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Published: August 12th 2011
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Thursday August 6, 2011
My Longest Furthest Day
I noticed that the evenings are getting cooler (as I wait for bus). The bus was actually a passenger van towing a trailer for luggage. There was maybe 8 others taking the shuttle. It was probably the most uncomfortable ride of my life. The whole way I just remember twisting and turning trying to get comfortable and feeling great discomfort because it was impossible to get comfortable. I awoke at 5:30 am as we were pulling into Ft. Providence.
As we were unloading the driver offered to take me to the ferry because we would have to wait until the ferry started up at 6 am anyways. On the way to the ferry we saw 3 bison. At the ferry the driver then offered to take me to the junction where the Mackenzie Highway started. Even better, secretly this what I was hoping all along. This would save me another 40 km’s that I had already ridden anyways.
I had my bike back together and loaded and riding by 7am. Twenty kilometers into my riding I had my first bike mechanical breakdown. My chain was slipping and everything I tried
Coral Falls
Named due to the numerous coral fossils that are washed down river each year. to do was not working. It was 350 km’s back to Yellowknife and 400+ km’s to Fort Liard; not that anyone there could help me. The only conclusion to my problem could be that I had damaged a link in my chain the day before. (When I went looking for that 2nd license plate yesterday my chain had come off and got jammed real bad.) My hands were already stained with chain oil from the day before and now they were covered all over again. Taking out the chain link did not exactly go smoothly. Back on the road it looks like I may have solved my problem.
The road also has become gravel at this highway junction. I can’t say that it is as bad as I thought but I did almost have a real nasty spill; how I recovered from the spill I will never know. The gravel is mostly hard packed. The softer sections were at the start but the road was also at its flattest. Latter in the day the highway started to go a little up and down, but nothing significant.
I don’t know I did it but I rode my all-time record
today; I rode 140 km’s on basically no sleep and gravel road. The weather was awesome and I stopped at Sambaa Deh Falls Park for the night; completely dead.
Friday August 5, 2011
Sambaa Deh Falls to Checkpoint
How I ever got out of bed I will never know. Had I been wilderness (or free) camping I would have stayed and slept in my tent the whole day long. I finally merged at 12 pm feeling very sore and exhausted. After breakfast and breaking down camp I went to check out and photograph the falls.
Coral Falls was nice enough but Sambaa Deh Falls was pretty amazing. It was 2:30 by the time I was moving west down the highway. Though I was hurting pretty bad when I got up this morning my body adjusted pretty quickly to life on the road and away I went. The gravel wasn’t too bad and pretty flat. Nothing spectacular was seen for the rest of the day. The weather was great, sunny, hot and no rain. I never really had to fight any wind either.
I rode 90 km’s to Checkpoint. There are no services here and am
camped where the highway crosses a river. This is also at the beginning of the Liard Trail Highway and the END of the Mackenzie Highway. The Mackenzie Highway is 785 km’s that I finished start to end. At some point things get a little scenic along the Liard Trail which will be a bit of a nice change. I will also be back in bison country.
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