1 Year, 2 KLRs, and a whole lot of open road...: June 19th-23rd, 2010 pt.6

After we ate lunch and warmed up, we continued riding south and stopped at Eagle Plains. We topped off our fuel tanks and spent some time in the lodge where they had Wi-Fi access. We ran into Hal, Tommy, and Walter who were having dinner at the lodge. We also met CaptUglyDan, an inmate on ADV who just came back from the Arctic Circle and is now on his way to D2D.

We pulled over for a potty break at the Ogilvie Ridge Lookout and marveled at the landscape. The time was around midnight.

Amanda used the outhouse here and sat on a wet toilet seat. To this day, she insists that it was just water.

We pulled off to the side of the road and pitched our tent on a sheet of plywood we found lying around. When we woke up the next morning we saw the all-too familiar station wagon parked a few yards away from us. It was none other than Manuel & Mira. CaptUglyDan also stopped by to say hello and to tell us the weather up ahead doesn’t look promising. We told him about the bug hut at Engineer Creek Campground and that it had a woodstove inside. If things get hairy, we might find ourselves staying the night in there. By the time we broke camp, it had already started to spit. Once again the weather Gods insisted that in order to get the full experience of riding the Dempster, there needs to be at least one day of rain. With Manuel & Mira trailing behind us, we continued south along the slick gravelly road. With the weather and road conditions worsening, we decided to call it quits and pulled into Engineer Creek Campground. There, we found CaptUglyDan drying his clothes as he already had a fire going in the bug hut.

Cooking lunch on top of the woodstove

The rain never seemed to let up, but that didn’t stop CaptUglyDan from pressing on. The four of us on the other hand decided to wait it out and stayed put where it’s warm and free of pestering mosquitoes. We met a few passerbies’ desperately needing a break from the downpour. An older man from Japan along with his grandson stopped to have lunch, 2 guys on KLRs on their way back from Inuvik, an older couple with their cat and dog, and a couple from Switzerland.

The rain wouldn’t stop and it was getting late. We decided to spend the night here.