August 8th, 2014
Facts about the Dempster Highway
The Dempster Highway threads through the mountains north of Dawson, Yukon, then crosses an alpine plain. There’s fuel, a campground and hotel at Eagle Plains, about halfway to Inuvik. From Eagle Plains it is a short drive on to the Arctic Circle! From this point north you are truly in the Land of the Midnight Sun, for 57 days each summer.
Friendly Faces
Rebecca: Rebecca works at the Western Arctic Visitor Centre in Inuvik. She was super-duper friendly to talk to the two times that we went to visit. She even ran us a kettle so that we could fill our thermos with tea. She has travelled a lot, and her favourite place to visit was Poland. As an avid Inuvialuit (Inuit) craftswoman, she was hard at work on a credit card holder with beads and hide. Her dream she says (one of many) is to make and embroider a traditional parka.
Today’s Highlights
Andrew writes:I think the highlight for me today was spending time outside at our wild camp, on our first night of our trip, with the sun setting for hours, only to crawl back up again. This midnight sun is something really special.
Today’s Lowlights
Andrew writes:Unconfirmed lowlight, but if so, pretty sucky.”Hey Amanda, what did you do with your Dad’s diamond (3 carat) ring?”
”What do you mean what did I do? They were in the wooden box. What did you do with the wooden box?”
”You told me to throw it out.”
”You mean you didn’t look inside first!?!?!”
”Well, there goes out contingency. Oh well, nothing we can do now”.
We think that a box of jewellery might have made it into our apartment building dumpster, or it might be with some of the stuff we left at a friends. Sucks to lose $5k in jewellery, but more importantly it sucks to lose jewellery that belonged to both of our fathers.
What happened…
Andrew writes: I slept admirably. Before I went to sleep, I found some earplugs and put them in, and then drifted off to dreamland. I remember feeling a few bumps in the night, which as it turns out was Amanda thumping me to stop snoring. When I woke up, Amanda was a little grumpy because I had taken her earplugs and then snored all night. Then at the 90-minute mark of trying to pack our bikes, with both of us a little “hangry” we decided to pull the plug and go eat breakfast. In a town where everything is super-expensive, it’s nice that there is a greasy spoon that offers at $5.95 2-egg breakfast.
We finally got everything loaded onto the bikes and set off on the road at around 1pm. Mike Carothers, the town undertaker, met us just as we were leaving town to say goodbye. Such small town charm. A shining example of just how friendly everyone in Inuvik has been.
We passed a group of 20 supported cyclists who were on their last day of riding the Dempster. A total of 6 bikes had their derailleurs snapped from poor road conditions. Amanda and I will try to avoid their fate.
We really got into a groove riding today, but that didn’t stop us from taking an hour long lunch break, and then taking more time out at the …. viewpoint. We aren’t in a hurry to be anywhere, and we are slowly acclimating to that lifestyle.
We decided that we wanted to wild camp right from the start of our trip, so that we can get in the habit and stick to our budget. We found a nice camping spot, right at the time when we were finished riding. I think we took about 90 minutes to setup camp, but that included the pain and frustration I experienced trying to get our food hung to save it from the bears.
We had stove troubles again, we just can’t seem to get the hang of lighting it. Dinner took over an hour to make as a result. I think we were just on the verge of something awful by the time I finally got it lit. We had a super-spicy butter chicken and rice dish, using canned chicken flakes. It was really good!
So..how do I feel? Let’s see, first day on the bikes and all is right with the world. When I ride I don’t think about my ailing grandfather, my shitty job, the ebola virus scare, or anything at all. The perfect therapy as I try to dig myself out of living a humdrum life for so long? I hope so.
Today’s Photographs
[flickr_tags user_id=”17145280@N00″ tags=”080814″]