We had been watching weather forecast while sitting in Dawson City, and things started to line up for an Arctic run up the Dempster Highway. We left Dawson around 830am, and quickly covered the 10 miles of asphalt, turning into the fuel station to top of the bikes for the long dirt run. The Dempster Highway is the only all season road in Canada to cross the Arctic Circle, it's a 460 mile stretch of dirt/gravel road with 2 ferry crossings of rivers along the way.
The road was mostly smooth enough to allow us to hold good speed in most places, and even better in others. There was a slight pitstop to patch a puncture in Chip's rear tire, other than that, and the constant drifting and sliding around in gravel, the day was pretty uneventful.
After we crossed the Arctic Circle, the roads became nicer, or we became braver, but for quite a ways we were holding interstate speeds on dirt. It's days like today that really make me realize what an incredibly capable bike BMW built when they created the GSA. Years ago, my 1996 BMW carried me around the world,reliably, and with almost 30 years of improvements, my current bike continues to take me to new places in far off lands.
So tonight we find ourselves in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. In the last hotel room we could find (only two open hotels, so it was a quick search). Dinner was even easier, only one restaurant was open, they specialize in pizza, burgers, fried chicken, steaks, and Chinese food.
We split a pizza and a salad, saving enough for breakfast in the morning. Tomorrow we're heading to Tuktoyatuk, a small village on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. A swim is not totally out of the realm of possibility, but it's not exactly looking like it would be as pleasant undertaking. Time will tell.
And one last quick note, it is 1100pm, and this is the view out the hotel window, the sun will still be up, for a few more hours.....
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