Inuvik

[chrisx]

To plan
a trip to Inuvik, whether by road or air, takes a lot of vision and
research and we hope you enjoy your journey and stay with us.
If you venture up the Dempster Highway to reach us, you will see
and pass many unforgettable sites such as the Arctic Circle
http://www.inuvik.ca/documents/Inuvik%20Guide.pdf

Sounds good for next year. Information and resupply are scarce at best. 
Inuvik to Skagway is 1,400 kilometers across the Yukon.  leaving plenty
of time to explore. 
NEEDS TO HAPPEN

[chrisx]

Anyone know how to swim a river with your bike?

[jp3d]

Anyone know how to swim a river with your bike?

Packraft! https://www.alpackaraft.com/store/index.cfm?ProductID=66&do=detail

[chrisx]

up to date info on the Yukon is hard to come by.
http://sonic.net/~ckelly/Seekay/canol.htm

[Eric]

I know a few people who have toured up the Dempster hwy, It's a good trip. Similar in a way to the Dalton but without the big trucks and more mountain ranges.

[chrisx]

I wonder if anyone has ever pedaled from Whitehorse all the way up the Canol,  pulled a small raft out of their pack, paddled across the Mackenzie river resupplied in Norman Wells, then hitched a barge ride to Inuvik, pedaled south to Skagway and hoped a ferry home?
probably not

[MikeC]

Bill and Kathi Merchant rode from Dawson up to Inuvik 5 or 6 winters ago.  They have some amazing pics and stories from the trip.

But bikepacking?  It's a road tour IMO.  Still very cool, just not quite 'bikepacking'.

MC

[chrisx]

Is not exploring the Yukon considered bike packing? 
What about the Canol Heritage Trail, is that bike packing?
I don't consider racing with nothing but a credit card in your pocket bike packing.
Drink some water, you sound dehydrated.

[MikeC]

Is not exploring the Yukon considered bike packing? 
What about the Canol Heritage Trail, is that bike packing?
I don't consider racing with nothing but a credit card in your pocket bike packing.
Drink some water, you sound dehydrated.

Methinks I'm not the one lacking water.

I think riding the highway up to Inuvik would be cool, and scenic, and challenging if you did it in winter.  But I'd not confuse it with bikepacking.  Road =/= trail.  YMMV, obviously.

Cheers,

MC

[chrisx]

My purpose in starting this thread was to get help in finding out what the Yukon holds in store.  Most years I come up with an idea of some place that sounds cool, think about it for a year, maybe two then go there.  Last year the Olympic mountains called my name. this year I walked a lot of trails over there, (my feet hurt at the moment, they don't make shoes like they used to).  A couple of years ago Baja sounded good.  I'll make a third trip there this winter.  It rains and snows in Baja. Maps and roads don't always match up in Baja.  The things an old Crow Indian told me as a young child are more useful in finding my way across Baja than any electric device.  A few years before that Florida sounded  like a good place to explore.  Somewhere down the line south America sounds good.  (Why do Peruvian girls advise against traveling alone in Peru).  
At the moment I'm attempting to find out what is up there, (Yukon), come up with some ideas of what to see.

[Eric]

Mike - they did that trip in winter?  awesome.

[MikeC]

Mike - they did that trip in winter?  awesome.

Yup.  Not too hard to get them talking about that one.  More or less Kathi's initiation into winter bike trips.  Ask 'em about it sometime, then sit back and enjoy.

[MikeC]

At the moment I'm attempting to find out what is up there, (Yukon), come up with some ideas of what to see.

Sure--good idea.  

I searched just now but couldn't find the link to a story a friend of mine wrote for Car and Driver about taking a Corvette up the Dempster.  It's a good read and if anything will encourage you to go see it even more.  But it also underscores my point that road touring isn't the same as bikepacking.

Which is very different from saying you shouldn't go check it out.  

Cheers,

MC

[ScottyJ]

not bikepacking but a good read

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/07q4/the_road_to_remorses_the_road_to_divorces-feature

[Eric]

Good info if you look on crazy guy:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/search/?term=inuvik&expand=auto

[chrisx]

Eric
I see a small inflatable raft in some of your videos.  Would you trust it to go down river 300 miles where loss of raft means bush whacking with no resupply?  The path from Norman Wells to Inuvik is the river.  Do those little rafts hold up when dragged across rocks, crashed into tree branched etc?

[Eric]

Chris, yes.
But hitting downed trees on a river is a bad idea anyway you look at it. That's what the paddle is for.

[lessismore]

If you get caught on the Dempster when it starts to rain, it will be anything but a "road" tour.  Don't ask me how I know.  

[wild_bike]

Chrisx, someone did pedal the Canol Road in the 1980s but balked at the river crossings and retreated.

Using packrafts with bicycles (by packraft I mean a real honest to goodness raft that weighs 5 pounds but costs $500+, not a drugstore/walmart raft) is well established and has been done by many people for a long time. I have never heard of a catastrophic failure of boat with packraft, even in rapids of Class III.

There is also awesome off-road game trail and gravel bar riding in the yukon as well as a super good trail system in Whitehorse. I'd agree with other commentators here that road riding even on wet northern roads is not as adventurous as leaving the roads and taking a packraft with you to get to go where bikes have never gone before.

Save your pennies and buy an old used packraft on the Alpacka forum (http://packrafting.org/forums/) and go North for a real adventure with your bike. By the sound of it you have an adventurous spirit and will enjoy the float down the mckenzie (BTW most the big rivers of Alaska (Yukon, Kuskokwim, Copper, Susitna, Tanana, Colville) have been floated in packrafts and several with bikes on the bow -- these rivers are actually easier with a bike than little whitewater creeks.

[Eastman]

Purchase a guidebook called "Along the Dempster" by Walter Lanz.  Loaded with maps and info.  A must for this trip.