Born to Ride
Two islanders set out from Alaska to Argentina.
Interview by Brian Bushard
Photography by Kit Noble
For most of the year, they’re behind a desk. But when summer rolls around, they’re on the road on their BMW R1200GS Adventure motorcycles, criss-crossing America’s highways from Hyannis to San Diego, letting go of the stresses of everyday life. “We both have this mentality that you’ve got to make time to doit, or it’s going to pass you by,” said Dean Miller, who co-founded the Nantucket Adventure Company with Kenan Giguere. “We’re not getting any younger.”
The trip to California is relatively quick. Once they hit San Diego, the adventure really begins. From there, Miller and Giguere travel north to Alaska on the Pan-American Highway, an 18,000-plus-mile road network that stretches from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern the tip of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost city on the continent and the so-called end of the world.
All they have with them is the lightweight backpacking equipment they’ve secured to their bikes: tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cooking equipment, clothes and “creature comforts,” along with the food, water and beer they’ve picked up along the way.
After dozens of these rides, they’ve come to realize the journey is as important as the sites they set out to see, and there’s a lesson in that journey. It doesn’t take much to live comfortably, they said. All that you really need, you can strap onto a bike. “You realize when you’re on these trips that you don’t need a lot of stuff,” Miller said. “You need shelter. You need food and transportation, and really that’s it. You can be sitting in the dirt at the end of the day. You appreciate less is more.”
Their trip this summer is part of the Nantucket Adventure Company, a bike touring company they launched to take bikers from Nantucket across the country and to different locations. It’s not just biking and camping. On this trip, they’ll also be chartering a halibut fishing boat and a helicopter in Alaska.
After that leg of the journey is over, they’ll reconvene for the second segment in San Diego, before heading south through Mexico to Panama. The last leg takes them from Colombia to Patagonia. People who sign up for these trips must have their own bikes. Everything else is provided, down to the three-course meals Miller—a chef—makes over a campfire. On one of his recent trips, Miller prepared a panko-crusted halibut with wild mushrooms, fresh corn risotto and grilled asparagus with a lemon beurre blanc. “That’s what you get in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
“I have worked my way in my business so that I can do this,” Giguere added. “I’ve spent years working seven days a week, not doing anything, never leaving this island in the summer. That’s not how I want to live my life. I worked very hard to get myself to a situation where I can do more of these trips."
The trips are personalized and kept small. They’re meant to teach people how to use the bikes the way they were designed to be used. “People buy these bikes and they ride them to Starbucks,” Giguere said. “It’s the running joke. These bikes are meant to do what we’re doing with them."
We’re passionate about this,” Giguere said. “We want to get people that had these bikes but didn’t have a lot of experience camping or going away on these trips. We wanted to develop something that we could safely bring them through.” Miller admits there’s an intimidation factor to the motorcycles. Each one weighs nearly 500 pounds, and that’s before equipment is strapped on. Each bike has a six-speed manual transmission and a 1,200 cc twin-cylinder engine.
“With the idea of taking this thing off-road, I wasn’t afraid, but I was definitely intimidated,” he said. At that point, Giguere advised him to take a course through BMW. Miller said it was the best thing he’s ever done. "My confidence level went through the roof,” Miller said. “They actually teach you how to ride these bikes properly. I would say 90% of people who have these machines don’t know where to start. That’s what we’re trying to do with our tours. We’re not taking people on something crazy. It’s totally doable.”
Miller and Giguere’s goal for the company is to expand beyond motorcycles to Jeeps and other big vehicles. They want to expand to a larger market. An African safari ride comes to mind.
At the end of the day, it’s a form of high-end glamping, where bikers can hit the open road and hang out at night by the light of a campfire in some national or state park, a beer in hand and a quality meal cooked over a fire. This is the best part of the whole journey, Miller said. Sitting down after a day of exploring a new place, not knowing exactly where you are and resting in the comfort of disconnecting from the real world.
“I live more minimalistically as a result of doing this,” he said. “I need less. I’m going to take what I need and that’s it. It’s kind of a mental state.”
“The bikes aren’t just a mode of transportation—they’ve become apart of us,” Giguere added. “You’re out there in nature and hear nothing but the trees and the rivers. When we’re old, we want them to tell our stories, and to remind us of the places we’ve been and the people we’ve met.
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