North Fork Pass was the last pass on the Dempster. Everything is downhill from here!

We're terribly pleased with our new Ortlieb 10 liter water bag with shower attachment!. Not only can we haul water, but we can get water and take a shower! We got hot water at the store at Fort Mcpherson (no showers available in town) and took it out of town, found an isolated gravel pit with this abandoned caterpillar. We hung our bag on the equipment and took the most wonderful shower. Between river washes and showers like this we've had several showers already, which is a big breakthrough for this trip!

Our first three days from Inuvik were quite hot, which was pretty surprising since we were way north of the Arctic Circle. It was in the 90s Fahrenheit! And the road was dry, and the dust was pretty intense. The road is all dirt of course, and the trucks can raise quite a bit of it. You can imagine the dust-bath we're about to get from this truck!

This is near Tombstone where the river is still frozen. This picture only shows a small bit of how cold and blue the ice on the river was. The Tombstone Mountain Territory Park are unglaciated and therefore are very smooth and round and looks a bit like Ireland.

Here is we are camping in back of the church at Tsiigehtchic which over looks the great Mckenzie River. Little Anthony, one of the kids in the village joins us for several meals. The Gw'chin, the local aboriginal people, have lived here for as long as anyone can remember, came here to hunt and fish and then moved on with the season. Now it is a village of perhaps 200 people who live here year round.

Anthony dad, Russel, helps run the ferry which you can see in the far distance. This one just one of the three ferry crossing we have used so far. A bridge can not be built here because of the freezing and thawing of the river is too mighty it has knocked down bridges that have been built before.

We needed shower desperately so we asked Russel where we could get a shower at Tsiigehtchic. He said just go to his house and help ourselves which we did. He had a lovely home in this great village. Thanks Russel for the showers and the stories of your life. We highly recommend you all take the ferry to Tsiigehtchic and visit with the people here. Look up Carol Norwiegnin and her mom. Carol walked 125km to Inuvik to raise money for cancer. We meet he and her mom, a survivor of cancer, on the road. We have

This is what the tundra looks close to the Artic Circle.

This is a shot of the village church which we camped in back of because it was cooler and had less mesquitos. What a view.

Since we did the Dempster from Inuvik to Dawson City this summer (2006) I thought I'd write some notes about the trip for other cyclists. If you have additional notes, please add your comments to this page.

• Resources
  • The Milepost is essential. Copy or rip out the section about the Dempster and you'll know where every pullout and campground is.
  • Alys and Pete's book Alaska Bicycle Touring Guide is getting mighty old, but it's the only place you can find out where water is available. That's something that matters to a cyclist and not to most other travelers.
  • Journals from other riders who did the Dempster: Jeff Kruys (2006), Murray Snyder (2006), Mike Vermuelen (1996)
• Things you'll need
  • Mosquito headnet (or full body suit) and repellent. Mostly we liked the headnet instead of repellent.
  • Bear Cache/Cannister (or see our note on using garbage cans as a cache)
  • Eye protection - lots of dust and things flying.
  • Water capacity enough for the 100km section of no water between Eagle Plains and where the Ogilvie River leaves the highway.
  • Water filter or chemicals
  • Spare tire and tubes. We had no problems, but plenty of cyclists and motorists have had destroyed tires from the sharp shale sections.
• General notes
  • Don't forget that you can't get across the Mackenzie or Peel Rivers during freezeup or breakup. You'll need to know when the road is likely to open if you want to travel those stretches.
  • You can send half your food ahead to Eagle Plains - mark the box with your name and "please hold for cyclist". You can typically arrange this at the visitor center in either Dawson City or in Inuvik. There are a lot of kind motorists travelling this route.
  • Almost everybody travelling this road is actually a friend and a support vehicle. In case of bike trouble, water trouble, etc., you'll probably come out OK by asking for help.
  • The road was pretty fair quality dirt road when we went. It's way better than most dirt roads I've travelled, both in terms of grade and quality. However, some sections turn to horrendous mud in the rain, and of course cyclists hate the mud. You may want to leave your fenders at home.
  • You can camp at gravel pits, rest stops, etc., in addition to the campgrounds. In a number of places it's hard to camp on the swampy or permafrost areas off the highway except in these places.
  • Spend some time hiking at Tombstone if you can.
  • Eagle Plains Hotel had fair prices (only $10/night for camping - included the shower! - although there was a place for quarters you didn't have to use it.)
  • You can buy some food from the kitchen at Eagle Plains, but they don't have anything in their store. But you can probably get a loaf of bread, for example.
  • Engineer Creek Campground has unthinkable water. Get water just downstream at the Ogilvie River bridge instead and haul it to the campground.
  • Fort McPherson has most services, but Tsiigehtchic (Arctic Red River) has basically none.
  • Tires and bike: I used a mountain bike with Continental "Traffic" tires, and Nancy used a touring bike with Shwalbe Marathon XR tires. These worked great. I do recommend some tread and a wider tire for this route.
  • The 100km section between where the road leaves the Ogilvie River (northbound) to Eagle Plains has no good water. Plan to get water there or at Eagle Plains (southbound) for this section. A motorist might cache some water for you at a kilometer marker as well. Kilometers are marked on even kilometers and most of the markers are there.

We've had three great days in Juneau after riding down to Skagway from Whitehorse and taking the ferry to Juneau. The first day was stunningly sunny and blue, but now we're getting the real Juneau - cloudy and drizzly.
And here are some new pictures from the most recent two legs of the trip:

• Dawson City to Whitehorse: all (float over for descriptions) or slideshow
• Whitehorse-Skagway-Juneau-Haines Loop: (updated again July 14)all (float over for descriptions) or slideshow