Deadhorse

It’s 10,000km from Vancouver, Canada, to Deadhorse in Alaska and back again. Ian Macartney took it on.

- Ian Macartney

After shipping a mixed breed of nine bikes, including two R1200GSs, to Vancouver, we arrived after a 13-hour overnight flight from Auckland to prepare our steeds for the 30-day adventure planned and supported by fellow Kiwi, Rosco Pennell.

We had a wee unplanned tour of the city as we rode north through Vancouver (we got lost following the support truck) until my GPS got us back on track to Williams Lake for the night. It was a big, 650km first day filled with spectacular mountains, scenery and excellent riding.

This really became the standard for the whole trip: sublime roads and stunning scenery.

Bear essentials

A lot of British Columbia is just huge spaces filled with endless trees, rivers, lakes and mountains. Temperatures were between 25°C and 35°C for the first two weeks, so the riding was comfortable as well as spectacular.

We pushed on to Prince George and New Hazelton where, as guests of the accom owners, we enjoyed a special barbeque of fresh wild salmon. The rich colour of this fish had to be seen to be believed, and the taste was nothing like NZ salmon. It was a special treat.

Next we rode to Stewart, a quirky little place which sits alongside the tiny outpost of Hyder in Alaska. Two of us headed 30km up a mountainous gravel road to view the massive Salmon Glacier from a high pass, and on the way down we stopped at Fish Creek, passing within metres of a black bear in a clearing. I later met a First Nation politician at breakfast in Fairbanks who was wearing a necklace made from bear claws. These are seriously long, 100mm-plus talons. It sort of stays in your mind as you’re riding and it’s amazing how vulnerable you suddenly feel on a bike when you do see a bear.

There was an enclosed viewing deck nearby to see the salmon spawning in the shallow river and also the bears scooping them up at their leisure.