I have done plenty of cross country trips to know what it is like in the Midwest between Chicago and the Rockies, but nothing could have prepared me for the Alaskan Highway.

The first day crossing the border was met with a lot of complications. Me an d Jeff went to this lady on couchsurfer app, and she couchsurf her trailer park trailer. It was already very sketchy, but when the neighboring trailer people started to threaten her and kick us out, I told Jeff, I’m leaving. He ended up staying, but I end up meeting Trish, who happily took me in at the last minute in the middle of the night. Top 1st photo. I met up with Jeff the next morning, and we kept riding. Second campsite was actually pretty decent, we paid for the campsite off a lake. It was a good warmup to the camping I will be experiencing. I notice the morning after that one of my prefab brackets was gouging into my tank a little so I spaced it out and kept it moving.

The third day, it was raining, very hard. I stopped roadside to dry up after the cleared up, and dumped at least 2 liters of water out of each boot. When we got going again, it rained again. Finally, we decided to end the day early and rent a motel, cause now everything is wet, and we have to dry it out, or else we will stink terribly the day after.

Third day, we arrive at this lake, which is apparently a popular ATV trail. As the storm moved in and it was getting late, we decided to setup camp. The ATVs ran all the way till 11 pm. Bad idea. lol. I also found my bottle filled with microfiber detergent cracked and blew up in my pannier. It was a bloody mess, but everything is super clean now, literally.

It has being a week riding with Jeff, we arrive at the central standard time zone. Jeff wanted to ride a much slower pace than I was willing to do, simply because there are some time frames that needs to be met simply because of weather when you reach central and South America. So me and Jeff went our separate ways. Ironically, he never made it pass Belize.

Here I visited the Winnie the Poo founding location, I think. Couchsurf with this guy above, he is a photographer, and had many publication that he showed me. He taught me a lot of little things about taking a good photo, and with that my photography improved as I went on.

I arrive at Winnepeg and this guy who is on a BMW hosted me. I changed my oil for the first time on my bike. I helped them do some yardwork at their newly bought house. He took me around the city. I left two day after. I’m starting to get into this vagabond life.

I arrive in Saskatoon late that day, having done 600+ miles in the summer heat. I linked up with Lorenzo, who was happy to host me. I pulled up his address in the GPS, and it took me to a cabin in the woods. The kind that you see on serial killer movies. I have already learn to ditch couchsurfing experiences that were uncomfortable, starting with the 1st day in the trailer park. So when I pulled up at night I was very skeptical. When I was greeted by Lorenzo, it was pitch black with very little lighting around the house. I was too tire to unload everything, so I went in the house with only my clothing and toiletries. He showed me where I was going to sleep and I took a quick shower and went to sleep. When I woke up, after an amazing sleep on custom made futon mattress, I looked around and found myself surrounded by custom made furniture, and everything was made out of wood. The cabin was an incredible work of art. Lorenzo ask me to not take any photos inside his house so I didn’t.

He was a retired physicist listing off the grid. With a beautiful dock out back overlooking a dock, where the water is as clear as glass. I went to my bike and unloaded my panniers and had breakfast with my host, who was gracious in preparing the food. We chatted over politics, played many game of chess and he taught me to slow down and enjoy the moment, and I did. I requested only one night, but I ended up staying for almost a week.

I’m 4200+ miles away from home and I’m on day 23. As I got started on the Alaskan Highway at mile marker 0, just outside of Dawson Creek. This is where I stayed with Cynthia, her Husband, and her friend who is a teacher. I stayed for two nights, they lived on a fantastic “ranch”, and made their own Bison burgers. I took some aerial photos for them on my drone. I was able to relax worked on my photos, get organized and talked education with them. What I did not expect after leaving Dawson Creek, is that the road up the Alaskan Highway was just a road, the only town that I would see days later would be White Horse. I road through an infinite void of nothing but absolute natural beauty, almost untouched by humanity. The waters are crystal clear, the roads are as far as your eyes can see. Bisons are everywhere, so are bears all along the road. I have a few video of the bison, I’ll try to post them once I get them off the video. In Liard River, I camped under a bridge right when the storm was coming through. I made sure I brushed my teeth and cooked far away from camp. When I rode out the next morning, it was super foggy and I saw a grizzly bear mauling/ chewing on something as I rolled up back onto the Alaskan Highway. Sketchy af. lol