Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Apr 09/99) - Many Inuvik residents have a strong affection for the Dempster Highway and a vision for it to eventually extend to Tuktoyaktuk, but few would go to the lengths of three southern cyclists to commemorate its 20th anniversary.

Ray Schmidt, 23, Gary Pluim, 28, and Brent Curry, 25, started their cycling marathon in Dawson City, Yukon, on March 17 and, 917 kilometres later, rolled into Tuktoyaktuk on April 1.

"I was thinking of different trips to do and thought a winter trip would be really neat to do on the Dempster because it's just a different world in the winter and because you can ride from Inuvik to Tuk on the ice road," Schmidt says of his decision to join long-time friend Curry and fellow cycler and traveller, Pluim.

"We all love to bike. A lot of our lives have been dedicated to biking."

The trio, who refer to themselves as the Roads to Resources cycling team, used bikes with metal-studded tires for traction, carried camping gear on their bikes and wore insulated platypus packs on their backs to keep water from freezing.

What kind of reaction did they get as they passed through area hamlets?

"A lot of people think we're crazy," says Schmidt, who once spent a winter living and trapping with an elder in a remote cabin near Watson Lake, Yukon.

"But I think that's pretty natural. I think even in the summertime people would say that."

Pluim says he will remember the trip as having three phases: the mountainous Yukon part, the flatter NWT stretch passing through Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic before getting to Inuvik, and the ice road stretch.

"We were going for about 60 kilometres a day. That was our goal," says Pluim, who will stay in Tuk for at least the next couple months teaching social studies at Mangilaluk school.

Aside from the thrill of reaching the symbolic landmark of the NWT border, Pluim says he will remember camping off the ice road and hearing ice cracking as 18-wheel trucks thundered past.

"I knew the ice wasn't going to break, but still, just hearing the cracking noise was a bit scary."

Curry, who has previously cycled solo in the Arctic from the North Cape of Norway to Oslo, says one of the trip's highlights was arriving in Inuvik.

After a punishing day, pedalling through -30 C temperatures and having camped for two nights after Tsiigehtchic, it was a welcome relief to stay at the Mackenzie Hotel for creature comforts such as a warm shower, he says.