What do y’all use for mapping/researching routes? Looking into some stuff in NORTHERN Canada. Trip wouldn’t be until next summer.
What do y’all use for mapping/researching routes? Looking into some stuff in NORTHERN Canada. Trip wouldn’t be until next summer.
Butler motorcycle maps are great but I don’t think they have anything for Canada. Occasionally I get destination ideas from YouTube. I research using google maps and satellite view to look as close as possible at dirt roads. It doesn’t always work out. Sometimes park rangers can give you road conditions. In the end I plot routes on my Garmin. Planning a large trip can be a lot of work. Northern Canada will be quite an adventure, good luck!
In a very expected turn, we’re looking at a 2025 BDR as a shakedown for a 2026 trip up north. That far up we’re looking at fuel drops, or at least coordinating with some private logging companies. I just don’t see it coming together, and less so making sure the crew is prepped. I think a proper BDR ass kicking is a good idea first. I’m a decent enough rider, but I’m a better trip planner, and the key part of that is when you realize it’s a bad line.
Thanks for the tip on butler. I’m going to keep gathering information and belching it out here because the community is small. But it’s going to take a good long while to properly route that, and make sure everyone is ready in terms of advanced first-aide, extra parts… let alone the financial planning to make sure that can all happen (honestly that will be the miracle if it happens in 2026).
That sounds like a tough trip to organize. A BDR will be a walk in the park by comparison. Hopefully you’re not including a fire prone area but that can be unpredictable. Bears, bugs, and unknown road conditions will make it challenging enough.
I usually tend to be incredibly overly ambitious and land on something more reasonable.
I still want to get up north but that is a true and proper adventure for all the reasons you mentioned. It’s just going to take a lot of time and a lot of talking to a lot of different people. For the fires that means I’ll need multiple routes for each section, as well as bail out plans. I’ll get it sorted but it’s literally going to take me the 18ish mo, and even then who knows.