Sept. 2 - Home again, adjusting to a new reality

We're home again, after a wonderful trip.  The north did not disappoint - it is certainly the most geographically exciting place we've been and the wildlife, the hiking, the scenery and the people were all fantastic.  The geology on a grand scale is what most impressed us - the great rivers, the Tintina trench (most northern extent of the Rocky Mountain Trench), the glaciated landscapes and the unglaciated refugia, the rugged spines of the newest mountains, the braided river deltas, and the ancient folded sea floors.  The northern landscape of glaciers, permafrost, muskeg is so different from our experience, and the changing nature of the north with the pressure of climate change is frightening.

This trip was unique in the sheer number of superlatives it contained -  most northerly road accessed from the south in Canada (the Dempster Highway to Inuvik), most westerly part of NA (Alaska), most northerly park in Yukon (Ivaavik), highest mountain in NA (Denali), highest mountain in Canada (Logan - close but still unseen), crossings of the Continental Divide (10), and crossings of the Arctic Circle (2).

We travelled 13,100 km. in 98 days.  Eighty five of those nights we spent in the camper.  We didn't do the world any favours with the amount of diesel we used, but on the other hand, we didn't consume much in the way of energy for heat, light or hot water.  Our solar panel and propane tanks did all the rest.  We had 3 flat tires - 2 on the Dempster, 1 in Haines, and fixed them all ourselves, but we damaged a wheel on the Dempster and spent $1900 on new tires and wheel repairs.  Otherwise no serious mishaps although we narrowly avoided disaster with a full grown moose in Alaska.  She got a close trim of her whiskers on our front fender, and we had to change our underwear.

I feel we need to name all the highlights so I'll simply list all the top spots:

hottest day - Inuvik - 30 deg. C

coldest day - Arctic Circle, Dempster Highway - snow, rain, wind, 4 deg. C. (3 days earlier)
longest day - June 21 of course, as we watched the sun go all the way around the horizon on the Dempster, just below the Arctic Circle
 

best hiking - Ivaavik National Park, Yukon with Parks Canada

best kayaking - Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, with Sea Wolf Adventures

best canoeing - Boya Lake, BC

best fishing - Klondike River, Dawson City, Yukon

best swimming - Klondike River

 

best commercial campground - Hi-Country RV Park in Whitehorse - fresh flowers in washrooms, long hot showers

best wilderness campground - Muncho Lake PP, BC for scenery, fishing, hiking

best wayside attraction - Liard Hotsprings, BC - duh!

best museum - Beringia, Whitehorse - fascinating background on northern glaciation, the Bering land bridge and migration patterns, and geography of the north

best park - Denali National Park, Alaska - wildlife viewing, alpine flowers, hiking, scenery, wilderness

best  meal - Liz - freshcaught lake trout - Muncho Lake

                   Norbert - 229 Park Hwy. Restaurant near Denali - his birthday dinner

best unexpected delay - waiting for truck parts for a week in Dawson City

best local experience - volunteering for Yukon River Quest, Dawson City
best hospitality - Gary, for taking us in for a week in Dawson City

 

best mosquito swatter - Alaska State Park map - folds perfectly to fit hand, flexible yet strong, and Sarah Palin's face is perfect target on back cover.

most mosquitoey spot - Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska - only place we had to wear head nets.

worst mud - Dempster Highway (we had clods of mud on the roof of the camper!)

stupidest mistake - driving down the highway with camper stairs attached 

best salient lesson - horrible residual effects from 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska

biggest regret - never made it to Tuktoyaktuk, but it does give us another good reason for the next trip.

We would go back in a minute, and we've decided to see a bit of the north in winter.  With any luck we'll have a trip to Whitehorse this winter.  The night sky (which we missed all summer) should be great, and the northern lights are always on my priority list, plus we'd like to volunteer for the Yukon Quest.  (1000 mile dog sled race across Alaska and Yukon, for those who weren't raised with Rin Tin Tin.) But for now we need to adjust to living in a house, with running water and all the mod cons again.  It seems like the ultimate luxury to stand in the shower daydreaming, or have hot water come out of a faucet!  What a funny world we live in where the simplest of pleasures are taken for granted!

Thanks for coming along with us.  It's been a fantastic voyage and sharing it has been a great joy for me.  Let's hope we all have many more years of health and ability to enjoy together.

 

The massive Salmon Glacier on a grey day outside of Stewart BC.

Tiny Hyder, Alaska, pop. 100.  Only accessible from Stewart BC, or by sea, but still the bars are thriving!

Lovely grey wolf who came to the river outside of Hyder just as we were watching the spawning salmon.  He caught a big fish in his teeth, thrashed it to death on the shore, and ate it all!



Norbert fishing along the Stewart Cassiar Highway. (A seriously misguided name - Stewart is 60 km off the highway, and Cassiar doesn't exist any more.)



One of several standing poles in Kispiox, BC.

Horses grazing at Hat Creek Ranch outside Cache Creek, BC, our last morning on the road.

Our home for three months, vagabonds happily wandering through the wilderness.