INUVIK
A weary long-distance cyclist has likely seen enough of the Dempster Highway and the Mackenzie Delta to hold him for a while.

Long-distance cyclist Greg Van Tighem finished his fundraising ride for multiple sclerosis up the Dempster Highway on April 11. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

The spring and summer adventuring season got off to an early start in Inuvik as Greg Van Tighem pulled off the Dempster on April 11 before pedalling his "fat bike" off downriver to Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic coastline over the weekend.

He began his ride to raise funds for multiple sclerosis (MS) research two weeks earlier in Dawson, Yukon.

Van Tighem, whose brother Gord was once the mayor of Yellowknife, has made several fundraising cycling trips to raise money for MS research before, but he said this was likely his toughest journey.

Those trips have included runs from the Haida Gwaii islands on the British Columbia coast to Winnipeg, and from Arizona to Alberta.

It's part of what he calls his "End-to-End to End MS" campaign for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. He's an ambassador for the group.

He made the decision to ride the Dempster in an offbeat manner. At a speaking engagement, he said someone asked him where he would ride next, and he asked the audience members to give him suggestions.

Later, one of those suggestions turned out to be riding the Dempster Highway in the winter, and he picked it for the challenge, along with a family connection to the NWT.

At a 1,000 or so kilometres, the distance wasn't nearly as long as his earlier rides, but the Dempster proved to be a punishing challenge for him.

"This was likely my toughest ride," Van Tighem acknowledged readily.

He delayed the trip until late March and early April specifically to maximize his chances of avoiding bad weather, but that well-founded plan hit more than a few glitches.

He was delayed at Eagle Plains for two days due to the ongoing highway closures, and spent two nights at the Arctic Circle marker huddling in a stranded transport truck in the parking lot.

The drifts were so large he couldn't get through them, and the wind, he was told later, gusted as high as 150 km/h.

He camped in many spots along the way. He said the cold, while not extreme, wasn't much of a bother except in the evenings when he set up camp and the mornings when he packed up.

At one camping spot, he said his site was over-run with voles tunnelling under his tent. A flying squirrel landed on it as he tried to ignore them.

Luckily, the weather settled down somewhat after that and he began to make better time.

During his involuntary stay, he met several people from Inuvik and the Delta stranded like he was, particularly on the Easter weekend.

While he was dazzled by the scenery in the area, Van Tighem said he sometimes found the ride "monotonous."

"Some days it seemed like I was staring at the same landmarks for hours and not getting any closer," he said with a half-grimace.

Other than the weather, his biggest problem was keeping hydrated. He would start off his morning rides with water he had melted, but it would freeze before the end of the day.

He also received periodic welcome assistance from passing motorists. Some stopped and offered him water. Others offered food, including one truck driver who made him two bologna sandwiches.

"I wolfed them down," he said with a smile.

Another truck driver, whose name Van Tighem didn't remember, regaled him with stories of Inuvik. That man, Van Tighem said, used to run a bakery in town in the 1970s before turning to the trucking business.

He estimated he had raised about $10,000 during this trip.

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