If you travel to Inuvik feel free to message me. I have lived here since 2009 and know the town pretty well. I also have (limited) access to a secure and fairly well equipped shop. Inuvik is very underdeveloped for tourism but there are still a few things to see in and around town. I have a 2003 BMW F650 GS Dakar and am a noob rider but have done a lot of auto mechanics. Ironically my bike is American so I don't have any experience with Canadian BMW dealers. I own the special alternator puller tool, head bearing tool and tdc lock bolt if you need it. As far as the Dempster, you can research it to death but the simple thing is treat it like the 750km gravel highway that it is. Rapidly changing weather and often impassable riding when it rains esp if you don't have full knobbies. The road is constantly being graded and worked on = loose gravel sometimes several inches deep. Don't plan a tight schedule because up here stuff happens. Things that can and have happened are; the only gas station in the first half of the highway running out of gas for several days, Peel river ferry cable breaking and shutting down the ferry for a week, road closure due to mud etc. There is virtually no cell service on the Dempster but Fort McPherson and Inuvik have 3G. The only provider is Bell. An important piece of recent news is the the gas station etc. (known as the corners) at the start of the Dempster is now closed. You have to go into Dawson City to get fuel so factor in that extra mileage. Like I said message me or reply to this for any more info. Peace and safe travels
wadeeb, please sign up for the advrider.com Assistance List if your willing to help out travelers. If not, thanks for the offer via the forum! http://www.assistancelist.com
An important piece of recent news is the the gas station etc. (known as the corners) at the start of the Dempster is now closed. You have to go into Dawson City to get fuel so factor in that extra mileage. This is very important to know for sure! Thanks for the update!
Was a thread earlier this year. Burned to the ground... http://www.whitehorsestar.com/archive/story/klondike-river-lodge-fire-deemed-not-suspicious/ Anyone hear of plans to rebuild?
That seems a bit more than seasonal eh? Bummer I used to like stopping there for a bite and fuel, hope they rebuild.
Awesome! I really love seeing participants 'out there' in the far reaches. I'm heading up to Alaska this July, I won't be in your neck of the woods but I'm sure having a contact will lend piece of mind and valuable info to a lot of other riders. Thanks!
I suspect he's pretty busy regardless. The list is all voluntary, if it gets to be intrusive, he can remove himself. "Up there where you eat moose-cock you must all be rockets scientists." BAHAHAHAAHHA!
Even since I moved here in 2009 I have seen an notable increase in the number of DS riders that make the trek up here. Would be nice to meet some of them!
Hi Wadeeb. Good to know there is an inmate up there in Inuvik. I plan to do Inuvik from Calgary in July and it will be a solo trip. I have a big question for you. I have scheduled the entire July with the intention to make the dempster between the 8th and the 13th (2 days up, 2 in Inuvik and 2 back to dawson) with some flexibility in case the weater is not good. I choose these dates because of something I read that said the dempster's dry season ends by mid July. My question is, are there really higher chances to catch dry weather by getting there before mid july? Because if the weather is that unpredictable (as I guess) then I could just wait 3-4 weeks and leave with my friends by the end of July. I just want to try to avoid bad weather even knowing that weather can change very quick up there. Any advice would be highly appreciated :) Sent from my SGH-T889V using Tapatalk 2
Wad, are you planning to make it to D2D 2013? Would be nice to have company on your trip back. Few of us are heading up there after D2D.
Hi, You said it all. The weather here is pretty un predictable. We generally get our rain in June but the weather is changing from year to year. There are probably inmates on here that have driven the Dempster more than I (I have only driven it twice). Really all you can do is hope for the best but plan for the worst. You are being smart by breaking the Dempster into 2 days. A lot of folks do the drive from Inuvik to Whitehorse in one shot by truck but its a long haul and no margin for weather problems. Full knobbies also help to mitigate potential problems if it gets mucky.
I was wanting to get down for that 2 years in a row now but my parents are coming up to visit during the D2D. Its tricky scheduling up here because in mid June all the hotels sell out for the petroleum show so they had to come after it was over to get a room and that puts them here during the D2D. Sucks because it sounds like a good time. I have a friend here who went down in 2010 on his 90's Honda XR250. He is a real character and actually won the skills competition. It was an ardous trip as it was something like 9 C and he had no heated anything or windwhield. Lucky for him it rained almost the whole way back so he had a blast power sliding the corners at close to 120km/hr on his XR. Pretty badass for a guy in his 60's. Note to all. Check the town of Inuvik website at inuvik.ca for dates for the Petroleum show and the great Northern Arts festival. Hotels book out for those dates if you want to stay up here.
Hi my wife and I are from Brisbane, Australia and we are planning a cross Canada trip in 2014. At the moment we are planning on buying a couple of DR650's in Calgary heading west to Vancouver Island and then heading north to Inuvik. Given the choice of either June or July what would be the best for riding the Dempster? Cheers David
In my opinion June is best,day light for 24hrs a day and usually drier than July depending on the year! By the way GW Cycle here in Calgary would be my choice for buying the Dr's
My mum came up last year to visit in mid June and we had one the most torrential rain storms I have ever seen. I think historically there is less rain in July but its hard to say. The road opens again and the ferries are in after the first week in June so there is an initial surge of traffic after that. If you plan to stay in a hotel the Petroleum show is in mid June and sells out every room in Inuvik. This year that is June 10-12. The best thing is to just allow time to wait for a couple of days if weather is bad.
Thanks for the info. My first challenge is to find out if we can buy, register and insure a couple of Dr650's in Calgary as we are not Alberta residents rather than shipping our bikes from Oz. Cheers David
Yes youcan buy the bikes here and Insure them and register them, I just did it for a rider from Belgium it took 1 hour.