North Canol Road - Yukon/NWT

[adelorenzo]

I figure most people here would have seen the post on MTBR, but I thought I'd share it on bikepacking.net as well. Four of us recently did an 8-day bike/packrafting trip on the remote Canol Heritage Trail, from Macmillan Pass in the Yukon to Norman Wells, NWT.

Here is Paul's trip report and photos:
http://yukonfrolics.blogspot.ca/2012/08/bikepacking-north-canol-heritage-trail.html

My pics can be found on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delorenzo/tags/canolroad/

A few pics:


Caribou Pass by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr


Floating the Twitya by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr


Dodo rock slide by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr


Canol truck park by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr

[JCruz]

Fantastic.

[Eric]

Awesome route! I can now see why Paul has wanted to do this for years. Looks like a lot of decent riding for this kind of trip.

[adelorenzo]

While there is a fair bit that is washed out or overgrown there is a surprising amount of good roadbed considering that it has been abandoned for almost 70 years. If you gear low enough to ride the uphill grades loaded you can ride at least 80% of the route and when the road is good, man is it good.

[Eric]

i just can't believe it's not grown in. From what I've seen with roads like this the veg usually comes in thicker on the old roadbed than on the adjacent brush. maybe they spilled too much gas out there back in the day. great weather too. nice work.

[adelorenzo]

There were sections that were heavily grown in, to the point where we had to get off our bikes and push through or abandon the trail all together. In particular parts of the Blue Mountain section have become impassable, to the point where we decided to just thrash around in the river bed instead of pushing through the willows.

[Yukoner]

Hi Eric
You need to do this trip man, its grade A.
Seriously, this trip should be on any bikepackers hit list.  Theres pushing for sure, but the riding is reall, REALLY good.  I don't know why the shrubbery hasn't completely taken over, but the fact that it was serious road bed might have something to do with it, rather than just a cut-line through the taiga.  That, and in many places its crushed Limestone above timberline.  Down lower, horses from the outfitters still use it, not to mention Griz, Moose etc.
Regardless, its great fun.
Heres some more.
 

[caseygreene]

Awesome trip and photos. Are there any other "roads" like this through Yukon or NWT?

[adelorenzo]

Awesome trip and photos. Are there any other "roads" like this through Yukon or NWT?

Nothing I can think of that is both this rugged and this long.

The Yukon portion of the South and North Canol Road (450 km) is maintained for vehicles but is still quite rough. It is a really scenic, hilly and remote gravel road tour (very limited re-supply options) with a lot of side trips for exploring old mining roads and climbing mountains. In fact, just throwing it out there that it would be a pretty awesome ACA route. You could even add on the first 100 km or so of the Canol Heritage Trail before things get really hairy.

Otherwise the Yukon abounds with really amazing, shorter multi-day routes but I'd have a hard time coming up with an 8-10 day trip that wouldn't involve a lot of road or off-trail travel. 

[Yukoner]

Nothing I can think of that is both this rugged and this long.

Except for the ones we haven't done yet, and we ain't telling!

[adelorenzo]

Except for the ones we haven't done yet, and we ain't telling!

Haha, ain't that the truth!

When it comes down to it a lot of what are "highways" in the North are pretty rough and remote. You can travel hundreds of km of gravel without any re-supply points, seeing very few vehicles and passing nothing except a few cabins and maybe a grader station. You'd likely see more bears and moose than people.

[caseygreene]

Except for the ones we haven't done yet, and we ain't telling!

Gotta protect yer powder stash 

In fact, just throwing it out there that it would be a pretty awesome ACA route. You could even add on the first 100 km or so of the Canol Heritage Trail before things get really hairy.

The remoteness aside, part of me says, ya!!!... But, the other dosen't want to see gems like that become an ACA route. Don't want to take too much "adventure" out of it, or give it the "National Park" treatment.