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Deane, Norm, and Kay's Motorcycle / RV Trip to Northern Canada and Alaska | |
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August 26, Junction of Dawson Highway and Dempster Highway to Eagle Plains, YT - 233 Miles |
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OK, with four motorcycles in our stable, which two shall we ride today? Actually, we brought the yellow Suzuki "V-Strom" and the white Honda "Pacific Coast" motorcycles in the trailer mainly for this trip on the "Dempster Highway" to Inuvik. The distance is 900 miles round trip, over what we have heard was a difficult gravel "highway". And we were lucky enough to find a place at the start of the Dempster to store the blue and red Gold Wings in a big garage until we return. Kay will be pulling the empty trailer behind the motor home, just in case we have trouble with either of the motorcycles on this difficult road. So, morning came, and the temperature outside was 31o F when we got up! And it was only 32o F when we started out. So we had to really put on the layers of clothes until we each looked and felt like the Michelin Man.
The riding temperature got up to about 35o F over the first 50 miles or so; then we hit a cold spot just as the scenery changed, and it plunged to 24o F, within 2 or 3 miles! Was that ever cold!! It gradually warmed up to a "balmy" 37o F, and finally to about 39o F for the remainder of the day! I guess one should expect that when headed for the Arctic Circle. It was good to have Kay following with the motor home so that we could stop and get warm a couple of times. The scenery on this highway was breath taking, even though we had seen so much beautiful scenery already, and it was composed of so very distinct types as we went along. The first was a beautiful set of steep mountains and fairly narrow valleys, with a really good stand of Fir and Spruce trees intermingled with Poplar and Birch which were changing to Fall colors. Just a beautiful display for about 50 miles. Then as the temperature plunged, a totally new type of landscape appeared. The hills were rounded, and there were NO trees, either on hills or in valleys, but only Tamarack and Red Willow bushes (which were also changing to Fall colors). This lasted for maybe 25 miles, and then a third completely different landscape appeared.
The last distinct type for today was after we crossed the Continental Divide, and rode on top of the ridges of the Divide for many miles. This scenery was solid forests of short, skinny Black Spruce and White Spruce (no deciduous plants,) which covered thousands of square miles!! From the ridges of the Divide, this was stunning! The conditions on the gravel highway actually were quite good for the first 175 miles, but deteriorated when we hit a long stretch of "shale" material making up the road bed. At first Norm and I had some feeling of "riding on marbles" with the loose gravel, but with our experience of the past few days, we soon became accustomed to it and rode at about 35 to 45 mph.
With tired motorcyclists, we are now half-way to our goal of Inuvik, and there are reports of snow showers along our way today, so we'll see what tomorrow brings.
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This
one featured very noticeably rounded mountains, which from a distance
appeared to snow on the tops and down the sides to some degree.
However, when getting closer the mountains looked like they had solid rock
gray tops. Then closer yet, it was obvious that the "solid
gray" was actually coarsely broken rock. I called them the
"The Fractured Mountains". On these mountains there was so
much broken rock that when the road came close, there were signs saying
"Avalanche Area - No Stopping". The "Avalanche"
warnings were not for snow in the winter, but for avalanches of fractured
rock in other parts of the year!!