OK, So I made it up the dirt road to Inuvik. Its very different to whats at the end of the road to Prudehoe Bay in Alaska. Inuvik is a sizeable town of more or less normal format (not an oil drilling camp like DeadHorse.)
I would have to say though that it is rather grubby and unkempt. Most of the non-Government buildings strongly resemble prefab mobile homes (which I think they are) and there is loads of mud all over the place as well as quite a bit of litter. The locals seemed friendly though, with about half of them being First Nations.
There is only one other town further North here in NWT and that is Tuptoyuktuk... (the locals just call it "Tuk") Its a great little town name that, Its got meter and rhym...a little poem all by its self :))
But you have to hear it said with a northern First Nations accent to really appreciate it.
... The SW of Western Australia where I was born and raised has lots of town names taken from the local Aboriginal languages. One that has the same sort of inherent poetry is where my sister and her family now live - Gidgeganup :)
But, I cant get to 'Tuk at present because its only accesible by road in the witer when they build an ice road.
So after a look around and a night to rest and warm up, Its back on the bike and heading South. But I have a bit of a problem still. Well, the road is still very soft and muddy to be sure, but its getting better at a rapid rate now that the weather has improved again, and I should be fine with that.
No, my new problem is that all of a sudden, I have absolutely no brake pads left on my bike!
I just put new rear pads on about 15000km back so needless to say Im a bit surprised.
Its the grit and mud from the road. Its extremely coarse and abrasive. This stuff is glacial sand which is mostly silica crystals just like beach sand. However, beach sand gets ground together constantly by wave action and has all the sharp corners taken off. This stuff is fresh from the glacier and is like sand paper.
And Ive been braking almost exclusively with the rear wheel for all the time Ive been riding on dirt roads (since you really dont want the front wheel to lock up). ... And, Im simply out of brake pads now and am grinding metal on the rear.
Oh well, what can ya do? Im 750Km up a dead end dirt road with no chance of spare parts. Ill just head South carefully and do what I can with the gears and the front brakes (which are also terribly low on pads!)
The mud road is manegable now, and most of the on-comming traffic is polite and slows down a lot. Its a good thing with the current road conditions.
... You know when you have another vehicle comming your way because you can see an Orange cloud of mist with two burning yellow eyes thrumming toward you at great speed (all cars have their lights on all the time - its the law here). It rather brings to mind the idea of a mythological "Fury" or something like that.
If the oncoming vehicle does not slow down then you get envelopped in the cloud of orange mist and pretty soon you are a "mud man".
I had to develop a technique to MAKE the traffic slow down if they didnt look like theyd do it them selves...
I simply move into their lane and drive straight at them (like a game of chicken). When we start to get close, they slow up (as do I) and then once we are both going slowly, I pull back into my lane for the pass (and thats a little tricky with the slimy mud but it works OK). Sure I get some anoyed looks but everyone is safe and I get to not have mud on my visor or face :))
So, now all I have to figure out is how to get back to Vancouver without any brakes! :)))
Speaking of town names, I have to say that many of the towns up here in Alaska/Yukon/NWT have very evocative names. Ive been through Whitehorse, Dead Horse, Eagle Plains, Cold Foot, Arctic Red River, Fort McPherson etc... Very "Atmospheric"
