Maps, maps, and more maps

***started writing this before the trip, but just now getting around to hitting the "Publish" button***

A little while back, I was re-watching the movie of Alexander Supertramp, “Into the Wild”. It got me to pondering and I poked around after watching the movie to see what further information I could find about his journey and his end. Turns out that the movie is a bit of a romanticization of the coming-of-age tale that – in this case – left the protagonist dead. Although we all take a similar journey, Supertramp to it to an extreme, and – unfortunately – was ill-prepared for the trek into the Alaskan wilderness. There are several theories about what actually killed him, but shortly before his death he did try to hike out, only to be turned back by the raging river that – when he had initially come out – had been an easily-crossable stream. However, had he possessed a map of the area, he could have seem that there was a hand-operated tramway that crossed the river less than a mile from where he was. Instead, thinking the river impassable, he returned to the bus-shelter he had been staying in and shortly thereafter expired.

With that in mind, I ordered up a map or two…or 18…

I found National Geographic’s “Adventure” series, which looks like it will fit the bill, and picked up a map for each location along our route. You might notice that the Alaska map is conspicuously absent in the photo above.  Yeah…somehow forgot it on the first go-‘round, but it’s in the collection now. Nick and I will be using GPS and smartphones for most of our navigational needs throughout the trip, but nothing beats having a paper map for back-up along the way!

Trips are amazing…and ventures out into the wild are transformative. They are challenging and can – truthfully – be deadly. With a bit of preparation, though, hazards can be minimized. Nick and I have been doing out homework on this trip for some time. A lot of folks think we’re crazy for doing it, but we’re certainly not the first, nor will we be the only ones on such a trek this summer. There’s even a whole Facebook group called the “PanAmerican Travelers Association”: nearly 14,000 adventurers who are connected to travel up and down the Americas. There are risks, to be sure, but nothing worth having or experiencing is void of risks. Just don’t fly at them blindly.

Blog additions

Need to get on the road...Nick's ahead of me, as usual.

Quick note, though. I added a couple things to the website:

• Miscellany: some random stats, including fuel stops and consumption and various animals seen. Need to spend more time working on this page, but the basics are there.

• Swag: some documents I created for sharing the trip with friends, family, etc. These are open for public viewing and printing.

If anyone has tips for how to do the sortable tables like you see in Wikipedia, let me know. I think those would come in handy for the Miscellany page (among others) rather than embedding the Google Doc, which appears clumsy at this point.

Nick Showered, I Showered, the Bikes Showered

Due to the Little Gold border crossing still being closed for the season, we had to swing down through Whitehorse to get to Dawson City: an important stop on our trip because of the much-talked-about Sourtoe Cocktail (more legend than it's worth, in my opinion). (For those who are friends with Nick on Facebook, a video of the Sourtoe Cocktail consumption: https://www.facebook.com/nick.civitello/videos/2140945372601919/)

The most obvious route thereafter would've been to backtrack to Whitehorse, then head east. However, I had heard of an interesting road called the South Canol Road that would bring us from Ross River to Johnson's Crossing through beautiful scenery and via some interesting-but-not-too-tricky off-road sections. It would also mean we would only backtrack as far as Carmacks before heading east rather than passing through Whitehorse again.

It was yet another beautiful ride through mountains and overlooking wide river valleys. When we got to Faro, though, and set camp, we discovered not only that the South Canol Road was still closed for the season, but also that the trek from Ross River -- the last gas stop -- to Watson Lake was about 240 miles: more than either of our bikes were forecasted to travel on a single tank. It was also all gravel until the last 60 km or so.

After some deliberation, though, that's the route we opted to take.

We met a fellow named Neil in Ross River. He offered his lovely cabin (Itzi Mountain Lodging) with a gorgeous view for our future adventures.

Then: 240 miles of gravel. Nothing too serious, but a nice break from asphalt. Toward the end, there were a couple construction zones, one of which gave us several patches of loose sand: tricky on these big bikes. Nick was killing it, though:

We arrived in Watson Lake incredibly dusty (especially me since I had been eating Nick's dust all day), but pretty daggum satisfied with an excellent day's ride.

Just off of the Cambell Highway, our dusty bikes pose at the Signpost Forest.

We found lodging in the historic, barracks-style <a link>Air Force Lodge</a>. Our gregarious and friendly host showed us to our room: two beds, a TV, and a desk. Cheap and clean, perfect for our needs. Shower room and toilet room were common for all lodgers. It was a treat to be back in actual beds with showers handy after several nights in the tents. Especially after a day of dusty riding, we each eagerly enjoyed getting cleaned up.

The bikes, though: they had endured the same dust, but didn't fit in the shower. We marveled at the places we found dust as we packed the next morning, but hit the road without looking for a car wash. We were bound for Fort Nelson, on the other side of the mountains.

Excellent views, again, and some new wildlife: mountain goats!

And just as we were heading over the last range, thunder, lightning, and a cold downpour. The bikes got their shower after all!

A Note on Safety

I had initially made this note on the Track Us! page, but thought it would be better as a separate entry and linked.

A lot of folks have questioned the safety and security of a trip like this...and for good reason. It's a big undertaking and will take us not only far from home, but also into places that are rumored to be unsafe as well as places that are actually unsafe.

That said, I hold to the opinion that the world is not generally as dangerous as it is often viewed from the safety and security of home. The USA is a great place to live and thrive...a lot of great freedoms...a lot of stability. It also definitely has its issues. Peering out at the world, there's a lot of strife. There are also a lot of folks living their lives.

Nick and I have been kicking the idea of this trip around for a long time now, watching political climates, connected with folks who have done similar trips, and working to understand what it will take to pull this thing off. There are no guarantees, of course, but we've taken efforts to understand the risks and mitigate them. And truly...there are way more folks that you might think who make Pan-American treks. Encouraging because we know it can be done; discouraging because it makes us less unique. haha.

These are the things -- in order -- that should reassure you of our safety and security during this trek:

• Our planning and preparation. We didn't enter this lightly. We're both experienced motorcyclists and travelers. We've selected well-suited machines for the trek and equipped them appropriately. We've made trips together on these motorcycles to accustom ourselves to traveling together and ensure that the bikes are suitable. We've overcome issues while traveling.

Our bikes in Mexico in June 2017.

• Our individual skills. We've each done long trips in the past. We've both motorcycled and we've both traveled domestically and internationally.
• Our companion's skills. We're on this trek together because we work together well and have demonstrated that we can overcome hurdles well. If something comes up while we're adventuring (as it already has), our first resource is our teamwork (which has already succeeded more than once.).
• The goodness of the world. It's easy to look only at the bad things that happen in the world and become jaded or afraid. Indeed, bad things do happen. But the world is full of good, too, and one of the most awesome things about trips like this is encountering all of that good! If you're in doubt, check out any number of travel series. My favorites: Lyndon Poskitt's "Races to Places"; Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's "Long Way Round" and "Long Way Down" (Netflix?); Rosie Gabrielle's YouTube; the woman who biked across the 'stans...if I could find the video.

The places Lyndon has been!

• Spot's "OK" button. We are equipped with Spot GPS device (Ryan's Lassie) and InReach GPS device (Nick's thingamajig). On travel days (most of them), I hit the "OK/Check In" button when we start traveling, when we finish traveling, and after we cross any international border. This sends a pre-programmed message to our safety crew (a small group, to keep it agile) to let them know all is well.
• Spot's "help" button. Failing all of the above, our GPS locators are capable of reaching out to our safety crew to request help. Not only is this the small, agile group back home, but also any local contact wherever we currently are who may be better equipped to provide immediate assistance. 
• Spot's "SOS" button. In dire circumstance, failing every other thing, we have the emergency eject button on my Spot device and Nick's InReach device. Helicopters come and find us, in the wilderness or in the city. They see to our health and well-being, and they notify our emergency contacts.

Notice that the Track Us! info is conspicuously absent from the list above.

The Track Us! page is not intended as fodder for further fretting. As a matter of fact, the tracker data isn't even really part of our safety plan: it's just to satiate curiosity for those wondering where in the world we are. There are myriad reasons that it might not show up for awhile or might be stationary for awhile, ranging from me forgetting to replace the batteries to meeting another interesting traveler and having a chat to poor coverage through a given area...the list goes on.

We have a solid plan for this trip and an excellent safety net. May minds rest at ease.

Southbounders

A week ago, when Nick and I were returning to Fairbanks from Prudhoe Bay in the rented Adventure Car (thus I have named it) from Arctic Outfitters due to mechanical issues (Hostel of Shame, Delayed!), we came upon some construction just as we were coming down from the Atigun Pass.

The Ford Escape made a fine Adventure Car, equipped with studded tires, spares, CB radio and sat phone, and an already-cracked windshield!

Adventure Car doesn't leave tire tracks. It leaves moose tracks!

Being an Adventure Car, the Ford Escape was outfitted with a CB tuned to channel 19, as that channel is monitored by the truckers and construction workers. There was a flag person stopping cars to await a pilot car at each end of the construction zone. As we came out of the mountains (and were still a ways off), we heard someone call to the flag person that there was another car -- southbounders -- coming out of the mountains. We chimed in that we were hurrying along to catch the end of the caravan. As we passed, we gave a friendly greeting and got one in return.

Atigun Pass was snowy and had lots of "avalanche warning" signs.

But it was the word "Southbounders" that made us grin at each other. That's us, we mused, for the next three months. Of course, it wasn't until later that we discovered that the Little Gold border crossing was closed, so had to backtrack to the north. That done, though, we're totally Southbounders...all the way to Tierra del Fuego!

Busted! video

For those who saw the Busted! post, here's a quick vid of the repair process:

Some things since Fairbanks!

We left Fairbanks for Dawson City but the more northern bother crossing was closed, so we went via Beaver Creek.  (See Ryan's post.)

We were actually traveling the other way...

Ryan juggling in two counties at once!

Campsite in Beaver Creek

Westernmost Canadian community

Dawson City

Here it is!  The stuff dreams are made of!

Made it to the Sourtoe Saloon...

Where we met the captain...

And you'll have to watch the Facebook video to know what happened.

More camping

At the Gold Rush?  I can't remember.

Every view is scenic.

In for the night in Faro, and doing some repairs.

Then to Ross River

Where we met Neil(?), Who insisted we check out the view at his place.

Finally, Watson Lake and the sign forest.

The place was huge!

#goodlookingjugglers

We found a sign from Raytown and left our mark.

And since you can't sleep in a tent here we are staying at a historic Air Force dorm.