Neil Peart's Motorcycle Trip Map and Routes: Where the Rush Drummer Rode

No single published map of Neil Peart's motorcycle travels has turned up in our research. His routes survive in his own books and essays. The best known is the Ghost Rider journey of the late 1990s: about 55,000 miles from Quebec to Alaska, down through the United States and Mexico to Belize, and home again. This page puts together what those published sources say, trip by trip, so you can trace the routes on your own map.

Part of our motorcycle touring destinations series.

Key takeaways- Ghost Rider (2002) covers about 55,000 miles across North and Central America, ridden on a BMW R1100GS.- Roadshow (2006) and the three "Far" books (2011–2016) follow later rides between Rush concerts.- In 2009 American Motorcyclist reported almost 300,000 miles on two wheels.- He planned on paper maps and preferred back roads to interstates.

Who Neil Peart was, briefly

Neil Peart (1952–2020) was the drummer and main lyricist of the Canadian band Rush. He was also a travel writer: Ghost Rider is a memoir of grief told from the saddle, and Roadshow tells a concert tour from behind the drums and on the bike. On both trips he rode BMW GS models.

The Ghost Rider route (late 1990s)

After the deaths of his daughter Selena in August 1997 and his wife Jackie in June 1998, Peart set out on the ride that became Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road (ECW Press, 2002).

The summaries give the outline, not the daily roads. For the exact roads you need the book itself. If you want to ride part of it, the Alaska leg is the one most US riders can copy. Our guide to planning a motorcycle trip in Alaska covers the highways, season and gravel. For the Mexico stretch, start with planning a Baja motorcycle trip for the paperwork side.

The later tour rides: Roadshow and the "Far" books

When Rush went back on the road, Peart rode between shows. Roadshow (2006) covers the 30th-anniversary tour, ridden on BMW R1150GS and R1200GS bikes. The "Far" books keep going from there:

His first book, The Masked Rider (1996), is a bicycle trip through Cameroon in 1988, not a motorcycle trip. Leave it off a motorcycle map.

Two tour rides you can trace

Peart's own essays give two routes in enough detail to follow:

• November 2012, Washington to San Jose: with snow on the Cascades and Sierras, he stayed near the coast. He took small roads through Oregon into Northern California, including a road along the Klamath River past Happy Camp that he had first ridden in 1996. Our Pacific Coast Highway trip guide covers the coastal corridor he was skirting.
• May 2015, Nebraska to South Dakota (from his essay Backstage Byways): from Ogallala, north through the Sand Hills to the Black Hills, then the back way into Badlands National Park. It was below freezing that morning.

How Peart planned his routes

In a 2009 interview with American Motorcyclist, Peart described his method:

1. Travel with a bus and a trailer for the bikes, so the bus becomes the planning room.
2. On show days, spread out paper maps and highlight the smallest roads, avoiding major highways ("shunpiking").
3. Hand the route to his riding partner, Michael, who loaded it into the GPS units.
4. Start the next day with the whole route mapped and timed.

His average day was about 275 miles, and he said he might cover 800 miles between shows. In the 2015 essay he describes the same paper-map routine on the floor of the bus.

You can copy the method without a tour bus. Start with a regional map for the big picture, then use state maps to find the minor roads. Our guide on how to plan a motorcycle trip covers the planning step by step.

Places he named as favorites

In the same 2009 interview he listed Monument Valley, Taos, Mount Rushmore, the Cascades, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. He also named the back roads of the Great Plains, Kansas and Oklahoma. Several of these sit on our California trip guide routes, including the Sierra passes.

What to wear if you ride his roads

His routes cover Arctic gravel, desert and cold mornings on the plains. You need gear that works across a wide range. Leather Collection's motorcycle touring jackets are hand-stitched cowhide touring styles with vents, reflective piping or zip-off sleeves, in standard or custom sizes. Pair one with layers and rain gear for long days.

For more famous rides, see the longest motorcycle trips and journeys and Ewan McGregor's motorcycle journey.

Related guides

• Peart's Ghost Rider ride began in Quebec; for Canadian routes and border rules, see planning a motorcycle trip in Canada.

FAQ

How many miles did Neil Peart ride on his motorcycle?

The Ghost Rider journey alone was about 55,000 miles. In 2009 American Motorcyclist put his total at almost 300,000 miles on two wheels. We have not found a published lifetime total after 2009.

How many miles did Neil Peart ride in Ghost Rider?

About 55,000 miles (88,000 km), from Quebec to Alaska, down to Belize and back.

What motorcycle did Neil Peart ride in Ghost Rider?

A BMW R1100GS. For the Roadshow tour he rode R1150GS and R1200GS models.

Is there a map of all of Neil Peart's routes?

We have not found one. The route outlines come from his books and essays. Trace the routes from the sources on this page and label each line with its source.