by Belt Drive Betty

What do you do when you find your entire riding season all but cancelled due to Covid-19? If you are a Canadian writer and moto journalist in northern Alberta, you get to work on creating motorcycle tourism products!

We are working with our regional tourism office to create a riding the north website complete with touring maps and information on the services that the various routes north offer.

One of my favorite day rides in my backyard is the Shaftesbury Ferry.

Located near Eaglesham Alberta the Shaftesbury Ferry takes you across the Mighty Peace River.  The riding in the river valley is wonderful with nice twisting roads and sweepers that for a few minutes make you feel like you are in the BC mountains.

Here in Northern Alberta Canada, we have a lot of amazing things to offer people who ride, but few outside of our region seem to know about them.

One of the things that is hard to express in marketing materials like brochures is the number of hours that the sun shines. The sun starts rising in the north at around 4:30 am and sets around 11:30 pm. 

That much sun can put you in the saddle for a lot of extra hours of exploration compared to southern riding.  Another thing that we have an abundance of, is open roads and a small population.  There are places here in the north where you can ride for two and three hours and see maybe one or two vehicles.

Beyond big skies with lots of sun and open roads with truly little traffic what does northern Alberta offer the rider?  We in Grande Prairie Alberta are approximately one hour from BC and the mountains, we are your gateway to the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alaska.

If you enjoy getting off your motorcycle to explore, the north is filled with historical places, museums, trail rides, canoeing, river rafting, hiking and so very much more.

Good food, warm hearted people and wildlife and some exceptional landscapes Northern Alberta is here for you to explore when the travel restrictions are over.

We would love to see you here!