Sunday June 27, Dempster Highway, YT

170 Miles

We came, We Saw…but we didn’t conquer!!

Tonight we are feeling really “gutted”. We have travelled over a quarter of the Dempster Highway through some amazing scenery, but the unsealed road which started out pretty good has deteriorated. There are lots of potholes and corrugation in parts and poor old Ruakiwi is fair shuddering along. We were doing about 80 kms/hour initially but over this last section we have barely been able to do 40 k’s. Tonight we pulled into a gravel pit and have made the decision to turn back in the morning.  It was not worth risking damage to Ruakiwi. So disappointing as we had really looked forward to the challenge of getting to the arctic circle…..but there are plenty more roads to travel.

We were a bit later leaving this morning. Somehow it seems hard to go to bed at the normal time with it so bright outside and it was midnight before we went to bed. The sun sets but it never gets really dark, it is just a twilight before the sun rises again. 

We were full of anticipation as we drove this morning, wondering what we were going to find on the Dempster. We stopped at the Klondike River Lodge at the turnoff to refuel. We had paid $1.09/l at the last fill up, and this morning it was $1.40/l. Wonder what we would have paid up the Dempster! Surprisingly they had wifi and they had a very nice dining room, so had lunch and did my emails before we set out.

The first part of the Dempster was through wooded areas, but as we climbed we came above the treeline with lots of patches of ice in the guts of the mountains. This is the Tombstone Territorial Park and we called in at their really great new visitor centre which had just been opened. Very friendly and helpful.

Finally spotted a moose swimming in a small lake….it had its head underwater for some time before emerging with a mouth full of vegetation.