North to the Yukon (Canada)

Twenty-two nights in a loop from Calgary, guided, 7,300 kilometres north to the Yukon and back through the Rockies.

This is the longest and most northerly thing the operator runs in Canada, and the distances up there are the defining feature: fuel stops are planned rather than assumed and the gaps between settlements run to hundreds of kilometres.

The Cassiar Highway carries the route north through northern British Columbia, with the Bear Glacier near Stewart retreating visibly from the roadside, then the Alaska Highway, built by the American army in eight months in 1942. Dawson City follows in the Yukon, a Klondike gold rush town with its boardwalks and false-fronted buildings intact, where a rest day allows for the Sourtoe Cocktail, a local institution served with a preserved human toe in the glass. The return runs south by the Liard hot springs and Dawson Creek, where the Mile Zero post marks the start of the Alaska Highway, then the Icefields Parkway for the final two riding days, with Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff before Calgary.

The bike hire is included, with a BMW F750 or F800GS as standard and upgrades available; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. June to early September is the season, since the northern highways are impassable outside it. Twenty-three days and 7,300 kilometres works out at a real daily average, so this is a tour for riders who enjoy covering ground rather than one built round short days and long lunches.