Army Paratroopers Undertake Expedition Thru Dangerous Darien Gap
New documentary to showcase treacherous transcontinental moto journey.
Many adventure riders have made the trip from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America. It’s a ride spanning everything from tundra, to jungles, to windswept plains, but thanks to the Pan American Highway road network, it can be done by just about anything on wheels. The Guinness Book of World Records calls it the longest motorable road in the world.
Virtually everyone who has made the trek, however, has one thing in common: they skipped the roadless expanse of dense jungle linking Panama and Colombia known as the Darien Gap. The Darien packs more danger in 100 miles than the rest of the trip combined: poisonous snakes, armed paramilitary forces, drug smugglers, mountains, swamps and crocodile-infested rivers are some of the challenges that await travelers who stick to land instead of sailing around this knot of jungle. People die trying to cross the Darien Gap.
For one group of adventure riders, the danger is the draw. Four U.S. Army paratroopers, who have put together an expedition called “Where the Road Ends”, intend to ride 19,000 miles from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America, crossing the infamous Darien Gap. A few motorcycles have crossed the Gap before, but these guys intend to ride the whole tip-to-tip transcontinental expedition continuously in just four months. They’ll have to time their crossing in the Darien’s dry season in January 2018, which means leaving Alaska in November, 2017. It’s cold in Alaska in November, in case you hadn’t guessed, as cold as 40 degrees below zero. But they’ve planned for that.
“Each bike will have sidecars, spare batteries, lights, and cold weather gear for the Arctic portion from Alaska to Oregon,” says team operations officer Wayne Mitchell. “Once in Oregon, we will drop the sidecars and go down to hard cases and soft case luggage. When we reach the Darien we will lighten the bikes up as much as possible, remove some extra parts, and go forward with just a lightweight pack per rider with just hammocks, bug nets, food and water.”
The rest of the team is Michael Eastham, a former Army motorcycle scout; mechanic Rich Doering, a street rider who is new to adventure bikes; and Simon Edwards, a former Army medic, a land-speed record holder at Bonneville and a seasoned Baja racer.
They’ve been planning the ride for three years, and training hard and assembling their equipment for about two years. Judging by the group’s pitch video “Where the Road Ends”, they’ve prepped for almost everything trying to get acclimated to a long, difficult trip on their fleet of 2017 Kawasaki KLR650s.
Recently they took a recon trip to the Darien to hone their skills riding in sloppy mud and crushing humidity, hauling bikes across rivers with ropes and dealing with the locals. They’ll have to coordinate their crossing with at least three separate groups: Panamanian customs, a rebel group known as FARC, and a paramilitary border service known as SENAFRONT. (They made some inroads with SENAFRONT, at least, by giving a soldier a ride in their dugout canoe on the recon trip.)
The actual crossing will involve three days of travel in small dugout canoes to the town of Paya, the last outpost before the Colombian border. From Paya, they’ll follow a narrow dirt track 20 miles into Colombia. They will have to cross several rivers without the aid of a bridge, and move their bikes through deep ravines and up steep, muddy slopes. Then it’s back to the water in the canoes to travel across the Atrato Swamp and to the nearest road in Colombia.
A film crew, made up of current and former members of the 982nd Combat Camera Company (Airborne), an Army Reserve unit out of Atlanta, will be documenting the trip. Mitchell says a full-length film should be ready for festivals by winter 2018. They’ll also do live updates via social media once they hit the road.
As expedition camera operator Jake Hamby put it, “We are going to be taking motorcycles and putting them in the worst conditions in the world.”
Adventure doesn’t get any better than that.
To follow the “Where the Road Ends” expedition visit their Facebook page.
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Looks interesting. I assume Kawasaki is backing them by providing the bikes. I sure hope those guys know to fix the doohickey problems and carry extra oil.
I’ve never been a fan of chase vehicles on these kinds of rides (it’s cheating) but I can’t help but think I’d rather have that than have to deal with side cars from Alaska to Oregon. But whatever.
I’ll say this much.. at least it’s not yet-another-trip-on-BMWs, and I do look forward to reading more about it!
Thermo-bob thermostat and an overbore and doohickey and my klr doesn’t use oil, currently 84,000 miles
There’s another group doing the same trip starting in March – the British Trans America Expedition. Six Brits on CCMs. Check out their page on FB.
It has come to my knowledge that this is not the first time and Antonio Moaventour has already done the Darien gap crossing before ….
Re-writing: this is not the first time and Antonio Motoaventour Braga did the Darien gap crossing before in February 1989. The information provided by the former army fellows are not correct….https://www.facebook.com/AntonioBragaTexeira/posts/10209835082451641
Hi Erivan, Yes, as we mention in the article, a few motorcyclists have done the gap before (even before Antonio Braga).
We did ask the WTRE Team about this and this is what they said: “I think the key difference is that we plan to do the entire two continents and the Darien in one continuous trip. Most other people have either not ridden the entire length, or they have broken it down by seasons.That being said, we’re not too concerned about the “record setting” aspect. If another team manages to (or already has) beat us to the punch, it will not impact us. We just want to do it our own way and tell the story.”
I believe Helge Pederson, who now lives in Seattle, was actually the first person to ride through N and S America through the Darien Gap.
Hi Branden, Ed Culberson rode it before him but see the comment above from the WTRE Team 🙂
Danny Liska of Niobrara, Nebraska did the trip from the Artic Circle to the Magellan Strait in 1960 with a BMW–he did hike the Darien Gap and his guide was eaten by tribesmen. He wrote a book called “Two Wheels to Adventure” which is a terrific story about that trip.
don’t start your Expedition in a lie not.you do do not going to do sumthin that is never been don.look at the book; “two wheels to Adventure” by “Dany Liska” .he cross the Darien Gap by himself. with his motorcycle
Liska did not cross the Darien with his motorcycle. He had to abandon it and crossed the gap by foot.
Ed Culberson! Did it and wrote a book about it! The Derian Gap!
Meet him once! What a Guy!
Mike, Stop in Arizona between November and April and you guys got a place to stay. We are south of Tucson about 25 miles. I don’t do face book but email harrymac62@gmail.com Yes, stop because one of my bikes could use a little mechanical work and you be the mechanic so I see. Life has changed since the boy scouts of the 80’s but adventures are the meat that makes the meal worthwhile.
best to you all,
Harry McManus
There is also a british team on the way to cross the darian gap, if I remember right the opposite way round. Would be funny if they met in the middle of the jungle! 😉
The brits are using ccm450s, by the way!
That’s correct, the british team on GP450s will be starting from Tierra del Fuego. Will be interesting to see how the KLRs and the GP450s perform.
Really cool! I wish the riders the best of luck and can’t wait to see the documentary of their journey.
Holy smokes, that’s awesome! I feel like I cheated by putting my bike in a sea can around the gap. The flack you get in the comments section is funny, I didn’t see anyone post a link to some life challenging event they took place in.
Hell of a nice job, I look forward to the full story!
[…] and down North and South America right now, but I just heard about a group of riders attempting the Darien Gap on motorcycles. That’s cool! Or it’d be cool if riders were on a trip through the […]
well done guys I for one applaud you for going to try and hopefully succeed it really doesn’t matter if some one done it before what matters is you done it you joined an elite club and you did how you wanted too . Thank god some of the people leaving comments on here are not our forefathers as I feel we would only have one man on the moon one man up Everest one man finding the Americas etc
Looking forward to reading about your adventure
Hey! geat journey guys! I´m from Ushuaia, motoadventure rider, i´ll be pleasured to give you a welcome when you arrive at the end of the world! keep in touch!
Insta: @perrocastor