The Route
“Fly the bike to Buenos Aires, ride south for 2000 miles, stop before Antarctica, turn around, and follow the front wheel north to the end of the road in Alaska…..”
Somehow, I’m afraid it won’t be that easy….
Despite the towering piles of maps and guide books, GPS mapping software and all sorts of views from Google Earth, it’s the knowledge of fellow travelers that I expect to use to craft my final route. Overland travelers will be the most up to date source of information on road conditions, political climates, and border crossing points, both good and bad. I look forward to pointing at maps on the side of the road and conversing in whatever language works. That said, here’s an outline of my basic route.
South America
Ushuaia, my southern Terminus is the southernmost city in the world. The plan is to ride through the Dry Pampas of Patagonia, and make my way northwest through Mendoza, cross from Argentina into Chile, skirt Aconcagua on the south side, and pass to the north of Santiago. Then a hard right turn will point me up the western coast of Chile and eventually into the Atacama Desert. North of the Atacama I expect to stay close to the coast and make the border crossing into Peru. In northern Peru things get interesting. Peru and Ecuador have been fighting over the border lands for decades. My plan is to get some local knowledge before making a decision on the border crossing location. I’ve visited Ecuador several times, and look forward to riding north through the “Avenues of the Volcanoes” .The bike should need a brief servicing about then, so I expect I’ll be in and around Quito for a few days. Entering Colombia I’ll keep as low a profile as possible, and make my way to the airport in Bogotá’, where the bike and I will make arrangements to get flown over the roadless Darien Gap.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about the Darien Gap;
“The Darién Gap is a large swath of undeveloped swampland and forest separating Panama and Colombia. It measures just over 160 km (100 miles) long and about 50 km (30 miles) wide. It is not possible to cross between South America and Central America by land without passing through the Darién Gap. As roadbuilding through this area is expensive, political consensus in favor of construction has not emerged, and the environmental toll is steep, it is the missing link in a road connection through the American continents.
The Colombian side of the Darién Gap is dominated primarily by the river delta of the Atrato River, which creates a flat marshland at least 80 km (50 miles) wide, half of this being swampland. The Panamanian side, in sharp contrast, is a mountainous rain forest, with terrain reaching from 60 m (200 ft MSL) in the valley floors to 1845 m (5900 ft MSL) at the tallest peaks (Cerro Tacarcuna). The Darién Gap is well known for being full of Africanized honey bees that sting in large numbers”
OK….I’ll look at it from the plane…
Central America
Panama brings the start of Central America and the start of many more border crossings. I’ll cross the Panama Canal and follow CA1, the Pan-American highway, towards the border with Costa Rica. I’ve had wonderful adventures in Costa Rica, and from CA1 I hope to revisit Manuel Antonia National Park. I expect I’ll be looking for a fly-fishing guide in Quepos, if for no other reason than to do something that involves standing up! Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador are all new countries for me, and with lots of route options I hope to gain some local knowledge from other travelers. Next is Guatemala, and again it looks like I’ll have many route options as I ride towards the border with Mexico.
North America
My plan for Mexico is to ride north toward to Bay of Campeche and enjoy the costal roads from Veracruz to Tampico, with a border crossing at either Brownsville or Laredo.
And then…BACK IN THE USA!
Texas will give me a chance to reorganize myself and give the bike some TLC. From there it’s up through Colorado and Wyoming, heading towards a border crossing at Sweetgrass, Montana. Then its north through Calgary, Edmonton and into Dawson Creek, British Columbia. This is the start of the Alaskan Highway. I rode this “Highway” to Fairbanks in 2005 and look forward to dodging the moose, bear and caribou that graze along the roadside. Once I’m in Fairbanks the weather will determine the timing of my final push up the Dalton Highway to Deadhorse. The Dalton Highway ,also known as the “Haul Road”, is almost all gravel and can be quite an undertaking in the best of conditions. I’ll stop for the picture at the Arctic Circle and then push on North to the end of the road at Prudhoe Bay.
