Welcome to Thoughts from the Road. Here’s Henry Child on riding two-up to the Arctic Circle, tackling dirt and getting back on the bike after an off-road fall…
Thoughts From the Road is a corner on Mad or Nomad for motorcycle travellers to share short stories from their experiences travelling the world. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion.
By Henry Child
Motorcycle traveller 2uptosomewhere
Getting back on the horse. The ups and downs of an off-road novice
It’s Wednesday 13th November 2024 and I’m looking out over Popocatépetl, a stratovolcano and Mexico’s second highest peak.
I’ve ridden my motorcycle here, a 2017 Africa Twin, from the top of the famous Dempster Highway in Northwest Territories, Canada. Having started in southern Alaska, a ride of over 22,000 kilometres and over four months. My wrist is sore, a lack of cruise control was perhaps a mistake, but otherwise all is well in my world.
Motorcycle trips prior to this were two weeks long and each night was a carefully planned hotel or AirBnB somewhere in southern Europe. Now we decide which creek to wild camp on and keep the bear spray close.
The rough stuff
My partner, Nicola, has bravely ridden pillion all this way with hardly a complaint or visible lack of trust in my ability as her two wheeled Pan American chauffeur. I guess I should say that I keep pinching myself to check I’m not dreaming, but I know full well I’m not. Nothing makes me feel more awake than riding this motorcycle each day, particularly now Mexico has thrown gigantic potholes and speed bumps into the mix every few hundred yards. These are easy to contend with, perhaps just a little tedious and uncomfortable. However, the white sandy beaches make a rough ride worth it.
The bigger issue is my lack of off-road confidence. A flat shallow gravel track is fine, but give me sandy, rocky, rut filled descent or climb and suddenly I’m like a kid without stabilisers for the first time. Or at least that’s how it feels. Where did my confidence go?
Welcome to the Dempster
Go back to July. I’m filling up the Africa Twin with fuel at the gas station at the bottom of the Dempster highway, Yukon Canada. The majority of our luggage has been left at a guest house in Dawson City. We are carrying a tent, stove, basic food/water, first aid kit, puncture kit/tools, GPS, phones/money, suitable weather gear and camera equipment. Not even a change of clothes.
I’ve never done anything like this before, and my only off-road experience was the day before, riding over the ‘top of the world highway’ from Alaska. Our intention was only to ride to the Arctic Circle sign. We had been told this leg of the Dempster was easy if the weather was on our side. Thankfully, it was.
We were lucky to meet three friendly Canadian bikers at the gas station, excitedly astride their KLRs. Whilst we set off separately to them, we found ourselves overlapping at rest stops and eventually a shared camp for the night just south of the Arctic Circle sign.
Getting good…
The Canadians set off early the next morning, we lagged behind. Arriving at the sign and with a clear forecast and a newfound dirt road confidence we settled on making it to Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic Ocean campground. Worst case we would turn around if it got too tough. Four days later and we’ve made it all the way to the Arctic Ocean and back without incident.
Four days of epic dirt road, standing up on the pegs with the back end going left to right (at times) but never feeling out of control. Nicola felt uneasy sometimes, but we learnt to understand how the bike moved in the dirt.
The fall
Even as I write this, I’m not sure how I’ll top this experience, it’s still number one for me. The USA offered some mind-blowing landscapes but the sense of wilderness from northern Canada still can’t be topped…
But, I also lost my off-road confidence some weeks later in British Columbia. Another dirt road lead us out to a pretty mining town near Lillooet. We took a recommendation of a remote ski cabin and blindly decided to try and get to it without much research. Now fully loaded, and running road biased tyres, it was poorly judged. Late in the day, at over 5,000ft on a steep muddy track.
I hesitated on the final approach to the cabin. Stressed, and exhausted, I let the bike tip over and I fell straight onto a tree stump. Nicola jumped free. The pain was bad, but worse I couldn’t speak due to being so winded. An agonising night followed, with a lightning storm and nearby wildfires adding to the anxiety, not to mention being deep in grizzly bear country.
Would I be able to ride in the morning? How would we get down? No one knew we were up there, and I didn’t get any sleep due to the pain and worry.
Keep going…
We did make it down, slowly. Adrenaline and determination made sure of that. Five days’ rest in a hotel (and some seriously strong pain killers) and I could ride again. It took weeks to heal the bruising. I was lucky. Physical strength has long since returned but will I ever get that Dempster confidence back? It remains to be seen. I got back on the horse but it’s a more cautious one. Too much momentum or too little? Power through or feather the clutch? There’s a long way to go and roads only get worse from here.
Let’s see if we can conquer another off-road challenge and give Canada a serious contender for the ultimate ride of this trip! On to Central America and beyond.
Henry Child
Related articles
Thanks for checking out this Thoughts from the Road column. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more articles on adventure motorcycles that we recommend you read next.
Try these next…
Share your thoughts in the comments below…
It’s so refreshing to read an article like this! I find so many people are so… what’s the word… ego… about their riding when it comes to bikes. But this is honest! Lovely story and I’m sure youl be back up to full confidence in no time.
I met this lovely couple on Vancouver Island. So fun, love them to bits, ride on my friends. Henry you ride as most with 10 years on you!!
Glad you are both ok.
We had exactly (and still have to a point) the same confidence worries when off road.
We flew up the Dalton Highway at the beginning of our trip, full of confidence. We did a fabulous dirt road in Mexico to El Fuerte.
Then a few falls from both of us (nothing bad that caused injury) and the confidence goes very quickly.
We’re getting better as the trip goes on (and dirt roads are unavoidable in South America!) but the bravado we had at the start of the trip isn’t there anymore.
Our off road riding has improved massively. We’re doing roads we wouldn’t have considered at the beginning of the trip, yet we often find ourselves at our destination wondering how we are going to get out of there the next day!!
I don’t know what the answer is but it’s comforting to know that it’s a common feeling that others have as well.
Thanks for sharing.