September 7th, 2026
Arizona
We have completed the summer bike trip.
June 9th to August 31st.
15450 miles ridden.
2 Countries, 16 states, and 6 provinces visited.
We traveled up the mountain regions of the USA to reach Canada, then spent time in the mountains and forests of British Columbia before going into Yukon for a bit.
From there a short day trip into Alaska to take a ferry and then back north into Yukon again, just to ride some scenic highways in a more efficient manner.
A day in the far west of Yukon on some horrible highways, then we crossed into Alaska.
Headed south across the forests and mountains to ride out into the back country to spend a few days in McCarthy, then back and across the center in the rain to reach Anchorage where we can access the Kenai Peninsula.
Explored several towns and rode all the main highways on the Peninsula over a few days while we also took a few days off to rest, do laundry, edit videos and get the bike oil changed.
We then headed back north, stopping at the last town on the Peninsula (Seward) before going back to Anchorage for the night.
We then headed north, crossing the open spaces and mountains to reach the middle of the state in Fairbanks.
From there we spent a few days to rest up, deal with some mechanical issues and then we departed on the first of the main objectives on this trip, riding the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay.
Spent 4 days doing this ride in a remote, mostly empty area with little to do, but amazing scenery at every turn.
Once back, we rested again in Fairbanks before heading east again to get back over to Canada.
Took a different route out of the state across the Top of the World Highway to reach the border there and then down into Dawson City.
From here we spent a bit of time to plan and then started are attack on the Dempster Highway.
Much like the Dalton, only longer, more remote, and bit rougher in spots, but also more scenic and amazing.
This time we reached the shores of the Arctic Ocean, walking down and into the water and touching it with our hands. (I opted not to do any swimming as I did not want to fight taking off the gear on an open rock beach).
We then returned south. 5 Days to complete the trip.
From here we headed south toward Whitehorse in Yukon.
We opted at this point to not ride another remote gravel road and instead stayed on the Alaska Highway all they way to the end of it on the British Columbia/Alberta border.
We then spent a few days in Edmonton to get edits done, laundry, and more bike maintenance.
We did visit plenty of sites in town as well.
Then it was south a bit to visit the fossil lands of Alberta and some more museums.
Then it was time to get out of Canada, but to get a few more days of it, we crossed AB, SK, and MB where we then crossed back into the USA and into Minnesota.
A day here along the upper part of the state before going into Wisconsin where we crossed in about 1 day, but then spent 4 more days exploring along the south part of the state to see some sites.
Then it was time to hit another major objective, the riding of Route 66.
This meant a quick ride to Chicago, then crossing the city and starting the route, following the older alignments as much as possible which are now state highways, county roads, frontage roads and city streets.
We progressed across Illinois and Missouri over a week, then Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in a week.
We then hit NM and AZ and spent a few extra days to see sites before crossing CA in a few days to reach the Los Angeles area.
Here we decided to leave the route and not do the final leg to Santa Monica. Tired, annoyed, and really not wanting to deal with LA traffic in 100 degree temps.
I did cross LA on freeways though to visit with a friend in the south edge of the metro, then we went south toward San Diego to bring a back highway back north and over the mountains to reach Palm Springs to visit another friend.
Then we headed home.
Overall was an amazing trip.
Rode all kinds of roads, in most weather conditions (thankfully avoided snow), and saw lots of amazing scenery, and attractions.
Met lots of interesting people, took quite a few photos, and many hours of video.
Each day has an entry on this blog, and there is video of the riding days going up on YouTube, though much slower process.
So now here we ware, a week after I returned and have been cleaning gear, sorting gear, and just relaxing.
But we are not idle for long.
On the 16th of September, we will leave again, flying over to Asia to spend 2 months riding bikes and other things in several countries.
Our first destination is Nepal. We were supposed to bike up the bikes and ride into Tibet from there.
Right now, due to recent natural disasters in the region, the trip is in limbo. The tragic floods wiped out the border we were to use, and sounds like they are currently closing other borders to tourist traffic.
So we may end up flying into Tibet instead, but still waiting to hear back from tour company to see how things will go, or if we will have trip cancelled.
If that occurs, then I will work with them on the financial sides, but will then just pivot and find some way to explore more of Nepal instead since I have things booked already.
From there I will explore more, but will save those details for later.
Hopefully you have enjoyed reading along and hopefully have been keeping up with the videos as well on YouTube.
Catch ya down the road.