Lesser Slave Lake

We have done the Alaska Hwy from start to finish! Starting at Dawson Creek, BC, going up and around the entire road circuit of Alaska, all around the Yukon, and back to Dawson Creek, we have gone 10,745 kms. Trip of a lifetime, folks. Good thing we started with low mileage on the truck.





Once we hit Alberta, we headed over to Lesser Slave Lake. The town of Slave Lake had been hit by a forest fire this spring. It was sad to see the burned areas. Although they have quickly cleared up any destruction, you can see where whole subdivisions were destroyed. Only a few new houses have been put back up. The downtown area looks like it was mostly spared. The provincial park where we stayed was on the north-east side and not affected at all.

The lake itself is long - 108kms but fairly narrow. When we got there, I took a picture of the sunset over the water, but during the night the wind kicked up and in the morning the waves were huge.

We are now in Edmonton, enjoying the amenities. The truck is clean, although the car wash franchise "Bubbles" that we used had to put it through twice! And we pampered it, with a full fluids and filters change. We had planned on getting new tires, too, but the lack of provincial taxes in Alberta is offset by the high cost of labour, so there was no benefit.

We will spend another day or two here, seeing friends and shopping, before we head off to see Daughter3 for a couple of days. And then there are the joys of seeing northern Manitoba. No sign of snow yet, so I guess we can just keep on going!

W

Back to the Alaska Hwy

So, after the fun on the Campbell Hwy, we debated the sanity of going up the Liard Hwy to the NorthWest Territories and maybe Yellowknife. Research has revealed that most of that road is very similar to the Campbell. The first 100k is paved and the last 100k is paved. The rest of the 800k trip would be gravel and dirt. Looking at our tires, or what's left of them, and our windshield, we decided to leave that trip for another time. Maybe we should start to meander back home.

Meander is what we are doing. We have stopped again at the Liard Hotsprings, dallied at Stone Mountain, and tried to fish most rivers we come across. The wildlife in the northern part of BC is still abundant with bears and bison, but now the caribou is starting to move so we saw several batches of them as well. We want to come a different way as much as possible, except that the Alaska Hwy has a monopoly on this area. Leaving Fort St John, we plan on heading toward the Lesser Slave Lake area, which we haven't seen yet. Distractions are all around us, and we still have a little under one month to finish seeing as much as we can.


The days are getting shorter much faster than we had expected. It seemed that one week the sun went down at 11pm and the next it was 9pm. Where we are in Fort St John in BC, it is now completely dark at 9:30. We are using flashlights again, after having dug them out of the back.

But we're having so much fun camping, does it have to end?

W

The Campbell Highway

I'm not sure why they named this a highway. It is more like a sideroad. A very long, dusty, and not maintained sideroad.

It started out as good pavement for several miles, if narrow and with no dividing lines. It followed a pretty valley and we stopped at viewpoints. There was a road off to the north that led to a small town called Faro. This was a lovely town, only 300 people in it, and everybody took the time to volunteer and to help make the community better. Despite the fact that it rained the entire time we were there, we had a great time. We got to know people, and spent our time visiting and enjoying the company. We visited a salmon creek where the red salmon are coming up. Groceries were a problem: the only store in town was listed as a "hardware" store, but it had groceries in the back - especially if you ordered a week ahead of time so it could be brought in for you! We, of course, just walked in and could get almost nothing.

On leaving Faro, we moved on to Ross River. The road worsened, becoming gravel and dirt between the potholes.

Just outside of Ross River, the natives were holding Aboriginal Hand Games. This was a fun group game kinda like a shell game, where you had to find the person holding the token. They would line up, 6 to a side, bend down together and pass the token between each other, then straightened up so the other team could guess where it was. All the time, the drummers were beating (loudly!) a quick and deep double beat. This went on all day, with stops for meals that were provided free. We were warmly welcomed, and hubby even participated in a fun race that was held to break up the day. We left late, so we didn't get to a campground before dark. Since the road was not well used, we pulled off and made our own camp.

The next day saw more bad roads. We had only gotten about 60k before a tire went flat. We were practised at replacing tires by then, so it only slowed us for half an hour. An hour and a half later, we punctured another. Good thing we had 2 spares! Except now we were running on a repaired tire, and had no more in reserve.

Decision was made to, instead of stopping at the campgrounds, run to the end of this road, where the city of Watson Lake would have tire shops. We didn't make it. The repaired tire gave out 70k from the city. We had no more spares, no tire plugs. But as my sister says, one can live for 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. We had all of these, and were quite prepared to camp on the side of the road until someone came by. The good luck was that the natives at the hand games were going home, too. We got 6 cars that came by in two hours. And at least one of them had a plug we could use that would at least get us to civilization.

But a highway? No, I wouldn't call it that.

W

The North Pole

I felt that this subject needed it's own blog. Everyone knows that we went north past the Arctic Circle, but I didn't mention that we had stopped at a small place called the North Pole. This was a busy little town, even in the summer. We went inside of this magical place that had Christmas Trees all lit up, and toys on shelves, and Christmas songs being played. What a beautiful place!

We spoke to one fellow (he didn't introduce himself) who had a big white beard. He seemed to know us, though, and talked to us about our family! He knew all our grandchildren, and said that he would especially remember them this December. I'm not sure what he meant, but he did say that he knew that most of my wonderful grandchildren were being good by helping their mothers this year, and was hoping that the others would do the same for the rest of the year.

It was a surprising stop, and I thought it was worth passing on.

W

And back again....

We managed to come back down the Dempster in 11 and a half hours. That did not include the time it took to change the flat tire we had.

Of course, on the way north it was mostly dusty and dry. On the way back, however, we got showers and MUD. We were both grateful the hard rain didn't hit until after we got back on the road again - although it could have washed off some of my hubby's clothes before he got back in the car.

All told, we got off fairly easily for the road conditions. The total was one punctured tire, two stone chips in the windshield, and a few pounds of mud stuck to the truck and trailer that needed several dollars to wash off.

But as you can see, we were very happy to "do the Dempster" as it was a long-time dream that led to experiences we wouldn't have gotten anywhere else.

W

The Long and Dusty Dempster Highway

We stopped for a couple of days at Tombstone Territorial Park at the south end of the Dempster Highway. The road was not too bad up to there, and we got to spend time hiking Goldenside Mountain (not all the way up) and, of course, fishing - however fruitless it was.

North of the park, the road was more dirt and shale than gravel, but we took our time and stopped frequently for sights and fishing. There was always something to see, and even just the views of valley and mountains were breathtaking. We were amazed that so many people race up to the end and race back again. Every range of mountains is made of different features - some covered in trees, some are rough and craggy on the top, and the last group was barren and rounded. The road doesn't go very high, just occasionally up to ridges where we overlook amazing valleys. Wildlife has been pretty sparse, except for the ptarmigan that run out onto the road in front of us.

We made it to the Arctic Cirle on a sunny day. Soon after, we saw something yellow on the next hill. We have met the occasional brave cyclist, and since a truck coming towards us slowed down for it, we assumed that it was another one. The yellow walked down into the ditch, perhaps looking for a campsite, and as we approached fairly close, up from the ditch came a grizzly - less than a car length from us!

Driver put on the brakes and said "Quick! Take a picture!" Nervous wife (on the same side as the bear) said "Don't stop! Don't stop!" That bear passed about 6 feet away from my window, too close and we were going too slowly for my liking. I was unable to get a picture until we had completely passed it.

The next day we started early and hadn't gotten far before we saw a herd of about 100 caribou on the tundra to our left. So we stopped for a while and watched with binoculars, as they were too far out to get good pictures.

About a kilometer behind them were two older native hunters who had downed a young bull caribou fom the back of the herd. This did not seem to frighten the others into running, as they were calmly grazing when we came apon them. The hunters had already skinned and cut the meat before we got up to their truck on the road. Hubby, seeing his chance for an experience, waited until they had walked back to the road with some of their earnings and then approached them. They were both in their 70's and were struggling to carry meat over the rough tundra ground, so he offered his assistance.

You can see him helping carry the huge antlers up to the road. In thanks, the hunters cut us off a huge steak. It went staight into the cooler for supper that night.



In the NorthWest Territory, the road "improved" by having a thick layer of gravel on it. Not so many bumps and sharp rocks, but the dust was horrible. We crossed the Peel River by cable ferry, about the same size as the one in Dawson City. The Mackenzie River wasn't that much farther on, but it's ferry was much larger. Getting off it on the north side was done by the crew putting "tire ramps" under the ferry ramp and directing us to make sure our tires were in the right spot. With all the different trucks and cars, those ramps had to be adjusted often.

On the other side of the Mackenzie the gravel was thick and dusty. We were also surprised that the road was straight and there was heavy forest on both sides. We had expected more tundra instead, and found it boring (!) to drive the last two hours into Inuvik.

When we finally got settled in a campground near the city, everything we owned was covered in a thick layer of dust. It had gotten into the trailer, the back of the truck, everywhere!

But the weather was beautiful - sunny and 30 Celsius. That's as warm as we've seen all trip! Had to go north to get the good weather, I guess.

It has been an amazing drive up here. We've managed to get here with no dings in our truck or windshield, and with all 6 tires intact. There is only one problem: now we have to go all the way back again!

W

Top of the World and Dawson City

We decided to take the "short cut" to Dawson City. This took us through a town called "Chicken, Alaska". Now, Chicken is very small, but everyone has a "rooster" sense of humor. There are rubber chickens, roast chicken meals (with any other meat in it), and photo spots that capitalize on the name.

Obviously, all the men wanted their picture taken here.





After Chicken, the road went over and along mountains. This road wasn't nearly as bad as the Denali Park experience because the big bus traffic wasn't there and it really was a two lane road, even if the shoulders were nonexistant. It was still high, however, and it was all dirt and gravel. Except when it rained, and then it became all mud. Which, of course, it did sporadically while we were driving. So we ended up with dirt, covered in mud, coated in more dirt just to make it hard, all layered on our truck and trailer. Oh! and then, just before the Alaska/Canada border crossing at 4,000' elevation, we drove through fresh snow! About two inches had fallen just before we got there. The customs house was in a beautiful spot on the mountain, almost right at the top, and you could see mountain tops around you for miles.

Before we got to Dawson City, we had to cross the Yukon River. It is a fast, and muddy river, and quite wide. There is one ferry going back and forth constantly.

You can see how small it is - we are the first car and the fellow is standing beside the last one. It only holds about 8 cars, and does not have a dock on either side of the river, so just rams itself up on the gravel and lowers the ramp to anchor itself to the ground. They get the cars to start rolling off the ramp even if the ferry is still moving! Probably helps to lodge it more firmly on shore.

Dawson City has been left mostly the way it was in the early 1900's. The streets are still just dirt, and the sidewalks are boardwalks. There are very few new houses here, most of them are very old and wooden.

Our second night in Dawson, we went to Diamond Tooth Gertie's - an old style gambling hall and saloon. They had nightly entertainment: cancan girls and singers. We stayed late, and had a great time. And even though the sun was down when we got out at 11pm, it was still light out.

The next stretch for us will be the Dempter Highway heading north. Arctic Cirle, here we come!

W