Day 18: Eagle Plains to Dawson City; Last of Dempster, Hwy 400 kms

It had rained all night in Eagle Plains.  We discussed whether or not to stay another day or leave & attempt the final leg of the Dempster. The forecast looked worse for tomorrow, so we set out after a big breakfast. There are no services on this section of the Dempster.  Dawson City was the goal (as well as keeping the bike vertical) the rest of the day.

The sky looked somewhat favourable with blue patches ahead.  The road on the other hand was unbelievably bad!  More slippery soup; very slow going for all of us.   I fell behind quickly.  For some reason, I fixated on the oncoming ditch.  The more I tried to avoid it, the more I headed toward it.   Instead of  looking where I wanted to go, I looked at the ditch.  I started pulling on the right handle bar to change direction.  The bike ignored me.  Double brain fade! I should have been pushing the handle bar to initiate the turn. The bike went slowly into the ditch. I came to a stop upright beside the road.  One foot on the road, the other foot in the weeds with the bike parallel to the road.  Then I felt the back wheel sink down in the mud.  The front tire sank down until the engine skid plate stopped it.  Huh!

Now what was I going to do?  Having the other guys come back to help me was getting to be embarrassing.  I really didn't know how I was going to get out of this mess.  I took my sun glasses off. They were fogging up from the heat.  Okay, let's try second gear to get out of here.  I stalled the bike my usual 3 times before it magically leap out of the ditch & started up the centre of the road.  Unbelievable! Suzie, Suzuki saved my butt again.

It took us 4 hours to travel 100 kms.  It was going to take forever to get to Dawson.  The only good thing was we didn't have to worry about riding in the dark.  Each day the daylight hours expanded.  At the first break we decided that we had done the right thing.  The road was only going to get worse with 3 days of rain.

We met several bikes headed towards Eagle Plains.  Little did they know what they were in for.  During one slippery phase, Dave waved to them as bikers do on the road.  None of them responded. They were too busy trying to stay vertical.  One guy on a V-Star 1100 was in the middle of a tank slapper (good luck buddy.)   Dave was crushed.

All day we played tag with the rain clouds. Sometimes we won because the road moved away from them. Other times we lost.  I didn't put on my rain gear.  I hate rain gear after 16 days of rain in Newfoundland.  The liner in my jacket worked well, but it channeled the water down into my pants then through them, through my long johns, through my boxers.  Oh, that water is cold.  I had forgotten to put the liner in my riding pants. Huh!

Lunch On the Dempster

 Amazingly, the sun came out and the wind dried out the road. We did the celebration photo @ the end of the Dempster & headed toward Dawson City.  Only 10 hours on the road today!  These 400 km days are such a breeze.  We all collapsed when we got to the Downtown Hotel.  After a shower we had supper.  Amen.