Eagle Plains to Inuvik - Wednesday August 31, 2011

How's this for Mud?

Well I guess it was inevitable that some "less-than- stellar" weather was going to catch up to us! We have been living a charmed life on that score now for 20 straight days and like all runs-of-luck, they run out at the most critical moments. (i.e., when you happen to be on the most challenging part of the Dempster Highway).

After a not so great breakfast at the Eagle Plains lodge (the cook obviously had no idea how to poach eggs) we packed up yet again and hit a wet and very slick road with a consistency of hot fudge. Glad we have 4 wheel drive! Off course, like most public works organizations that supposedly operate in the best interests of the travelling public, the local highway maintenance crew was out plowing up the wet road just outside of Eagle Plains and making it worse.

"Aortic Cat"

Fifty-three kms to the Arctic circle carefully climbing into the Richardson Mountains as we went. We arrived there without incident and were welcomed by a break in the clouds.

And the fall scenery was as usual, "Amazing".










We met Karen and Marvin at the Arctic Circle pull-off. They were expertly changing a flat tire on their twin axle trailer when we arrived and were on their way home to Inuvik after being on holidays for six weeks. I had been wondering how people with large rigs handled flats and Karen (who has a class 1 truckers license) showed us a trick whereby you run the inflated tire on the side of the trailer with the flat up onto a block of wood just high enough so that the flat tire clears the ground and then place a jack under the axle carrying the flat tire and away you go!

While we were admiring the view, Tony from Germany showed up on his motor cycle covered in mud and obviously having the time of his life sliding around on the road behind us. (Crazy!!).

We all left the pull-off together with Karen and Marvin in the lead ( let the experienced drivers show the way). About a mile later we saw them pull over and bail out of their vehicle, Karen with camera in hand and Marvin climbing the ladder to the roof of their trailer. Unfortunately we arrived too late to glimpse the two grizzlies Karen managed to photograph disappearing over a nearby ridge.  Clearly their willingness to leap out of their vehicle meant that these people do not see grizzlies as being a threat to life and limb. This was confirmed when Karen related that she had won a photo contest a couple of years ago with a picture of a grizzly feeding off a dead caribou a mere twenty feet away from her. (Crazy!!).

The road meandered up into the clouds until we reached the Yukon/NWT boarder, at which point we began our decent, through what was now a dense fog, into the Mackenzie Delta where the weather (according to Karen) was beautiful.

As we traveled down hill (slowly at first) the visibility and the road began to improve until we emerged at the first of two ferries that cross the winding Mackenzie river just south of Fort McPherson.  As you can see from the following picture this cable ferry is little more than a landing craft with a gate that drops onto the available dirt embankment.  The captain has to frequently maneuver the boat into position depending on the type of vehicle attempting to board. In our case we had to be very careful and attentive to the position of our trailer hitch as we boarded and disembarked (still managed to drag the hitch foot on the ground, fortunately with no damage).

 

After a quick lunch at the brand new but unmanned travel information centre on the other side, we headed off to the second ferry some 57kms further north at  a pretty town named Tsiighetchic (pronounced siga-chick).

Tsiighetchic

According to a young member of the road maintenance crew who accompanied us across the river on the ferry, Tsiighetchic is a "dry town" (i.e., no booze). I later learned from a communicative seven year old in Inuvik, that this really meant that there was no liquor store in town. She (Brittany) was from  Tsiighetchic and was staying in Inuvik with relatives while her dad was trying to "sober up"! Tough stuff for a seven year old to give voice to.

The 122 km road from Tsiighetchic to Inuvik, through the delta, was well used, well maintained, straight, flat and boring. Known as "rabbit alley" because of the many arctic hares seen along the way, the road was good enough to allow speeds of up to 90km/hr. (my speed, everyone else flies along at 120kms or more). At this point after almost 9 hours on the road (counting wait time at the ferries) we were happy to make the final reckless "dash" to our final destination.

The scenery perks up a bit as we approached Inuvik and the fall colours (to the extent that they exist up here, mostly yellow) were on the verge of being at their best.

We finally moved on to paved road at the point where the Dempster intersects with the turn-off to the Inuvik airport. After a few yards I was wishing we were back on the gravel road as this portion of the highway was in immediate need of repair as it heaved and turned like a roller coaster making the trailer hitch groan despite the road's smooth appearance.

But we had made it!

Welcome home to Inuvik.

Tombstone to Eagle Plains - August 30, 2011

Even though we were camped in a valley along a fast running stream bed the sun did not disappear behind the surrounding mountains until well after 9:00Pm. It was after midnight before things started to get dark in the tent. With the loss of sunlight the temperature began to plummet. By morning there was a hard frost covering everything and the surface of our tent (despite a good fly) was soaked by the condensation created by the cold outside and the relatively warm bodies inside. When this happens you have to be careful not to touch the tent ceiling when exiting to answer the somewhat painful call of nature (brought on by an unwillingness to leave the warmth of one's sleeping bag) as the surface tension created by the waterproofing on the outside surface of the tent is broken and you suddenly spring a leak.  This normally happens when you first wake up in a semi-comatose condition having forgotten where you are and you stretch arms on high and oops, touch the tent right over your head and the Chinese water torture begins.

Marci and I suddenly realized that if we were cold in the tent then Lucy, housed in a metal container called a car, was probably even colder. Despite my resistance to the physical pain I had tolerated for at least an hour, concern for  Lucy was sufficient motivation to extricate my body out of my bag as quickly as possible. This well intentioned and selfless move was severely hampered by a painful leg cramp that forced a delay in the action as I threw myself back onto my air mattress, cramped leg straight up in the air (oops touched the tent!) gritting my teeth and trying to remain civil at the same time (lots of people in the camp ground at close proximity and sound carries in a canyon).

When I retrieved Lucy out of the car and held her to my chest for warmth she was trembling, whether it was from the cold or my somewhat rapid and aggressive, quick-unlock-the-car-and-grab-the-cat, attitude I'm not sure. I think it was the former as she stayed curled up with Marci in her sleeping bag until it was time to get a move on about an hour later.

As soon as the sun cleared the hill to the east of us its warmth quickly melted the frost on every thing including cold grumpy me. you can't stay unhappy for too long in a place like this.

The sodden tent and fly folded into a plastic (Canadian Tire, not Walmart) tote to be dried out later, a quick breakfast of cereal, fruit and yogurt, and we were off to our next stop at Eagle Plains some 300kms away.

The day started off well weather wise but on our arrival at Ogilvie Ridge we could see showers beginning to develop. Not good as one experienced Dempster traveller told me later, "I would rather eat dust all day than drive through slick Dempster mud."

Well we only had to endure a few harmless spits before reaching Eagle Plains 107kms further on, for which we were grateful as the road took a turn for the worse and became significantly more difficult to negotiate because of areas of sharp rocks protruding out of the crown of the road which could easily cause major tire damage especially to the trailer if we did not significantly reduce our speed and increase our collective focus on the road rather than the scenery. This was unfortunate because this part of the road runs along a high ridge all the way to Eagle Plains which affords  spectacular views like this.















Seven hours to cover 300kms, average speed 43kms/hr, with a few less photo ops maybe we could have upped it to 50kms/hr but not much more. We arrived at Eagle Plains around 5:00pm just as a significant downpour was about to arrive. According to the folks working here, it has been raining all summer, very strange for a normally semi-arid environment.

Fuel Tanks- Gasoline, Diesel, Heating & Avgas

For those that are interested in plying the Dempster the following interview on YouTube of the person  in charge (whom we met) is very informative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YubRZCO3tk

Our only complaint with the accommodation at Eagle Plains was that the heat is always on. When we opened the door to our room we were met with a blast of hot air reminiscent of all the "hot air" in Toronto.

After supper the rain came in earnest! Looks like we won't be eating dust tomorrow!!!

Good Bye Dawson City Hello Tombstone - Monday August 29, 2011

After picking up a few groceries and enjoying a great breakfast at the Triple J Hotel, Marci, Lucy and I (might as well admit to the fact that the Cat forms an integral and identifiable member of our expedition) headed up to the top of Dome Mountain to enjoy the "recommended-by-everyone" view. It was a beautiful morning as we coaxed the toyota and trailer up the steep and seemingly endless climb to the summit. as you can see the trip was worth it!

The next stop was the "last chance" ($1.77 /litre) gas station at the start of the Dempster Highway some 40km back down the Klondike Highway from Dawson City. $94.00 to top up the tank and fill our 20litre spare tank. The next gas is 370Kms up the Dempster at Eagle Plains. Road conditions and several long climbs through two mountain ranges dictate the need for extra gas especially when towing a trailer. 

Our plan was to spend two and a half days driving the 700Kms to Inuvik. Our first destination was Tombstone Territorial Park only 70Km up the road. We arrived at the interprtive centre at around 3:30pm on Tuesday. The centre was established two years ago at an old gravel pit used to source material for the highway.

After finding a campsite into which I was capable of successfully backing up the trailer, we set up camp.

The next task was getting the cook stove going and preparing supper, vegitables and cooked hamburger over rice noodles.

Then finally to enjoy the results in an idealic setting.

And an after-dinner walk in paradise!

Before retiring for the evening we locked all food and other "consumbles" in the trailer and bedded Lucy down in the car with her food, water and private commode lest she too attract the attention of possible night-time merauders looking for an easy meal. 

So ended our first and easiest day on the Dempster. The real fun was yet to come on our way to Eagle Plains.