The Dempster Day 3 - July 16, 2008

Start: Eagle Plains
Finish: Engineer Creek Campground
Distance: 176km
Riding Time: around 12 hours

As I was gearing up to leave in the morning, I encountered a german cyclist, Thomas, who was headed in the opposite direction. He had ridden from Engineer Creek the day prior and described the journey as very challenging. I (foolishly) inferred that this would mean it would be a relatively easy day for me. With this in mind and, since day 4 would be my longest day (at 194km) and cross two passes, I decicded to treat today as a 'recovery day'.

40kms into the ride I was bagged and already doing the mental countdown. 136kms to go. 135kms to go. The last 135kms were a bit of a grind.

My pace was so sluggish that a gang of black flies was able to follow me for several kms. I coud see them in my shadow - I looked like Linus from the Peanuts cartoons as they orbited around me. Occassionally, one would mistake my butt for a buffet, giving me an incentive to pick up the pace.
...dunh dunh dunh, another one bites the dust...

Thankfully, the scenery was unbelievable. Riding along Ogilve Ridge, I could hardly believe my eyes. I never knew that there were so many shades of green. It was like a rainbow. As the sun peaked through the scattering of clouds, sections of the valley were illuminated, revealing yet more of the spectrum of green that coloured the landscape.
...here comes the sun, da da da da...

The final stretch of the day was a smooth road that led gently up a river valley. I think this would commonly be described as a false flat; however, when you have 500kms in your legs and 50 pounds of gear on your bike, there is no such thing.

I noticed a small brown animal a short distance up the road. It waddled across to the side of the road and I stopped the bike. Was it a bear cub? Phew, nope. Just a porcupine.

The road was like swiss cheese in areas, pocked with long strings of potholes. With 5kms to go, I slammed through a pothole my bike began to wobble. My first guess was that I'd busted a spoke but, upon inspection, I determined that one of my couplers had come loose. Close call. That's the first time I've had that happen. I guess riding out of the saddle with panniers on these rough roads creates higher than normal torsional force.

When I arrived at Engineer Creek campground, there were two other campsites occupied, including one with a touring bike. I walked over to say hi. When dogs meet, they check out each others butts. When cyclists meet, they check out each others bikes.
-ooh, a Surly Big Dummy, very cool
- running wide schwalbe marathons, I could use some of those on my bike
- that seat looks comfy
- dude, is that an I <heart> BOWNESS water bottle??!

His name was Vic and he was from Calgary too! Vic's journey started two days ago and he was heading north. He showed me a stylized elevation profile that he's picked up at the info centre in Dawson City. I appreciate that it is difficult to capture 736km of detail on 8 inches of paper, but this was missing a lot of details that a cyclist would consider critical. It was like a driver had skectched out approximately what he thought the road was like, a week after driving the road. Any experienced cyclist knows that a drivers description should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, when a driver says 'it's pretty flat', don't be surprised if your granny gear is working over time.

I cleaned up in the creek and soaked my muscles in the cold water that was flowing past. There, I met a girl named Georgia from Whitehorse. She kindly lent me her water filter, which enabled me to turn the opaque brown water into a more palettable tea colour. Mmmm, looking forward to consuming six litres of that tomorrow.

I fell asleep under the midnight sun without delay. Tomorrow was going to be a big one.