Day 17: Inuvik to Eagle Plains; Dempster Hwy, 400 kms

 Did you know that construction of  Dempster Hwy began in 1959 & was completed in 1979?  It is named after an RCMP corporal who "patrolled" the area by dog team.  He made the trip to Inuvik 6 times.  Now the Mounties use 4X4's.  Huh!

Last night we had supper in the only restaurant recommended by the locals.  I had a Greek salad; $23!
I thought the town had a government feel to it.  All the houses and apartments looked the same.  They are built on short stilts to protect the permafrost from the heat of the structure, as are all the buildings.  Outside of the motels, a giant department store & some other miscellaneous companies there isn't much.  A new gigantic super school dominates the downtown.  All grades will be included.  According to the lady in the Visitors Centre, the original schools are being torn down .  I said that was kind of a shame.  She said they don't seem to care.  Maybe, school wasn't much fun in the old days.

 

Our hotel

Igloo Church

Inuvik is the most Northerly community that can be reached by road.  We are in Baffin Island & Greenland territory for latitude now. Huh!

When we gassed up, Peter noticed that his back tire was going flat.  We pulled over near a self serve tire store & fixed the flat before we headed out for another day of slip sliding. 

 

We slipped on down to Fort McPherson for lunch at the COOP.  After lunch we did our first ferry crossing.  Peter's bad luck continued when he rode off the ferry.  The deep soft stuff grabbed his front wheel; down he went.  No damage to him or the bike.  No harm no foul! 

We managed our second ferry crossing without incident.  Yes!  Three of my goals had been met.  I got off & on each ferry & I made it to Fort McPherson knowing that the road would get better. NOT!  The rain had turned it to mud.  Some of it was 3 inches thick.  Dave stopped from time to time to give us pointers on how to attack various sections of the road.  The 70 kph thing worked.  The front wheel floated over the soup.  If the bike started fish tailing you had to accelerate gently to straighten it out and to regain "control."  Not the least bit intuitive to say the least.  I found I had to do a lot of self talk to keep the bike vertical in the brown soup.

Things were going okay until suddenly the back end of Peter's bike broke violently to the right. Down he went in a slow sideways slide down the centre of the road.  I couldn't believe it. One second everything is okay; the next second he was down.  Huh! I stopped my bike & began walking to help him get his bike up.  The mud was sticking to my boots like flip flops. This stuff is really slippery.   He was okay.  Again, no harm; no foul.  When I got back to my bike I had to use the foot pegs to scrap the mud off my boots.  I started my bike & looked up, Peter was heading up the mountain of mud.  Oh, great!  He was gone in no time.  I stalled the bike 3 times going up the hill.  Each time I had to start the bike & slowly start off so I didn't have the back end break loose.  Somehow I made it to the top of the hill & continued on. 

Eagle Plains sure looked good when it appeared.  Tomorrow had to be a better day.  The first part of the Dempster was where I seen the prospector Santa in the clouds.