I left this morning at 6:40 and arrived in Inuvit about 13 hours later. I had a few "oh shit" moments on the loose gravel especially in NWT. It is 10 PM in Inuvit as they are an hour behind YT. I am in the only hotel room I could find for $193. A petroleum convention going on and of course coming in late. I took over 80 pictures and will write more and put some of the better pictures up. It will be hard to choose. I had pretty good weather with only a few minor rain showers. The roads in NWT really keep you at attention. More later. Will head back down in the morning.
Both going up and returning the Klondike Lodge the temperatures stayed in the upper 40’s to low 50’s. The area around Inuvik was the warmest. When I left yesterday morning though it was 36 and the bike hesitated to start.. I spoke with a local and he said this is there 2 months of daylight out of the year with the rest being dark. Don’t have access to the Internet to see if he was pulling my leg.
The ride up was great to start with. The scenery is just spectacular. I took 80 pictures so that made my ride up a little longer.
I suppose that is why I do not ride with anyone. I like to go my own pace whether it be slow or steady. Thinking about today I got off the bike at the Mackenzie River ferry crossing and did not get off again until Eagle Plains. That had to be 3 or 4 hours. I stopped a couple of times but didn’t get off. Going up I stopped at Eagle Plains for gas then ate lunch.
I wanted breakfast as I didn’t have any but they were no longer serving it. That was about 1 PM so it took about 6 hours to make it 220 miles.
Just north of Eagle Plains is a landing strip on the road. There are several on the way up.
Made it to the Arctic Circle.
After leaving there the roads still remained pretty good until about the last 20 miles in Yukon. The roads in NWT were not as good in that there was more construction and the gravel was different.
Made it to Northwest Territories.
Different areas used different materials depending on what was available. Further north it was more like chips. Another thing was about the time the road started to get decent to ride on they were dumping water on it and grading it. Some of the graders pulled a wheeled packer and I did not like them as they made tracks and along with the loose material made it dangerous to ride on a motorcycle. Maybe I should have let some of the air out of the tires. I will talk with someone before heading up the Dalton Highway.
My first spotting of a Grizzly bear and he was in the road coming right at me. I stopped and got the camera out and he went in the ditch but kept coming my way.
The winds bothered a lot both going up and coming back. They were mostly side winds and sometimes quite dangerous. Leaning into the wind on gravel is not fun. I enjoyed the river crossings. The first is the Peel River and I thought it was pretty big.
It did have big waves from the wind blowing it. Then I came to the Mackenzie River and it is huge.
I made it just in time for both ferry’s and drove right on. After boarding it backs up river to pick up at Tsiigehtchic, then across the other side through the swift current. I was a little concerned about driving off and on these ferry’s but it was easy. I might not be if it was raining. I ran into some rain going up but not bad. These road condition would be much different if it was raining. Some places there were ruts and would worsen with rain. Many places had signs “slippery when wet” and you could see the shine to them and know they would be.
After the ferry crossing at Mackenzie the roads seemed to get worse and I was getting tired. When you cross over into NWT instead of being 7 PM it is 8 PM. Keep that in mind because the ferry’s run from 9 AM to midnight. The last 100 miles flattens out and the pines are short and brush. I ran into some rain in this area. There are some pretty lakes and lots of Arctic hares. The hares are pretty and I saw lots of them all the way up the Dempster. They are rather large with gray bodies and white feet.
I arrived in Inuvik to a Petroleum Convention. All motels and hotels were full. I found one suite for $205 plus tax and then she called another place that had one room for $194 with tax so that is where I stayed. Since the sun does not set this time of year I wanted a room and besides that I was exhausted having ridden for 13 hours which made it 10 PM there. So the cafes were closed and I was to tired to eat anyway. I had a couple of Jack Daniels and downloaded my pictures from my camera to the net book. I had direct access to the Internet so downloaded all of them to Photobucket. I got the download started and went to bed.
This was what it looked like at 10:30 at night.
I woke up about 4 AM with stomach cramps. I had to get up several more times and finally stayed up about 6 AM. So the day wasn’t starting well. Though maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten but the thought of food didn’t appeal to me. I ate a granola bar and loaded up. I stopped and took a picture of the Igloo Church and found a station for gas. Then I wanted a sticker to put on my bike showing I had been up there. I stopped at several places and two told me of one store that might have them. It would be another hour before they opened at 10 AM and I wasn’t going to wait that long. I thought maybe they would have something here at Eagle Plains but they didn’t.
I was not feeling well at all. I stopped and took off one jacket as it seemed warmer than the night before. Then before long I had to find a bathroom. Do you know how many there are up there? Not many but I did happen onto one at a campground and believe it or not it was clean for a privy and even had toilet paper.
Like I said I didn’t stop much one the way back. The roads seemed worse coming back and there was more traffic coming out and into Inuvik. The dust was just horrific. The big trucks would slow down but they would just fog me with dust. I would have to nearly stop and let the dust clear so I could continue on. I had several pass me and I would slow up and pull over to let them by only to be drowned in dust. The trees up there are brown with dust. Finally the wind shifted and blew it away for me. I brought a spare air filter with me and will probably wait until I get back from Prudhoe Bay to replace it. I get pretty good mileage when I drive slower so made it to both gas stops without using my can. It is about 230 miles between stops for a total of 460.
Something I forgot to mention is some of you think we are tough to ride our motor cycles up and back but out in the middle of the mountains in NWT, on this terrible road ,was a lone bicyclist. He was stopped along the road so I stopped to see if he was okay. He was just catching his breath after coming up a large hill. I should have taken his picture but it slipped my mind. I didn’t see him when I came back. Hope the bears didn’t get him. On the way up there was a campground by the road and on the road was bear scat. I seen a dog in the campground and people camping there, but in campers. I won’t camp at a place like that in a tent. I don’t want to become bear food.
So I made it back to Eagle Plains exhausted again. A room was $129 so took it. I unpacked everything, went to the bathroom again and then, like a good cowboy, gassed up my steed. Then I took a shower to get the dust off, changed clothes and went to eat a burger and fries and coffee or at least part of it. My first meal in 26 hours. I tried getting on the Internet but even though I have good access could not get on any web site. I am not sure what the problem is. I Skyped my wife Mary and granddaughter Elaine as they had flew to Washington, DC today for a three day weekend. Then I Skyped son Jerrod and family in St Louis and spoke with them. Its fun to see the family through this wonderful service. If you do video there is not cost. I set up a service for phone service for $10 and have used less than $3 so far.
About 5:30 I couldn’t go anymore so went to bed. I had to get up for an extra blanket because I was chilling. After two hours I woke and felt some what better. I went down and purchased a 1.5 liter of water and a Snickers. I drank about a third of the water so far this evening. Tomorrow I will take my time getting out of here and hopefully get this posted. I think I am going to camp at the Klondike campground tomorrow night and then head out for Alaska on Sunday. May stop in Dawson.
Some random pictures.
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