I never realized just how great this corner of Alberta is, it feels like Switzerland with the rolling green hills and majestic mountain peaks.  Its often overshadowed by the tourist traps of Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper on the other side of this range.

Cool morning

The sheep were everywhere and looked shaggy as they were loosing their winter coats.

Shaggy Sheep

Some friends of mine in the power trading industry wanted me to stop by Nordegg and ‘send a few thousand extra BTUs of natural gas down the Nordegg line’ – huh?  I did get a picture.

I couldn’t pass this area without a stop at Ram Falls.

Ram River Falls

The best roads are those with little maintenance, this stretch of the Forestry Trunk road has narrow winding sections up and down the side of the mountain, not great for making distance, but perfect for dual sport riding.  The weekend party-ers were starting to arrive, by the time I hit Caroline I was navigating pickup trucks with drivers of questionable sobriety piled full of people flying down the road.  In these areas its best to stay off the roads during long weekends.

Trunk Road

Arrived at the lake after 6 hours of riding the Forestry roads.

Alberta Lake

I planned on staying the night at my parents cabin, Ash and everyone had driven out in the morning and was meeting me there for some long weekend festivities.

Ash surprised me with a Welcome Home cake, it was amazing how much detail was put into it. You can even see my rain gear strapped to the back tail bag.  This was made off of pictures I had sent out during my trip, really cool.

It was nice to be off my bike and truly relax with the family for a few days.

Up early in the rain, I slept great after a long soak and was getting excited about meeting Ash at my parents Cabin.  Ed was planning on heading down to the US so we were parting ways and both had a lot of miles ahead of us.

When riding so many hours you think about all sorts of things.  This afternoon I started noticing the style of each caravan/RV that would drive by.  Most are generic white with one or two stripes down the side.  However, Puma  5th wheels have stepped up their game.  Depending on the model you get an airbrushed picture of a Puma on the front.  The deluxe model, have a bad ass looking Puma ripping up the brand logo.  I’m not sure who they are marketing to, but I suppose someone in product development has a love of airbrushed predators on the front of trucks.  It may not be ok to airbrush a wolf on the side of your mobile home, but if you get a Puma 5th wheel you can show everyone you pass how bad ass your Puma RV is.  Before my next trip I’m going to get a spider monkey airbrushed on the front of my helmet.

Aside from airbushed Pumas, there were a lot of other animals throughout the day including Reindeer, Bears and Mountain Goats.

Muncho Lake is blue like Lake Louise

I stopped for coffee and to wait for Ed to catch up, I never saw him pass, I stayed and ate a big lunch and had another coffee, still I did not see him come by.  We had planned on going separate ways today, so I thought he may have blasted by me.  I didnt want to backtrack as I didnt know if he was behind or in front of me at this point so after another coffee I decided to continue forward, hopefully meeting him in Dawson Creek before he heads east and I head west.

Getting this far south I knew I was bound to hit darkness for the first time in week.  I crossed into the Alberta border past Dawson Creek the sky was Alberta blue.  I never bumped into Ed again and was hoping everything was fine with him.

Back home

I love small towns that try to play off their name (like Vulcan) or have the ‘biggest something’.  Beaver Lodge is no different, they have, well, a giant Beaver:

I would have made it more cartoon than realistic rodent looking

Sun Setting

Sunset

As darkness settles in I found myself in unfamiliar territory.  It was the long weekend and most rivers and campsites were full of people out having a good time.  I was tempted to stop and pitch my tent, but I wasnt tired and wanted to make some miles.  Unlike the north you cant keep taking photos at 1am:

Beautiful alpine valley

Cadomin Mine

Getting into Grande Cache I pulled into a camp ground.  It was dark, cold and quiet.  I was just too tired and didnt feel like setting up my wet camping gear so I decided to splurge and find a motel in town.  Most places were closed, and I didnt want to lug my stuff up to a hotel room, so I settled on the luxurious cinderblock suites of Grande Cache.

Woke up early today looking forward to finishing off the dirt road and getting to Watson Lake. The weather was perfect again, and we rode past many huge lakes, felt like riding in the Okanagan without any towns or lakefront cabins.

There was little traffic on the #4 and was stopped by a family in a huge RV asking where they were.  I guess they figured after driving for hours and seeing nobody, they must be lost.  After talking with the RV driver a guy in an old KLR pulled up.  He was from Arkansas, his riding partner that was going to be joining him had passed away a month prior to leaving, he was riding with his buddy’s ashes hanging from his handlebars.

We hit Watson Lake and checked out the Signpost Forest, people bring signposts from all over the world and nail them up here.  No surprise there are a ton of signs from Germany.  I even found a replacement GS fender.

Signpost Forest

New Fender

This one is for Caroline and Laura

After leaving Watson Lake we headed for Laird Hotsprings, along this stretch of road he ran into 12 black bears, 3 Grizzly Bears, 20+ Bison, 3 Moose, 3 Deer and a Fox.  I couldnt believe how many Bears were hanging out along the road, its not wonder we were camping within this area on the way up when the bear walked up to us.  The best animal to run across is a Moose, they are terrified of humans and tend to run back into the forest, not like deer that will dart back into traffic.  Moose seem clumsy and goofy and always make me laugh as they scramble to get away from you.  This large male was swimming in the ditch when I pulled up.  He just scrambled to get away, except he was in the middle of a swamp, was hilarious to watch him stumble through the marsh to get away.

Wild Buffalo

Sad reality of hanging out by the road

We stumbled on a mother Grizzly and her cubs playing along the side of the road, watched them for close to an hour, its rare to get so see so many animals up close, but I didnt want to get too close not being in a car.  The little cubs were very curious and ran up to any car that stopped, finally he sat on the side of the road watching us and watching the odd car that passed.

Grizzly Family

Finally we arrived at Laird Hotsprings.  Its one of the largest natural hotsprings in Canada and well worth the stop.  Aside from the deck and stairs in, its all natural.  The source is a pile of rocks and it gets progressively hotter the closer you get upstream to them, makes it easy to find the perfect temperature.  I stayed there until 2am, perfect way to end the day.

Boardwalk to the hotsprings

Moose like to hang out around the hotsprings to eat the vegetation, on the walk back I was startled by a large moose hiding in the bushes, they stay still until they think you’ve spotted them, and then just take off.  Still makes me laugh.

We got back into the Dawson junction by noon, I had a huge breakfast and checked the coolant levels on my bike.  After the oil leak caused by Blackfoot, and the coolant leak caused by the rock, I wanted to check all pertinent fluid levels.  Both were perfect.  Before heading up the Dempster I had stashed some supplies under an old abandoned bus.  I thought they may come in handy if I need a coolant top-up on my return trip.  Since everything was looking good I donated the supplies to the local shop that had given me the epoxy I used to fix my radiator a few days ago.

Supplies hidden behind front right tire

From this point there was no backtracking on the way back to Calgary.  I had mapped out a route that would take us on different roads, the frist section was from Flat Creek to Carmacks.  From here we would take a gravel road for 2 days to Watson Lake.  In Carmacks we met a German guy and girl from Schwerin who were spending the next few months exploring the north, would be nice to get that much time off.

The road from Carmacks was a great mix of gravel, dirt, and rough pavement.  We camped at Ross River that had a nice site overlooking the canyon.  I thought it would be a good idea to hike down a steep hill to the river to replenish our water reserves.  The hill was mossy and damp and I lost my footing tossing my filter and bottle in the air and tumbling down.  I couldnt help but laugh as the hill was soft and mossy, but could have done without the laughing and heckling from Ed who after seeing how I got down was curious how I was going to get back up.

The Dempster Highway

The arctic is great, like no place I’ve ever been, its been a very worthwhile experience and enjoyable journey up to this point.  On the way up the excitment of reaching the final destination keeps you motivated.  On the way home that motivation changes to the excitment for me to see Ash and our soon-to-be baby boy.  Either way, its true when people say its about the journey, not the destination.  The countless experiences throughout the day can never be articulated in a blog or described properly in pictures.

The way back is less about exploration and more about reconnecting with people.  We had left Dawson a day early and are now bumping into many of the friends we had met along the way.  After packing up I stopped by to say goodbye to Andrew and Stephanie, they had ridden up from Texas and had a long way back.  Stephanie had taken a bad spill on the Dempster and they planned on having their bikes trailered back to Dawson.  There was a guy who drives up from Vancouver with a truck full of fruit, he just happened to be heading back the next day.  The Dempster for them had been a joy up to the arctic circle, but a nightmare after as the road conditions changed.  Once you hit the NWT border the road got very unpredictable, it would be smooth and hard packed, then instantly change to deep loose gravel.  We had a couple close calls, but apparently a number of bikers had taken nasty spills.

We gassed up at $1.89/liter, and were heading out of Inuvik, when we bumped into Simon, the cyclist from France, just arriving into town.  We pulled over and he was excited to see us.  We talked to him for almost an hour and I couldn’t believe the positivity Simon had, he was smiling from ear to ear, even after a crash, mosquito swarms, and biking in deep gravel for days.  He showed us a video of large Grizzly he took, the bear was about 200 meters away and he was alone in the middle of nowhere.  I liked that he wasn’t phased, its one thing to be ignorant of dangers, but he seems to accept the risks in life that keep many of us from undertaking great feats.  A true adventurer.

Simon

Simon was planning on getting a ride back to the Yukon border, he said he saw a number of motorcycles crashed on the NWT section of the road.  I suspect these were overloaded, larger bikes, with street tires.  My 650 just cruised through the rough sections, with no problems, I was starting to really appreciate the bike selection I made.

End of the Dempster – Homebound

About 30 minutes into our departure it sky opened up and it started to rain.  We were fortunate to have perfect weather on the way up, so I accepted it could get messy the way down.  People who ride the Dempster in the rain have a miserable chip on their shoulder when talking about it, I was almost looking forward to be able to experience the ‘other’ Dempster.

The rain turned the road into a slick grease, with the K60 tires it was fine, we just had the slow down to around 80.  The more inconvenient aspect was being spattered with mud, it covered everything.  Just north of Tsiigeghchic I rounded a corner up a hill and spotted a Wolf running across the road.  I stopped and looked where he ran into the trees, but he was long gone.

In Fort Mcpherson we were approached by a local, named Frank, who had lived his life in the small town of around 800.  We chatted with him for quite a while, and although we were burning riding time, I was quite content to hear about life up north and the history of the area.  Frank was native, but his grandfather was from Scotland.  He had the standard Canadian accent and spoke with sentences spattered in expletives and ‘eh’ on the end.  He was a smart guy and had a great sense of humor.

We were making good progress and by the time we hit Eagle Plains (halfway) we decided to eat a big meal and continue on.  A few days ago, just as we were on our way up a forest fire closed the highway down.  We were lucky enough to avoid the delay and could now see and smell the aftermath.  The sky was still smoky in this area, luckily there are no settlements that were in danger.

Forest Fire on the Dempster

Just past the forest fire section at about 1am we bumped into Etienne, a cyclist from Montreal.  He flew his bike and gear up to Inuvik and was planning on riding down to the bottom of Argentina!  You can track him on his site, pretty impressive.  We gave him some water and continued on.

By 2am there wasn’t a breeze, it was dead calm.

Still Lake

The rain had kicked up the calcium chloride that is in the material used to make the road.  My bike, pants and boots were covered with a concrete type material.

We decided to camp in Tombstone Park as the gas station and restaruant at the start of the Dempster would be closed at this hour.  Otherwise, being only 80km away, we could have easily rode the entire Dempster in one day.  Camp sites in Yukon are cheap ($12), have free wood, bathrooms and are very scenic, much better than trying to find hotels here.

The camping ritual includes picking a site, setting up the tent while mitigating the number of mosquitos that get in, covering gear in the event of rain and relaxing in front of the fire with a beer or tea.  After a long day like today you fall asleep the second your head hits the pillow.

Who would have thought we would have to come to the end of the road north to get some summer weather.  Its been sunny and hot the entire time in NWT.  Today we woke up to more sunny weather and temperatures over 30.

We managed to get a charter into Tuk today, they would only fly if there were at least 4 people so the last minute another couple signed up.  They showed up last night and turned out to be Andrew and Stephanie who rode from Texas and I was going to ride from Calgary with.  They got delayed in Montana and I lost touch with them until today – small world.

The airport in Inuvik is small but remarkably modern and nice.  Its actually much nicer than many of the regional airports in the US I fly out of.

Watch out behind you

Our pilot Tim was from Ontario, but moved out for a 3 year contract to get more hands on captain experience.

Our plane

Flying over the arctic gives you an appreciation for why there are so many mosquitoes, because of the permafrost the ground water stays on the surface, the topography is littered with small lakes and rivers.  Tuk is on the Arctic Ocean coast, it is only drivable in the winter when the rivers freeze and turn into Ice Roads (ever watched Ice Road Truckers).

Inuvik from the air

Tuk gets its name from the Iqualiat name for Caribou because the penisnsula looks like a caribou.  The original name was Port Roberts (I believe), but in 1956ish it was the first northern settlement to be renamed to its original native name.

Tuk also has a new modern one room airport.  The previous airport terminal was sold to the town by an energy company for $1, it was in dire need of replacement and was just recently replaced.

Our tour guide Eileen was very friendly and had grown up in Tuk her entire life.  She knew a lot about the history and future for Tuk.  There are rumors about building an all season road, which would be great for tourism, but would also bring drugs and alcohol issues.

Eileen

Tuk was remarkable, it still had much of its history in place, both traditional and brought by Europeans.  There are at least 5 churches of different denominations here and even the boat that was used by the catholic church to take children to bording schools.  Its amazing to see people that were so poorly treated in the past have such a positive outlook.  When asked if people go to the church, the response was that the people don’t feel they need a translator to speak to the man upstairs. Interesting.

The housing is very primitive which reflects the cost and difficulty to bring materials in.

Street with Housing Boat

We took a trip down to an ice cellar, there were traditional freezers that were dug around 40 feet deep down into the permafrost.  It was over 30 outside, but well below freezing inside.

The permafrost has a marbled look to it, there is actually much more ice than dirt in the permafrost.  If the permafrost melted the entire Tuk penensula would slip into the sea.

The traditional houses were built using the plentiful driftwood along the beaches and used sod for the wall insulation.  The middle had a fireplace that would keep it warm.

Once inside it was perfect temperature, very comfortable.  Remarkable how traditional dwelling can perform better than the raised houses blasted AC all day.

Tuk was part of the Distance Early Warning System, or DEW Line.  It was a series of radar stations build by Norad to monitor against Soviet strikes during the cold war.  If the Soviets were to fire missiles, they would come over the Arctic towards the US.  The DEW Line stations were strung along the Arctic coast an actively monitored for a strike that never came.

The DEW Line radar station in Tuk was still standing.  They actually fixed it up and it was back in use (probably not monitoring Soviets).  My Dad was stationed here in the 60s, but you cant do tours inside.  There is nothing left of the housing buildings, just the towers and radar building.  They plan on keeping the station as a piece of history and moved one of the doppler domes to downtown Inuvik.

Below are a few of my Dad’s pictures of the radar station in use in 1964:

1964 the bay still had ice in the summer this year it was gone for months

High Noon

Dad monitoring equipment

Towers in Winter

Eileen showed us some traditional clothing including this kick-ass pair of polar bear pants.  These were actually used during last years whale and caribou hunt when the guy wearing the pants commented “I hope its not polar bear mating season”.

Lastly we went down to the beach where you could see the Pingos.  They are volcano looking hills that are formed when lakes get low and the frost heaves the center up.

Below is a picture of my dad in 1964 on the top of the pingo on the left looking out across the Arctic Ocean towards the other pingo.  Its hard to deny global warming when looking at pictures of Tuk in the middle of summer and seeing ice still floating out in the ocean.  This year was hot, over 30C in Tuk in late June, the Ocean would remain ice free for the next few months.

Arctic Ocean 1964

It was really hot out so we decided to take the plunge into the Arctic Ocean.  It was actually not to cold and because the McKenzie enters the ocean here it was more freshwater feeling than saltwater.

I’ll add this one to my Dawson City Toe Drinking Certificate.

2 Years ago there was a spurt of energy exploration in the Inuvik area and the local government pocketed over 60 million on royalties, last year was 0 (zer0).  The source for that stat was an older local guy, but regardless of its accuracy the town shows the pains of some hard times.  Few restaurants remain open and many people have moved on, regardless those that remain are friendly and willing to stop and chat.  Many are bullish on the future and acknowledge living in special corner of the world.

Aside from the troubled economic situation in Inuvik, I have also noticed the not uncommon small town social issues.  I get a feeling of polarization between the native and non-native population especially amongst the youth.  Alcohol abuse appears fairly common and may explain the 12 full time RCMP officers the small town has.  The fun run I participated in had no representation by the native population which was disappointing.  However, everyone I have met has had the qualities of been a good person and its difficult for me to judge their situation as an outsider.

On an unrelated note, I havent experienced the darkness of night since Smithers BC, almost a week ago.  Its great to have endless sunshine, even went for a hike last night at midnight, but it has really skewed my circadian rhythm.  The darkness usually lets my body know its late and starts to wind down, however, since coming to Inuvik I have rarely been tired.  Its well over 30 Celsius during the day, not exactly what I expected from the arctic.  With no AC the short stints of sleep I have taken are not the most pleasant, especially having to wrap myself up in a blanket to hide from the tormenting mosquitoes.  However its part of the experience and these heat waves dont last long.

I’m staying in the Arctic Chalet bed and breakfast.  A great family run group of cabins that are primary a dog sledding vacation destination in the winter. I woke up today and had coffee in the sun room while catching up on emails.

Arctic Chalet

The Arctic Chalet specializes in a breed of white Huskies, primarily Siberian Husky.  One of the dogs had just given birth to a litter of 5 a few days ago, so I was invited down to see the new family.

Shelter to keep away the bugs

Proud Mom

The puppies eyes weren’t open yet, but they would start to get sqeeky if away from mom too long. They will know after about 8 months of these pups will make good sled dogs, if they wont pull, they will become pets.

The rest of the pack is housed in outdoor kennels.

Trips can last anywhere from 1 day to 6 day excursions to Tuk.  This includes getting suited up in traditional furs and muck-lucks – I would really like to make a trip back in the winter to give sledding a try.

In the afternoon I went out to explore the city a bit more.  First I wanted to get as far down the ice road to Tuk as I could.  This didnt last long as the road quickly hits the  Mckenzie river.  After riding to the bottom of Baja, I have now completed the road to the top of North America, can go any further without a boat.

Road to Tuk

I also found it interesting how all the utilities are run above ground.  With the permafrost being so deep there is no way to run these below ground without disturbing the stability of the ground.

Utilities

The towns main water supply is on the hill surrounding the city.

The only building to have a foundation is the Catholic Church, which is shaped like an igloo.  This landmark church is still used today, but the congregation has shrunk dramatically.

Next door was a charity ‘Shine and Show’ fundraiser.  There were a few Harleys, a Vespa and some other motorcycles on display.  My favorite was this Honda XL250 owned by a local named Brian who use to race.  I spoke to him for over an hour and got a lot of insight about the local area.  Brian obviously missed the ‘shine’ component of the ‘Shine and Show’ – really nice guy.  A girl from the local paper came by and snapped a photo of us, I’ll try to get a copy tomorrow.

Brian and his 250

One of my favorite housing complexes in Inuvik is the ‘smartie boxes’.  Its at least an attempt to get some color going in a region that can at times be dark and cold.  They were also featured in a Tropicana commercial.

Smartie Boxes

Woke up after about 6 hours sleep, once the sun got high enough the tent became sauna.  Another clear blue sky day. As I’m packing up my tent a guy on a bicycle rides up, his name is Simon and started in Vancouver.  His plan is to ride to Inuvik, then down to Mexico, very impressive.  He says he bush camps and I ask if he has had any bear issues “Nope, have you”.  I try not to freak him out, but give him some cautions to take, it would really suck to be alone without a car/motorbike when a bear walks out.

A real adventurist

We head in to the Eagle Plains Motel but miss breakfast, its the only restaurant in Eagle Plains so I settle for some fish and chips.  We chat up some other bikers and after a few more cups of coffee hit the road.

Eagle Plains

The first stop is the Arctic Circle, this is where the GPS gets all wonky and confused when sunrise and sunset are.

Arctic Circle

There are a number of ride roads you can take to explore, its difficult to judge the scale of the hills and valleys.  The next picture shows my bike, up one hill, and Ed and his bike up the next hill.  You can barely make him out.

Next up the final border crossing: NWT

NWT

The ditches are anywhere from 6 to 10 feet down on either side.  This is required this far north to insulate the road from the permafrost.  If they dont do this the road will buckle.  There was a section of road in Alaska that was buckled, it looked like a serpents back, super fun to ride the motorbike on as you could almost launch the bike in the air each hump, but the RV drivers were cursing it.

We took the ferry over to Fort Mcpherson, which is actually pretty large settlement, but unfortunately suffers from many of the social issues of small northern towns.  Although dry, vodka bottles lined the roads.

A Wolf would have been more threatening

This far north all the houses are on stilts.  The ground is too frozen for a foundation, the warmth from the building would melt the permafrost and the building would sink.  Dawson has a street with sunken buildings thats is interesting to see the actual effects.

The Mighty McKenzie River

The last stretch of the dempster was brutal, the gravel was deep and would grab your front tire.  I had a number of scary ‘tank slappers’ and once thought I was going over.

Finally pulling up into Inuvik I puled over to wait for Ed.  A car pulled up and some organizers took a table and water cooler out of the back.  They were dressed in jogging gear and obviously setting up for a race.  I walked over to talk to them and it turns out the annual Solstice Half Marathon and 10K was being setup.  She said the race stars in 1 hour, which was 11:30pm.  Great I thought, where do I register.

I zipped over to the cabin we rented, dropped my gear, showered the layer of dempster dirt off my body and jumped into the most suitable jogging attire I had (which didnt include jogging shoes).

Before

During

After

I got over before the start and ran the 10K, perfect way to get a tour of the town. Apparently even north of the arctic circle my face goes beat red when jogging.

After the race, I walked down to the grocery store, bought some stuff for the BBQ and rode back to the cabin to grill up some dogs, it was the first meal I had since my fish and chips 12 hours ago.  By the time I finished eating it was close to 3am, still sunny out, Dempster finished.

End of the Dempster