Alaskan Adventures

After leaving Dawson City, we headed for Alaska. We travelled up three different fjords to three different areas in Alaska. The first was Haines, Alaska. That was where we saw our first grizzly bear. There was a creek where the bears would come to fish for salmon; however, there was a salmon derby on and lots of fishermen. Unfortunately, there were no bears in the creek, but we saw one in the lake around the corner. We watched it fish for a bit, then it made its way along the road to the river where the fishermen were! We were happy we were in the truck. The Eagle Plains were incredible to see. We saw dozens of Bald Eagles fishing and perching along the river. It was so different to see so many eagles in the same area. It was pouring down rain, which was pretty typical weather in this area. It had been raining for 8 days and was calling for rain for the next two weeks. 

The landscape was quite different along the routes to Alaska too. You could tell it was more like a rainforest the closer we got to Alaska. The trees were much greener and had not yet started to turn into their fall colours. We were a little late visiting these northern communities. Many of the stores and restaurants had closed for the season, or it was their last day. We were recommended to have halibut and chips at the Bamboo Room, an old-style diner. Unfortunately, it was closed for maintenance, and there weren’t really any other restaurants open in town, so we headed back towards Whitehorse and ate at 33 Mile Diner. It was an old log cabin, and Mark was eager to try the homemade pie.

We also travelled to Skagway, Alaska. It was a port town where all of the cruise ships visited. You could tell this was a busier town catering to cruisers. We checked out the Red Onion Saloon and poked around in the tourist shops. We visited the train station and saw the White Pass train. We had dinner at the brewery, and it too was the only restaurant in town open. The cruise ships pulled out at 8:00 pm, and all of the shopkeepers closed up quickly as soon as the travellers started to make their way back to the ships. They see around 12,000 people a day, and cruise ships arrive every day. We tried fry bread, which was kind of like an elephant ear.

On the way to Skagway, we stopped in Carcross and saw the smallest desert. A lot of the cruisers will take buses inland to Canada to visit Carcross. We met a couple from London, ON, running the local bakery and had a nice chat with them. They were returning home shortly. Many of the people in these northern towns and villages make a living in the north for the summer season, then travel or return home during the harsher winters. The couple running the bakery said that they are so busy they need to take a few months off to recuperate for the next season (sounds like teachers). 

The last place in Alaska we visited was Hayden, Tongass National Park, north of Stewart, B.C. This was another spot popular for seeing both Grizzly and Black bears. There was a very long, closed-in boardwalk along the river where you could observe the bear safely. Again, we were just a week or two late, but enjoyed seeing the Bald eagles again. We did see two bears walking along the road, but it would have been neat to see them in the river fishing. The river edge was littered with fish bones and skin left over from the feasting bear, and we saw a few salmon nearing the end of their lives. Stewart had a few little shops open, and we had dinner at the local Mexican restaurant. It was their last day open, and they were flying back home to Mexico until May. 

We have camped at some beautiful campsites in the Yukon, and both Mark and I were so impressed with how beautiful the Yukon is. It is not somewhere I had thought about visiting much prior, but we would highly recommend it. The campsites run on the honour system and are gorgeous! For $20.00, you get beautiful views, firepits and the firewood is supplied; you just have to chop it. Unfortunately, someone swiped our pin to keep the trailer attached to the truck, but as you probably expected, Mark had a spare! I seriously think he must have a spare wife stored away too. He is ready for anything!! 

Last night, we decided to boondock as we were arriving in Smithers late in the evening. In the middle of the night, we were woken to a store alarm going off. We were next to two other boondockers, all of us awake in the wee hours of the morning, expecting the police to pull up. We didn’t know whether we should get out of there or just wait things out. We stuck it out, and the alarm went off, only to start up again as soon as we had started to doze off. We didn’t see anyone get arrested, so it must have been a false alarm.  

We are now making our way south. Mark has been able to catch a few of the sports games along the way in sports bars, which has allowed me to do some writing, as the internet has been very scarce. We have been able to communicate via our Zoleo satellite to let everyone know that we haven’t been eaten by a bear. Our fridge is still working on propane, and as it turns out, we haven’t had electricity at our campsites, so we haven’t been missing the elusive part that we needed to repair it. We are in Burn’s Lake at the moment. We stopped at a farmer’s market further north and met a lovely couple selling lightweight wooden TV-like tables. We picked one up for the trailer, and it turned out she was an Olympic cross-country skier. It was neat to see the sign honouring her on the way into town. Well, I am sure the football game is almost over, which means wheels up for me! 

Mark watching the sports, and me blogging. Such a flattering photo of us both!

Dawson City

Dawson City was one of the coolest towns we had visited so far on our trip. I loved the old-fashioned style of buildings and the vibrant colours of paint. It was interesting to learn about the history, the gold mining and how wealthy this town used to be. Today, you can see remnants of the wealth, but it mainly exists as a tourist destination now. However, we did see active claims being mined as we made our way to claim number six, to do some panning for gold ourselves. Mark was very perseverant and was sure he would find gold. I, on the other hand, was chilly and decided to wait in the truck for him to strike it rich.

Mark had read about the sour toe experience, so we ventured to the hotel so he could drink whiskey that had a toe in it served by a captain. It was interesting to meet this fellow. He spent his summers in the Yukon serving the sour toe, and at other times of the year, he was an emergency on-call captain in the Philippines. 

Another must-see spot in Dawson City is the casino where the Diamond Tooth Gertie’s show was performed. We watched two different shows and were pleasantly surprised by how entertaining they were. The dancers would pose for photos after the show and come out and chat with the guests. We learned the show was only on for another week and that all of the dancers would be returning to their hometowns. The music was live, and the musicians were quite talented. The cast of the show was from all over Canada: Toronto, Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and the western provinces. Some were returning dancers, and others, this was their first time in Dawson City. 

The town had lots of interesting shops, cafés, and restaurants. We picked up some absolutely delicious muffins at Riverwest Bistro and did a little shopping for fridge magnets, which I collect on our travels. For dinner, we went to the Billy Goat restaurant, a delicious Greek and Mediterranean spot. The servings were huge, and Mark thought the calamari was fantastic. 

We camped at the Bonanza Gold RV campground. It was a great spot to leave our trailer during our Dempster Highway adventure, and it provided a car wash, laundry and showers. The car wash is the big money maker for sure, almost everyone coming off the Dempster drops $20-40 to get the grime off. Mark was no different, and even after loading the machine with loonies, the truck was still dirty! 

We will make our way back to Whitehorse and then head for Alaska next. 

Getting Off the Dempster!

Making it all the way to the Arctic Ocean and Tuktoyaktuk is an accomplishment for sure, but once you have made it there, you have to turn around and travel all the way back the way you came. That means about 17 plus hours of driving on that awful gravel road. We decided to get up early from Nunavik and make the drive in one day; we weren’t looking forward to staying another night in Eagle Plains. Everything was going smoothly for an hour or so, when the tire sensors indicated we were losing air rapidly in the back right tire. Originally, Mark thought he would have to change the tire and started to get going, loosening the lug nuts, but then thought that he would try and patch it first and see if that worked. Sure enough, it did, and I learned how to patch a tire! We inflated the tire back up and got on the road; it seemed to be holding well. 

The drive was pretty uneventful. Mark was learning the secrets to driving on the Dempster and was getting really good at dodging the big potholes, dips and washboards. We saw lots of ptamigans out and about this morning. They were not very smart birds; they just stood on the highway. Mark had to swerve around them at times. We nicknamed them the Tundra chickens, which led us to come up with T-shirt slogans that entertained us for a good hour. We also saw another wolf, but still no moose!

Ptmarigans, road conditions and an idea of the mud!

When we reached the asphalt leading into Dawson City we gave a little cheer and turned off to get our ‘after’ photos of the truck. As we finished up we looked across to the gas station and there were our young friends in the “landrover” that we had seen at the beginning of our trip! They were changing a tire AND it wasn’t on the car but the van! That little Mitsubishi had made it all the way to the Arctic Ocean and back without any trouble, we were amazed! And for the record, Mark did not have to help them one bit! We had a visit and shared stories about our travels and planned to get together for some traditional Hong Kong food when we made it to Richmond B.C. I can’t wait!! What a great bunch of kids!

The bottom left is the caked on mud on the running board of the truck,
look how deep my foot print is!

In the end, it turned out we had two punctures in our tire. We visited our friend at the Napa dealership who fixed it up for a reasonable price before our trip to Whitehorse. 

The Dempster Highway to Tuktoyaktuk NWT - We did it!!

 We had heard the trip from Whitehorse to Dawson City should be pretty smooth travelling except for some gravel sections of the highway and some potholes. We were advised to take our time and watch out for the orange flags and signage indicating bumps and potholes. We made out pretty well, only hitting one big pothole that jarred us pretty badly. Mark had pressure sensors on all the tires, and we held our breath as he checked the readings. Everything was stable. We knew this trip might take out a tire or two. We had two spares for the truck and two for the trailer. 

Based on conversations and the experiences of other travellers, we decided to leave our trailer behind in Dawson City and make the way up the Dempster Highway with just the truck and our two spare tires, of course! We stopped into the Napa Auto Parts store prior to leaving and got the name of the tow truck guy, just in case we ran into any trouble. 

Here we go!!

We chatted with a couple that had come back yesterday, and they said it was rough going. It had rained, and the road was a mess. At times, they were travelling 20 km/hour. They also said that we would need a car wash when we got back, and they had paid $45.00 to get the caked-on, cement-like mud off the undercarriage. Oh boy… We also met a couple that had posted on Facebook about their experience. They broke their axle on their trailer and paid $6000 to have their trailer repaired and towed. Mark was questioning whether we should even go at all, but I, the adventurer and the one who has no idea about vehicle repairs and maintenance, thought differently. We were only going to drive this once, so we should try to make it to the Arctic Ocean! So we packed lots of emergency supplies, clothing, and food, leaving our trailer behind and headed off!

Bluey1 before the Dempster

We stopped to take a picture of the signpost and got a before picture of the truck… it was already pretty muddy from the trip from Whitehorse, we could only imagine what we would look like in four days! At the junction to the Dempster, we saw this vehicle!

One of the fellows we met at Liard said, “Just because you strap a spare tire and a gas can on the roof does not mean you are a Landrover!” Here we were questioning whether we should go in the truck, and these young fellows were heading out in a Mitsubishi…yikes! A ways up the highway, they sped past us. Mark said, Oh great, now we are going to have to stop and help them if they break down. 

It took us approximately 7 hours to reach Eagle Plains and the boys in the Mitsubishi arrived shortly after us. We stopped at Tombstomb for a short hike and to check out the visitor centre. We were anxious to get on the road, but we plan to try and do a few more hikes there on our return. It was quite beautiful. Other than that one stop, it was white-knuckled driving for Mark. We did get to see a wolf on the road and that was pretty cool. We saw moose tracks, too, but still no moose. 

There was lots of equipment on the road, it seemed to be under a constant state of construction.

We saw a wolf, we caputured a photo before he/she disappeared into the shrubs.

Eagle Plains had only one stop. It was a combination of a motel, campground, restaurant, lounge, gift shop and tourist information station, and it looked like it had been plucked right out of the 60’s. Everything was vintage, but it was dry and warm. We ate in the restaurant and, surprisingly, it was quite busy with tourists and a few truckers, but it certainly wasn’t earning any Michelin stars. My poutine consisted of fries, gravy and shaved marble cheese; however, the hamburger was delicious. Mark asked if I was expecting Quebec cheese curds… I guess I should have gone with plain fries. 

The Dempster Duster Highway! This was the truck bed when we arrived at Eagle Plains, and it had a Tonnaeu cover!

We woke up at 2:15 am to venture out to see the Northern Lights. We drove away from the hotel about 10 km and were rewarded with a great show. We took lots of pictures and may try to venture out again if the forecast looks good. 

We arrived in Inuvik after another 6-7-hour drive. We didn’t see any wildlife today, but we did make two ferry crossings. The road was a mix of smooth, washboard, freshly graded, wet and super dusty. All of the wet cement-like mud has now been covered in a layer of dry dust. We stayed in the Arctic Chalets, which were cute little cabins with a kitchenette. We were pleased that we had brought our own food, as after meandering around the North Mart, which kind of looked like a Walmart, we noticed the chicken breast was $42.00, a 4L gallon of milk was $18.38, and a small bag of macaroni was $9.99. It reminded us of Hawaii, without the beaches, glory and smell of Plumeria (Frangipani) in the air. We get to meet the husky pack and cuddle the 2-month old puppies, they were adorable, but definitely didn’t smell like flowers.

We never did have to help out the young kids we met from Hong Kong in the Mitsubishi; instead, they helped us to take some photos at the Arctic Circle landmark. We saw them again in Inuvik, but we were not staying at the same hotel so didn’t get to chat with then about their drive. I am sure we will see them again in Tuk.

WalmartNorthmart

Cool licence plates here!

A local artist has painted some of the satelites.

A hike at the Arctic Chalets

The church in Inuvik, known as the Igloo Church.

We explored Inuvik some more before we got on the road to Tuk today. We visited the welcome centre and the community gardens. We met Juan from Snowy Prints, who made us up some T-shirts with Indigenous artwork and gave us lots of tips about South America, as he was from Uruguay. It was a lot of the same type of road we had travelled on the past couple of days up to Tuk. The vegetation and geography changed the further north we drove, the rolling hills and mountains flattened out, and the trees got shorter and shorter until they were nonexistent. What dotted the horizon were snowmobiles and ATVs. They were just parked along the road, in fields; they looked like they had been abandoned, but I think that is just where they were stored. Many had sleds attached to them, some covered up to protect them from the elements, others not. 

When we arrived at the Arctic Ocean sign, we met a young man from Japan who had bicycled from Whitehorse. Yes! You read that correctly, he had bicycled! Here we were in Bluey1, our truck, and he had been cycling the last three weeks. What an accomplishment. We couldn’t talk him into swimming in the Arctic Ocean with us, but we did convince another traveller who was on his way out, who felt inspired. After our polar plunge, we headed to Grandma’s kitchen for some traditional food. We had caribou stew, beluga whale muktuk, dried fish, banak and fried white fish. We visited the traditional sod house and climbed a pingo before heading back to Inuvik. 

Mission accomplished! We made it to Tuktoyaktuk and swam in the Arctic Ocean. We still haven’t seen a moose or an arctic fox, but we have to make it all the way back to Whitehorse. We did see some white and brown chicken-like birds along the highway that called back to us; it was hilarious. After some research, I learned that they were Willo Ptarmigans.