Month: May 2019

Inuvik to Eagle Plains

buff3ystanley

After a little pit-stop in Inuvik am onto the Dempster Highway proper, the northern road to Tuktoyaktuk only having opened as an adjunct to the Dempster in 2018. The first part of the highway south is a flattish undulating forest road down to the two river crossings 61km apart at Mackenzie River and Peel River. It is Spring so the thaw is on and the vehicle transport ferries are not operating due to the ice flowing down into the delta, draining a fifth of Canada the guide tells me.

Peel River Crossing

Having jumped in a little boat with one of the local trappers to cross the Peel River, your correspondent heads up into the mountains. [below is a link to a video from the first part of the highway].

https://vimeo.com/339388125

The first of the mountain legs beyond the Peel River crossing. Lovely barren hills of the Richardson Mountain Range. Gradients not pleasant on the legs though. Absolutely no polka-dot jerseys to be seen here. The mountains are hellish for this out-of-condition rider and the gradients are truly debilitating in places. But southwards we forge.

The barren snow strewn Richardson Mountains in Northwest Territories. Vry beautiful but his was an ugly little pass.

Crossing out of The Northwest Territories into Yukon with a stunned selfie.

The road continues to be a joy as the ferries that cross the Mackenzie and Peel rivers have not started operating for the summer season yet due to ‘the thaw’. As a consequence there is no vehicle traffic at all apart from locals and the occasional territorial truck; maybe half a dozen a day. So I pretty well have the road to myself every day! Perfect timing. Above is the (mandatory) photo at the marker for the crossing southwards over the Arctic Circle (‘pink-nosing’ as opposed to the ‘blue-nosing’ of naval parlance I suggest).

Rarely in the history of international bicycle touring has a sign-post been greeted with more joy and unbridled relief than this sign 2km out from the lovely Eagle Plains restaurant and lodge (170km south of Peel River crossing).

Here at Buff3ysbicycling blog as key influencers in matters culinary, we like to keep our fingers on the collective pulse of food fashion. On our left we have a rich concoction of deb instant potato with delicate shards of spam. This is beautifully complimented with Nescafe. Add some butter and salt to the potato to taste, particularly if you feel any compulsion to gag or throw-up.

Arctic Ocean to Inuvik

buff3ystanley

Stage One of the ride runs across a road from the Arctic coast that has only been open since 2018. It runs for 148km southwards to Inuvic and offers up short yet horrid little climbs every 500metres or so. Up a nasty little gradient for a few hundred metres, then down again…all day. No land-speed records broken here I’m afraid as the legs are pretty well toasted after sadly pathetic distances each day (50km+60km+38km). But no matter, will enjoy the gob-smacking scenery and just churn out the 50km days across the tundra until some semblance of condition returns to the legs .

My camp out on the tundra south of Tuk. Quite a challenge to find a place that is not soggy. The Nemo 2P tent is smaller than the MSR HubbaHubba and heaven knows how two people might fit into this thing. But the star is the EXPED mattress (very comfortable). Great to be sleeping each day after giving it a bit out on the road, only interrupted by the occasional distant shotgun pop while people blast away at the odd duck.

The midnight sun over the Arctic Ocean at Toktoyaktuk

Not great camerawork but what can I do? I’m a hardcore adventurer, not a cameraman

Top of the Dempster Highway: Tuktoyaktuk, Canada

buff3ystanley

And so it begins. This crisp clear day in late May finds Buff3y the Hardcore Adventure Cyclist at the top of the Dempster Highway, at the top of the continent of North America. I had a bit of a test ride with the fully packed bike on the way up here to Tuktoyaktuk and regret to inform of a decidedly softish core to the legs. It has been seven years since I last headed out on the long-road and can unhappily report here that the concept of muscle memory is completely bogus; the sweet memory of plowing up Andean switch-backs sadly a very distant one.

Buff3y in silly (but exceedingly warm) hat

The Bear Deterrent (which cost freakin’ C$75) has to be sprayed directly into the grizzly’s eyes or a scene from Revenant will most likely ensue.

Wheel-Dipping Ceremony in Tuktoyaktuk at the Arctic Ocean, Far North Canada

The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk is nestled up against a still-frozen Arctic Ocean in far-northern Canada (refer video of idiot trying to dip wheels in the ocean). It plays host to the early warning station for tracking in-coming military hardware that might lob in from Russia and land on Canada or the USA. It is also strewn with the remnant tanks and other infrastructure from the 1970’s oil boom. The simple wooden houses are super-insulated and one is a guest house that not only accommodates but serves up a bowl of beef stew to a tired cyclist.

I caught a ride up here after the experimental 50km test ride on the loaded bike out of the town of Inuvik, 148km to the south. The legs go to complete jello after a depressingly short distance along the gently rolling dirt road so am delighted to see John and his magnificently warm Ford something-or-other truck arrive. John is a Tuk local who points out every type of bird and squirrel he somehow manages to see from hundreds of yards away, while we trundle over the smooth dirt highway that will be my route southwards in a day’s time. The tundra is still covered with snow and the sea is frozen in many places and the whole vista is dazzlingly clear and incredibly beautiful.

The ride south will start with the 148km leg back down to Inuvik. Just south of Inuvik there are two river crossings by ferry. It is mid-May so ‘the thaw’ is on and these ferries only start operating after this thaw has done its thing, allowing me further south. The Dempster then crosses southwards over the Arctic Circle and into Yukon finishing just 40km short of Dawson City (a town I remember fondly from previous travels in this part of the world).

After that the plan is to follow the line of the Rockies south-eastwards into Montana and points south.