Out of the North; south on the Dempster

Trying a quick update here in Dawson while waiting for a tour, and then later...

1:00 AM at Gwich'in Territorial Park

Last night above the Arctic Circle

Having had two flat tires on the way out to Inuvik, I was nervous about the return trip, but there is nothing to be done except be as prepared as possible and trust in my equipment. Plan "B" is that I know how to change to the spare, now, so am confident that I can get out of at least one flat. Plan "C" (if I have a flat, change to the spare, and then get ANOTHER before making it to get repaired) is to try to get a ride with someone with one of the flats on board and bring it back. Painful, but necessary.

I know know why they say to have "at least one" spare for this road.

I drove about an hour out of Inuvik to the last territorial park before really getting to the outback. There was a pretty lake here, and I had the thought that I might take the kayak out in the morning.

However, the mosquitoes were terrible (again), so I declined, counting the days that I have before Adaka, and trying to figure out what I wanted to do before that. AND counting in time for the unexpected.

So it was back to Dawson City. Mission: getting some porcupine quills!

Crossing the Peel River on the ferry

Long drive on the Dempster

The initial drive to Ft. MacPherson is not really all that interesting, unless you're really excited by stunted black spruce, bogs, lakes and very, very flat scenery. There are the two ferry crossings (first across the Mackenzie and the second across the Peel River. No waiting. I crossed the Peel with an RV and a truck driver towing a trailer with a bobcat. I'd be leap-frogging with them all day.

Ptarmigan, in summer plumage

By Ft. McPherson, I was glad to make every kilometer. Didn't need gas here, so pressed on toward Eagle Plains.

As I made my way into the Richardson Mountains, the scenery was beautiful, but the air was smoky and hazy, and it soon grew quite cloudy, threatening rain, but not really materializing enough to be useful and wash the car off!

I kept my speed slow (30mph) and my eyes peeled for any wildlife, but didn't see much of anything except birds. There were a couple of ptarmigan: they are mostly in their summer plumage, although when they fly, there is a flash of white under their wings, like the arctic hares flash white on their hind legs and tails where they haven't fully grown in new fur yet. It's pretty startling to see them fly, but they are very well camouflaged when they are in the grass and brush.

Helping out

I had just made it across the Northwest Territories/Yukon border, when I saw a camper stranded by the side of the road with two fellows standing by it, looking forlorn. The elder of the two waved me down. I pulled over, and, yes, they had a flat tire on the camper.

Turns out Matthew and his father were from Switzerland for a two-week trip into the wild places of Canada and Alaska. They had rented the camper in Whitehorse, been up to Faro and Mayo, and had planned to just go as far as the NT/Yukon border before turning back and then going on the Top of the World highway into Alaska.

They did not know how to change the tire, so wanted a ride back to Eagle Plains where presumably there was a phone to contact the rental company to find out what to do. I actually wasn't sure that this was the best things to do, but was happy to offer a ride. I told them that I was a slow driver, but would be happy to take the father (who's name I didn't determine; let's call him "Franz"). Matthew would stay with the camper; he had everything he needed there.

We had a fine drive, and perhaps it was good to have a passenger along, as it took my mind off my own tires!

Franz had come out to this part of the world with his wife last year, but they had rented a car and the car company does not permit driving on the Dempster. So they took a trip with a guy who was delivering parts to Fort McPherson, and he runs tourists on the Dempster as a sideline business. A great 2-for-1! Franz was so impressed with the land, that this year, he left his ailing wife at home, and came with his son.

We had an uneventful drive amid pattering rain. It was nice to have a spotter for wildlife, but the only thing we found was a bush that looked like a bear. I can't tell you how many things I've mistaken for bears: garbage bags, charred tree stumps, shadows, bushes. It's a clue if they move, but sometimes it can be deceiving when you're moving as well.

I dropped Franz off at the Eagle Plains Hotel (where he had started from in the morning), and presumably he figured things out from there. I didn't wait.

Got gassed up and told the mechanic there the story of the tire that he'd fixed not more than a week before. I'm not sure that he remembered me, but N0MAD is pretty hard to forget.

The gas station area was a mud pit. It really brings home what spring must be like in these parts, and what people had to deal with before paved roads and streets. The rock here is limestone, dolomite, shale and some sandstone, and it breaks down to very fine, slick mud; the kind that's called "slip" when doing ceramics. 'Nuf said!

Richardson Mountains

Oh no!!

Got on my merry way shortly thereafter, and hadn't gone more than 15 or 20 minutes when the "low tire pressure" indicator went on. Again.

I did NOT want to see that yellow light go on!

This time, I didn't mess around, and I stopped as soon as I possibly could where there was a flat space and an adequately wide shoulder, in case I needed to change to the spare.

I got out and looked at all the tires. They all actually looked pretty fine. MAYBE the back starboard tire looked a little low. I decided to wait and and see if was visibly getting lower (like it had the first time).

I'm beginning to think uncharitable thoughts that the good folks at Eagle Plains salted the road for 50 km in either direction with caltrops in order to get more business. But that's dumb. It's just the road.

Mosquitoes were nasty, but "only" about 7.5 on the mosquito index. It was drizzling, and cold, so that probably helped. At least there was that.

I got back in the car and considered. I had three options: (1) Change the tire now and have almost 400k to go on the spare out to Dawson City; (2) Change the tire and head back to Eagle Plains (on a Sunday, late in the day); or (3) Wait and see.

After 15 minutes, I got out and looked at the tire again. It didn't seem to be visibly deflated. I determined to make a run for it. I could always change it to the spare, but it seemed prudent to make it as far as I could with the slow leak.

It was a nerve-wracking trip. Beautiful country, but I was stopping at pre-determined points to get out and look at the tire to see how we were doing.

I made it through the Richardson Mountains.

I made it through the where the forest fire had been burning so madly the week before. The fire had been completely put out by the rain that was making the road so muddy. However, it had burned a pretty big area, and it still smelled like smoke and charred wood. As I'd observed before, there was still smoke hanging in the air.

Aftermath of the fire. The trees with their little topnots are black spruce. All the underbrush here was completely charred.

I made it to the viewpoint where I'd met the motorcycle guys. The tire was holding. The road here was REALLY slick. I was SO glad I had 4WD on the car, because even with it, the car was sliding all over the road. At the viewpoint, the bobcat guys pulled up and checked the trailer and the connections. "Whooo-eee!" one of them exclaimed. "Did you feel that?? I was sliding all over the road."
"Yeah," said the other one.
So I was glad it wasn't just me!

Elephants and bears, oh my!

I made it to the Elephant Rock viewpoint and admired the view again. Checked the tire and did not tarry. The tire was holding.

Another bear. I'm actually not sure which this is: a brown "black" bear or
a brown "brown" bear (grizzly). I was thinking it was
a brown black bear, but looking at those claws and hump,
it might be another grizzly (brown bear). I suck at bear ID.

At one point on the road, I looked ahead, and went, "Oh my! A bear! Walking TOWARD me in the car!" The bear was covering ground quickly, but seemed unhurried.

I grabbed the camera with the zoom telephoto lens, and it came so quickly that it soon filled the viewscreen. It ambled on, and went RIGHT BY the passenger side of the car. (I actually raised the camera and tried to take a picture of it as it went by, but I only got an ear.)

The back window of the car is so covered with mud and dust that I cannot see out of it at all, but when I looked in the side-view mirror, I was surprised to see that the bear was NOT ambling away down the road in the direction it had been going, but had turned around and was coming BACK TOWARD THE CAR!!

Bear number 2: definitely a black, black bear!

I did not wait to determine if it was a black bear or a brown bear, but hit the gas and left.

Not a minute later, I saw another bear, definitely a black bear this time, on the same side of the road, but off in the bushes.

I'm not sure what the two bears were doing in such close proximity to each other. They didn't seem to be aware of each other, even though they were so close.

(For what it's worth, I heard about "pizzlies" for the first time on this trip. "Pizzlies" are polar bear-grizzly hybrids. NOT a bear I would like to meet anywhere, thank you very much!)

After the bear encounters, I made it to the Ogilvie River, and admired the view. I would love to come back here. I really wanted to stop, but I wanted to not have to change a tire more. So I went on. The tire was holding.

The Ogilvie River

I made it to the tors area, and admired the view, quickly. The tire was holding.

Tors: here they look like the crenellations of a castle wall!

I made it to Engineer Creek and the campground there. I took a break to stretch and look at the tire. Quickly. Chased by swarms of mosquitoes, I retreated inside the car. At least I was foresighted enough to wear the bug hat this time. If I'd had any thought of camping there and changing the tire, the mosquitoes helped make the decision NOT to do that. The tire looked a little deflated, so I determined to keep going and make it quick.

I made it up to the gyrfalcon nest and Windy Pass, where the caribou cross into new grazing grounds. I did not stop.

I made it to into Tombstone Territorial Park, past Two Moose Lake and the Blackstone River. By this time, it was about 10pm, and the low angle of the sun was lighting up the hills with that golden light that's just magic. I desperately wanted to stop and just enjoy it, but I knew that time was passing, and that the tire was slowly, ever so slowly deflating.

Tombstone Territorial Park and the Blackstone River

The problem with an idiot light is that you don't know if it's REALLY flat, or just sort of flat. So I have to be very in tune with the way N0MAD handles, and to listen for funky sounds.

The road here also became markedly worse, in fact, way worse than it had been on the way north just a few days earlier. Perhaps it was the rain. Deep potholes had opened up. Franz actually had warned me that "there was a pothole right in the middle of the road" that they had marked with an orange cone. Well, there were no orange cones, but the worst deep potholes were marked by willow branches that had been cut and placed in the holes. I guess these had the advantage that they wouldn't be blown away, or if someone ran over them they would just bend. Plus: organic and recyclable, AND they really get your attention! One does not expect a tree in the middle of the road!

There are three tree markers in this picture: one in the exact center the others on the left, about 10:30pm

The scenery here is just awesomely beautiful, and the long sunset light

Tombstone Mountain. I'd been unable to see it last year due to clouds, or this year due to smoke; about 11:30pm.

I did make a quick foray into the Tombstone campground, where I'd stayed last week. There was space there, if I'd wanted it. I did take another look at the tire, but I only had a little over 100 km to go to Dawson City, and I figured I could probably make it, given the apparent deflation rate. Even if the tire had visibly flattened, it was still riding on the treads.

I hit the toilets, then hit the gas.

Fortunately, the 75 km between Tombstone campground and the Alaska Highway (paved) was fair to good, with far fewer of the potholes that had slowed me down earlier. I did not keep to my 40-50-60km/hour that I previously, but was hitting 70-80km/hour. Still not wanting to go super fast, with the washboard road and lousy tire, in case it blew catastrophically.

I made it to the Alaska Highway, and was very glad for a paved road. The added bonus was that there was the best "sunset" that I've seen since being here in the north. And seeing the Klondike again was like coming home.

Sunset, 1 AM.

In Dawson, I found a station that had air, filled the tire to recommended pressure, and bedded down for the night.

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BONUS! I had a request for a map, so we are trying something new. Please let me know if this is useful!