Date: December 29 and 30, 2005
Weather: -18°C and clear
Sunrise: 8 days to go
Sunset: 8 days and 15 minutes

These two days were spend driving to, shopping in and driving back from Whitehorse. It’s a hell of a trip to try to undertake in two days. Everyone we mentioned our plans to told us we were nuts. Turns out they were right!

The adventure started out at 3AM on the morning of December 29th. We picked up our passenger and her dog and we all started out. I should mention that I had accidentally slept in late the day before and, unfortunately did not get to sleep at all this night. I knew it was going to be a rough go.

The traveling complement consisted of Lorie and I with Ripley, and our friend Jennifer with her Greenland Husky – Bellot. We were a bit of a motley crew, all piled in the jeep together at that hour!

We started down the Dempster planning to make Eagle Plains in about five hours, gassing up, making the Dempster/Alaska Highway junction within another five hours, gassing up there and then driving the final six hour leg to Whitehorse.

The trip down went pretty much as planned. We saw a Wolf, which was really neat because we had not seen one since we got here. It ran along the road for a ways before finally bounding off across the tundra, likely in search of its next meal.

Further down the Dempster we saw a sizable herd of Caribou – I’d estimate the size of the herd at about 150 animals, at least that’s how many I could see. There were trees in this section and I guess many animals were hidden in the woods.

We got to Whitehorse at about 6PM local time. The girls and I did a little shopping but before long I was exhausted. I had been up for 36 hours straight and driven for most of the 15 hours to Whitehorse. I was ready to crash – luckily in a bed at the hotel and not on the highway!

The next morning we finished our shopping (my main spoils were a new compact stereo system and a case of 12 gauge ammunition) packed up the jeep and headed back to NWT. Total shopping time – 4 hours. Total driving time - 30 hours.

The trip back up North was quite a bit more interesting that the trip down south. I was fairly well rested this time, so I was a lot more comfortable driving. This was a good thing because before too long we came around a turn in the highway and were faced with a large Moose, right in the middle of the road. It was easily identifiable as a male due to the rack of antlers on its head that I will say, with obvious exaggeration, was about the size of a Volvo! The Moose did not seem too intent on moving until I dimmed my lights. He trotted off the side of the highway, like a good boy, and we continued on our way unscathed.

After a few more hours of driving, we encountered another, smaller, herd of Caribou. This one was right on the road, which was not terribly alarming since we had plenty of time to stop. Unlike our friend Mr. Moose however, this small herd of a dozen-or-so Caribou had no intention of leaving the comfort of the road for the woods - which had deep snow that must have been particularly difficult to walk in.

I tried everything I could think of to pass them. I turned off the lights, turned up the lights, sounded the horn, backed up, went forward, revved the engine – nothing worked. Finally I just powered past them when they were on one side of the road. They continued to gallop alongside of us for some time and we got a pretty close-up look at these barren ground Caribou. They are graceful animals.

The rest of the trip was uneventful but for one thing – the ice road!

We crossed the first of the two ice roads with no issue. On the second one – the Mackenzie, which is a much longer crossing – we cracked though on one side and the whole driver’s side of the jeep dropped down. We could hear ice cracking and water sloshing, and the spinning wheels of the jeeps kicked up an enormous rooster-tail of water as they spun futilely, attempting to find purchase on something, anything!

It was about now that the screams and the swearing started! You have to realize that this was about 2AM, in the pitch black, with no one near to us. And all hands were pretty tired. The smell of panic was pungent. We all got a start, to be sure. But within a few seconds we seemed to back on solid ice, and that was then that I realized what was happening.

They flood the surface of ice at night, with about ten centimetres-or-so of water to help thicken the ice road. Normally these flooded areas are cordoned off. I guess they didn’t do that for this section. It woke us up, at least!

We pulled into town at about 3:30AM, unloaded the jeep and our stuff and went right to bed. Ahhh! Sleep…sweet…sleep!

Cheers!