Day 10 Driving the Dempster Hwy 5 to Inuvik July 18th 2016

Leaving Dawson River Camp Ground at 6:30, I did not sleep well I had my head lower than my feet.  Heading back down hwy 2 towards the Dempster I had a red fox running beside the car driver’s side for close to 2 km’s I got several pics of him running and finally one of his face. Within 5 km there was another, clears smarter as it disappeared into the brush right away.

At the start of the road there is flashing warning lights reminding lack of services, loose gravel etc.  The first half of the drive 369 km’s was fine, it’s not a road that you stay in the middle and move to the right when a car approaches. Instead you use the whole road spotting ruts or holes and driving around them.  I was slightly wet for me and this enabled me to see the rough areas better than if it were dry, I think. 

 

 

The day started with heavy fog a mist for the first ½ to Eagle Plains Hotel, I fueled up $1.46 litre and went in for lunch.  Eagle Plains menu needs some help, I just had a burger, rings and coffee however they had 4 burgers and I needed them all explained to me. Stupid mistake by the owner, for example they had a Fireweed fish burger. I asked what was fireweed? answer its codfish bunched together into a burger, fireweed is nothing. Second a “Peel Burger”, which is what I had, it was a cheese burger, I guess because you peel the wrapper off the cheese.  The menu carried on like that.  Trying to be fancy but just being stupid.

Leaving the weather had changed, the mist had become rain and since I was at high ground area the fog offer maybe 200m visibility. I figured it look lighter in the distance and had seen several of these small rain cells and carried on.  The next 96km varied from o.k. to just plain nasty. There were times that I feared getting stuck in the mud; times that even though my speed was very slow the rear end seemed to fish tail around.

The road was soaked and the rain continued the whole way, amazingly both the rain in really bad road ending when crossing the border in NT. With the sun warmer temp, I think it jumped 15 degrees.   Entering NT you go down into a very big valley, taking to the ranger at the park this where the Caribou herds start to arrive in mid-August. 

To be fair, they were doing construction for 10km’s and in this area the road was very muddy.   There was a lot of talk about shale being used as road surface and I’m not sure what they looks like, however I can say there were dark grey to black surfaces in some areas. I felt these areas were the best to drive on. 

That’s not to my car did not suffer issues it did. First the air vent in the car is now in full blast heat all the time.  I had this happen before and I believe there is a plastic flap opens and closes allowing heat the pass through from the engine.  This flap has slipped for its sitting.  Second when leaving the Tsiigehtchic ferry the launch area was a v shape and the lower edge of the front bumper was chopped off, pinched between my skid plate and the ground. So now you can see the skid plate from the front.

The rest of the way from Fort McPherson to Inuvik was fine; it was difficult due to the rain. Interesting as soon as I arrived on the main drag in Inuvik I was pulled over by the RCMP, they wanted to know where I came from and I asked directions to Happy Valley. I also noticed that all the camp ground here say 24hr surveillance and security.  So somehow a small town of 3500 people has issues.

The plan is just to see the 2-3 things in town that are inside, as it cold here just 8 degree now about 10 degrees below normal and very windy.  So windy the ferry at Tsiigehtchic was cancelled for most of the day and this was the first day this week it went. I did not consider that an event to think about. I arrived at Happy Valley $23.63, just after 7:30 so 13 hours to drive 731km’s today and the cold front is here already.