Day 39: Rock River Campground to Eagle Plains

July 13, 2010

I got up early and left before the mosquitoes realized the wind dropped down. The weather was fine until the last three kilometers. It is a climb up from the Eagle River to Eagle Plains. I could see rain coming and I was desperately trying to make it to Eagle Plains before it started, but no such luck. I got thoroughly drenched. When I arrived I was considering renting a room rather than staying in the campground because it was just raining too hard. However, when I arrived there were two bicycles outside. I went inside and met two other cyclists who were headed north - Jungle and Dan. It turned out that we were all from the Toronto area. By the time I was finished talking to them, it had cleared up and I was able to set up my tent without rain.

Jungle is cycling to Inuvik for the Great Northern Arts Festival. At one point I recommended Pierre Berton's book 'Drifting Home' because he had traveled the same rivers. It turned out that he knew Pierre Berton's daughter. He left around 5:00 PM. Dan stayed and we had dinner in the restaurant. He had cycled through the Rockies during the winter to get here. He left at about 9:00 PM headed for Midway Lake (about 140 km away).

In retrospect, I could have taken better advantage of the loooooong days. It seems that most motor vehicles drive to Eagle Plains and spend the night and then continue on to Inuvik the next day. They typically will remain synchronized with the clocks since they can only get meals and accommodation at certain times. So, if you bicycle after 5:00 PM, you are likely to have the road to yourself. Not that traffic was ever really a problem on the Dempster.

I picked up the food that I had shipped from Inuvik. There was a note from Ray and Brenda on it! As well, it seems that it was delivered by the Marshall family that gave me a lift to the Great Northern Arts Festival. They left me some cookies as an added bonus! Very kind of them.

I stayed at Eagle Plains Campground ($15.75).

End point:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=66.3738,-136.71666&ll=66.3738,-136.71666&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1