The Dempster Highway

From Tourist to Adventurer . . .

August 25, 2002

I arrived back in Dawson City tonight with a jubilant heart! I have definitely won a victory of some sort–surviving the Dempster Highway. I am also very glad to be off the Dempster Highway after 7 days of heaven and hell. The scenery en route to Inuvik is truly spectacular and I’m glad I saw and experienced it but it was a pearl of great price.

Day one actually went fairly well. After dropping Mary at the Dawson City airport, I turned north onto the piece of road that has been named the Dempster. One of my friends in Saskatchewan calls the highway between Regina and Saskatoon “The Highway of Tears” as she often finds herself in tears, working through life’s issues as she drives along that route. Well, I might say the same of the Dempster. Turning onto the highway, I took a deep breath and felt tears welling. I’m not sure what emotions I was feeling–elation at finally being underway, fear at what might be ahead, gratitude for the incredible opportunity I was being given. That first day, I drove as far as Tombstone Mountain and camped in the territorial park. My camping site was surrounded by mountains and at the back, there was a beautiful river. Again, I got to sleep with the sounds of a river bustling past the back door of the van. As Buster and I went for a short hike that evening, the tears were back–the land was just so filled with beauty and splendour.

On Day Two, I set out from Tombstone with no particular agenda in mind other than taking my time and enjoying the sights along the way. The highway soon began to show its true colours. Three weeks of almost steady rain had turned most of it into mud soup and the highway repair crews just couldn’t keep up. There were areas that were completely littered with pot-holes and I eventually came to call myself a pot-hole jockey. There were other places where the gravel/soil top (the road is not paved) had disappeared exposing the jagged rocks of the road base. Some places were similar to the back roads in Saskatchewan–these were the good spots. And then, just for interest, there were a few gigantic vehicle-devouring mud holes. With these road conditions in mind and heeding the advice of many other travellers, I deliberately took my time and averaged about 40 kph.

Not far from Tombstone Park, there is a small lake called Two Moose Lake. It was lunch time and so I stopped to watch the waterfowl and to have a bite to eat. As I was returning to the van from the lookout point, another vehicle and trailer pulled into the parking area and the man asked me if I had a good spare. Thumping my spare, he added, “Because you’ve got a flat!” He offered to help me change the tire and I wasn’t about to be so independently stupid as to say no. We got the van jacked up and the tire switched but the lug nuts didn’t seem to fit properly and one wouldn’t tighten up. The man advised that I go very slowly for about 100 yards to make sure it was OK and to stop immediately if I heard a clunking sound. I started out, inching my way along the road, and all seemed fine. I was somewhat concerned, however, because I was now using the spare and it was about 250 kms to the next service station. So I drove even more slowly.

About 100 kms along the road, I heard a clunking noise and I stopped immediately to investigate. To my horror, the spare tire rim had been chewing up the lug nuts and it didn’t look good. I tried to tighten the nuts up and thought I would just creep along to the campsite which was about 10 kms up the road. As I pulled back on the road, I heard another mighty clunk and discovered that the wheel had fallen off! I can’t remember exactly what I said at that moment but I’m sure I used several common expletives.

As I sat, pondering my situation and the options (or lack thereof), a car pulled up and asked if I needed help. The options didn’t look good. The service station was still about 180 kms away in a place called Eagle Plains. My spare tire was fine but the rim was all chewed up. My regular tire rim was good but the tire was flat. I decided to take Buster and leave the van and get a ride to Eagle Plains. Just past the campground, about 12 kms ahead of where I had broken down, there was a highway maintenance camp and so we pulled in there. The foreman was there and he called to Eagle Plains to have a tow truck dispatched. It would take about 2 and a half hours for the truck to arrive so I got a ride back to the van to wait. On our way back to the van, there, in the middle of the road, was a grizzly mother and her two cubs. For the couple who stopped to help me, this was very exciting and they stopped to take some pictures while the bears lumbered off into the woods. I thought to myself, “There’s no way I’m going to be out wandering around in the woods while I wait for that tow truck!”

So I sat and I waited. It was very peaceful and not very many vehicles passed me during the late afternoon. At one point in time, there was a group of Dall’s sheep playing in the river that passed along the side of the road but the bears never came back. After the 2 ½ hours had passed I began watching anxiously for the tow truck but there was no sign of any vehicles. I knew I would be OK if I had to spend the night on the side of the road as I had lots of food and the propane tank was full but I was concerned about being hit by another vehicle in the night who didn’t see me stranded on the roadside. From time to time, I felt tears of frustration welling up (this wasn’t what I had planned!) but 20 years of military service brought out the courage to fight them back. Several more hours passed and this time, the time began to drag on painfully. Then, I saw one of the highway maintenance trucks approaching. The same foreman I met earlier (Jimmy) got out and informed me that the tow truck had broken down about 30 kms up the road. The driver had hitch-hiked back to Eagle Plains and then they had radioed back to let them know at the maintenance camp. He had brought along another highway worker (Bruce) who believed he might be able to help me get back on the road again. The foreman took my regular tire back to the shop to repair the flat, and in the meanwhile, Bruce started to work on the wheel. The lug nuts had been severed completely and part had melted on to the tire bolts. After about an hour of frustration, I went to get my tool box to see if I had anything that might help the cause. Lo and behold, in the box was an extra set of wheel nuts! These were the ones that were supposed to be used with the spare. I remembered finding a little container with nuts in it when I first got the van but I had no idea what they were for and so I just stashed them in my tool box. Unfortunately, these nuts were not going to be much help because the rim for the spare was all chewed up. But, also in the tool box was a channel-lock wrench and Bruce was able to get the lug nuts off the wheel bolts with this tool and his amazingly strong hands. He went back and got the tire that Jimmy had repaired. Luckily, there was also one extra nut for the regular rim (it takes special nuts because it’s a custom aluminum rim, if you please). We took one nut from each of the other wheels and replaced the tire. Now each wheel was fastened with 4 instead of 5 nuts but Bruce assured me this would be OK–just go easy! By then, it was about midnight and so I decided to drive slowly to the campground that was just up the road. Bruce followed me to make sure I was OK. And so day two finally came to an end.

The next morning, I drove very slowly to Eagle Plains passing the broken-down tow truck on the way. When I arrived at the service station, they replaced the wheel bolts and put the spare tire on a good used rim but unfortunately, they didn’t have the special lug nuts for the regular tire. I decided to use the spare so that I could return the borrowed lug nuts to the other wheels.

Eagle Plains is an interesting town with a population of 8 according to the sign. There is a service station, a highway maintenance camp, a motel, and a campground. Of course, the service station specializes in tires. After three weeks of rain, the place was a mud bowl. Once the repairs were done, I decided to camp the night.

On Day 4, I awoke to a blizzard! Crossing the Arctic Circle with BusterWhy should I have been surprised–it is only about 38 kms south of the Arctic Circle. In spite of the weather, the thrill of crossing the Arctic Circle seemed to make up for most of the frustrations of the previous 2 days. Along the route to Inuvik, there are two short ferry rides across the Peel and the Mackenzie rivers. The Peel crossing was quite an experience. The three previous weeks of rain had all but washed away the landing dock and maintenance crews were doing their best by adding more gravel to the site. Getting on and off the ferry required driving through about 1 foot of mud and gravel. Luckily, I didn’t get stuck (Saskatchewan driving experience had already taught me never to slow down in mud–just keep a slow steady pace). Others weren’t so lucky and there was a bull dozer standing by to help. I heard a hair-raising tale from a couple who got stuck. They placed a rubber tire in between the rear bumper of their car and the shovel of the bulldozer and went for quite a ride. I made it to Inuvik that evening and the scenery was well worth the effort although the roadTsiigehnjik along the Peel River conditions were extremely challenging.

Day 5 was spent doing some chores in Inuvik. It took over half an hour to wash the mud from the van. Just before it was my turn to use the wand wash, a young man came up to me and asked if he could break in the line ahead of me to wash his bike. He had just completed the journey from California to Inuvik by bicycle! I was completely astounded as he told me of riding in the snow, fearing frost bite, bears, and other dangers. At times, he said, he had to cant the bike on a 45 degree angle just in order to stay upright. When I applauded his bravery and courage, he suggested there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. Mountainous terrain along Dempster HighwayIt was a thought that had come to me, as well, during the past few days. In Inuvik, I also checked the tire store to see if they had the special lugs nuts for Buckskin. No such luck!

I found Inuvik to be quite a depressing town and I certainly had more interest in concluding my trip and getting the tire situation resolved than in exploring town, so I turned tail that afternoon and started the long trip back down the Dempster. That night, I made it to Fort Macpherson which is in between the two ferry rides and just before the really muddy ferry bank. As good weather was forecast, I decided to camp for the night and tackle the ferry the next morning, hoping the loading bank might be a bit drier.

Day 6 dawned as a beautiful, bright, and sunny day. The ferry was a piece of cake. I stopped again at the Arctic Circle and then decided to try for Engineer’s Creek campground (the one where I stayed following my first flat tire experience). Just after leaving the Arctic Circle, there’s a long climbing hill and part way up it, I heard that dreaded sound that signals a flat tire! I pulled off and started the process of changing a tire on a hill. I couldn’t get the jack to go under the axle and was glad when some people stopped to help. Together, we finally got the jack positioned, and the tires blocked, but when the guy started jacking the van up, the van shifted, fell off the jack, and broke the base of the jack. He got his jack out of his truck and we managed to get the tire changed. The flat was on the spare which had The terrain along the Dempster Highwayliterally blown apart. The steel belt was exposed and the rubber shredded. I wasn’t entirely surprised as it was an older tire to begin with and it had done yeoman duty for the past 3 days of very difficult driving conditions. So now, I was using the regular tire but had to rob the other wheels of a lug nut each. Luckily, Eagle Plains was only 38 kms up the road. I was hoping the service station might have a good used tire I could purchase for the spare but all they had in the right size were new tires. I had a choice–either bite the bullet and buy a new tire (they charge an arm and a leg for them) or take a chance and wait for Dawson City where I might get a decent used tire or a cheaper new one. I decided to bite the bullet and not take any chances. With the tires changed, again, I headed off south.

On my way down the Dempster, between Eagle Plains and Engineer’s Creek, it was raining on one side of the valley and sunny on the other. Rainbow at Ogilvie Overlook – Dempster HighwayThe scenery was made even more spectacular by a huge double rainbow that grew out of the middle of the valley. It stayed there for over 30 minutes. I took it as a good sign. We arrived at Engineer’s Creek at about 10 p.m. I was looking for a vacant campsite and had just stopped in front of the same site I had used earlier when I heard a strange flopping sound. I looked around and a man was running toward the van to inform me–I HAD ANOTHER FLAT TIRE! Two in one day–what a blessing. This time, it was the other back wheel, however. As I was right in front of the camping site, I decided to back in slowly and deal with the tire in the morning.

Day 7–I awoke at 6:15 a.m. to the sound of rain falling and thought–oh what fun. Luckily, the rain stopped and as I couldn’t get back to sleep, I decided to tackle the job of changing yet another tire. I was quite concerned about the jack and wasn’t sure if it would work or not. Rather than see if someone else could loan me a jack, I thought I’d give my lame jack a try. God bless the thing, it actually worked. Once again, I was glad of my military training where I had learned how to leopard crawl on my belly. This act of gracefulness was required in order to get under the van to place the jack in position under the axle. And so I changed flat tire number three all by myself. I was quite elated when I had finished.

So it was time to get last night’s dishes done, wash the mud out of my hair, eat breakfast, and get back on the road–hopefully, my last day of the Dempster. I was anxious to put the mud of the Dumpster, I mean Dempster, behind me. The Colours of Fall begin early along the DempsterI decided to celebrate my little successes with blueberry pancakes. I put two pots of water on to boil and within minutes, the flames flickered and died. So I celebrated with a cold breakfast ( a granola bar) and a cold bird bath (reminding me of my military training days yet again). Grinning, grinding my teeth, and bearing/baring it, I let myself think for a moment that things could be worse but I didn’t revel for long in those thoughts.

I took off from Engineer’s Creek with a flat tire but the brand new spare tire was in place. I thanked God for my brilliant decision to purchase a new spare the day before. I set off with no spare but I did have an emergency donut spare that a highway maintenance man had given me, and a can of tire repair gunk. I have no idea if that stuff actually works but I felt a slight degree of confidence in its presence. I knew the trip would be slow because I didn’t want to put any stress on the tires. The funny thing is that I did the entire trip slowly and still had lots of tire trouble. The scenery was beautiful and I noticed how much the colours of Autumn had developed in the few days since I began the journey.

So I arrived in Dawson City with a jubilant heart. I have done the Dempster and I am done with the Dempster. I also have an increased confidence in my ability to change tires on this van. I have learned some important lessons:

1. Not all lug nuts are created equal!
2. Never confuse a nut with a bolt.
3. Slow down. The journey IS the destination.
4. Everything I needed to resolve the problem in the first place was in the van. I had the resources–physical, mental, and spiritual–to deal with the problems.
5. Like basic military training, I learned a lot about my own limits and stamina.
6. A lame jack is better than no jack at all.
7. Life is an adventure!
8. Don’t sweat the small stuff and don’t pet the sweaty stuff.
9. Unto each day–as Jesus put it, “Today’s trouble is enough for today!” (Mt 6)
10. Trust the inner voice of wisdom.

And the question I keep pondering, what does the word “adventure” actually mean? I will allow that question to be a companion in my journey but if you have any thoughts, please pass them along. All I know is this–in spite of my harrowing experience of the Dempster, I am already planning my next adventure. Stay tuned as the saga unfolds!