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I have been wanting to do an Arctic Trip for several years now. In fact, I first started thinking about five years ago while I was planning for my trip to New Zealand. The thought was New Zealand, then to Alaska the following year, and then continue to pick out a trip some place each year.

The reality ended up more or less shattered dreams in the end.  In early 2007, with less than a month until my Departure to New Zealand, our department at work took a blow when our Network Engineer decided to pursue his career elsewhere. With being the only individual left in our company after all of the cutbacks that had enough understanding of our network and our systems, my trip was canceled.

Since then, our department has continued to stay its current size. Later that year I tried to do a Northern Canada ride, but less than 12 hours after setting out, of a 5 day vacation, I was called back to work. I have since then, put off any long distance vacations that involved being more than a few hours away.

Every year however, I told myself, I would make a trip to Canada or Alaska, and every year, I disappoint myself. Finally, after this last years racing season cut short due to financial concerns with cutbacks at work, I made the decision to finally live my life, instead of having my job live it for me.

So with that, I put my race bike up for sale, and have decided to use whatever I get from it, to fund my trip.

I have picked two potential destinations. In fact, I’m still not sure which one I wish to complete.

I originally had picked Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. This seemed like a good choice, it allowed me to go into Alaska, and marvel at the beautiful wilderness, but then I started to read more about Inuvik, located in the Northwest Territories of Canada. After reading multiple ride reports of other people who have made the trek to both destinations, I have been torn on which one to do.  If I do one, I most likely will want to do the next one in the coming years. The question is, which do I want to do first?

So it is with this decision, I have decided that I plan accordingly.  Both trips are within an extra day or two worth of travel, and both take me to my original destination, which is beyond the Arctic Circle.

I will continue to update this section, from time to time, with progress I have made in the planning stages, until the day of the trip begins. At which point, I will use the main blog portion of this site for updates as time and internet access permits. Following the completion of the trip, this section will be broken up to pre-trip planning, trip report and post-trip wrap-up.

*UPDATE*  November 17th, 2009: Trip Information has been finalized!

Trip Information
Departing From: Seattle, Washington, USA
Destination To:Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada
Passing Through: British Columbia, Canada – Alberta, Canada – Yukon Territories, Canada – Alaska, USA
Date of Departure:  June 17th 2010
Estimated Duration: 18 to 21 Days
Estimated Miles: 5500
Purpose: Just Because…
Co-Rider: Gus (Confirmed), Chris (Unconfirmed)

Read about my decision on a final destination and the route for Arctic Expedition 2010 in Routing to the Unknown

Read about Arctic Expedition 2010 departure date set in A Date is set, a Co-Rider Confirmed – Arctic Expedition 2010 is Official