Two years ago, I rode the "Curtis Graves BMW R1200GS" to Whitehorse from our second home on Vashon Island, Wash. Madie flew up to Whitehorse and met me. When we returned to the Lower 48 from Skagway on one of the vessels of the Alaska Marine Highway, we met a Canadian couple on a Suzuki SV650 and became friends. They live just north of Seattle and he has retired from H-P. Shortly after that, Steve bought a new 2018 BMW R1200GS. He regularly rides up through BC, the Yukon and Alaska.
This past summer he rode to Tuktoyaktuk, aka Tuk, which is northeast of Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. A road was completed a couple of years ago to Tuk, which then became a new "bucket list" destination for ADV riders. The Dempster Highway to Inuvik has always been a daunting challenge for motorcyclists.
I wanted to share with you Steve's brief account of his amazing ride.
Dan
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Yes, I made it to Tuk and back in July. Couple pics attached FYI. It was a "good ride" but not great. Weather was atrocious - rain on 24 of 29 days on the road. Under these conditions, the Dempster Highway from Dawson to Tuk was the toughest ride of my life. Never went down but came close several times (at slow speeds). The mud was slick as snot and I was sliding sideways at times. Scary stuff...
It took all my skills to keep the rubber side down! I met two guys separately on the return to Dawson who had crashed and were not in good shape (cracked/broken ribs I
suspect) and with bike damage.
I teamed up with a guy from Vancouver Island roughly my age riding an Africa Twin for the entire Dempster - glad I did as we were of similar riding skills and helped each other out from time to time. Quite a character; turns out he was a former politician and cabinet minister in the BC government. Had a few interesting stories as you would expect.
In hindsight, the 2,000 kms there and back from Dawson on the Dempster was just not worth it. In good weather, it would be no problem but it is really a dangerous road for bikers - crazy local pickup drivers, soft gravel, deep mud, bugs, steady rain, etc. But, in the end, I checked the box on Tuk and the Dempster--been there, done that! And the constant rain through the Yukon and BC really wore on me and so I came home a week early. Sometimes, the weather just does not work out. I logged 6500 miles on this trip.
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Here are some links to other videos/articles about motorcycling to Tuk:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-itm-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=itm&p=motorcyclling+to+Tuktoyaktuk#id=3&vid=aee082bbae122b41eb05ab6383c4ed8f&action=click
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-itm-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=itm&p=motorcyclling+to+Tuktoyaktuk#id=4&vid=1526f4c585b7f841aa09d23150958eba&action=click
https://www.webbikeworld.com/ride-to-tuktoyaktuk-canada-part-one/
https://www.motorcyclemojo.com/2017/11/road-tuktoyaktuk-open/
https://advrider.com/f/threads/ride-to-tuktoyaktuk.1315632/
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