Sideways
July 18 - After a lazy morning reminiscing with Zina about the good old days, I packed up and went to the Whitehorse airport. Max was actually there! After he put his bike together in zero seconds flat, we repacked the food in the bear canisters, which fit perfectly! We grabbed a few last things in town and then rode 20 kms to past the highway junction to try to catch a ride. With limited time until Max has to return to Vancouver, we're prioritizing riding the Dempster and trying to catch a ride through the trees to the tundra and dirt road glory. We got a ride part of the way there and took it to a beautiful campground. After some further unsuccessful hitching, we skipped rocks, set up camp, ate a hot meal, and went to sleep in the broad daylight of 10 pm.
Dueling with the Dempster
July 18 - 25: The Dempster! It happened! It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It was full of gravel, mud, laughter, exaspiration, inspiration and the most surreal scenery I have ever travelled through. It ended in Inuvik on my birthday, hundreds of kilometers north of the arctic circle in beautiful sunshine. The daily story of the road is below, but neither the story or the photos can come anywhere close to representing the landscape or the journey - you'll just have to come experience it for yourself!
July 18 - After a lazy morning reminiscing with Zina about the good old days, I packed up and went to the Whitehorse airport. Max was actually there! After he put his bike together in zero seconds flat, we repacked the food in the bear canisters, which fit perfectly! We grabbed a few last things in town and then rode 20 kms to past the highway junction to try to catch a ride. With limited time until Max has to return to Vancouver, we're prioritizing riding the Dempster and trying to catch a ride through the trees to the tundra and dirt road glory. We got a ride part of the way there and took it to a beautiful campground. After some further unsuccessful hitching, we skipped rocks, set up camp, ate a hot meal, and went to sleep in the broad daylight of 10 pm.
July 19 - After a rather long wait for a hitch (we are two people with loaded bikes so I suppose that's fair), we got a fantastic ride with a truck convoy. Max and I jumped into a truck each and whizzed through the countryside to the commentary of our generous, local drivers. After highlights of giant cinnamon buns, the 5 finger rapids and a giant trench, we arrived at the Dempster Highway. We loaded up our bikes and took off, crushing a solid 70 kms of gravel after 5 pm. Initially the gravel was a bit loose, and Max discovered that actually no, I haven't ridden gravel before, but the gravel became more compacted and the road meandered uphill. We road along the bottom of a river valley and went through some epic looking mountains. The mountains look like mountain bones - spiny but with a long, gentle slope. We arrived in Tombstone Territorial Park, had dinner, and fell asleep.
July 20 - We visited the fantastic Tombstone Park Visitor's Centre for some context about the alien landscape we are riding in. We read tons of interesting stories and facts about the area and its human and geologic history. Next, we 'hit the road' on our 142 km gravel mission. Speeds ranged from 30 km/h when I just got the bit in my teeth and ran with it, to a hilarious 5 km/h (the slowest Max has ever biked) climbing the second mountain pass of the day with a really annoying grade and some big headwind. We had a few sprinkly showers, a bunch of bugs when we stopped, and tons and tons of fabulous scenery. The mountains here look so different - some are huge purplish mounds of loose rock, others have long crests of rock and look like castle ramparts. Below the mountains, there is tundra with permafrost features including pingos, little lakes, and generally strangely disturbed ground. The geological engineer side of me has come out in an unusually strong way today as I actually theorize and get excited about the rocks we're passing. We stopped on some riprap (back to the water eng.) for dinner, where I made a wayyyy too spicy curry. Whoopsies! A few more fiery kilometers, and sleeptime!
July 21 - Oh boy! Today was one heck of a full-on Dempster day with 167 kms of gravel and inches deep mud. I'm not sure quite how to explain the day's mixture of mud, beauty, mud, rain, kindness, mud, rain and climbing through gorgeous views, but I'll try... After some kms, we got to a pass and climbed what we thought would be the tough part of the day. The climb was through slopes forested with mostly tiny, stunted trees. The views, when we got them through rain clouds, were of literally endless oceans of trees and rolling hills. The pass took us up through an aggressive grizzly danger zone, and made us very hungry. While yesterday was 28 degrees, today was 4 degrees (thank you Arctic), and we were quite cold. We put on all our rain and thermal layers and had lunch in a shelter (yep, another outhouse). As we were getting ready to shiver our way onward, some friendly Quebecois offered us hot coffee from their RV. "Yes please, and thank you so much!" They even boiled us water for our water bottles, which we promptly stuffed down our shirts. Finally warmed up, we continued on, and proceeded to climb basically for the remainder of the day. We passed through a forest fire area which had burned the previous week but thankfully the burning has stopped, and most of the smoldering, with just a heavy smokey scent left in the air. Heavy rain that had fallen for a few days continued today and that rendered our dirt road a mud slick pathway. We both had numerous slips and slides, and needless to say, the inches thick mud slowed our progress considerably. It also left our gear and bikes beyond filthy and essentially eliminated all shifting, most braking and clipless pedal releases - slip sliding away! We pushed on until about midnight (thankfully there's no sunset here) because of the promise of Eagle Plains' hot showers and rest.
It wasn't all bad - we didn't see the grizzly with a reputation for chasing us 'meals on wheels' and we did see a bobcat, some arctic hares, a beautiful double rainbow, some of the most incredible landscapes either of us have ever imagined and I learned to handle my bike through mud.
July 22 - We spent the hilariously, gloriously sunny morning shaking and washing mud out of absolutely everything, and eating food. Our bikes were completely seized, so we spent about 3 hours bringing them back from the mud by clearing out cables, cleaning off the drive train, etc. Time well spent because when we finally started riding them, they actually worked! We had a nice sunny bike 78 kms through cloud and mountain formations I just don't understand, and really can't seem to photograph. We passed through the Arctic circle - Wahooooooo! - somewhere I never thought I'd ride a bike!!! We also got 4 warnings about an upcoming grizzly on the road so after a bit of a tense riding section, we relaxed and found a campsite near a gorgeous river. We made lentil curry (without adding too much spice this time), and discovered that the previous day's mud had somehow managed to get inside one of the bear canisters and inside plastic bags to our granola and gorp. I sorted through the food to make sure we would have something to eat tomorrow, and concluded that it's getting time to find some groceries somewhere...
July 23 - We woke up to rain and lollygagged around 'waiting for the road to dry out.' We then hit the road, and shockingly, it wasn't dry! We road the morning away, climbing hills, doing descents without brakes, and taking in the tundra scenery. At the top of one of those hills was the NWT border! We changed the time on our watches and tried to stand straight, defying the ridiculously strong tundra winds. After literally being pushed through a narrow valley by a tailwind, we caught up to two fellow cyclists and ate lunch together - on the side of the road, swatting bugs. Then we peddled along towards Fort McPherson and the promise of groceries, crossing the Peel river on a very fun ferry! We continued along, through pouring rain before being stopped by a truck driver who informed us that there were no places to buy food and no grocery stores open until 10 am the next day. We decided to backtrack to a truck stop that had food, and then back further to Nitainlaii Territorial Park campground. At the campground we met up with our newfound cycling friends and spent a lovely evening together, cleaning our bikes and laughing at the highway.
July 24 - We biked the few kms into Fort McPherson and to a real GROCERY STORE!!!! We restocked with food and I came out of there with chocolate milk, yogurt, a banana, an orange, a peach, applesauce, a pepper and a cucumber (among other less notable food items). We visited the pride of the Fort - the Fort McPherson Tent and Canvas company -and had a good chat with a gal working there and saw a cool canvas bag workshop. Refueled on the good stuff, we absolutely ripped the next 60 kms to the Mackenzie River ferry! The ferry took us across the mighty Mac, we had lunch, and continued on our way through pretty decent weather on the flattest road either of us has ever seen. (The road is flat, straight, and surrounded on both sides by scrubby little trees, brush, and the occasional lake.) Then it rained, poured really, for a good long time. We were drenched and the road was a giant mess, but thankfully it wasn't freezing cold. The Dempster mud is slippery when wet, and although we've gotten quite good at staying rubber side down, it takes a lot of work and its not quick to ride. Just when our spirits were getting a bit low and our drive trains were skipping like school girls, we found a great spot to camp (Gwich'in Territorial Park). Definitely the muddiest we have been yet after 170 kms and a mere 37 kms from Inuvik.... looking forward to tomorrow's reward.
July 25 - It's my birthday, so I can do laundry, have a shower, eat ice cream, sleep in, FINISH THE DEMPSTER AND GET TO INUVIK... if I want to. And believe me, I do! Max and I spent the morning cleaning our bikes back to moderate functionality (no brakes, shifting or drive train functionality at this point) and 'hit the road.' The pouring rain we heard all night had made a big mess of the road and left the stickiest, deepest mud yet. It managed to fully jam my wheels two different times, and made for slow going throughout the whole treck. The headwind also did it's best to extinguish my mental birthday candles, but with 37 kms between us and the end, even the Dempster couldn't find anything to keep us away. We made it!!!
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