email from: March 31, 2005

This is the question people ask me the most and this is how it happened. 3 years ago, i was reading a newspaper format motorcycle magazine. The article was about 2 guys from the West Coast who, that summer, wanted to drink a beer as North of the continent as they could and it was Inuvik. They describe their trip through the Dempster highway and makes sure that they went to the bar located North of the city of Inuvik when they get there to drink their beer. That was all, i was interested like always when i see an off-road, it can only lead to somewhere special and the Dempster Highway is 500 miles long... so i pick-up a map of the area and was surprised to see that from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk there was a "seasonal road" and from my New York City home, i could not figure out what means "seasonal road". it took me a couple of weeks to find a new map which indicates me that the "seasonal" stand for "winter Ice Road" and that was it!!! My decision was made at that precise second. The 120 miles road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk is only open during the winter because you drive on the frozen Mackenzie River and on the frozen Beaufort Sea! For me, it was just basic common sense, when i am riding in a country i don't know, i first buy a local map and search for the dotted lines on it. This is usually out of the tourist area and this is where you meet the true local people. And this is how i find my destiny!

What really surprises me is that so far, we found only Phil Funnell (March.1979), the ex-Vancouver, BC BMW dealer, who have been the only motorcyclist (on a solo bike) to do the Dempster Highway in the past. This is weird to me, and I would encourage anybody thinking about it, to do it.... in this timeless land, I felt smaller and smaller and this is a majestic experience!

Hubert