It rained some last night; it didn’t seem like too much, but apparently I was mistaken. The Dempster told us different.

We’ve read and heard about how dusty the Dempster is, with its blinding dust, and we did get a little bit of that yesterday, but with the rain, it’s a whole different ballgame.

We left around 11:30am for the next leg of the Dempster. We refilled the Cabin water with good fresh river water and off we continued. The first 100 km today took us 2 hours and 20 minutes. It was a rough road. And of course, stunning.

The day had heavy cloud, but it didn’t rain. However, last night’s rain made for thick mud on the highway.

The further we drive, the colour changes are more significant.

Our first stop was at Ogilvie Ridge. This point gives the best view of the Ogilvie Mountains and the landscape that surrounds it. The view was beautiful, even with the clouds. We’ll stop again on our way back – perhaps on a clearer day.

I mentioned yesterday that the Dempster isn’t for the faint of heart. You MUST drive for the conditions. I know there can be many factors when an incident occurs, but we’ve seen the second semi that lost its load in as many days. I hope that the drivers and those that rescue are ‘ok’. ❤️

We pulled into Eagle Plains at just past 3:00pm. Eagle Plains is a service stop located aproximately half way between Dawson City and Inuvik. Today it was a mud pit! The fueling station was curious, but effective.
Fully self serve.

As we see these small places, we’d like to support the local community. Today I popped into the Arctic Circle Restaurant to get some takeout for lunch.

When we pulled into the parking lot, there was a group of older sports cars. We’d read about these guys earlier in the week on the Dempster Facebook page. These guys are @joinbucket on Instagram and YouTube. They film themselves doing “anything and everything you can in old unreliable cars”. They’ve been to Tuk and are now on their way back down. They posted the other day that they slept in their cars for the trip. I’m not sure when they’ll post their trip, but I think he said October.

Eric stayed in the Van while I went in to get lunch. The dogs were upfront with him when 2 ravens decided to get a better look at the dogs. Landed on the hood of the van with zero fear. Eric had to honk, and even then they were reluctant to leave.

After our little excursion in Eagle Plains, it was back on the road. You could hear the sloshing of the mud as we carried on the Dempster.

Some interesting things here on the Dempster. There is a stretch of highway that doubles up as an emergency landing strip.

Next stop – The Arctic Circle! The Arctic Circle in the Yukon is the line of latitude at 66°33′ N where the Dempster Highway crosses into the Land of the Midnight Sun. It marks the southern limit where the sun does not set on June 21 or rise on December 21.

The view here is spectacular. These are the Richardson Mountains. These mountains, every angle reveals another layer of raw, northern scenery.

We went a bit further and decided to call it a day. Today we drove 239 km, taking us 4 hours and 38 minutes. Yesterday was 195 km, for 4 hours and 47 minutes. We’re taking our time and loving all the good, not-so-good, and muddy! It’s been raining for the past several hours, so tomorrow will be interesting.

Today we met the Dempster Mud. The mud is clay, and when it hardens, it’s like pretty tough stuff to remove.
Heck, when it’s wet, it’s hard to remove, as Eric can attest. We have heard more than once that after driving the Dempster and giving things a good wash, folks’ cars would shake like a good thing and think they had broken something on the rough road. Most were told that one or more wheels still had clay/mud inside the wheel rims and/or in the brake area, and other places. Once cleaned up completely, all runs smooth again. I’m pretty sure Eric will spend an exhaustive amount of time getting rid of clay in all the nooks and crannies.

We found a wonderful place to stay tonight along The Rock River. The dogs are loving it and so are we!