To Meziadin, Smithers and Home

 

Meziadin Lake

We packed up in the rain and headed out. It cleared up in the afternoon but the mountains remained socked in.

Saw a little fox just north of Dease Lake and soon after a beaver in the middle of the highway.

Then we saw a moose on the road just south of Tatogga Lake.  We were complaining that we hadn't seen any bears yet but then after Bell II we saw a female with 3 cubs, 

followed soon after by two small bears crossing the road in front of us.

Leo sw one more black bear before we arrived at our campground at Meziadin Lake.  

We snagged a nice waterfront site.  And the sun was shining!

The big spruce tree in our campsite was full of young golden-crowned kinglets.

Birds of the Day!

New this year tent campers have to camp behind an electric fence.

Meziadin is notorious for its black bears.  I haven't heard of any bad incidents so they must just be tired of shooting problem bears.

We woke up to sunshine at Meziadin Lake

Morning view from our campsite

But it soon turned cloudy and then to rain.

We saw two more bears on the Stewart Cassier Highway.

We reached Smithers by noon and parked up at the municipal campground.

And spent some quality time with Sybille and Dave.  In between rainshowers we went for some short walks.  

Down by Seymour Lake Leo photographed this cedar waxwing

And this red-necked grebe with her grebelet.

The next day we drove home.  To complete the wildlife tally we saw one more black bear.

Heading Homewards

 

Boya Lake

We drove all day, arriving in Whitehorse at 5:30 pm.  It was our anniversary so we all dressed up decent (no rain pants) and went out to dinner at Giorgio's for Greek food.  Next to us was seated a group of Argentinian motorcyclists who'd ridden all the way from South America.

The next morning we caught up with Cathy Koot, an old birding friend from Williams Lake.  She's been up the Dempster Highway 15 times (!!) including on a motorbike. She puts our excellent adventures to shame.

The locals know all the good spots so we met her at the Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters for good coffee and muffi1ns.

That didn't stop us from going back to our favourite bakery/cafe later in the day.

Ginger cookie and scone at the Baked Cafe

Leo and I decided we were travelled out so opted out of continuing on to Kluane National Park so we said goodbye to Mark and Leah the next morning.  

We saw this nice brown bear on the roadside south of Whitehorse.

We were hoping to stop for the world's best cinnamon buns at Johnson Crossing but they were closed down!  Tragic.

Stopped for gas at the junction of the Alaska and Stewart Cassier highways.  To our surprise gas prices here were cheaper than in Smithers, BC.

They  must do a good business because though it's dilapidated looking place with an old log cabin for an office they have brand new gas pumps.

We arrived at Boya Lake Provincial Park at 3 pm.  All the reserved sites on the lake were taken but there were plenty unreserved spots in the trees.

Stopped for a selfie.

Our sunny day had turned to cloud but you could still see the mountains in the distance.  After we went to bed it started raining and rained all night.

Back to Dawson City

Love the dogs led condiment tray

We had breakfast in the cafe, this morning there was just one item on the menu - bacon and eggs.

Trucks lined up at Eagle Plains

Then it was pretty much just driving all day.  We saw 2 hares on the road early on our Drive.  We stopped for lunch at Tombstone Park. 

We arrived at our trailer storage in Dawson at 4 pm, hitched up and camped up at the Bonanza RV. Then it was a mad dash to get loonies and do the laundry before it closed for the night.

On the Road Again

 

Eagle at the ferry terminal

Mark V got up early in the morning to check out the ferry situation.  The ferry was gone!  We found out later that the cable had snapped and the ferry drifted downstream.

We went for free breakfast at the community centre.  A traveller from Quebec had gotten a head's up that a local would ferry vehicles across for $100.  Word came that the boat was ready to go but the price was now $400 for vehicles, $200 for motorcycles!  We had to scrabble $800 in cash between us or wait till the Coop to open to access the ATM.  Luckily, we managed to scrape it together. We rushed back to the campsite, packed up and headed for the ferry landing.  

Love these old style plywood river boats

Our Quebequois friend had already gotten across and Mark was first in line.  The boat came back across but then took off downstream to tow the ferry back up.   A lineup of travellers was forming behind us.  There were also transport trucks stuck until the ferry service resumed.  Locals were showing up and waiting to see if the ferry would be towed back up.

We talked to two women and when we told them what we were paying they were disgusted.  Apparently Isaac of L&R Contracting is not very popular among the locals.  That guy, he's one of us but he's only into it for the money, only looking out for himself.  They told us not to pay.  They were thinking of bringing food out for the stranded people.

Everyone here was so nice, but not nice enough for us to spend however many days till ferry service resumed.

Word came down that a biker had sent up a drone and saw the ferry being towed up the river.  And eventually, Isaac's boat came around the bend towing the ferry behind.

They got the ferry moored and Isaac resumed his lucrative ferry service.

Mark was the first to go.

We'd removed our trailer hitches so we could fit in.  There were a couple of Germans in big rental pickup campers desperate to get across (they had unreasonable plane tickets in Whitehorse to meet) but there was no way they'd fit on.

We were next.

Off we go

Lineup on the other side:

Arriving on the opposite shore:

The young  couple from Prince George behind us were in a pickup with a small (6 ft box) camper. They were the heaviest vehicle he'd ever taken across.  They left the ramp partway down and water was coming into the boat.

Then it was a 3 hour drive to Eagle Plains. We'd looked into motel rooms but there was no vacancy of course because Eagle Plains was full of travellers and truckers waiting to go in the other direction.  The good news was camping was free because they couldn't provide enough electricity or water for all their guests.

Motorcycles parked outside the restaurant

The campground is just a big gravel parking lot but it's actually in a great location on the height of land. You have a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding mountains. 

We had supper in the restaurant. They had a very small menu, probably running out of supplies.  I had a porkchop with fresh carrots and brussels sprouts, mmm, real vegetables at last.

I can't remember where we saw the Pacific loons.

Birds of the Day!

Gwich'in Time

Wearing my bug screen inside the screen tent!

The sun came out today.  We set up our screen tent on the group site gravel to stay out of the mud.

We had a late breakfast and headed back to the music festival around two in the afternoon.  There were a few locals and a few tourists in the stands.  We chatted with the organizers.  Entrance was free and they seemed to be funding it with scratch and wins and t-shirt sales (and presumably arts grants.  

Most of the bands are indigenous musicians brought in from Alberta.

 I brought earplugs this time.  A band called Stoned Country was playing.  We gave them a rousing applause and the band leader called us out.  Afterward he came up and talked to us, saying how much he appreciated our acknowledgement. He's from a Metis community near Lac La Biche with a Cree and Norwegian background.  I'm sure the band got the response they deserved when they played later that evening.

Later we had a band playing the classic country tunes with a great lead singer who could really sing those old Hank Williams songs.  This brought out the two steppers as the locals began drifting in.

Doris and Gabrielle were a mother and daughter duo from Inuvik.  The Outlaws handed out stickers and sang gospel tunes Country rock style.

We left after the drag queen contest.  The campsite was buzzing with stranded travellers.  A bunch of motorcyclists were staying in the wall tents.  A big group of German tourists were having a potluck at the picnic tables next to us. Everyone was in good spirits now that the rain had stopped.

An Unplanned Stay in Fort MacPherson

 It rained all night and we woke up to a giant puddle under the tent and had to pack up our wet and muddy tent.  We found a breakfast place open at the airport; fortunately they made really good breakfast sandwiches with potato wedges.

Then south to the McKenzie River ferry where the ferryman told us that the Peel River ferry was out of service due to high water.

Waiting to get on the McKenzie River Ferry

But they'll get it fixed up soon, he said.

So we drove on to the Peel River ferry and got in the lineup.  The word was that it would be out for 2 or 3 days.  Some people were heading back to Inuvik.  Not wanting to camp in the rain we raced into Fort MacPherson to get a motel.  It turned out they were already full up for the weekend's music festival.  So we rushed back to Naitaiinlaii campground (where we'd stayed all by ourselves on the way up) to get a spot before it filled up with all the trapped travellers.

We both reserved the wall tents on platforms in the group campsite (Fort MacPherson has a canvas tent factory) but it turned out they were leaky so Leo and I moved to a regular campsite.  Mark and Leah stayed in the wall tent as it gave their small tent some protection and kept them out of the mud.

All set up in Netaiinlaii Campground

Then back into town to look for a restaurant.  All they had in town was a takeout at the hotel.  They actually had pretty decent hamburgers and homemade soup but no place to sit.  So we ate in our separate vehicles.  In thecrain.  Surrounded by mud puddles.

We drove back to the campground and set up Mark's gas fire ring in the camp shelter. The rain was blowing in through a large screen window so we covered it with a tarp.  Another camper organized some firewood so we bought some and fired up the wood stove. It was just getting warmed up when we decided to go in to the music festival.  It started at 9; I argued that noone would show up till at least 10 pm.

I was right. There were two people in the stands.  The band was just tuning up.

Anyway the sound was really loud echoing through the empty arena.  We didn't stay long; as we were leaving a few locals were beginning to trickle in.

On the way back to camp we came across five sandhill cranes in the middle of the  road.  Bird of the Day!

Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic Ocean

It rained all night and continued on into the morning.  The campsite was so muddy I just wore my rainpants and rubber booties all day.

We headed off on the 3 hour road trip to Tuktoyaktuk, the end of the Dempster Highway and the Arctic Ocean.  It rained the whole way so there wasn't any stopping.  The taiga eventually transitioned to tundra.  The locals leave their snowmobiles along the side of the highway.  Apparently they use them in the summer to ride across the tundra.

We stopped at the pingo viewpoint but not for long in the heavy rain,

Then we drove through town to the end of the road and the big Arctic Ocean sign.  The rain was blowing horizontally into our faces.

Having fun yet?

I had planned to do a polar bear dip in the ocean but not in this weather.  So I waded in instead.

Leo was a wuss.

Afterwards we headed to Grandna's Kitchen, a takeout cafe that serves hamburgers and local whitefish and chips.  You eat in a separate building on the water.

A bunch of people did their polar bear swims here and dried off in front of the woodstove. 

It was a convivial atmosphere with everyone celebrating the end of their road trip, everyone introducing themselves and swapping stories.

Eating our fish and chips

Our neighbour's had ordered muktuk (whale blubber) and offered us a piece.

I tried it (Leo was a wuss) and was surprised at how non-fishy it was, quite bland and unobjectionable.  

I only ate the one piece though

 With that done we drove back to Inuvik in the relentless rain.  On the way we saw the Bird of the Day sitting in the middle of the road!  A lifer!