A little background for ya. During my 23 years of Coast Guard service, 14 of those were in Alaska. I was on Kodiak Island 3x, Anchorage 1x and Juneau 1x. I made it a point to do as much adventure traveling as I could while up there, since I never knew when Uncle Sam would decide to move me and the family back to the lesser-48.
In fall of 2007 I traveled to Salem, OR to buy a new Ural GearUp from the dealer there. After breaking in the engine and getting the first 500km service done, I headed up to Bellingham, WA and boarded the Alaska Marine Highway ferry for my home (at the time) of Juneau, AK.
Every year in Dawson City, Yukon, a group of ADVenture Riders coagulate in upwards of 200+ motorcycles. Mostly dual-sport and adventure bikes. I had targeted 2008 as my year to attend, and what better way to do it than on a Russian built, 2-wheel drive, sidecar motorcycle! Everyone said it wouldn't make it...I'd break down for sure...better call a tow company to follow you...but you'll have to read and see what happened.
Oh, did I mention I was gonna hit the Dempster Highway, the Arctic Circle and head all the way up to Inuvik? Yeah, well...read on!
All good adventures begin with a hair brained idea (see above), and some planning. I chose an Alaskan Brewing Company IPA and the beautiful Diane Lane to help me get things started.
And here's the beast, in ready-to-roll mode. It drank gas like crazy, so yeah...I brought along 15 extra gallons. Overkill? I think not. I used every drop on my run to Inuvik! And the wheels and tires...one full spare (could be mounted on the rear of the bike or on the sidecar), so brought an extra 2 new tires. The rear tire (or "pusher") wears super fast and also in a squared off manner, so I wanted to be sure I had one replacement for that plus if anything happened on the front end.
