The Dempster is Calling

I named this blog "The Road That Beckons" because places I've never been to, and the roads that take you there, pull at me like someone pulling at my sleeve. It's irresistible, the urge to go, whenever we come across a new road that looks inviting.

When our trip first started the plan was to reach The town of Deadhorse which is the end of the road at Prudhoe Bay on the 415 mile long Dalton Highway. We made it part of the way reaching the Artic Circle but there's definitely some unfinished business north of 66 degrees (north latitude). While the Dalton Highway takes you farthest north in Alaska in Canada that highway is called the Dempster and it runs from a turn off the road between Dawson City and Whitehorse.

From there it meanders 456 miles north to the town of Inuvik, Northwest Territory, hosting two ferry river crossings along the way.  While we were in Dawson City one of the ferries was closed because the river had flooded stranding people on both sides for about a week. Dawson City has a visitors center dedicated to the Dempster and the communities it reaches. In summer Inuvik is as far as you can travel, though in winter you can get even further on an ice road until you reach your final destination of Tuktoyaktuk. The First Nation staffers at the visitors center said there are plans to extend the summer road to Tuktoyaktuk by as early as next year.

The Dempster has a fearsome reputation for being hard on vehicles and tires. We spoke to one person who had fixed 9 flats on his way to Inuvik. When we came across the turn to the Dempster we drove a short section to get a feel for it but like many of these roads the first couple of miles are not a true indicator of what is to come.

We saw a gentleman on the side of the road making his final preparations for his trip. He was heading home to Inuvik and he had a number of jerry cans full of gas along with two brand new tires just in case. His opinion was that if you took it slow (no more than 30 mph) the road wasn't bad at all. Hmm, 456 miles divided by 30 mph...

They say you see a lot of wildlife along the Dempster, and if the sign is correct that includes the ability to see at least one out of roughly 115,000 caribou supposedly in the area. To our credit we had already seen exactly two caribou on our way from Chicken, AK to Dawson City.

Due to the long distances between towns (the first one, Eagle River, is just 229 miles away) and the lack of services along the road the friendly signs reminded us how critical it was to be prepared for the unexpected.

I don't know that Mr. Toyota had designed the Sienna minivan for the likes of the Dempster so much to my regret we sadly continued down the road to Whitehorse. Ideally, we'll be back next year to do this section with the intent of biking it out of Dawson City. Anyone want to come? No, seriously...

Note that the distances are in kilometers. This is Canada, eh?