BUCKET LISTS: MOTORCYCLE DIARIES!
It started when I saw the movie The Motorcycle Diaries (starring the gorgeous Gael Garcia Bernal) adapted from the journals of a young Che Guevara and his best friend on a road trip through South America. Part bromance, part coming of age, the story takes you on a journey through stunning back roads, interacting with fascinating cultures and sharing the struggles each young man encounters on their own personal roads to manhood. Every time I see a woman on a bike, it just makes me happy like I want to high five them. You Go Girl! Or if I see a group of riders in a pack, I feel like yes, I want that too. I remember once asking my Aunt Leslie why she bought a motorcycle and she replied that she was tired of having to rely on some man to give her a ride, so she went out and bought her own Harley-Davidson.
I’ve always wanted to learn to ride, but never got the courage to do it. So imagine my envy when my friends Jonathan Gonsky and Brad Laney embarked on a cross country motorcycle trip last year. Hello BMW touring bikes. The guys rode from Chicago to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, stopping at all the majestic sites along the way as evidenced by their breathtaking photos of landscapes, water falls and watering holes and the good folks they met along the way on their back and off-road journey. Their trip was the stuff movies are
made of, the likes of Jack Kerouac and really
reminds me just how beautiful the United
States truly is … no fancy hotels or
business class flights required. Just the
power of the bike, the sun (and snow) on
their backs and a few bighorn sheep and
bison blocking the road.
I asked the guys what made them decide
to do the bike trip and here’s what they
said:
Brad: I’ve always liked doing things that few people have the experience of doing. This is what led me to get my pilot’s license, learn to skydive, become a PADI certified SCUBA diver, and more. As a long distance adventure motorcycle rider and nature lover, one of my dreams is to explore the far reaches of the planet by bike. Two summers ago I went to Sturgis with eleven buddies and four of us planned to go to the West Coast after the week in Sturgis, although only two of us ended up going. That summer I decided I wanted to go to Deadhorse, Alaska in Prudhoe Bay, the northernmost highway (they use the term highway loosely) in the U.S. The highway that leads there is called The Dalton Highway, which is a two-lane road that starts about 80 miles north of Fairbanks and follows the Alaskan pipeline 450 miles north to the Arctic Ocean. Only about 100 miles of it is paved, the rest is gravel, crushed rock and mud. Perfect for my BMW R1200GS. The trip up there was great. Jonathan, on his own BMW R1200GS, and I left on August 2 and rode 22 days to get there, including a four-day stop in Sturgis and a couple single day layovers to relax in Calgary and Fairbanks.
ML: You covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of great sights. What was the best part of the trip?
Jonathan: Where do I start? Coming to the top of a ridge or mountain and having your breath literally taken away by an even more beautiful view than the last one. Turning a corner and seeing bears, moose, or bison. Sometimes the best part was arriving at our campsite, quickly setting up, and just staring at the view over a cold beer. When we arrived at a campsite, groups of folks would walk over, look at our bikes (and Illinois plates), their eyes would get wide, they would hit us up with questions, and we would find ourselves in a some fun conversations with our new friends.