Heading South from the Beaufort Sea
Here's the link to the Instagram post
The Rise Up Ride 2022: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf4JT0QFyYO/?igshid=OGQ2MjdiOTE= 79-82
Heading South from the Beaufort Sea
Date: 11 July 2022
Start Location: Dawson City, Yukon
End Location:, Inuvik, NWT
Distance/mode: ~1000 km / AirNorth, jeep and bicycle
Highest Latitude: 69° 45′ N
It's Monday morning, after a weekend in Inuvik, and I'm writing just before loading up my bike with food and gear for a nine-day dash down the Dempster Highway.
On Friday I rose early to finish packing up all the gear that wouldn't or couldn't fly. My bike and two panniers full of goodies like bear spray, propane fuel cartridges, knives, and flammable firestarter cubes would ride in the back of Sue and Hugh's jeep for about 700 km, while I flew. After dropping off the Seven I got a ride to the Dawson Airport and by early afternoon was at the Arctic Chalets in a cabin outside of Inuvik.
My bike arrived that night, after I'd attended the opening of the Great Northern Arts Festival in town. The next day I visited the gallery, found a shop that miraculously had a front derailleur cable, bought provisions, and rolled around town, taking in the last vestiges of civilization for two weeks.
Yesterday started late. In retrospect I probably should have risen early and hitched a ride up to Tuktoyaktuk, located at the end of the road at the Arctic Ocean. However, Sue and Hugh offered to take me and my stripped-down bike up to Grandma's Kitchen and so I got a late start since the gas station only opened at 10:00. It was already 1:00 when we discovered that Grandma's wasn't opening and I found a microwave sandwich at the small country grocery store and said my goodbyes, pedaling south (since that was the only way the road went from the edge of the Beaufort Sea.)
The Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway is the toughest stretch of road I've ever ridden, and was not successful. The surface, which appeared to have recently been refreshed with new gravel, was too soft and uneven. Riding small rocks is tricky and exhausting after several hours. You need to keep up your speed to stay upright but then the risk of a fall increases. I rode through the afternoon but after a spill I did the time v. speed calculation and put out my thumb. Konrad and Salomé from Zurich, driving a Sprinter van, stopped to give me a lift into Inuvik. I'd ride the road again but would do it with wider tires and get an earlier start.
Today's ride will start my trek down the Dempster Highway, which has a hard-packed gravel surface and I should be able to do the 128 km to the ferry crossing of the Mackenzie River by supper. I've plotted out the pitches, going to Fort Macpherson tomorrow and then two days to the hotel in Eagle Plains. Then there are two two-day rides to the Engineer Creek and the Tombstone campgrounds. After that it is a long stretch on mostly asphalt into Dawson.
Taking stock, I'm discouraged by my ride yesterday and hopeful that the ride today goes well and my confidence returns. I'm tired from pedaling through deep gravel yesterday but today is flat with a tailwind (albeit on a rough road) and tomorrow is a shorter ride across the Mackenzie River Delta (the second largest in North America but relatively unknown because it is so remote.) But, enough writing. I need to get moving. Heading off-grid.
