After the 12-hour ride up the Dempster yesterday I let myself sleep in a bit (and was actually able to). Everyone I’d talked to said this was the hardest stretch of the road, and Google was estimating it would be about 2.5 hours to ride the 96 miles each way. I left most of my luggage in the hotel room and adjusted my suspension pre-load back down, just in case it was as bad as people say, then got myself geared up to leave around 9am. Shockingly, there was actually a head advisory for today in Inuvik with a high of 83F. After having snow in the forecast in southern BC, it was a weird twist of fate to have proper summer weather north of the Arctic Circle.
On the way out of town I saw the pair of KLR riders that I’d been leapfrogging back and forth — they had gotten in around 10pm and were just now able to get water as the shops opened up. Another plus of the motel was having the taps to fill up my hydration pack.
By 9:30 I was gassed up and on the road. The terrain settled into tundra pretty quickly, with the occasional lake to break up the mind-bogglingly massive expanse of green moss, lichen, and shrub in every direction. The road was wide, but the lack of shoulder and high dust made stopping for photos difficult — the camper vans tended to bunch up and after the first you would be enveloped in a cloud of dust limiting visibility for the trucks further back. I stopped for a few shots, but since the scenery was pretty static I mostly appreciated it from the road.
As the road approaches Tuk, the pingos started to emerge and break up the horizon. Pingos are ice-filled hills which only occur in permafrost regions, and Tuktoyaktuk has the highest concentration in the world. There are over 1,000 in the region and, while they’re visible from the road, it’s difficult to cross the tundra and get out to them in the summer. The viewing area for the pingos also let me get close to Arctic Cotton Grass.
Over all the road wasn’t quite as bad as some people make it out to be. There were definitely some deep sections of loose gravel and (I was grateful to have a steering damper so I could keep the speeds up a bit), but for the most part you could easily see where the deep spots were and pick a good line. The worst sections were where the gravel was built up on the outside of turns and going uphill — you could just ride the inside line if there was no opposing traffic, but crossing back into the deep stuff when there was traffic could be a bit squirrely.
Just beyond the pingo viewing area as the town of Tuktoyaktuk itself. I made my way to the beach after entering town and was slightly disappointed to find that that polar bear family had left. While it meant that I could actually go to the sign and the beach, it was probably my only chance to see a polar bear in the wild.
I was the first of our little cohort of riders to make it to the beach, but I did see the South American riders I’d been riding along with in town on my way in. The duo of KLR riders was there in part to sprinkle some of their mother’s ashes in the Arctic Ocean, and they were headed south to do the same in the Pacific next. A third KLR rider we’d been seeing on the road showed up, and we all chatted for a bit while waiting for Grandma’s Kitchen to open.
Grandma’s Kitchen used to serve a lot of indigenous cuisine (including whale), but sadly was no only serving fried food and burgers. I wasn’t really interested in the muktuk to begin with, but I was a little sad that there was one less avenue of cultural exchange for the locals with us tourists. I grabbed a quick chicken burger and got back on the road towards Inuvik, having accomplished the major goal of the trip.
While I definitely feel good to have gotten there, I don’t think that the feeling of accomplishment will really sink in until I’m back down the Dempster and settled into my hotel in Dawson City to relax. The Dempster isn’t all that difficult in any one spot, but it is long and there are enough loose & tricky spots that its hard to settle into a flow.
Back in town I gassed up for tomorrow and did a quick spray-down with a power washer, figuring if I got most of the dust & mud off now I’d only have half as much to deal with when I get back to Dawson City in a few days. I definitely don’t want to do the Dempster in a day again and I have a room reserved in Dawson City on Monday, so I’ll camp somewhere along the way on my way back tomorrow.