After two weeks on the road, riding, camping and living the ADV lifestyle to the full, five tired and grubby bikers respectfully arrived at the sacred fishing grounds at Tuktoyaktuk in Northwest Territories, Canada, parking near the famous Arctic Ocean sign at the end of the road. As one they burst out in celebration with victory hugs and high-fives, all of them proud of their achievement.
They looked around and, well, there wasn’t much there: the sign, the ocean, but other than a couple of outhouses and a common open lodge, there wasn't much else. Then locals began to appear, some in trucks, one man and a child on a quad, and they were greeted with smiles, handshakes and congratulations. At this point the five bikers realised they had achieved something special. The next landmark north of the sign is the North Pole.
A GRAND PLAN
We might be a rag-tag bunch of bikers to some, but big rides like this that take you away from home and loved ones for weeks on end are not just a recipe for memories that last a lifetime, they’re good for the soul.
Our posse for this trip included Pete Schmidtmann, AKA Pedro, who rides a mighty KTM 990 Adventure and is a builder from Colorado, and who just so happens to be an ex-Baja racer.
Pedro’s brother Charlie is a fire captain in Colorado, rides a ‘mostly trusty’ KTM 890 Adventure and also lists ‘Baja racer’ on his resume. Charlie is also something of a renaissance man, car collector and sailor, who hosted us on his boat after this ride — but that’s another story.
Shaun Coon, nephew of Pedro and Charlie, is a medical nurse in New York who transported his capable Yamaha T7 to Colorado prior to the start of this adventure. His off-road experience was about zero before the trip.
The fourth rider, Dave Cherniss, AKA Ned Flanders, is a recently retired machinist/mechanical supervisor from a northern California water agency. Dave and his monstrous BMW GS had no trouble keeping pace off-road and set a blistering pace when leading tarmac sections in the rain.
Lastly there was me, Mitch Martinez, AKA Mitchy Boots due to my adoration of the famous female ADV content creator Itchy Boots, who was an inspiration for some tracks we followed on this adventure.
