Ottawa-Inuvik-Tierra Del Fuego

Having hard time finding good internet so here are both days.


Day 7


Had a great stay with Albertabob, super good host, and he made a good breakfast too, you can't ask for better, thanks Robert.





Had this whole route planned out, starting on the 22 and then across towards the 40, for some great back country riding, this is a nice back door track into Canmore, only thing is it turned out to be more challenging then I had bargained for, mostly because of some bridges and roads being washed out, at one point there was a crew fixing the road and signage saying road closed, not for me thou crossed around over a field and all the crew guys waving, so I waived back and thought what a friendly bunch, only to find out some 30 km further there is no more bridge to cross, oops, going back same guys again waving and laughing, I waived and laughed back, I finally did make it, just way later and not exactly on the route I had planned.


The scenery has really improved a lot, and some of the places I wanted to see was Banff and Lake Louise of course, Banff is one beautiful town with so many little shops and things to do you could stay there for a couple of weeks easy and Lake Louise is stunning to say the least, if it wasn’t for this weird guy steeling the shot you could have seen more of it, well now you will have to go and see it yourself.





Day 8


Stayed at the Mosquito lake hostel (camping), and then over the Glacier Icefields Parkway toward Jasper and the Columbia Icefield Glacier, everywhere you look it's one beautiful spot after another, need head on a swivel.










Tonight staying at inmate GISdood, in Prince George and tomorrow I well see if I can find some nice route to follow toward Whitehorse.


Jeff

Thanks CourtRand for coming along and offering your help, I'm not sure about the exact route yet, a lot will depend on the weather.

Jeff

The eyes never lie. You are a little weary my friend. Be safe.

Thanks Greg for your help on this, looks ok to me, I wouldn't have had the time to figure it out.

Jeff

Thanks tvbh40a a lot of riding the last few days with those head winds did make for some challenging times, but still loving it, I will take a little down time soon.

Jeff

Nice start to the journey. Enjoy the ride.

Len


Blunozr

Thanks Len will do.

Jeff

Will stay one more night with GSIdood in Prince George, BC and get some needed rest.

Have also added an extra Kolpin fuel pack that was on sale here at Canadian Tire, just in case I come to some spots that may need a little more gas, most of the time I can get over 400 km per tank depending on wind and speed, worst was 360 km and best so far 480 km with speeds of mostly around gps 110 km per hour.

Tomorrow I will start on the Stewart Cassiar Hwy 37 towards White Horse, it's 1620 km and most likely a 3 day trip , wish me luck that the weather holds.

Don't know how the Internet will continue to work from here on up, but will post when I can.

Jeff

Jeff,

Some campgrounds on the way to Whitehorse:

Riverside Park Campground, Smithers, $16 to $22, from Jct of Hwy 16 & Main St, N 0.75 mi on Main St

Seeley Lake Park, New Hazelton, $10 to $24, from town, W 4 mi on Hwy 16

Hwy 37 Rest Area 456 Km from Seely Lake Park. Nearest gas station is at Dease Lake Northway Motor Inn.

I'm in!!! Have a great ride Jeff and keep posting about your experiences. Kudos for making a leap of faith and your dream ride a reality. Most of all, ride safe and take care of yourself.

Keep CourtRand (post #79) in mind if you head to Quito. He and his staff are top notch and run a fantastic motorcycle adventure tour company. The weather in Ecuador is spring like year round and offers some of the most diverse terrain that my eyes have ever seen.

Also, I would be thankful if you would pass along any issues you might have with your Super Tenere. I just purchased a 2012 in June and having a great time riding this beast. Just doing some farkle work now and riding as much as I can before I make my first journey.

Keep on ridin'
George

Thanks Jacques, will see how far I get and make a choice, later.

Jeff

Thanks for coming along George, plan to tell it like it is and for sure look-up Courtrand.

Jeff

Had a great stay with GISdood and was invited to a fantastic dinner from another ADVrider Randy that I think is known as Alphajory but not sure about that, anyway great times and some new friends, I can't thank you guys enough.

Randy, Me, Kelly


Jeff

A group of us did the ride to Inuvik in early June. We had to wait for the Peel River ferry to be launched so we could make the run for Inuvik. The first half of the road Dawson to Eagle Plains has a 30 Kilometer section (around 250-300 K markers) that when wet was really greasy and I mean nasty, black & evil. I was running TKC80s and the others were on Dunlop 606s even with these tires the road had sections that were butt clenching-ly terrifying. We passed 2 fellow adventure riders on the way in, when they made Eagle Plains they'd had enough and next morning they turned around. They were running 50/50 tires and frankly they suck when the Dempster is wet.

If you somehow have good weather the whole way you can do the whole Dempster Highway in 9-10 hours we did on the way out.

This link will give you current highway conditions for NWT.
http://www.dot.gov.nt.ca/_live/pages/wpPages/roadConditions.aspx

Yukon Dempster Highway Washout area has re-opened to public traffic as of 9:15 pm July 12, 2013. Peel River ferry is still closed due to high water and floating debris.

The NWT Dempster Highway No. 8 is open and in fair driving condition. Loose gravel, pot holes and rough sections will be encountered throughout.

Please watch for highway reconstruction activities between km 37 and km 63 near Midway Lake to Peel River area of the highway.

For an update on Yukon Dempster Highway (No. 5) road conditions, please call toll free at 1-877 456 7623.

Please use caution and watch for equipment working on all roads. Remember to use your headlights and seatbelts at all times. Drive carefully and have a safe trip.

Good to know Icy Roads, I hope the road is dry tomorrow.

Jeff

Day 10


The day started with showers on and off again all day, and then finally around 4pm it did stop, with lots of little towns along the way I fond it a bit to early to look for a camping so I decided to continue down the Stewart Cassiar Hwy and man is that a beautiful road to take, long sweeping curves and beautiful scenery. Thinking I could make it to Dease Lake because I was told if you can drive down the Telegraph Creek Road you will not regret it, it's a hard packed gravel road riding through some of natures best, it starts in Deasse Lake so hoping I could be there before night fall proved to be a bit to much, the rain started back and the temps dropped, cold and wet I pulled over at a hunting camp/camping, and asked if they had any place warm that I could use to crash for the night, of course says this lady at the desk , we have a log cabin on the lake, no power, water or anything but it has a wood stove to get you warm, that sounded very good at that point, show me the way, made a fire and pulled out my bed roll, very tired I fell immediately to sleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night sweating and I could hardly breath, of course I overloaded the stove, and wow just poke me I'm well done, the good part is that all my stuff was dry.





Day 11


Raining again and snow on the mountain passes not great for riding and Telegraph Creek Road will have to wait till I come for the return trip. it wasn’t until 2pm on the Alaskan Hwy that things cleared up, during the rain I could not see much of the surroundings but when it did stop I made a video that was suppose to show you the grandeur of this place, but that turned out wrong, the camera was pointing to fare down, better next time.
When I got to Whitehorse I called Yukon Jon because he had offered a place to stay, on the phone he said I hope you don't mind but I have just moved to Carmacks and that's another 180km past Whitehorse, and by the way everything is still in boxes so we will see what we can do. Yukon Jon is with the RCMP and was resigned to a new place and true to form even though he had just moved there he turned out to be a real trouper (no pun intended). Thanks a million Jon, I have no picture because he said he would have to kill me (just kidding).





Day 12


There was a thick blanket of smoke hanging around for the next 200km, and luckily cleared up to make for some perfect riding with temperatures in the mid 20c, made it to Dawson City and will hang around here for the day before I head out to Inuvik.





Jeff

Estaremos pendientes de tu ruta !

Day 13/14


Started the Dempster to Inuvik passing the Arctic Circle. This road throws everything at you from hard to soft to lose gravel shale sand you name it it has it, dusty as hell when dry, don't be driving fast when a transport comes by because you won't see anything for 10 seconds or more, and as it gets wetter the dust becomes slip and slide crap and I mean crap, if you can get past all this road can throw at you and start looking at your surroundings its absolute stunning to say the least and worth every moment.









While camping in Dawson another motorcycle rider (John Harris on a V-strom) came in late that night and was looking for a spot to camp, I told him that he could share my spot, and so he did, latter on I fond out he also is going to Inuvik but taking much longer than me so we parted our ways in the morning. I made the trip up to Inuvik in 12 hrs and that includes lunch and scenic stops, so it is doable if you have dry roads. Set-up camp at the Happy Valley in town run camping for only $15 with free showers so not a bad deal, headed to the Arctic information Centre to see if I should stay another day or just take off, this place is great if you want to go hiking into the mosquito invested woods/tundra to scout for wild life, and as much as I like that I didn’t feel much for it, because some other campers had been looking for days with no success so I decide to go back to Dawson, stopping for lunch in Eagle Plains, and just as I'm walking out a man (David Jeffrey on a BMW GS) comes at me and starts talking about my Super Tenere and if I like it (well yes), later on also wondering where I'm heading he offers the use of his satellite phone to confirm the tent space back in Dawson, needless to say no tent space, he hears that and he offers to share his room, isn’t karma great.





Day 15


Currently back at the Camping in Dawson wet muddy and tired drying out because I did ride the last 370km of the Dempster from Eagle plains in the poring rain, or should I say I slid my way back. Fond out from the RCMP that two other riders went down on the Dempster yesterday wrecking there bikes but both riders were luckily not seriously hurt and pulled out in time, he went on to say that the bears hide along the side of the road for cooling and also to wait for a thump that the Caribou make when jumping down from the road so when a biker goes down it makes that same thump and you know what that means yummy meal time, oh oh, also fond out that John did puncture a tire and he decided only to go to the Arctic Circle and back after putting his spare on, maybe will see him again.


Dempster in the rain
http://youtu.be/ceeMGHtsJbQ


Tomorrow over the Top of the World to Whitehorse.

Jeff

Gracias EmilianoXR650L le hará saber

Jeff

Great to see you reach the northern goal, Jeff. Here's hoping for better weather as you head south. For the record, it was 28 in PG today. Much nicer than the cold & rain that followed you through town on the way north.

Drop me a line if you're coming this way again on the way south... ride safe and keep enjoying the journey!