Nelson, B.C. (addendum)

 Tuk Trip Info

Total km driven = 8417

Fuel Costs for 2011 Ford F150 with Palomino Real-lite camper unit = $3189.00

Williams Lake, B.C.

Monday, June 19. Meziadin Lake Prov. Park - 522 km – 8 hours

We had a phenomenal day on the Cassiar Highway! Scenery was spectacular. The air had been cleared by yesterday’s rain. Razor sharp snow-capped mountains and beautiful lakes were the menu for the day.

Cassiar Hwy Scenery

Many Roadside Lakes

Avalanche Tracks

Stopped for a break and happened upon a cross and memorial erected for Leonard Dyck. It put up by the truck drivers of the Alaska Hwy. In case you don’t remember he was a victim of McLeod/Schmegelsky murder spree.

Three separate black bear sightings. They seem smaller than the ones we spotted previously.

The most special sightings were two little red foxes. The first one just ran up and right beside the truck like we weren’t even there. The second one ran ahead on the road then off the road where he promptly caught lunch (see photo – you would have to have been there to appreciate what a lucky photo that is).

Lunch!

Stopped at Jade city. We had made this our destination during COVID as the Yukon border was closed so it was our furthest point north on the motorcycle trip. This time we purchased a cute Christmas ornament as it is what we like to do to commemorate our both travels. We can now say we have completed the Cassiar Highway

Just after we got back underway we spotted a cemetery with “Cassiar cemetery“on the sign over the entrance. We guess it was for workers, etc., from the Cassiar Asbestos Mine although there were many First Nations names (including newborns) as well. The oldest grave being 1963. Lots of plastic flowers and some solar lights.

Cassiar Cemetary Grave

Gassed up in Dease Lake and reminisced about our last trip there. Had to visit the general store for snacks. Also took a drive through Iskut. We had wanted to do this our last trip but the road was barricaded due to COVID. A co-worker of Norma’s worked in the nursing station there and had posted so much about the community we wanted to see it for ourselves.

We stopped to ask one of the Flagman what they were laying the cable for. We had seen many ROHL global network trucks over the entire trip, either on the road or on site (side of the road) working. We were told they were placing fibre optic cables to the north to improve communications.

Tuesday, June 20 - Williams Lake, B.C. Tuesday - 879 km – 10.5 hours

The Provincial Park at Meziadin Lake last night was a very popular spot on a very pretty lake but the mosquitoes forced us inside by dark. Our beautiful clear skies of the north turned into smoky skies by the time we got to New Hazleton. Lots more traffic. Way more inhabited. Lost the smoke just after Smithers so that made for a nicer drive.

So we’re sitting getting gas. A guy jumps out of his car and goes into the shop leaving his car in gear. It started rolling into the vehicle in front, luckily the quick action of the gas attendant to physically hold it back saved the fender bender. We suggested to the poor parker that he owed the gas attendant a tip. He just laughed.

This is our last night before we get home. We have been on familiar roads the last hours of today and will be again all of tomorrow so probably nothing new to post for our last day on the road. 

But we will calculate costs as we are interested in how much the fuel was for this adventure, the total kilometers travelled and will publish an addendum. We have seen fuel prices range from 1.65 to 2.28 per liter.

Watson Lake, YT

 

979 km – 12 hours

Due to a planning miscalculation we spent about 4 extra hours on the road today. We made it to Watson Lake just in time too. It is t-storming very heavily now. We are glad we are here as we had planned to camp but instead opted for a trip down memory lane. Many years ago while on one of our motorcycle rides up north we stopped at Watson Lake and stayed in the “Nice Motel”. We are here tonight but it is now called the “Nicer Motel” under new owners. Still a “nice” room with kitchenette but starting to show its age. Only thing missing was the Alaska king crab legs we had for dinner last time. We actually purchased them in the grocery store here but today things were closed for the day. We were smart enough to pick up something in Whitehorse today so were fine.

We did see some wildlife today. Two black bears, a momma moose with her calf, a deer and the usual gophers and squirrels trying their fate running across the road. On the road we take tomorrow we should see lots more bear. At least that was the case a few years ago. We will have to see if we can break our record of 13 sightings in one day.

Dam

Laird River

On our way north a few days ago we drove through a forest fire area near the Klondike-Dempster junction. We noticed morel mushroom pickers parked on the side of the road. Also a buyer set up with his camp. Today we decided to see if we could buy some. So into the buyers’ camp we went but unfortunately he had just put them all into the dryer. No luck! But no giving up yet! Along the road we saw a guy walking around his camp which was set up right on the edge of the road. The truck came to a quick stop and out Norma jumped. He unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) only had some stems and “left overs” but he gave them to us and directed us across the road and up the power line dirt “road” to his friends. There we were able to buy all two pounds the guy had picked this morning. He was happy. We were happy. They are only getting $6 a pound from the buyer. We gave him $20. Then there was the challenge of fitting them in our little fridge. Can’t wait to try some.

Morels!

Pretty drive today as we saw the pigmy forest change into real forest. Lots of rain clouds around and signs of rain in some areas but not on us until now and it is COMING DOWN!

Dawson City, Y.T.

Friday, June 16, 2023 – Eagle Plains Y.T. - 506 km – 8 hours

As we suspected sleep was not easy to achieve due to the traffic roaring by our Tuk campsite all night. You might think it was just young kids acting up but not true. We lost track of how many times grandma and grandpa went by in their truck. And then there was the all dolled up girl in her black truck. Looking for business??? And the young couple with their kids in the back. Up the road, around the spit at the end where the arctic ocean sign is and back down over and over again. Nothing much else to do there. What a waste of time and gas.

Tuk signpost

At 0500 we had 2 kids on an ATV ride THROUGH everyone’s campsites revving and laughing as they went by. This northern community has some definite social issues that need to be addressed. We recommend that if you want to visit it can be easily done as a longish day trip from Inuvik, which seems a far more accommodating community. We stopped there again today to use the WiFi in the library. There we saw a young mom and her child in the learning area instead of riding helmetless up and down the streets on an ATV. We are thinking of putting a comment in Tripadvisor. On our way out of town we stopped to take a picture of what greets you as you arrive: a haphazard landfill with a pingo in the background (how appropriate).

Garbage at Tuk

On the way to Eagle Plains we saw some ice mounds – maybe baby pingos? We had noticed them on the way up but made a point of stopping today.

Ice mounds

Because we had such a short night we actually stopped on the side of the road for a 15 minute nap. No traffic disturbed us.

We took both ferries today and again they were working to build up the dirt ramps. The ferry worker directs you where to drive to try to miss the deepest ruts. This is a continuous job keeping the “ramp” operational.

Tonight we are in a campground at Eagle Plains. And we are seeing several campers from last night!

Saturday, June 17, 2023 - Dawson City, - 407 km – 8 hours

Last night in Eagle Plains we had an illustration of how personal space varies from culture to culture. We set up camp in our paid for spot and just around 10 a black jeep pulled up beside us within 3 feet (couldn’t even open the truck door) and began to set up camp. This is in a wide open camping area with lots of room. Sure enough it was an Asian fellow. We “directed” him to another site where it would be more private for him (and us).

 

Driving from Eagle Plains south on the Dempster Highway today reminds one of driving through Joshua tree forest in the Mohave Desert but the trees here are stunted black spruce bent over like tired old men. 

Stunted spruce "men"

We have seen several bicyclists loaded down bucking the wind, fighting the dust and bugs and really wonder if they are having fun or having second thoughts about this adventure. Had a little rain early this morning. We hoped it would settle some of the dust but just enough to make mud on the windshield. The dust clouds are impressive. You often need to stop to let it settle some so you can see where to drive. It has even been enough to reset the GPS to night mode until we took it off automatic setting.

Dempster Scenery

We had an illustration of what happens when a trucker didn’t pay attention to the Dempster. This was not there a few days ago. Lucky it was empty. . . We do know the truckers keep tabs on each other via radio so help would have come his way in short order.

Ooops!

It was so windy last night we didn’t realize the mosquito population existed in Eagle plains. With the wind dying down this morning was brutal. We’d love to be able to get a picture of the clouds of them. Amazing!

 

Many, many touring motorcyclists attempt the trip to Tuk. We estimate as many 2 wheeled vehicles as 4 wheeled vehicles are on the highway. A number of them went by while we were enjoying our scenic lunch spot.

Lunchtime scenery

Once again today there was a very nice flower display along the way. Today we stopped for a “lunch with a view” – see photo.

Roadside flowers

Every two km there’s a km marker which we found very helpful judging time/distance going up the Dempster and coming back down. Still lots of beautiful snow-capped mountain views. Wonder if they stay year round.

 

Some wildlife seen today. First up was a very healthy looking gorgeous red tail fox who stopped on the side of the road to watch us go by. Next was another blonde grizzly. When he saw this big thing coming along he ran into the bush catching his head on a downed tree before escaping. Again today there were several rabbits putting their lives at risk playing chicken with the traffic. Oh, wait a minute. There’s hardly any traffic to worry about.

 

We are spending the night in Klondike Kates cabins in Dawson City. The town is set around old restored and mostly still used buildings. The sidewalks are all board and not very even. Wonder how they can get away with this safely hazard. We were sure careful and at some points even walked on the road.

We had a bit of a challenge finding a place for dinner. Lots of very noisy saloons but we did find a quiet bar. We had thought to go to Diamond Tooth Gerties, which is pretty famous, but it didn’t open until 7 and we were hungry. Very touristy town for sure. We did a bit of our own walking tour after visiting the Tourist information center and getting a map. Found a wonderful jewelery store where the owner and jeweler was busy working in the back. All the jewelry in the store was made by him. As per our usual trips a bead for Norma’s Pandora bracelet was purchased. This one is silver with four gold nuggets hand made on site so very authentic and will be a wonderful addition for the “travel” bracelet.

Locally made charm

Spent the evening sitting out on our deck enjoying the cool evening breeze, bird songs and NO bugs!!!

Inuvik, N.W.T.

 We are now heading south but have stopped at the library in Inuvik to catch up on our posts: 

Tuesday, June 13, 2023 - Tombstone Mountain Terr. Park, YT – 600 km – 8 hours

If yesterday was a “fauna” day with all our sightings then today must have been a “flora” day. Our route was lined with beautiful flowers, mostly lupines. The further north we get the smaller the trees. We were a bit disappointed to not see any wildlife at all, except for a few brave gophers trying to run across the road. Oh, and lots of bear scat but no sign of the guys leaving their sign.

Lupine lined Klondike Highway

Lupines

A more leisurely day today with stops to take pictures and even go for a little hike to view the five fingers on the Yukon River. These “fingers” are comprised of conglomerate rock so they did not erode as quickly as the surrounding banks, thus leaving the fingers behind. The walk took us through part of the Little Fox Lake burn from 1998, which was apparently human caused. It has been turned into interpretive walk with explanatory signs along the way.We also stopped at the remains of a road house built during the gold rush era. It is now a historic monument.

We saw many morel pickers’ vehicles and tent camps along a previous burned area, a fire from last year we think. We plan to stop on the way down and see if the buyer (there was one set up in the middle of the burn) will sell us some.

The last 72 km were finally on the Dempster Hwy. It is gravel but very hard pack, dusty in some places but a vast improvement over all the huge unmarked potholes on the Klondike Hwy. Once we get further up we will see if this is still true.

Welcome to the Dempster Highway

We had been calculating our fuel needs prior to starting up this stretch and were concerned we’d need to drive out of our way into Dawson for gas as we’d been told there was none at the Klondike-Dempster junction, but there was! A very nice surprise.

We stopped at the Tombstone Territorial park interpretive center before getting settled into our campsite. After dinner we went for a walk and had a chat with two fellows who have just ridden their motorcycles up here from Chili, one from New Zealand and one from UK. They were telling us the ferry we need to take tomorrow isn’t running due to a buildup of silt so it can’t dock. They had their bikes taken across one at a time by some local with a little boat for $100 a pop. They were not impressed. We are hopeful, as are all the truck drivers, that this will be rectified by tomorrow.

Wed, June 14, 2023 Nitainlaii Park, NWT – 429 km – 8.5 hours

Today we got to experience the Dempster Highway in all its splendor. The scenery was magnificent from stunted pygmy spruce forests to true heather dominated tundra. Once again, the wildfower displays were spectacular. The road itself varied in quality, some sections were 90 km/hr well graded gravel (mostly in the NWT) and other sections were well potholed, corrugated and down to 40-50 km per hour. Lots of dust. There was some construction as well.

Tombstone Mt. park scenery

Tombstone Mt. park scenery

Fields of cotton grass

Not a day for wild life sightings again. Only saw ptarmigan and we were not even close to Chicken, Alaska.

Weather was mostly scattered cloud with temperatures in the mid-teens. We didn’t realize how lucky we were with our bug free camping yesterday. We met large numbers of mosquitos today, which is unfortunate as the first nation’s campground we are at tonight is very nice. They even have a wonderful modern shower house with flush toilets. No pits here!

After talking to the bikers last night about the ferry problems we were a bit anxious as to if/when/how it would be. We talked to a fellow at the Arctic Circle (he took our picture) who had waited 20 hours to get across while they rebuilt up the access ramps. This little ferry only takes 6 vehicles or one semi at a time. We counted ourselves lucky to only have to wait for less than 30 minutes. And, yes the ramps were/are just piled up dirt that can easily and quickly wash away. `Let’s hope we aren’t stuck on this side in a few days.

Ferry Approach

Dust, dust and more dust. And we thought it was bad yesterday when we got into the camper. It took ages to wash down all the surfaces to get rid of the fine dust. We have a preventative plan though and are hopeful that it will be a bit less tomorrow. Tomorrow TUK!!!

Thurs, June 15, 2023 Tuktoyaktuk, NWT – 350 km – 6 hours

WE MADE IT! After a number of cancelled tries we are in Tuk!

We are truly in the land of the midnight sun. It is as bright and sunny at 11:00 pm as it is at noon. If you think you can wait until it gets dark you will never make it to bed!

After a quiet sunlight lit night at the Ft. McPherson area campsite we proceeded north to the Mackenzie River ferry. Almost a repeat of yesterday’s crossing with a dirt onramp but no cable this time. We were on the first 0830 sailing. Our lunch stop was in Inuvik, the largest town by far since Whitehorse. This concluded the Dempster portion of the trek as the rest of the way to Tuk is via the recently constructed all weather highway? (2017). It still is in good condition although a bit of a comedown from the NWT portion of the Dempster.

Beautiful tundra scenery today – many lakes, some of which were still covered in ice. Along the road near some of the lakes were snowmobiles scattered (parked?) in the tundra, often with cargo sleds. We suppose these are used in winter and just left there during the off season.

Tundra scenery

Many sleds and sledges along the road

And we actually saw some wildlife today. Tundra swans – were they the ones who wintered on Kootenay Lake- one Cariboo who ran in front of us on the road for ages before finally heading off the road and several arctic hares. There were signs to watch for grizzlies but we think they are lying.

Upon arrival in Tuk we stopped at the welcome sign, appropriately situated in front of the Tuk pingo. The town itself we suppose is typical of high arctic towns. Lots of equipment of various descriptions scattered about. Houses all on stilts (permafrost changes any town planning) and a lot of “chaos”. We were greeted by the garbage dump at the entrance to town. Not very sightly for sure. Some of the “chaos” belongs there too.

Note the pingo in the background

Tuk waterfront

We dutifully paid our $63 for our campsite (which has power and pit toilets, but not much else other than being right on the Arctic Ocean). It is +10 and breezy.  We were out of luck having dinner at Grandma’s Kitchen because Grandma had to deal with a family emergency.  So we settled for an Indian cuisine dinner from home in the camper. We did, however, collect a bottle of arctic ocean water and purchased a local soapstone “eskimo” carving (the Inuit shopkeeper’s words, not ours) as souvenirs of the trip. 

Campsite on the Arctic Ocean

Collecting a water sample

Our entertainment for tonight is watching some other campers swimming and shrieking as they swim in the very cold Arctic Ocean.

The local entertainment seems to be riding up and down the road past the camp site on dirt bikes and ATV’s. Wonder when (if?) it will stop for the night. This seems to be the main drag.

Whitehorse, YT

955 kilometers = 10.5 hours travel time

Started out in a dense smoky haze in Ft. Nelson, drove out of it in about an hour, whereupon it rained for 3 hours. When it finally abated the wind kicked up, blowing the camper around a bit. But all in all it was a good day. Shared the road with lots of travelers from right across North America. It was fun to ID the license plates.

We had just started talking about all the wildlife we had seen in past trips up north and how we hadn’t seen a single thing yet when low and behold we spotted our first very healthy looking black bear. That started the ball rolling. We saw 8 bears, including two black sows with cubs and a beautiful blonde juvenile grizzly (our record was 13 bears in one day on our trip to Jade City), three moose, two herds of wild sheep, one with two lambs, and two herds of buffalo, the second one with calves. And to top it off two rabbits and a porcupine and, of course, deer! All in all a very good day for sightings.

Young moose

Well fed black bear

Shedding bison

On one of our past motorcycle trips we had stayed in Watson Lake and taken a picture of the signpost forest so hesitated to do it again but this is a different trip with a different mode of transportation.

Watson Lake signpost forest

We hit the highest gas price so far on this trip at $2.29 a litre. Grant it this was an out of the way area so not really surprised. Mostly it’s been around $1.80.

We most likely will not have internet for the next four days so blog entries will be multiple when we gain access again.

Fort Nelson, B.C.

 

Sat., June 10, 2023  10 Mile Lake Provincial Park, B.C. 940 kilometers  =  10.5 hours travel time

Left Nelson at 0615 and travelled to 10 Mile Lake Park (just north of Quesnel). It turned out to be a drizzly, cool day – nice for travelling in a vehicle rather than on the bike. We have stopped at this provincial campsite situated beside a popular lake. Our campsite included a painted rock collection and lots of mosquitoes until it rained them away.

Painted rocks

Frogs everywhere trying to cross the campground road has resulted some casualties but the crow cleanup crew did their duty.

When we went for our evening walk between showers we talked to a Dad and his two little boys who were just coming in from fishing. The kids were about two and four years old and reminded Norma of her boys at that age. When we asked the dad how he did he said lots of bites but only landed one. A bit of an act managing the pole, the net and keeping two littles ones out of the drink. The older one had to tell me how wet they got! It had been raining most of the afternoon but dad said every time they thought of coming in it stopped.

Fishin' buddies

Our last trip through Quesnel saw us barely miss a bad intersection accident (we rode the bike through “still spinning” debris) while the one before involved a traffic jam behind a semi that hit a bridge. Needless to say we approached with trepidation and sure enough – red flashing lights appeared ahead. This time it was just a fire dept. pickup with no one around – whew! Tomorrow to Fort Nelson.

 Sun., June 11, 2023 Fort Nelson, B.C. 906 kilometers = 10 hours travel time

Hit a wall of smoke today between Prince George and Chetwynd which lasted until a ways out of Fort St. John. Traffic was generally light all the way. Kilometer after kilometer of black spruce forest interspersed with some tracts of aspen. Many, many gravel side roads leading off the pavement are evidence of oil/gas exploration, etc. Lots of old fire scars. We stopped a Bijou Falls for a break and were impressed with the full bore spring flow.

Bijou Falls

Since we are now on the Alaska Highway, there are Alaska bound or returning motorcyclists on the road and at our motel tonight. It is almost a rite of passage for touring motorcyclists. We did our Alaska motorcycle trip in 2008 so we are of the anointed.

One more long day tomorrow will find us in Whitehorse. After that we will slow down to “smell the roses” in what is for us new travel territory. Our blog entries will hopefully reflect this.

Nelson, B.C.

We are about to embark on a journey to the Arctic Ocean. And since Tuktoyaktuk is the only place on the Arctic Ocean connected to the rest of Canada by road that is where we will go. We also will be able to view some pingos! These ice cored hills are most notable in the Canadian Pingo Landmark in the Tuktoyaktuk area. No, we are not going to ride Whiskey Jack up the Dempster Highway (we want to survive the adventure). Instead we are going to take our truck and camper unit (see photo – hope we find some campsites as nice as this one in the Kootenays).

Of interest is that “Tuk” is situated at a latitude of 69.4454° N while Karasjok, Norway (from our motorcycle trip through Europe) is at 69.4719° N so Tuk will not be the farthest north we have been! Although it will certainly seem that way.

As usual we will blog our trip. Or will we? We suspect camper internet access in the far north will be somewhat limited. But we will do our best!

Bon voyage to us!