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Dutch Girl Cycling the Artic Circle

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Dutch Girl Cycling the Artic Circle

Old 12-10-15, 10:02 AM
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Dutch Girl Cycling the Arctic Circle

This is pretty rad, and there are some nice shots too. Doesn't seem like English is her first language, but still, it's decently written.

The Dempster Delights | Cycling Dutch Girl
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Old 12-10-15, 11:44 AM
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It looks like she rode that on Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires. I use those in winter and I can say that they have a lot of rolling resistance. I am glad I did not go there that time of year. I have winter camped when it was colder than minus 30 F (she only cited minus 20, not sure if C or F), so I know just how cold that kind of travel can be. You need a lot of calories to survive. I have seen some other stuff she has posted on the internet before on other trips. Very impressive.

Are those Magura hydraulic rim brakes?

Last edited by Tourist in MSN; 12-10-15 at 12:02 PM.
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Old 12-11-15, 10:36 AM
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boy that is daunting. I live in Canada where I am out in -20 to -30c sometimes, but cycling in winter.....makes me shiver just thinking about it.
This doesnt even touch on the whole issue of the margin for error being really high. The risks of something like a stupid little fall and busting your wrist would have serious implications in such a remote area. A friend of mine many years ago had a walking pace fall off her bike here in Montreal, put her arm out the wrong way and badly dislocated her shoulder--so thats the sort of thing that I think of when I see (especially solo) travellers going into remote areas.

hats off to this Dutch lady. One tough cookie.

Im surprised that she doesnt appear to use ski googles. Maybe she has a pair and in the photos it wasnt cold enough for them, but googles really do help in blowing snow and for keeping cold off that part of your face to an extent.

Last edited by djb; 12-11-15 at 10:40 AM.
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Old 12-11-15, 10:58 AM
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Dutch/Nederlanders, tend to be well spoken in Multiple languages ..

another Girl 'Dutch' solo sailed around the world as a Teenager (14)

Maidentrip: Laura Dekker Sails Around World in Documentary .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Dekker
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Old 12-11-15, 03:22 PM
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Yeah, sailing made sense.
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Old 12-11-15, 03:34 PM
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Any idea why when I go to a site like that it freezes up Firefox as though I was on dial-up? What cash do I need to adjust, or whatever?
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Old 12-11-15, 04:10 PM
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That is a very tough young woman, I predict that we hear of her again. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 12-11-15, 04:22 PM
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Originally Posted by Sheik24
This is pretty rad, and there are some nice shots too. Doesn't seem like English is her first language, but still, it's decently written.

The Dempster Delights | Cycling Dutch Girl
I am friends with her on facebook aka: Mirjam Wouters
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Old 12-11-15, 04:42 PM
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Very neat. Maybe the ultralight touring club will show up and say she's doing it all wrong, .

Just kidding. This is a fun blog.
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Old 12-11-15, 05:26 PM
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I found one of her contact cards in a cabin on the Haines Hwy. Following her blog ever since... she does a good job of it.
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Old 12-11-15, 06:12 PM
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Originally Posted by bikemig
Very neat. Maybe the ultralight touring club will show up and say she's doing it all wrong, .

Just kidding. This is a fun blog.
I was just going to say, this is definitely one type of touring where not going ultralight is the way to go!

Looks like a fun trip.

Last edited by Salamandrine; 12-12-15 at 10:33 AM.
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Old 12-11-15, 07:02 PM
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In describing this tour to a cycling and fellow winter sports enthusiast, we both had the same opinion that she was lucky. All it would take is a fall on the ice, break a wrist and you're dead. You can't place weight on the arm, you are riding (if at all) single handed in major pain, setting up camp is near impossible, you are hoping for help to come along in an area where help isn't just coming along, etc.... or any similar accident or equipment failure.

But really no different then skiing to the South Pole solo or some such, though possibly that's a bit safer as there's typically a support network on that kind of endeavor.

This is one seemed a bit too under the radar, especially given the remote and somewhat non-descript location, to make me comfortable with the idea.
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Old 12-11-15, 07:34 PM
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When I was there, I averaged 10-15 falls per day which werent that bad. After a while you learn to land better.
There was also traffic (at least 5-10 vehicles per day) so getting stranded wasnt an issue.

That being said, I heard of a japanese cyclist doing that in early march... brr.
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Old 12-11-15, 08:03 PM
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Originally Posted by mobile_simon
I found one of her contact cards in a cabin on the Haines Hwy. Following her blog ever since... she does a good job of it.
Curious...was this the cabin?

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Old 12-11-15, 11:25 PM
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Originally Posted by MassiveD
Any idea why when I go to a site like that it freezes up Firefox as though I was on dial-up? What cash do I need to adjust, or whatever?
cant be certain, but I suspect that its simply that its a really heavy site, lots of photos to load as well as the vids. Our internet speed got boosted last year and despite this, when I went to this site is was pretty slow loading, thats why I suspect this may be the issue.
Clearing the cache of firefox may help with the computer and firefox in general, just as having as much ram as you can in daily operation helps with stuff, but if your computer is nearly full, and you hardly ever turn off or restart your cmputer, then it may just be the heavy photo site aspect of it.
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Old 12-12-15, 01:08 AM
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Awesome but it's not surprising that a Dutch woman does this trek. On visits to Netherlands I've seen vast # of folks venture out on bike or foot in the coldest weather, even if raining or snowing. On a sub-freezing windy Saturday morning there were grandmothers riding their bikes, families munching on fries & folks sitting at outdoor cafes.
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Old 12-12-15, 04:29 AM
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Originally Posted by BigAura
Curious...was this the cabin?
Yes that is the one. Very nice road to bike on.
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Old 12-12-15, 07:33 AM
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Originally Posted by Lightingguy
In describing this tour to a cycling and fellow winter sports enthusiast, we both had the same opinion that she was lucky. All it would take is a fall on the ice, break a wrist and you're dead. You can't place weight on the arm, you are riding (if at all) single handed in major pain, setting up camp is near impossible, you are hoping for help to come along in an area where help isn't just coming along, etc.... or any similar accident or equipment failure. ....
I can tell you from experience that cross country skiing with a backpack while winter camping, or snowshoeing with a backpack, that when I fell the ground was a lot softer in winter than it is in summer. I do not mean to say that it is risk free, there certainly are risks. But when you are essentially wearing a padded suit, that reduces your risk. The bigger risk is if your stove has a problem in an area without firewood. My winter sleeping bag was made with two zippers, in case one failed.

If it is below zero, it can be hard to do anything with your hands because there are a lot of things in the campsite that are very hard to do with gloves or mittens, stuffing a sleeping bag into a stuff sack, or getting a liquid fuel stove lit, or mixing up your one pot meal, or simply using a recalcitrant zipper. You can't take your gloves or mittens off very long.

A sleeping bag if used without a VBL can accumulate a lot of moisture during extended winter camping. When Steger and Schurke and others went to the north pole by dog sled, some of their sleeping bags weighed 40 pounds from the accumulated moisture. But that was a few months of sub-freezing camping, so that was a bit extreme.

I do not bike tour in the winter. Maybe if I was in my twenties, I would try it. But I am too old for that sort of thing. My winter biking is within 20 miles of home.
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Old 12-12-15, 09:06 AM
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Originally Posted by bikemig
Very neat. Maybe the ultralight touring club will show up and say she's doing it all wrong, .

Just kidding. This is a fun blog.
There's no such thing as ultralight during the winter. I was actually impressed with the smaller size of all her gear. Maybe she is UL. She's doing it safe and comfortable.
Packing heavy for a summer tour is a whole different thing.
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Old 12-12-15, 09:12 AM
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Originally Posted by Squeezebox
There's no such thing as ultralight during the winter. I was actually impressed with the smaller size of all her gear. Maybe she is UL. She's doing it safe and comfortable.
Packing heavy for a summer tour is a whole different thing.
You might want to actually read my post before hitting reply.

I know that's a radical thought . . .

Last edited by bikemig; 12-12-15 at 01:20 PM.
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Old 12-12-15, 12:52 PM
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Originally Posted by djb
cant be certain, but I suspect that its simply that its a really heavy site, lots of photos to load as well as the vids.
The part I find odd is I used to have this kind of trouble downloading picture intense sites when the download speed was around 4 kbs. Now I have 700kbs or more, can download movie sized files in no time, but I can't get a site like this with a few meg of pics to load? I bet if I saved it, then opened it, it would be no problem.
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Old 12-12-15, 01:19 PM
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I was ski camping when it was minus 50 c, and it wasn't that bad. We were only out 3 days, and had wonderful dry and fairly windless weather. We went out for a night ski wearing just goretex shells and underwear on top, and were hot. You could see static on the skis. But on a bike, in the open, in all kinds of weather, it might not be very kind.

Actually I got frost bite on my ears that time. I kept falling into the snow. I was a really good skier at that point, but there were lots of ups and downs, and I somehow got the idea for a few of these hills that I should lean forward to compensate for the pack. So I face planted a few times, till I got my mind sorted out. But apparently some powder froze onto my earlobes, and nobody bothered to mention it... Small things can make a big difference.
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Old 12-12-15, 02:12 PM
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Originally Posted by MassiveD
The part I find odd is I used to have this kind of trouble downloading picture intense sites when the download speed was around 4 kbs. Now I have 700kbs or more, can download movie sized files in no time, but I can't get a site like this with a few meg of pics to load? I bet if I saved it, then opened it, it would be no problem.
I think Firefox is much bigger and cumbersome than it used to be. I also run Chrome sometimes, maybe try Chrome?

If you are on a Windows system, do the control/alt/delete keys thing, select task manager, use the processes tab. THen watch your memory load on Firefox, my Firefox usually gets bogged down when I am over 650 or 700 MB.

I am running a new computer, but at $120 it has minimal memory and processor power. I only run one or two programs at a time to avoid it getting too klutzy.

You used to be able to tell your browser whether or not to load other links when it loads the page, but I did not see that in the options list in Firefox. If it is trying to load the videos when it loads, that could make it kind of slow.
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Old 12-12-15, 08:24 PM
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Mind that what I think she did was amazing and took a lot of guts to accomplish.

I spent a lot of my younger years ski and snowshoe camping in the Adirondaks and White Mountains of NH, so am familiar with the issues of surviving in extreme cold and snow. So this was a remarkable trip and I thouroughly enjoyed the blog.

I wonder if she's aware of the cross Labrador Highway. 500 miles ?. Better in winter then summer as the bugs are ferocious.
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Old 12-12-15, 09:07 PM
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Originally Posted by bikemig
Very neat. Maybe the ultralight touring club will show up and say she's doing it all wrong, .

Just kidding. This is a fun blog.

Oh, for pete's sake! Going ultralight does not mean going unprepared! I'd have 40+ pounds of stuff if I was ice-road touring in the Arctic Circle! A -40º sleeping bag, a parka, down pants, snowboots, expedition mitts, ski goggles, a fatbike, days of food and plenty of water, a full size snow boiling pot... That is ultralight for the conditions, if you ask me.

Nevermind... I'm talking to a brick wall... May I forever be associated with a scantily-clad nomad desperately shivering on the side of the road next to an unfixable flat tire.
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