Almost ready to go

Just a little over a day before I depart. Really doesn't seem like it. I have been preparing since last Fall and now it doesn't seem quite real yet. 


I spent today packing my tank bag and saddlebags ('panniers'). Tomorrow I will gather all my clothes and pack my camp roll (dry bag with my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, fleece throw, clothes, and my netbook). Then load it all up and hopefully make a short test ride. 


Here are a couple of graphics of my tentative routes going north. 

This is just a picture so you can't zoom on it. But I will travel thru Amarillo, TX and then across northern New Mexico. Into south eastern Utah, possibly thru Moab, then up thru the Green River Valley and onto I-15 north thru Salt Lake City. Really hate to ride thru there it is so 'urban', but it will save me time to spend up north. I may just stay on I-15 on up into Montana and then ride a highway up to the border crossing at Roosville (west of Glacier Natl Park). 

After crossing the border I will ride highway 93 up thru Radium Hot Springs (was there on my first trip in 2008) and up to Jasper on the Icefield Parkway. Then just keep heading north to Dawson Creek which is the start of the Alaska Highway. 


[For some reason Google Maps won't continue the route into Alaska to Fairbanks.]


It is hard to imagine but Google Maps shows it is almost 3000 miles from Houston to Dawson Creek - and it is almost 1400 miles to the end of the Alaska Highway in Fairbanks! I just can't wrap my mind around those numbers!