BY: ROB HOFFMAN
A motorcycle streams down the highway between the toothpick trees and iridescent Alaskan sky. In the driver’s seat, sits Mallory Paige, a motorcycle-virgin on a quest to replace the monotony of home life with the elegant spontaneity of the road. Beside her, Baylor’s ears poke out of his blue goggles and flap like blonde flags in the wind.
Baylor is Paige’s dog and sidecar companion, riding shotgun beside a KLR650 dual-spot motorcycle on the open highway. After driving 6,000 miles from Oregon to Alaska, the pair decided they would continue their journey to traverse every state in America, and every province in Canada. After that, Paige has her sights set on Mexico. On the road, Paige has encountered face-offs with bears, indulged in the simple pleasure of free road-side camping, suffered the lows of bike breakdowns, and the high of bringing it back to life with the help of a wrench and some motor oil.
Before this trip, Paige admits, “I’d never driven a motorcycle, had little camping experience and no engine knowledge,” which goes hand in hand with her mission to prove the utter accessibility of a life in motion, “Proving that you don’t have to be fearless or perfect to live your dreams,” as she writes on her website. Though inexperienced, she is prepared, and before getting on the road Paige simply enrolled in classes to learn the arts of welding, metal working and motorcycle repair.
Paige generates income on a freelance basis, producing branded online content, crafting stories and public material for businesses. Though her lifestyle looks cushy from the outside, she insists that “It’s not a vacation, it’s real life. Marked with the full spectrum – excitement, boredom, fear, fun, stress – of human experience. Much more difficult than the steady, routine-filled life I leave behind, but fulfilling to the core”
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