August 30, Eagle Plaines, YT to Start of Dempster Highway,  Near Dawson City, YT - 230 Miles

We did it!  We rode the complete "Dempster Highway" to Inuvik and back!

Five days ago we didn't know whether we could ride the 920 miles of the gravel road with a bad reputation, and survive.  But we got back with few scars.

Kay survived the driving with the motor home and Deane and Norm survived the motorcycling, with some close calls, but no unhappy crashes.

This morning's ride started in the cold again, 37^o F, and stayed between 34^o and 37^o F for the first 100 miles or so.  With Wind Chill Factor, this feels like about - 4^o F!  Luckily we had Kay following in the motor home, and could have her stop when our fingers and toes were almost frozen.  Deane's V-Strom has a good windshield for wind protection of upper body and head, but very little in the form of wind protection for the hands, legs, and feet.  Norm's Pacific Coast has somewhat better leg and feet protection, but neither of the bikes has the protection of our Gold Wings.  We both had on many layers of clothes; for example, Deane had five layers of clothes above the waist and four layers below the waist, three layers of gloves, and rain over-boots besides motorcycling boots with wool socks.  Norm kept saying that he had nine layers of everything.

Unfortunately, the day was again heavily laden with smoke from forest fires, so much so that the mountains were just indistinct ghosts, so we didn't get any good photos.  So we were doubly glad that we had seen the wonderful scenery this road has to offer on our good days going North.

We didn't have much damage from the road, and no tires blown or gone flat, but other travelers we talked to did.  One man had two flat tires going up to Inuvik, and a young couple on their honeymoon had four flats getting to Inuvik.

(Oops - The next morning after I wrote the above paragraph, we found out we had gotten a flat tire from the nasty road.  It was an inside dual from the dual wheel set.  Fortunately it must have happened very close to our "home" destination, and didn't quite ruin the tire.  And, we could get it fixed there.  So, the "nasty road" did indeed bite us!)

Deane's motorcycle had enough vibration from the road to first break off his own CB radio antenna, and then to break a second one loaned by Norm.  Norm's bike had a fork seal go bad and loose it's oil, but it kept going acceptably.  Kay had a construction sign reach out and grab a fender off the trailer, when a truck was passing her in a narrow spot.

This highway has such a reputation for causing breakdowns because it is very rough and is built with mainly shale and flint.  Those are terrible on tires.  Construction for this highway took 20 years, because of the difficulty in building the roadbed over permafrost.  This took tremendous amounts of gravel to build up a very thick roadbed (about 8 ft. minimum), and to keep adding to it every year, as they now do.  The maintenance is also very high, and causes challenges like we saw, from day to day or week to week.

Well, this satisfied Norm and Deane's urge to go as far North as they could in Canada.  When one gets above the Arctic Circle, one is officially "in the Arctic".  So we felt that we had explored a part of the Arctic, and had lived to tell the tale.

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