Wilsons Sandbox

I left Whitehorse heading towards Dawson City in relatively good weather. It's about 300 miles. Twenty miles before Dawson City is where the Dempster Highway starts. I had intended to spend the night in town primarily to get gas, but since gas was available at the Dempster intersection, I was convinced by a German tourist on a 650 Dominator to start driving the Dempster that evening. It is a dirt road built entirely on permafrost ground and for that reason it can not be paved. The road sits on a rock bed that averages about 8 feet above the ground and this provides drainage and prevents some of the ravages of winter. The rock bed is made from crushed rock that is sized from standard gravel to about 3 inch rocks. The rocks are sharp and notorious for taking out tires. I saw at least 20 people in cars with flat tires. They surface is a mixture of dirt and calcium chloride and this supposedly prevents dust but converts to liquid cement when wet. The road is 460 miles long and it has some awesome scenery with one gas station in the middle. The sign at the beginning of the road says "No emergency services next 735Km". I brought a spare one gallon gas container which proved unnecessary. I spent that night at a provincial campsite 71KM up the Dempster with the German tourist. His rear tire looked questionable but I was told "it must make it". Canadian government campsites are absolutely the best and all include free firewood but they are all primitive. The next morning we tried for an early start but there was so much frost on everything that we were delayed about 2 hours. It was cold but perfect weather. The road was in amazingly good shape and since it had rained recently, there was almost no dust. The speed limit is sometimes posted at 90 Km but we were able to go faster at times. There are two free ferry crossings and we made both without any delay. At the half-way point we refueled never having gone on reserve. My friend on the dominator carried a 1 gallon milk bottle and needed on each half. We arrived in Inuvik at about 10pm and camped in town. This was the only provincial campsite I stayed at that actually had showers. The town's main street is literally less than one block long. Eventhough it never got dark, most of the town's closes at 7pm with the exception of a convenience store and one bar. Two beers and a caribou burger cost $20 Canadian, don't even think about a motel -- they are all well over $150Cn for a dump. We walked from one end of town to the other in less than 30 minutes. I was beginning to think I was very lucky, driving almost 4500 miles without any rain to speak of. But on this morning my luck ran out. I stayed in my tent waiting for the storm to pass but it got worse and the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees. The locals were predicting snow. My German friend wanted to stay but I didn't want to get caught in 460 miles of snow. I packed wet and we split off. The Dempster, which was a piece of cake the day before, was now a rutted out slippery mess. The rain never once let up. About 125 miles down the road the KLR's temp gauge was creeping up and I knew things were clogged. It was cold outside so it was not an immediate concern but I knew I would have to address it. I looked for water on the side of the road, which was everywhere but just as I needed water, the road climbed upward for 20 miles. I finally was near water and I used my cook pot making 50 trips up and down the road to clear out the radiator. Temperature was back to normal again. About 50 miles later the KLR just quit. I suspected a fouled plug since I had been running low RPMs through the mud. It is now 8:45pm, it is snowing hard and the wind was blowing the snow horizontal. I was already cold and my gloves were wet. I had two choices: attempt to fix it or pitch a tent on the side of the road and hope for a break in the weather the next day. I had visions of being totally snowed in so I decided to take a shot at it. All my gear straps were frozen and I needed a screwdriver to pick the knots apart. This took forever. I took the first side cover off and laid it down and the wind immediately blew it off the mountain. Shit! From then on every piece that came off I covered with camping gear. I checked for fuel flow with an extra piece of vacuum line and it was fine. I took the tank off and then the spark plug. The cavity was full of dirt and I spent at least 10 minutes with cold hand trying to clear most of the dirt. My suspicions were confirmed in that I had no spark but the plug was not fouled. It had a weird rust color that at first I suspected was caused by the orange antifreeze I put in. I later found out that Canadian gas colors the plug a rusty brown. I replaced the plug but it made no difference. I had read about the coil getting wet and I even prepped my coil with di-electric grease at the connections. I dried the coil wire and sprayed it with some WD40 and presto, I had spark. I now realize I should have used silicon. While I was putting my bike back together, the last car on the Dempster stopped and waited for at least a 1/2 hour while I put it all back together. He felt I was in danger and he was probably right. The two ferries stop running around 11:00pm and there is no reason to be on the road this far out. I was happy for the backup. I subsequently found my side cover which was wedged in between a rock on the cliff's edge. It now 9:30pm in a weird darkened daylight, I'm freezing but happy to have a running bike. I drive 75 more miles to Eagle Plains - the mid point on the Dempster and got a motel - the gas station/restaurant/motel has a monopoly up there. I was so cold and my gear was so wet that camping was out of the question. The motel was expensive and worth it. That's it for now. -svt-