Riding my Motorcycle to the Arctic Ocean
Update 41 (August 2023)
The Dempster Highway, Canada
I had been pretty blasé about doing the whole Americas south to north ride. I’m more about just enjoying the day as it presents itself. But as I got closer to the top and the weather was okay, my enthusiasm built.
I had already decided the Dempster Highway was the go. The highway is now an all season road that goes through to Tuktoyaktuk (Tuk) on the Arctic Ocean. Which is an amazing achievement considering the climate. But it’s still a long way, with around 1800km return (1,100 miles) of dirt road.
The good part too, is that there is a small town at the end and you can drive yourself right up to the ocean. Whereas the Dalton Highway in Alaska ends at an oil field and you need to get on a tour bus to see the ocean. The Dempster is a longer adventure also.
I was finally camping, just outside of Dawson City. I didn’t do any camping in South America in the end. I did plan to in the US but it was so busy and you needed to book a site way to far ahead for my way of doing things. Canada just didn’t seem as busy, plus the school holidays were about to finish. For 20 CAD I could get a nice camp spot in a state park. Hotels can be kind of isolating and it is was nice to be amongst other cheery campers.
I didn’t really get my head around the whole bear thing and just how careful you need to be. There are plenty of warnings in the campgrounds. Being on a motorcycle means there is nowhere to escape to and nowhere to stash your food, although there are food safes in the campgrounds. And I wasn’t really sure about even carrying food in my bags, that I then keep in my tent vestibule. So I used to be careful not to carry open food in my bags at all. And typically I would eat elsewhere then travel a little further to the campsite. I don’t know if it was over cautious, but it all went okay.
There is a small gas station on the corner of the Klondike Highway and the Dempster Highway, so I topped up there and set off up the Dempster Highway.
The vegetation was getting smaller as I headed north and the autumn colours were well on their way.
British Colombia and The Northwest Territories were having a lot of trouble with wildfires. At times the smoke smell and haze would get quite thick.
The highway surface was very good so far. Most of the time I was comfortably doing 60-80kmh and still had time to take in a little scenery.
It was somewhere around here that I met a US biker heading south on a BMW. We stopped for a chat. He was telling me all about where to clean my bike in Inuvik and how he had done it a few times. And I’m sitting there thinking fat chance, I’m not going to fuss like that. Little did I know….
The weather and the road deteriorated in the afternoon. I knew this was coming with rain forecast for most of my trip. The effects of a fire above also.
Camping at Eagle Plains and trying to dry my gear after a downpour. I decided to put some fuel in the tank before arriving but I think I would have made it. I did try the Inuvik to Eagle Plains north to south leg on one tank. It is supposed to be 370km also but I started running out 5km before Eagle Plains.
A nice view at the back of the property. Eagle Plains lodge provides an essential service, but is not appealing at all. It needs some serious investment and different management in my opinion, but then maybe the financial return just isn’t there.
Getting a fair way north now. The rain had set in from around midnight. I was due about 15mm for the day. Not a huge amount, but enough to slow me down and make for a long day.
So far the road surface was okay. At times it seemed to be more clay than gravel and got quite slippery, but if you kept your wits about you and were patient you would stay upright.
MV Abraham Francis gets you across the Peel River at Fort McPherson.
Approaching the McKenzie River with Tsiigehtchic in the distance.
The next ferry crossing is the McKenzie River. It’s amazing to think such a vast river will be frozen over within a couple of months and the ferry will be replaced with an ice bridge.
After getting on the ferry I was curious that a truck and a couple of cars stayed on, and then we started going down stream (or was it up?) rather than across to the opposite side. We were going to the Tsiigehtchic stop. I hadn’t understood the geography as I’d approached. There is another river between us and Tsiigehtchic. The community has no road access and today uses the ferry service for access. How resilient their ancestors must have been.
This is the truck getting off at Tsiigehtchic. The driver had come from the north so I am not sure what his cargo was. Getting off on the muddy surface was a challenge and took quite a few goes. In the end we had to all move to the rear of the ferry so he could get the best possible run up for the slippery exit up the hill.
7th time lucky.
The road does deteriorate after the McKenzie River. Above is obviously okay but at times it gets very slippery with a black clay. The trouble is it’s hard to pick just when you are on a bad patch of clay, until you are suddenly sliding. It was interesting that the car drivers were commenting on it too, so it wasn’t just me.
I made it to Inuvik at the end of the second day. Both days were about 370km each and long days of about 10+ hours on the go. But it wasn’t getting dark until about 11:30pm so there was plenty of daylight available.
Inuvik is a reasonable size community. I did find the place to clean my bike after the BMW riders tip. I had picked up a lot of mud and had a lot stuck in my radiator fan, a problem I hadn’t experienced since Bolivia. Plus all my luggage was covered and I need to take it inside my hotel room, so it seemed good manners to give it a blast with the pressure cleaner too.
It is about 150km to Tuktoyaktuk. I could have camped there but it was still rainy, only about 8°C and I was enjoying my warm hotel room. So I decided to just book the Inuvik hotel another night and do a day trip to Tuktoyaktuk. It was quite liberating to not have all my gear on the bike. But I did still carry enough gear to survive if something went wrong.
The ride was pretty much the same as the previous day. On the way back to Inuvik I did briefly chat to a couple of riders in their 20’s from South America, on their way to Tuk. He was from Argentina and she was from Colombia. They were both on typical South American size bikes. His chain was about to break and she had no front brakes at all. I have found North America expensive. As young people from South America they would have been doing it the hard way. They had my respect.
It was still raining at times and very windy. A Japanese man offered to take my photo. He was in his 70’s now but explained that he had ridden his motorcycle around the world when in his 20’s.
Heading back the way I had come now. For all 900km, and more as it turned out. The weather was improving although the road was still very wet in places, especially north of the McKenzie River.
My first proper grizzly sighting, although it was probably still a good 400 metres away.
North of Eagle Plains. The road doubles as an airstrip.
Camping again at Eagle Plains. I had actually cleaned my bike twice in Inuvik. So this was one days riding worth of mud and the radiator fan was clogged again too.
Almost a work of art?
Another days riding and I was back at the start of the Dempster Highway. I had a pizza for dinner in Dawson City and found somewhere to wash the bike and clogged radiator fan again. Then camped in the same place as before.
I decided not to go into Alaska. It was time to move on to a new continent. So I kept on back tracking until I needed to turn off to Vancouver.
The Muncho Lake bison were still hanging around.
My bear count for Canada ended at 12.
This young one was my only other grizzly sighting. It was right next to the highway and very focussed on whatever it was eating.
I loved spotting bears. They always make me smile. As an Australian, we don’t really have dangerous wild animals this large, except for crocodiles which you do need to take very seriously also.
Montana to Dawson City, Canada
Update 40 (August 2023)
Airfreight motorcycle Vancouver to Seoul
Update 42 (September 2023)