Last night we saw two motorcyclist with street tires and plastic cases went to arctic ocean and back to Inuvik. This morning I went to talk to them to see how did they do it.
It turned out the issue(excuse) is not the bike or tires. It is the riding technique. so I learned the techniques from them and saw a video on how to ride on soft gravel and decided to give it another try again.
So the trick is to always give gas and never let throttle go otherwise the bike will dive into soft sand and then fall, stand up to have more control over the bike and look forward where I want to go and not the road in front of the tire..
We left tent and anything we didn’t need at the campsite to lighten the bike to make it easier.
It worked very well, but it was very tiring for me, after an hour I was exhausted.
But Cristian was just fine!
This far north, there is no mountain and no trees or any tall vegetation. But lots of very small lakes that the road winds through them.
The road behind us,
The road in front,
and the lakes on the side.
After about 4 hours we made the 150km road to Tuktoyaktuk, NWT.
First photo with the sign of the town. It was drizzling rain and cloudy and made it a bit cold.
Next, putting gas in the bike,
and 10 minutes later, finally at Arctic Ocean, lots of people are here, with Car, RVs and even bicycles! few are even camping here right by the ocean and in front of the sign!
This is as far north as one can go in Canada on land.
we take the bikes all the way down by the water.
Few people were going into the water, we saw an older couple from Ontario that went in the water and encouraged us to go as well, but we didn’t have swimming suite and towel as we left them in the campsite. They offered us towels so we go in!
It was great and we were very happy that we did dip in the arctic ocean, going all the way there we would have regretted it if we wouldn’t go in the water.
Trans Canada trail pass through here as well,
A view of the town,
Since the road just opened this year, there is really not much development for visitors, so the get the sticker of “I made it to Tuk” we go to the town council which is the only official building for everything here and we made it right on time, because they were closing for the day at 5pm.
Then we start heading back to Inuvik.
This was the best condition of the road, which we could go at 100km/h
Then it was the hardest part with construction with very soft mix of sand and gravel, with very slow speed and exhausting to stand up to control the bike.
and some part with just loose gravel,
It was very nice weather and sunny. clear lakes which mirrored the cloud in the sky was amazing view. Unfortunately not very good photos to show it, you have to be there to experience it.
Finally back in the campsite with just about 3 hours, 1 hour faster than going north.
Hogging the bike that made all this amazing trip and experience possible!
Now resting in the campsite and dealing with mosquitoes again!
It’s good the campsite has hot shower, I will enjoy my sleep tonight.