VivaEnduro

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.