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!!!