| Main Page | The Route | The People | Dispatches | Resources |
Jack Stafford, July 30th
|
|
|
Journal entries during the "Top of the World Tour" from Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT. This chapter takes me up the Dempster highway from Dawson City, Yukon to Inuvik, NWT.
We get a late start at 11am. Sue's boilover in the diesel Westy revealed a leaky coolant tank. Bob helps her patch the plastic tank and get underway.
Most of this highway is built on permafrost. To make a stable road surface the engineers first build a levee out of rocks from a moraine or shale chips to a height of 3 to 40 feet. On top of the levee is gravel, mud and calcium carbonate (?) to form a "crust".
There was construction on the first 20 Km. Canada has the prettiest construction flag operators I've ever seen. At nearly every construction zone you'll find a lady flagging you down to warn you of the situation ahead; A large grader pushing a pile of fresh gravel flat using a long blade scraper. The grader had one lane and the traffic had to share the other. Along the way we had to drive over a 2' high berm of gravel and stay on the ungraded side of the highway. Sue went over the berm and into the trees off the side of the roadway. A tractor pulled her out using a tow strap. She was shaken, but not broken and able to continue.
Coyote wanted to get a caravan photo showing all campers in a line bumper-to-bumper. It takes a good long time and I get nervous should a car or truck approach us at a dead stop and nowhere to go. The photo was snapped and we're back underway. On the road a new Ford sedan passed each and every one of us in the convoy. By the time they passed the leader they were really upset and drove away very fast.
We make another stop at Tombstone Mt. for more photo oportunities. We got a late start and a couple stops both planned and unplanned were made already. Not feeing like posturing and posing, I opted to follow Eddie up the Dempster to Eagle Plains at a slower pace and let the rest catch up.
Along the way we find a family of tourists waving us down. Eddie checks to see that everyone is ok, then heads back down the road to a road worker truck. While Eddie's away I make a distress call on CB ch9, then again on our ch2 to warn the convoy. There's noone around for a mile or so and certainly no cars in view yet the family is still frantically waving down traffic. Hmm. They were swatting mosquitoes which were swarming out of the ditch where the Ford rested. I loaned them my Off bug spray and got back in my VW. It looked like they were going 100Kmh, got onto the right shoulder then tried to turn back onto the road. Their tires were in the "marbles" and lost traction, slid into the ditch then rolled once stopping with the shiny side up. The Dempster takes another victim. An orange highway worker truck and a biker arrive (must have been monitoring ch9) to save them.
I continue to follow Eddie at a steady speed of 50 mph. There's snow on the road in some places. We slow down and slog through the slippery road. The Dempster dust has been replaced with mud. It goes on like stucco and sticks better. Tobin and Eddie stop to refuel from the Jerry cans and Neil and I go on to find the Eagle Plains gas stop only 7 Km ahead.
Eagle Plains has a diner and a lounge with pool tables and darts. On the walls of the lounge there are documents that chronicle the Mad Trapper. It stays light through the clouds. All through the night it lightly pisses down a chilly rain. At 1am it's time to crash.
2:30 am comes and it's still light out and still drizzling. I take a hot shower then back to sleep. 8am wakeup call. I get up and get ready for the rest of the Dempster. As usual, we don't actually roll until 11am.
Don's Vanagon is getting 10 mpg so he leaves it here at Eagle Plains. He and his dog, Casey, join me in my van for the Inuvik run. I'm not quite prepared for this as Casey steps on my breakfast and CB radio. Casey is a really smart Aust. shepard with alot of instinct. I should have known better then to leave my stuff in the aisle of the walk-thru.
Up north of EP we find more gravel road and a landscape of green hills and smooth rock mountains. This must be the places not covered in glacier during the last ice age. The trees in B.C. were giants containing many board feet of lumber. Up here the trees are only 20 feet tall and consist of mostly one stalk with stubby, half-dead branches. Ivette says they look sad. In some places the sad trees are all gone. Trees don't grow very well in the tundra.
At the arctic circle we stop for more choreography. Sue uses her GPS locator and finds that 66*33' lattitude is just up the road a little ways from the signpost. Bob changes a tire. Farther up the road Eddie would lose a shock absorber, then a brake cyl, then a tire all on the left rear. The Dempster clutches at his bus but Eddie pulls it away.
Ivette, Jorge and I stopped for lunch at a cafe in Ft.McPherson. I remember this was the worst cheeseburger I have ever eaten. We found ourselves at the tail end of the convoy. Across one ferry and haul ass to the one at Arctic Red R. to catch up. As we approach the ferry landing I remember hearing someone call "go straight to the ferry, don't stop." Well, this struck me as funny as there was no other option. The only thing at the end of this road is the ferry. We pulled in line for the next ferry behind Bob. As the ferry was preparing to dock another call came out on channel 2, "What are you guys _doing_ back there?" "We're having a weenie roast on the beach." sent out in reply. There's nothing here to do except watch the ferry slowly land on the beach.
About 10 Km outside of Inuvik the gravel turns to pavement. My fuel gauge says empty and shortly thereafter I run the tank dry. Jerry can to the rescue. At a fuel station up the road we come upon the rest of the group. Christa CB calls for everyone to line up bumper to bumper for a parade into downtown Inuvik. We wait another good long time, then creep along at 20 mph. Dangerous. All this posing for the press and paparazzi will cause trouble one of these times. In the end the parade never goes downtown and is diverted to a camp at Chuk Territorial Park for the night, so it was all for naught.
There's the equivalent of a "florida room" at the camp. A building with large screen windows and a woodfired stove. There is a convocation for all of our Vanagon people to toast and Tobin and Christa's awards ceremony. Now it seems we have made it to the end of the road.
Jack (stafford@alloth.hac.com)
