Along the Dempster
In the last blog post I left us parked in a gravel pit just short of the Yukon/NWT boundary. We’d attempted a walk on the muskeg, but gave up and walked the road back to the camper…where we discover, a tire has gone completely flat. Flat tires are common along the road due to any number of possibilities. Sharp shale used for road base is our culprit. It’s still a day or two drive to get to the ocean, but we will need to return about 40 miles to Eagle Plains to get the tire fixed. AND it’s snowing and blowing this morning. It’s miserable as we pass the Arctic Circle going south, and gets worse at Eagle Plains.
Lovely day in Eagle Plains for the locals.
X marks the turn-around point.
In the restaurant were some very sad looking bicyclists from Germany, trying to warm up before heading out into the nasty weather. A few motorcyclists were trying to stay upright on the slimy road.
So glad we have our warm camper.
Several hours later, with a fixed tire, we need to make a decision. The forecast is for another week of cold and drizzle/snow. Right now, the boundary between territories is closed due to flooding over the pot-holed road.
We looked at each other and say; “We don’t have to do this, no one is making us.” So we decide to go to Alaska instead. It’s good to be flexible. Now you know the answer to the blog title…it’s BUST.
(Weeks later on an Alaska highways ferry, we met a family who shared our initial goal, but unlike us, they persevered and made it. After breaking a spring on their truck driving through the flooded road, they continued to the end.
They brought kayaks with them to paddle around on the ocean. When they arrived at the shore, it was blowing a gale and snowing. They took one look; turned around and went home. Didn’t even take the kayaks off. It made us feel better about giving up sooner.)
We choose yet another gravel pit near the Ogilvie River. This one is a huge excavation and we can tuck under a large bank and be out of the wind. Out for our evening stroll a small black wolf is licking minerals from the ground. We find an old road leading from the back of the quarry to the river. There’s a lot of bear scat and huge wolf prints, but we don’t see any more wildlife.
An excellent gravel pit campsite.
Wolf pup. Another sibling appeared later.
Ogilvie River at the end of the gravel pit trail.
Big daddy wolf track.
Grizzly poop pile.
During the night a storm blows in. The morning dawns to an inch of ice and snow on my potty seat. Humph! However, the snow is so pretty we take the trail to the river again. No new tracks.
Same trail, next morning. The advantage of this weather…no mosquitoes!
So we pack up and start to drive out, BUT just a few hundred feet from our camp a grizzly comes out to the road. He goes back into the woods as I grab for the camera, and luckily comes back. He starts vigorously digging. I’m trying to take a video from inside the wrong side of the truck, no time to step out of the truck for better view.
Grizzly bear digging up his cache.
(If you click on the YouTube video at the end you can see him plus a mom grizzly and cub from last trip). Turns out he has stashed a kill in the heap he is digging up. We think it’s a wolf’s hindquarters. Perhaps a close relative to the wolf pups we saw last evening.
Bears like their meat aged. One thing humans, or for that matter, any animal, must not do is get between a bear and his cache…equally as dangerous as getting between a mom grizzly and her cub. We thank our lucky stars we didn’t hike that direction on our walks. Interior brown bears are much smaller than their coastal cousins, but we still would not want to tangle with one. These bears have to work a lot harder to find food. On the coasts, the bears just stuff salmon in until it’s time to go to bed for a few months.
Heading south, the weather improves slowly.
Summer melt lake.
Continuing south, the weather steadily improves. The colors around Tombstone Park are spectacular, and there is sun!
Near Tombstone provincial park.
Beaver pond at the end of a short trail near visitor’s center.
Tombstone ground cover.
Willow bear.
Left over from gold rush days along the Klondike. We’re nearing the junction with the main road to Dawson and leaving the Dempster.
Back in Dawson City we catch the free ferry across the Yukon River, and head for the Alaska border over the high, lonesome Top of the World highway. It’s a spectacular road with the most laid back crossing anywhere between US and Canada on our shared 1,538 mile border.
Ferry across the Yukon River. Ferries operate until river freezes. When ice is solid enough the drivers can cross on their own.
Starting up the Top of the World highway between Dawson and Alaska border.
Colors get more golden the higher we go.
View from the top.
Border crossing! Population 3 might be a stretch. Only one lady there at the time. Apparently they trade off often, no one lives there permanently.
Coolest passport stamp ever.
Coming off the pass in Alaska on the way to Chicken.
On the other side is Chicken, AK, a very tiny town. A moose and her calf munch willows near our camp. The town was originally named Ptarmigan, but it was too difficult to spell, so they settled on the common name for the bird, chicken. Last time we were here floods had washed out the roads and we were trapped for a few days. It’s fun to spend a few days in Chicken, the area is lovely.
Baby moose munching.
How can he resist?
Snowshoe hare starting to change to winter white.
Chicken Post Office. These little towns are pretty cute.
No real reason to stop in Tok, a crossroads for people entering Alaska, so we head back toward Canada again in order to drive to Haines. We camp in, surprise, another gravel pit in no-man’s land, about a 20 mile stretch between the customs entry points.
Lunch spot in no-man’s land between border check points from Alaska to the Yukon.
Next stop Haines, Alaska.
Click on link for the bear video.