Back to Dawson
10 July 2018
In a land of sad burgers, a good burger is a great motivator
Photos:
Word was getting around that there might be more rain on the way, so it was time for me to head south. At the very least, I wanted to get south of the Peel River ferry since all of the roads north of there had almost no gravel on them. They might still be okay to ride on a bike in the rain, but there’s also a good chance it would be like riding on a slip’n slide. I packed up my tent, exchanged contact info with my new friends, and headed to the beach.
Looking back on the point - from the water
I ran out of road
Brrrrr
For the first time during my stay at Tuk the weather was perfect - blue skies, warm, and plenty of sunshine. I hadn’t had a chance to get a few pictures down by the water yet, so this seemed like a good chance. After loading the bike, I rode down to the end of the point and onto the little spit of land that juts out into the water at low tide. I took a few pictures, helped another couple take a few pictures, stuck my foot in the water, and then retreated quickly to the mainland. I probably would have stayed longer but the sea was taking a liking to my front wheel and if I waited much longer I would be going back on foot. Back on the mainland, I circled and waved one last time and then headed out of town.
The buskers, whom I thought had left the previous day, were camped out by the entrance to town, looking for a ride back to Dawson. I can’t imagine what it would be like to travel that way - all that stuff, a dog, little money, and no transportation - but they appear to enjoy it. There is definitely something to be said for keeping it simple and making it up as you go. I would probably have offered them a ride, but I only had room for the dog. I also ran into the people with the Tacoma and canoes, they had left the point in search of a quieter place to camp and had ended up out here on the edge of town. They were still watching the weather, hoping to get out for a nice long canoe trip before returning home in time for school to start.
My next stop was going to be Inuvik - specifically, Alestines Restaurant. After my subpar experience with The Roost on the way up, I had talked to Dave and suggested that he try Alestines instead since he was in the same predicament that they were the only two places open on a Sunday in Inuvik. When I ran into him again in Tuk, he told me that Alestines was awesome - the food was great, the people were fun, and he apparently even ended up camping in their backyard the first time. So, thats where I wanted to go for lunch. So, upon leaving Tuk, I moved with haste down to Inuvik, not only driven by the threat of swarming mosquitos and rain, but the promise of a delicious hamburger. Thanks to from fresh road work, the ride down from Tuk was easy and quick. I made it to Alestines within 15 minutes of their closing time, and they made me the very last hamburger of their lunch menu. And it was delicious, as promised. After that, I stopped for a tank of gas and kept going south. The weather was still perfect and there was almost no traffic.
No fork leaks!
The rest of the ride that day was pretty uneventful. For some of it I rode with a duo from Canada on KLR’s, but our paces really didn’t match up, and the dust was horrid. It was a good reminder that I really don’t like group motorcycle rides. I also got stuck behind an 18-wheeler south of the Peel River Ferry. We were on the boat together and I was hoping he would let me go first, but no such luck, they waved him off the ferry and he disappeared in a cloud of dust. So, I got to eat dust for about 20 miles and learn that there is no distance you can maintain behind an 18-wheeler where you won’t get dusted. In some places, the dust blows harmlessly away off the road. In others, particularly behind curves and at the bottom of hills, it just hangs there, waiting. Blech.
As I was nearing Eagle Plains, I found a lady standing on the side of the road, her small SUV backed into a driveway. As usual, I stopped and asked if she needed anything. Sure enough, she had a flat tire, she couldn’t change it, and I was the first to stop after about 5 people had gone past. So, I parked the bike and got a look at the tire - the sidewall was shredded. She had the jack under the vehicle, but I wasn’t confident it was in the right place. I asked her for the manual, she got it and I got to work. About the time I was getting the tire off the ground, the other two KLR riders showed up and stopped to help. You’d think a NASCAR pit team had stopped - we all knew what to do and got it all together in a hurry. We even found that her new tire, one of those emergency donuts, was low on air; so we topped it up with a compressor one of the other guys was carrying. We all thought that she should drive back to Eagle Plains where she could get a new tire, but she insisted on pressing on to Fort McPherson. Hope she made it!
Eventually I made it to Eagle Plains and ended up doing the same thing as last time - parked, went inside, and then spent 3 or 4 hours talking to Dave and a couple of other new friends. One of them was Steve, from Tuscon, who had just discovered that he and Dave only live about a mile apart. He was headed in the opposite direction as me- on his way to Tuk, but the weather wasn’t looking good the next day so he was considering spending a day at Eagle Plains. Eventually we all got tired, and I went outside to camp when they went to their hotel rooms. It was about midnight when I put up my tent, but there was plenty of light! I was tired, and in a hurry, so I did the laziest setup I could come up with. Instead of driving stakes (and waking everyone else up), I tied one side of the tent to my front wheel, the other to a bush, and I was done. I went to bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. Then it rained for hours and it got a little windy. I got a bit wet, but I was tired enough to not care.
It was still raining a bit when I got out of the tent, so I packed everything and then went inside the hotel. I found Dave and Steve at the breakfast table talking about their plans for the day. Steve was staying for the day at Eagle Plains, and Dave was feeling a little lazy, so he was going to stay too. I really wanted to get on the road because camping there was terrible and the hotel was more than I wanted to pay for. After we had our coffee and I stole some of Dave’s bacon, I headed south.
All was dandy until about 48 miles south of Eagle Plains. It was raining, which was fine; the road was well packed and had a fair amount of gravel on it. But, then I had the displeasure of catching up to a construction vehicle. It was a similar situation to the dust thrown up by the 18 wheeler the day before, the vehicle throws up a nice muddy mist and it becomes a chore to stay far enough back to be out of it. They speed up and slow down and the road conditions change, so when you think you’re finally far enough back, suddenly you’re getting slimed again. They were also going fast enough to where I didn’t have to worry too much about stability. That all changed when we got to their destination, a construction zone. It wasn’t anything serious, they were just re-grading the road with a grader. In the rain. The grader had torn up the road, and then the rain had soaked into it - the perfect conditions for a muddy mess. I did the thing that I’ve learned works the best - drop a gear to increase engine RPM (and angular momentum), maintain about 25-30 mph, and relax. No big deal.
Well, that works until the construction vehicle stops just to one side of the road and the driver gets out. I was still pretty far back when he did so, but I wanted to make sure I was giving him plenty of space and wasn’t going to spray him with mud - so I slowed down and got to the far left of the road. This led to a whole lot of wiggling around on my part as the bike destabilized and we slid around in the mud. I didn’t go down, but I definitely did kick out my legs at least once to catch my balance as I fought to keep the bike from heading into the super squishy goo off the side off the road. Once I got past the construction vehicle I brought the speed back up a bit and made it through the rest of the muddy mess without a hiccup. Yay, physics!
A couple miles later, I decided it was time for a break and a granola bar. I pulled off to a rest area and got off the bike. And, since I was excited that I had made it through the mud without incident, I let my guard down and dropped the bike on its side - just as a bus full of tourists was going by. Oh well, at least the granola bar tasted good.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I stopped for gas at the card lock gas station at the end of the Dempster and chatted with 5 other KLR riders who had just arrived in the area and were planning to go up the Dempster the next day. One of them had a broken clutch cable, so they had all stopped to help. I also found out that if you mix dust and rain, they can clog up a radiator pretty good! Eventually I made it to a nice cheap $18 CAD campground on the outskirts of Dawson City that had laundry, wifi, and a much needed car wash.
