Four Military Veterans Ride Their KLRs from Alaska to Argentina
You’ll often hear folks who ride say riding a motorcycle itself is a form of therapy. The feeling of being “in the zone,” concentrating on nothing but the motorcycle under you and the road ahead of you; these are the times that peak our consciousness and ease our anxieties. In an upcoming movie documentary, four military veterans ride to “Where the Road Ends” for all those reasons and more. AMERiders give you more
The group of vets approached it as a mission. The four of them, with several great sponsors and all on Kawasaki KLR 650s, began their route in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Lest you think that was the easy part, they did it in November. In order to cross the Darien Gap at all, they had to time their arrival with the dry season, otherwise, they’d all be stuck in a mud pit.
That was why they timed their departure from Alaska on Veteran’s Day, November 11. They bolted custom sidecars to their KLRs and rode through heavy snow and freezing temperatures. They endured electrical failures on one of the bikes, and their tires spat out their studs on the road. They screwed new studs in, fixed their electrical problems, and kept going.
One of them was hit by a passenger car in a snowstorm in Canada but continued on. They unbolted the sidecars in
They rode from the top of the Earth to the bottom along the Pan-American highway. Their trip concluded in Ushuaia, Argentina. They fought their way through the Darien Gap in the process; the “no-man’s land” between Colombia and Panama and one of the most dangerous jungles in the world.
In his blog, the team leader Wayne Mitchell says, “We set ourselves to the task of being the first motorcycle riders to travel from Deadhorse, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina by land through the Darien Gap in one continuous expedition. In reality, we would realize that that claim, that title, would be pointless. Merely surviving the Darien Gap would be our true accomplishment.”
The group had support vehicles and a team medic, but the five-month trip was still a serious challenge. There are several episodes of their journey on their YouTube channel (the first episode is linked above). If they release a full movie of it I for one would definitely watch it! So I will be sneaking a peek at the website every so often to find out if and when they will.
The team of vets included : Wayne Mitchell, Richard Doering, Mike Eastham, & Simon Edwards. You can find our more about the WTRE team here.
We also found the teaser for you as well for when they started their trip shows what they were going to go through before the long trip started.
This is something I don’t know if I could ever do, might be fun but I am not built for the cold. Hubby tells me I get cold in the summer in 110 degree weather if the wind blows the wrong way. He may be right but still I don’t do snow is why I live in sunny Florida.
~And as always…
~Live Free Ride Hard~
~AMERiders
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Let AMERiders keep you up to date with information on the documentary of Four Military Veterans Ride “Where the Road Ends” Across the Continent.
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Source: Where The Road Ends, Rev’It Blog, YouTube