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with us ending up here for the night in the Teslin, Yukon area
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Day 17 much more of the same going south down the middle of British Columbia and ending up in Dease Lake, B.C. with 290 miles for the day.
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Day 18 takes us to Hyder, AK. The only way you can get to Hyder on a road is thru B.C. Canada so that is the way we went with 246 miles for the day
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Day 19 takes us to Dease Lake, B.C. with 294 miles for the day
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Day 20 of the trip has us spliting up with the black Wing and I going on down to Washington and the others metting there wives near Yellowstone Nat park
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for the last night in Canada we will be at Williams Lake, B.C. with 284 miles for the day

Day 21 back into the states
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with a stop at Tonasket, Wa and 341 miles for the day

Day 22 will take us past a Dam I had not been to before.
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and one more stop near Spokane Wa for a front tire for the Wing, man do I like the tires on the Stallion.
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for the night we stopped at ST. Regis, Mt with 299 miles for the day.

Day 23 has us going out of Montana and back into Idaho and another rest stop
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We ended up in Idaho Falls, Id and 370 miles for the day/

Day 24 has us leaving Idaho for the 2nd time in that many days and heading to Rangely, Co for the night with 442 miles for the day, a little barn feaver anyone?
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Day 25 and for our last stop in Colrado we head for Walsenburg, Co with 413 miles for the day
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Day 26 has us making it back to dear ol Texas were we made it to Snyder, Tx for the night with 485 for the day and one of the prettiest sights even though it is a bit blury.
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/u...il/027-001.jpg

Day 27 is the last day on the road, I was in New Waverly by 1PM and did 416 miles for the day

Again 27 days for the trip with and average being 352.3 miles per day and a total of 9514.1 miles

Remember that I am old and may have left a few things out or got them in the wrong order but I don't think so.

[Nana]

Silverdevil, your trip was amazing! Thank you for sharing the pictures (that was a lot of work!) and the narration. Loved it!

[BenO]

Excellant. I forgot how Gorgeous it is. Thank You

[Gorilla]

Silver Devil Thank you for sharing. A GREAT trip and a GREAT report. Ted

[Gorilla]

Also I know you said you had some problems with the Stallion but it appears everyone had their own problems with their bikes/trikes.

[adventurer]

WOW, what a trip!!!!