Arctic the Blue Whale

We overnighted in Eagle, Alaska. The road to Eagle is 1 1/2 lane gravel and dirt. The road is not recommended for RVs, though fuel trucks and Holland America buses make the trip routinely.

We camped at the BLM campground, which is very nice. We had a lot of mosquito friends, but that's summer in the north. Eagle is a very historic area; the local historical society has done a great job at working with the U.S. Government to maintain historic Fort Egbert, which is located not far from the campground.

On our way south, we encountered a moose cow and her calf. they wouldn't head up the road, and couldn't get off the road because there the terrain was too steep. I ended up backing down this 1 1/2 lane dirt road about a quarter of a mile, with this moose cow running after me. We eventually got to a point in the road where she was able to climb the bank with her calf, and we eased by them.

keewee's cache is located just off the highway, on the hill above "historic" Chicken, Alaska. Chicken was a mining town that has turned into a tourist stop for the tour buses that are either running people to Eagle for Yukon River cruises or taking people across the Top of the World Highway to and from Dawson City. The story goes that Chicken earned its name because its residents couldn't spell the word "ptarmigan".

We finished up our sightseeing around Dawson City, then headed across the Yukon River by ferry and started down the Top of the World Highway to Alaska. The Top of the World Highway is a bit more bone-jarring that some of the other packed gravel / dirt roads in Yukon Territory. My memory of it is better than reality; that may be because we were on it earlier in the season. Traveling west, we crossed into Alaska at the most northerly land entry point in the United States.

While in Inuvik, we flew north to Tuktoyaktuk (on the Beaufort Sea) for a visit. Returning to Inuvik, we replenished supplies, and fueled up for the trip south along the Dempster Highway.

We braved the mosquitos at Rock River Campground again, then continued south to Eagle Plains for gas. Coming out of the gift shop / restaurant / bar / motel, wilsonjd pointed out the flat left rear tire. If you're going to have a flat tire on the Dempster (and many, many do), have it in the parking lot of the only tire repair shop within over 100 km in one direction, and almost 400 km in the other. Out came the jack, off came the tire, and over to the shop it went. It turned out that there were two separate punctures (I'm sure they happened at the same time) that the fellow in the shop had to fix. Once that was done, the tire was back on the truck, we got it fueled up, and we were on our way.

I had originally planned to overnight at Tombstone Mountain, but changed to the Klondike River Campground to be a little closer to Dawson City so we could attempt to get the Sourdough Cache. That hike turned out to be longer than the team wanted to try that day, so we headed into town for sightseeing and shopping. We found Gary's Cache at the end of a great day in Dawson.

We got a campsite at the Happy Valley Campground in Inuvik; it's a territorial campground that has hot showers and a laundromat, which improved our quality of life greatly. Getting a pizza and beverage at our favorite restaurant in Inuvik (The Backroom) was also a big morale booster.

We were the third to find the Boot Lake Pin Trade cache, which is now the most northerly cache in the Northwest Territories. On this trip, we've been to the most northerly cache in both Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories.

We reached the end of the Dempster Highway in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Just before the end, the road turns from packed gravel (which is VERY dusty this time of year) to regular asphalt pavement: what a change!

The ferry rides over the Peel and Arctic Red Rivers were fun. The Peel River ferry is a cable ferry; the ferry is powered, but it is guided by a thick wire rope that keeps it from being pushed downstream. The Arctic Red River ferry is not guided, and connects the two ends of the Dempster Highway and the village of Tsiigèhtchic by running in a wye configuration.

First Nations peoples have subsistence fishing and hunting areas throughout this area; as you drive along the Dempster, you'll see many small family camps that are signalled by white canvas wall tents that are suspended by wooden platforms and frames.