Coming back down the Dempster

July 19^th, 2026

Eagle Plains, Yukon Territory

Woke at 8am and sat at the desk for a while, just having hard time waking up last few days.

Got showered and geared up and then went out to uncover the bike.  Moved it right up next to the front entrance since no one was parked there now.

Loaded the bike and got everything secured.

Once checked out of the room, we rode over to get fuel and then hit the road south.

As with yesterday, I pushed it faster on the lightly graveled areas and had much less problem with the bumps and vibrations.  Kept up the pace really well to the MacKenzie ferry and got lucky to have it on my side of the river and waiting for any cars, so was able to pull right on.

Once across, the next section was a bit rougher, but still made good time to Fort McPherson where I stopped to fuel and get lunch.

Was hoping to have some nice hot food again, but since it was Sunday, the kitchen was closed, so just had stuff they had made previous day in the cooler. 

I bought a double cheeseburger again and nuked it in the microwave.  Actually, turned out pretty good.  Ate that, drank a soda, and had some of the cheese puffs I still had left over from last night.

Back on the road I reached the Peel River ferry and was first in line.  However, there was a large excavator sitting right on the dock to the ferry and it was still moving dirt around to short up the sides. (Note:  They just rebuilt these docks about 2 weeks ago after river flood washed them away, so probably still getting them setup.)

Then the excavator slowly moved onto the ferry and they took it over to the other side.

Once it was off, it started to work on that side while the ferry returned.

By now quite a bit line of cars was waiting, and a truck.

They docked and waved us aboard, so I got on and the cars started to come in after me.  Looks like the truck will have to wait though.

Onto the other side and the excavator kept working to the last second, moving only as the boats ramp touched the dock.

I was let off first and quickly made my way out of there.

Roads got a bit rougher, but still managed to keep my speed.

I finally stopped to piss as there were no rest areas along this road, so just find a bush when you can. 

Back on the road I zoomed the rest of the way to Eagle Plains, only having a few issues near the end where they were grading the road and it was very deep, loose dirt.

Pulled into Eagle Plains at 3:30pm, making it a 6-hour ride all included.  2 hours faster than my ride up.  Some of that time up was spent on stops, but most of it was just trying to figure out the road.

I went inside to see if they had a room, but the front desk was closed and did not open till 4:00pm.

I stood by the bike for a bit cleaning off the lights and such from all the road much, and then went inside to wait.  Actually had a nice view over the distant mountains today as well.  Last time it was cloudy and raining when I arrived, and I really did not look when I left that morning, was too worried about the ride that day.

Once they opened (about 5 minutes after 4) I was 3^rd in line to talk to the guy and they did have a room.  Got checked in and room was first one in the hallway, and I had also managed to park right next to the door this time.

Unloaded the bike and got it covered, then went inside to sort the bags a bit and then get cleaned up, was a warm day, and I had a few too many layers on.

Once showered and dressed, I did a few things online and then went to dinner at the restaurant.  Nothing fancy, and expensive, but was food.

Bought a few extra drinks and then came back to the room.

While eating I had reviewed a few different route options for the next few days.  Also tried to figure out where I will be going tomorrow.

Other than getting to the end of the Dempster, I was hoping to go all the way to Whitehorse, but turns out it is farther than I thought.  That would be a 12-hour ride.

I figure the end of the Dempster will take me 5 hours (200 some miles) if I can keep speed.  The problem is this section of road was one of the worst, so not sure if I will be able to keep up speed, and it has been rained on several times, so might be pretty beat up, and maybe still wet, which was a huge part of my trip up taking so long.

Assuming things are good and I get to the end, then I found a campground about 3 hours down the road which should suffice.  Just hope it has spots as it is a first come setup, so no way to know till you arrive.  If full, then will have no choice but to go all the way and find a hotel as I will not have a reservation anywhere.

I will try to make a reservation for the following few nights back at the motorcycle park south of Whitehorse.  There I will clean the bike a bit, clean some of the gear off and do laundry and work on videos for a few days.

Then we will start heading south, but while I have decided to not take another long empty gravel route, I have found a few out and back trips to see some other stuff, so may do a few detours before I head south on the Alcan highway.

For now, I am going to spend rest of the night getting the park books hopefully and then working on converting videos so I can get some editing done, running out of hard drive space and now a month behind on my channel….was really hoping not to get that far back.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route: