Right, as I always do, I'll be doing a trip as I go along on this jolly jaunt with a group of unsuspecting tossers tagging along. Hopefully the other guys will survive the ravages of the Dalton Highway, bears and the mosquitos and post some bits as they go along.
Seriously, this is going to be a brilliant trip and hopefully you'll get a flavour of what we are doing. I'll say right from teh start I'm no Mike O when it comes to trip reports so don't expect witty repartee but hopefully regular updates with pics will give you the gist of what's happing in the most fantastic of places.
As a brief synopsys, there will be 12 of us in all riding from Alaska down to Santa Rosa California with one or two are dipping in and out of the trip. The bikes have all been flown out to Anchorage and I'll be shipping them back from California in 4 weeks time. The actual trip starts from Anchorage on Sunday but I'm up here getting stuff sorted.
Ok, let us begin......
I flew in on 4th July and it was one of the longest days I can remember. Heathrow to Chicago 9 hours then 6 1/2 to Anchorage so given the time diffrence of 9 hours the day seemed to last almost forever. Anyway, United took care of the flying whilst I relaxed on a half empty flight to Chicago on an old school 767. Really nice to fly on a smaller aircraft across teh Atlantic and muchg better than being crammed in with 400 other people that's for sure and an empty seat next to me meant a good comfy flight.
US immigration seemd to have pulled their finger out and the procedure was 5 painless minutes with a comical immigration official thanking me for the US independence. My please I replied thinking it was the first time I'd seen an immigration official actually smile.
3 hours later and the new 737-800 whisked us north over some stunning scenery in Alaska. There was a lot of cloud cover but when it parted it really was beautiful. We'll be riding through some of that in the next few weeks.
Checked into the great value Bent Prop Inn, my home for the next few days followed by a terrible nights sleep due to the massive time difference. Denny supplied the breakfast to kick me into gear this morning and note the token banana for teh health freaks amongst you .
Seriously, this is going to be a brilliant trip and hopefully you'll get a flavour of what we are doing. I'll say right from teh start I'm no Mike O when it comes to trip reports so don't expect witty repartee but hopefully regular updates with pics will give you the gist of what's happing in the most fantastic of places.
As a brief synopsys, there will be 12 of us in all riding from Alaska down to Santa Rosa California with one or two are dipping in and out of the trip. The bikes have all been flown out to Anchorage and I'll be shipping them back from California in 4 weeks time. The actual trip starts from Anchorage on Sunday but I'm up here getting stuff sorted.
Ok, let us begin......
I flew in on 4th July and it was one of the longest days I can remember. Heathrow to Chicago 9 hours then 6 1/2 to Anchorage so given the time diffrence of 9 hours the day seemed to last almost forever. Anyway, United took care of the flying whilst I relaxed on a half empty flight to Chicago on an old school 767. Really nice to fly on a smaller aircraft across teh Atlantic and muchg better than being crammed in with 400 other people that's for sure and an empty seat next to me meant a good comfy flight.
US immigration seemd to have pulled their finger out and the procedure was 5 painless minutes with a comical immigration official thanking me for the US independence. My please I replied thinking it was the first time I'd seen an immigration official actually smile.
3 hours later and the new 737-800 whisked us north over some stunning scenery in Alaska. There was a lot of cloud cover but when it parted it really was beautiful. We'll be riding through some of that in the next few weeks.
Checked into the great value Bent Prop Inn, my home for the next few days followed by a terrible nights sleep due to the massive time difference. Denny supplied the breakfast to kick me into gear this morning and note the token banana for teh health freaks amongst you .
