August 20th, 2014
Facts the Dempster Highway
By road, it’s an exhilarating combination of postcard scenery, historic communities, cultural attractions and adventure outings. This is a land of friendly characters, endless Midnight Sun and expanses of pristine wilderness.
Friendly Faces
Gianluca Ferrari: Such a passionate, effusive, knowledgeable, amazing personality. Gianluca is cycling the Dempster for the 4th time. He has cycled all over North and South America, and something he said really struck me, ”People writing their cycling blogs is always a melodrama. I have to get the most of every day because I am on vacation. So for me, I make sure that every day is beautiful and wonderful.” Add in stereotypical Italian flair and dramatics and accent and that..is Mr. Ferrari.
Today’s Highlights
Andrew writes:Reaching the end of the Dempster Highway. It’s been two weeks of my life, and I’m certain that when I look back I will remember only the beauty that unfolded every day. At this point, I’m just happy to be out of the rain.
Today’s Lowlights
Andrew writes: Amanda bonked. She drank a whopping 500ml of water over 110km. It affected her endurance towards the end as we cycled slower and slower, and I worried about her physical state.
What happened…
Andrew writes: Woke up to light rain, but we could tell the sun would break through so we tried to pack up as quickly as we could. Still, we ended up lingering over breakfast which meant that we didn’t leave camp until 11:30am again. We had our eyes set on a) finishing the Dempster Hwy (70km) and getting to Dawson (another 40km). Somehow in our minds the elevation profile we had looked at showed that it was downhill all the way to Dawson, so we were expecting an easy ride. The first two hours we managed an average speed of almost 30km/h and it was indeed all downhill. Then we hit roadwork, and a 15km section of uphill. This was how we spent the next 3 hours.
On the bright side, we did spot our first bear. A brief encounter, with the bear about 200m ahead of us on the road. We were upwind, so he quickly scampered off as soon as he heard us. Amanda made sure to sing an improvised version of “Let it Snow” just so that the bear wouldn’t pop out of the brush and attack us.
We stopped for lunch around 4pm and I remember remarking, ”Maybe we’ll get a 20km downhill soon”. We crested the next hill and were treated to a 6km downhill and then it was flat all the way out. Interestingly enough, the road seemed to get worse and worst the closer to the end we got. I say interesting, because for us the end was actually the beginning for most people. Weird.
I got all excited at the junction with Hwy 2 because there was a gas station, so I thought I could get a Coke. Sadly, the gas station had burned down. Doh! Then it was a fairly flat push into Dawson, with the wind in our face. I had Amanda draft behind me because she was really in bad shape. It turns out she hadn’t drank very much water over the course of the day and she was really paying the price now. The cycle into Dawson City took another 2 hours or so, for what has been our longest day in the saddle yet, with over 110km in the books.
I’ll post up something summarizing our two weeks on the Dempster Highway in the next few days. Right now we’re looking forward to our first warm shower in about a week as we stay with friends right in town.