We hit on out of Dawson, rode the 25 miles to the Dempster’s entrance, snapped some photos, steeled ourselves with a few one-liner comments, and headed on over the bridge, the veritable Rubicon. 
The first mile is deceivingly paved. Once you crest that first hill, you start getting an idea of what the Dempster holds in store for you.
Here’s an idea of what much of the road looks like:
It’s a 460 mile dirt and gravel “all weather road” that appears to have been paved back in the 60’s or 70’s and never repaved since. In lieu of repaving, they have been grinding and grading layers of dirt and gravel into the roadbed.
The road is 1-2 meters above the ground, sometimes much higher, with NO shoulder or guardrails. You slip on that ball-bearing like gravel, you are just gone. Bye Bye. Better ride with a buddy, because noone will ever see your bike in some of those trenches, 4-7 meters down, or further. It’s built up so avoid impinging upon the permafrost. Impact the permafrost, the road will sink. Simple.
What’s really really fun on the Dempster? Riding with the large trucks. Oncoming trucks kick up a dust storm in their wake, completely blinding drivers behind the truck AND drivers approaching the other direction and heading into the dust cloud. Now that is FUN. I almost died twice, I mean DEAD, died. Spotted oncoming tractor trailers in a split second of time. Angels were watching over me. Thank you Mike Siano, Rae Holliday, Judith Hosseini, and Alan Katz. I am sure you all had a lot to do with those Angels that were vigilantly looking after my safety. On that note, I had tons and tons of Providence moments on the trip. Won’t go into to it, but I knew I was on the Right Course all the time, even when others worried about me.
So, the Dempster is dangerous, and something to be taken VERY seriously. New riders should not even consider riding it. You will get hurt. Your bike will get all dented and scratched, and you will probably try to sue someone since you could not possibly take responsibility for not doing your homework on a epic road like the Dempster. It’s one thing in a car with rugged tires. There’s a reason we call car drivers Cagers. You are safe in a cage. Balancing a 700-850 lb bike at 50-70mph on gravel? That’s a whole other ball game.
I hope you got some shots of the edges you were talking about. You are certainly in prayers of those who care!
I scoured the photos, and didnt see any good ones, but I am sure they are in the video footage. I need a new and improved computer when I return home to comb thru all of this without it taking a million years.