| Day Two on the Dempster was a much shorter day, thanks to a marathon ride on Day One. We needed it, too, because 736 kilometers of dirt road by motorcycle really takes a lot out of you! |
| Waiting for the Mackenzie River ferry at the fishing village of Tsiigehtchic (say THAT three times fast!) |
| An exceptional summer thaw left the river banks littered with logs and debris several hundred feet from the river. The Mackenzie River is massive - it drains 1/5 of Canada, and only the Mississippi and Amazon exceed it's flow. |
| Crossing the Mackenzie River. The weather is notoriously unpredictable in this area, but we had managed to skirt the storm clouds yesterday. Today we were not so lucky. As soon as we disembarked the ferry, the sky unleashed a cold, pelting rain that would last for the next day and a half. |
| Inuvik, Northwest Territores, Canada KM 736 of the Dempster Highway |
| Finally, the end of the road! This is the northern-most point in Canada that can be reached by roads (unless you count ice roads, but we're saving that for the next road trip). (Just kidding.) |
| We only saw a few dozen other vehicles over the last two days, and only three motorcycles. We only saw five other motorcycle on our entire drive on the Dempster. We are one of a crazy...er,... brave few. |
| We had heard horror stories about how the road destroys tires, so we came prepared with enough plug kits and CO2 cartridges to repair a couple dozen punctures. We felt lucky to have made it all the way to Inuvik before getting the first flat on Wendy's rear tire. It took us a few hours to find air (so we didn't have to waste our cartridges) and repair the tire, but all in all we thought we got off pretty easy... |
| This meant being buffeted in the face by wind and cold rain for the last 128 kilometers (over 75 miles) of the road. Our faces were chapped like we'd been skiing for a few weeks, but hey - that's the price you pay for adventure. |
| Windburn, anyone? |
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| Dust, dirt, gravel, and rain combined to make a thick impervious paste on the faceshields of the helmets (and our bikes, and our gear, and every other exposed surface). In order to see, we had to ride with our faceshields up. |