PDF: Map of "Dead Horse" trail
For two local men, the perfect vacation doesn't involve a ritzy resort on a pristine beach.
Later this summer, John Queen and Alan Kelly will make a 6,000-mile, 17-day motorcycle trip over desolate areas on a round-trip adventure from Seattle to Dead Horse, Alaska.
"It's dangerous, so that's a thrill," Kelly said recently. "We want to get that sense of accomplishment and adventure."
Queen, who owns a lighting company, said this trip allows him to fulfill a desire he's put off for much of his life.
"The reason we're doing this is because we can," he said. "All of us that are doing this have worked really hard, and I've always sacrificed dreams for duty. And I'm not going to do that this time. We're doing this because we can and we want to."
Queen, Kelly and two companions will ride BMW R1200 GS Adventures motorcycles, which are built to hold up over the long miles and various types of roadway - from smooth asphalt to rough gravel tracks - on their trip to the Arctic Circle.
With cases attached to the motorcycles, each will have about 100 liters of waterproof storage available. The bikes are fitted with GPS receivers that will allow their families and friends to keep track of their progress on the Internet every day.
Queen said he and Kelly have each spent about $15,000 for the trip apart from the cost of their high-end German motorcycles.
"The nickname for this trip is 'the Money Pit Trip,'" Queen joked, adding that the expenditures are not designed to impress others but to make sure they have all the equipment they need to travel in the wilderness of Canada and Alaska.
"Our bikes are not to show off," he emphasized. "These are adventure bikes. We're not going where the tourist bikes go."
Making sure the motorcycles are ready for the punishment of driving hundreds of miles each day is the responsibliity of Justin Prann, owner of Pandora's European Motorsports on Highway 58.
"These bikes are the Swiss Army Knives of motorcycles. They are like six bikes in one," Prann said. "It's a dirt bike; it's a street bike; it's a touring bike. And it will do all those things extremely well."
Prann and the mechanics at Pandora's have been going over the machines in great detail and preparing them to be shipped to Seattle soon.
"Our factory-certified tech goes through and makes sure that everything is perfectly true and in working order," he said. "Because you don't want any kind of issue when you're not within 2,000 miles of a dealer in the middle of the wilderness."
Kelly, who owns a landscaping company, said traveling long distances through the countryside is even more special on two wheels.
"Going by motorcycle - there's nothing like it," he said. "You can feel it; you can taste it; you can smell it. It's nothing like traveling by car."