Day 16

The next morning we found that the gravel pit was at the top of a mountain; up in the clouds. It was clear below us in the valley. 

 It was pretty wet so we pulled on the rain gear for awhile and kept heading north.



We final arrived at Eagle Plains where there is a gas station, a restaurant, and a motel. We filled up the bikes and had breakfast there. The young lady who served us was from Iowa. She had a work permit for this job in the Yukon and was trying to save money for a  pilots license.



There was another biker there at a table by himself so I asked him to join us. He was from Hawaii. Wally had purchased a new KTM in California and had ridden up from there. He was retired and touring Alaska. Living his dream...  



Just south of the Arctic Circle there was a section of the road that was also used as an airstrip.

"Artic Circle traffic, BMW foxtrot eight zero zero golf sierra alpha on short final for runway 36, Arctic Circle"



We stopped at the Arctic Circle on the Canada side of our trip. The scenery there was amazing. Was real quiet. 

If there is any part of the trip I'll always remember, it was leaning against the Arctic Circle sign with Risto, admiring the scenery with a good cigar. We spent about 20 minutes just sitting there.

Somebody asked why I always wore my hat when I got off the motorcycle, and why I wore it backwards. I had soaked the bill in deet and it kept the mosquitos off my neck. I would also massage deet into my beard to keep the mosquitos away but they weren't too bad here.

We kept pushing north along the Demster for Inuvik. The Yukon Northwest Territories border was amazing as well. It seemed like everywhere we went it was always better.

We came to the Peel River ferry.

And then to the MacKenzie River ferry. Graham had left the Arctic Circle before us but caught up to us here. He had climbed a mountain with his bike and watched Risto and I come by with binoculars. He said he had talked to a trucker that had come up on a BMW rider earlier who had crashed and broke his shoulder. This isn't a good area to have medical issues. There are no emergency response services up here.

The lakes close to Inuvik were very blue.

Inuvik is in the area where the Inuits live, and is the farthest north you can drive in the summertime. In the wintertime there is an ice road that extends yet to Tuktoyaktuk about 120 miles north. 

When I was a young kid we learned that Eskimos lived up here but apparently in Canada the term "eskimo" is now considered pejorative and offensive. 

The houses and buildings in Inuvik were all built on pylons which were driven into the permafrost.

The hospital.

We had dinner there, but decided not to stay overnight in Inuvik. The weather was still good and we needed to get Risto's street bike off the Dempster before the weather changed. So we headed back south.

Graham did a nice wheelie down mainstreet Inuvik for the entertainment of the locals hanging out around the community center. He got a few whoops and whistles for it.

On the way back down, Graham stopped at the hill he had climbed earlier and we both went back up. The views were real nice from there! It would have been a great camping spot if Risto's bike could have made it up here. There was a moment when I thought we were crazy. It was about midnight, and we were in the Northwest Territories clawing our way up a faint trail on a shale mountain a hundred miles from anywhere. But it was worth it.

 We got back to the Eagle Plains gas station safely and setup the tents down a hill across the road.