Planned Trip routing

As I've said on many a previous trip, the only certainty is that the final routing will look different from this, and it will be fun to see what changes we will have to make.

Week 1 - St Thomas, ON to Mossleigh, AB (June 14-20)

I do not like crossing the border on weekends, so we are going to head out on a Friday morning and zip along to the Sarnia/Pt Huron crossing. Once we've cleared customs, the plan is to head north into the Michigan Upper Peninsula and run along the south shores of Lake Superior to its' most westerly point. From there, we'll trek on to the west through Minnesota, North Dakota and into Montana. Right around St Mary, MT we will head north and cross into Alberta at the Waterton Lakes National Park border crossing and make our way through Lethbridge and on into Mossleigh. We are hoping to get to see some family along the way, as we have relatives that live in southern Alberta.

Week 2 - Mossleigh, AB to Dawson City, YT (June 21-27)

We'll start off the second week of the trip with a fairly leisurely ride into Calgary for some sightseeing and perhaps meeting up with friends and family there. It will also be where we connect with Joe and Romy who will be joining us for part of the loop into Alaska. This is where we pick up the beginning of the Alaska Highway, most of which we will see on this trip. We'll be crossing into British Columbia and then up into the Yukon Territory, with the plan being to end up in Dawson City.

I had originally thought that it would be possible to squeeze in a trip into Yellowknife and the Northwest Territory. It would only add a couple of days to the trip. My only concern is that there are a couple of long stretches (in excess of 200 kms on each stretch) of unpaved, hard packed roads between Yellowknife and Fort Nelson. They are easily passable in good weather, but can be rather slippery and hazardous if it's wet. Now, on a dual sport or sport touring bike, that wouldn't be an issue. But we're going to be on 1,000 pound touring

bikes, riding 2-up, with a week's worth of gear weighing down the bikes, and so I reluctantly decided to bypass that option and perhaps try it at some different time.

Week 3 - Dawson City, YT to Anderson, AK (June 28-July 4)

Once we cross the border into Alaska on the morning of the first day, we will be spending the rest of the entire week in Alaska. The first day sees us doing The Top of the World Highway between Dawson City, YT and Chicken, AK. We will wind up the week at the northernmost point of our trip, near Fairbanks, AK

By this point in time, the iron horses will also be in need of some maintenance - hopefully all they will need is for some fluid changes - and I have therefore booked us appointments at the Harley dealership in Anchorage. We'll visit places like Tok, Whittier, Valdez, Homer, Anchorage and Fairbanks and, hopefully, get a great glimpse of Denali, previously known as Mt McKinley, the highest point in North America.

There are so many options when it comes to travel in Alaska,

including many that involve taking the various ferries along the many passages. For this trip, I decided to avoid all major ferry crossings, just so that we were not trying to rush to make a scheduled crossing (all that I have read indicates that it is a really good idea to pre-book the crossings). So, doing things like the Inside Passage and visiting places such as Juneau and Sitka will have to wait for another trip.

Week 4 - Anderson, AK to Red Deer, AB (July 5-11)

We officially start the return trip home this week, taking the Alaska Highway all the way from Fairbanks to near Watson Lake, BC and then catching the Yellowhead Highway south and east towards Prince George, through Edmonton and eventually on into Red Deer, AB at the end of the week. We may be able to meet up with family that live in the northern part of Alberta along the way, and this will also be where Joe and Romy will most likely drop off and go on their own way.

I'm hoping to be able to get a visit to the West Edmonton Mall along the way. It was, at one point in time, the largest mall in North America, with a built in amusement park, a hotel with themed rooms

and much more. It has been a long, long time since we were there though - likely in the early late 80's/early 90's on a trip out west with the kids.

Week 5 - Red Deer, AB to St Thomas, ON (July 12-18)

The last week of our trip will start off with a relatively easy day, as we leave Red Deer and head towards Drumheller where we'll do some sightseeing and meet up with family. From there, we'll start the journey east through the prairies along the TransCanada Highway through Saskatchewan - we may be able to meet up with some long time facebook friends in Regina - and on into Manitoba. Once we cross the border into Ontario, near Fort Frances, we will head south through Minnesota and Wisconsin and then back into Michigan along the north shores of Lake Michigan.

Since we're going to be in the Green Bay area, I thought it would be neat to check out one of the much-photographed roads (SR42 heading in Door County) and the tip of Lake Michigan. On our last night, we plan to stay at the same motel that we will have stayed in on the first night of the trip - a neat place, complete with themed

rooms, in St Ignace called the Bear Cove Inn.

The 5 weeks In Summary

By the time we get back into St Thomas, we should have covered nearly 20,000 kms (roughly 12.400 miles), visited 6 states and 6 provinces/territories. This will leave me with only 5 empty spots on my "States Travelled" map, but that's a story for a different time :-)

We will be stopping at 32 different Harley dealerships along the way - only 2 of them will most likely be closed when we get there (Grande Prairie, AB and Winnipeg, MB) and I will therefore be growing my collection of Poker Chips from HD dealers by about 15. We will be in 4 different time zones (Alaska has their own) and will hopefully be able to share many pictures and videos of out trip with y'all!

I mentioned previously some resources that were key to the planning of this trip, but I would be remiss in not mentioning the 2 key individuals that provided a lot of guidance and information based on their personal experiences - thanks a bunch to Gary Nantais and Dan Harvey for all your input!