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.