(CNN) — It’s not every day you see a motorcyclist riding down the road with a German Shepherd on the back of his bike.
So it’s no surprise that the sight of content creator Jess Stone and her beloved dog Moxie walking around together usually makes viewers do a double take.
“Every car that passes us, they [the people inside] they pull out their phones and almost cause accidents because they’re trying to get the shot,” she told CNN Travel. “It’s funny.”
Stone and Moxie, who weighs about 34 kilograms, are currently 10 months into an epic bicycle journey that will see them travel through about 90 countries in Central America, North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.
The two have been on the road since last March, when they set off with Stone’s husband Greg riding behind them.
“I’m always up front,” Stone explains. “First I want to go through the obstacles.”
A riding challenge
Jess Stone and her German Shepherd, Moxie, travel the world together.
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Originally from Canada, Stone first learned to ride a motorcycle on the back streets of Liberia, where she and Gregg were living at the time, more than a decade ago and admits it was far from an easy process.
“Having your partner teach you how to ride is not the best thing,” she adds. “He wasn’t very patient with me.”
After finally feeling comfortable on a motorcycle, the couple, who have been married for eight years, went on an eight-month motorcycle trip together from North to South America. A few years after they returned, they moved to Guatemala and Moxie came into their lives.
“She chose me 100 percent,” says Stone, recounting the moment he first laid eyes on the dog while inspecting a litter of German shepherd puppies in one of the neighboring towns.
“She was right there on my heels just waiting for me to love her.”
Although both Stone and her husband were determined to include Moxie on their rides, she explains that she “didn’t want to have a basket or a trailer or anything that would really change the dynamics of the ride” now that she’s finally comfortable on motorcycle.
They quickly began designing what would later become the K9 Moto Cockpit, a motorcycle dog stroller they manufacture in Guatemala, along with a range of outdoor dog gear, through their company Ruffly.
“Everyone always asks how long it takes to teach your dog to ride,” says Stone. “Honestly, Moxie took the weekend.
“It took me a lot longer to get comfortable with that much weight on my back because I’ve never ridden with a passenger.”
After deciding she was ready for another big adventure, this time with Moxie along for the ride, Stone reached out to global nonprofit Girl Up—a girl-centric leadership development initiative—and the GoRUFFLY Around the Adventure was born World.
“Obviously I wanted to travel the world,” says Stone, who aims to raise $100,000 for Girl Up’s global empowerment projects. “But I also wanted to show people that you can do it with a big dog.”
Being able to take Moxie on this particular trip made it that much more special for Stone.
A constant companion
The couple, filmed in Guatemala, will pass through around 90 different countries during the extensive trip.
Jess Stone
“It’s like you get to experience the adventure twice,” she explains. “You experience it alone. And then you experience it from her point of view, because she’s right behind me.
“I see her [Moxie] in my mirror all the time. Her head is right in front of me. Sometimes he even rests his big muzzle on my shoulder with his chin up.
“It makes me feel so happy that she’s really going through it all. It’s always new sights, sounds and smells that she sees and experiences.”
Of course, traveling with a dog has its drawbacks. They are largely confined to dog-friendly places and rely on wild camping and occasional Airbnbs while on the road so Moxie can roam free.
“You have to be the type of person who enjoys nature and the outdoors,” adds Stone.
“Because those are the places we can bring her. If you want to be in the city and go to all these fancy restaurants, traveling with a dog really makes it a bit more challenging.”
Although they originally planned to travel from Guatemala to the Arctic Ocean and through Canada before flying to Spain and heading to Africa, significant cost increases due to a number of issues, including rising oil prices and supply shortages, forced them to change the route you are
Stone points out that Moxie has to be shipped in a giant crate as unaccompanied cargo because of her size.
That meant the total cost for her alone would have been about $6,500, including vet fees, freight, and international pet export fees from Toronto to Spain if they had stuck with their original plan.
The shipping cost of their motorcycles had also risen significantly by the time they started the trip.
“It just got really expensive,” says Stone, who documents the trip via Instagram as well as a weekly YouTube series.
Ultimately, they chose to travel “peak to peak and top to bottom,” making their way from Guatemala to Mexico, the United States, Canada, and on to the Arctic Ocean.
From here they began riding to the tip of North America before turning around and heading back to South America.
Challenging route
According to Stone, having Moxie with her made the trip even more special.
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Before he set off, Stone booked some private off-road training lessons to make sure he had the skills to navigate some of the more difficult sections of the route.
“Obviously I’ve ridden off-road a lot of times, but I’ve never really felt comfortable,” she says. “And I wanted to feel really good because I’ve got Moxie on my back.”
She admits to being particularly anxious about driving the remote Dempster Highway, a long gravel road in Canada that leads to the Arctic Ocean.
“I was worried I was going to crash and hurt my bike,” she says. “It’s funny that I never think about getting hurt. My bike is what I’m most worried about.”
Fortunately, they made it through without incident, but Stone says she is often plagued by thoughts that something went wrong during the trip.
“My biggest fear is not being able to continue the ride and something happening to the bike on off-road sections,” she says. “Fortunately, nothing like that happened.”
While Stone emphasizes that her riding skills are constantly evolving, that doesn’t stop her from regularly doubting herself.
“Still worried about dirt roads coming up? Yes. Am I worried that we will go down and break my bike? Yes.
“But I can’t stress enough how important it is to practice these skills. That really matters. It makes the experience so much more positive.”
Although things are going relatively smoothly so far, Stone occasionally loses her balance while driving, causing her and Moxie to “roll over”.
Having her husband, whom she describes as “the gear mule,” behind her is no doubt a great source of comfort.
“I carry the shepherd, he carries the camping gear,” she adds, before explaining that they don’t necessarily ride together all the time and sometimes take different routes.
“Sometimes he wants to try a different path or I want to go a different path and then we meet each other after that. But I’m self-sufficient the way I am.’
So far, their biggest hurdle has been getting her wheel replaced in May. After experiencing various “oil leakage issues,” Stone learned that her 2013 BMW G650GS would require an extremely expensive engine rebuild.
She ended up buying a newer, second-hand model of the bike for about the same price as the rebuild.
“It was an unexpected expense,” she says. “But this [new] the bike will take me the rest of the way.”
Main attraction
Stone teamed up with non-profit organization Girl Up for the GoRUFFLY Around the World adventure.
Jess Stone
Among her many highlights so far are being able to stop by Girl Up clubs and share stories, along with camping on the Arctic Ocean where they marveled at the sight of moose crossing the road and also spotted a grizzly bear.
“Moxie trembles with anticipation when she sees these creatures on the side of the road,” she adds. “She is so excited. We did a bit of fishing along the way which was really, really spectacular.’
Currently in Los Angeles, Stone is preparing for the next leg of the trip, which will involve taking a ferry to Baja, Mexico, then disembarking to Guatemala and on to Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama.
From Panama, they plan to fly to Colombia, where they will ride to the “top” of Argentina and then fly to South Africa.
Once they reach South Africa, they will travel up the east coast of Africa to Egypt and then to Greece before “circling Europe” and riding through Turkey and Central Asia.
The next leg will see them ride from India to Malaysia, where they will ship their bikes and Moxie to North America and then back to their first and final destination, Guatemala, which Stone describes as her “adopted home.”
Stone estimates they’ll be on the road for at least another two and a half years. But for now, she’s focused on getting to the next leg of the journey and is constantly improving her riding skills.
Her four-legged companion continues to be a source of inspiration, and Stone never tires of seeing the way others react to Moxie, joking that every visit to a gas station is like a “selfie palooza.”
“People just get out of their cars,” she adds. “And the first thing everyone says is, ‘Oh my God, she’s wearing glasses.’
“It puts a smile on everybody’s face. And that’s what I love. She just makes everybody have a good day.”
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