road-trip – Lois and Clark Explorers

This is at 10 Mile Lake Provincial Park

We arrived in Whitehorse and spent 2 hours cleaning the camper and the truck. Neither one of us felt like cooking so we just grabbed a pizza from Dominos of all places. It was quick and easy.

The next morning we headed out to Skagway. We’re driving along and all of a sudden we see this flashing sign letting us know there was a landslide on the road to Skagway. That’s why Waze wouldn’t take us that way. It kept trying to get us to go to Haines which is 5-6 hours and then take a ferry to Skagway. I kept telling John no way, it is only 2 hours to Skagway from Whitehorse and then we can take a ferry to Haines. Makes more sense so we opted to use our road map. It’s not like I can’t read one. I am the main navigator on this trip. John is constantly asking me which way to go because I planned it. I did all the navigating. I don’t need Waze—well unless there is a landslide—to tell me to go another way. Well, I refused to go that route so we hung out in Whitehorse another day. We had so much fun hanging out in Whitehorse.

Whitehorse is the capitol and only city in the Yukon with over 40k people living there. For being out in the middle of nowhere it is quite a modern little city. I use the term modern very loosely. Lots of old buildings, lots and lots of history and tradition but, their government building and visitor center are very modern structures and most bathrooms are unisex. Including the one at the visitor center that looks just like a mens or ladies restroom with dozens of stalls (doors do go from floor to ceiling) but men and women share that one room. It does feel a little weird when you go in and a man comes out of the stall next to you and then there is another man at the sinks and one entering. I had already done a double take going in—thinking I made a wrong turn or misunderstood—but that is unisex in the big city of Whitehorse.

We spent a good part of the day at the MacBride Museum. If you ever go to Whitehorse you really need to take the time to go through the museum. We were there for hours. The history is so interesting as are all the artifacts and stories told. Ladies, wait until you see the ladies room—yes it is separate from the men in the museum. All the stall doors are covered with the Women of the Yukon. I love a good story about strong independent women and these women were the epitome of strong & independent. Sure some where whores but hey, they did it their way. My favorite was Klondike Kate. She made $30k her first year in the Klondike which was in 1898. You go girl!

We ate out at Ricky’s Grill which was a little disappointing but, you win some and lose some—right? It was a local place.

The next day we were headed out taking the Cassiar Highway. One reviewer stated the Cassiar was more beautiful than the Alaska Highway but had fewer gas stations, fewer campgrounds and fewer pull overs for camping. He also stated the road was much worse than the Alcan. Well, we were not deterred. We fueled up and headed down the Alaska Highway to the Cassiar. Well, the first 50+ miles of the Cassiar was burned out forrest. There were two little ghost towns–I honestly don’t think anyone lived in either of those towns. After that, it was beautiful. The road was so much better than the Alcan and there were plenty of pull overs and campgrounds though most of the campgrounds were full. Gas stations were a bit limited but not to where we were uncomfortable. We found a pull over by a lake the first night. There were several other cars/campers there as well but it was peaceful and quiet. We had no service until we got to Kitwanga on CA 16. From there on out we had spots without service but mostly we had service. Lots of little towns and shops and gas stations. We spent a night at 10 Mile Lake Provincial Park for $20. That was my cover photo. We found a cute little quilt store in Chilliwack and then we crossed the border. This was the first time we actually had to wait in line at the border. So many people crossing over. But we made it!! It was so good to be “home.”

That’s the Arctic Ocean behind us. Notice the trailer–how clean–well up close it is definitely dirty but you can’t see that from here.

After arriving at our destination, we discovered we were not permitted to swim there. We also were not supposed to park rv/trailers there but we did it quickly so we could get our selfie. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. We went in search of the “beach.” John stopped at one place and they told us someone in the community had died and there were no activities or events going on in support of the grieving family but, he did say the visitor center was open. However, the girl who worked there was at lunch so the guy was going to call her to let her know we were headed there. We parked out front of the visitor center and waited about 20-30 minutes before she pulled up and told us she had to go back into town for the new brochures and would be right back. After 45 minutes she finally arrived and couldn’t really tell us where we to go or where to park. She did give us a map which showed the beach but no parking. We set out and stopped at a souvenir store that was marked on the map. We would have never noticed it had she not given us the map so our time wasn’t totally wasted and then the guy (I did not get his name) in the store was super helpful and told us where to go and where to park.

So glad we had the camper. We were parked right next to the beach with the camper so we could change clothes, walk to the water and take a dip and go back to the camper and change. Prior to our trip, knowing the plan was to take a dip in the Arctic, I bought a full body bathing suit. Those who know me know I am a big girl. So this was not going to be pretty. I knew that going in but I also wanted to totally dip in the water. Ok, that’s a lie. I thought of just dipping my toe in the Arctic–surely that would be enough but, my son had to tease me in such an encouraging way–I had to get in all the way. I put the onesie on and put my bathing suit on top–thinking that helped. It really didn’t but it made me feel better–at least until I started walking down the beach. When you see the video–feel free to laugh. I know I couldn’t stop laughing but not just because of my outfit. In addition to looking beyond hideous, my dip was–well let’s just say it was less than graceful. But who really cares? I am almost 70–no one out there cared what I looked like or what I was doing. I could not edit this. I don’t have the software nor do I have a clue how to use it so for a good laugh click here.

By the time we dipped and changed it was after 4:00. So much for our early start. We originally planned to get back to Inuvik in the afternoon, do some shopping and then either camp there again or head out some. Since Tuktoyaktuk had nothing going on due to the death in the community we did not want to stay so we headed out. By the time we got to Inuvik it was after 6:00 so we made a plan to get passed the two ferries–yeah one more time. We filled up in Inuvik and planned to fill up once more in Fort McPherson but by the time we got there the gas station had just closed. Seriously, it was 9:01 and the girl was walking out the door and would not let us fill up. Luckily we had extra gas with us so we crossed the ferry and headed for Eagle. We figured we could be there by 11:00 pm, sleep, fill up and leave. One of the nice things about driving the Dempster that late is that no one else is driving the Dempster. The only dust is what we were making and it was all going behind us.

With only 49 km to Eagle Plains John noticed one of the tires was low. We pulled over and sure enough the rear passenger tire on the truck was slowly leaking. Rather than take the trailer off the truck to get to a spare, John decided to find the leak and plug it. I asked if I could help and John told me to clean off the back seat so he could get something out from underneath. Well, that was a shocker–I thought he was going to say no. Usually our back seat is full of things like, my camera bag, extra sweaters/coats, rain coats, sometimes food and drinks. Tonight it was mostly my camera bag and computer so I moved them and then got back in the car. There were a lot of mosquitos that were so annoying. John found the hole, plugged it and filled the tire again. I did get out to take some pictures of John changing the tire and some beautiful sunsets. It’s not like I was just sitting there waiting. But I did learn to not ask if he needed any help. The sun wasn’t actually setting–sunset was at 2:00 in the morning but with the mountains behind us it sure looked like it was setting.

Remember how clean it looked at the Arctic Ocean–yeah, they were putting down some calcium choride or something. It is supposed to help with the dust and binds the gravel particles together. Good for the road-not so good for the camper and truck. And notice how dirty I got from taking pictures. I don’t know what I touched but ugh!

Just as he was finishing up someone actually came by and stopped to see if we needed help. We let him know we were ok and he drove off. And so our saga continued. At some point John had turned the car off to save gas because we didn’t fill in Ft McPherson. John turned the key and all we heard was click, click, click. Now we had a problem. No service, it was 12:30 in the morning and I am pretty sure that last car was really the last car. John decided to try hooking one of the batteries from the camper to the truck and try to jump it. I asked him if that would work and he said, “Probably not, but I’m going to try.” And he was right. It didn’t work. Then to make matters worse, when he did that something happened and now the camper wasn’t getting power from the battery. He explained things but all I heard was blah, blah, blah. This was going to be a long night. We did have a satellite radio and I messaged Christy thinking she would be up and she could try to call the service station in Eagle Plains. We had the Mile Post book but it didn’t give a number. And honestly we did not expect it to be open but certainly worth a shot. She was up. The Satellite radio takes some time to get messages back and forth and you have to hold the radio upright which is a pain. In the meantime John had turned on the generator to get power back to the trailer so he could keep the refrigerator going. I was sitting in the truck just trying to think of how I could pass the time. We really couldn’t get in the camper and sleep–we were in the middle of the road and there was a slight chance someone could pass by and just maybe give us a hand. John came up to my window and asked if we had a cigaret lighter plug–I looked over to the left then I looked to the right–right outside the passenger window and then looked at the floor and said, “I don’t see one.” John said he knows he has one. He had one at home and remembered he grabbed it just in case. Seriously? Just in case. Anyway, he found it and he rigged up something to the generator and jumped the battery! We were in service! I love having a McGyver husband. I waited patiently while he picked up all his tools and put them away. We were heading to Eagle and I noticed Christy had responded so I let her know we were ok.

After arriving in Eagle Plains around 2:00am we filled the truck and parked in the lot. We slept until 5:30 and we were on the road by 6:00. By that point John wanted to get off the Dempster and be done with it. Once we were off the Dempster we had 2 options, go north 30 miles to Dawson City which is the opposite direction we ultimately were headed or go south to Whitehorse. We opted for Whitehorse. It was only another 5 hour drive. We were able to wash off the truck and trailer in Pelly Crossing and we filled up with gas. We could see smoke in the distance and we were outside Pelly Crossing about an hour when we received notification that the road between Stewart Crossing and Pelly Crossing was shut down due to wild fires. Whew! We just made it. Had we not, we would have had to go back to Dawson City which was more than an hour at that point. It was all good. We arrived in Whitehorse around 5:00 and stopped at the Hi Country RV park. The girl remembered John and gave us a great spot. Not a lot of pictures. I took a lot of videos on the Dempster and haven’t even checked them out. Goodnight for now. I am really behind–by like a week. Will catch up shortly.