The Dempster Highway Adventure

We started off into the Demster Highway leaving Dawson City with 740 km of gravel road ahead of us heading to the northern town of Inuvik.The first part of the highway was easy going, leading through simply amazing country side with the road winding along a orange colour river beside mountain ranges. We were really happy with our progress, when we realised that there was a hint of smoke in the air. As we rode on the smoke go thicker by the minute and before we knew it we were surrounded by forest fires flaming up beside the road. We finally made it through the eerie landscape without any burn marks, with the sun just visible as a crimson spot in the sky. We were already very ready for a cool beer when suddenly we ran into a very thick layer of talcum like powder on the road – you could just imagine was this would be like when wet! After 60 km of this we arrived total knackered at Eagle Plains, the mid way point to Inuvik.

After a good nights sleep at Eagle Plains campground without any grizzlies in sight (there had been a grizzly bear on the campground the night before and they had to get the guests into a nearby hotel) we rode off and crossed the Arctic Circle for the second time on our trip! The road was challenging through out the day with loose gravel the size of marbles until the first ferry crossing. From there on the roads were better, not to speak of the amazing landscape which had change to vast flat plains filled with coniferous trees. Later in the day we made it to Inuvik, which is measured by the location quite inhabited (about 3400 inhabitants). We met some riders who where preparing to try to ride the (officially still closed) road to Tok. Rumours are that the locals are already doing it all the time and that after the first rough 30 kilometres the road is supposed to be really good and you can do the trip in under 3 hours. We where playing with the idea as well to sneak over there during the night (altough night is probably the wrong word since it never gets dark..) but quickly quit the idea after we heard that some guys got their bikes impounded two weeks back as the police waited for them on the return trip.

The next morning we were invited by our camping neighbour to snoop around town – as he called it. He took us to the towns dumpsite for grizzly bear spotting but we had just missed them by a few minutes. After pilling back up into his pickup the next stop was the local recreational centre. We snooped  around and learnt that the building is already shifting because it is slowly sinking into the permafrost. At lunchtime we headed out of town back down the 740 km highway and camped just north of Eagle Plains for the night and just barely survived due to the swarms of mosquitos by the river side – according to the locals this region has the largest amount of mozzies world wide, just topped by the amazon. Heading down further south the next day the road was much better and the soft surface had disappeared as the graders had been busy – what a luck for us! The last night stop on the Dempster Highway was camping out at about 200 km to go, before heading back to Dawson City the next day – to get us and our bike maintained. What an adventure!