The real question is: weather not whether. It is not whether we go or not it is truly dependant on the weather.
See the Dempster Highway is not what we think of as a “highway”. It is not paved. It is not well maintained. It does not have nice little rest areas. It does not suffer fools well. And up there you cannot get BCAA to come get you. And if you fuck up and fall off the only practical way out is with a helicopter.
The Dempster is a bed of gravel 3 feet thick that your ride/drive on. It is designed that way so that the frost does not completely destroy the highway each winter. It has been described as a 750 kilometre long rut filled sometimes filled with water. Dusty and rocky in the dry and absolute nightmare in the wet. And yes we want to ride it the whole way.
So the question is not whether – as in whether we want to or not – as we definitely want to. The question is the weather. If it is dry we will. If it is wet we probably wont.
Remember we are riding heavily loaded motorcycles with dual sport tires ( think all season tires on your car) – not heavy knobby tires (think snow tires or heavy duty truck tires) – and Karen has not had a lot of off road riding experience. Hell my experience is limited and long ago and I have never ridden that type of surface.
See the Dempster Highway is not what we think of as a “highway”. It is not paved. It is not well maintained. It does not have nice little rest areas. It does not suffer fools well. And up there you cannot get BCAA to come get you. And if you fuck up and fall off the only practical way out is with a helicopter.
The Dempster is a bed of gravel 3 feet thick that your ride/drive on. It is designed that way so that the frost does not completely destroy the highway each winter. It has been described as a 750 kilometre long rut filled sometimes filled with water. Dusty and rocky in the dry and absolute nightmare in the wet. And yes we want to ride it the whole way.
So the question is not whether – as in whether we want to or not – as we definitely want to. The question is the weather. If it is dry we will. If it is wet we probably wont.
Remember we are riding heavily loaded motorcycles with dual sport tires ( think all season tires on your car) – not heavy knobby tires (think snow tires or heavy duty truck tires) – and Karen has not had a lot of off road riding experience. Hell my experience is limited and long ago and I have never ridden that type of surface.
So if we cant due to weather then we have an alternative route planned through eastern Alaska and returning down the Alaska Highway home.
There are certain times where “discretion is the better part of valour” and this is probably one of them.
There are certain times where “discretion is the better part of valour” and this is probably one of them.
