Date: November 29, 2005 - Kilometers Traveled: 0 Weather: Cloudy and -17C

Today was much the same as yesterday. The Dempster was closed but it is open again…for now at least. The avalanche area has been cleaned up and the drifting snow has let up enough to open the road again. The last obstacle that remains is the ice road. The positive news has convinced us to hang on for another day or two.

We explored another area of Whitehorse today. It seemed to be a suburb area, and it was quite nice, very expensive houses and cars etc. As well, we did some shopping at what has to be the largest and most well stocked grocery store I have ever seen. Aside from groceries, it has clothing and house wares, even some furniture. I guess it’s like a modern day general store. It had an olive bar that would easily rival any I have seen in any of the big cities of Canada. I guess the people in Whitehorse like olives a lot – they must have good taste!

It’s pretty chilly today – seventeen below, going down to twenty below tonight. It was pretty cold last night too – we forgot to plug the Jeep in, and we just barely got it started. We are making good use of that block heater tonight.

Lorie and I were walking the dog today (he also thought it was pretty chilly) and we discovered that within ten minutes our faces went numb. Although our jackets performed well, our legs and hands got cold fast. Luckily there was no wind. As a special treat I dared Lorie to lick a metal sign post – even offered her $50 to do it – to see if her tongue would stick. Smartly, she declined. O f course this is all just acclimation for Inuvik. After all, it is consistently about fifteen degrees colder up there than it is here.

If the Ice road does open in time, then we will try to make the run all in one go. If the weather is decent and the road conditions are good then it will take at least eighteen hours. That’s a long go, but there will be plenty of time or rest once we get there.

Well folks, that’s it for now. There’s more to come, so stay tuned.

Cheers!